SUBCOMMISSION CONTINUES REVIEW OF HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATIONS WORLDWIDE
05 August 1998
AFTERNOON
HR/SC/98/5
5 August 1998
Further charges of human rights violations in various countries were lodged this afternoon by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) speaking before the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Debate on the Subcommission's agenda item 2 -- formally, "the question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including policies of racial discrimination and segregation and of apartheid, in all countries, with particular reference to colonial and other dependent countries and territories" -- is annually among the panel's most contentious.
Several organizations alleged maltreatment of minorities -- among them, the European Union for Public Relations charged discrimination against traditional inhabitants of the northern areas of Pakistan; the Minority Rights Group contended that Palestinians living within Israel suffered unfair treatment in such matters as land ownership, health care, and education; the International Working Group for Indigenous Populations said military occupation and forced work programmes were violating the rights of the Chin minority in Myanmar; and Interfaith International alleged Iraq was carrying out systematic assassinations of Shi'a religious leaders. Discrimination against several minorities in Pakistan also was charged by the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization.
Several observer Governments spoke. Eritrea and Ethiopia traded accusations of maltreatment of each other's nationals.
Representatives of the following NGOs delivered statements: Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace; African Association of Education for Development; African Association of Education for Development; Baha'i
International Community; Minority Rights Group: European Union for Public Relations; International Working Group for Indigenous Populations; International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism; North-South XXI; Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees; World Muslim Congress; World Federation of Democratic Youth; World Federation of Trade Unions; International Educational Development; War Resisters International; Interfaith International; and Worldview International Foundation.
Representatives of the following countries made formal remarks: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Armenia, Iraq, and Bangladesh. Morocco and Sudan spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
The Subcommission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, 6 August, to continue its debate under agenda item 2.
Statements
PRADHIR TALUKDER, of the Asian Buddist Conference for Peace, noted that on 2 December 1997, a peace agreement had been signed, ending the conflict on the rights of the Jumma people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the south eastern region of Bangladesh. As the process of implementation of the peace agreement had been slow, the human rights situation had deteriorated. There had been a number of cases of arbitrary arrests, detention, rape and violations of human rights by military personnel and settlers, and 24 activists had been detained. Though the Government was trying to make its position with regard to the peace agreement clear, the initiatives that it had taken to tackle the turbulent situation had not been sufficient. The rehabilitation of returning Jumma refugees had been delayed, a returnee had been killed and two women had been raped by settlers. The Government should take the necessary steps to strengthen the process of implementation of the peace agreement.
GHENNET GIRMA, of African Association of Education for Development, said trends in human rights were improving in Nigeria, where activities of human rights defenders were bearing fruit; in Sudan, which was trying to find a negotiated solution with its opposition, and where a unilateral cease-fire had been declared -- the Subcommission should encourage such trends towards co-existence in multi-cultural situations -- and in South Africa, there had been progress. Elsewhere on the continent, there were crises and deteriorating situations; Angola might once again plunge into conflict and civil war; in the Great Lakes region, ethnic problems had crossed frontiers to destabilize the Democratic Republic of the Congo; in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia and Eritrea had been bombarding citizens with nationalist rhetoric and fanatical discourse; there had been population expulsions and cases of ethnic preference and the inciting of ethnic hatred. Everything should be done to find peaceful solutions to ethnic tensions in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa; everyone had seen what resulted from failure to deal with such problems.
DIANE ALA’I, of the Baha'i International Community, stated that there had been grave developments in the situation of the Baha'is in Iran. On 21 July, Ruhu'llah Rawhani, a Baha'i, had been executed because of his faith after having been held incommunicado for eight months. The initial cause of death had been given as suffocation, but a second death certificate given to his family gave the cause of death as internal disease. The Baha'i International Community was concerned for the lives of three other prisoners held in Mashad. These prisoners had been tried at the same time as Mr. Rawhani, and had not had a defence lawyer during their first trial. In a subsequent trial they had had a court-appointed lawyer. The Islamic Revolutionary Government did not accept that the Baha'is were persecuted in Iran, though this was well documented by the Special Representative on Iran, and the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance. Officials in Iran could persecute the Baha'is at will. The Subcommission should call on the Iranian Government to uphold the principles of the two international covenants to which it was party, and to stop the persecution of the Baha'i community.
MANON OLSTOHOORN, of Minority Rights Group, said Palestinians within Israel were not defined as a national minority but were referred to as Israeli Arabs by their religious affiliation; after the 1948 civil war, they had owned an estimated 25 per cent of the land; after 50 years, they now owned only 4 per cent; the process continued and had serious consequences for housing and agriculture. Altogether, 176 Arab settlements had been declared "unrecognized" retroactively, although they predated Israel; the inhabitants remained under threat of housing demolition and were denied such basic services as education, electricity, health, public transport, and water. Israel tried to concentrate the Bedouin in seven Negev townships, away from their ancestral lands or any form of economic independence, and to impose brutal evictions on them. Around the country, development assistance was primarily given to Jewish areas, although Palestinians were poorer. Israel should redefine the country as the State of all its citizens, recognize Palestinians as a national minority, review land expropriations with a view to making restitutions, and end all means of discrimination.
