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29 March 2000
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Commission on Human Rights
¨56th session
29 March 2000
Evening
The Commission on Human Rights carried on this evening with its annual review of the 'question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world', hearing from a long list of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who charged offenses were being committed in numerous countries.
At the extended meeting, which began immediately following the end of the Commission's normal 3-6 p.m. session, NGOs alleged human-rights violations in Mexico, China, Indonesia, the United States, Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Libya, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Peru, Myanmar, Indonesia, Chechnya, Pakistan, India, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israeli-occupied Palestine, Laos, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America charged that the annual discussion served the interests of the countries of the North who acted as judges with respect to the human-rights situation in the countries of the South. At the 55th Session of the Commission, of thirteen resolutions on country situations, twelve concerned situations in Third World countries, while the thirteenth country involved was not an industrialized Western nation, a representative of the NGO said.
Two other NGOs contended that the international economic embargo of Iraq, authorized by Security Council resolutions, was itself an unacceptable violation of human rights.
Speaking were representatives of Service, Justice and Peace in Latin America; International Centre for Human Rights Development; Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace; New Human Rights; Freedom House; American Association of Jurists; International Educational Development; International Peace Bureau; Anti-Slavery International; Australian Council for Overseas Aid; Arab Organization for Human Rights; International Federation of Human Rights; World Organization against Torture; International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty; Robert F. Kennedy Memorial; Baha'i International; Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America; Federation of Cuban Women; World Federation of Democratic Youth; Canadian Council of Churches; Physicians for Human Rights; Third World Movement against the Exploitation of Women; Association of Refugees and displaced Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Society for Threatened Peoples; European Union of Public Relations; Association for World Education; Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation; Agir ensemble pour les droits de l'Homme; Organisation Tunisienne de l'Education et de la Famille; International Institute for Peace; Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; and Catholic Institute for International Relations.
The Commission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, 30 March.
Statements
MICHAEL CHAMBERLIN, of Service, Justice and Peace in Latin America, said that in Mexico a series of criminal reforms favoured the use of torture and led to many people being tried for crimes they did not commit; decisions of the judicial branch were often not autonomous from the executive, which had led to almost total impunity for violators, as various UN human-rights mechanisms had noted. The militarization of the country, already grave, was intensifying; police and military methods used to control the southern border had resulted in numerous deaths and human-rights violations; Mexican indigenous peoples were subjected to severe and inhuman marginalization; and the Government had illegally expelled hundreds of international human-rights observers.
The Commission was urged to consider appointing a Special Rapporteur on the situation in Mexico. The Mexican Government was urged to remove military officers from civilian tasks; to set dates for visits of the Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers and violence against women; to invite the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and enforced or involuntary disappearances to visit; to ensure that the technical-assistance programme now being developed involve civil society; to comply swiftly with human-rights recommendations already issued by international mechanisms; and to undertake a profound reform of the law-enforcement system.
WARREN ALLMAND, of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, said China was one of the main human-rights violators in the world. China's human-rights record had not improved despite bilateral dialogue over the past three years. On the contrary, the situation in the country had deteriorated further. Violations included harsh sentences meted out to Falung Gong followers, torture, arbitrary detention and forced disappearances. Several victims of torture reportedly had died. Freedom of expression was routinely denied, especially to human-rights defenders.
The negative impact of economic reforms had fallen on women in particular. Independent trade unions remained illegal. Arrest of labour activists was also widespread. The Government continued to detain 10-year-old Gedhum Choekyi Nyima, the eleventh Panchen Lama. Dialogue alone had failed to persuade China to desist from human-rights violations. The Commission was urged to condemn China's human-rights violations.
DULCE DE JESUS SOARES, of Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, said some pro-autonomy groups in East Timor had formed into so-called 'militias' which had worked with the Indonesian military and police to intimidate those suspected of favouring independence; she and her husband were members of a pro-independence group but under threats to their lives had signed a document saying they were pro-autonomy. They still passed on information to independence leaders or to UNAMET. When the vote held indicated a victory for independence, she and her family fled to West Timor to avoid reprisals and rented rooms so as to avoid refugee camps, which were dangerous. Later, when the militias came looking, they moved to a place protected by the Church.
In October, their relatives returned to East Timor along with many other refugees, but they stayed away as they were still afraid. When they finally returned they had to bribe Indonesian soldiers at the border. There were still many other people in camps in West Timor who were afraid to come home or were not being allowed to leave by the Indonesian military or by militias. Often when they returned, the militias confiscated all the materials given them by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The people of East Timor wanted their brothers and sisters to be able to come home; they wanted to build a new country, leaving political differences behind.
BEHZAD NAZIRI, of New Human Rights, said that over twenty years Iran had been transformed into a veritable laboratory for grave, systematic and permanent violations of human rights. These problems continued. Given the entrenched autocratic system, the emergence of reformists, represented by the President of the country, had not changed the situation, and the wounds of the past had not healed.
During the student insurrection last year, that same reformist President had called for their repression. Was it also necessary to cite the 650 official executions, the 11 stonings? Or the 37 political assassinations carried out beyond Iran's borders? The number of executions during the President's time in office was high. Given the gravity and the persistence of crimes committed under the leadership of the religious mullahs in Iran, a new, firm resolution was called for from the Commission, condemning one more time these flagrant and systematic crimes. New Human Rights hoped the Commission would show suitable determination against this regime which seemed to be incapable of true reform.
MARK PALMER, of Freedom House, said the most repressive regimes in the world which engaged in the broadest and most systematic violations of freedom included Afghanistan, Burma, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. Two locations within the same category were Chechnya and Tibet. China remained, in most respects, the most repressive country in the world. Human-rights violations in 1999 included the arrest of scores of second-tier leaders of the banned China Democratic Party, the systematic persecution of the Falun Gong, the continued imprisonment of several thousand political prisoners and the continued practice of sentencing people without trial to reform through labour camps. Control of religion remained under strict control of the central authorities.
In Sudan, the death toll had surpassed that of Rwanda. Further, there were report of Sudanese Government forces' involvement in slavery, torture, rape and aerial bombings of unarmed villages and refugee camps. The Government routinely blocked UN food aid deliveries to south Sudan and the Nuba mountains, resulting in a death toll in the thousands. Concern was also expressed about the state of religious freedom in Egypt.
JAIRO SANCHEZ, of American Association of Jurists, said human-rights violations continued to increase in Colombia; the primary responsibility rested with the coalition of military and paramilitary groups, and with the Government, which failed to implement reforms that had been suggested. The guerillas also had committed violations. Still, some will had been shown by both sides to negotiate, and that was laudable. However, funding for weapons continued to be provided, and if the weapons continued to flow in, it was like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Perhaps it was time to appoint a Special Rapporteur for Colombia.
Continuing violations of human rights were occurring in Peru without any perceptible reaction by the Commission or the rest of the international community. Treatment of prisoners was unacceptable and the judiciary remained afflicted by a lack of impartiality. Impunity persisted, and had to be ended. The Office of the High Commissioner should adopt measures to respond to the situation. Violations were widespread and persistent in the United States, and the situation was aggravated by the fact that the rulers of that country were of the opinion that they were above and outside international law; the Commission must make it clear to them that international human-rights law applied to all without exception. NATO leaders should be held responsible for their share of war crimes committed in Kosovo.
