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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.5
January 31, 2000


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Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is now available online at: http://www.rghr.net

Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is a weekly e-newsletter issued by Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic and Christian Groups on Human Rights, initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

Dear Friends,

The tragedy that is North Korea, with its ever-hardening repressive and isolationist attitudes driving thousands to starvation and death becomes a major concern for a group of French politicians and intellectuals. The path that Indonesia needs to tread in its path to recovery spelt out by concerned INFID group. The political and legal measures can contribute positively to the national reconciliation only to the extent that there is intellectual and moral seriousness is the view expressed by Basil Fernando. Any remaining vestiges of democracy are systematically suppressed by getting the judges to swear allegiance to the self-appointed chief executive in Pakistan, are the few items we have for reflection this week

Please take note of our new e-mail address: rghr@ahrchk.org

1) Starvation in North Korea : Another Form of Holocaust
2) INFID Statement to the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI)
3) International Tribunal- Moral and Juridical Issues- Basil Fernando
4) Blow to the judiciary - the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
5) News in Brief

1) Starvation in North Korea : Another Form of Holocaust

About 100 French politicians and intellectuals held a discussion at a conference room at the French National Assembly building on Tuesday (local time) and declared that North Korean political prisoners dying of hunger in concentration camps is another form of holocaust. Henri Plagnol, a French National Assembly member, organized a meeting with others, who no longer want to see North Koreans dying of starvation, to talk about the break down of human rights in North Korea.

A document called "Let's Wake the Silence in North Korea," which the French organizers plan to issue to heads of states that are schedule to attend a forum during the Holocaust Remembrance Day in Stockholm, Sweden from January 26-28, was distributed to the 100 participants at the assembly building. In the declaration, the French politicians and intellectuals noted that about 10 concentration camps where death is prevalent exist in North Korea. It also added that the totalitarian government's appetite for death would not be quenched by the death of a few political prisoners since the North Korean government idly watched 1 to 3 million North Koreans starve to death over the last 3 years.

The document also pointed out that there is a similarity between North Koreans starving to death and the Jewish Holocaust, that is people are aware of the atrocities but no one's doing anything about it. (Source from the most conservative daily newspaper in South Korea, Chosunilbo

2) INFID Statement to the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) 
    and the Government of Indonesia CGI Meeting, 1-2 February 2000, Jakarta.

We believe that the following issues need to be addressed immediately in order to guarantee political, economic and social stability to the country.

• External Debt and Poverty Eradication
• Human Rights Violations and Regional Conflicts
• Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism (KKN)
• The Role of the Military

External Debt and Poverty Eradication

Even though Indonesia's economy started to recover in 1999 (indicators include that the interest rates dropped to 13% from 70%, the Rupiah is stable at 7000 against 1 US dollar, and the inflation rate is down to one-digit figure from as high as 80%), the crisis has resulted in the increase of number of poor people to about 20 millions and the drop-out from school of at least 1.3 million children (Oxfam, 1999). 

In the year 2000, Indonesia has to pay US$ 5 billion (around 34trillion rupiah) for servicing the debt, in the year 2001 and 2002 this will increase to around US$ 9 billion.

The Government of Indonesia should put poverty eradication and the protection of marginalized group as a top priority in its economic development policy. This policy should be reflected in the State Budget. Budget for social spending should be more than 20% of the overall budget. The Government of Indonesia should not permit private debt to become public debt;?lt;/p>

Human Rights Violations and Regional Conflicts

The Government of Indonesia should establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission; end impunity for human rights perpetrators and increase the funds for human rights promotion and protection (Human Rights Commission and State Minister for Human Rights for instance as well as for the rehabilitation and compensation for the victims of human rights violations). ?The Government of Indonesia should address the regional conflicts through political and peaceful means. The Government of Indonesia should increase the local governments' capacity and the accountability mechanism.

Corruption, Collusion, Nepotism (KKN)

The Government of Indonesia should make all efforts to combat KKN at all levels of administration and to reduce opportunities for corruption. ?The Government should take all necessary steps to bring to trial as soon as possible former President Soeharto and other high ranking officials and Soeharto cronies and to prosecute them in open court hearings and in accordance with Indonesian laws

The Role of the Military

The Government of Indonesia should aim at ending the dual function of the military as soon as possible and must that military aid is not misused for suppressing the civil and political rights of the people. The Government of Indonesia should limit rather than expand the military territorial commands (KODAM).

The responsibility for internal security must be returned to the police and prosecute high ranking military who are responsible for human rights violations in Aceh, Maluku, Papua and other regions of Indonesia.

