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SUBCOMMISSION HEARS NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS CALL FOR PROTECTION OF MINORITIES AROUND THE WORLD
18 August 1998
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AFTERNOON
HR/SC/98/21
18 August 1998
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) speaking this afternoon before the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities called for action to halt discrimination against minorities around the world.
The NGOs alleged that a number of countries had violated rights of religious and other minorities. Pakistan's anti-blasphemy laws were alleged to create division and conflict among its religious minorities, said one NGO. Others claimed that the National Islamic Front in Sudan was undertaking a holy war against Christians and Animists.
NGOs also claimed that French and Belgian Parliamentary Commissions on dangerous sects had marginalized genuine religious minorities; that Burma was emerging as the new killing fields of Asia with attacks on a wide range of minorities; that in Jammu and Kashmir, foreign mercenaries had started a systematic campaign of annihilation of Hindus; that the Bharatiya Janata party that was now in power in India was committed to avenging Muslim rule in India before the arrival of the British colonizers; and that slavery still existed in the form of economic slavery in the United States.
Pakistan responded to criticism of its human rights record by stating that the so-called blasphemy law was non-discriminatory in nature. While Eritrea called on the Subcommission to take action to avert a disaster among Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, and Ethiopia said that the Eritrean Government had intensified atrocities being committed against Ethiopian nationals in Eritrea.
The role of the media in propagating racial and ethnic hatred was also raised by two NGOs, as was alleged discrimination against the Korean ethnic minority in Japan.
Subcommission alternate Ahmed Khalil addressed the meeting, as well as representatives of the Russian Federation, Pakistan, Eritrea, Azerbaijan and Ethiopia. Sudan spoke in right of reply.
The following NGOs spoke: Movement Against Racism and For Friendship Between Peoples, Christian Solidarity International, Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation, International Association for Religious Freedom, International Association for the Defence of Religious Liberty, International Fellowship of Reconciliation, International Movement for Fraternal Union Among Races and Peoples, Minority Rights Group International, African Association of Education for Development, Franciscans International in collaboration with the Dominicans, International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, World Muslim Congress, International Service for Human Rights, and Liberation.
The Subcommission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Wednesday when the Chairman of the Working Group on Justice will present his report.
Statements
J.J. KIRKYACHARIAN, of the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples, asked under what conditions the concept of “minority” could be useful in the fight against discrimination. It could only be used mathematically in fascist discourse. The idea of a mathematical minority human group had to be totally rejected. The vision of the Serbs on the Kosovo question was untenable as it resorted to a sophism. It was known that the Turkish State had for a long time denied that a Kurdish problem existed and the Kurds had been refused the attributes associated with being a cultural minority. The word “minority” was used to deny people full equality as citizens. The solution had to be sought in the inequality of treatment meted out to people, and the approach needed to be primarily political. The competence and responsibility of the United Nations was political rather than sociological or anthropological. However, dealing with the problems of minorities from the standpoint of culture reduced it t
o the same thing: it was easy to treat those who were subjects of an empire yet not citizens of the empire as a cultural minority. These days, almost all people refused to be cantoned off with their folkloric status. People sought equality, and everything had to be done to seek social and civic equality for all, wherever they lived.
AHMED KHALIL, Subcommission expert, said the report of the Working Group on Minorities had been excellent, and the Group had earned its status as a more or less permanent body; the range of participation in the group's meetings was impressive; it was important to do what this gathering was doing -- seeking new ways of resolving conflicts with minorities and new ways to ensure peace and respect for human rights. The issue of the difference between assimilation and integration certainly needed to be further considered -- one thought he understood the words until it was applied to specific circumstances; for example, if a member of a minority was forced to learn the majority language of a country, was that assimilation or integration? He supported the report's recommendations, among them that the Group continue its focus on thematic issues and that States be encouraged to participate even more actively in the discussions.
GUNNAR WIEBALCK, of Christian Solidarity International, said many of the conflicts around the world arose from the inability of the State system to protect human rights. Today, because of a fundamental denial of human rights, another African genocide was underway. In Sudan, more than 1.5 million Africans - many of them Christians and Animists - had died, and more than 5 million had been displaced in the southern Sudanese war zone since 1983. The extremist National Islamic Front (NIF) had declared a jihad or holy war against resistant minority communities. The NIF was focusing its jihad war on the 3 million strong Dinka community. It was creating famine conditions, and used chattel slavery as a weapon of its war. Members of the Subcommission were urged to match carefully the NIF's propaganda with the well-documented reports of the outgoing Special Rapporteur and other groups. The 3 million strong Beja minority tribe of north-eastern Sudan were also a target of the NIF which had turned years of neglect into violent hostility. The international community, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and particularly the Subcommission were called upon to: insist on access for human rights monitors to all areas in Sudan; investigate credible reports about the NIF's persecution of religious minorities; and support the initiatives of the National Democratic Alliance and its partners to promote the values and institutions of civil society.
ASHOK BHAN, of the Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation, said there was a new breed of violence against minorities, a new form of religious and ethnic discrimination; the global concepts of pluralism and tolerance were in grave danger at the hands of non-State actors of violence and armed groups of terrorists and mercenaries; the Indian subcontinent with its vast resources and manpower had been wrecked by intolerance, usually based on religion. The world was well aware of Pakistan's policies of discrimination and intolerance against Ahmedias, Christians, and other minorities; the blasphemy law was regularly mis-used against minorities; members of minority communities were second-class citizens; it was high time the international community put pressure on Pakistan to introduce laws of modern civilized society and adopt a general policy of tolerance and participation to give minorities a better deal. Pakistan also was nakedly indulging in trans-border terrorism and putting pan-Islamic terrorists into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir; so far this year, hundreds of minority-group members in Kashmir had been killed by these terrorists. All States must dismantle legal and Constitutional strictures that promoted violence and discrimination against minorities.
