ASIA 165 OVERVIEW

In East and Southeast Asia, govern- ; the aftermath of the October 1999 coup ments relied on Asian initiatives during the in ; the continuing restrictions on year to address economic, political, and hu- Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma; Indonesia’s man rights issues. Gone was the rhetoric of failure to stop violence in West Timor; “Asian values” with its pre-financial crisis the obstructions placed by Cambodia in the premise that economic development and pro- way of a tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge; the tection of individuals rights were incompat- arrests of political and religious activists in ible. In its place was simply a determination, ; or the coup and hostage crisis in Fiji in from democratic and authoritarian govern- May. In all these countries, domestic political ments alike, to show that solutions to Asian imperatives far outweighed any fear of inter- problems were to be found within the region, national reaction, and as it turned out, there despite the diversity of cultures and political was not much to fear from donors worried interests involved. South Asia, as always, that pressure would inflict more damage on was a region apart, so divided by rivalries and themselves than on the offending country. security concerns that regional cooperation Unlike the years immediately prior to was all but impossible. the financial crisis when East and Southeast On the economic side, one example of Asian governments steadfastly refrained from East Asian regionalism was the movement criticizing each other (South Asian govern- toward developing the equivalent of an Asian ments felt no such hesitation), Asian region- Monetary Fund involving China, , South alism in 2000 was more accommodating of Korea and the ten countries of the Associa- different viewpoints. This may have reflected tion of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). the impact of democratization in important It had a political parallel with the all-Asian countries in the region such as Thailand, resistance in late 1999 to an international whose foreign minister broke ranks with other tribunal for East Timor, balanced by the ASEAN countries and openly criticized prominent Asian participation in the U.N. Burma’s suppression of opposition political Transitional Administration for East Timor activities. It also reflected distrust between (UNTAET) in which forces the big regional powers, China, India, and were headed first by a Filipino and then a Japan, and suspicion within the less powerful Thai. In October 2000, South Korean Presi- countries about the long-term political and dent Kim Dae-Jung received the Nobel Peace economic agendas of the big three. Prize for his efforts to ease tensions with The phenomenon of finding strength as North Korea, a wholly homegrown initiative. a region without necessarily constituting a At the governmental level, the “We’ll do it our solid political bloc may also have reflected the way” stance was partly a case of resistance many internal conflicts that strained bilateral to solutions imposed from outside but also relations. Kashmir remained a constant source one of perceived common interest in building of tension between India and Pakistan. regional strength across a variety of fields— Indonesia’s inability to control the conflict in including human rights. Aceh worried , just across the Straits Asian regionalism was helped by the of Malacca. The raid into eastern Malaysia by fact that the influence of the international guerrillas of the Abu Sayaf wing in the south- donor community was near an all-time low, ern Philippines led to the deportation of although aid levels were never higher: witness thousands of Filipinos from Malaysia and the helpless outrage of donor countries during strained that relationship. The ongoing ethnic the year over the treatment of women in in Burma affected relations with Afghanistan; the attacks on minorities in India, Bangladesh, and Thailand, all of which 166 ASIA OVERVIEW

had to shelter thousands of refugees from lies of those killed or unaccounted for in the those conflicts. Thai ’s May 1992 firing on unarmed Both governments and regional and local demonstrators demanded and got release of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were classified government documents about the committed, where possible, to regional ap- incident and continued to demand the pros- proaches to resolving regional human rights ecution of those responsible. Relatives of problems such as exploitation of migrant Tiananmen Square victims filed a civil com- labor, human trafficking, and child prostitu- plaint in a U.S. court in September against Li tion. There was less support among govern- Peng, then Chinese premier, now head of the ments for the international system for pro- National People’s Congress in Beijing. In tecting human rights. Not only did China Cambodia, international pressure forced the work harder than ever to escape censure at the Hun Sen government to agree reluctantly to U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, a tribunal over which it would not have weakening that body as a result, but the complete control to try former Khmer Rouge Australian government in September bitterly leaders for commit- rejected the actions of several U.N. bodies ted from 1975 to 1979. The final establish- that had questioned its treatment of aboriginals ment of the tribunal, which would be based in and refugees. Phnom Penh and have a majority of Cambo- Asian NGOs as a group, however, re- dian over non-Cambodian judges, was still mained an important voice for the expansion awaiting action by the Cambodian parliament of the international system, pushing—as their by late October. A special panel of the Dili governments, with few exceptions, did not— district court in East Timor was set up in June for ratification of the Rome Statute of the to try those responsible for crimes against International Criminal Court, an end to the use humanity and serious crimes committed dur- of child soldiers, and implementation of hu- ing the period January to October 1999. man rights commitments made at the Beijing In part because of a rising interest in Women’s Conference in 1995. accountability, the International Criminal Court attracted more attention in the region. Human Rights Developments By the end of the year, New Zealand and Fiji In , a rising concern with justice had ratified the Rome Statute while South for past abuses did not translate into effective Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, , the measures to prevent new ones. Serious prob- Solomon Islands, and the Marshall Islands lems remained in terms of protecting civilians had all signed. A conference of Asian NGOs, in areas of conflict; ensuring basic civil rights held in Bangkok in June, decided to make under authoritarian governments; and provid- ratification of the statute a key priority for ing protection to refugees, migrants, and traf- regional advocacy. ficking victims. Even as moves to punish past abuses The Pinochet precedent was very much were gathering strength, serious human rights on the minds of governments and NGOs in the problems continued to plague the region. region during the year, as accountability for Some were linked to separatist or nationalist past abuses was an issue as never before. In movements and governments’ abuse of secu- South Korea, efforts were underway to hold rity laws to detain, torture, “disappear,” or the U.S. accountable for the No Gun Ri kill suspected opponents. Some were classic massacre in July 1950, during the Korean war, examples of the refusal of authoritarian gov- in which some 400 civilians may have died. ernments to tolerate peaceful political oppo- Throughout the countries occupied by Japan sition. Others were linked to communal vio- during World War II, women forced into lence, still others to the failure of govern- sexual slavery as “comfort women” were still ments in the region to protect refugees and campaigning for individual compensation from migrants. the Japanese government. Relatives of fami- In all countries where armed rebellion ASIA OVERVIEW 167 against the central government was under- the trials of Anwar Ibrahim and Nawaz Sharif way, all parties to the conflict were respon- made clear. The use of draconian internal sible for abuse. In , civilians in the security legislation remained an issue in many northeast of the country were caught in the of the region’s democratic or democratizing middle between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil countries. In Bangladesh, for example, the Eelam (LTTE) and government forces. In government signed the Public Security Act Kashmir, Indian security forces used draco- into law in January, affording sweeping pow- nian measures, including ers to the police and circumventing guarantees arbitrary arrest, torture, and staged “encoun- of due process. ter killings”, against Muslim citizens who Where public advocacy was possible, were suspected of supporting guerrilla activ- human rights defenders were working toward ity, while armed Islamists were believed re- legislative change. In South Korea, for ex- sponsible for mass killings of Hindu civilians. ample, President Kim Dae-Jung announced in In Nepal, an ongoing Maoist con- August his willingness to repeal the harsh tinued to spread from four midwestern hill Law, as recommended by districts to encompass nearly the entire na- the Human Rights Commit- tion. In Aceh, in Indonesia, the Gerakan Aceh tee and demanded by a coalition of more than Merdeka (GAM, Free Aceh Movement) was 200 local rights organizations; as of October, reported to have killed suspected informers; it was still on the books, but former prisoners government security forces were responsible who had been unfairly detained under it by for the torture and killing of suspected GAM previous administrations became legally eli- supporters. Separatist conflicts were also gible for rehabilitation and compensation. (In underway in West Papua, Indonesia; north- fact, a 1999 law made anyone who had suf- east India; Xinjiang, in western China; and fered detention, job loss, or expulsion from around all of Burma’s borders. In Laos, armed universities as a result of involvement in pro- insurgency from ethnic Hmong in the high- democracy activities eligible for “restoration lands and ethnic Lao rebels based in Thailand of honor” and compensation.) In India, NGOs and Laos increased during the year, and in campaigned against the introduction of the June, the government initiated a national Prevention of Terrorism Bill into parliament. security alert after a series of unclaimed bomb In much of the region, communal, ethnic, blasts were attributed to those Lao insur- or caste tensions were caused or exacerbated gents. Governments tended to deal harshly by government actions. In India, Hindu na- with any rebels arrested, sometimes judi- tionalist policies of the ruling party encour- cially, sometimes extrajudicially, but their aged attacks on Dalits (“untouchables”), prosecutions of their own agents for human Muslims, and Christians. In China, percep- rights violations were rare. Several South tion of organized meditation groups as a Asian governments responded to internal potential political threat led to widespread armed conflicts by introducing or enhancing persecution of practitioners and existing anti-terrorism legislation or emer- members of other qi gong groups. Ethnic gency powers. tensions rooted in longstanding social and Fundamental rights to freedom of asso- economic grievances and a perception on the ciation, expression, and assembly were tightly part of indigenous elites of dispossession by restricted in North Korea, Burma, Vietnam, “migrants,” led to the coup in Fiji in May and and Afghanistan. China, despite some liber- the attempted coup in the Solomon Islands in alization, still banned any group or publica- June. In Fiji, many of the “migrants” were in tion that it considered a threat to the Commu- fact third- and fourth-generation Fijians. In nist Party’s hold on power. the Moluccas, in Indonesia, a bitter commu- But even in more open societies, like nal conflict with similar socioeconomic roots Malaysia, , Pakistan, and Cambo- was fueled by the participation of security dia, politics could be a risky occupation, as forces in the conflict, with the army largely 168 ASIA OVERVIEW

