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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.3 No.14
April 2, 2001


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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.

1) FIFTY EIGHT PERCENT OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES UNDER 25 UNEMPLOYED IN Sri Lanka
2) ACEH: East Timor General Playing Key Role in Aceh Offensive
3) THE CONDITION OF THE CHILDREN IN THE PHILIPPINES (UN Wire)
4) MIDNAPORE (India) The rights of SC [Scheduled Castes] and ST people were not protected
5)BURMA: Papun district devastated by scorched earth tactics
6) KOREA: Seoul Fears U.S. Is Chilly about D?ente
7) INDONESIA: PRESIDENT MUST ACT TO ESTABLISH RIGHTS TRIBUNALS
8) UA-06-2001: Coffins of 1965 victims raided by mob
9) China - Widespread Police Abuse

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1) FIFTY EIGHT PERCENT OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES UNDER 25 UNEMPLOYED IN Sri Lanka

An outcome of the findings .......as many as fifty eight percent of university graduates under 25 are unemployed, while in the age group of 25-30 about 35 percent are without jobs.

The report asserts that while the low enrolment in universities is the result of highly limited access, the high unemployment rates among graduates reflect the sector's deficiencies in the quality and relevance of its curricula and teaching. Following intense discussions with government agencies responsible for post-secondary and tertiary education, the universities, post-secondary institutions, the private sector, the donor community and other stakeholders, the report concludes that the present structure and framework for post-secondary education lacks breadth and flexibility to respond to emerging opportunities and challenges in the sector. (lacnet.org)

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2) ACEH: East Timor General Playing Key Role in Aceh Offensive

Posted Tuesday, March, 27, 2001

East Timor general playing key role in Aceh offensive
By Lindsay Murdoch, Herald Correspondent
Jakarta: A top Indonesian Army officer accused of overseeing the mayhem in East Timor in 1999 is now responsible for deploying troops for a planned military offensive in the restive Aceh province. As the army's operations assistant, Major-General Adam Damiri is in charge of the deployment of several thousand combat troops in a operation aimed at wiping out the separatist Free Aceh Movement. Indonesian prosecutors say he is one of 22 suspects being investigated over atrocities in East Timor. Throughout 1999 he was the Bali-based military commander responsible for the former Portuguese territory.

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3) THE CONDITION OF THE CHILDREN IN THE PHILIPPINES (UN Wire)

According to Maria Elena Caraballo, executive director of the Council for the Welfare of Children, one in 20 children between the ages of 5 and 17 -- or 3.7 million children -- is working. Some 60% of them are reportedly exposed to hazardous or cruel work conditions, including mining and quarrying, commercial plantation and prostitution.

Caraballo added that 60,000 to 100,000 children have been exploited by the commercial sex industry, most of them girls between the ages of 13 and 18. Some 95% of children in this industry do not attend school and 70% have expressed the desire to return to school.

Children who live on the street number 250,000, 70% of them in big cities.

Meanwhile, 13% of armed rebels in the Philippines are children, according to the country's armed forces. These child soldiers comprise the majority of casualties and captives in conflict because they are more vulnerable to malnutrition, disease and death, Caraballo said (Arnold Tenorio, Manila Business World, 23 Mar)

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4) MIDNAPORE (India)

The rights of SC [Scheduled Castes] and ST people were not protected in West Bengal where the situation was worse than Bihar, Chairman of National Commission for SC/st Dilip Singh Bhuria said on Saturday. CPI-M Members attacked SC/ST people at Keshpur and Garbeta of Midnapore in past but the local police stations did not note the complaints when the SC/ST people went there, Bhuria told newsmen here after visiting camps sheltering members of Trinamool Congress and BJP in Garbeta, Keshpur and Midnapore Town, allegedly driven out by CPI-M From their homes.

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5)BURMA: Papun district devastated by scorched earth tactics

Posted Sunday, March, 25, 2001
Source: Burma Courier online news

(Information received an NGO border source: February, 2001) (Excerpted)
Recent reports on village displacement in Karen state suggest that the Burmese Army has not changed its tactics. One report from Nyaunglebin district records over 2,000 villagers fleeing since November and another reports 2,000 fleeing in Mudraw (Papun) district since December.

The reports detail killings, torture and rape and the destruction of crops. They also illustrate the increasing difficulty for people to escape because of the dangers of crossing heavily patrolled and defended roads. The Committee on Internally Displaced Karen Persons (CIDKP) has just published a Report on the situation of internally displaced persons in Mudraw (Papun) District with very clear maps illustrating the Burmese Army tactics and the plight of the villagers. The report estimates that some 30,000 of the 125,000 people in this District have now left for Thailand (25,000, mostly to the refugee camps) or inside Burma (5,000) and that of those left 37,000 are IDPs. Almost half of the IDPs are reported to be surviving on boiled rice soup.