GIANFRANCO ROSSI, of the International Association for Religious Freedom, said any group that had a different religion from that of the majority, even if they had the same ethnic characteristics, should be regarded as a religious minority in international and national law. The Baha'is in Iran were different from the majority of the population only because of their religion and they constituted a religious minority that continued to be persecuted. In the State of Jammu and Kashmir, the Hindu community was in a difficult situation - the Pandit community was the target of ethnic and religious cleansing. In Europe, there was a rise of intolerance towards religious minorities that were considered as dangerous sects. In France, a report on dangerous sects had been the subject of a public information campaign, organised by the Government, that had resulted in a number of religious minorities in France feeling marginalised. In Belgium, a Parliamentary Commission on sects had caused protests, notably from evangelical churches, Baha'is, Mormons, and others who had felt themselves to be victims of discrimination by the publication of the report. The State should not treat religious minorities as dangerous sects.
WILFRED WONG, of the International Association for the Defence of Religious Liberty, said the organization was appalled by the continuing lack of international concern over the ethnic cleansing and genocide which many minorities in Burma were facing; the Burmese military regime had launched campaigns in many parts of Burma to forcibly move or wipe out rural villages which were not under the direct physical control of army camps; the Karen, with 7 million people, made up the second largest ethnic group after the Burmans themselves; about 300,000 Karen had been internally displaced; many were hiding in the jungle and were often killed on sight if they were caught; many of these internally displaced died from illnesses and malnutrition; about 100,000 had fled to refugee camps in Thailand, where they faced regular cross-border attacks by Burmese troops. In many cases troops simply slaughtered villagers in their homes; numerous atrocities had been committed by troops in Shan state against the Shan minority; forced labour and starvation were typical there and around the country; the only cases when ethnic minority villagers were not shot on sight was when they were used as porters for the army; in Chin state, rapes of women from the Chin minority by soldiers had been reported. The Subcommission must call for an end to these atrocities, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights must play a more active role in obtaining swift international action to protect Burma's vulnerable and suffering minorities; Thai authorities should stop forcibly repatriating Shan refugees.
MAEDA AKIRA, of International Fellowship of Reconciliation, said that there were now about 650,000 Koreans living in Japan who were still suffering from violations of their human rights, in particular their right to education. Korean children were deprived of the right to learn their own culture and history and to cultivate their ethnic pride as Koreans. Graduates of Korean high schools were not allowed to take the entrance exams for State-run universities unless they entered a correspondence course at a Japanese high school and took the preliminary test for the qualification to take an entrance examination for State-run universities. A woman gave testimony of the discrimination that she had faced as an ethnic Korean in the Japanese education system.
PAUL BEERSMANS, of the International Movement for Fraternal Union Among Races and Peoples, said the organization was deeply worried about the situation of minorities in Jammu and Kashmir; hundreds of thousands of Pandits had fled because they had become targets of religious cleansing and they were still living in inhuman conditions in camps; recently a new problem had surfaced; foreign mercenaries had begun a campaign of annihilation of Hindus; hundreds had been killed, as the mercenaries considered that being Hindu was a crime. Both the Pandits and Hindus were Kashmiri minorities of long-standing; it was claimed that the killing of Hindus did not have the backing of Kashmiris, but that was not true; at a recent meeting, Kashmiris of all backgrounds had condemned the campaign and had said the Pandits should be allowed to return and live in peace. The Subcommission must act to stop this discrimination by foreign mercenaries against the minorities of Kashmir; and the Governments of India and Pakistan must start negotiations to find a lasting solution to the issue of Kashmir.
ANNE BOUVIER, of the Minority Rights Group, said the theme of the statement was the importance of early warning leading to early action; it was recommended that the Subcommission in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights consider how they could play a constructive role in acting on early warning signs of violent conflicts. A useful seminar on Media and Minorities had been held in May, and the Subcommission was recommended to review the recommendations of the seminar. Despite the encouragements of the Subcommission, the Working Group on Minorities had not devoted sufficient time to consider the legal, political and economic legacies of the African slave trade, and this issue should be given particular attention at the next session of the Working Group. It was essential that the World Conference on Racism become a platform for a constructive programme to ensure that all humans were effectively treated as equal in dignity and rights. The Subcommission should: open dialogue with the Commission on Human Rights on situations such as Kosovo; accept the proposals of the Working Group to reorganise its agenda; consider the recommendations of the seminar on Media and Minorities; and adopt a resolution on the World Conference on Racism.
GHENNET GIRMA, of the African Association of Education for Development, said that now was the time for prevention in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes to avoid creation of situations leading to more war and more suffering; the coming to power of ethnically organized fronts on the continent was encouraging the creation of ethnic armies; because it was impossible to tell, for example, whose army was involved in the Great Lakes, the local population talked about "armées sans frontieres". Sudan had become a pretext for arming all neighbouring countries; and it was through the implication of Uganda and Rwanda that Laurent Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had formed an ethnic army; this despite what had already happened in Rwanda and Burundi; today war drums were being beaten in the two countries. In the Horn, ethnic distrust in Addis Ababa had led to exaggerated ethnic solidarity to the detriment of others; today the practice of ethnic preference had given way to a desire among Ethiopians and Eritreans to wipe each other out. In Eritrea a one-man dictatorship left no room for breathing a different opinion; pluralism, democracy, and a free press were unfortunately non-existent.