ZULFIQAR KHAN AZIZ, of the European Union of Public Relations, addressed the situation of the people in the northern areas of Gilgit and Baltistan that had been occupied by Pakistan in 1947. The areas did not form part of the territory of Pakistan as defined in its Constitution. The people there had been deprived and did not have representatives in the National Assembly of Pakistan. Their political leader, Sardar Shaukart Ali Kashmiri had been kidnapped by the intelligence services of Pakistan early in 1998, and they had not heard news about his welfare. The Government of Pakistan had declared that as the northern areas were not part of Pakistan, therefore the courts had no jurisdiction. The Subcommission and the world community should force Pakistan to give the Kashmiri's of the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan their freedom.
CUNG BIK LING, of International Working Group for Indigenous Populations, said Burma was a multi-national country with major ethnic nationalities with their own lands, languages, cultures, and traditions; but instead of recognizing this diversity, successive military Governments had tried to impose national "unity" by military means; in Chin state there had been an increase in military presence and a corresponding increase in human rights abuses; the junta also had imposed a programme of border-area development that included infrastructure projects throughout Chin land; the work was done by forced labour under military supervision; villagers laboured at gunpoint without pay and often were abused by soldiers. The burden for Chins had become unbearable; despite claims by the Government, this use of forced labour had created much more hardship than benefits for the people. "Burmanization" also was destroying the Chins' cultural identity. It was time for increased international support for recent progress in Burma toward national reconciliation and peaceful coexistence of the country's different peoples.
MASSOMA ALI, of the Afro Asian People's Solidarity Organisation, stated that Pakistan had not been able to shed its feudal systems accompanied by bonded labour. Democracy still struggled to function, and interference by the intelligence services of the armed forces in the political field remained a constant feature of Pakistani politics. Pakistan was being described by analysts as the most important base camp and centre for fundamentalist terrorism. The constitutional and legal systems that were in place ensured denial of equal opportunity to different segments of society based on religion, gender and equality. Pakistan did not allow any non Muslim to hold the highest office in the land, in contrast of normally accepted democratic tenets, and minorities were persecuted. Women were oppressed under the Hudood laws and adult franchise remained a distant dream in the northern areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan was one of the major centres for drug trafficking and military intelligence used the drug money to finance terrorist organisations.
MAMSA STRIZZI, of International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, said the peace agreements agreed to in Chiapas in southern Mexico had not been carried out by the Government. The inhabitants of the region, mostly low-income peasant farmers, continued to suffer; paramilitary groups had recently murdered 45 innocent civilians, including children, and indications were that some Government officials were involved in the slaughter; yet no steps had been taken against these officials, and the paramilitary groups had not been disbanded or restricted. The increased military presence in the region also had led to human rights abuses, while elsewhere in the country, conflicts with clandestine organizations had led to increased violence. As long as the structural causes of social unease and social and economic inequality were not addressed, such problems could be expected to continue; a visit by a Special Rapporteur or a relevant working group could be helpful. There was also concern over recent violence, discrimination, and gang rapes committed against the Chinese ethnic minority in Indonesia.
DEIDRE McCONNELL, of North South XXI, spoke on the situation of the Tamil people. From 23 July 1983, thousands of Tamils had been slaughtered in Sri Lanka by armed Sinhala gangs. Documented records of the last 40 years proved beyond reasonable doubt that Tamils had been murdered and extrajudicially executed in a systematic, deliberate and planned manner by the Sri Lankan authorities and their agents. The struggle of the Tamil people was not about devolution, but rather about the self-determination of the Tamils. The Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions had observed that impunity permeated all parts of the Sri Lankan socio-political system and this had contributed to a spiralling of violence. Killings of Tamil civilians continued. There had been over 1,800 victims of landmines in Jaffna and between 80 and 100 victims of pressure mines were reported every month. The Government of Sri Lanka should cease all military operations against the Tamil civilian population, withdraw the occupying forces from the Tamil homeland, end the economic blockade in the north and east and to allow humanitarian aid. The Subcommission and the High Commissioner for Human Rights should appoint a commission to investigate the unauthorised burial of several hundred bodies in the Jaffna peninsula.
JANNETTE BAUMSTA AND LORENZA GOMEZ, of Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees (FEDEFAM), said disappearances continued to occur all over the world; they were a severe problem in some 20 countries; they used to occur mostly under authoritarian regimes, but they now occurred under all kinds of Governments, those most severely affected being Algeria, Sudan, Turkey, Colombia, and Mexico. Severe difficulties with disappearances and murders continued in many areas in Latin America, along with summary executions; often these acts targeted human rights defenders, lawyers, political activists, and advocates for indigenous peoples. Guatemala still had serious human rights violations and should not have been spared international scrutiny as soon. The Subcommission should pass a resolution condemning human rights violations there. In Mexico, the situation in Chiapas had not improved; indigenous women were routinely raped by military and paramilitary bands; action must be take
n to end such abuses.
M. AHMAD, of the World Muslim Congress, spoke on the situation in Kosovo which was the worst human rights problem in Europe. Kosovo was a text book case of colonial repression and Slobodan Milosevic had set up an apartheid regime. Ethnic cleansing was underway along the Albanian border. Around 300,000 civilians were in flight, and civilians had been targeted by Serbian forces. Ethnic Albanians were being summarily executed, and there had been large scale massacres. There was a resemblance between the tactics of India in Kashmir and those of Serbia in Kosovo. In 1989, India had imposed military rule on Kashmir as a result of Kashmiri people's demand for independence. Indian forces in Kashmir had carried out abductions, torture, and summary executions. Kashmir was not an internal affair of India as India's hold on Jammu and Kashmir was illegal.
