WORLD - Catholic-related current events - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, July 2, 1999 by Matt Kantz

The leaked testimony, published June 13, supports allegations by Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara that high-ranking officials -- including Mexico's attorney general at the time -- lied to protect others who were involved in the plot.

A spokesman for the Guadalajara archdiocese, Antonio Gutierrez Montano, told reporters June 15 that Sandoval and other church members of a joint investigating commission were aware of the testimony, "and were not surprised by it but rather that it was published."

East Timor factions agree surrender weapons

East Timorese leaders from two rival factions have agreed to surrender weapons to the Indonesian police and to end hostility ahead of the August referendum on the future of their troubled territory.

Jailed independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao and Leandro Isaac of the national council for the resistance of East Timor and Domingos Soares and Joao da Silva Tavares from the prointegration faction signed the pact June 18 in Jakarta.

Among witnesses to the pact was Msgr. Jose Antonio da Costa, vicar general of the Dili diocese.

After 23 years of a military campaign against the East Timorese guerrilla separatist movement, in May Indonesia agreed to hold a U.N.-monitored ballot that would determine independence or continued integration of East Timor.

Church leaders -- including Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, apostolic administrator of Dili, and most recently the Japanese bishops -- have said it was unlikely that a free and fair vote could be held under conditions in which pro-Indonesia militias terrorized civilians.

The pact signed in June requires the two rival factions and their military wings or mass organizations to surrender all firearms, grenades, explosives, homemade guns and traditional weapons to the police under the supervision of the committee for peace and stability, known as PKS.

Amnesty report paints bleak picture of abuses

Abuse of human rights around the world grew worse over the last decade, and the United States and its close allies were not exempt, according to an annual Amnesty International report.

Ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, slavery in Sudan, torture and disappearances in Mexico, and executions in the United States were among the human rights violations included in Amnesty International'S report released June 16 in Washington.

Speaking at a news conference, William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said that of the 142 nations surveyed, the percentage of countries where torture and other abuses occur increased from 55 percent to 66 percent between 1988 and 1998. The number of countries responsible for deaths from torture and for the "disappearances" of individuals also increased over the decade, the report showed.

The little bit of good news for human rights is that world opinion seems to be successful in reducing governmental offenses, Schulz said.

"Clearly, governments have come to fear public accountability," he said. "However, when torturers and assassins commit their heinous acts in hidden rooms and by the dark of night, it becomes more difficult to hold them accountable for their crimes."