UN urges restraint ahead of protest anniversary
NICARAGUA’S security forces must avoid further bloodshed at upcoming mass demonstrations marking one year of protests, government repression and political crisis, says UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
More than 300 people have died and 2000 injured as the government has cracked down on protests against the rule of President Daniel Ortega, according to the UN Human Rights Office. The protests started on April 18 last year as demonstrations against a controversial social security reform.
“I am concerned that the protests planned for later in the week may trigger another violent reaction,” Bachelet said, calling for security forces’ restraint.
Students, opposition figures, journalists and doctors are among the estimated 62000 people who have fled the country, most of them going south to neighbouring Costa Rica, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Liz Throssell said.
Most of the refugees were adults, but families with children are now also embarking on the difficult trek to Costa Rica that leads through humid, malaria-infested terrain.
The UNHCR has been helping Costa Rica improve reception centres, train asylum officials and provide schooling to Nicaraguan children.
“UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, commends Costa Rica’s efforts to enable people to enter its territory and access its asylum procedure,” she said.
The Nicaraguan government, meanwhile, announced the release of 636 inmates detained in prisons across the country. The inmates will be placed under house arrest under rules favouring family reunification “on the occasion of Easter”, according to a government statement.
The government did not say whether those released included inmates regarded by the opposition as political prisoners. It has released about 200 such inmates since relaunching talks with protesters in February. Those talks were suspended earlier this month over the prisoners’ continued detentions and government’s refusal to stage early elections, among other issues. The government has also continued dispersing public rallies, despite having agreed to restore protest rights.
Amnesty International called on the government to “put an immediate end to its strategy of repression”.
“Throughout the last year, the government of President Ortega has brutally and repeatedly repressed anyone who dares to stand up to his administration,” Amnesty’s Americas director Erika Guevara-Rosas said.
“The Nicaraguan authorities continue to violate the rights to justice, truth and reparation of hundreds of victims, while also preventing civil society organisations and international human rights monitors from working freely in the country.”
Amnesty said it and other international organisations had documented cases of serious human rights violations and crimes under international law, including torture and extrajudicial executions carried out by pro-government armed groups and police.