PHILIPPE LE BLANC, of Franciscans International and the Dominicans, said that Pakistan's blasphemy laws created division and conflict between different religious groups with tragic results and were inconsistent with and a violation of the provisions of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and other human rights treaties. The amendments to the blasphemy laws in 1990 made capital punishment mandatory for the offense of blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed, and in recent years Christians had increasingly been accused of blasphemy. The Anglican Bishop of Peshwar, the Right Reverend Munawar Rumalshah, had stated that as a religious minority they lived under a constant feeling of socio-economic strangulation as there was massive employment discrimination both in the public and private sectors. The new system provided that in all elections, non-Muslims would vote separately for a designated number of non-Muslim seats. Thus Christian voters could only vote for Christian candidates which had the effect of marginalizing the non-Muslim population. Bishop Rumalshah had stated that Pakistan was now practising an apartheid legal system.
COLIN McNAUGHTON, of the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, said that in the United States, slavery that supposedly had been eliminated 140 years ago still existed in the form of economic slavery and discrimination through U.S. culture; the black prison population was a clear example of racist policies, and black prisoners were repeatedly denied or turned down for appeals while an alarming percentage of the black population of the country was incarcerated; recent trends towards privatization of prisons raised a question if the absence of freedoms and liberties of black Americans would now be a source of profit. In Chiapas, Mexico, 200,000 indigenous persons were being brutally marginalized by the Mexican Government's policy of violence, threats, intimidation, torture, rape, and murder. In India, the Dalits or Untouchables had been living in appalling conditions; Muslims continued to reel as well under a scourge of poverty, backwardness, and illiteracy; in Indian-occupied Kashmir, Muslims had suffered repression for the past 50 years. Women and young girls lived in fear of rape and attack by soldiers of the Indian army, paramilitary troops, and police. Kashmir, although still on the Security Council agenda, remained the only major dispute still unaddressed and unresolved.
GHULAM MOHAMMED SAFI, of the World Muslim Congress, said that while India prided itself on being a multi-religious and multi-cultural society it could not make this claim with any degree of credibility because Dalits, the "untouchables" continued to be persecuted and harassed. The Government of India had adopted a policy of show casing Muslims outside India while in reality theirs was a pitiful lot in the world's largest so-called secular State. In few places around the world was the gap between rhetoric and practice with regard to minorities more glaring than in India. Since the creation of the Indian State in 1947, the life of the Muslim community had been marked by pogroms. To counter criticism on its treatment of minorities, India had established State Minorities Commissions whose efficacy and performance were open to question. The Bharatiya Janata party, that was now in power in India, had organized a nation-wide campaign to demolish a mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, and this campaign had been designed to teach Muslims a lesson. A temple dedicated to Ram was now being constructed at the site of the mosque, and the BJP had a list of 4,000 other mosques in India which also needed to be demolished as these too had been allegedly build on Hindu or sacred sites. Failure of the Government of India to safeguard the interests of religious, ethnic or linguistic minorities could only lead to a further deterioration of the situation in India.
MARK THOMPSON, of the International Service for Human Rights, said the press and media often had played an unconstructive and incendiary role by propagating racial and ethnic hatred -- the incitement to violence against Tutsi women in the form of the "Hutu Ten Commandments" published in a small-circulation newspaper was an example; the Subcommission's Working Group on Minorities had proposed a seminar on multicultural and intercultural education which had been carried out in cooperation with the International Service; recommendations were included in the report of the Working Group; the organization also had helped hold a seminar on the role of the media in protecting minorities; the seminar was organized by two NGOs, as the UN was not authorized to incur any financial costs, and it aimed to assist the working group by providing useful analysis. More than 30 journalists participated, discussion was of high quality, and constructive recommendations resulted, and the International Service voiced its sincere disappointment that the Working Group failed to discuss the conclusions and recommendations, even though they were made available at the beginning of the meeting and two members of the Working Group had participated in the seminar two days before. The Subcommission was urged to pay attention to the recommendations of the seminar and hoped that future NGO cooperation with the Working Group would be more constructive than this latest experience.
ELIZA MANN, of Liberation, said that Koreans in Japan were still suffering from various violations of human rights. None of the State run universities permitted the graduates of Korean high schools to take entrance examinations following the discriminatory policy of the Japanese Government - Liberation requested the Subcommission to investigate this issue. In Bahrain, the Government discriminated against the Bahraini minority of Persian origin, commonly known as bidoon or stateless people. Although many of these people no longer claimed Iranian citizenship, they had not been granted Bahraini nationality, and were unable to buy land or start a business. An appeal was made to the Subcommission to urge the Government of Bahrain to take steps to regularize the status of the Bahraini bidoon population by facilitating their application for citizenship and passports.
OLEG MALGUINOV (Russian Federation) said Russia had attempted to deal with a number of major issues related to its minorities, taking a realistic and practical approach; it had kept everyone informed about what was happening in its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural State; Russia continued to support the idea of making minority matters a focus of constant ongoing consideration, had opposed manifestations of nationalism and chauvinism; it was worried about such trends in neighbouring States where Russian-speaking minorities lived; it had expressed concern in the past about the situation of Russians living in Latvia; the situation there was such that the Subcommission should provide constant scrutiny. Latvia had made only half-hearted efforts to end discrimination and improve Latvian legislation on such matters as citizenship; in fact there were too many conditions attached to citizenship for children in Latvia -- the conditions were anti-democratic and included such unacceptable demands as declaration by a child's parents of loyalty to the Latvian State and demonstration by the child of proficiency in the Latvian language at age 15. There also were unacceptable provisions on the use of languages other than Latvian. Some associations and countries without full knowledge of the situation were trying to whitewash what was going on; Russia sought nothing extraordinary from Latvia -- simply that conditions be provided to allow a normal life there for minorities.