RICCARDO PARADISO, of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, said the situation in Pakistan had deteriorated recently despite calls for improvements extending back for years; prime victims in urban areas were the Mohajirs; Mohajir areas had been subject to flagrant human rights violations since 1992 when the Government deployed six divisions of the Pakistani army in Sindh Province; in 1994 the army units were replaced by paramilitary forces known as the "Rangers"; ruthless atrocities occurred under the misleading terms of "combatting terrorism" and "counter-insurgency". Security forces usually cordoned off residential areas to harass and arrest people; those suspected of being active members of the Muttahida Quami Movement, and sometimes their relatives, were arrested, tortured, and extrajudicially executed. Thousands of persons were now in Government custody under harsh conditions; no tangible measures were taken to end violence and fundamental human rights violations. The Government should honour its commitment to dismantle armed groups patronized by the military and put an end to "no-go" areas.
GENEI SHINOI, of the World Federation of Trade Unions, expressed concerned that Pakistan, as one of the two new nuclear States, had a policy marked by a dictatorial regime and the denial of basic freedoms. The legal and constitutional structures of Pakistan provided for systematic discrimination against minorities. The blasphemy law was internationally reviled as discriminatory, and under the Hudood laws, women were treated as second class citizens. Since 1947, Pakistan had actively engaged in sponsoring terrorism and insurgency and had sought to engender an Afghanistan like movement in Jammu and Kashmir. A solution to the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir did not lie in rewriting history, nor in changing borders. Rather, to resolve the situation in Jamma and Kashmir, the people of the areas, as well as India and Pakistan, had to recognise the de facto international border that separated them, and had to transform it into a recognised international border.
V. KIRUBAHARAN, of International Educational Development, said that genocide had been carried out against the Tamil people for 15 years, and there had been extensive documentation of the atrocities committed against them by Sinhala gangs and by the Sri Lankan military forces; the war continued with no end in sight, and there should be no doubt of who the victims were -- they were almost all Tamil civilians. Who did the Subcommission think was killing these Tamils? Other Tamils? It seemed that the Tamil people were not considered worthy of attention; what other conclusion was possible when in the face of this protracted war neither the Commission nor the Subcommission had issued a resolution on the matter since 1987? Had these bodies not paid any attention to the reports of the Commission's working groups and rapporteurs? Were they unaware that Sri Lanka was just behind Iraq in disappearances and that almost all the disappeared were Tamils? As bad as the violations of the rights of the Tamil people were , it needed to be said that the real question was the Tamil struggle for independence and self-determination, which deserved the respect and support of the international community.
DAVID ARNOTT, of War Resisters International, drew the attention of the Subcommission to a recent statement on Burma by Josef Silverstien of Rutgers University which stated that by seizing upon the principle that nations shall not intervene in the domestic jurisdiction for any state, the military junta in Burma had distorted the Charter that it had pledged to honour and uphold when it had joined the United Nations in 1948. Since 1989, the Commission on Human Rights had been seized by the issue of human rights violations in Burma. The Commission had named three different rapporteurs to make inquiries and Burma continued to deny entry to the third. Burma had not objected to the language of the Charter when it had signed it, and therefore it was obligated to honour all of its provisions. It was clear that Burma's position was untenable and that it was time for ASEAN, as a regional grouping, to identify with the principles and purposes of the UN Charter and make clear to Burma that it must end human rights violations, honour the 1990 election in Burma, and transfer power to the representatives of the people.
ALI KADHIM AL-ADHADH, of Interfaith International, said crimes perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq included a series of assassinations of leaders of the Shi'a religious community; the most recent was that of the Grand Ayatollah Shayk Mirza Ali al-Gharawi, aged 68, who was shot in his car on 18 June, along with his son-in-law, the driver, and another companion. This assassination followed others extending back over a period of years; there also had been deaths of Shi'a leaders described as "accidents" that were suspicious. The Special Rapporteur on Iraq had stated on 2 July that he believed these murders were part of a systematic attack on the independent leadership of Shi'a Muslims in Iraq. The assassination of spiritual and juridical leaders was considered by the international community to be a crime against humanity, because their contributions to man-kind could not be replaced; the Subcommission must condemn these barbaric crimes and ask the Secretary-General to take all necessary measures to preserve the lives of those Shi'a leaders who still remained, and to preserve the integrity of the religious school in the city of Najaf.
MR. BHUGYAL, of Worldview International Foundation, strongly condemned the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in East Timor, Indonesia, Burma, China, Nigeria, Sudan and Kosovo. For more than 50 years, there had been a consistent pattern of violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Tibet. Since 1991, when a Subcommission resolution had called on China to respect the rights of the Tibetan people, the human rights situation had deteriorated. China had disregarded the religious authority of Tibetan Buddhism and this had resulted in the incommunicado detention of nine-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the eleventh Pachen Lama of Tibet. The Chinese authorities held more than 1,000 political prisoners in Tibet. In 1997, six political prisoners had died in custody. Not only civil and political but also economic, social and cultural rights had been suppressed in Tibet. In addition, the policy of coerced birth control on Tibetan women directly threatened the survival of the national identity of Tibetans. The increase in Chinese settlements in Tibet had created new tensions, and members of the Subcommission should pay attention to the human rights situation in Tibet.
