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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.35
August 28, 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.

Please notify us in case your e-mail address is changed.

1) HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS: Annan Appoints Envoy

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday appointed Hina Jilani of Pakistan as the world body's first special representative on human rights defenders. The post was created in April by the UN Commission on Human Rights. In her three-year term, Jilani will report on the situation of human rights defenders worldwide and on possible ways to enhance their protection under the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. -UN WIRE

2) Mother Fights for 6 years for son Imprisoned in China

INDIAN EXPRESS, New Delhi, August 19 SONAM DEKYI could have been the mother in Maxim Gorky's book MOTHER - the mother who fights for her son. But while Pavel, the son in Gorky's book was revolutionary, Dekyi's son Ngawang Choephel is 34 year old Tibetan musician who went to his birthplace from Dharamsala and was jailed there on charges of espionage.

That was in July 1995. Choephel had gone to take photographs of dancers and musicians in Tibet for documentary on the cultural life in his native land. Ngawang Choephel, who grew up in Dharamsala had left with his mother when he was barely two years old. His father was to follow them to India, but never did. Choephel had planned to trace his father as well during his Tibet visit. Instead, he was taken prisoner.

Ever since, Dekyi has been agitating for permission to visit her son lest he dies of multiple ailments caused by torture as he serves an 18-year sentence. And Jantar Mantar has been the site of her six year old long agitation.

This month, the Chinese government, under severe international pressure over the mother's demand, approached Dekyi and asked her to meet Choephel. The son, who did not know of his mother's agitation, was told of her visit just an hour before he met her on August 3.

Dekyi flew to Lhasa on August 1 and from there she was immediately taken to Chengdu Prison in China. During her stay in Chengdu till August 8, she got to see Choephel twice on-August 3 and August 6- each time, for an hour.

"The first time I saw my son after six years, I could hardly recognize him. He was thin, just a skin wrapped on bones," she says.

He stood there separated from her by two counters and two layers of wire netting, she recalls. 

When she started to weep, "he said, `Please don't cry.' And I immediately recognized his voice," she says. "When I enquired about his health, he held his chest and told me that he had constant pain in the chest. Then putting his head down on the counter, he broke down," she says. "And then both of us kept on crying, until the jailors warned us that the meeting would be ended if we did not stop," she adds, weeping. She says she had to leave the garlic, sugar, blanket and shoes she had taken for Choephel with the jail authorities. But that doesn't pain her as much as the fact that she was not allowed to even touch him as the wire netting separated them. "Both of us pleaded, but we were not allowed to come closer," says Dekyi who now plans to go back to Jantar Mantar to resume her lonely fight for her son. "I have to rewrite the banners," she says. Now, she says, her demand would be for his release as he is ill and needs medical attention.

She says that a Chinese doctor attending on her son told her that he was suffering from ailments of liver, lung and stomach and also urinary infection. When she asked the authorities to let him off as he had already been there for six years, they said he was stubborn and would not confess to espionage, Dekyi says.

A non-governmental organization -- Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy -- which is supporting Dekyi's cause, said that Choephel may face further torture. It also said that the permission granted to Dekyi should not be seen as a victory as it was just a tactic on the part of the Chinese government to score political points with the U.S.

Dekyi is least concerned about these things. All she wants is to take care of her "child who is unwell," she says. She does not utter a word of her bitterness. But she can barely stop her tears which flow in pain as she narrates her brief meeting with her son and the uncertainty that stares ahead.

She has given written appeals to the Chinese government asking for her son's release for medical care, and she has also been told by the Chinese embassy here that they have nothing against permitting her to visit her son once a year -- provided she can get the Nepalese government to let her cross their territory.

3) DEBT RELIEF: OXFAM Criticizes IMF, World Bank Efforts

Oxfam International says multilateral efforts to cut poor countries' debt are leaving them worse off.

The group's criticism comes as International Monetary Fund chief Horst Koehler and World Bank President James Wolfensohn prepare to meet this week to discuss the Group of Eight's failure to agree to a  more generous relief package at their July summit in Okinawa. Citing the case of Zambia, one of the world's poorest countries, the group called its debt relief package a "fraud" and said the country's payments will increase, rather than decrease, as another large IMF loan comes due in 2002 (Charlotte Denny, London Guardian, 21 Aug). The problem, according to Oxfam senior policy analyst Kevin Watkins, is a "narrow understanding of debt sustainability." The Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) "focuses on what governments are able to pay to creditors through the national budget, rather than what they can afford to pay in the light of pressing human development needs," he said (Alan Beattie, Financial Times, 21 Aug). The group estimates that by 2002, Zambia will be spending twice as much on debt servicing as it will on health care. "For a country whose human development indicators are deteriorating as rapidly as Zambia's, this is devastating," said Watkins. At least five other African countries are facing the same dilemma, according to Oxfam.

4)DEBATE ON LEGALISING PROSTITUTION IN BANGLADESH

Court in May that said the government was wrong in evicting thousands of prostitutes from brothels in Dhaka last year. A final verdict is due in the next few weeks on whether to ban prostitution or legalize it and risk condoning an industry which critics call immoral and abusive.

Charity group CARE in Bangladesh provides medical services and counseling for sex workers. One worker argues that there is currently no law against prostitution, and if a court declares it illegal, the work will become more difficult and dangerous for prostitutes.  However, a lawyer from the Bangladesh National Women's Lawyers Association who represents girls as young as 7 or 8 who have been rescued from brothels, said she is concerned that legalizing prostitution will make them more vulnerable to abuse.

"Most of these girls are teenage girls, and they are all victims of different circumstances," she said. It is hard to prove that the girls are minors because many don't have birth certificates. "I think if it is legalized there [are officials] always giving false affidavits that [the sex workers] are 20 years old or older. Even the girls that are only 11, 12 or 13 years old." There's also a strong moral lobby. Bangladesh is a predominately Muslim country, and some religious leaders have said they want a far more comprehensive approach in the battle to eradicate prostitution (Jill mcgivering, BBC World Update, 21 Aug).

5) AN UPDATE ON THE REPORTED CASE OF HUNGER STRIKE by Buddhist monks and farmers in Sri Lanka.

The farmers were met by the Prime Ministers and a few senior MPs and the following agreements were reached: After acknowledging the acute problems encountered by the farmers, the P.M. agreed a) to fix the price of paddy at Rs.13 a kilo, b) consult the farmers in the fixing or price of the farm produce  c) to make the government cooperatives the collection centres. For more information please contact monlar@sltnet.lk

6) NEWS IN BRIEF

Worldwide Arms Sales hit US.3 billion: The US contractors sold nearly US.8 billion with Russia and the European countries coming second and third. Roughly two-thirds of all the arms were sold to the third world countries.