siding with Muslims and the police with allowed no access to the area concerned. In Christians. There was not a single ethnic or some countries, protection in the host coun- communal conflict in the region that was try was the problem. Many refugees from reducible to “ancient hatreds,” and impartial East Timor were virtual hostages of militia government policies, had they been in effect, leaders in Indonesian West Timor, for ex- could have gone a long way to reducing the ample. In others, the country from which potential for violence. refugees fled obstructed their efforts to re- Protecting refugees, migrants, and vic- turn. Despite international pressure to secure tims of trafficking was a huge issue across the the right to return for approximately 100,000 region, made more complicated by the fact Bhutanese refugees living in camps in Nepal that it was, by definition, transnational. To since late 1990 and 1991, Bhutan continued combat trafficking of Thai women to Japan, to resist proposals for their repatriation. The for example, both the Thai and Japanese UNHCR pledged to continue its voluntary governments needed to reform legislation and yearly repatriation of thousands of Afghan crack down on corruption of police and immi- refugees from Pakistan and Iran; the refugees gration officials. To protect foreign migrant returned to face ongoing civil war and severe workers against abuse in Malaysia or South violations of human rights. Korea, countries exporting labor needed to In many countries that offered little or prosecute illegal labor recruiters while the no protection for refugees, desperate asy- receiving countries needed to step up inves- lum-seekers tried to enter the workforce of tigations and prosecutions of abusive em- the host country, blurring the line between ployers. refugees and migrants, and making deporta- The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Af- tion of undocumented migrants tantamount fairs hosted the January 20 Asia-Pacific Sym- in many cases to refoulement. This was the posium on the Trafficking in Persons, but the case with three groups of Burmese refugees: conference did not generate any concrete ethnic Shan refugees in Thailand, ethnic Chin preventive measures. The governments of the in India; and ethnic Rohingya in Malaysia. and the Philippines organized Protection of the internally displaced a conference of the Asian Regional Initiative remained weak in some countries and non- on Trafficking of Women and Children existent in others. Many of the estimated one (ARIAT) from March 29-31 in Manila. That million internally displaced in Sri Lanka faced conference did produce an action plan for restrictions on fundamental freedoms and tackling human trafficking in the region. discrimination at the hands of Sri Lankan Throughout the region, huge numbers of security forces; there were even allegations refugees and internally displaced people con- that army and police used displaced villagers tinued to need protection. On the eve of the as forced labor north of Batticaloa in eastern fiftieth anniversary of the Office of the U.N. Sri Lanka. The Indonesian government for High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) much of the year obstructed efforts of inter- only five Asian countries were parties to the national agencies to assist the more than 1951 Convention relating to the Status of 300,000 Indonesians displaced by the com- Refugees or to its 1967 Protocol. Serious munal conflict in the Moluccas. By October, issues of refugee protection arose even in some aid was getting through. In Afghanistan, some of those five during the year. In Austra- aid agencies faced an ethical dilemma of lia, for example, a riot in August at an immi- whether to continue to provide assistance in gration detention center in Woomera, South light of the ruling Taliban’s policies on women Australia, drew international attention to the when to halt all assistance could have a government’s harsh treatment of undocu- disastrous impact on the displaced popula- mented migrants. In China, reports of forcible tion. A Taliban offensive in northeastern return of North Korean refugees were almost Afghanistan resulted in a massive exodus impossible to verify because UNHCR was from Takhar province into neighboring ASIA OVERVIEW 169

Badakshan. Up to 90,000 were believed to be legislation setting up a human rights commis- homeless, and a humanitarian crisis loomed as sion in 1999 but only began appointing mem- winter approached. bers in October 2000. In September, South Korea’s Ministry of Justice submitted a bill Defending Human Rights establishing a national human rights commis- Human rights work continued to be a sion to Congress; NGOs had opposed it dangerous occupation in some parts of Asia. because they wanted the commission to be Human rights activists across the region con- more than an advisory body and to be more demned the murder of Acehnese human rights independent of the government than the bill defender Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, whose body envisaged. Cambodia has three semi-official was found outside Medan, Indonesia, three human rights commissions, which are largely weeks after he “disappeared” on August 5. seen as partisan and ineffective: the Senate He was believed to have been killed by mili- Human Rights Commission, the National tary forces, although as of October, Indone- Assembly Human Rights Commission, and sian police investigators reported no leads to the government’s Human Rights Committee. the identity of his killers. In other countries, In July, NGO leaders and government repre- local defenders took risks in reporting gov- sentatives established an informal working ernment abuses. Several Cambodian human group to discuss establishing an independent rights defenders came under attack in August national human rights commission. The Cam- for reporting on alleged extrajudicial execu- bodian working group is a member of a re- tions in Kratie province; afterwards, the de- gional working group based in the Philippines fense ministry threatened to sue the main that is working to set up an ASEAN Human Cambodian human rights coalition. Chinese Rights Commission. National human rights activists who campaigned to organize a new institutions were already operating in India, association to uphold the rights outlined in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Aus- the two international rights covenants that tralia, and New Zealand. China had signed were detained, tried, and imprisoned. The Role of the International In some countries, human rights defend- Community ers moved into new and unaccustomed roles. In Malaysia, several leading activists stood United Nations for parliament in the November 1999 elec- The U.N. had a high profile on human tions as an expression of opposition to the rights during the year, most prominently with government’s treatment of former Deputy respect to Afghanistan, Burma, East Timor Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. In Indonesia, and Cambodia. In the latter two countries, by contrast, some human rights organiza- prosecutions of past abuses were high on the tions found themselves in the position of agenda. In East Timor, the Office of the High advising the democratically elected govern- Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) ment of Abdurrahman Wahid on policy. and the special rapporteurs on torture; extra- ELSAM, a rights advocacy organization, judicial, summary or arbitrary executions; drafted legislation for a proposed truth com- and violence against women conducted in- mission. quiries into grave abuses associated with the Increasingly, governments were finding 1999 scorched earth campaign; UNTAET it in their interests to establish national hu- was responsible for further investigations man rights institutions. Malaysia established and prosecutions. In Cambodia, negotiations a commission, known by the acronym over an international tribunal were conducted Suhakam, in April, and began receiving com- by the U.N’s Office of Legal Affairs. plaints shortly thereafter, primarily of police The OHCHR maintained field offices in abuse. Nepal established a national commis- Phnom Penh and Jakarta. While in the sion in May. The Thai parliament passed former included human rights monitoring in 170 ASIA OVERVIEW

their brief, the Jakarta office was restricted to United States technical advisory services. High Commis- The Clinton Administration took a se- sioner Mary Robinson visited China, Indone- lective interest in Asia. Securing normal trad- sia, East Timor, and South Korea during the ing relations with China was a priority; so year; she was scheduled to return to China in was preventing any escalation of the conflict November to work on a plan to give China in Kashmir. By the end of the year, develop- technical assistance to bring its laws into ing a dialogue with North Korea, building on conformity with international standards. Kim Dae-Jung’s “sunshine policy,” was also At the fifty-sixth session of the Com- a high priority. A state visit to India drew mission on Human Rights in March, U.N. Indo-U.S. relations closer than ever before; a Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Kamal state visit to Vietnam in November was Hossain and Special Rapporteur on Violence expected to put relations on an important against Women Radhika Coomraswamy sub- new, trade-focused footing. Indonesia was mitted their reports based on research con- very much a center of attention, but it was ducted in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1999. clear that neither the U.S., nor any other Hossain found widespread violations of in- international actor, knew exactly how to ternational humanitarian and human rights respond to a democratically chosen govern- law by Taliban forces and commanders against ment that was so manifestly weak in terms of ethnic Hazaras and Tajiks in central and strategic vision and capacity to govern. The northern Afghanistan. Eyewitness testimony U.S. took an active role in supporting the included accounts of forced displacement of UNTAET in East Timor and in pressing civilians, deliberate burning of houses and Indonesia to take action against in crops, summary executions of non-combat- West Timor. ants, arbitrary detention and forced labor. In In general, trade and economic relations newly occupied areas of central and northern and strategic interests in the region took Afghanistan, the special rapporteur found precedence over human rights, yet many that women and children were frequently Asian governments believed that the U.S. separated from their families and transported continued to give far too much attention to by truck to other regions of the country or to rights. Without any other international sup- Pakistan. There were also many accounts of port, for example, the U.S. tried and failed to young girls in these areas being forcibly mar- get a resolution critical of China adopted at ried to Taliban commanders. the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The Coomaraswamy’s report drew attention to a U.S. was the only donor at the World Bank- rise in violence against Afghan women, in- chaired Consultative Group on Indonesia cluding domestic violence, honor killings, and meeting in October that suggested loans might trafficking of Afghan refugee women in Paki- be conditioned on Indonesia’s progress to- stan. ward resolving the refugee situation in West Burma reacted in a similar fashion to the Timor. report in October of the special rapporteur on The U.S. government’s promotion of , Rajsoomer Allah, who for the fifth religious freedom—largely due to congres- consecutive year was not permitted to visit sional pressure—drew a mixed response in the country on which he was tasked to report. Asia, appreciated by victims of persecution, Most of the regional reporting to the seen by governments as meddling. The U.S. U.N. treaty bodies was fairly routine, but the Commission on International Religious Free- highly critical conclusions by the Committee dom held hearings on abuses in China, India on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to and Pakistan, and religious freedom was ex- a report submitted by Australia helped pro- pected to be a priority of Clinton’s trip to voke the Australian government’s angry state- Vietnam in November. In general, the impact ment in September that it would not necessar- of U.S. appeals or interventions was mar- ily allow further visits by treaty bodies. ginal. ASIA OVERVIEW 171