KAREN PARKER, of International Educational Development, said the Tamil-Sri Lankan war could not be won militarily by the Sri Lankan forces and that an alternative to armed conflict to resolve the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka had to be pursued. In Sierra Leone, 30 per cent of the population was displaced and 400,000 were still in Guinea. Renewed fighting had resulted in at least 5000 more internal and external refugees. Further, food and medicine did not always reach the population.
Extreme concern was felt over the human-rights situation in the Moluccas and Aceh; in the Moluccas in January, one of the worst weeks of violence in the history of Indonesia had taken place. The situation of human rights in Mexico appeared to have worsened, despite promises by the Government of Mexico that the pattern of abuses confirmed by UN investigators would cease.
SEIN WIN, of International Peace Bureau, said that he was an elected representative of the 1990 general elections of Burma and had taken the floor regularly at the Commission since 1991 to present the case of the 1990 elections. He fully agreed with the Special Rapporteur's remark that the lack of respect for the right to democratic governance was the root cause of various forms of human-rights violations in Burma. The Commission had adopted nine consecutive resolutions without effect; the military regime refused to let the Special Rapporteur into the country; and it continued to harass, arrest, imprison, and torture the fairly elected members of the National League for Democracy.
This campaign had taken a terrible toll on the members of Parliament, their families, and the people of Burma. The prison conditions were unspeakable and those of so-called 'guest houses', where many NLD members were held, were at best akin to minimum-security prisons; those held lacked adequate food or medical treatment. There was concern, furthermore, because those who had already served their prison terms were being detained arbitrarily or through new charges brought against them. The Commission should condemn in the strongest possible terms the abuses committed by the military regime.
DAVID HASLAM, of Anti Slavery International, said the organization was concerned by the role of caste in the debt-bondage system and the serious deprivation of human rights this represented. Dalits were the people relegated to the bottom of the caste system in the countries of South Asia and their diaspora. In India, home to most of the world's Dalits, they accounted for around 17 per cent of the population, some 170 million, or 250 million if the Adivasi or tribal peoples were included.
Dalits and Adivasis had the lowest standard of living, the poorest land and the worst jobs. Despite the Indian Parliament having outlawed such discriminatory practices and despite 'untouchability' being outlawed in the Constitution, Dalits were still denied many human rights, including those to education, employment, access to water and even voting in elections. When Dalits protested about their oppression they often experienced violence from the authorities. Governments were called upon to work with the Governments of South Asia to tackle the deep and complex problem of caste .
GREG THOMPSON, of Australian Council for Overseas Aid, said that despite formal reforms made by Indonesia, there had not been much real change for the Indonesian people, particularly for those living in provinces such as Aceh, Maluku, and West Papua, and for those East Timorese still in West Timor and other parts of the country without international agency protection. A chief problem was lack of an independent judiciary acting in the public interest. There was a widespread lack of trust in the court system and at times political bias in the selection of cases brought and the judgements made. In Aceh, following some suspected killings of civilians by the military, the court staff and judges had fled, leaving a vacuum in which cases of violence resulted in no recourse at all.
The Commission must urge Indonesia to demilitarize its judicial system; to create institutional mechanisms for bringing to justice perpetrators of gross violations of human rights: to implement recommendations made under UN human-rights mechanisms; and to follow up commitments made by Indonesia at the UN Subcommission on Human Rights last August as expressed in a Chairman's statement.
MOHAMMED FAYEK, of Arab Organization for Human Rights, said some freedom-restricting laws continued to exist in Egypt, where the emergency law had been extended for three more years, while seven more Arab countries continued to be under emergency law. Palestinian territories remained under Israeli occupation; the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and their right to repatriation were completely ignored. Israel had also launched a wide campaign against Lebanon, targeting its infrastructure and endangering the civilian population. International sanctions on Iraq continued to be applied, leading to the deaths of thousands of Iraqis, mainly women and children.
The year had brought also many positive changes in the field of human rights. In Morocco, improvements had continued, while blanket amnesties were issued in Egypt, Algeria and Syria. In Bahrain decrees had been issued to allow the return of some exiled individuals.
GABRIELA GONZALEZ, of the International Federation of Human Rights, said there was a serious deterioration in China's human rights situation; violations included restrictions in freedom of expression, administrative detention, and forced labour. The crackdown on the Falun Gong movement was unacceptable. The situation in Chechnya was also a cause of concern. Bombings within official security zones had caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians. There had been numerous arbitrary detentions and killings. The refugee camps were on the verge of becoming a humanitarian disaster. The situation in Chechnya had to be investigated.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo the situation remained worrying. Impunity was given to murderers. Human rights defenders were harassed and persecuted. There were flagrant violations limiting basic rights and freedoms. Civilians in rebel-controlled areas faced rape and torture, again committed with impunity. Justice was necessary to ensure a durable peace. The International Federation also denounced militarization in Mexico, where judicial reforms had not been enough and impunity continued. There were incidents of torture, disappearances and enforced displacement proving that the Government had not taken necessary steps to ensure the protection of human rights. The results of the Iranian elections were welcomed -- they could be seen as a crucial step in the achievement of democracy.
ANNE-LAURENCE LACROIX, of the World Organization against Torture, said the repression of the Falun Gong movement in China was just one indication of increasing human-rights violations in China over the past year. Repression was increasingly aimed at persons exercising legitimate rights to political opinion, religious convictions, and social aspirations. China repeatedly called for dialogue rather than confrontation in international discussions of human rights, but dialogue should be more than rhetoric. The Commission should immediately call for China to liberate all prisoners of conscience; it also should request complete cooperation by China with the Special Rapporteur on Torture during his next visit, and should ask China to invite other thematic mechanisms of the Commission to visit.
In Chechnya, extensive human-rights violations committed by Russian troops had reached the scale of atrocities; the crimes against humanity committed there should be subject to the actions of an international criminal tribunal. The invitation to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Chechnya should not be the end of examination of the situation there by members of the Commission. The gravity of the situation of human rights in Myanmar meant the Commission should prolong the mandate of its Special Rapporteur and insist again that authorities of the country cooperate with him.
ANNIGJE BUWALDA, of International Association for the Defence of Religious Liberty, said the Burmese military regime continued to inflict on the Karen people a wide range of atrocities, including systematic destruction of their villages, crops and food stores, widespread and persistent rape, torture and extrajudicial executions, forced relocations and forced labour. The genocide against the Karen, Shan, Karenni and other ethnic minorities in Burma was every bit as horrific as the atrocities in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. The Commission was urged to push for global economic sanctions against Burma and for the members of the Burmese regime and their subordinates to be tried by an international tribunal.
In Indonesia, sectarian violence in the Moluccas escalated sharply between December 1999 and February 2000. Over 700 Christians and Muslims were killed in very intense violence. Since sectarian violence started in January 1999 in the Moluccas, at least 2,000 people had died, about 200,000 had been internally displaced and 108 houses of worship attacked. In Laos, the Government had been sponsoring and orchestrating persecution of Christians. Currently, Laotian authorities held 69 Christian leaders in prison, where they suffered appalling conditions. The Commission was urged to effectively engage the Laotian Government in discourse to bring to an end the violation of human rights in the country.