TEHMINA JANJUA (Pakistan) said that the Constitution guaranteed protection of all its citizens regardless of their caste, creed or religion. The Government of Pakistan was faced with many challenges and was making all efforts to establish a liberal, tolerant, moderate and progressive society. The Government was working hard to control the activities of armed groups and to actively promote religious harmony in Pakistan. Unfortunately, Pakistan continued to be the target of foreign-funded terrorist acts and activities. The Government rejected categorically the sweeping judgement that section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code was used as a weapon to control minorities. In common law countries, blasphemy had been considered as a branch of criminal libel and many common law countries penalized blasphemy. Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code was non-discriminatory in nature and dealt with offenses against all religions. With regard to the Shantinagar incident, the Government placed on record its indignation at this sad incident that had taken place before the inauguration of the present Government, and had ordered compensation for the victims. A National Commission for Minorities had been set up, among other things, to consider laws, orders or procedural practices which were reported to be discriminatory; to recommend steps to ensure fuller and effective participation by members of minority communities in all aspects of national life. Some self styled NGOs had spoken on Pakistan; to have a semblance of credibility, they should speak of the ills in their own country.
ANDEBRHAN WELDEGIORGIS (Eritrea) said violations continued of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin; thousands more had been expelled from Ethiopia during the two weeks the Subcommission had been meeting; it was no longer possible for the Subcommission to remain indifferent to the human tragedy that was occurring in Ethiopia; nor could the premier UN agency concerned with safeguarding human rights remain silent when staff members of UN agencies were being expelled only because they were ethnic Eritreans; among them was an army colonel and a medical doctor who, before becoming a full-time member of the Economic Commission for Africa, had, for over 30 years, served in the armed forces of Ethiopia fighting the Eritreans. He urged the Subcommission and other relevant agencies to go and see for themselves the situation in both Ethiopia and Eritrea; he was convinced that the Subcommission, however, had received enough verifiable third-party documentation to take a firm position on the plight of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin; an appropriate announcement by the Subcommission could avert a disaster, while its silence would encourage the Government of Ethiopia to commit further acts which could, in history, be remembered with those of Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia.
TOFIK MOUSSAEV (Azerbaijan) said that over many centuries, persons belonging to various minorities had lived in Azerbaijan in peace and harmony with Azerbaijanis. Despite the continued armed aggression by neighbouring Armenia against Azerbaijan, which had resulted in mass human rights violations, the Azerbaijani State guaranteed the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of every person without discrimination of any kind. Full effect was given to the right of minorities to establish their own national public organizations, to receive education in their own languages and to be represented in Parliament and State structures. Azerbaijan shared the worry of the world community with regard to the tendency to misinterpret the right of peoples to self-determination as a right for minorities to set up their own states. Thus the Republic of Armenia was widely propagating the theory that the basis of its conflict with Azerbaijan was the desire for self- determination of the Armenian community in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, a region that, before the war, had enjoyed the widest political, economic and cultural autonomy as a part of Azerbaijan. Only a strengthening of the fundamental principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations regarding the relations between States could decrease the threat of ethnic dislocation and tension, and the principles of the settlement of the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan pronounced by the Chairman in Office at the 1996 Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe Summit in Lisbon was a valuable and important contribution to establishing a universal peace model.
MINELIK ALEMU (Ethiopia) said the Eritrean Government had intensified the atrocities that it had been committing against Ethiopian nationals in Eritrea and in the Ethiopian territories it continued to occupy by force; different individuals and groups had independently documented these criminal acts; among the victims were the Irob, a formerly pastoral people; their territory was one of those invaded by the Eritrean forces at the end of May 1998; a priest in the area had reported that the northern part of the Irob land was now occupied by Eritreans; women and girls had been raped, churches had been desecrated and were being used to store weapons; local priests had been forced to be storekeepers in their own churches; houses were being dismantled, apparently for fuel or building materials; young Irob men had been captured and it was suspected they were being forcibly conscripted into the Eritrean army; farmers could not plant or cultivate their fields. Some 35,000 displaced people had gone from Irob and other invaded territories to Adigrat, where they lived on handouts, a form of torture for them. The international community had been silent; if it did not convince Eritrea to withdraw its troops, Ethiopians would have no choice but to take back their land through battle.
Right of Reply
ABUELGASIM ABDELWAHID SHIEKH IDRIS Sudan), speaking in right of reply, said that Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) knew very well that the unfortunate situation in northern Bahr-el-Gazal was caused by a situation of unprecedented drought and by Commander Carbino, a Dinka. CSW had failed to mention that 3 million southerners had taken refuge in Government-controlled areas and in the north. The call by the CSW on the United Nations to urge the Sudanese Government to permanently cease hostilities and accept the IGAD Declaration of Principles was to say the least misleading. It was the Government of Sudan that had been calling for a permanent secession of hostilities, and the Sudanese Government had accepted the IGAD Declaration of Principles. The Government of Sudan had unequivocally accepted the right of the people of southern Sudan to self-determination, and the Constitution guaranteed freedom of expression, association, religion and protected minority rights.
