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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.20
May 15, 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,

A human crisis is in the making and it is hard for any responsible person to remain passive or unconcerned. The Sri Lankan government has categorically stated that it will fight to the last soldier- there are over thirty five soldiers stationed in Jaffna- without any moral or humanitarian considerations and now the battle rages in a town where the residents number over five hundred thousand. It is in this gloomy context that we invite you to lobby with your government or the Sri Lankan mission in your country regarding the suggestions made in our appeal "Sri lanka's Hour of Need. Please feel free to use it for your interventions with the governments or the foreign missions in your country. Additionally we have a comment on the billionth child in India, updates on East Timor, Cambodia, Burma and a succinct reflection by Basil Fernando. Thanks- the editor

1) Sri Lanka's Critical Hour of Need
2) Billionth Child in India - A Comment
3) UPDATES on Cambodia, East Timor and Burma
4) Basil Fernando shares one of his travel experiences

1) Sri Lanka's Critical Hour of Need

India and Norway cleared their differences on the peace moves in Sri Lanka last week. The United States, too, has expressed its wish to join in the peace diplomacy. Thus there is now regional and Western consensus for a significant breakthrough on the peace issue.

On 10th May Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, expressed his concern over the situation that has developed in Jaffna peninsula and raised the issue of safety of persons, particularly the civilians. Almost all major human rights and humanitarian agencies have already expressed their concern. Never has the international community expressed such a unified view on the Sri Lankan situation, which has protracted over two decades.

World media has been covering the events on an hourly basis and the world is aware of a major crisis. It is time for all concerned persons to make a concerted effort to ensure a significant break-through in this situation and to prevent it from degenerating into a frightening humanitarian crisis.

Of particular importance are the people of the South, who are starved of all information though heavy censorship. The people have a right to know what is going on.

We urge everyone to

1. Encourage all the parties to the conflict, particularly the Sri Lanka Government and opposition and the LTTE to act with responsibility and come to the negotiating table at once. To that end, it is vital to declare a cease-fire.
2. To provided facilities for the treatment of the wounded, transfer the dead and observe the Geneva Conventions
3. To protect the civilians and especially the older persons, children and women.
4. To pressure the government of Norway to expedite the peace process and all other governments to join in the process.
5. To take whatever action is possible to help the refugees, displaced persons and other victims of war.
6. In the days ahead to keep vigil and follow the developments of the situation
   

2) Billionth Child in India - A Comment

A girl, named Astha, born in Safdarjang Hospital in New Delhi on 11th May is considered the billionth child in India. Amid fears that the Indian population would surpass the Chinese population in about thirty years thereby putting enormous amount of pressure on the limited resources, the clamor for controlling births gets louder and louder. This is perhaps understandable in a region where maternal mortality rate is quite high with Pakistan experiencing the highest, more than half of its 15 million residents in Bombay sleeping in the streets or living in huts, the United Nations warning of shortages of food and water, or where the critics are pointing to the ever increasing population thwarting every measure of economic progress in the country. While they deserve careful consideration questions have also to be expressed regarding many related factors, among which the following are quite crucial;

• The production of food has apparently increased threefold over the last fifty years. How effective has been the distribution or their prices been which made a large proportion of the poor go hungry? How about the distribution of land - what is the percentage of the poor denied of land which effectively deprives them of the opportunity for subsistence farming saving their meager income for education and the health needs of the family? How genuine have been the agrarian reform? How much of the food produced in the country exported to buy luxury items when its own citizens are denied the basic right for food? According to "Food? Health? Hope"? a Grain publication,p2, in 1995 India exported five million tonnes of rice, and 5 million worth of wheat and flour, while one in five went hungry in the country.
• How far the generation of progenies is a family project where the husband and wife are equal partners? What degree of freedom do the women enjoy in the decision to beget children? Are the parents educated enough to make a decision regarding the size of the family taking into consideration all that is required to sustain them? What guarantees are there that all the newborn will have equal rights? Has the community assumed the responsibility to raise awareness among its members, which is more than forced or coerced sterilization, the distribution of condoms or the barbaric act of infanticide?