NAOL QIANG, of the Robert Kennedy Memorial, said it was widely known that China was committing the most flagrant violations of human rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political rights had been signed by the Chinese Government, yet it continued to violate it. China had to be held accountable to preserve the integrity of the Commission. 'Cooperation through dialogue', as regularly called for by the Chinese Government, was not genuine. There were labour camps and people were being exiled and imprisoned for speaking their minds. More than 2000 members of the China Democracy Party had been detained.
The Falun Gong crackdown had caused 10,000 members to be arrested and sent for re-education, merely for peaceful protest and exercising their religious rights. The families of the 1994 massacre were harassed and persecuted and forbidden to mourn publically. The Commission was mandated to examine all countries equally. China was accountable to the international community. The Commission was urged to support a resolution on China, as no country should be immune from scrutiny.
TECHESTE AHDEROM, of Baha'i International Community, said the situation of the Baha'i community in Iran was now at an important crossroads; there were the beginnings of positive developments but it was not possible to document any improvement in the actual situation of the Baha'is. They were still targets of overt atrocities and they continued to suffer under the burden of more subtle forms of discrimination. As of 1 March, twelve Baha'is were being held in prison because of their religious beliefs; five had been sentenced to death; it was clear that the charges brought against all of them were based solely on their membership in the Baha'i community. There were recent reports of three more death sentences, and that two of those prisoners had been told orally that their death sentences had been confirmed.
The Commission must intercede on behalf of this beleaguered community. It should call on the Government to allow the Baha'is to bury their dead freely; allow them freedom of movement; allow them access to education and employment, security of person, civil rights, religious freedom. Iraq also should set aside the death sentences and release the prisoners concerned; it should return community properties; it should ensure equal treatment by the judiciary and allow the re-establishment of Baha'i institutions.
LOURDES CERVANTES, of Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said agenda item 9 continued to serve the interests of the countries of the North who acted as judges with respect to the human-rights situation in the countries of the South. At the 55th Session of the Commission, of 13 resolutions on country situations, 12 concerned situations in Third World countries. The 13th country was not an industrialized Western county.
This practice was arbitrary and ignored the political, economic, social and cultural diversity of the world. Another tendency of the Commission was that of ignoring the equality of all the categories of human rights and the importance accorded by Third World countries to the fundamental issues of self-determination and development.
RITA M. PEREIRA, of the Federation of Cuban Women, said there had not been adequate recognition of human-rights violations in the world. Very little had been said on economic, social and cultural rights even though all human rights had equal worth. Neo-liberal policies and predominance were responsible for the neglect of those rights. Poverty was widespread in the world and particularly affected women.
Cuba had gone through a period of economic growth with social justice. Last year the economy grew at a rate 6.2 per cent, improving the quality of life for all. This had been the result of political will on the part of the Cuban Government. Women and children had been the main beneficiaries of the economic growth. However, this situation was threatened by the US economic blockade of Cuba, which was continually growing and tightening and was contrary to international law. This was the greatest act of violation, irrational and aggressive. There had to be an end to this injustice. The Cuban people had the right to live in sovereignty and have their own democratic experience.
MOHAMMAD ANWAR, of World Federation of Democratic Youth, said gross violations of human rights of the Mohajir nation of over 22 million people in Sindh province continued at the hands of the Government of Pakistan. The Mohajirs were subject to near-genocide, extra-judicial executions, unlawful arrests and torture in the custody of the State, displacement and forced evictions, disappearances, and ethnic and linguistic discrimination. During his recent visit to Pakistan, US President Bill Clinton had said bluntly that people should have the freedom and responsibility to shape their own destiny. Pakistan would not be at peace until Mohajirs and Sindhis had that freedom and full autonomy for their province.
They sought an equal share in running the affairs of the State, equal rights for their women, modern education, a better environment, clean drinking water, and other basic rights. The Commission must take urgent steps to make the Government of Pakistan stop widespread violations of the human rights of the Mohajirs and Sindhis of Sindh province, and of other ethnic and linguistic groups in Pakistan.
CATHRYN ROBERTSON, of the Canadian Council of Churches, said thousands of East Timorese remained in jeopardy in refugee camps in West Timor and elsewhere in Indonesia. In Sri Lanka, more than 30,000 cases of officially acknowledged disappearances remained unresolved. Children and freedom of expression continued to be the literal and figurative victims of the war, particularly in zones of conflict.
A disturbing pattern of systematic human-rights violations continued in Mexico. These violations occurred in a context of increased militarization and ongoing impunity. Formal commitments made by the Mexican Government in recent years to eradicate human-rights violations had not been acted upon. In Mexico, hundreds of massacres had been carried out in recent years, mainly by paramilitary groups with the open support of State security forces. The perpetrators enjoyed impunity. In Sudan, the human devastation of civil war continued with the Government continuing to deliberately bomb civilian centres.
DOUG FORD, of Physicians for Human Rights, presented the preliminary analysis of a survey on human-rights abuses in Chechnya. This survey was based on testimonies from Chechens. The organization condemned violations of human rights there, including forced displacements and indiscriminate killings of civilians. The Russian federal forces were responsible. Their human rights abuses had been pervasive.
The findings of the survey demonstrated that war crimes had been committed. Some 97 per cent of the displaced people interviewed testified that they had been forced to fle. The Russian forces had intentionally disregarded civilian rights. There were numerous testimonies of abuse outside homes, public killings of family members, and torture of civilians. One great abuse was the violation of medical neutrality. There were many incidents where facilities had been destroyed. The Commission was urged to set up an independent international investigation into these abuses. It was recommended that an international monitoring mission be set up to deter current abuses. The Russian Federation was requested to ensure free access by humanitarian agencies to the suffering people. <
RACHLAND NASHIDIK, of Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women, said that in spite of changes in Indonesia, impunity remained a big problem, which had continuously besieged and obstructed the transition to democracy in the country. Recently the President of Indonesia expressed his personal regret and apologized for the massacre which had accompanied the coup d'état in 1965 and which reportedly had cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Indonesia.
Despite its genuine commitment to democracy, the new Government had yet to succeed in putting an end to gross violations of human rights, which were still going on systematically this very day. Those violations had invariably been coupled with acts of violence against women and children.
JELKA SCHILT, of the Association of Refugees and Displaced Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said four and a half years after the Dayton Peace Agreement, 870,000 refugees and displaced persons still did not live in their pre-war homes because their homes were on the territory of another entity. Furthermore, over 760,000 Bosnian refugees were scattered in about 100 countries all over the world.
The authorities in either of the two entities pursued policies of nationalism and obstructionism. They obstructed the return of minority communities by protracting and delaying return procedures. There were three separate and conflicting legal systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in systematic discrimination based on ethnicity, dubious rulings and unexplained delays. Further, concern about safety was one of the main factors hindering refugees from returning.
KERIM SHARIF, of the Society for Threatened Peoples, said in the autonomous region in northwest China there had been clashes between the authorities and the population. These clashes resulted from a peaceful demonstration in the month of Ramadan when young Muslims had demanded the release of prisoners. The demonstration had been followed by sentencings, shootings and torture in the area. The Chinese authorities had concealed the true extent of these clashes, and it was only in the last few months that the repression had become apparent. The clashes were such that a state of emergency had been declared in August 1999.