HR/SC/98/21
18 August 1998
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) speaking this afternoon before the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities called for action to halt discrimination against minorities around the world.
The NGOs alleged that a number of countries had violated rights of religious and other minorities. Pakistan's anti-blasphemy laws were alleged to create division and conflict among its religious minorities, said one NGO. Others claimed that the National Islamic Front in Sudan was undertaking a holy war against Christians and Animists.
NGOs also claimed that French and Belgian Parliamentary Commissions on dangerous sects had marginalized genuine religious minorities; that Burma was emerging as the new killing fields of Asia with attacks on a wide range of minorities; that in Jammu and Kashmir, foreign mercenaries had started a systematic campaign of annihilation of Hindus; that the Bharatiya Janata party that was now in power in India was committed to avenging Muslim rule in India before the arrival of the British colonizers; and that slavery still existed in the form of economic slavery in the United States.
Pakistan responded to criticism of its human rights record by stating that the so-called blasphemy law was non-discriminatory in nature. While Eritrea called on the Subcommission to take action to avert a disaster among Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, and Ethiopia said that the Eritrean Government had intensified atrocities being committed against Ethiopian nationals in Eritrea.
The role of the media in propagating racial and ethnic hatred was also raised by two NGOs, as was alleged discrimination against the Korean ethnic minority in Japan.
Subcommission alternate Ahmed Khalil addressed the meeting, as well as representatives of the Russian Federation, Pakistan, Eritrea, Azerbaijan and Ethiopia. Sudan spoke in right of reply.
The following NGOs spoke: Movement Against Racism and For Friendship Between Peoples, Christian Solidarity International, Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation, International Association for Religious Freedom, International Association for the Defence of Religious Liberty, International Fellowship of Reconciliation, International Movement for Fraternal Union Among Races and Peoples, Minority Rights Group International, African Association of Education for Development, Franciscans International in collaboration with the Dominicans, International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, World Muslim Congress, International Service for Human Rights, and Liberation.
The Subcommission will reconvene at 10 a.m. Wednesday when the Chairman of the Working Group on Justice will present his report.
Statements
J.J. KIRKYACHARIAN, of the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples, asked under what conditions the concept of “minority” could be useful in the fight against discrimination. It could only be used mathematically in fascist discourse. The idea of a mathematical minority human group had to be totally rejected. The vision of the Serbs on the Kosovo question was untenable as it resorted to a sophism. It was known that the Turkish State had for a long time denied that a Kurdish problem existed and the Kurds had been refused the attributes associated with being a cultural minority. The word “minority” was used to deny people full equality as citizens. The solution had to be sought in the inequality of treatment meted out to people, and the approach needed to be primarily political. The competence and responsibility of the United Nations was political rather than sociological or anthropological. However, dealing with the problems of minorities from the standpoint of culture reduced it t
o the same thing: it was easy to treat those who were subjects of an empire yet not citizens of the empire as a cultural minority. These days, almost all people refused to be cantoned off with their folkloric status. People sought equality, and everything had to be done to seek social and civic equality for all, wherever they lived.
AHMED KHALIL, Subcommission expert, said the report of the Working Group on Minorities had been excellent, and the Group had earned its status as a more or less permanent body; the range of participation in the group's meetings was impressive; it was important to do what this gathering was doing -- seeking new ways of resolving conflicts with minorities and new ways to ensure peace and respect for human rights. The issue of the difference between assimilation and integration certainly needed to be further considered -- one thought he understood the words until it was applied to specific circumstances; for example, if a member of a minority was forced to learn the majority language of a country, was that assimilation or integration? He supported the report's recommendations, among them that the Group continue its focus on thematic issues and that States be encouraged to participate even more actively in the discussions.
GUNNAR WIEBALCK, of Christian Solidarity International, said many of the conflicts around the world arose from the inability of the State system to protect human rights. Today, because of a fundamental denial of human rights, another African genocide was underway. In Sudan, more than 1.5 million Africans - many of them Christians and Animists - had died, and more than 5 million had been displaced in the southern Sudanese war zone since 1983. The extremist National Islamic Front (NIF) had declared a jihad or holy war against resistant minority communities. The NIF was focusing its jihad war on the 3 million strong Dinka community. It was creating famine conditions, and used chattel slavery as a weapon of its war. Members of the Subcommission were urged to match carefully the NIF's propaganda with the well-documented reports of the outgoing Special Rapporteur and other groups. The 3 million strong Beja minority tribe of north-eastern Sudan were also a target of the NIF which had turned years of neglect into violent hostility. The international community, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and particularly the Subcommission were called upon to: insist on access for human rights monitors to all areas in Sudan; investigate credible reports about the NIF's persecution of religious minorities; and support the initiatives of the National Democratic Alliance and its partners to promote the values and institutions of civil society.
ASHOK BHAN, of the Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation, said there was a new breed of violence against minorities, a new form of religious and ethnic discrimination; the global concepts of pluralism and tolerance were in grave danger at the hands of non-State actors of violence and armed groups of terrorists and mercenaries; the Indian subcontinent with its vast resources and manpower had been wrecked by intolerance, usually based on religion. The world was well aware of Pakistan's policies of discrimination and intolerance against Ahmedias, Christians, and other minorities; the blasphemy law was regularly mis-used against minorities; members of minority communities were second-class citizens; it was high time the international community put pressure on Pakistan to introduce laws of modern civilized society and adopt a general policy of tolerance and participation to give minorities a better deal. Pakistan also was nakedly indulging in trans-border terrorism and putting pan-Islamic terrorists into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir; so far this year, hundreds of minority-group members in Kashmir had been killed by these terrorists. All States must dismantle legal and Constitutional strictures that promoted violence and discrimination against minorities.
