（ジュネーブ発　12月1日）

　SOSトーチャー国際事務局は、メキシコにおける下記の状況に関して皆様の緊急の働きかけをお願いします。

＜事件の概要＞

SOSトーチャー国際事務局は、SOSトーチャーのネットワークのメンバー団体である人権組織「ミゲル・アグスティン・プロ・フアレス」など複数の信頼できる情報筋より、2006年11月25日にオアハカ市で行われたデモに対して警察が過剰な武力を使い、5人が死亡し（名前は未発表）、141人が拘禁され（うち31人が女性）、25人以上が失踪し、100人以上が負傷し（うち20人は火器による負傷）、何百人という人が催涙ガスや国際的に禁じられている薬物を浴びせられ、また無差別の違法な住居侵入があったという情報を入手しました。

情報によると、ウリセス・ルイス知事の辞任と連邦予防警察（PFP）のオアハカからの撤退を求めて、オアハカ人民議会（APPO）が 2006年11月25日に行った平和的な行進の終わり頃、数名のデモ参加者が警官や武装グループに暴行をうけました。

負傷者の中には以下の3名のジャーナリストもいました。クアルトスクロ社のアマウリー・グアダラマさんはひどく殴打され、メキシコ・シティの新聞レフォルマの特派員ヴィルギル・サンチェスさんは催涙弾が胸部に当たり、経済新聞エル・フィナンシエロのアブンディオ・ヌニェスさんは打撲傷で入院しました。

情報によると、11月27日午前5時頃、14１人の人々が拘禁されました。彼らの名前は発表されていません。彼らは最初ミアフアトラン刑務所とトラコルラ刑務所で拘禁されましたが、突然PFPのヘリコプターに乗せられ、1時間後にナヤリトのサン・ホセ・デル・リンコンの連邦矯正中間警備センターに移送されました。報じられたところによると、この移動はオアハカ市民保護局が、被拘禁者たちが「非常に危険」で、彼らを収容するのに「十分な警備体制のある」刑務所がないとして要請した結果行われたということです。

ヘスス・フアレス・コルテス弁護士とエル・リンコン刑務所の情報筋によると、オアハカで逮捕された人々は刑務所近くの3つの刑事裁判所に出頭させられたということです。しかし、2006年11月30日まで彼らは家族や人権団体と面会することができませんでした。その上、特に懸念されるのは拘禁されている34人の女性の安全です。オアハカでPFPに逮捕された後、彼女たちの多くが衣服を捨てられており、サン・サルバドール・アテンコで拘禁された女性たちに起きたことを考えると（アピールMEX090506.1/090506.1.CC/MEX180506VAW参照）、同じような性的暴力があったのではないかと推測されます。そのため、彼女たちと弁護士や家族との面会を確保することが重要です。

＜背景情報＞

国際事務局は、オアハカの危機的状況の初期から起きている逮捕について情報を入手しています。その逮捕や捜索は被害者の居住地を理由に行われています。情報によると、先月オアハカで起きた衝突の最中に逮捕された人々は、連邦予防警察の施設で拘禁され、繰り返し拷問や虐待を受けています。PFPは状況に釣り合わない不合理で過剰な武力を行使し、多くの人々に深刻な負傷を追わせています。逮捕時および拘禁中、殴打、蹴り、脅迫、処罰的な姿勢、睡眠剥奪、隔離拘禁などが行われています。

このようなことからSOSトーチャー国際事務局は、オアハカで記録されている人権侵害や以前の事件を考え、今回の事件でも、逮捕時や拘禁中およびナヤリトへの移送中に、被拘禁者は暴力や侮辱、脅迫や、場合によっては拷問を受けたのではないかと危惧します。

その上、逮捕者を突然移送することは、司法面での安全や基本的自由、適正手続の権利を侵害していると考えます。ナヤリトに被拘禁者を移送したこと自体が、被拘禁者に対する隔離拘禁です。彼らは11月25日に逮捕され、11月30日になっても家族や弁護士への連絡を許可されていません。

国際事務局は国連拷問禁止委員会が2006年11月にメキシコの政府報告書を検討した後、以下のように勧告したことを想起します。「拷問に有利となるようなあらゆる拘禁形態を使用できないようにするために必要な措置を講じること。恣意的拘禁の申し立てを調査し、犯罪が行われた場合は加害者を処罰すること。」「武力は、最終手段としてのみ行使され、直面する脅威との釣り合いおよび必要性に関する国際基準を厳密に尊重すること。」「公務員による人権侵害の申し立てすべて、特に警察の作戦により拘禁された人々の申し立てを調査し、責任ある者を裁判に付し、適切な処罰を与えること。」

