The annual human rights report prepared by the US State Department for Macau, released Monday, notes “severe restrictions on journalists’ freedom” and also “substantial interference with the right to peaceful assembly”.
The document, which assesses the human rights situation in 2022, also highlights the “inability of citizens [da Região Administrativa Especial de Macau (RAEM)] to peacefully change their government through free and fair elections, harsh and unreasonable restrictions on political participation, including the disqualification of pro-democracy candidates in elections, and human trafficking”.
In the report, the United States of America (US) Government Department notes that the Macau authorities have taken “measures to prosecute and punish officials who commit human rights violations or corruption”.
In the section on “Respect for civil liberties – Freedom of expression, including members of the press and other media”, the document states that “the government has usurped this right”, although it indicates that the legislation provides for freedom of expression , including members of the press and other media.
“The government has significantly restricted any public statements it claims would damage ‘social harmony’ or ‘threaten’ the national or ‘public’ interest.”added to the report.
“There were reports of increased censorship, especially on topics related to authorities in China’s Macao SAR, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Senior government officials said they expected the press to adhere to a ‘ love for the motherland and love for Macau’.”, the document describes.
In this regard, the US State Department document recalls that in October 2021, the pro-democracy electronic portal Macau Concealer, “which regularly published satirical news, suspended operations, citing a deteriorating political landscape and budget constraints”.
In the section on freedom to participate in political activity, the report points out that the law “restricts voters’ ability to change their government through free and fair periodic elections because there was no universal suffrage in elections to the most elected offices”.
As for East Timor, the report highlights “credible reports of indiscriminate killings, government corruption and the lack of investigation and accountability for gender-based violence”.
The document also highlights “violence against people with disabilities and the worst forms of child labour” and warns against credible reports that “members of the security forces have committed some abuses”.
“The government has taken steps to prosecute members and employees of the security services who used excessive force or engaged in corruption,” he says, but he said “the public perception of impunity lasted.”
In the report, in the section related to “Respect for the Integrity of the Person – Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings,” the US writes to East Timor “reports that the government or its agents are carrying out arbitrary or unlawful killings” .
As an example, he points out that on September 1, Dili police arrested a young man suspected of throwing stones.
“The suspect was found dead later that evening at the Dili Police Detention Center. Photos of the deceased in a noose, roughly strung from the ceiling by a cable, circulated on social media,” with Timorese police claiming to have been treated for a suicide, while the victim’s family claimed that the police killed him.
“Authorities suspended eight police officers while forensic investigators investigated the case,” the report notes.
The document argues that prisons and detention centers in East Timor “generally do not respect international standards”.
The overcrowding of the prisons, especially in Becora, in Dili, with the detention of convicts and those on pre-trial detention, has been noted by the State Department, which also points to the punctual lack of water in Gleno Prison brings light, as well as the lack of medical care.
In this regard, the report warns that detainees who tested positive for tuberculosis share the same cell with other detainees.
“Credible reports” show abuses by Sao Tome and Principe security forces
The US State Department believed there are “credible reports” of human rights violations by security forces in Sao Tome and Principe.
“There were reports of some human rights violations by members of the security forces,” the United States of America (US) government’s report on the human rights situation in the Portuguese-speaking African archipelago in 2022 reads.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary executions, including extrajudicial killings, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by the government, severe government corruption, and a lack of investigation and accountability for the violence. violence against children,” the report reads.
The government, the report says, “has taken some steps to identify, investigate, prosecute and punish those agents who committed wrongdoing, including corruption,” according to the U.S. State Department report, similarly with the ministries of foreign affairs in governments in Europe. .
The State Department also points out that there is self-censorship by journalists in private and public media, and that most citizens “see the police as ineffective and corrupt, and fear retaliation if they denounce the corrupt police”.
The report refers, among other things, to the attack on the barracks at Morro, in São Tomé, which took place on the night of November 24 to 25, after which three of the four civilian attackers – who acted with the complicity of some military personnel – and another man – identified as the mastermind behind the attack and later detained by the military – were beaten and died the same day in military facilities.
São Tomé’s Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) accused 23 military personnel, including former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Olinto Paquete and current Deputy Chief of Staff, of the torture and death of four men in the attack on the Armed Forces headquarters. forces.
For the prosecution, the assault was the first phase of a plan aimed at “undermining the constitutional order”.
The MP understands that three defendants have done nothing to protect the prisoners or prevent the aggression and that the remaining 20 defendants are charged with “in actual competition, by action, with direct intent”, and in co-authorship, of 14 crimes of torture and other crimes. cruel treatment, seriously degrading or inhumane acts and four crimes of aggravated murder, and, in one authorship, of a crime of prohibited weapons, devices or explosive substances.
Source: DN