3) Updates

3.1) 2,000 Soldiers to change to military policemen - The Cambodia Daily, Thursday, May 4, 2000

Two thousand soldiers facing demobilization will get a reprieve from unemployment by becoming military policemen, government officials say. Prime Minister Hun Sen announced at a recent RCAF meeting that he has agreed to a proposal by military police commander Sao Sokha to assign 2,000 soldiers to police duty over the next four years, several officials said this week. Vong Phisen, deputy commander for the national military police, said only half of Cambodia's 186 districts currently have military police. Sao Sokha said increasing them will improve security in rural areas. Critics question why the nation needs more military police if the army is being sharply reduced and police agencies are also being cut back. Military police officials say only high quality soldiers will recruited.

3.2) East Timor: Independence Fighters to get UN Positions- UN Wire

In a "groundbreaking decision," former East Timorese resistance fighters will serve alongside UN peacekeepers as liaison officers, the Melbourne Age reports. Brynjar Nymo, a UN military spokesperson, said yesterday that four senior members of the Falintil independence movement will serve at UN headquarters in three military districts and at the UN mission's central headquarters in Dili.

Meanwhile, CNRT leader Xanana Gusmao has said that the UN and other international agencies have made his group feel like political outsiders in their own country. The World Bank and other aid providers, Gusmao said, need to become more flexible and speed up their support programs. People in East Timor are still starving, he explained, and infrastructure is needed to alleviate unemployment (Lincoln Wright, Canberra Times, 6 May).
Gusmao also said that the slow pace of reconstruction is causing discontent. The 88% unemployment rate, he asserted, is giving rise to vagrancy, drunkenness and gambling among youths who are being manipulated by others to destabilize the territory (BBC Online, 5 May).

(The following news item has to be understood in the context of our two previous reports and updates where reference was made to the threat of a general strike by some monks in case their request for SPDC to negotiate with the NLDF is turned d own SPDC - the editor)

3.3) State Peace and Development Council donates provisions to Kyakhatwaing Sarthintaik in Bago YANGON, 6 May

The State Peace and Development Council donated provisions to Kyakhatwaing Sarthintaik in Bago this morning in order to ensure convenience of members of the Sangha of the Sarthintaik in studying Pariyatti literature to promote and propagate the Sasana of Lord Buddha. On the occasion, Commander Maj-Gen Tin Aye supplicated on religious matters to the Sayadaws. Kyakhatwaing Sarthintaik in Bago is the place where Pariyatti literature is being disseminated to members of the Sangha from various parts of the country, and the State Peace and Development Council donated 100 bags of rice to the Sarthintaik so that members of the Sangha discharging religious duties to promote and propagate the Sasana there will be convenient.Afterwards, Maj-Gen Tin Aye, Minister U Aung Khin and Deputy Minister U Soe Nyunt presented offertories to the Sayadaw and members of the Sangha.

4) Basil Fernando shares one of his travel experiences

Last week I was travelling from Copenhagen airport in a taxi and the taxi driver happened to be a Lebanese who has been living in Denmark for the last ten years. He looked to be in his early thirties. A rather big red coloured van was going in front of us and the driver asked me " Do you know what it is?" I said no. He said, "it is an animal ambulance". I did not get it at once. So he repeated, "an animal ambulance". A little later he told me, "you know, there were reports in the press and TV about a good story. There were some Ducks living in a lake, big ducks. Two big ones got married. They had children. After some time, they had fights, because there was not enough room in the small lake for all of them. One day, the mother Duck decided to leave it with her young children to another lake. They came some way. But, they got tired. So, they came and sat on the high way. Later, this van came and rescued them." He then laughed and laughed. A few minutes later he added, "some places, people kill each other and in some other places they try to save even animals". " Why they kill" he asked. I think he just asked it from himself. I promised him to share this story with the others.