U.S. Scores South Africa on Rights

The Reagan Administration, releasing its annual report on human rights worldwide, Thursday singled out a “sharp deterioration” of conditions in South Africa as the worst development in human rights last year.

Richard Schifter, assistant secretary of state for human rights, traced the source of the problem to the June 12 declaration of a state of emergency by the white-minority government in Pretoria. In briefing reporters on the 1,356-page report, he said that South African whites appear to have chosen “a self-destructive course” in dealing with racial conflict.

“The most troubling development on the human rights scene in 1986 was, of course, a sharp deterioration of human rights conditions in South Africa over the last half of the year,” Schifter said.

Administration Faulted

Congressional critics and human rights groups faulted the Reagan Administration for portraying the report as an impartial tool aimed at promoting human rights. They charged that the report showed lenience toward governments favored by Washington, reserving the heaviest fire for regimes antagonistic to the United States.

At a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights, Rep. Gus Yatron (D-Pa.), the panel’s chairman, cited the sale of U.S. arms to Iran as proof that “human rights laws have been circumvented in the conduct of American foreign policy.”

Yatron asked Schifter if the sale violated the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which bars the provision of American arms to any nation that “engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Schifter did not answer the question.

The human rights report said that the record for Iran in 1986 “continued to show serious abuses,” particularly in arbitrary detention, torture and religious persecution. The report’s section on Iran was based on unofficial sources because the United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran.

Arms Sale Criticized

Jerome J. Shestack, president of the International League of Human Rights, credited the Reagan Administration with some improvement in its policies and praised Schifter as a “positive force” for change. However, in his testimony, Shestack scored the Iran arms sale, asserting that America “has not only assisted a country that has one of the most horrendous and abhorrent of human rights records but also one that has made terrorism a state policy.”

In addition, Shestack charged that the Administration disregarded the Foreign Assistance Act by using “unmerited” certification of human rights observance in El Salvador and Pakistan to gain congressional approval of military aid. Shestack and other officials of the human rights group laid part of the blame on Congress for failing to ensure compliance with the law.

According to Schifter, the report says Communist North Korea continues to be “probably the worst human rights offender in the world,” and Schifter likened that country to the totalitarian state in George Orwell’s novel “1984.”

Latin Rating Improved

The report gave an improved rating to Latin America in general because of the gains of democracy in the area, notably in Haiti and Guatemala, Schifter said. Principal exceptions were Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile and Paraguay.

In Nicaragua, however, although the ruling Sandinista party permits opposition parties, it has “total control” of the government and is moving toward a Marxist state and ownership of all private property, the report said. The Managua regime was criticized for arbitrary detentions, suppression of a free press and persecution of minorities.

The Soviet Union won limited praise for liberalizing emigration in 1986 to permit family reunification, but the rate of Jewish emigration was the second lowest in 20 years.