The conditions in the prisons were horrific; women detained had been raped in public police stations and in prisons. Fourteen detainees had died as a result of torture in prison and had been denied proper burial. There had been an absolute silence decree, preventing the population to speak of the disturbance. Those who disobeyed received long prison sentences. Unfortunately, human-rights organizations had been unable to confirm exactly what was happening due to the repressive tactics of the Chinese Government. The Government was urged to put an immediate stop to all executions and to release prisoners who had only been guilty of demonstrating and expressing their religious rights.
INDIRA KHANNA, of the European Union of Public Relations, said that it seemed that despite the international community's efforts to consolidate democratic processes as an effective means to protect human rights, democracy's status in many States was tenuous. The recent takeover of the Government by the military in Pakistan was a glaring case.
The military coup in Pakistan had been universally condemned because it was out of joint with the times. Not only had the democratic process been curbed and the civil and political rights of the people of Pakistan curtailed, but the military rulers were also posing a serious threat to peace, harmony and moderation the world over by supporting fundamentalist and terrorist groups. The Pakistani Government gave critical military and political support to the Taliban, for example.
DAVID LITTMAN, of the Association for World Education, said the remnant of the ancient Jewish community of Iran was now in danger of being made a scapegoat, suffering discrimination and worse. As indicated by the Special Rapporteur on Iran, Maurice Capithorne, with reference to the plight of the evangelical Protestants, the Bahais, and 13 arrested Jews, 'one of the backwaters of the human rights situation in Iran was the status of minorities, ethnic and religious'. The Commission was urged not to forget the threatened Jewish community, which might soon be reduced to a hostage community , in spite of the recent Iranian elections. In Lebanon, Iran's direct influence on the Hezbollah was a reality. Hezbollah was the same terrorist organization that initiated the ghastly period of hostage-taking in the 1980s. The Commission was alerted to the very real danger of genocidal acts against the Christian community in southern Lebanon, which were a strong possibility after the Israeli occupational forces leave on 7 July, given the tragic events since the 1970s.
Lastly, the Israeli Government was urged not to curtail the Attorney- General's criminal investigation into former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who had recently anathematized Education Minister Yossi Sarid as 'Satan'. Unholy calls to kill or obliterate could lead to political assassinations galore.
LEONIE TANGGAHMA, of Survival International, raised the issue of human-rights violations in Indonesia, particularly in West Papua. These violations had been occurring for 30 years and included systematic imprisonment, arbitrary detention, torture and rape on the basis of religion, ethnicity and culture. An act passed in 1969 did not respect the fundamental rights of the Papuan people. This act had to be redressed, and their demands for independence had to be heard. The perpetrators of human-rights abuses were the Indonesian army.
Companies had also been exploiting the resources of the region while disregarding the needs of the Papuan people. Peaceful demonstrations had increased tension, and even had led to people being killed or injured. The Indonesian Government had acknowledged past abuses, but there were current abuses which needed to be addressed, particularly restrictions in the right to free expression and on the Papuan people's right to self-determination. The Commission was urged to consider the situation and call on Indonesia to re-evaluate the 1969 Act and to ensure the right to self-determination.
YOSTIMUS TOMIARYANTS, of the Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation, focusing on Indonesia's Aceh province, said that human-rights violations continued to occur and that despite the new reformist Government, a clear break with the violent past had not taken place. After the abolishment of the Military Operation Zone in Aceh in mid-1998, serious human-rights violations continued to be committed, even under the Wahid Government.
Between January 1999 and February 2000, there were at least nine cases of extrajudicial executions in the form of massacres, which killed 132 civilians. And 978 cases of torture, 330 cases of arbitrary detention, 363 summary killings and 132 cases of involuntary disappearances had been reported. To this date, not a single case of human-rights violations had been legally processed in Aceh.
ANNE-MARIE MUWAYANZO MUPUNDU, of Agir Ensemble Pour les Droits de l'Homme, said the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had entered a cycle of violence and disintegration in 1997, when Laurent Désiré Kabila took power. Since then the situation in the country had been characterized by a deterioration of the economic and social situation and violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as international law. There was no rule of law in the country, where the judiciary had been placed under the control of the Government.
The regime had executed more than 103 people and at least 8,000 people had been detained for long periods. No economic progress had been achieved. On the contrary all the national heritage had been looted and placed under the control of the head of State and his foreign allies. Further, the war waged against the DRC by the Rwanda-Uganda-Burundi alliance amounted to a crime against humanity. The massacares committed by the forces amounted to the most serious violation of the right to life.
AMEUR JERIDI, of the Organisation Tunisienne de l'Education et de la Famille, said the organization wanted to be part of the creation of a world that was based on human rights and which guaranteed the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people. This vision of human rights was intimately linked with the vision of a dignified life. The appropriate framework for achieving this world was the family. This required social action, particularly within the field of education. It was within a family that a child was taught the values of human rights.
Stability was required to achieve human rights for all, and was necessary to save the poor even though globalization had increased their number and had spread violence and atrocities. Human dignity worldwide required transparency in those organizations working for the goal of guaranteeing the rights of each citizen. The organization welcome the good work done by the Commission and discouraged ill-intentions and criticisms. It was hoped that human rights would soon be acquired rights, and that extremism and poverty would be eradicated. The organization had been involved in this kind of work in Tunisia and had worked in keeping with UN principles to establish partnerships through education, transparency and good governance.
T. RAMANA, of the International Institute for Peace, said that since the latest coup in Pakistan, systems had been instituted which perpetuated discrimination. The elected assemblies had been suspended and the Constitution held in abeyance. Either there was a functioning Constitution or there was none. Those actions were being explained away by reiterating a favourite of dictators that they were determined to replace what was a sham democracy with a real one. Yet no clear timetable was set for such change.
In addition, the practice of religious discrimination, embodied in ordinances like the Blasphemy Law, remained undisturbed. No action had been taken to undo the Hudood ordinances which reduced women to second-class status. Rather, fundamentalist religious elements were being given more latitude to practice their regressive ideologies which had a direct bearing on the welfare of ordinary women and their participation in the polity.
EDITH BALLANTYNE, of Women's International League for Peace, said it had been firmly established that the embargo imposed on Iraq had caused hundreds of thousands of victims among the civilian population, with children being the massive victims. The embargo had caused a massive destruction of the educational system and many children could no longer receive even the most elementary education.
The bombardments by the allied forces in 1991 had also destroyed the economic infrastructure of what was the most developed country in the Middle East. Furthermore, the effects on the population of the use of depleted uranium weapons were adding to the agony of the population, due to illness and malformation in infants.
CATHERINE SCOTT, of the Catholic Institute for International Relations, said there were gross human-rights violations in East Timor. Refugees had been displaced across borders, many through enforced displacement. The International Organization for Migration and UNHCR were commended for their unwavering efforts to enable the refugees to return home. Many refugees were still left and were facing intimidation and misinformation. Many children had died in the refugee camps. There had been many treaties signed by the international community, but remarkably little improvement in the actual situation.
The Indonesian Government was urged to dismiss military personnel responsible and to prevent the militias from destabilizing East Timor through border incursions. Such violations had been pre-prepared as a military strategy. Those who had masterminded this strategy and the perpetrators thereof had to be brought to justice with no delay. Trials should adhere to international standards of justice. No State pardons or immunities would be acceptable. An international war crimes tribunal should be established as recommended by the Special Rapporteur last December. Justice had to be done for a meaningful healing to take place.
