*EPF306 04/18/01
Text: Sichan Siv on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
(April 17 statement to Human Rights Commission) (1620)

In a statement to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva April 17, the United States has expressed a strong desire to promote and protect human rights throughout the world.

Sichan Siv, a public member of the U.S. Delegation to the Commission on Human Rights, noted that in many parts of the world human rights defenders are often prevented from carrying out their work by the their own governments.

Siv cited several examples of human rights defenders who have been subjected to intimidation, torture and death, including Thoko Matshe, a "driving force for women's rights and democratic government in Zimbabwe"; Khin Kyaw and Myo Aung Thant of the Federation of Trade Unions Burma; and Dmitry Zavadsky, a television cameraman in Belarus.

Following is the text of Siv's remarks:

(begin text)

The Honorable Sichan Siv
U.S. Delegation, U.N. Commission on Human Rights
Item 17: Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

April 17, 2001

Mr. Chairman:

Twenty-six years ago today, Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge. Within days, a gentle society was turned upside down and an ancient civilization was virtually destroyed. Ultimately, two million human beings would perish, nearly one-third of Cambodia's population.

Five days before that, I had missed the last helicopter out of Phnom Penh. I was trying to help airlift food to an isolated province in the hope of saving the lives of 3,000 refugee families. I was marked for death, like every educated Cambodian. The next months were filled with unspeakable horror. Each of us lost something and someone dearest to us. I lost my mother, my older sister, my brother and their families -- 15 of them were clubbed to death.

But I was the lucky one. After ten months of terror in Khmer Rouge forced labor camps, I escaped. In time I made it to America. Thirteen years to the day from my escape to freedom, I was sworn in as a deputy assistant to President George Herbert Walker Bush.

And so I have known freedom from both sides. I have lost it, and I have gained it back. Thus human rights is not some idle construct to me, words to be tossed around a room as if they held no meaning. I have borne witness to the terrible costs of tyranny. But I have known man's better angels, too. That is why I want to talk about the promotion and protection of human rights today and those who defend them. These men and women are the heroes of freedom and democracy. They stand for conscience, courage, and conviction. Their strength lies not in deference to the strong, but in defense of the weak. A few, like Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi, win Nobel Prizes. Others find sanctuary in lands of freedom. But for many, prison is their only prize; torture, obscurity and death their close companions. It is to these brave and often unknown heroes that this Commission owes its honors.

One of the international community's first lines of defense is the U.N. Special Rapporteurs. Many were human rights defenders at home long before they were known in Geneva. We salute Natasa Kandic, Francis Deng, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, Adama Dieng, Max van der Stoel, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Roberto Garreton and Nigel Rodley. At the same time, we must voice our deep concern when Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir is faced with death threats and intimidation in her own country.

There are as many kinds of human rights defenders as there are human rights that need defending. Many have paid a heavy price for their beliefs. One is Vladimiro Roca Antunez. Along with three colleagues, Roca was charged with "acts against the security of the State in relation to the crime of sedition." That is quite a charge for simply publicizing their socio-economic analysis and suggesting that their government should encourage democracy. But in Cuba, serious analyses, and even suggestions, are deemed seditious. Four years later, Roca is still in jail.

Another strong advocate of democracy and good governance is Jorge Santistevan de Noriega of Peru. Appointed in 1996 as the country's first "Defensor del Pueblo," Santistevan demonstrated his professionalism throughout the difficult years of President Fujimori's rule. As a member of the government's Pardons Commission, he was instrumental in securing the release of many individuals wrongfully convicted of terrorism. During the problematic 2000 elections, he worked closely with Peruvian NGOs and the government for transparency in the electoral process. Afterwards, he was a key member of the OAS dialogue that developed a series of initiatives to reform and strengthen Peru's democratic institutions.