MR. WELDEGIORGIS (Eritrea) said that for the last eight weeks, the Government of Ethiopia had engaged in a systematic policy of expelling Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, solely and purely on the basis of their national origin; up to now more than 13,000 such people, who had committed no crime, had been arbitrarily arrested, detained, made to disappear, and summarily deported, often with great cruelty; those who remained were fearful that security officers would break in their doors at 5 a.m. and drag them away; victims included hundreds of businessmen and professionals. The Ethiopian Prime Minister had claimed the Government had the right to expel any foreigner; it was an absurd justification and an affront to the intelligence of the international community. Moreover it was clear that most of those expelled were Eritreans or had been involved in one way or another in the cause of Eritrean independence, although among those arrested for deportation were citizens of third countries, such as Ital y and Canada, who were of Eritrean origin.
MINELIK ALEMU GETAHUN (Ethiopia) stated that as a result of the aggression by the Eritrean regime towards Ethiopia, hundreds of Ethiopians had lost their lives, hundreds of thousands had been displaced and others were subjected to inhuman treatment in Eritrea. The Eritrean regime had aimed to create a climate of fear and terror among the Ethiopian population, and had, among other actions, destroyed 23 basic social facilities, as well as looted churches. The Eritrean Government had committed breaches of general international humanitarian law by attacking civilians with napalm. On June 11, Eritrean war planes had unleashed an indiscriminate air attack against the town of Adigrat, killing four civilians and wounding 30 others. The Eritrean Government had also unleashed a campaign of terror against Ethiopians in Eritrea. Since June 9, the Eritrean regime had brutally expelled more than 4,000 Ethiopian civilians after confiscating their property. Eritrea had held Ethiopians as hostages, and had killed unarmed Ethiopian nationals. More than 600 Ethiopian civilians were being held in detention centres in Eritrea, and the Eritrean authorities had tried to impose Eritrean citizenship on Ethiopians living in the area. The Ethiopian Government was fully committed to resolving the dispute peacefully and was not violating the human rights of Eritreans living in Ethiopia. The relevant international organisations would have full access to Ethiopia to verify this. There was no relevant international presence in Eritrea to verify the situation of Ethiopians there, and in the light of this, Eritrea had no moral right to accuse Ethiopia of human rights violations.
KAREN NAZARIAN (Armenia) said some States, despite possessing important assets for economic development, caused problems for their citizens by violating human rights and created problems not only for their own stability but for their neighbours. The Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh, after 75 years of discrimination by Azerbaijan, had been reduced from representing 95 per cent of the population to 75 per cent; after armed conflict for independence of Nagorno Karabakh, a consistent and severe economic blockade had been imposed against the Armenians in the region by Azerbaijan. What was being really damaged was the right to self-determination; the area had been annexed without the consent of its population; humanity at large had to take responsibility for the rights and well-being of the population there. The flame of the right to self-determination would never die out; it had resulted in the creation of numerous independent States.
AKRAM J. ALDOURI, (Iraq) noted that the Subcommission was an important forum for underlining the suffering of the people of Iraq which had resulted from the imposition of the economic blockade in 1990. The blockade had had serious results, especially affecting the most vulnerable members of the population. The maintenance of the blockade was a result of attempts of certain states to preserve their hegemony. The maintenance of the sanctions did not take into account the dimensions of the humanitarian crisis that they had caused. By insisting that the regime in Iraq had to change, the United States and the United Kingdom were intervening in domestic affairs of Iraq. As a result of the sanctions imposed on Iraq, the right to life of Iraqis was threatened. The international community had to put an end to the attempts of the states trying to extend their hegemony. Sanctions were a way of starving Iraqis. Reports submitted by the Iraqi Government noted that 1.3 million hildren had died as a result of the sanctions, and this was a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Subcommission should call for lifting the sanctions imposed on Iraq.
IFTEKHAR AHMED CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh) said that the country, as a vibrant democracy, viewed human rights in holistic terms and believed that poverty stood in the way of full enjoyment of human rights; it had therefore put poverty alleviation high on its agenda; it also had taken initiatives for the development of institutional protection and promotion of human rights; it had set up a National Commission on Human Rights and was in the process of appointing a national ombudsman. In December of last year, a far-reaching peace accord had been signed on the Chittagong Hill Tracts; it had earned international acclaim and had ended a two-decades-old insurgency. In the past seven months, many of the aspects of the accord had been implemented; a separate ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs with a tribal person as its minister had been set up; an interim body of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council would be formed soon. The Government was determined to implement the peace accord quickly and in full, and enabling legislation was in progress.
Rights of Reply
NACER BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI (Morocco), speaking in right of reply, said the delegation would have preferred to avoid responding to fallacious allegations, but felt it had to respond to the NGO Centre Europe - Tiers Monde, which had devoted its entire statement to the question of the Western Sahara. This NGO had shown its prejudice towards Morocco and had indicated it was nothing more than a spokesman for the other side. Its quotations from the Secretary-General's report had been selective; other choices from the same report would have given a different view of the situation. The details of the peace programme and planned referendum had been carefully set out; unfortunately CETIM had not read the report or did not understand it. If it was not going to inform itself accurately on the technical details, CETIM should refrain from speaking on the subject and wasting the Subcommission's time.
GASIM IDRIS (Sudan), speaking in right of reply, said that he had listened to the statement made by World Education and Christian Solidarity International and regretted the tone and inaccurate analogies of the statement. The Government of the Sudan had been the first government to allow relief to pass through its territory to the territory under control of the rebels. More than 2 million citizens had fled the war zone for Government- controlled areas, and they would not have done this if they believed that it was the Government which was responsible for the genocide. The Government of Sudan had repeatedly called for a permanent cease-fire, and this had been frequently rejected by the rebels. The Sudanese Government's doors remained open to all those who worked for peace. He referred to resolution 113/1997 of the Subcommission that decided not to consider country situations under item 2 that were under consideration by the Commission for Human Right under public procedures.
