JURIST - Paper Chase: Rights group urges Mexico investigation of Oaxaca uprising response

[JURIST] Amnesty International [advocacy website] Tuesday urged the Mexican government to initiate a probe into alleged abuses [press release; report] by government authorities during the 2006 uprising in the Mexican state of Oaxaca [BBC backgrounder], saying that "ensuring that impunity for human rights violation is not allowed to prevail" will help to deter future abuses and be an opportunity for Mexican President Felipe Calderon [official website, in Spanish] to demonstrate that he is "committed to protecting, ensuring and fulfilling human rights." Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz rejected the report as one-sided, saying that he believed its authors were advisers for the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca [official website], a group of leftist labor and social organizations who banded together to demand the resignation of the Oaxacan government.

In May, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) [official website] issued a report criticizing the federal government's response [JURIST report] to the Oaxaca uprising, saying that the government's intervention was "unjustifiably delayed for more than a month and half," which allowed protesters to occupy the state capital for five months after state authorities overwhelmed. The CNDH received 1,352 separate human rights complaints and found hundreds to be credible, including complaints that police officers tortured at least 13 protesters while they were being transported to detention facilities. Last October, a UN human rights expert expressed concerns over rights violations in Oaxaca [JURIST report]. In December 2006, Mexican police arrested the Oaxaca uprising leader [JURIST report] on five charges, including kidnapping and robbery. AP has more.

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