*****
¨56th session
29 March 2000
Evening
The Commission on Human Rights carried on this evening with its annual review of the 'question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world', hearing from a long list of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who charged offenses were being committed in numerous countries.
At the extended meeting, which began immediately following the end of the Commission's normal 3-6 p.m. session, NGOs alleged human-rights violations in Mexico, China, Indonesia, the United States, Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Libya, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Peru, Myanmar, Indonesia, Chechnya, Pakistan, India, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israeli-occupied Palestine, Laos, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America charged that the annual discussion served the interests of the countries of the North who acted as judges with respect to the human-rights situation in the countries of the South. At the 55th Session of the Commission, of thirteen resolutions on country situations, twelve concerned situations in Third World countries, while the thirteenth country involved was not an industrialized Western nation, a representative of the NGO said.
Two other NGOs contended that the international economic embargo of Iraq, authorized by Security Council resolutions, was itself an unacceptable violation of human rights.
Speaking were representatives of Service, Justice and Peace in Latin America; International Centre for Human Rights Development; Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace; New Human Rights; Freedom House; American Association of Jurists; International Educational Development; International Peace Bureau; Anti-Slavery International; Australian Council for Overseas Aid; Arab Organization for Human Rights; International Federation of Human Rights; World Organization against Torture; International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty; Robert F. Kennedy Memorial; Baha'i International; Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America; Federation of Cuban Women; World Federation of Democratic Youth; Canadian Council of Churches; Physicians for Human Rights; Third World Movement against the Exploitation of Women; Association of Refugees and displaced Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Society for Threatened Peoples; European Union of Public Relations; Association for World Education; Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation; Agir ensemble pour les droits de l'Homme; Organisation Tunisienne de l'Education et de la Famille; International Institute for Peace; Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; and Catholic Institute for International Relations.
The Commission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, 30 March.
Statements
MICHAEL CHAMBERLIN, of Service, Justice and Peace in Latin America, said that in Mexico a series of criminal reforms favoured the use of torture and led to many people being tried for crimes they did not commit; decisions of the judicial branch were often not autonomous from the executive, which had led to almost total impunity for violators, as various UN human-rights mechanisms had noted. The militarization of the country, already grave, was intensifying; police and military methods used to control the southern border had resulted in numerous deaths and human-rights violations; Mexican indigenous peoples were subjected to severe and inhuman marginalization; and the Government had illegally expelled hundreds of international human-rights observers.
The Commission was urged to consider appointing a Special Rapporteur on the situation in Mexico. The Mexican Government was urged to remove military officers from civilian tasks; to set dates for visits of the Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers and violence against women; to invite the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and enforced or involuntary disappearances to visit; to ensure that the technical-assistance programme now being developed involve civil society; to comply swiftly with human-rights recommendations already issued by international mechanisms; and to undertake a profound reform of the law-enforcement system.
WARREN ALLMAND, of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, said China was one of the main human-rights violators in the world. China's human-rights record had not improved despite bilateral dialogue over the past three years. On the contrary, the situation in the country had deteriorated further. Violations included harsh sentences meted out to Falung Gong followers, torture, arbitrary detention and forced disappearances. Several victims of torture reportedly had died. Freedom of expression was routinely denied, especially to human-rights defenders.
The negative impact of economic reforms had fallen on women in particular. Independent trade unions remained illegal. Arrest of labour activists was also widespread. The Government continued to detain 10-year-old Gedhum Choekyi Nyima, the eleventh Panchen Lama. Dialogue alone had failed to persuade China to desist from human-rights violations. The Commission was urged to condemn China's human-rights violations.
DULCE DE JESUS SOARES, of Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, said some pro-autonomy groups in East Timor had formed into so-called 'militias' which had worked with the Indonesian military and police to intimidate those suspected of favouring independence; she and her husband were members of a pro-independence group but under threats to their lives had signed a document saying they were pro-autonomy. They still passed on information to independence leaders or to UNAMET. When the vote held indicated a victory for independence, she and her family fled to West Timor to avoid reprisals and rented rooms so as to avoid refugee camps, which were dangerous. Later, when the militias came looking, they moved to a place protected by the Church.
In October, their relatives returned to East Timor along with many other refugees, but they stayed away as they were still afraid. When they finally returned they had to bribe Indonesian soldiers at the border. There were still many other people in camps in West Timor who were afraid to come home or were not being allowed to leave by the Indonesian military or by militias. Often when they returned, the militias confiscated all the materials given them by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The people of East Timor wanted their brothers and sisters to be able to come home; they wanted to build a new country, leaving political differences behind.
BEHZAD NAZIRI, of New Human Rights, said that over twenty years Iran had been transformed into a veritable laboratory for grave, systematic and permanent violations of human rights. These problems continued. Given the entrenched autocratic system, the emergence of reformists, represented by the President of the country, had not changed the situation, and the wounds of the past had not healed.
During the student insurrection last year, that same reformist President had called for their repression. Was it also necessary to cite the 650 official executions, the 11 stonings? Or the 37 political assassinations carried out beyond Iran's borders? The number of executions during the President's time in office was high. Given the gravity and the persistence of crimes committed under the leadership of the religious mullahs in Iran, a new, firm resolution was called for from the Commission, condemning one more time these flagrant and systematic crimes. New Human Rights hoped the Commission would show suitable determination against this regime which seemed to be incapable of true reform.
MARK PALMER, of Freedom House, said the most repressive regimes in the world which engaged in the broadest and most systematic violations of freedom included Afghanistan, Burma, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. Two locations within the same category were Chechnya and Tibet. China remained, in most respects, the most repressive country in the world. Human-rights violations in 1999 included the arrest of scores of second-tier leaders of the banned China Democratic Party, the systematic persecution of the Falun Gong, the continued imprisonment of several thousand political prisoners and the continued practice of sentencing people without trial to reform through labour camps. Control of religion remained under strict control of the central authorities.
In Sudan, the death toll had surpassed that of Rwanda. Further, there were report of Sudanese Government forces' involvement in slavery, torture, rape and aerial bombings of unarmed villages and refugee camps. The Government routinely blocked UN food aid deliveries to south Sudan and the Nuba mountains, resulting in a death toll in the thousands. Concern was also expressed about the state of religious freedom in Egypt.
JAIRO SANCHEZ, of American Association of Jurists, said human-rights violations continued to increase in Colombia; the primary responsibility rested with the coalition of military and paramilitary groups, and with the Government, which failed to implement reforms that had been suggested. The guerillas also had committed violations. Still, some will had been shown by both sides to negotiate, and that was laudable. However, funding for weapons continued to be provided, and if the weapons continued to flow in, it was like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Perhaps it was time to appoint a Special Rapporteur for Colombia.
Continuing violations of human rights were occurring in Peru without any perceptible reaction by the Commission or the rest of the international community. Treatment of prisoners was unacceptable and the judiciary remained afflicted by a lack of impartiality. Impunity persisted, and had to be ended. The Office of the High Commissioner should adopt measures to respond to the situation. Violations were widespread and persistent in the United States, and the situation was aggravated by the fact that the rulers of that country were of the opinion that they were above and outside international law; the Commission must make it clear to them that international human-rights law applied to all without exception. NATO leaders should be held responsible for their share of war crimes committed in Kosovo.