HR/SC/98/5
5 August 1998
Further charges of human rights violations in various countries were lodged this afternoon by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) speaking before the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Debate on the Subcommission's agenda item 2 -- formally, "the question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including policies of racial discrimination and segregation and of apartheid, in all countries, with particular reference to colonial and other dependent countries and territories" -- is annually among the panel's most contentious.
Several organizations alleged maltreatment of minorities -- among them, the European Union for Public Relations charged discrimination against traditional inhabitants of the northern areas of Pakistan; the Minority Rights Group contended that Palestinians living within Israel suffered unfair treatment in such matters as land ownership, health care, and education; the International Working Group for Indigenous Populations said military occupation and forced work programmes were violating the rights of the Chin minority in Myanmar; and Interfaith International alleged Iraq was carrying out systematic assassinations of Shi'a religious leaders. Discrimination against several minorities in Pakistan also was charged by the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization.
Several observer Governments spoke. Eritrea and Ethiopia traded accusations of maltreatment of each other's nationals.
Representatives of the following NGOs delivered statements: Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace; African Association of Education for Development; African Association of Education for Development; Baha'i
International Community; Minority Rights Group: European Union for Public Relations; International Working Group for Indigenous Populations; International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism; North-South XXI; Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees; World Muslim Congress; World Federation of Democratic Youth; World Federation of Trade Unions; International Educational Development; War Resisters International; Interfaith International; and Worldview International Foundation.
Representatives of the following countries made formal remarks: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Armenia, Iraq, and Bangladesh. Morocco and Sudan spoke in exercise of the right of reply.
The Subcommission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, 6 August, to continue its debate under agenda item 2.
Statements
PRADHIR TALUKDER, of the Asian Buddist Conference for Peace, noted that on 2 December 1997, a peace agreement had been signed, ending the conflict on the rights of the Jumma people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the south eastern region of Bangladesh. As the process of implementation of the peace agreement had been slow, the human rights situation had deteriorated. There had been a number of cases of arbitrary arrests, detention, rape and violations of human rights by military personnel and settlers, and 24 activists had been detained. Though the Government was trying to make its position with regard to the peace agreement clear, the initiatives that it had taken to tackle the turbulent situation had not been sufficient. The rehabilitation of returning Jumma refugees had been delayed, a returnee had been killed and two women had been raped by settlers. The Government should take the necessary steps to strengthen the process of implementation of the peace agreement.
GHENNET GIRMA, of African Association of Education for Development, said trends in human rights were improving in Nigeria, where activities of human rights defenders were bearing fruit; in Sudan, which was trying to find a negotiated solution with its opposition, and where a unilateral cease-fire had been declared -- the Subcommission should encourage such trends towards co-existence in multi-cultural situations -- and in South Africa, there had been progress. Elsewhere on the continent, there were crises and deteriorating situations; Angola might once again plunge into conflict and civil war; in the Great Lakes region, ethnic problems had crossed frontiers to destabilize the Democratic Republic of the Congo; in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia and Eritrea had been bombarding citizens with nationalist rhetoric and fanatical discourse; there had been population expulsions and cases of ethnic preference and the inciting of ethnic hatred. Everything should be done to find peaceful solutions to ethnic tensions in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa; everyone had seen what resulted from failure to deal with such problems.
DIANE ALA’I, of the Baha'i International Community, stated that there had been grave developments in the situation of the Baha'is in Iran. On 21 July, Ruhu'llah Rawhani, a Baha'i, had been executed because of his faith after having been held incommunicado for eight months. The initial cause of death had been given as suffocation, but a second death certificate given to his family gave the cause of death as internal disease. The Baha'i International Community was concerned for the lives of three other prisoners held in Mashad. These prisoners had been tried at the same time as Mr. Rawhani, and had not had a defence lawyer during their first trial. In a subsequent trial they had had a court-appointed lawyer. The Islamic Revolutionary Government did not accept that the Baha'is were persecuted in Iran, though this was well documented by the Special Representative on Iran, and the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance. Officials in Iran could persecute the Baha'is at will. The Subcommission should call on the Iranian Government to uphold the principles of the two international covenants to which it was party, and to stop the persecution of the Baha'i community.
MANON OLSTOHOORN, of Minority Rights Group, said Palestinians within Israel were not defined as a national minority but were referred to as Israeli Arabs by their religious affiliation; after the 1948 civil war, they had owned an estimated 25 per cent of the land; after 50 years, they now owned only 4 per cent; the process continued and had serious consequences for housing and agriculture. Altogether, 176 Arab settlements had been declared "unrecognized" retroactively, although they predated Israel; the inhabitants remained under threat of housing demolition and were denied such basic services as education, electricity, health, public transport, and water. Israel tried to concentrate the Bedouin in seven Negev townships, away from their ancestral lands or any form of economic independence, and to impose brutal evictions on them. Around the country, development assistance was primarily given to Jewish areas, although Palestinians were poorer. Israel should redefine the country as the State of all its citizens, recognize Palestinians as a national minority, review land expropriations with a view to making restitutions, and end all means of discrimination.
ZULFIQAR KHAN AZIZ, of the European Union of Public Relations, addressed the situation of the people in the northern areas of Gilgit and Baltistan that had been occupied by Pakistan in 1947. The areas did not form part of the territory of Pakistan as defined in its Constitution. The people there had been deprived and did not have representatives in the National Assembly of Pakistan. Their political leader, Sardar Shaukart Ali Kashmiri had been kidnapped by the intelligence services of Pakistan early in 1998, and they had not heard news about his welfare. The Government of Pakistan had declared that as the northern areas were not part of Pakistan, therefore the courts had no jurisdiction. The Subcommission and the world community should force Pakistan to give the Kashmiri's of the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan their freedom.