6) KOREA: Seoul Fears U.S. Is Chilly about D?ente with North Source: New York Times

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Posted Sunday, March, 25, 2001 by Howard W. French

SEOUL, South Korea, March 23 - Before visiting Washington early this month for his first meeting with President Bush, the South Korean president, Kim Dae Jung, was bubbling with ideas about how to sustain the momentum in his quest to reconcile his nation with its long-hostile neighbor, North Korea.

There was talk of signing a joint peace declaration with the North, formally ending hostilities decades after the end of their civil war. South Korea was considering supplying electricity to its energy-poor neighbor. And there were expectations of a return visit to Seoul this spring by the North's leader, Kim Jong Il, following up on a summit meeting last June in Pyongyang.

But just two weeks after Mr. Kim returned from the White House, Koreans are describing his meetings with the Bush administration instead as an abrupt and sobering end to the most active phase of their president's groundbreaking policy of reconciliation with the North.

In New York, Sidney Jones: +1-212-216-1228 (o)
+1-718-788-2899 (h)

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7) INDONESIA: PRESIDENT MUST ACT TO ESTABLISH RIGHTS TRIBUNALS

(New York, March 23, 2001)

Human Rights Watch today urged Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to issue a presidential decree establishing special human rights courts. On March 21, Indonesia's parliament formally approved special courts to prosecute the 1999 crimes in East Timor, as well as cases stemming from a massacre by security forces of Muslim protesters in Tanjung Priok, the port area of Jakarta, in 1984. Under Indonesian law establishment of courts now awaits only action by the president.

"The parliament's action removes a huge obstacle to justice, but the real question is when we will see actual trials begin," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "Not only do we need the President to issue a decree, but we also need the Attorney-General to issue indictments and the Supreme Court to appoint judges for the new courts. Unless all of that happens quickly, skepticism about Indonesia's will to confront the military about human rights abuse is just going to grow deeper."

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM
28 March 2001

8) UA-06-2001: Coffins of 1965 victims raided by mob

INDONESIA - terror campaign, death threats, desecration of remains

As reported previously (UA 40/00), 26 victims of the 1965-66 Indonesian massacre were exhumed in November 2000 in the first official opening of a mass grave from that period. The organisation which conducted that exhumation, YPKP (Indonesian Institute for the Study of the 1965-66 Massacre), planned to re-bury the 26 bodies in a low-key, multi-faith ceremony in Kaloran, Temanggung, north of Yogyakarta (Central Java), but were prevented from doing so by a violent group of about 50 persons. Information from TAPOL verifies that the situation is becoming more tense with the arrival of thousands more who are threatening the lives of YPKP members and occupying their homes.

The latest news is that the house of Irawan Mangunkusuma has been occupied by fifteen people who were part of the mob that prevented the re-burial from going ahead. A crowd of around three thousand people has since arrived in Kaloran-Temanggung and has been circling his house, many of them brandishing sharp weapons and yelling slogans like 'Death to Irawan' and 'Irawan PKI' (PKI is the name of the communist party wiped out by Soeharto, and is still used as a tag to label 'dangerous' people).

SUGGESTED ACTION

Please write urgently to the President of Indonesia and the head of the Indonesian
National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to call on them to protect the YPKP members, to ensure that the organisers of the mob are arrested and prosecuted, and to open up official investigations into the 1965-66 massacre.

Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid
President, Republic of Indonesia
Presidential Palace, Jakarta
Istana Negara, Indonesia.
Fax: (62 21) 345 7782

Mr. Asmara Nababan
Secretary General
Komnas HAM
EMAIL: info@komnas.go.id

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9) China - Widespread Police Abuse

Two policemen have received suspended prison terms for torturing a teenage vandalism suspect in Shanxi province, a court official said yesterday. The case, reported by several official newspapers, gave rare insight into police abuses that human rights groups complain are widespread. Li Lusong, 19, was left strapped to a board for 12 days in a detention centre when he refused to confess to stealing office name plates and writing graffiti in Lan county in Shanxi province.

Two officers were sentenced last month for abuse of authority and torture, said an official of the Xing County People's Court in Shanxi. The 18-month sentences were suspended for two years, said the official, surnamed Wang. He said both officers had appealed.

(South China Morning Post of 29th March 2001)