＜行動要請＞

　メキシコ関係当局に、以下の内容の要請をお願いします。

1.　被害者とりわけ上記出来事の間に逮捕された141名の人々と彼らの家族の心身の安全を保障するために、必要な医療を無料で提供するなど、適切な措置をとること。

2．上記に述べた警察の活動中に拘束された女性たちに、女性に対する暴力行為に関する犯罪の特別検事との接見を保障し、拷問や虐待があれば記録するために法医学者による早急な検査を保障すること。

3．正当な嫌疑が不在のまま逮捕されたすべての人々の即時釈放を命じること。もしそのような嫌疑があるなら、彼らを資格があり独立した公正な裁判に付し、その間、手続き上の権利を保障すること。

4．責任者をすべて特定し、裁判に付し、法に基づき刑事および行政罰を適用できるよう、これら事件に対する綿密で公正な調査を命じること。

5．国内法および、国際人権基準、とりわけ拷問等禁止条約と拷問禁止委員会の勧告に従い、国内全土における人権尊重と基本的自由を保障すること。

＜要請先＞

国連大使：Permanent Mission of Mexico for the United Nations in Geneva
16 Avenue du Bude, 1202 Ginebra, Suiza
E-mail: mission.mexico@ties.itu.int

大統領：Doctor Felipe Calderon Hinojosa
President of Republic of Mexico Colonia San Miguel Chapultepec Mexico　D.F
E-mail: radio@presidencia.gob.mx ; Email:sprivada@presidencia.gob.mx;

公安長官：Licenciado Genaro Garcia Luna
Public Security Secretary
FAX: +52.55.52.42.81.00 Ext. 18901

下院　正義・人権委員会委員長　　　Diputada Rebeca Godinez y Bravo
President of the Commission of Justice and Human Rights of the House of Deputies Mexico CP:15969

MEX 011206 / MEX 011206.VAW
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Excessive use of force by the police/ Deaths/ Arbitrary detention and/or disappearances/ Ill-treatment/ Fear for personal integrity

Geneva, 1 December 2006.

The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Mexico.
Brief description of the situation:

The International Secretariat of OMCT has received with concern information from several reliable sources, among them the Human Rights Centre “Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez” (Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez - Centro Prodh), a member of the OMCT network, regarding the excessive use of force by the police against demonstrators in the City of Oaxaca, on 25 November 2006, resulting in the death of 5 persons (whose names have not been disclosed), 141 persons detained (among them 31 women), more than 25 disappeared, over 100 injured (twenty of them with firearms), hundreds of people poisoned by tear gas and internationally prohibited substances, as well as indiscriminate unlawful entries into homes of the community of Oaxaca.

According to the information received, on 25 November 2006, towards the end of a peaceful march organised by the Popular Assembly of Towns of Oaxaca (APPO) to request the resignation of the governor Ulysses Ruiz and the withdrawal of the Preventive Federal Police (PFP) from Oaxaca, reportedly several demonstrators were violently attacked by police officers and armed groups.

Among the injured persons, there were three journalists: photographer Amaury Guadarrama, from Cuartoscuro agency, who was brutally hit; Virgil Sanchez, correspondent of the daily newspaper Reforma of Mexico City, who was hit by a projectile of tear gas in the chest, and Abundio Nunez, from the economic newspaper El Financiero, later hospitalised due to his contusions.

According to the information received, on 27 November, around 5 a.m., the 141 people detained, whose names have not been disclosed yet and who were initially held in the prisons of Miahuatlan and Tlacolula, were suddenly taken into helicopters of the PFP. Hours later they landed in the Federal Middle Security Centre of Social Rehabilitation of San Jose del Rincon (Centro Federal de Readaptacion Social de Seguridad Media), in Nayarit. Reportedly the transfer was carried out upon the request of the Office of the Secretary of Citizen’s Protection of Oaxaca, who alleged the supposed "high danger" of the arrested persons, as well as the absence of prison facilities "with sufficient security conditions" to accommodate them.

According to the lawyer Jesus Juarez Cortez, and based on a source from the El Rincon prison, the persons arrested in Oaxaca have been brought before three criminal courts located near the prison. However, none of them, until 30 November 2006, had been able to speak neither to their relatives nor to representatives of human rights organisations. Furthermore, an issue of particular concern is the personal integrity of the 34 detained women. When the PFP arrested them in Oaxaca, allegedly many of them had their clothes dismantled and, considering what happened to detained women during the events of San Salvador Atenco[1], it can be expected that the same type of sexual violence may have occurred. Hence the importance of ensuring their access to lawyers and family visits.