The office of the U.S. Ambassador-at- summit took place in June. Following the Large for War Crimes took a strong interest October 12, 1999 coup in Pakistan, the E.U. in justice issues relating to possible crimes quickly distanced itself from the military against humanity in East Timor and Cambo- government, and only restored political dia- dia. logue with Islamabad in September 2000. Otherwise, the E.U. was concerned with Japan expanding economic relations across the re- Japanese diplomacy was at a post-Cold gion, capped by the third Asia- Meet- War peak this year, and human rights received ing (ASME) summit in Seoul in October, attention as an important, if limited, compo- which brought together heads of state from nent of Japanese policy in Asia. Japan hosted fifteen European countries and ten Asian the G-8 summit in Okinawa (July 21-23), and governments to discuss expanded economic continued to emphasize building economic cooperation. and political relations with its neighbors in The E.U. put a high priority on finalizing Southeast and South Asia; the prime minister a trade agreement with China in the context of toured South Asia for the first time in a the WTO negotiations, while including hu- decade. A pre-summit gathering of G-8 man rights in its political dialogues and sum- foreign ministers issued a statement endors- mit meetings. But the E.U.-China human ing “fundamental principles of democracy, rights dialogue received increased scrutiny the rule of law, human rights and an open during the year as it failed to deliver tangible economy” as “indispensable” in an era of results, and by year’s end was under internal globalization. But at the summit itself, the G- review. 8 leaders side-stepped some of the most During the year, the E.U. used its influ- controversial issues. ence as a leading donor to support human Promoting reform and stability in Indo- rights and democratization in Vietnam, Cam- nesia was a top priority for Japan, which bodia, and Indonesia and East Timor. In the hosted the annual donor meeting for Indone- case of Burma, however, splits within the sia in October. It also provided major assis- E.U. made it difficult to develop a stronger tance for East Timor’s reconstruction and common position towards the ruling State urged a resolution of the crisis in West Timor. Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Japan maintained good relations with Burma, following the SPDC’s September crackdown. trying to nudge the military towards democ- An E.U.-ASEAN meeting in Laos remained ratization but also helped to deflect criticism on the calendar for December. of Burma internationally. Japan continued its campaign to give full economic and politi- World Bank cal support to the Hun Sen government in Two of the World Bank’s top five loan Cambodia, while also urging its cooperation recipients this year were in Asia (India, U.S. with the U.N. on a Khmer Rouge tribunal. $1.8 billion and China, $1.67 billion). The Relations with China, despite a visit to To- social and economic consequences of the kyo by late in the year, remained Asian financial crisis were key factors in rocky, largely because of mutual wariness on sparking further reforms within the World security issues; human rights concerns were Bank. Those reforms included more engage- marginal to Japan’s bilateral agenda with ment with civil society, strong attention to Beijing. combating corruption, and an interest in ex- amining the bank’s potential role in support- ing basic judicial reforms. The European Union was active in pro- World Bank President James moting peaceful resolution of the conflicts in Wolfensohn’s extraordinary appeal to Indo- Sri Lanka (backing Norway’s mediation of- nesian President Abdurrahman Wahid urging fer) and Kashmir. The first ever E.U.-India an end the violence in West Timor had a major 172 ASIA OVERVIEW/BURMA impact in Jakarta and helped frame an overall government, as other insurgent forces had international agenda for dealing with the cri- done, but they were no longer able to hold sis. significant territory. Tens of thousands of The bank’s emphasis on participation as villagers in the contested zones remained in an element of good governance led to consul- forced relocation sites or internally displaced tations with civil society in advance of bank- within the region. convened donor meetings, with NGOs actu- ally participating in some of the donor confer- Human Rights Developments ences, for example, on Indonesia and Cambo- The SPDC continued to deny its citi- dia. But in countries where NGOs were non- zens freedom of expression, association, as- existent or tightly controlled, such as China sembly, and movement. It intimidated mem- and Vietnam, the bank effectively let the bers of the democratic opposition National governments set the terms of any “consulta- League for Democracy (NLD) into resigning tion” with people likely to be affected by bank from the party and encouraged crowds to projects. denounce NLD members elected to parlia- In East Timor, the bank was a key ment in the May 1990 election but not promoter of democratization efforts through permitted to take their seats. The SPDC a community empowerment project involv- rhetoric against the NLD and its leader, Aung ing election of local councils to decide on San Suu Kyi, became increasingly extreme. development priorities. On March 27, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, in his A new World Bank report on Burma, address, called for forces leaked late in 1999, explicitly linked deterio- undermining stability to be eliminated. It was rating economic and social conditions in Burma a thinly veiled threat against the NLD. On to the lack of progress on political reform and May 2, a commentary in the state-run Kyemon human rights. This set a useful precedent and (Mirror) newspaper claimed there was evi- example for the ongoing debate in Asia on the dence of contact between the NLD and dis- linkages between rights concerns and gover- sident and insurgent groups, an offense pun- nance and development issues. ishable by death or life imprisonment. In a May 18 press conference, several Burmese officials pointed to what they said were linkages between the NLD and insurgents BURMA based along the Thai-Burma border, and on September 4 the official Myanmar Informa- The Burmese government took no steps tion Committee repeated this charge in a to improve its dire human rights record. The press release after Burmese security forces ruling State Peace and Development Council raided the NLD headquarters in Rangoon. (SPDC) continued to pursue a strategy of The SPDC released several high-profile marginalizing the democratic opposition political prisoners during the year, but con- through detention, intimidation, and restric- tinued to arrest individuals engaged in peace- tions on basic civil liberties. Despite interna- ful political activities. It extended clemency tional condemnation, the system of forced on medical grounds to NLD Youth member labor remained intact. Tun Zaw Zaw, also known as Tun Tint Wai, In the war-affected areas of eastern on December 19 after his mother appealed for Burma, gross violations of international hu- him to be released to seek treatment for an eye man rights and humanitarian law continued. disease. He had served two years of a seven There, the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), year prison term imposed on politically- Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), motivated charges of forgery and cheating. and Karen National Union (KNU), as well as Moe Thu (Sein Myint), former editor of the some other smaller groups, continued their economics magazine Danna, was released on refusal to agree to a cease-fire with the January 3, 2000, following the death of his BURMA 173 wife. He had been in prison since June 1996. action to prevent the freedom of movement of On May 22, the government released Cho NLD General Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, Nwe Oo, who had been in prison since 1995 Deputy Chairman Tin Oo, and a dozen other for a protest at the funeral of the former prime party members, forcing their two vehicles off minister, U Nu. The thirty-two-year old the main road in the town of Dala, on the doctor had two years of his sentence still to outskirts of Rangoon. Government forces serve at the time of release. The government refused to allow the party to proceed to the released six elderly men, five of them report- NLD branch office at Kunyangon, thirty edly NLD members, shortly after a request miles from the capital, and urged them to for the release of the men and other prisoners return to Rangoon because of “security con- made by the U.N. Secretary-General’s spe- cerns.” The NLD officials refused to do so cial envoy for Burma, Razali Ismail, during and, instead, camped in their cars, but on his October 2000 visit to Burma. On October September 3, police forcibly returned them to 20, the government released British activist Rangoon. Officials reportedly handcuffed James Mawdsley following strong protests Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo. The day earlier in the month by the British foreign before, security forces had raided the NLD ministry over reports that Mawdsley had headquarters in Rangoon and confiscated been beaten in detention and a statement by numerous documents. The government the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary De- claimed that the raid had uncovered damning tention that he was being held unlawfully. He evidence that NLD members were helping had served one year of a seventeen-year insurgent groups to smuggle explosives into sentence for distributing pro-democracy leaf- Burma and confined nine NLD executive lets in Burma. committee members to their homes pending There were also new arrests. On April completion of an investigation. The 24, the SPDC detained a member of the government’s move sparked international Committee Representing the People’s Par- condemnation. Foreign diplomats were per- liament (CRPP), the shadow legislature es- mitted to visit the nine detainees on Septem- tablished by the NLD. Aye Tha Aung, ber 14 and the NLD members were then chairperson of the CRPP’s Committee on permitted to move about Rangoon. Ethnic Nationalities Affairs, was reportedly On September 21, however, the govern- sentenced to twenty-one years of imprison- ment blocked a bid by Suu Kyi and other NLD ment in June to be served at Insein prison, members to travel by train to Mandalay. Suu where conditions were particularly harsh. In Kyi and eight other NLD executive members May, the authorities arrested Tint Wae, Kyaw were placed under effective house arrest. Myo Min, and Ma Htay Htay for allegedly Deputy Chairman Tin Oo was held at an distributing the dissident newspaper MoJo, unknown location. The nine executive mem- and sentenced them to seven years in prison. bers were still being held as of October 2000. Later the same month, the government ar- The SPDC failed to put a stop to its use rested over one hundred NLD members in an of forced labor for infrastructure develop- apparent attempt to suppress political pro- ment, the construction of Buddhist struc- tests to mark the tenth anniversary of the tures, maintenance of military camps, and 1990 election. portering for army patrols. A delegation from The International Committee of the Red the International Labour Organization (ILO), Cross (ICRC) continued to monitor the con- visited Rangoon and other areas at the SPDC’s ditions of thousands of prisoners, and was invitation from May 23-27, shortly before able to establish offices in Kengtung in Shan the June annual conference of the ILO. In its state, Pa-an in Karen state, and Moulmein in report on the visit, the ILO again called for the Mon state to begin to monitor the condition SPDC to cease the use of forced labor, repeal of civilians in eastern Burma. or amend legal provisions for forced labor in On August 24, Burmese officials took the Village and Towns acts, monitor compli- 174 BURMA ance, and penalize those who employed forced ity, remained shut for all but final year stu- labor. Burmese Minister for Labour Maj. dents. Gen. Tin Ngwe wrote a letter dated May 27 to the ILO’s director-general, stating that the Defending Human Rights SPDC leaders “have taken and are taking the No human rights organizations were necessary measures to ensure that there are allowed to operate in Burma. not instances of forced labor in Myanmar.” The ILO conference, however, concluded that The Role of the International the SPDC had failed to end the practice and Community gave the SPDC until November 2000 to insti- The international community was still tute reforms or suffer possible sanctions. On far from developing a common approach to October 19, an ILO delegation traveled to continued human rights abuses in Burma. In Rangoon to assess whether forced labor was March, fourteen governments were repre- still in use. sented at a meeting in South Korea convened Tens of thousands of villagers in the by the United Nations to discuss how to conflict areas of central Shan state, Karenni advance Burma’s political development. They state, Karen state, Mon state, and eastern included the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Tenasserim remained in forced relo- several E.U. and Southeast Asian states, as cation sites and faced curfews, looting, and well as the U.N. secretariat and the World restrictions on movement at the hands of the Bank, but no new and coherent strategy Burmese army. Shan refugees escaping to emerged. Thailand reported that strict curfews had been implemented in Burmese government United Nations relocation sites forbidding Shan villagers from In April, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi leaving their homes between dusk and dawn Annan appointed Malaysian diplomat Razali and, in some instances, prohibiting speaking Ismail as his new special envoy for Myanmar, and imposing a strict lights-out policy. Tens replacing Alvaro de Soto. Razali made his of thousands of other villagers in eastern and first visit to Rangoon from June 30 to July 3 southeastern Burma remained displaced in when he met with SPDC officials, NLD the forests or in areas contested by the army leaders, and foreign diplomats. During his and insurgent groups. second visit on October 9-12, he met with In the west, the SPDC continued to Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior Gen. Than deprive ethnic minority Muslim Rohingya of Shwe, the first time any special envoy had full citizenship rights. The Rohingya were been able to do so. subject to restrictions on their freedom of The U.N. General Assembly and U.N. movement, arbitrary taxation, and extortion Commission on Human Rights passed con- by local officials. Forced labor was also com- sensus resolutions in November 1999 and mon. A direct consequence of ongoing abuses April 2000, respectively, expressing concern was the gradual movement of Rohingya refu- over human rights abuses in Burma and the gees into the Bangladeshi labor market. Some ongoing political stalemate. In reports in 20,000 refugees remained in Nayapara and January and August, U.N. Special Rappor- Kutapalong refugee camps in Bangladesh as teur Rajsoomer Lallah focused on the lack of of October 2000, but the camps remained respect for civil and political rights, obstacles officially closed to new arrivals. in Burma to the realization of economic, On July 27, the SPDC reopened many of social, and cultural rights, and abuses faced by the country’s universities, which had been vulnerable groups. The SPDC refused to closed since 1996. Many campuses, how- admit Lallah to Burma for the fifth year in a ever, had been relocated to rural areas since the row. mid-90s and the doors of the University of Rangoon, a former hotbed of political activ- BURMA 175