KAREN PARKER, of International Educational Development, said the Tamil-Sri Lankan war could not be won militarily by the Sri Lankan forces and that an alternative to armed conflict to resolve the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka had to be pursued. In Sierra Leone, 30 per cent of the population was displaced and 400,000 were still in Guinea. Renewed fighting had resulted in at least 5000 more internal and external refugees. Further, food and medicine did not always reach the population.
Extreme concern was felt over the human-rights situation in the Moluccas and Aceh; in the Moluccas in January, one of the worst weeks of violence in the history of Indonesia had taken place. The situation of human rights in Mexico appeared to have worsened, despite promises by the Government of Mexico that the pattern of abuses confirmed by UN investigators would cease.
SEIN WIN, of International Peace Bureau, said that he was an elected representative of the 1990 general elections of Burma and had taken the floor regularly at the Commission since 1991 to present the case of the 1990 elections. He fully agreed with the Special Rapporteur's remark that the lack of respect for the right to democratic governance was the root cause of various forms of human-rights violations in Burma. The Commission had adopted nine consecutive resolutions without effect; the military regime refused to let the Special Rapporteur into the country; and it continued to harass, arrest, imprison, and torture the fairly elected members of the National League for Democracy.
This campaign had taken a terrible toll on the members of Parliament, their families, and the people of Burma. The prison conditions were unspeakable and those of so-called 'guest houses', where many NLD members were held, were at best akin to minimum-security prisons; those held lacked adequate food or medical treatment. There was concern, furthermore, because those who had already served their prison terms were being detained arbitrarily or through new charges brought against them. The Commission should condemn in the strongest possible terms the abuses committed by the military regime.
DAVID HASLAM, of Anti Slavery International, said the organization was concerned by the role of caste in the debt-bondage system and the serious deprivation of human rights this represented. Dalits were the people relegated to the bottom of the caste system in the countries of South Asia and their diaspora. In India, home to most of the world's Dalits, they accounted for around 17 per cent of the population, some 170 million, or 250 million if the Adivasi or tribal peoples were included.
Dalits and Adivasis had the lowest standard of living, the poorest land and the worst jobs. Despite the Indian Parliament having outlawed such discriminatory practices and despite 'untouchability' being outlawed in the Constitution, Dalits were still denied many human rights, including those to education, employment, access to water and even voting in elections. When Dalits protested about their oppression they often experienced violence from the authorities. Governments were called upon to work with the Governments of South Asia to tackle the deep and complex problem of caste .
GREG THOMPSON, of Australian Council for Overseas Aid, said that despite formal reforms made by Indonesia, there had not been much real change for the Indonesian people, particularly for those living in provinces such as Aceh, Maluku, and West Papua, and for those East Timorese still in West Timor and other parts of the country without international agency protection. A chief problem was lack of an independent judiciary acting in the public interest. There was a widespread lack of trust in the court system and at times political bias in the selection of cases brought and the judgements made. In Aceh, following some suspected killings of civilians by the military, the court staff and judges had fled, leaving a vacuum in which cases of violence resulted in no recourse at all.
The Commission must urge Indonesia to demilitarize its judicial system; to create institutional mechanisms for bringing to justice perpetrators of gross violations of human rights: to implement recommendations made under UN human-rights mechanisms; and to follow up commitments made by Indonesia at the UN Subcommission on Human Rights last August as expressed in a Chairman's statement.
MOHAMMED FAYEK, of Arab Organization for Human Rights, said some freedom-restricting laws continued to exist in Egypt, where the emergency law had been extended for three more years, while seven more Arab countries continued to be under emergency law. Palestinian territories remained under Israeli occupation; the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and their right to repatriation were completely ignored. Israel had also launched a wide campaign against Lebanon, targeting its infrastructure and endangering the civilian population. International sanctions on Iraq continued to be applied, leading to the deaths of thousands of Iraqis, mainly women and children.
The year had brought also many positive changes in the field of human rights. In Morocco, improvements had continued, while blanket amnesties were issued in Egypt, Algeria and Syria. In Bahrain decrees had been issued to allow the return of some exiled individuals.
GABRIELA GONZALEZ, of the International Federation of Human Rights, said there was a serious deterioration in China's human rights situation; violations included restrictions in freedom of expression, administrative detention, and forced labour. The crackdown on the Falun Gong movement was unacceptable. The situation in Chechnya was also a cause of concern. Bombings within official security zones had caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians. There had been numerous arbitrary detentions and killings. The refugee camps were on the verge of becoming a humanitarian disaster. The situation in Chechnya had to be investigated.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo the situation remained worrying. Impunity was given to murderers. Human rights defenders were harassed and persecuted. There were flagrant violations limiting basic rights and freedoms. Civilians in rebel-controlled areas faced rape and torture, again committed with impunity. Justice was necessary to ensure a durable peace. The International Federation also denounced militarization in Mexico, where judicial reforms had not been enough and impunity continued. There were incidents of torture, disappearances and enforced displacement proving that the Government had not taken necessary steps to ensure the protection of human rights. The results of the Iranian elections were welcomed -- they could be seen as a crucial step in the achievement of democracy.
ANNE-LAURENCE LACROIX, of the World Organization against Torture, said the repression of the Falun Gong movement in China was just one indication of increasing human-rights violations in China over the past year. Repression was increasingly aimed at persons exercising legitimate rights to political opinion, religious convictions, and social aspirations. China repeatedly called for dialogue rather than confrontation in international discussions of human rights, but dialogue should be more than rhetoric. The Commission should immediately call for China to liberate all prisoners of conscience; it also should request complete cooperation by China with the Special Rapporteur on Torture during his next visit, and should ask China to invite other thematic mechanisms of the Commission to visit.
In Chechnya, extensive human-rights violations committed by Russian troops had reached the scale of atrocities; the crimes against humanity committed there should be subject to the actions of an international criminal tribunal. The invitation to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Chechnya should not be the end of examination of the situation there by members of the Commission. The gravity of the situation of human rights in Myanmar meant the Commission should prolong the mandate of its Special Rapporteur and insist again that authorities of the country cooperate with him.
ANNIGJE BUWALDA, of International Association for the Defence of Religious Liberty, said the Burmese military regime continued to inflict on the Karen people a wide range of atrocities, including systematic destruction of their villages, crops and food stores, widespread and persistent rape, torture and extrajudicial executions, forced relocations and forced labour. The genocide against the Karen, Shan, Karenni and other ethnic minorities in Burma was every bit as horrific as the atrocities in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. The Commission was urged to push for global economic sanctions against Burma and for the members of the Burmese regime and their subordinates to be tried by an international tribunal.
In Indonesia, sectarian violence in the Moluccas escalated sharply between December 1999 and February 2000. Over 700 Christians and Muslims were killed in very intense violence. Since sectarian violence started in January 1999 in the Moluccas, at least 2,000 people had died, about 200,000 had been internally displaced and 108 houses of worship attacked. In Laos, the Government had been sponsoring and orchestrating persecution of Christians. Currently, Laotian authorities held 69 Christian leaders in prison, where they suffered appalling conditions. The Commission was urged to effectively engage the Laotian Government in discourse to bring to an end the violation of human rights in the country.