3) International Tribunal- Moral and Juridical Issues

Basil Fernando

The essential question regarding reconciliation in a situation like the one of Khmer Rouge times, is the one relating to unnatural deaths. Here the word "unnatural" is very much an understatement. Any way, the deaths of the most loved ones, at the hands of others without any fault on their part, is the worst psychological and spiritual experience that human beings can go through. Naturally, such an experience is a moment of "ire-conciliation". All assumptions on which the normal life is rooted are shattered. It is out of the debris of shattered existence that people have to work out their way for reconciliation, if that is possible at all. For some it may be the end of the road and they may never break out of the darkness so created. For others, it is only a genuine collective attempt to "understand" the cruel events, that might help them to emerge out of the depth. To put in the words of the Psalmist, " Out of the Depths I cry to thee Oh Lord, Lord here my prayer."

All artificial attempts at dealing with such an inner collective crisis, only add up and make it worse; it shows bad taste and indifference to intense suffering.

The issue of Trial can only be a part of a much larger scheme. To play that part, the trial will have to be a serious one and be seen as such. To arrange a farce, would only add insult to injury. The collective mind of the post Khmer Rouge Cambodian, will critically look at all these things in the long run, even if they are unable to intervene to prevent such things at the moment.

Once unnatural deaths become the only issue that mostly pre-occupies the collective mind of a people, central task of history for such a people will be to understand and undo the causes of their ire-conciliation. The moral and the intellectual leadership of the country will have to deal with it and resolve it in the course of time. The political and legal measures can contribute positively or negatively, to the extent that there is moral seriousness and intellectual integrity behind such moves. Where there is no such seriousness and integrity, a conflict with moral and intellectual leadership will be inevitable, even if it may take longer time for such a conflict to surface.

In the past, the people had to be on guard when talking even about their deepest feelings of suffering. It is a very sad time in the history of a people, when they have to confine their expressions of their deepest sufferings to the private sphere, having to suppress even their tears. For, to mourn is a basic human need and people mourn in public to share their grief with the collective to which they internally belong. When unwritten social imperatives makes such mourning impossible people may even become sick In a great book entitled Inability to Mourn, written by Alexander Mitscherlich,, a clinical psychologist explained how in the post- war Germany many people became sick due to their inability to mourn and to recognize the problems they collectively faced due to Germany's role in the second world war.

Perhaps, the Trial may prove to be such a moment of collective mourning. One hopes it will be so and that the people will begin to deal with the human impact of the large scale destruction of their loved ones and their fellow countrymen.

Juridical Recognition and Moral Recognition.

Reconciliation is primarily a matter of morality. The juridical recognition of the moral fact of reconciliation is useful and necessary. However, a juridical act is no substitute for the moral imperatives required for a genuine reconciliation. Besides, for the juridical recognition to be valid, it must reach a standard that can be morally justifiable. This means that a mere juridical sham cannot meet the requirements of moral recognition. Dealing with a large scale destruction to human life as it happened in Cambodia, is bound with the most difficult questions relating to human morality. Humanity must deal with these difficult issues together with the Cambodians.

4) Press release from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

Blow to the judiciary

Lahore, Jan 26: The military-led government has, as feared, gone further down the anti-democratic road. By forcing the judges, Ziaul Haq fashion, to take their oath afresh under PCO-1 the regime has put an end to the pretence that the country was still being constitutionally governed and that the judiciary continued to act in accord with its oath to the Constitution.

It has struck a blow even at the appearances of judiciary's independence. The latter has now, by its swearing of a new allegiance, become a creature not of the Constitution but of the chief of the army staff and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee acting as the country's self-appointed chief executive.

Some who decided not to become such a creature were alas too few. By not acting in unison and in accordance with their oath and conscience the judges have done further harm to the institution and the national good. There is some comfort only in that they are more numerous than the last time round and this time they include the chief justice himself. (The rumour that the latter is placed under restraint, if true, will further expose the ugliness of the act.)

It is hard to see what good the regime has done to its cause by this action. The judiciary has had a record of being sympathetic to the ruling order. It has been liberal whenever the need arose in applying and interpreting the principle that the well-being of the republic and the people was the supreme law. It could not have acted very differently in future.

The action, on the other hand, has betrayed to many a certain lack of the regime's confidence in its own cause. It will even in the public eye undermine its contentions against the ousted government in the courts and outside the courts. Also its image abroad, far from bright already, will be cast under a new shadow.

Whichever way it is seen, the development does not augur well for the future. It also creates fears about the other institutions that have so far functioned in relative freedom.

Hina Jilani Afrasiab Khattak
Secretary-General Chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

5) News in brief

Hong Kong: the Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Zen visits the detainees together with Fr. Franco Mella. This has reference to our earlier news items. The detainees were later released.

Thailand: Two wrongs can never make one right. Questions have been raised about the manner that the hostage crisis has been resolved. While no sane person would endorse the hostage taking of the Thai hospital staff and the inmates, suspicion surrounds the way that the hostage takers have been killed. Is it a case of an extra-judicial killing?