United States Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which The U.S. government position on Burma Burma is a member. On April 10, the E.U. did not change. On May 19, President Clinton strengthened its common position by prohib- renewed sanctions on new invest- iting the sale, supply, and export to Burma of ment in Burma. On June 19, the U.S. Supreme equipment which could be used for internal Court unanimously rejected a Massachu- repression or terrorism, and by freezing the setts state law, which would have penalized funds of important government functionaries companies investing in Burma, ruling that and publishing their names. On September Congress had preempted it by establishing a 21, the E.U. issued a statement of concern sanctions policy. In another case brought by about the treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi and fifteen Burmese villagers, a U.S. federal court called for the SPDC to lift all restrictions on ruled on September 1 that Unocal corpora- her freedom of movement. The E.U. went tion and its partners knew of and benefited ahead, however, with plans for the first meet- from forced labor on the Yadana natural gas ing of E.U. and ASEAN foreign ministers pipeline between Burma and Thailand, but since Burma joined ASEAN in 1997, sched- that there was insufficient evidence that uled at this writing to be held in December in Unocal could control the abuses, and that the Vientiane, Laos. and court therefore lacked jurisdiction over the Liechtenstein in October placed sanctions on case. The plaintiffs planned to appeal to the Burma in line with the E.U. common position. federal appeals court in San Francisco. On October 6, the E.U. presidency issued a Two U.S. government reports sharply declaration in support of the U.N. special criticized the SPDC. In February, a Labor envoy’s mission. Department report concluded that forced labor, denial of the right to organize, and Japan forced relocation remained pervasive, while Japan continued its two-track policy abusive child labor was not uncommon. In towards Burma, urging democratization and September, the State Department announced respect for human rights and suspending any that Burma was one of a number of countries new aid until there were “visible signs” of that maintained serious restrictions on reli- progress, while also maintaining political ties gious freedom. with Rangoon. On November 28, 1999, On August 31, both Vice-President Al Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi met with Se- Gore and Secretary of State Madeline Albright nior Gen. Than Shwe at the Manila summit of publicly condemned the SPDC for its treat- leaders from ASEAN, China, South Korea, ment of Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD and Japan. His meeting was followed a few members and called for the SPDC to guaran- days later by a “personal” visit to Burma by tee their freedom of movement and other former Japanese premier Ryutaro Hashimoto. fundamental human rights. In his September Both leaders told the SPDC that Japan would 6 address to the U.N. Millennium Summit, not resume official development assistance President Clinton denounced the SPDC for absent visible political and economic reform. confining Aung San Suu Kyi to her home. On Hashimoto also recommended that the SPDC September 11, the State Department released re-open all Burmese universities. In late June, a joint statement signed by Albright and ten Japan sponsored a two-day workshop on other women foreign ministers condemning economic reform in Rangoon, originally sched- the SPDC’s violation of the basic human uled when Obuchi and Senior Gen. Than rights of NLD members. Shwe met in Manila in November 1999. No new Official Development Assistance (ODA) European Union loans or grants were announced during the The European Union (E.U.) tightened workshop, though it was widely viewed as a sanctions against Burma’s leaders while re- possible step towards resuming bilateral aid. newing engagement with the Association of Some Japanese companies—including a fer- 176 BURMA/CAMBODIA

tilizer manufacturer and Toyota car dealer— ters. In September, the Thai government pulled out of Burma during the year due to the called for the ASEAN troika—the difficulties they encountered operating there. association’s present and immediate past and In September, the Japanese government pro- future chairpersons—to address the situa- tested the virtual house arrest of the NLD tion in Burma. Vietnam, the current chair, executive committee. refused to activate the troika, claiming the In multilateral forums, Japan sought to issue was a Burmese internal affair. dilute or deflect actions critical of the SPDC. It voted against the resolution on forced labor World Bank at the ILO and did not cosponsor the Burma The World Bank in a report in late 1999 resolution adopted by the U.N. Commission linked Burma’s poor economic performance on Human Rights. to poor governance. The bank continued to deny loans to Burma and refused to consider Australia sending a high level delegation to Rangoon Australia sought to cultivate greater re- unless the SPDC affirmed in writing its com- spect for human rights through a long-term mitment to carrying out significant economic strategy of engagement with Burmese au- reforms. thorities on human rights. Urging the creation of a Burmese national human rights commis- Relevant Human Rights Watch sion, the Australian government financed two Reports: human rights workshops in July for mid-level Living in Limbo: Burmese Refugees in Ma- Burmese civil servants and a third in October. laysia, 8/00 On August 10, at meetings of the Asia Pacific Burmese Refugees in Bangladesh: Still No Forum of National Human Rights Institu- Durable Solution, 5/00 tions, the SPDC reiterated its intent to estab- lish a commission. Not everyone within the Australian government had confidence in the SPDC’s rhetorical commitment to change, CAMBODIA however. In a July 21 cable to Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Affairs Minister After more than two years of negotia- Alexander Downer, Ambassador Trevor Wil- tions, Cambodia and the United Nations son wrote that the SPDC was “determined to tentatively reached agreement in July to es- remain in power at all cost, allowing only tablish a national tribunal with international marginal reforms in the economy and soci- participation to bring former Khmer Rouge ety.” The Australian government criticized leaders to justice for genocide, crimes against Rangoon over the treatment of the NLD but humanity, and war crimes committed be- did not reassess its existing policy. tween April 1975 and January 1979. As of October, however, the government had yet to Association of South East Asian submit revised legislation establishing the Nations tribunal to the National Assembly, casting Thailand broke with the ASEAN posi- doubt on the government’s resolve. Al- tion of non-interference in the internal affairs though the high level of political strife that of member nations by abstaining from the had plagued Cambodia in recent years re- vote on the ILO resolution criticizing Burma ceded, serious human rights violations con- (all other ASEAN members voted against), tinued, including political killings and torture, and, in August, by criticizing the SPDC’s attacks on opposition leaders, human traf- treatment of Suu Kyi and the NLD. Foreign ficking, substandard prison conditions, and Minister Surin Pitsuwan said Burma’s ac- violations associated with labor and land tions could scuttle the planned December conflicts. meeting of ASEAN and E.U. foreign minis- CAMBODIA 177

Human Rights Developments Commune-level elections, which had been Cambodia and the U.N. reached agree- repeatedly postponed since the 1993 na- ment on the Khmer Rouge tribunal in July, tional elections, were not expected to be held after a series of negotiating sessions in Phnom until mid-2001 at the earliest. In order to Penh, New York, and Havana. As a compro- reduce political violence, Cambodia’s inde- mise to a fully international tribunal, the U.N. pendent nongovernmental election monitor- agreed that the tribunal would be located in ing coalitions advocated passage of a Com- Cambodia, as a three-tiered special chamber mune Election law requiring candidates to run within the Cambodian court system, consist- on an individual basis and not as political ing of a majority of Cambodian judges and a party members. They also called for the minority of foreign judges. All judges were to dismantling of commune militia, which were be appointed by the Cambodian Supreme reportedly used during previous elections to Council of Magistracy (SCM), which is domi- carry out violence and intimidation of oppo- nated by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party sition supporters. (CPP), although the U.N. secretary-general Numerous incidents of violence took was to put forward a list of foreign jurists as place against local commune leaders, mostly nominees for consideration by the SCM. directed at members of the opposition Sam Previous stumbling blocks, such as who Rainsy Party (SRP). These included the would control prosecutions, were resolved February 10 slaying of SRP member Chim through a concession brokered by the United Chhuon in Kompong Cham, for which a States, in which co-prosecutors— one Cam- commune militiaman was later arrested; the bodian and one nominated by the U.N.— June 3 killing of Prak Chhien, commune can- would issue indictments. Any differences didate for the royalist Funcinpec party in between co-prosecutors would be resolved Kampot, for which the incumbent commune through a pretrial chamber composed of chief was later arrested; and the August 17 Cambodian and foreign judges, with deci- murder of Khhim Nhak, a SRP commune sions to block indictments requiring the con- council member in Kompong Cham, for which sent of a majority of the judges plus at least the commune’s deputy police chief was sub- one foreign judge. The plan was criticized by sequently arrested. Other SRP commune Cambodian and international human rights candidates in Kompong Cham, Kampot, and organizations. They said it set an interna- Prey Veng were also threatened or attacked tional precedent by watering down standards during the year. While rights workers con- of judicial independence and creating a politi- cluded that most of these incidents were cally charged indictment process. motivated at least in part by local political Official impunity remained a major prob- rivalries or the victims’ role in publicizing lem. Virtually none of the perpetrators of local abuses of power, government officials hundreds of politically-motivated extrajudi- insisted that the violence reflected nothing cial killings, incidents of torture, and other more than personal disputes. The effect, abuses committed before and after the 1997 however, was clear: the attacks conveyed the coup and 1998 elections were brought to message that involvement in politics could be justice during the year. According to the U.N. life threatening. special representative for human rights in Further harassment of the SRP occurred Cambodia, as of April 2000 the government in May, when mobs attacked the SRP head- had investigated only nine of these cases, quarters in Phnom Penh and destroyed a leading to the trial and imprisonment of three memorial erected by the party in front of the culprits. An emerging trend was for victims National Assembly. In March, two SRP of rape or physical assault committed by members, Mong Davuth and Kong Bun Heang, government agents to be pressured to settle who had been arrested in September 1999 for cases out of court, with the encouragement of an alleged 1998 assassination attempt against local officials, police and/or court staff. Prime Minister Hun Sen, were released from 178 CAMBODIA