Mr. Chairman, not every human rights defender lives to see his or her efforts succeed. When persistent death threats drove Jafir Siddiq Hamzah from Indonesia in 1996, he established the International Forum for Aceh and helped set up the first Acehnese language newspaper. Returning home, he worked to establish the Support Committee for Human Rights in Aceh. In August 2000, he disappeared. His battered body was found the following month.

Sadly, Hamzah's was not an isolated case. In Aceh and in several other parts of Indonesia, the torture and abuse of human rights workers has become all too frequent, and those who commit these crimes are seldom held accountable. To cite only one other example, three young people, in the prime of their lives, who were working to assist victims of torture were also murdered in Aceh: Idris bin Yusuf, (Ms.) Emita binti Abdul Wahab and Bachtiar bin Usman. It is crucial that all those responsible for their deaths be held accountable.

Similarly, in my native Cambodia, this same culture of impunity continues to impede the efforts of NGOs and individuals to end human rights violations and bring those responsible to justice.

Cardinal Christian Niygham Tumi of Cameroon has exposed himself to great risk. Long known within the country for his courage and moral stature, Cardinal Tumi gained international attention for his efforts to stop extrajudicial killings in Douala. He later wrote a bold letter to the government protesting these abuses by the Operational Command. "Jeune Afrique" described him as "quick to rise up against any injustice in the political, economic and social environment of his country." But Cardinal Tumi is a man of action, as well as words, as his recent work with victims of torture and their families shows.

Another religious leader whose work inspires us is Bishop Macram Max Gassis of Sudan. Once the liaison between the country's Catholic bishops and the government, Bishop Gassis was indicted for criticizing Sudan's abysmal human rights record. Forced into exile in Kenya, he nonetheless returns to the Nuba Mountains - at considerable personal risk - with tons of food and medical supplies. He also focuses his attention on rebuilding schools that have been bombed by governmental forces. One such aerial attack killed 19 children and a teacher at one of the Bishop's schools in February of last year. Students of this school included children from Christian, Muslim and Animist religious traditions.

Thoko Matshe has been a driving force for women's rights and democratic government in Zimbabwe. As the chairperson of an NGO called the National Constitutional Assembly, she spearheaded the effort to draft a new and more democratic constitution. When the government drafted its own, with even more power for the president, Matshe's organization helped defeat it in a referendum last year. For her efforts, she has been subjected to many incidents of intimidation from unknown perpetrators, including regular break-ins at her house and threatening telephone calls.

Mr. Chairman, those who defend workers' rights to free association and assembly face difficulties in many countries. In Colombia, 129 labor leaders were murdered last year, many by paramilitary organizations. At least 22 have faced the same fate this year. In Burma where forced labor is common, those who work for workers' rights -- like Khin Kyaw and Myo Aung Thant of the Federation of Trade Unions Burma -- have been sentenced to prison terms of extraordinary duration for the crime of "labor activism."

Freedom of expression and a free media are fundamental pillars of civil society. For that reason, journalism is a dangerous profession in certain countries, as the beheading of Ukrainian online journalist and government critic Heorhiy Gongadze clearly indicates. So does the case of Dimitry Zavadsky, a Belarusian television cameraman. He was arrested in 1997 for making a documentary that criticized the Lukashenko regime. Zavadsky "disappeared" last July from the airport in Minsk.

In Russia, the nation's only nationwide independent television station seems to have been toppled over the weekend, not because of market forces, but from government pressure. The end of NTV's independence would be a sad day for Russia and a step backwards from the important gains the country has made in media freedom.

Sadly, there are a few countries where the government is so repressive that no human rights defenders can exist. One is Turkmenistan, where there are no local human rights monitoring groups. Government restrictions on freedom of speech, press and association preclude any effort to investigate and criticize publicly its human rights policies.

Mr. Chairman, when the curtain of darkness fell on Cambodia, only five members of this Commission had the moral courage to condemn it: Australia, Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that this Commission stand firm with human rights defenders. Otherwise the basic principle of universal human rights will always be in jeopardy, and we run the risk of further killing fields.

Thank you.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
NNNN