1 The U.S. State Department on Wednesday accused Russia of a string of human rights violations, including the overuse of force in breakaway Chechnya, dismal prison conditions and police beatings.
2 While the department's annual human rights report cited no political killings last year as Russia struggled to make its democracy work, it said 'the line between politically motivated killings and criminal activities has become difficult to distinguish.'
3 The report, which assesses the way governments around the world treat their citizens, also faults China as authoritarian state that failed to improve its record of 'widespread and well-documented human rights abuses' during a year when President Clinton extended Beijing's favored trading status.
4 'Abuses include arbitrary and lengthy incommunicado detention, torture, and mistreatment of prisoners,' as well as restriction of press and political freedoms and repression in Tibet, the report said.
5 The report cited as favorable developments the release of several prominent political prisoners, granting of passports to dissidents and adopting a law allowing citizens to sue the government for infringement of their rights.
6 John Shattuck, assistant secretary of state for human rights, said that 1994 was'a year of crisis and progress,' witnessing both genocide in Rwanda and return of elected government in Haiti, new democracies in Africa, Latin America and Europe, and also 'the assault on human rights of thousands of civilians in Chechnya.'
7 While the administration continues to push financial assistance for Russia, Shattuck said that the administration sees human rights as a significant element of the bilateral relationship, including 'increasing concern' by the United States about violations in Chechnya.
8 Moscow's overcrowded, disease-infected prisons often are unfit for human habitation with prisoners reportedly going unfed for months at a time except for provisions brought by friends and relatives, the report said.
9 It criticized decrees by President Boris Yeltsin that allow for 'arbitrary arrest and illegal search, seizure and detention' and said the country's courts 'remain timid in asserting their authority.'
10 Pressure from the government and society 'to deal with the rapidly increasing crime rate in Russia has led officials to overlook heavy-handed practices during arrest and incarceration,' it said.
11 Gay men are targeted for abuse by prison officials, and lesbians are treated as mentally ill and institutionalized against their will, the report said.
12 It cited findings by Russia's own human rights commissioner that law enforcement officials 'beat and physically abused detainees' and that in Chechnya massive human rights violations occurred.
13 Russia's intensive bombing of Chechnya's capital, Grozny, killing civilians and displacing hundreds of thousands, was 'in conflict with a number of Russia's international obligations,' the report said.
14 Although Russia generally respected press freedoms in 1994, in keeping with its post-Soviet openness, journalists reporting on the Chechnya conflict were harassed and threatened by Russian officials, it said.
15 The report is compiled primarily from information gathered by U.S. diplomatic missions around the world.
16 'Human rights violations span the globe, and no region has a monopoly on abuses,' Shattuck wrote in an overview of the report.
17 He lauded the emergence of nongovernment human rights groups that have taken on new roles in the post-Cold War era, including election monitoring, active negotiating during transitions to democracy and creating institutions of accountability for past abuses and reconciliation of opposing forces.
18 'The drive for realization of basic rights is a universal work-in-progress, and the story is not always grim,' Shuttuck wrote, noting that his counterpart in the Russian government is Vyacheslav Bakhmim, who was a prisoner under Soviet rule.

The report , which assesses the way governments around the world treat their citizens , also faults China as authoritarian state that failed to improve its record of " widespread and well - documented human rights abuses " during a year when President Clinton extended Beijing ' s favored trading status .
extended Beijing ' s favored trading status
What constitutes a favored nation in trading?