prison for lack of evidence. The judge said that they would receive U.S. $150 a month if they both men remained suspects in the case and defected. Three of the leaders of the group could be re-arrested at any time. In December were later executed. When their bodies were 1999, another SRP member, Sok Yoeun, who found, they were blindfolded and had their had fled the country after also being named as arms tied behind their backs. Others were a suspect in the alleged assassination attempt, reported missing and were believed “disap- was arrested in Thailand. He was charged with peared.” RCAF Deputy Commander Meas illegal entry and sentenced to six months in Sophea stated that at least seven men were prison there. Cambodia sought his extradition killed in a gun battle with government forces to face criminal charges but at this writing Sok in Kratie in May but alleged that they were Yoeun, having completed his sentence, was all bandits. On August 29, the Department of still in a Thai prison pending an extradition Defense announced that it would file a defa- hearing. mation suit against the Cambodian Human In October, a uniformed soldier threat- Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), which ened to shoot SRP parliamentarian Cheam had publicly condemned the killings and Channy during a standoff on a Phnom Penh “disappearances” and called for an official street that lasted more than an hour. Police at investigation. the scene did not intervene, despite requests Civilian mobs committed vigilante-style from U.N. human rights workers, who were killings of suspected thieves, in some cases, eventually able to get the parliamentarian to with the apparent collusion of the police. On safety. at least six occasions, suspects held in police Non-partisan organizations carrying out custody were seized by, or handed over to, voter education were also harassed. In Au- angry mobs and beaten to death. Between gust, provincial authorities in Kampot threat- January and May, there were at least fourteen ened to arrest members of the Committee for reported cases of mob violence against alleged Free and Fair Elections (Comfrel), an election criminals, in which ten people were killed. monitoring group, for allegedly inciting civil Law enforcement officers also made use of unrest by advocating that candidates run as lethal force against criminal suspects. In one independents rather than as party members. incident on August 3, police shot and killed After intervention by Comfrel’s Phnom Penh a suspected motorcycle thief. The police said office and the Ministry of Interior, the charges he was killed while trying to escape, but were dropped. In September, a district chief witnesses said he had been handcuffed and led in Kampot ordered police officers to close a down railway tracks by two men in plain Comfrel meeting being held in a pagoda, alleg- clothes before he was shot. edly because the organization lacked written Little progress was made in reforming permission from the governor to convene the Cambodia’s judicial system, plagued by cor- meeting. ruption and low-paid and poorly trained In August, rights workers received re- personnel. A council for judicial reform, es- ports that alleged members of the Khmer tablished in 1999 at the urging of Cambodia’s Serey (Free Khmer Movement, or FKM), a international donors, was completely inac- group accused of plotting to overthrow the tive during the year. A legal reform unit government, had been extrajudicially executed established by the Council of Ministers in or “disappeared” by government forces. As 2000 with World Bank funding accomplished many as thirty men were reportedly taken to little apart from hiring consultants to conduct a military base in Kratie province in April a number of studies. The Supreme Council of after having supposedly defected to the Royal Magistracy (SCM)— responsible for over- Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF). It was seeing and disciplining judges and comment- unclear how many of them were members of ing on draft laws—began to meet more regu- the FKM; some, apparently, were tricked larly. During the second half of the year the into claiming to be members by promises that SCM Disciplinary Council investigated a CAMBODIA 179 number of complaints against court officials newspapers, however, for allegedly defaming and took disciplinary action against five judges national leaders and endangering national se- and one prosecutor. curity. In April, the ministry ordered the In December 1999, ostensibly in an thirty-day suspension of Pratebath Poramean effort to curb rampant corruption in the Kampuchea (Cambodian News Bulletin) for judiciary, Hun Sen issued a directive to sus- allegedly insulting government officials. The pend several judges in Phnom Penh and rear- bulletin was suspended again in July for rest more than sixty individuals who alleg- reprinting a South China Morning Post article edly had bribed their way out of prison. No that allegedly defamed the king. In February, warrants were produced for the arrests, how- two opposition newspapers, Samleng ever, nor were established legal mechanisms Yuvachun Khmer (Voice of Khmer Youth) employed. As of October, at least thirty-four and Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Con- of those rearrested remained in jail, beyond science), were threatened with closure by the legal pre-trial detention limits. Ministry but then given a reprieve after they The acquittal of former Khmer Rouge published letters of apology for allegedly commander Chhouk Rin in July underscored inciting racial violence and insulting the king. the weakness of the judicial system. Rin was Ethnic Vietnamese minorities continued tried on July 18 for armed robbery, terrorism, to face repression. In November 1999, Phnom and destruction of public property in con- Penh municipal authorities evicted approxi- junction with the murder of three Western mately 600 ethnic Vietnamese residents from hostages in 1994. Rin, who defected to the a floating village on the Bassac River, charging RCAF in 1994, was acquitted on the basis of that they were illegal immigrants. A number a 1994 law that granted an amnesty to Khmer of those evicted told rights workers that they Rouge who defected within six months of the were long-time Cambodian citizens and that law’s promulgation, despite the fact that the local authorities confiscated their identity kidnaping took place after the law was passed. documents before the eviction. The villagers Prisoners continued to be subjected to were forced to float downstream to a location excessive pre-trial detention, food and water near the Vietnamese border, where they re- shortages, lack of medical care, and shackling. mained as of this writing. Harassment and 25 percent of prison inmates interviewed arrests of suspected “free Vietnam” members over a three-year period by the Cambodian in Cambodia opposed to the government of League for the Promotion and Defense of Vietnam increased. As the twenty-fifth anni- Human Rights (Licadho), a local human rights versary of the reunification of Vietnam on group, stated that they had been tortured, April 30 neared, Cambodian and Vietnamese threatened, or otherwise intimidated while in authorities announced that they were con- police custody after their arrests. As of Au- ducting joint actions to thwart suspected gust 2000, 369 inmates, some 25 percent of terrorist attacks. In February, Truong Tan Phnom Penh’s prison population, had been Hoang and Vinh Anh Tung, both alleged “free held awaiting trial longer than allowed by law. Vietnam” members, were arrested in different At this writing, the government had not taken cities. In March, police in Phnom Penh sur- any steps to punish the execution-style kill- rounded and entered the homes of several ing of two escaped prisoners upon their other suspected members, who eluded arrest recapture by guards at the Sihanoukville by going into hiding. Since 1996, more than prison in June 1999. twenty people suspected of belonging to The government and the CPP continued anti-Hanoi organizations have been arrested to dominate the airwaves, but more than in Cambodia. They have then either “disap- twenty privately-owned newspapers, some peared” or been deported to Vietnam, where affiliated with opposition parties, were able some have been tortured and imprisoned. to publish regularly. The Ministry of Infor- Vietnamese asylum seekers in Cambodia ap- mation ordered the suspension of several peared to be at higher risk of forcible return 180 CAMBODIA

than asylum seekers from other countries diers, or police— were usually immune from because of inconsistent application of protec- prosecution. In twenty cases of human traf- tion policies by the Phnom Penh office of the ficking recorded by Licadho from late 1999 to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. early 2000, for example, only three perpetra- Evictions and forcible confiscation of tors had been arrested and detained as of May land by military and civilian authorities con- 2000. tinued to rank as one of Cambodia’s most In one incident in February, fifty-one pervasive human rights problems. One NGO, trafficked workers from Vietnam and China Legal Aid of Cambodia, estimated its land- were detained and forced to work at the GT related caseload at around 6,000 families, garment factory in Phnom Penh. Workers with the vast majority of the conflicts involv- stated that they had been lured to Cambodia ing military commanders or provincial and with promises that they would be paid U.S. local officials. Particularly vulnerable to land $100 a month for eight hours of work a day. confiscation were Cambodia’s indigenous Instead, during their first three months at ethnic minorities in the northeast, whose work they were paid around $50 a month and lands were threatened by logging concessions prohibited from leaving the factory. Police and industrial plantations. With assistance raided the factory and released the workers, from NGOs and consultants from the Asian but afterwards repeatedly threatened to ar- Development Bank, a revised land law was rest the workers for lacking proper documen- drafted and submitted to the Council of Min- tation to work in Cambodia. No punitive isters in July. In June, both King Sihanouk and action was taken against those who were Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed strong responsible for smuggling the workers into support for the revised law to provide com- Cambodia and detaining and exploiting them munal land ownership rights for indigenous in the factory. minorities. In another case in August, police raided Labor violations included arbitrary dis- the Best Western hotel in Phnom Penh, where missal, unsafe working conditions, failure to seven women recruited from Romania and pay the minimum wage, and discrimination Moldova had been promised jobs as dancers. and intimidation of union and worker activ- Instead, they had been kept against their will ists. A labor code passed in 1997 met interna- in the hotel or its affiliate, where they were tional standards, but enforcement was poor forced to work as prostitutes. Many of their and procedures for registering unions remained clients were reportedly government officials. cumbersome. In March, the Ministry of La- The hotel owner, a Chinese-Canadian who bor issued a circular banning strikes that did had taken the women’s passports from them not take place within the premise of a factory, when they arrived in Phnom Penh, was re- enterprise or establishment and requiring at leased by police after questioning, reportedly least seven days prior notice to the employer for lack of evidence. No arrests were made of and the ministry in advance of a strike. Nev- those who recruited the women in Europe and ertheless, Cambodia’s labor movement re- facilitated their entry to Cambodia. mained strong through the year. In June, In September, the Ministry of Women’s thousands of garment workers went on strike Affairs announced that it was establishing a in Phnom Penh to press for better working blacklist system to banish suspected foreign conditions and an increase in monthly wages. sex offenders from Cambodia, whether or not Cambodia continued to be plagued by they had been convicted. When some human trafficking of people from rural areas and rights workers criticized the blacklist system other countries for sexual exploitation or to for circumventing due process and the pre- work in substandard conditions in Phnom sumption of innocence, the ministry de- Penh sweatshops. Powerful figures running fended the move by acknowledging that Cam- trafficking networks, and their accomplices bodian courts could not be depended upon to —many of them government officials, sol- uphold the law. CAMBODIA 181

