Press. voanews.com
The United
Nations on Wednesday said Venezuela's security forces had committed extensive
and apparently deliberate human rights violations in crushing anti-government
protests and that democracy was "barely alive". The actions indicated "a policy to
repress political dissent and instill fear", the U.N. human rights office
said in a report that called for further investigation and accountability.
It called on the
government of President Nicolas Maduro to release arbitrarily detained
demonstrators and to halt the unlawful use of military courts to try civilians.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein was asked whether
the country was now a dictatorship. "I think we would argue that over the
course of time we have seen an erosion of democratic life in Venezuela,"
Zeid told a news conference. "It must be barely alive, if still alive, is
the way I would look at it."
Some 882 people
are currently believed to remain in custody, among 5,341 arbitrarily detained
in street protests since April, U.N. human rights official Hernan Vales said.
Detainees are often subjected to ill-treatment, in some documented cases
amounting to torture, the report said. "After many of the violations they
suffered, the violent house raids and the detentions, the ill-treatment...the
large majority of them have told us that they don't dare to demonstrate
anymore. They are afraid," Vales said.
The report
followed initial findings issued on Aug 8.
"Credible
and consistent accounts of victims and witnesses indicate that security forces
systematically used excessive force to deter demonstrations, crush dissent and
instill fear," the report said. Security forces have used tear gas
canisters, motorcycles, water cannons and live ammunition to disperse the
protesters, it said. Venezuelan security forces and pro-government groups are
believed to be responsible for the deaths of 73 people since
April, while
responsibility for the remaining 51 deaths has not been determined, the U.N.
report said. The overall toll of 124 includes nine members of the security
forces that the government says were killed through July and four people
allegedly killed by protesters, it said. Some protesters have resorted to
violent means, ranging from rocks to sling shots, Molotov cocktails and
homemade mortars in protests against Maduro and shortages of food and other
basic goods, it said.
Maduro has said
Venezuela was the victim of an "armed insurrection" by U.S.-backed
opponents seeking to gain control of the OPEC country’s oil wealth. But as the
political crisis deepened, the use of force by security forces has
progressively escalated, the report said.
"The
generalized and systematic use of excessive force during demonstrations and the
arbitrary detention of protesters and perceived political opponents indicate
that these were not the illegal or rogue acts of isolated officials," it
said. Zeid said that amid the economic and social crises and rising political
tensions, there was a "grave risk the situation in Venezuela will
deteriorate further".