CUNG BIK LING, of International Working Group for Indigenous Populations, said Burma was a multi-national country with major ethnic nationalities with their own lands, languages, cultures, and traditions; but instead of recognizing this diversity, successive military Governments had tried to impose national "unity" by military means; in Chin state there had been an increase in military presence and a corresponding increase in human rights abuses; the junta also had imposed a programme of border-area development that included infrastructure projects throughout Chin land; the work was done by forced labour under military supervision; villagers laboured at gunpoint without pay and often were abused by soldiers. The burden for Chins had become unbearable; despite claims by the Government, this use of forced labour had created much more hardship than benefits for the people. "Burmanization" also was destroying the Chins' cultural identity. It was time for increased international support for recent progress in Burma toward national reconciliation and peaceful coexistence of the country's different peoples.
MASSOMA ALI, of the Afro Asian People's Solidarity Organisation, stated that Pakistan had not been able to shed its feudal systems accompanied by bonded labour. Democracy still struggled to function, and interference by the intelligence services of the armed forces in the political field remained a constant feature of Pakistani politics. Pakistan was being described by analysts as the most important base camp and centre for fundamentalist terrorism. The constitutional and legal systems that were in place ensured denial of equal opportunity to different segments of society based on religion, gender and equality. Pakistan did not allow any non Muslim to hold the highest office in the land, in contrast of normally accepted democratic tenets, and minorities were persecuted. Women were oppressed under the Hudood laws and adult franchise remained a distant dream in the northern areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan was one of the major centres for drug trafficking and military intelligence used the drug money to finance terrorist organisations.
MAMSA STRIZZI, of International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, said the peace agreements agreed to in Chiapas in southern Mexico had not been carried out by the Government. The inhabitants of the region, mostly low-income peasant farmers, continued to suffer; paramilitary groups had recently murdered 45 innocent civilians, including children, and indications were that some Government officials were involved in the slaughter; yet no steps had been taken against these officials, and the paramilitary groups had not been disbanded or restricted. The increased military presence in the region also had led to human rights abuses, while elsewhere in the country, conflicts with clandestine organizations had led to increased violence. As long as the structural causes of social unease and social and economic inequality were not addressed, such problems could be expected to continue; a visit by a Special Rapporteur or a relevant working group could be helpful. There was also concern over recent violence, discrimination, and gang rapes committed against the Chinese ethnic minority in Indonesia.
DEIDRE McCONNELL, of North South XXI, spoke on the situation of the Tamil people. From 23 July 1983, thousands of Tamils had been slaughtered in Sri Lanka by armed Sinhala gangs. Documented records of the last 40 years proved beyond reasonable doubt that Tamils had been murdered and extrajudicially executed in a systematic, deliberate and planned manner by the Sri Lankan authorities and their agents. The struggle of the Tamil people was not about devolution, but rather about the self-determination of the Tamils. The Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions had observed that impunity permeated all parts of the Sri Lankan socio-political system and this had contributed to a spiralling of violence. Killings of Tamil civilians continued. There had been over 1,800 victims of landmines in Jaffna and between 80 and 100 victims of pressure mines were reported every month. The Government of Sri Lanka should cease all military operations against the Tamil civilian population, withdraw the occupying forces from the Tamil homeland, end the economic blockade in the north and east and to allow humanitarian aid. The Subcommission and the High Commissioner for Human Rights should appoint a commission to investigate the unauthorised burial of several hundred bodies in the Jaffna peninsula.
JANNETTE BAUMSTA AND LORENZA GOMEZ, of Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees (FEDEFAM), said disappearances continued to occur all over the world; they were a severe problem in some 20 countries; they used to occur mostly under authoritarian regimes, but they now occurred under all kinds of Governments, those most severely affected being Algeria, Sudan, Turkey, Colombia, and Mexico. Severe difficulties with disappearances and murders continued in many areas in Latin America, along with summary executions; often these acts targeted human rights defenders, lawyers, political activists, and advocates for indigenous peoples. Guatemala still had serious human rights violations and should not have been spared international scrutiny as soon. The Subcommission should pass a resolution condemning human rights violations there. In Mexico, the situation in Chiapas had not improved; indigenous women were routinely raped by military and paramilitary bands; action must be take
n to end such abuses.
M. AHMAD, of the World Muslim Congress, spoke on the situation in Kosovo which was the worst human rights problem in Europe. Kosovo was a text book case of colonial repression and Slobodan Milosevic had set up an apartheid regime. Ethnic cleansing was underway along the Albanian border. Around 300,000 civilians were in flight, and civilians had been targeted by Serbian forces. Ethnic Albanians were being summarily executed, and there had been large scale massacres. There was a resemblance between the tactics of India in Kashmir and those of Serbia in Kosovo. In 1989, India had imposed military rule on Kashmir as a result of Kashmiri people's demand for independence. Indian forces in Kashmir had carried out abductions, torture, and summary executions. Kashmir was not an internal affair of India as India's hold on Jammu and Kashmir was illegal.