Defending Human Rights rights workers who had intervened on Some forty Cambodian nongovernmen- Channy’s behalf. tal human rights organizations were active nationally in human rights education and The Role of the International investigating abuses. Rights groups that en- Community gaged in high-profile advocacy and investiga- In October 1999, U.N. Special Repre- tions, however, were subject to government- sentative for Human Rights in Cambodia sponsored attacks in the Cambodian press as Thomas Hammarberg negotiated a two-year well as threats of prosecution or physical extension for the Cambodia office of the U.N. harm. In August, rights workers investigating High Commissioner for Human Rights extrajudicial executions in Kratie were fol- (COHCHR). In August 2000, Peter lowed by soldiers, who then made a late-night Leuprecht, former deputy secretary general visit to the offices of one rights group. . Local of the Council of Europe, was named as and national authorities, including the prime replacement for Hammarberg, who had left minister, made threatening statements against the post in January. the Cambodian Human Rights Action Com- In April, the U.N. Commission on Hu- mittee (CHRAC), a coalition of human rights man Rights agreed to a resolution on Cambo- organizations, after it publicly condemned dia that welcomed the government’s investi- the executions and “disappearances.” He gations into some cases of politically-moti- accused the CHRAC of “protecting crimi- vated violence, its efforts to reduce the num- nals who have killed people.” On August 29, bers of police and military, and the develop- in what appeared likely to become the stron- ment of a five-year plan by the Ministry of gest move against rights organizations in eight Women’s Affairs to improve the status of years, the Ministry of Defense announced women. The resolution also expressed con- that it would file defamation charges against cerns, however, about continued political the CHRAC because of its public statement. violence and intimidation, impunity, torture, As of October, no charges had actually been extrajudicial killings, excessive pre-trial de- filed. tention, illegal land confiscations, and the In March, Phnom Penh authorities inadequacy of the courts. In May, the U.N. threatened to arrest Licadho staff members Committee on the Rights of the Child consid- after the group provided humanitarian assis- ered Cambodia’s initial report on its imple- tance to ethnic Vietnamese lacking proper mentation of the Convention on the Rights of work authorization. The same month, au- the Child, which it ratified in 1992. Among the thorities in Koh Kong province threatened to committee’s recommendations were that arrest workers from the Cambodian Human Cambodia establish a juvenile justice system, Rights and Development Association (known expand education and child health services, by its acronym, ADHOC) in connection with and demobilize child soldiers. a trafficking case, when a woman who had sold her daughter brought charges of physical Major Donors assault against ADHOC’s provincial coordi- At the Consultative Group (C.G.) meet- nator. The woman later withdrew her com- ing of Cambodia’s international donors, held plaint and admitted that she had been pres- in May in Paris, donors committed U.S. $548 sured by police to file the complaint. In million in aid to Cambodia. Donors expressed October 1999, three suspects were arrested concern about continued human rights abuses in conjunction with the December 1998 kill- and impunity, and agreed on the need to ing of Pourng Tong, an activist member of establish a formal working group on gover- ADHOC. In March 2000, however, the sus- nance to address judicial reform and corrup- pects were released. In October, a soldier tion. In July, a good governance working threatened to shoot not only SRP parliamen- group chaired by the World Bank was estab- tarian Cheam Channy but also U.N. human lished. Its members included the United States, 182 CAMBODIA/CHINA AND TIBET