NAOL QIANG, of the Robert Kennedy Memorial, said it was widely known that China was committing the most flagrant violations of human rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political rights had been signed by the Chinese Government, yet it continued to violate it. China had to be held accountable to preserve the integrity of the Commission. 'Cooperation through dialogue', as regularly called for by the Chinese Government, was not genuine. There were labour camps and people were being exiled and imprisoned for speaking their minds. More than 2000 members of the China Democracy Party had been detained.
The Falun Gong crackdown had caused 10,000 members to be arrested and sent for re-education, merely for peaceful protest and exercising their religious rights. The families of the 1994 massacre were harassed and persecuted and forbidden to mourn publically. The Commission was mandated to examine all countries equally. China was accountable to the international community. The Commission was urged to support a resolution on China, as no country should be immune from scrutiny.
TECHESTE AHDEROM, of Baha'i International Community, said the situation of the Baha'i community in Iran was now at an important crossroads; there were the beginnings of positive developments but it was not possible to document any improvement in the actual situation of the Baha'is. They were still targets of overt atrocities and they continued to suffer under the burden of more subtle forms of discrimination. As of 1 March, twelve Baha'is were being held in prison because of their religious beliefs; five had been sentenced to death; it was clear that the charges brought against all of them were based solely on their membership in the Baha'i community. There were recent reports of three more death sentences, and that two of those prisoners had been told orally that their death sentences had been confirmed.
The Commission must intercede on behalf of this beleaguered community. It should call on the Government to allow the Baha'is to bury their dead freely; allow them freedom of movement; allow them access to education and employment, security of person, civil rights, religious freedom. Iraq also should set aside the death sentences and release the prisoners concerned; it should return community properties; it should ensure equal treatment by the judiciary and allow the re-establishment of Baha'i institutions.
LOURDES CERVANTES, of Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said agenda item 9 continued to serve the interests of the countries of the North who acted as judges with respect to the human-rights situation in the countries of the South. At the 55th Session of the Commission, of 13 resolutions on country situations, 12 concerned situations in Third World countries. The 13th country was not an industrialized Western county.
This practice was arbitrary and ignored the political, economic, social and cultural diversity of the world. Another tendency of the Commission was that of ignoring the equality of all the categories of human rights and the importance accorded by Third World countries to the fundamental issues of self-determination and development.
RITA M. PEREIRA, of the Federation of Cuban Women, said there had not been adequate recognition of human-rights violations in the world. Very little had been said on economic, social and cultural rights even though all human rights had equal worth. Neo-liberal policies and predominance were responsible for the neglect of those rights. Poverty was widespread in the world and particularly affected women.
Cuba had gone through a period of economic growth with social justice. Last year the economy grew at a rate 6.2 per cent, improving the quality of life for all. This had been the result of political will on the part of the Cuban Government. Women and children had been the main beneficiaries of the economic growth. However, this situation was threatened by the US economic blockade of Cuba, which was continually growing and tightening and was contrary to international law. This was the greatest act of violation, irrational and aggressive. There had to be an end to this injustice. The Cuban people had the right to live in sovereignty and have their own democratic experience.
MOHAMMAD ANWAR, of World Federation of Democratic Youth, said gross violations of human rights of the Mohajir nation of over 22 million people in Sindh province continued at the hands of the Government of Pakistan. The Mohajirs were subject to near-genocide, extra-judicial executions, unlawful arrests and torture in the custody of the State, displacement and forced evictions, disappearances, and ethnic and linguistic discrimination. During his recent visit to Pakistan, US President Bill Clinton had said bluntly that people should have the freedom and responsibility to shape their own destiny. Pakistan would not be at peace until Mohajirs and Sindhis had that freedom and full autonomy for their province.
They sought an equal share in running the affairs of the State, equal rights for their women, modern education, a better environment, clean drinking water, and other basic rights. The Commission must take urgent steps to make the Government of Pakistan stop widespread violations of the human rights of the Mohajirs and Sindhis of Sindh province, and of other ethnic and linguistic groups in Pakistan.
CATHRYN ROBERTSON, of the Canadian Council of Churches, said thousands of East Timorese remained in jeopardy in refugee camps in West Timor and elsewhere in Indonesia. In Sri Lanka, more than 30,000 cases of officially acknowledged disappearances remained unresolved. Children and freedom of expression continued to be the literal and figurative victims of the war, particularly in zones of conflict.
A disturbing pattern of systematic human-rights violations continued in Mexico. These violations occurred in a context of increased militarization and ongoing impunity. Formal commitments made by the Mexican Government in recent years to eradicate human-rights violations had not been acted upon. In Mexico, hundreds of massacres had been carried out in recent years, mainly by paramilitary groups with the open support of State security forces. The perpetrators enjoyed impunity. In Sudan, the human devastation of civil war continued with the Government continuing to deliberately bomb civilian centres.
DOUG FORD, of Physicians for Human Rights, presented the preliminary analysis of a survey on human-rights abuses in Chechnya. This survey was based on testimonies from Chechens. The organization condemned violations of human rights there, including forced displacements and indiscriminate killings of civilians. The Russian federal forces were responsible. Their human rights abuses had been pervasive.
The findings of the survey demonstrated that war crimes had been committed. Some 97 per cent of the displaced people interviewed testified that they had been forced to fle. The Russian forces had intentionally disregarded civilian rights. There were numerous testimonies of abuse outside homes, public killings of family members, and torture of civilians. One great abuse was the violation of medical neutrality. There were many incidents where facilities had been destroyed. The Commission was urged to set up an independent international investigation into these abuses. It was recommended that an international monitoring mission be set up to deter current abuses. The Russian Federation was requested to ensure free access by humanitarian agencies to the suffering people. <
RACHLAND NASHIDIK, of Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women, said that in spite of changes in Indonesia, impunity remained a big problem, which had continuously besieged and obstructed the transition to democracy in the country. Recently the President of Indonesia expressed his personal regret and apologized for the massacre which had accompanied the coup d'état in 1965 and which reportedly had cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Indonesia.
Despite its genuine commitment to democracy, the new Government had yet to succeed in putting an end to gross violations of human rights, which were still going on systematically this very day. Those violations had invariably been coupled with acts of violence against women and children.
JELKA SCHILT, of the Association of Refugees and Displaced Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said four and a half years after the Dayton Peace Agreement, 870,000 refugees and displaced persons still did not live in their pre-war homes because their homes were on the territory of another entity. Furthermore, over 760,000 Bosnian refugees were scattered in about 100 countries all over the world.
The authorities in either of the two entities pursued policies of nationalism and obstructionism. They obstructed the return of minority communities by protracting and delaying return procedures. There were three separate and conflicting legal systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in systematic discrimination based on ethnicity, dubious rulings and unexplained delays. Further, concern about safety was one of the main factors hindering refugees from returning.
KERIM SHARIF, of the Society for Threatened Peoples, said in the autonomous region in northwest China there had been clashes between the authorities and the population. These clashes resulted from a peaceful demonstration in the month of Ramadan when young Muslims had demanded the release of prisoners. The demonstration had been followed by sentencings, shootings and torture in the area. The Chinese authorities had concealed the true extent of these clashes, and it was only in the last few months that the repression had become apparent. The clashes were such that a state of emergency had been declared in August 1999.
