UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-fifth Session
Agenda Item 11
Civil and Political Rights
Statement of
International Educational Development/
Humanitarian Law Project
made by Zack de la Rocha ("Rage Against the Machine")
DEATH PENALTY IN THE UNITED STATES: THE CASE OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project
accuses the United States of gross violations of human rights in its
imposition of the death penalty on minors and mentally retarded. The
Inter-American Commission of Human Rights decided that the applicaiton of
the death penalty in these circumstances violates jus cogens. Since its
opinion against the United States in 1987, the United States has been in
contempt of the OAS, as the United States continues to carry out the death
penalty on minors and persons with mental retardation.
Our organization rarely brings to the attention of the Commission
individual cases, but there are certain political prisoners whose cases
warrant our attention. In the United States, Leonard Peltier clearly is a
political prisoner, and his continued detention defies international
standards. He is currently being denied proper medical attention for
serious medical condiitons. We believe his sentence should be commuted, as
it was imposed solely on the basis of false evidence.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is the only political prisoner in the United States
who faces the death penalty. Mr Abu-Jamal is a prominent journalist from
Philadelphia who frequently reported on police brutality. Philadelphia
mayor Frank Rizzo threatened him because of this reporting, most
notoriously in a press conference before Mr. Abu-Jamal's arrest, in which
he stated that Mr. Abu-Jamal must be silenced.
It is clear that his advocacy for racial equality was a major
factor in the imposition of the death penalty when a police officer was
killed in Philadelphia in December 1981. Actually, Mr. Abu-Jamal himself
was beaten by police officers, and then shot in the incident, when he
intervened in a street incident in which the police harassed his brother
and another person. At the time of his arrest he had no criminal record,
although the F.B.I. had already amassed a 600 page long file by the time he
was 15.
His trial in 1982 was nothing short of a travesty. He was denied
funds for expert witnesses, and his court-appointed attorney did not
interview a single witness before calling them to testify. He tried to
represent himself and then was barred from his own trial when he protested
what was obviously judicial misconduct. Evidence was witheld from the
defense; jurors were excused on the basis of race. He was convicted by
the judge who has sentenced more African-American men to death than any
other judge in the United States. This is the same judge to whom appeals
for rehearing based on unfairness were brought and denied. Six former
Philadelphia prosecutors have sworn in court documents that no accused
could receive a fair trial in this judge's court.
Perhaps the most absurd allegaiton in this procedure is that Mumia
Abu-Jamal confessed to the killing. In fact, two months after the
incident, Mr. Abu-Jamal filed police brutality charges. It was only THEN
that a police officer "remembered" that Mr. Abu-Jamal had confessed while
at the hospital, despite police records that he made no such statement.
The report made by the police guard at the hospital where Mr. Abu-Jamal
supposedly made this confession says "The Negro male made no comments."
Since his conviction in 1982, Mr. Abu-Jamal has been held 22 hours
a day in solitary and denied contact with family. Fellow journalists may
no longer interview or photograph him. When "Rage Against the Machine" and
three other groups rented Continental Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. for a
benefit concert, the Governor of that state regretted that she could not
ban this concert, and she encouraged people to boycott. We are pleased
that the January 1999 concert was a sell-out success, duplicating an
earlier sell-out benefit in 1995 at the Capital Ballroom in Washington, DC.
International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project
joins President Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Reverend Jesse
Jackson, the National Black Police Association of the United States, the
European Parliament, the National Lawyers Guild, Salman Rushdie, Wole
Soyinka, Elie Wiesel, and hundreds of thousands of petitioners in calling
for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the full compliance of the United
States with international human rights norms in the conduct of its criminal
justice system.
A dossier of this case is attached to this statement. The
Commission should condemn the continued detention and death penalty for
Mumia Abu-Jamal in particular and the death penalty in the United States in
general.
WESTERN SAHARAN PRISONERS
We also bring to the attention of the Commission the cases of two
of the many Saharan people in the occupied areas tortured by Moroccan
officials. Omar ould Moulay ould Ahmed and Moulay-Ahmad ould Eslaya ould
Salek were arrested on June 9, 1998 and released on June 22, 1998 showing
clear signs of torture. Omar now has serious psychological disorders and
Moulay-Ahmad is now partially paralyzed. Morocco is impeding both MINURSO
and the press from carrying out their functions. Morocco must be condemned
and it is imperative that the referendum be carried out as ordered by the
United Nations.
ABDULLAH OCALAN
We are very concerned about the conditions of detention of Abdullah
Ocalan in Turkey. We join with Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, at least five Nobel
laureates, leading members of the parliaments in many country and hundreds
of thousands of concerned persons who have signed an international appeal
for freedom for Mr. Ocalan and peace in Turkish Kurdisytan. We especially
support the call for an international conference on Kurdistan. We consider
that the public statement of Mr. Ocalan, issued April 6, 1999, in which he
calls for inter alia, maintaining the september 1 cease-fire and the
"acceptance and development of the democratic republican system as a basis
for the peaceful resolution of all problems" represents a reasonable step
towards resolving the Turkey-Kurdish problems.
BOMBING IN YUGOSLAVIA AND KOSOVO
In conclusion we must appeal to the Commission to urge the parties
involved to stop the bombings in Yugoslavia and Kosovo and to effect
immediate relief for all affected peoples: Kosovan and Serb alike. All
concerned parties should reenter the process of dialogue and negotiation as
soon as possible.
We are aware that there are press reports of the use of depleted
uranium weaponry in both Kosovo and Yugoslavia by NATO forces. If true,
then neither the Kosovans nor the Serbs will be able to use the affected
lands, and both communities will suffer untold medical catastrophes. Of
course this type of weaponry violates humanitarian law norms. To quote Mr.
Ingvar Carlson, former Prime Minister of Sweden: "If in our responses we
become violators too, in the end we return to a dark time when might alone
is right and law comes out of the barrel of a gun."