Japan, Australia, France, the European Union actively engaged in the process. (E.U.), , the , the On labor rights, the United States sent U.N. Development Program, Asian Develop- customs investigators to Phnom Penh in ment Bank, and COHCHR. March to check into reports that a garment Several countries contributed towards factory was using forced labor and trafficked judicial reform programs; for example, part of workers. In May, Cambodia and the E.U. a U.S. $5.2 million grant from the E.U. was signed a textile trade agreement in which earmarked for judicial and administrative re- Cambodian textiles could formally access the form. In March, Japan committed up to U.S. E.U. internal market quota-and duty-free. $20 million in aid to Cambodia, continuing its During a signing ceremony, European Com- role as the country’s largest donor. It also mission official Michel Caillouet noted planned to send police experts to provide Cambodia’s efforts to improve labor condi- technical assistance, including education on tions in the textile industry. human rights. Other than the United States, the E.U., Japan, and Australia, donor interest in push- ing for international standards for Khmer CHINA AND TIBET Rouge trials was low. During a visit to Cam- bodia in January, Japanese Prime Minister Chinese authorities showed no signs of Obuchi urged Hun Sen to fully cooperate with easing stringent curbs on basic freedoms. the U.N. in establishing a tribunal and stated Their preoccupation with social stability, that Japan would not support any tribunal fueled by a rise in worker and farmer protests, that was not endorsed by the U.N. Japanese severe urban unemployment, and separatist officials raised the issue again when Hun Sen movements in Tibet and Xinjiang, led to tight went to Tokyo in June for Obuchi’s funeral. political control. The continued to In February, the European Parliament adopted see unauthorized religious practices as po- a resolution supporting the U.N.’s reserva- tentially subversive. tions about the Cambodian government’s China reacted to perceived threats with first draft tribunal law. On April 10, just repression, control of information, and ideo- before a meeting between Hun Sen and U.N. logical campaigns. It released a few dissidents Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the E.U. is- before their prison terms expired, but it sued a statement endorsing continued dia- imprisoned many more for acting in support logue between Cambodia and the U.N. regard- of their political or religious beliefs. The ing the tribunal and called for the tribunal to government attempted to cut off the free flow conform to international standards. During a of information within China and between visit to Cambodia in May, Australian Foreign China and other countries. The Internet and Minister Alexander Downer called for Cam- its potential for free exchange of ideas gener- bodia to make progress on the tribunal and ated particular alarm in official circles, but announced that a two-year $A28 million aid academics, journalists, publishers, and film package would include funding for a criminal makers all faced censorship. On the ideologi- justice assistance project. cal side, President and Party Secretary Jiang Advocacy in support of neutral and Zemin initiated two campaigns, the “three timely commune elections was largely con- stresses” and the “three represents,” to rein- ducted by domestic NGOs. At the CG meet- force unity within the Chinese Communist ing, the Dutch ambassador stated that the Party (CCP) and convince China’s citizens of would consider support for the benefits of the CCP’s role. commune elections only if the commune mi- On the positive side, Chinese authori- litia were dismantled, a more neutral National ties continued to reform the legal system, Election Commission was created, and elec- seeking international expertise to help design tion monitoring NGOs were allowed to be new legal structures, train judicial and legal CHINA AND TIBET 183 personnel, and help disseminate information Starting in March, some twenty prov- on the reforms to the public, the courts, and inces set up special Internet police to expand the police. the sao huang (“sweep away the pulp”) campaign, ostensibly aimed at removing por- Human Rights Developments nography from the Internet. In practice it was The government systematically sup- used to ban postings the government consid- pressed independent political activities. From ered objectionable. October 25, 1999 through July 2000, courts In May, authorities shut down the pri- in four cities sentenced ten leaders of the vate-sector China Finance Information Net- dissident-led China Democracy Party (CDP) work after it published a report on corrup- to heavy prison terms, primarily on subver- tion. On September 19, a Hebei court sen- sion charges. Wu Yilong, who helped set up tenced Qi Yanchen, a founding member of the CDP provincial preparatory committees, quasi-independent China Development received eleven years; Tong Shidong, who Union, to a four-year prison term, in part for put together the only on-campus CDP branch, posting parts of his book, The Collapse of and Zhu Zhengming, who took part in draft- China, on the Internet. Huang Qi, who ran a ing the CDP’s founding documents, received website out of Sichuan province, was charged ten-year terms. Other members received sen- with subversion after he posted letters criti- tences ranging from five and a half to eight cizing the 1989 massacre. Officials in Sichuan years. accused Jiang Shihua, a high school teacher In December 1999, Wang Yingzheng and Internet cafe manager, with subversion received a three-year sentence for advocating for posting articles critical of communist political reform to combat corruption. In authorities. In August, state security police in February 2000, the Hangzhou Intermediate Shandong province shut down New Cultural Court sentenced Wang Ce, chairman of the Forum, a website set up by pro-democracy exile organization Alliance for a Democratic activists. China, to a four-year term for “entering China Stringent new regulations came into force illegally and endangering state security.” An on September 26, 2000 banning any materials Jun, founder of the nongovernmental organi- judged subversive, supportive of so-called zation Corruption Watch, was sentenced to cults, damaging to reunification efforts with four years in prison on April 5 on charges of Taiwan, or harmful to China’s reputation. inciting the overthrow of the government. Content and service providers were required Chinese authorities struggled to gain to keep records of all users and content for 60 control of the Internet, with its estimated 16 days and to hand over the information to million users. By the end of 1999, regulations police on demand. had already banned web operators from link- Chinese authorities continued to target ing to foreign news sites, and companies the print media and publishing industry. In operating websites from hiring their own April, after removing the publisher of two reporters. New regulations issued in March popular newspapers, China Business and 2000 forbade China-based websites from Jingping Consumer’s Guide, the CCP re- reporting news from “independent news or- issued stern warnings that the media must ganizations,” thus limiting them to state- “lead the ideology of the people through news controlled sources. In January 2000, the propaganda.” In June, the warnings were Ministry of State Security announced the backed up the announcement that a new closure of web sites, chat rooms, and Internet internal directive required all media to uphold news groups posting undefined “state se- the CCP line. In July, editors in about a dozen crets,” and expressly banned the use of e-mail publishing houses were replaced, demoted, or in that context. The government also an- transferred for flouting the directive. In Sep- nounced regulations limiting the use of en- tember, authorities in Taiyuan, Shanxi prov- cryption programs. ince, confiscated over 60,000 copies of nine 184 CHINA AND TIBET “illegal” newspapers and arrested an “illegal” Guangming Daily editorial criticized four editor-in-chief for setting up and distributing prominent academics, Fan Gang, Mao Yushi, a newspaper without permission. Liu Junning, and Li Shenzhi, for teaching On August 12, the political unit of a local Western theoretical perspectives. Liu was Public Affairs Bureau detained U.S.-based fired from his professorship at the Political poet Bei Ling after his journal, Qingxiang Science Research Institute of the Chinese (Tendency), was published for the first time Academy of Social Sciences. He Qinglian, an in Beijing. The 400-page issue, all copies of economist and author of the highly critical which were confiscated, contained articles by Pitfalls of Modernization, was dismissed as well-known dissidents and a photograph of editor of the Shenzhen Legal Daily in July. exiled student leader . After enor- Shenzhen media and publishing houses were mous international pressure, Bei Ling was warned not to publish her writings. deported on August 26, and his brother, The government continued to be suspi- Huang Feng, also detained, was released, but cious of unauthorized contacts with foreign- not until the family had paid part of a 200,000 ers. It intensified efforts to prevent Bao renminbi (approximately U.S. $25,000) fine. Tong, former aide to deposed Chinese Com- In January 2000, several weeks after the munist Party secretary , from Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement meeting with other intellectuals or with the published the first and only issue of its foreign press. Authorities prevented Ding Bulletin, police took four members into cus- Zilin, whose son was killed on June 4, 1989 tody. All were released except Wang Yiliang and who has rallied relatives of the Tiananmen in Shanghai, who was serving a two-year Square victims, from meeting Lois Snow, administrative sentence on the trumped-up widow of renowned journalist Edgar Snow. charge of disseminating pornography. In June, The government’s campaign to crush Beijing Publishing House canceled the release the Falun Gong continued unabated and was of Waiting, the award-winning novel by expa- extended to include other qi gong, or orga- triate Ha Jin, after it was attacked by a Beijing nized meditation groups, that authorities University professor as a plot to show accused of spreading superstition. In Octo- “China’s backwardness.” In August, cus- ber 1999, the government formally deemed toms officials impounded and held for a month Falun Gong a cult, banned under the Chinese some 16,000 copies of The Clinton Years by Criminal Code, enabling authorities to im- a former White House photographer. The pose harsh sentences on its members. Trials book, published in the U.S., printed in Hong of at least eight Falun Gong leaders in Novem- Kong, and shipped to China for binding, ber and December 1999 resulted in prison included a picture of U.S. President Clinton sentences ranging between two and eighteen and the Dalai Lama. years, and trials of other members continued Chinese authorities refused permission well into 2000. In August, the director of the to include works by a Hong Kong writer in an Religious Affairs Bureau admitted that 151 international book fair in Beijing because of Falun Gong members had been convicted of his views on Taiwan. Officials also banned leaking state secrets, creating chaos, or other actor-director Jiang Wen from film-making in crimes. Many detentions came as a result of China after his film that won the Grand Prix silent, peaceful protests. On National Day, at the Cannes Film Festival, Guizi Laile (Dev- October 1, and the days following, security ils on the Doorstep), was judged unpatriotic. forces beat and detained scores of protestors Social scientists also came under in- in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. By late creased pressure. Song Yongyi, a librarian at October, Falun Gong practitioners were claim- Dickinson College in the U.S., was detained in ing that more than fifty members had died in China in August 1999 in connection with his detention or as a result of mistreatment. research on the . He was , a qi gong group claiming released in January 2000. In June, a 38 million adherents, and several smaller CHINA AND TIBET 185 groups were also targeted. Authorities closed together with two priests. down much of Zhong Gong’s extensive busi- Social unrest appeared to be growing. ness network, including its training centers, Local governments faced widespread demon- trading companies, clinics, and health spas, strations, riots, sit-ins, and other forms of seized its assets, and detained several mem- protest. In November 1999, a court in Shaanxi bers. In September, the U.S. refused China’s province sentenced Ma Wenlin to a five-year request to extradite Hongbao, the leader prison term on charges of “disturbing the of Zhong Gong, whom Chinese authorities social order” for having brought farmers’ accused of rape. The Chinese government complaints to the State Council in Beijing. planned an appeal. Legal reform moved forward, but judi- Despite the assertion by a Chinese del- cial abuses were still common. In Hebei prov- egation attending the August 2000 Millen- ince, a high court on three occasions over- nium World Peace Summit in New York that turned murder convictions against four peas- “there is no religious persecution in China,” ants, citing doctored evidence, torture, and Protestant house church members and Catho- threats. Local officials, however, decided to lic “underground” believers came under in- try the men again. In Guangzhou, in July creased pressure. A decree promulgated in 1999, a migrant woman who appeared upset late September by the State Administration and who failed to present identification to of Religious Affairs imposed stringent new police, was gang raped after police took her to controls over the religious activities of for- a psychiatric ward. Her decision to press for eigners. Also in September, a Communist an investigation led to destruction of evidence Party official asserted that religious theology and allegations that she had fabricated the must be made compatible with the socialist case. Only after the case had been publicized system. in November 1999 was one of the perpetra- In Anhui province, new regulations tors charged with rape and eventually con- that came into force in January led to an victed, and three police reportedly dismissed. increase in detentions, particularly of Protes- Chinese courts continued to impose the tants; forty-seven members of the Full Circle death penalty for a wide variety of offenses, Church were among those detained. The a list that grew as authorities stepped up their group’s leader, Xu Yongzi, was released in anti-corruption campaign. In October, May after serving a three-year sentence. China’s highest court issued a judicial inter- Detentions and church closings occurred in pretation calling for more aggressive use of the other provinces as well, including an exten- death penalty against smugglers of arms, sive crackdown in Guangdong in May. On counterfeit currency, and endangered spe- August 23, police in Henan province detained cies, and against government officials who some 130 members of the Fangcheng church, aided them. The executions of two high CCP among them three U.S. missionaries who officials were extensively publicized as warn- were released and deported within forty- ings to other officials involved in bribe-taking: eight hours. Eighty-five of the 130 were Cheng Kejie, former vice-chairman of the “reeducated,” according to Chinese authori- Standing Committee of the National People’s ties, and returned home. Congress (China’s legislature), executed on State interference in Catholic affairs was September 14, was the highest ranking official evident in January when the officially-sanc- executed since the founding of the PRC in tioned Chinese Catholic church, rather than 1949; Hu Changqing, former governor of the Pope, ordained five new bishops. As of Jiangxi province and former deputy director October, at least seven Catholic bishops of the Religious Affairs Bureau, was sen- remained in detention in China, many of tenced in February and executed March 8. whom had been held for years. On September South Korean NGOs reported the forc- 14, sixty police officers took eighty-one- ible repatriation of North Korean refugees by year-old Bishop Zeng Jingmu into custody, Chinese authorities, but independent confir- 186 CHINA AND TIBET

mation was not possible. involvement in independence activities re- sulted in one death and five arrests in Chamdo Tibet in May. Chinese authorities continued to sup- Starting in January, authorities again press suspected “splittist” activities in Tibet blocked broadcasts by the Oslo-based Voice and exert control over religious institutions. of Tibet. Officials embarked simultaneously on cam- paigns to vilify the Dalai Lama and to con- Xinjiang vince the international community that Chi- Political and religious repression was nese policies in Tibet had ensured economic evident in Xinjiang, but the Chinese govern- well-being and respect for human rights. ment also faced a genuine security threat from In December 1999, one of the most armed groups. Premier visited in senior religious figures in Tibetan Buddhism, September and called for an “iron fist” stance the then fourteen-year-old 17th Karmapa, against splittists, religious fundamentalists, fled Tibet for India. In the wake of his escape, and terrorists. At least twenty-four alleged authorities moved his parents out of Lhasa, terrorists, most of them ethnic Uighur Mus- capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region lims, were executed during the year. (TAR); detained several people at Tsurphu, Chinese authorities initiated a propa- the Karmapa’s monastery; and replaced some ganda campaign in Xinjiang in May 2000. In monks. The same week as the escape, Chinese villages surrounding Kashgar, close to the authorities announced their recognition of Pakistan border, thousands of cadres, making another high-ranking figure, the two-year-old use of film clips, exhibitions, and a drama 7th Reting Rinpoche, thereby once again based on local alleged terrorist activities, asserting a government role in the selection went house to house warning residents against and installation of Tibetan religious figures. In the separatist danger and reiterating China’s May, authorities detained eight Reting monks claim to Xinjiang. In September, a banner who protested the choice. stretched across the marketplace in Hotan Between April, when officials of the read, “Severely smash the separatist back- TAR met in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and bone elements, the violent terrorist criminals July, government controls over monasteries and the religious extremists who lead them.” and religious rituals increased. A government In December 1999, the Regional Press circular severely curtailed celebrations of the and Publications Bureau, the Urumqi City Dalai Lama’s birthday in July. Officials Bureau for Industry and Commerce, and the searched the homes of nongovernmental work- Public Security Bureau closed a facility for ers and non-CCP members for materials on printing “illegal religious propaganda.” the Dalai Lama or other evidence of religious In March, Uighur businesswoman activity. Vacationing students were warned Rebiya Kadeer was sentenced to eight years to stay away from monasteries and temples in prison for “illegally passing intelligence on pain of expulsion, and, on July 4, the outside China.” The information in question official Tibet Daily instructed parents and consisted of underlined newspaper articles schools to enhance atheistic education to sent to her husband, a U.S.-based political “help rid [the children] of the bad influence of refugee. She had been detained in August religion.” Later the same month, officials 1999 just before a meeting with several U.S. intensified their drive to reduce the numbers congressional staff. Her eldest son and her of monks and nuns. secretary were administratively sentenced to Detentions of monks and nuns for their two- and three-year terms in November 1999. peaceful pro-independence activities contin- Over one hundred Muslims were re- ued. In March, authorities in Sog county portedly detained in Urumqi for advocating detained eight Tibetans, five of them monks. the implementation of Islamic law. Resistance to “patriotic reeducation” and CHINA AND TIBET 187