GIANFRANCO ROSSI, of the International Association for Religious Freedom, said any group that had a different religion from that of the majority, even if they had the same ethnic characteristics, should be regarded as a religious minority in international and national law. The Baha'is in Iran were different from the majority of the population only because of their religion and they constituted a religious minority that continued to be persecuted. In the State of Jammu and Kashmir, the Hindu community was in a difficult situation - the Pandit community was the target of ethnic and religious cleansing. In Europe, there was a rise of intolerance towards religious minorities that were considered as dangerous sects. In France, a report on dangerous sects had been the subject of a public information campaign, organised by the Government, that had resulted in a number of religious minorities in France feeling marginalised. In Belgium, a Parliamentary Commission on sects had caused protests, notably from evangelical churches, Baha'is, Mormons, and others who had felt themselves to be victims of discrimination by the publication of the report. The State should not treat religious minorities as dangerous sects.
WILFRED WONG, of the International Association for the Defence of Religious Liberty, said the organization was appalled by the continuing lack of international concern over the ethnic cleansing and genocide which many minorities in Burma were facing; the Burmese military regime had launched campaigns in many parts of Burma to forcibly move or wipe out rural villages which were not under the direct physical control of army camps; the Karen, with 7 million people, made up the second largest ethnic group after the Burmans themselves; about 300,000 Karen had been internally displaced; many were hiding in the jungle and were often killed on sight if they were caught; many of these internally displaced died from illnesses and malnutrition; about 100,000 had fled to refugee camps in Thailand, where they faced regular cross-border attacks by Burmese troops. In many cases troops simply slaughtered villagers in their homes; numerous atrocities had been committed by troops in Shan state against the Shan minority; forced labour and starvation were typical there and around the country; the only cases when ethnic minority villagers were not shot on sight was when they were used as porters for the army; in Chin state, rapes of women from the Chin minority by soldiers had been reported. The Subcommission must call for an end to these atrocities, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights must play a more active role in obtaining swift international action to protect Burma's vulnerable and suffering minorities; Thai authorities should stop forcibly repatriating Shan refugees.
MAEDA AKIRA, of International Fellowship of Reconciliation, said that there were now about 650,000 Koreans living in Japan who were still suffering from violations of their human rights, in particular their right to education. Korean children were deprived of the right to learn their own culture and history and to cultivate their ethnic pride as Koreans. Graduates of Korean high schools were not allowed to take the entrance exams for State-run universities unless they entered a correspondence course at a Japanese high school and took the preliminary test for the qualification to take an entrance examination for State-run universities. A woman gave testimony of the discrimination that she had faced as an ethnic Korean in the Japanese education system.
PAUL BEERSMANS, of the International Movement for Fraternal Union Among Races and Peoples, said the organization was deeply worried about the situation of minorities in Jammu and Kashmir; hundreds of thousands of Pandits had fled because they had become targets of religious cleansing and they were still living in inhuman conditions in camps; recently a new problem had surfaced; foreign mercenaries had begun a campaign of annihilation of Hindus; hundreds had been killed, as the mercenaries considered that being Hindu was a crime. Both the Pandits and Hindus were Kashmiri minorities of long-standing; it was claimed that the killing of Hindus did not have the backing of Kashmiris, but that was not true; at a recent meeting, Kashmiris of all backgrounds had condemned the campaign and had said the Pandits should be allowed to return and live in peace. The Subcommission must act to stop this discrimination by foreign mercenaries against the minorities of Kashmir; and the Governments of India and Pakistan must start negotiations to find a lasting solution to the issue of Kashmir.
ANNE BOUVIER, of the Minority Rights Group, said the theme of the statement was the importance of early warning leading to early action; it was recommended that the Subcommission in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights consider how they could play a constructive role in acting on early warning signs of violent conflicts. A useful seminar on Media and Minorities had been held in May, and the Subcommission was recommended to review the recommendations of the seminar. Despite the encouragements of the Subcommission, the Working Group on Minorities had not devoted sufficient time to consider the legal, political and economic legacies of the African slave trade, and this issue should be given particular attention at the next session of the Working Group. It was essential that the World Conference on Racism become a platform for a constructive programme to ensure that all humans were effectively treated as equal in dignity and rights. The Subcommission should: open dialogue with the Commission on Human Rights on situations such as Kosovo; accept the proposals of the Working Group to reorganise its agenda; consider the recommendations of the seminar on Media and Minorities; and adopt a resolution on the World Conference on Racism.
GHENNET GIRMA, of the African Association of Education for Development, said that now was the time for prevention in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes to avoid creation of situations leading to more war and more suffering; the coming to power of ethnically organized fronts on the continent was encouraging the creation of ethnic armies; because it was impossible to tell, for example, whose army was involved in the Great Lakes, the local population talked about "armées sans frontieres". Sudan had become a pretext for arming all neighbouring countries; and it was through the implication of Uganda and Rwanda that Laurent Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had formed an ethnic army; this despite what had already happened in Rwanda and Burundi; today war drums were being beaten in the two countries. In the Horn, ethnic distrust in Addis Ababa had led to exaggerated ethnic solidarity to the detriment of others; today the practice of ethnic preference had given way to a desire among Ethiopians and Eritreans to wipe each other out. In Eritrea a one-man dictatorship left no room for breathing a different opinion; pluralism, democracy, and a free press were unfortunately non-existent.