Brief reminder of the situation:

The OMCT has been informed that the great majority of arrests that took place during the various events since the beginning of the crisis in Oaxaca[2], occurred as razzias or were motivated by the aspect or the location of the victims. According to the information received, the persons arrested during all confrontations over the last months in Oaxaca have been victims of constant torture and ill-treatment in the facilities in which they remained in the custody of the Preventive Federal Police. The latter arguably made disproportionate, irrational, and excessive use of force, causing serious wounds to many of these persons. During the arrest and detention they have been subjected to blows, kicks, threats, punishment positions, dream deprivation and isolation.
Therefore, OMCT, considering the documented violations during the conflict in Oaxaca and taking into consideration these precedents, fears that, in the present case, during the arrest, the detention and the transfer to Nayarit, the persons detained have been and/or are being victims of blows, humiliations, threats and in some cases torture.

Moreover, the sudden transfer of the persons under arrest constitutes in itself a violation of the right to legal security, to personal liberty and to due process. Finally, the transfer of the arrested persons to Nayarit carries with itself the isolation of the persons under arrest. They were arrested on 25 November and on 30 November they still had not been permitted to contact their relatives or lawyers.

OMCT recalls that the United Nations Committee Against Torture, after the consideration of the Mexican State report during its November 2006 session, recommended to “take the necessary measures to avoid the use of all the forms of detention which can favour the practice of torture, to investigate the allegations of arbitrary detention and to sanction those responsible when there is an offence", "guarantee that force will only be used as a last resort and with strict respect of international norms of proportionality and necessity according to the existing threat" and " investigate all allegations of human rights violations perpetrated by public servants, especially those suffered by detained persons during these police operations, and bring to trial and adequately punish those responsible” (CAT/C/MEX/CO/4)[3].
Requested action:
Please write to the Mexican authorities to urge them to:
Take adequate measures to guarantee the safety and physical and psychological integrity of the victims, in particular the 141 persons arrested during the above-mentioned events and their family members, including by granting urgent, adequate and free medical care for every person who may require such care;
Ensure that the women detained during the above-mentioned police operation have access to the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Related to Acts of Violence against the Women, and for those who request it, ensure their immediate access to a forensic doctor to document possible acts of torture or ill-treatment;
Order the immediate release of all persons under arrest in the absence of valid legal charges and, if such charges exist, bring them before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal and guarantee their procedural rights at all times;
Order a thorough and impartial investigation into these events, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
Guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards, particularly the Convention Against the Torture and the recommendations issued by the Committee Against the Torture (CAT/C/MEX/CO/4).

Addresses:
Permanent Mission of Mexico before the United Nations in Geneva, 16 Avenue du Bude, 1202 Ginebra, Suiza. Fax:+41.22.748.07.08 TEL.: +41.22.748.07.07 / E-mail: mission.mexico@ties.itu.int
Ambassador Mr. Jorge Ciero, Diplomatic Mission of Mexico in Brussels, 94 avenue F.D. Rossevelt, 1050 Ixelles, Belgica, Tel: + 32 2 629 07 11; Fax: + 32 2 644 08 19
Doctor Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, President of Republic of Mexico, Colonia San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico D.F. FAX: +52.55.516.58.37, +5255.55.22.34.26, +52.55.50.93.34.14 E-mail: radio@presidencia.gob.mx ; Email:sprivada@presidencia.gob.mx;
Mr. Francisco Javier Ramirez Acuna, Governor Secretary. Mr. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, General Procurer of the Republic, Mexico, D.F., Tel: + 52.55.534.601.08 ; Fax: + 52.55.534.609.08 E-mail: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
Licenciado Genaro Garcia Luna, Public Security Secretary. Tel: +52.55.52.42.81.00 Ext. 18989 FAX: +52.55.52.42.81.00 Ext. 18901
General Guillermo Galvan Galvan, National Defence Secretary.
Diputada Rebeca Godinez y Bravo, President of the Commission of Justice and Human Rights of the House of Deputies. Mexico CP:15969, Tel: + 52.55.542.250.10
Deputy Heliodoro Diaz Escarraga, President of the Directive Table of the House Of Deputies la Mesa Directiva de la Camara de Diputados, Mexico DF, Tel: + 52.55.562.813.00

Please also write to the embassies and representations of Mexico in your respective country.

***
Geneva, 1 December 2006.

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[1] Cf. OMCT Urgent Appeal Case MEX 090506.1/090506.1.CC/MEX 180506VAW and the Report by CLADEM, Centro Prodh and OMCT, Violence against Women in Mexico: The San Salvador Atenco Case (Alternative Report to CAT 37th session), November 2006.
[2] Cf. OMCT Urgent Appeals: Case MEX 150606.ESCR/ MEX 150606/ MEX 150606 CC, Case MEX 011106 (1) and Case MEX 011106(1).1 (follow-up issued on the 15 November 2006); and OMCT Press Release Mexico 011106.
[3] Non official translation.