Governments Killed Tens of Thousands, Rights Group Says

Tens of thousands of people were unlawfully killed or executed without trial by governments in at least two dozen countries last year, Amnesty International said in its annual human rights report released Wednesday.

In a 310-page report covering the year 1988, Amnesty International cited torture and ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners in every part of the world, and it said that at least 80 countries had held political prisoners during the year.

The London-based organization, which monitors human rights abuses around the world, described methods of killing as diverse as they were gruesome. Victims were blown up by explosives, publicly executed, hacked to death, poisoned, strangled, gunned down in groups or shot by snipers, Amnesty International said.

The report said people were unlawfully killed, or executed without trial, in at least two dozen countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.

In Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Syria and the Philippines, detainees were often severely mutilated before being killed, the report said.

Most victims of extra-judicial execution were slain because of their suspected opposition to governments, their political beliefs, their religion or ethnicity, the organization said.