RICCARDO PARADISO, of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, said the situation in Pakistan had deteriorated recently despite calls for improvements extending back for years; prime victims in urban areas were the Mohajirs; Mohajir areas had been subject to flagrant human rights violations since 1992 when the Government deployed six divisions of the Pakistani army in Sindh Province; in 1994 the army units were replaced by paramilitary forces known as the "Rangers"; ruthless atrocities occurred under the misleading terms of "combatting terrorism" and "counter-insurgency". Security forces usually cordoned off residential areas to harass and arrest people; those suspected of being active members of the Muttahida Quami Movement, and sometimes their relatives, were arrested, tortured, and extrajudicially executed. Thousands of persons were now in Government custody under harsh conditions; no tangible measures were taken to end violence and fundamental human rights violations. The Government should honour its commitment to dismantle armed groups patronized by the military and put an end to "no-go" areas.
GENEI SHINOI, of the World Federation of Trade Unions, expressed concerned that Pakistan, as one of the two new nuclear States, had a policy marked by a dictatorial regime and the denial of basic freedoms. The legal and constitutional structures of Pakistan provided for systematic discrimination against minorities. The blasphemy law was internationally reviled as discriminatory, and under the Hudood laws, women were treated as second class citizens. Since 1947, Pakistan had actively engaged in sponsoring terrorism and insurgency and had sought to engender an Afghanistan like movement in Jammu and Kashmir. A solution to the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir did not lie in rewriting history, nor in changing borders. Rather, to resolve the situation in Jamma and Kashmir, the people of the areas, as well as India and Pakistan, had to recognise the de facto international border that separated them, and had to transform it into a recognised international border.
V. KIRUBAHARAN, of International Educational Development, said that genocide had been carried out against the Tamil people for 15 years, and there had been extensive documentation of the atrocities committed against them by Sinhala gangs and by the Sri Lankan military forces; the war continued with no end in sight, and there should be no doubt of who the victims were -- they were almost all Tamil civilians. Who did the Subcommission think was killing these Tamils? Other Tamils? It seemed that the Tamil people were not considered worthy of attention; what other conclusion was possible when in the face of this protracted war neither the Commission nor the Subcommission had issued a resolution on the matter since 1987? Had these bodies not paid any attention to the reports of the Commission's working groups and rapporteurs? Were they unaware that Sri Lanka was just behind Iraq in disappearances and that almost all the disappeared were Tamils? As bad as the violations of the rights of the Tamil people were , it needed to be said that the real question was the Tamil struggle for independence and self-determination, which deserved the respect and support of the international community.
DAVID ARNOTT, of War Resisters International, drew the attention of the Subcommission to a recent statement on Burma by Josef Silverstien of Rutgers University which stated that by seizing upon the principle that nations shall not intervene in the domestic jurisdiction for any state, the military junta in Burma had distorted the Charter that it had pledged to honour and uphold when it had joined the United Nations in 1948. Since 1989, the Commission on Human Rights had been seized by the issue of human rights violations in Burma. The Commission had named three different rapporteurs to make inquiries and Burma continued to deny entry to the third. Burma had not objected to the language of the Charter when it had signed it, and therefore it was obligated to honour all of its provisions. It was clear that Burma's position was untenable and that it was time for ASEAN, as a regional grouping, to identify with the principles and purposes of the UN Charter and make clear to Burma that it must end human rights violations, honour the 1990 election in Burma, and transfer power to the representatives of the people.
ALI KADHIM AL-ADHADH, of Interfaith International, said crimes perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq included a series of assassinations of leaders of the Shi'a religious community; the most recent was that of the Grand Ayatollah Shayk Mirza Ali al-Gharawi, aged 68, who was shot in his car on 18 June, along with his son-in-law, the driver, and another companion. This assassination followed others extending back over a period of years; there also had been deaths of Shi'a leaders described as "accidents" that were suspicious. The Special Rapporteur on Iraq had stated on 2 July that he believed these murders were part of a systematic attack on the independent leadership of Shi'a Muslims in Iraq. The assassination of spiritual and juridical leaders was considered by the international community to be a crime against humanity, because their contributions to man-kind could not be replaced; the Subcommission must condemn these barbaric crimes and ask the Secretary-General to take all necessary measures to preserve the lives of those Shi'a leaders who still remained, and to preserve the integrity of the religious school in the city of Najaf.
MR. BHUGYAL, of Worldview International Foundation, strongly condemned the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in East Timor, Indonesia, Burma, China, Nigeria, Sudan and Kosovo. For more than 50 years, there had been a consistent pattern of violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Tibet. Since 1991, when a Subcommission resolution had called on China to respect the rights of the Tibetan people, the human rights situation had deteriorated. China had disregarded the religious authority of Tibetan Buddhism and this had resulted in the incommunicado detention of nine-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the eleventh Pachen Lama of Tibet. The Chinese authorities held more than 1,000 political prisoners in Tibet. In 1997, six political prisoners had died in custody. Not only civil and political but also economic, social and cultural rights had been suppressed in Tibet. In addition, the policy of coerced birth control on Tibetan women directly threatened the survival of the national identity of Tibetans. The increase in Chinese settlements in Tibet had created new tensions, and members of the Subcommission should pay attention to the human rights situation in Tibet.
MR. WELDEGIORGIS (Eritrea) said that for the last eight weeks, the Government of Ethiopia had engaged in a systematic policy of expelling Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, solely and purely on the basis of their national origin; up to now more than 13,000 such people, who had committed no crime, had been arbitrarily arrested, detained, made to disappear, and summarily deported, often with great cruelty; those who remained were fearful that security officers would break in their doors at 5 a.m. and drag them away; victims included hundreds of businessmen and professionals. The Ethiopian Prime Minister had claimed the Government had the right to expel any foreigner; it was an absurd justification and an affront to the intelligence of the international community. Moreover it was clear that most of those expelled were Eritreans or had been involved in one way or another in the cause of Eritrean independence, although among those arrested for deportation were citizens of third countries, such as Ital y and Canada, who were of Eritrean origin.
