ZAGREB, June 1 (Hina) - Amnesty International (AI) Croatia issued a statement on Friday clearing up ambiguities which appeared in some media reports on a news conference AI members organised in Zagreb on Wednesday to present the
Annual Report for 2001 on the human rights situation in the world. Commenting on some media claims that data in the Report needed updating, AI says data on human rights violations do not become obsolete until all prisoners of conscience throughout the world are released. Other cases which cannot become obsolete have been presented as well, such as the fate of 1,500 missing ethnic Croats and 600 ethnic Serbs from Croatia, or the punishment of three former JNA officers responsible for the abduction and execution of 260 men from the Vukovar hospital after the fall of the town in November 1991. AI further explains in the statement the difference between prisoners of conscience and political prisoners
ZAGREB, June 1 (Hina) - Amnesty International (AI) Croatia issued a
statement on Friday clearing up ambiguities which appeared in some
media reports on a news conference AI members organised in Zagreb on
Wednesday to present the Annual Report for 2001 on the human rights
situation in the world.
Commenting on some media claims that data in the Report needed
updating, AI says data on human rights violations do not become
obsolete until all prisoners of conscience throughout the world are
released. Other cases which cannot become obsolete have been
presented as well, such as the fate of 1,500 missing ethnic Croats
and 600 ethnic Serbs from Croatia, or the punishment of three former
JNA officers responsible for the abduction and execution of 260 men
from the Vukovar hospital after the fall of the town in November
1991.
AI further explains in the statement the difference between
prisoners of conscience and political prisoners. A prisoner of
conscience is a person who has been imprisoned only because of his
political, religious or other beliefs, his ethnic, national or
social background, his sex, colour or language, birth, and economic
or other status, and who has not advocated or used violence. AI
requests that these persons be promptly and unconditionally
released.
A political prisoner is a person who has been imprisoned for the
same reasons but who has used or advocated violence. AI requests
that these persons have a fair and prompt trial.
Therefore, according to the AI Report, there are no prisoners of
conscience but there are political prisoners in Croatia, reads the
statement.
(hina) sb rml