The conditions in the prisons were horrific; women detained had been raped in public police stations and in prisons. Fourteen detainees had died as a result of torture in prison and had been denied proper burial. There had been an absolute silence decree, preventing the population to speak of the disturbance. Those who disobeyed received long prison sentences. Unfortunately, human-rights organizations had been unable to confirm exactly what was happening due to the repressive tactics of the Chinese Government. The Government was urged to put an immediate stop to all executions and to release prisoners who had only been guilty of demonstrating and expressing their religious rights.
INDIRA KHANNA, of the European Union of Public Relations, said that it seemed that despite the international community's efforts to consolidate democratic processes as an effective means to protect human rights, democracy's status in many States was tenuous. The recent takeover of the Government by the military in Pakistan was a glaring case.
The military coup in Pakistan had been universally condemned because it was out of joint with the times. Not only had the democratic process been curbed and the civil and political rights of the people of Pakistan curtailed, but the military rulers were also posing a serious threat to peace, harmony and moderation the world over by supporting fundamentalist and terrorist groups. The Pakistani Government gave critical military and political support to the Taliban, for example.
DAVID LITTMAN, of the Association for World Education, said the remnant of the ancient Jewish community of Iran was now in danger of being made a scapegoat, suffering discrimination and worse. As indicated by the Special Rapporteur on Iran, Maurice Capithorne, with reference to the plight of the evangelical Protestants, the Bahais, and 13 arrested Jews, 'one of the backwaters of the human rights situation in Iran was the status of minorities, ethnic and religious'. The Commission was urged not to forget the threatened Jewish community, which might soon be reduced to a hostage community , in spite of the recent Iranian elections. In Lebanon, Iran's direct influence on the Hezbollah was a reality. Hezbollah was the same terrorist organization that initiated the ghastly period of hostage-taking in the 1980s. The Commission was alerted to the very real danger of genocidal acts against the Christian community in southern Lebanon, which were a strong possibility after the Israeli occupational forces leave on 7 July, given the tragic events since the 1970s.
Lastly, the Israeli Government was urged not to curtail the Attorney- General's criminal investigation into former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who had recently anathematized Education Minister Yossi Sarid as 'Satan'. Unholy calls to kill or obliterate could lead to political assassinations galore.
LEONIE TANGGAHMA, of Survival International, raised the issue of human-rights violations in Indonesia, particularly in West Papua. These violations had been occurring for 30 years and included systematic imprisonment, arbitrary detention, torture and rape on the basis of religion, ethnicity and culture. An act passed in 1969 did not respect the fundamental rights of the Papuan people. This act had to be redressed, and their demands for independence had to be heard. The perpetrators of human-rights abuses were the Indonesian army.
Companies had also been exploiting the resources of the region while disregarding the needs of the Papuan people. Peaceful demonstrations had increased tension, and even had led to people being killed or injured. The Indonesian Government had acknowledged past abuses, but there were current abuses which needed to be addressed, particularly restrictions in the right to free expression and on the Papuan people's right to self-determination. The Commission was urged to consider the situation and call on Indonesia to re-evaluate the 1969 Act and to ensure the right to self-determination.
YOSTIMUS TOMIARYANTS, of the Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation, focusing on Indonesia's Aceh province, said that human-rights violations continued to occur and that despite the new reformist Government, a clear break with the violent past had not taken place. After the abolishment of the Military Operation Zone in Aceh in mid-1998, serious human-rights violations continued to be committed, even under the Wahid Government.
Between January 1999 and February 2000, there were at least nine cases of extrajudicial executions in the form of massacres, which killed 132 civilians. And 978 cases of torture, 330 cases of arbitrary detention, 363 summary killings and 132 cases of involuntary disappearances had been reported. To this date, not a single case of human-rights violations had been legally processed in Aceh.
ANNE-MARIE MUWAYANZO MUPUNDU, of Agir Ensemble Pour les Droits de l'Homme, said the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had entered a cycle of violence and disintegration in 1997, when Laurent Désiré Kabila took power. Since then the situation in the country had been characterized by a deterioration of the economic and social situation and violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as international law. There was no rule of law in the country, where the judiciary had been placed under the control of the Government.
The regime had executed more than 103 people and at least 8,000 people had been detained for long periods. No economic progress had been achieved. On the contrary all the national heritage had been looted and placed under the control of the head of State and his foreign allies. Further, the war waged against the DRC by the Rwanda-Uganda-Burundi alliance amounted to a crime against humanity. The massacares committed by the forces amounted to the most serious violation of the right to life.
AMEUR JERIDI, of the Organisation Tunisienne de l'Education et de la Famille, said the organization wanted to be part of the creation of a world that was based on human rights and which guaranteed the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people. This vision of human rights was intimately linked with the vision of a dignified life. The appropriate framework for achieving this world was the family. This required social action, particularly within the field of education. It was within a family that a child was taught the values of human rights.
Stability was required to achieve human rights for all, and was necessary to save the poor even though globalization had increased their number and had spread violence and atrocities. Human dignity worldwide required transparency in those organizations working for the goal of guaranteeing the rights of each citizen. The organization welcome the good work done by the Commission and discouraged ill-intentions and criticisms. It was hoped that human rights would soon be acquired rights, and that extremism and poverty would be eradicated. The organization had been involved in this kind of work in Tunisia and had worked in keeping with UN principles to establish partnerships through education, transparency and good governance.
T. RAMANA, of the International Institute for Peace, said that since the latest coup in Pakistan, systems had been instituted which perpetuated discrimination. The elected assemblies had been suspended and the Constitution held in abeyance. Either there was a functioning Constitution or there was none. Those actions were being explained away by reiterating a favourite of dictators that they were determined to replace what was a sham democracy with a real one. Yet no clear timetable was set for such change.
In addition, the practice of religious discrimination, embodied in ordinances like the Blasphemy Law, remained undisturbed. No action had been taken to undo the Hudood ordinances which reduced women to second-class status. Rather, fundamentalist religious elements were being given more latitude to practice their regressive ideologies which had a direct bearing on the welfare of ordinary women and their participation in the polity.
EDITH BALLANTYNE, of Women's International League for Peace, said it had been firmly established that the embargo imposed on Iraq had caused hundreds of thousands of victims among the civilian population, with children being the massive victims. The embargo had caused a massive destruction of the educational system and many children could no longer receive even the most elementary education.
The bombardments by the allied forces in 1991 had also destroyed the economic infrastructure of what was the most developed country in the Middle East. Furthermore, the effects on the population of the use of depleted uranium weapons were adding to the agony of the population, due to illness and malformation in infants.
CATHERINE SCOTT, of the Catholic Institute for International Relations, said there were gross human-rights violations in East Timor. Refugees had been displaced across borders, many through enforced displacement. The International Organization for Migration and UNHCR were commended for their unwavering efforts to enable the refugees to return home. Many refugees were still left and were facing intimidation and misinformation. Many children had died in the refugee camps. There had been many treaties signed by the international community, but remarkably little improvement in the actual situation.
The Indonesian Government was urged to dismiss military personnel responsible and to prevent the militias from destabilizing East Timor through border incursions. Such violations had been pre-prepared as a military strategy. Those who had masterminded this strategy and the perpetrators thereof had to be brought to justice with no delay. Trials should adhere to international standards of justice. No State pardons or immunities would be acceptable. An international war crimes tribunal should be established as recommended by the Special Rapporteur last December. Justice had to be done for a meaningful healing to take place.
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