PHILIPPE LE BLANC, of Franciscans International and the Dominicans, said that Pakistan's blasphemy laws created division and conflict between different religious groups with tragic results and were inconsistent with and a violation of the provisions of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and other human rights treaties. The amendments to the blasphemy laws in 1990 made capital punishment mandatory for the offense of blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed, and in recent years Christians had increasingly been accused of blasphemy. The Anglican Bishop of Peshwar, the Right Reverend Munawar Rumalshah, had stated that as a religious minority they lived under a constant feeling of socio-economic strangulation as there was massive employment discrimination both in the public and private sectors. The new system provided that in all elections, non-Muslims would vote separately for a designated number of non-Muslim seats. Thus Christian voters could only vote for Christian candidates which had the effect of marginalizing the non-Muslim population. Bishop Rumalshah had stated that Pakistan was now practising an apartheid legal system.
COLIN McNAUGHTON, of the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, said that in the United States, slavery that supposedly had been eliminated 140 years ago still existed in the form of economic slavery and discrimination through U.S. culture; the black prison population was a clear example of racist policies, and black prisoners were repeatedly denied or turned down for appeals while an alarming percentage of the black population of the country was incarcerated; recent trends towards privatization of prisons raised a question if the absence of freedoms and liberties of black Americans would now be a source of profit. In Chiapas, Mexico, 200,000 indigenous persons were being brutally marginalized by the Mexican Government's policy of violence, threats, intimidation, torture, rape, and murder. In India, the Dalits or Untouchables had been living in appalling conditions; Muslims continued to reel as well under a scourge of poverty, backwardness, and illiteracy; in Indian-occupied Kashmir, Muslims had suffered repression for the past 50 years. Women and young girls lived in fear of rape and attack by soldiers of the Indian army, paramilitary troops, and police. Kashmir, although still on the Security Council agenda, remained the only major dispute still unaddressed and unresolved.
GHULAM MOHAMMED SAFI, of the World Muslim Congress, said that while India prided itself on being a multi-religious and multi-cultural society it could not make this claim with any degree of credibility because Dalits, the "untouchables" continued to be persecuted and harassed. The Government of India had adopted a policy of show casing Muslims outside India while in reality theirs was a pitiful lot in the world's largest so-called secular State. In few places around the world was the gap between rhetoric and practice with regard to minorities more glaring than in India. Since the creation of the Indian State in 1947, the life of the Muslim community had been marked by pogroms. To counter criticism on its treatment of minorities, India had established State Minorities Commissions whose efficacy and performance were open to question. The Bharatiya Janata party, that was now in power in India, had organized a nation-wide campaign to demolish a mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, and this campaign had been designed to teach Muslims a lesson. A temple dedicated to Ram was now being constructed at the site of the mosque, and the BJP had a list of 4,000 other mosques in India which also needed to be demolished as these too had been allegedly build on Hindu or sacred sites. Failure of the Government of India to safeguard the interests of religious, ethnic or linguistic minorities could only lead to a further deterioration of the situation in India.
MARK THOMPSON, of the International Service for Human Rights, said the press and media often had played an unconstructive and incendiary role by propagating racial and ethnic hatred -- the incitement to violence against Tutsi women in the form of the "Hutu Ten Commandments" published in a small-circulation newspaper was an example; the Subcommission's Working Group on Minorities had proposed a seminar on multicultural and intercultural education which had been carried out in cooperation with the International Service; recommendations were included in the report of the Working Group; the organization also had helped hold a seminar on the role of the media in protecting minorities; the seminar was organized by two NGOs, as the UN was not authorized to incur any financial costs, and it aimed to assist the working group by providing useful analysis. More than 30 journalists participated, discussion was of high quality, and constructive recommendations resulted, and the International Service voiced its sincere disappointment that the Working Group failed to discuss the conclusions and recommendations, even though they were made available at the beginning of the meeting and two members of the Working Group had participated in the seminar two days before. The Subcommission was urged to pay attention to the recommendations of the seminar and hoped that future NGO cooperation with the Working Group would be more constructive than this latest experience.
ELIZA MANN, of Liberation, said that Koreans in Japan were still suffering from various violations of human rights. None of the State run universities permitted the graduates of Korean high schools to take entrance examinations following the discriminatory policy of the Japanese Government - Liberation requested the Subcommission to investigate this issue. In Bahrain, the Government discriminated against the Bahraini minority of Persian origin, commonly known as bidoon or stateless people. Although many of these people no longer claimed Iranian citizenship, they had not been granted Bahraini nationality, and were unable to buy land or start a business. An appeal was made to the Subcommission to urge the Government of Bahrain to take steps to regularize the status of the Bahraini bidoon population by facilitating their application for citizenship and passports.
OLEG MALGUINOV (Russian Federation) said Russia had attempted to deal with a number of major issues related to its minorities, taking a realistic and practical approach; it had kept everyone informed about what was happening in its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural State; Russia continued to support the idea of making minority matters a focus of constant ongoing consideration, had opposed manifestations of nationalism and chauvinism; it was worried about such trends in neighbouring States where Russian-speaking minorities lived; it had expressed concern in the past about the situation of Russians living in Latvia; the situation there was such that the Subcommission should provide constant scrutiny. Latvia had made only half-hearted efforts to end discrimination and improve Latvian legislation on such matters as citizenship; in fact there were too many conditions attached to citizenship for children in Latvia -- the conditions were anti-democratic and included such unacceptable demands as declaration by a child's parents of loyalty to the Latvian State and demonstration by the child of proficiency in the Latvian language at age 15. There also were unacceptable provisions on the use of languages other than Latvian. Some associations and countries without full knowledge of the situation were trying to whitewash what was going on; Russia sought nothing extraordinary from Latvia -- simply that conditions be provided to allow a normal life there for minorities.