MINELIK ALEMU GETAHUN (Ethiopia) stated that as a result of the aggression by the Eritrean regime towards Ethiopia, hundreds of Ethiopians had lost their lives, hundreds of thousands had been displaced and others were subjected to inhuman treatment in Eritrea. The Eritrean regime had aimed to create a climate of fear and terror among the Ethiopian population, and had, among other actions, destroyed 23 basic social facilities, as well as looted churches. The Eritrean Government had committed breaches of general international humanitarian law by attacking civilians with napalm. On June 11, Eritrean war planes had unleashed an indiscriminate air attack against the town of Adigrat, killing four civilians and wounding 30 others. The Eritrean Government had also unleashed a campaign of terror against Ethiopians in Eritrea. Since June 9, the Eritrean regime had brutally expelled more than 4,000 Ethiopian civilians after confiscating their property. Eritrea had held Ethiopians as hostages, and had killed unarmed Ethiopian nationals. More than 600 Ethiopian civilians were being held in detention centres in Eritrea, and the Eritrean authorities had tried to impose Eritrean citizenship on Ethiopians living in the area. The Ethiopian Government was fully committed to resolving the dispute peacefully and was not violating the human rights of Eritreans living in Ethiopia. The relevant international organisations would have full access to Ethiopia to verify this. There was no relevant international presence in Eritrea to verify the situation of Ethiopians there, and in the light of this, Eritrea had no moral right to accuse Ethiopia of human rights violations.
KAREN NAZARIAN (Armenia) said some States, despite possessing important assets for economic development, caused problems for their citizens by violating human rights and created problems not only for their own stability but for their neighbours. The Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh, after 75 years of discrimination by Azerbaijan, had been reduced from representing 95 per cent of the population to 75 per cent; after armed conflict for independence of Nagorno Karabakh, a consistent and severe economic blockade had been imposed against the Armenians in the region by Azerbaijan. What was being really damaged was the right to self-determination; the area had been annexed without the consent of its population; humanity at large had to take responsibility for the rights and well-being of the population there. The flame of the right to self-determination would never die out; it had resulted in the creation of numerous independent States.
AKRAM J. ALDOURI, (Iraq) noted that the Subcommission was an important forum for underlining the suffering of the people of Iraq which had resulted from the imposition of the economic blockade in 1990. The blockade had had serious results, especially affecting the most vulnerable members of the population. The maintenance of the blockade was a result of attempts of certain states to preserve their hegemony. The maintenance of the sanctions did not take into account the dimensions of the humanitarian crisis that they had caused. By insisting that the regime in Iraq had to change, the United States and the United Kingdom were intervening in domestic affairs of Iraq. As a result of the sanctions imposed on Iraq, the right to life of Iraqis was threatened. The international community had to put an end to the attempts of the states trying to extend their hegemony. Sanctions were a way of starving Iraqis. Reports submitted by the Iraqi Government noted that 1.3 million hildren had died as a result of the sanctions, and this was a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Subcommission should call for lifting the sanctions imposed on Iraq.
IFTEKHAR AHMED CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh) said that the country, as a vibrant democracy, viewed human rights in holistic terms and believed that poverty stood in the way of full enjoyment of human rights; it had therefore put poverty alleviation high on its agenda; it also had taken initiatives for the development of institutional protection and promotion of human rights; it had set up a National Commission on Human Rights and was in the process of appointing a national ombudsman. In December of last year, a far-reaching peace accord had been signed on the Chittagong Hill Tracts; it had earned international acclaim and had ended a two-decades-old insurgency. In the past seven months, many of the aspects of the accord had been implemented; a separate ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs with a tribal person as its minister had been set up; an interim body of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council would be formed soon. The Government was determined to implement the peace accord quickly and in full, and enabling legislation was in progress.
Rights of Reply
NACER BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI (Morocco), speaking in right of reply, said the delegation would have preferred to avoid responding to fallacious allegations, but felt it had to respond to the NGO Centre Europe - Tiers Monde, which had devoted its entire statement to the question of the Western Sahara. This NGO had shown its prejudice towards Morocco and had indicated it was nothing more than a spokesman for the other side. Its quotations from the Secretary-General's report had been selective; other choices from the same report would have given a different view of the situation. The details of the peace programme and planned referendum had been carefully set out; unfortunately CETIM had not read the report or did not understand it. If it was not going to inform itself accurately on the technical details, CETIM should refrain from speaking on the subject and wasting the Subcommission's time.
GASIM IDRIS (Sudan), speaking in right of reply, said that he had listened to the statement made by World Education and Christian Solidarity International and regretted the tone and inaccurate analogies of the statement. The Government of the Sudan had been the first government to allow relief to pass through its territory to the territory under control of the rebels. More than 2 million citizens had fled the war zone for Government- controlled areas, and they would not have done this if they believed that it was the Government which was responsible for the genocide. The Government of Sudan had repeatedly called for a permanent cease-fire, and this had been frequently rejected by the rebels. The Sudanese Government's doors remained open to all those who worked for peace. He referred to resolution 113/1997 of the Subcommission that decided not to consider country situations under item 2 that were under consideration by the Commission for Human Right under public procedures.