TEHMINA JANJUA (Pakistan) said that the Constitution guaranteed protection of all its citizens regardless of their caste, creed or religion. The Government of Pakistan was faced with many challenges and was making all efforts to establish a liberal, tolerant, moderate and progressive society. The Government was working hard to control the activities of armed groups and to actively promote religious harmony in Pakistan. Unfortunately, Pakistan continued to be the target of foreign-funded terrorist acts and activities. The Government rejected categorically the sweeping judgement that section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code was used as a weapon to control minorities. In common law countries, blasphemy had been considered as a branch of criminal libel and many common law countries penalized blasphemy. Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code was non-discriminatory in nature and dealt with offenses against all religions. With regard to the Shantinagar incident, the Government placed on record its indignation at this sad incident that had taken place before the inauguration of the present Government, and had ordered compensation for the victims. A National Commission for Minorities had been set up, among other things, to consider laws, orders or procedural practices which were reported to be discriminatory; to recommend steps to ensure fuller and effective participation by members of minority communities in all aspects of national life. Some self styled NGOs had spoken on Pakistan; to have a semblance of credibility, they should speak of the ills in their own country.
ANDEBRHAN WELDEGIORGIS (Eritrea) said violations continued of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin; thousands more had been expelled from Ethiopia during the two weeks the Subcommission had been meeting; it was no longer possible for the Subcommission to remain indifferent to the human tragedy that was occurring in Ethiopia; nor could the premier UN agency concerned with safeguarding human rights remain silent when staff members of UN agencies were being expelled only because they were ethnic Eritreans; among them was an army colonel and a medical doctor who, before becoming a full-time member of the Economic Commission for Africa, had, for over 30 years, served in the armed forces of Ethiopia fighting the Eritreans. He urged the Subcommission and other relevant agencies to go and see for themselves the situation in both Ethiopia and Eritrea; he was convinced that the Subcommission, however, had received enough verifiable third-party documentation to take a firm position on the plight of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin; an appropriate announcement by the Subcommission could avert a disaster, while its silence would encourage the Government of Ethiopia to commit further acts which could, in history, be remembered with those of Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia.
TOFIK MOUSSAEV (Azerbaijan) said that over many centuries, persons belonging to various minorities had lived in Azerbaijan in peace and harmony with Azerbaijanis. Despite the continued armed aggression by neighbouring Armenia against Azerbaijan, which had resulted in mass human rights violations, the Azerbaijani State guaranteed the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of every person without discrimination of any kind. Full effect was given to the right of minorities to establish their own national public organizations, to receive education in their own languages and to be represented in Parliament and State structures. Azerbaijan shared the worry of the world community with regard to the tendency to misinterpret the right of peoples to self-determination as a right for minorities to set up their own states. Thus the Republic of Armenia was widely propagating the theory that the basis of its conflict with Azerbaijan was the desire for self- determination of the Armenian community in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, a region that, before the war, had enjoyed the widest political, economic and cultural autonomy as a part of Azerbaijan. Only a strengthening of the fundamental principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations regarding the relations between States could decrease the threat of ethnic dislocation and tension, and the principles of the settlement of the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan pronounced by the Chairman in Office at the 1996 Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe Summit in Lisbon was a valuable and important contribution to establishing a universal peace model.
MINELIK ALEMU (Ethiopia) said the Eritrean Government had intensified the atrocities that it had been committing against Ethiopian nationals in Eritrea and in the Ethiopian territories it continued to occupy by force; different individuals and groups had independently documented these criminal acts; among the victims were the Irob, a formerly pastoral people; their territory was one of those invaded by the Eritrean forces at the end of May 1998; a priest in the area had reported that the northern part of the Irob land was now occupied by Eritreans; women and girls had been raped, churches had been desecrated and were being used to store weapons; local priests had been forced to be storekeepers in their own churches; houses were being dismantled, apparently for fuel or building materials; young Irob men had been captured and it was suspected they were being forcibly conscripted into the Eritrean army; farmers could not plant or cultivate their fields. Some 35,000 displaced people had gone from Irob and other invaded territories to Adigrat, where they lived on handouts, a form of torture for them. The international community had been silent; if it did not convince Eritrea to withdraw its troops, Ethiopians would have no choice but to take back their land through battle.
Right of Reply
ABUELGASIM ABDELWAHID SHIEKH IDRIS Sudan), speaking in right of reply, said that Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) knew very well that the unfortunate situation in northern Bahr-el-Gazal was caused by a situation of unprecedented drought and by Commander Carbino, a Dinka. CSW had failed to mention that 3 million southerners had taken refuge in Government-controlled areas and in the north. The call by the CSW on the United Nations to urge the Sudanese Government to permanently cease hostilities and accept the IGAD Declaration of Principles was to say the least misleading. It was the Government of Sudan that had been calling for a permanent secession of hostilities, and the Sudanese Government had accepted the IGAD Declaration of Principles. The Government of Sudan had unequivocally accepted the right of the people of southern Sudan to self-determination, and the Constitution guaranteed freedom of expression, association, religion and protected minority rights.