Hong Kong pendent panel decided that messages from Human rights in the Special Administra- university administrators to Dr. Chung were tive Region (S.A.R) of Hong Kong were “calculated to inhibit his right to academic generally respected but there were ominous freedom.” In September, the administrators signs of censorship and threats to academic in question resigned. freedom and judicial independence. On De- A 1997 Public Order Ordinance came cember 3, 1999, the Court of Final Appeal under attack in September after police used it capitulated to Chinese government pressure to arrest five university student leaders who and agreed to interpret more narrowly the had led protests against a projected increase right of residency in Hong Kong. (In May in tuition. The charges were dropped after 1999, following an earlier Court of Final three colleges urged leniency. The ordinance Appeal ruling which set wide eligibility pa- gave police effective veto power over pro- rameters, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa posed demonstrations had invited Beijing to review the decision. In September 2000, elections for the The U.N. Human Rights Committee’s obser- Legislative Council (Legco) were held for the vations on the SAR’s compliance with the second time since 1997. The pro-China International Covenant on Civil and Political Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong Rights in November 1999 strongly criticized won eleven seats, while the liberal Demo- Tung’s move.) In February 2000, Hong Kong cratic Party did only slightly better, winning officials agreed to consult Beijing before they twelve. Turnout was low. Earlier in the year, began drafting laws on sedition, subversion, leaders of all democratic parties had called for and treason. direct election of all Legco seats by 2008 in In April, a senior official of the central place of the existing partly elected, partly government’s Liaison Office warned Hong appointed system. Kong journalists against advocating Taiwan- ese independence, saying they should report Defending Human Rights only what was in the interests of Beijing. The No human rights groups were allowed to warning came after Taiwan’s vice-president function openly in mainland China or Tibet, said on local television that Taiwan should be although Hong Kong continued to have a “a remote relative and close neighbor” of dynamic group of activists working on the full China. In June, an official representative of spectrum of rights without obvious interfer- Beijing in Hong Kong told a meeting of SAR ence from the government. businessmen that choosing pro-independence Taiwanese partners could jeopardize their The Role of the International mainland business dealings. The Liaison Community Office also warned Hong Kong Catholics to China escaped virtually all pressure on keep celebrations “low key” over the canoni- human rights as governments focused on its zation of 120 victims of the 1900 Boxer prospective entry into the World Trade Or- Rebellion in China. In September, the Chi- ganization (WTO). In September, the U.S. nese government warned Anson Chan, the Congress voted to grant China permanent head of the civil service in Hong Kong, that normal trade relations (PNTR) without any she and her entire staff must step up their human rights conditions, thereby doing away support of the SAR’s chief executive. with the annual review of its trade status. Controversy broke out in July when Dr. The European Union (E.U.), Australia, Chung Ting-yiu, director of the Public Opin- Japan, Canada, and others carried out bilateral ion Program of the University of Hong Kong, “dialogues” on human rights, although offi- made public his suspicions that Tung Chee- cials acknowledged a lack of tangible progress. hwa might be behind pressure to stop the The dialogue with the U.S., cut off by China university from conducting polls on Tung’s after the NATO bombing of its embassy in declining popularity. On August 29, an inde- Belgrade, remained suspended. 188 CHINA AND TIBET Cooperation with the U.N. was mini- torture. mal. U.N. High Commissioner for Human The U.N.’s special rapporteur on torture Rights Mary Robinson held a regional work- continued to negotiate with the government shop in Beijing in March and was expected to on the terms of a mission to China, without sign a technical cooperation agreement with success. Similarly, the International Com- China later in the year. But the failure of the mittee of the Red Cross made no headway in U.N. Commission on Human Rights to even its long-standing effort to gain access to debate a resolution on China at its annual Chinese prisons and detention facilities. meeting in Geneva in April gave China little The International Labor Organization’s incentive to ratify two key U.N. human rights Committee on Freedom of Association ruled treaties that it had already signed. in June that provisions of China’s Trade High level visits by Chinese leaders to Union Act were in violation of ILO principles Europe, Japan, and the U.S., and an E.U.- of free association, called for the release of China summit in Beijing in October included several detained trade union leaders, and only routine references to human rights, which urged China to accept an ILO “direct contact” China easily dismissed. mission. There was no response from Beijing. Foreign Internet companies ignored or The U.N. capitulated to Chinese pres- turned down appeals to intervene privately sure in August when it barred the Dalai Lama with Chinese officials on behalf of those in from attending the World Millennium Peace China arrested for using the Internet to pro- Summit. test rights abuses. European Union United Nations The E.U.’s relations with China, the Once again, the U.N. Commission on E.U.’s third largest trading partner, focused Human Rights failed to hold China account- heavily on expanding commercial relations, able. A “no action” motion by China, to keep including completion of an agreement on the U.S.-sponsored resolution off the China’s entry into the WTO. Formal but commission’s agenda, was adopted on April unsubstantial discussions of human rights 18 by a vote of 22 to 18, with twelve absten- took place during the E.U.-China summit, tions and one delegation (Romania) absent. held under the Portuguese E.U. Presidency’s During a March visit to Beijing for an leadership on December 21, 1999 in Beijing. Asia-Pacific regional workshop on human Another summit, led by French President rights, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Jacques Chirac, was scheduled for late Octo- Rights Mary Robinson held a press confer- ber 2000, also in Beijing. ence and strongly condemned the deteriora- Despite pressure from the European tion of human rights in China. She held talks Parliament and admissions by E.U. officials with senior officials on a technical coopera- that its human rights dialogue with China tion agreement aimed at helping China to bring since 1998 had failed to produce substantive its laws into conformity with treaty stan- results, the E.U. refused to cosponsor a dards. resolution at the U.N. Commission on Hu- In May, the U.N.’s Committee Against man Rights in March. Its members opposed Torture reviewed China’s compliance with China’s “no action” motion at the Commis- its obligations under the treaty. The commit- sion, however, but failed to convince all E.U. tee acknowledged greater transparency in association countries to do the same, and publishing information about claims of tor- Romania was absent during the vote. ture against Chinese police and security offi- In late September, an EU-China human cials and limited efforts at prosecution. It rights dialogue was held in Beijing, following emphasized, however, that early access to much the same model as an earlier one in detainees and other safeguards were urgently Lisbon. needed to curb the widespread practice of In July, Premier Zhu Rongji paid the CHINA AND TIBET 189 first visit ever by a Chinese leader to E.U. The State Department was outspoken headquarters. He praised the E.U.’s decision in condemning the crackdown on Falun Gong, not to take action in Geneva, and urged that restrictions on religious freedom, and repres- differences on human rights be dealt with sion in Tibet. Reports issued by the govern- “through dialogue instead of confrontation.” ment-created Commission on International Human rights concerns were prominent on Religious Freedom in May and by the State the agenda of talks in July between E.U. Department in September were sharply criti- External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten cal of abuses of religious freedom. and China’s foreign minister. The U.S. successfully appealed for the The E.U. took the lead in strongly criti- release of Bei Ling, a Chinese poet and resi- cizing China’s frequent use of the death dent of the U.S., and his brother, both de- penalty and calling for its abolition, and for a tained in early August. The detentions oc- moratorium on executions to be established in curred just prior to a visit to the U.N. by one or more provinces as a first step. President Jiang Zemin. Administration and congressional appeals for the release of the United States academic researcher Song Yongi were also U.S.-China relations were dominated successful, while repeated appeals for the by the issue of China’s WTO entry and a release of Rebiya Kadeer, an imprisoned busi- promise by President Bill Clinton to give nesswoman in Xinjiang, were not. China PNTR. Admiral Joseph Prueher, who was In late March, the White House’s top posted to China as the U.S. ambassador in national security adviser, Sandy Berger, went November 1999, made his first visit to Tibet to Beijing to explain to Chinese officials the in August. He pressed for access to the U.S. decision to sponsor a resolution on Panchen Lama and the release of Tibetan China in the U.N. Commission on Human prisoners, including Nwagang Choepel. China Rights. After the Geneva vote, the foreign refused to allow either the State Department’s ministry urged the U.S. to end the “anti- special coordinator on Tibet, Julia Taft, or China farce,” linking restoration of a bilateral members of the Commission on International human rights dialogue to a U.S. pledge of no Religious Freedom, to visit China. future action in Geneva. Also in late March, the Clinton admin- Pacific Rim Countries istration indicated to Congress that, while it Canada again refused appeals from Ca- rejected any attempts to condition PNTR on nadian NGOs to cosponsor the Geneva reso- human rights improvements, it would accept lution, concentrating instead on Canada’s the creation of a bilateral commission to bilateral dialogue process. Dialogue meetings monitor and promote human rights and labor took place in Beijing in November 1999 and rights. The commission would be a joint in Ottawa from October 10-13. congressional-executive branch body that Australia also declined to take action in would report annually to Congress. The com- Geneva and held the fourth session in its mission was included in the PNTR package dialogue talks with China in Australia from enacted by the House of Representatives on August 14-17. Its officials raised the repres- May 24 by a larger-than-expected vote of 237 sion of Falun Gong, Tibet, and political dis- to 197. But the commission had no teeth, and sidents, and China in turn protested attempts in the Senate to strengthen it by Australia’s treatment of aboriginals. No con- requiring an annual debate and vote on its crete results from the dialogue were announced; findings were defeated. On September 19, the an expanded joint program of human rights Senate voted 83 to 15 in favor of PNTR. “cooperation” was unveiled that included Under the PNTR bill, Congress for the first plans for officials of China’s Ministry of time would also fund rule of law and labor law Public Security to visit Australia to design a reform programs in China. training project for Chinese police. 190 CHINA AND TIBET/EAST TIMOR Japan vigorously supported China’s Relevant Human Rights Watch admission to the WTO and in its bilateral Reports: relations with Beijing focused on China’s Nipped in the Bud: The Suppression of the increased military spending. There was no China Democracy Movement, 9/00 linkage between aid and China’s worsening Tibet Since 1950: Silence Prison or Exile, human rights record. A third Sino-Japanese 5/00 human rights dialogue took place in Tokyo on January 13 with another session was set for December in Beijing. The meetings had no concrete results. Japan refused to cosponsor the Geneva resolution. EAST TIMOR In April, the Dalai Lama was given a visa to travel to Japan despite protests from East Timor’s first year of freedom from Beijing. China was also angered by Japan’s Indonesia was largely devoted to recovery decision to oppose World Bank funding for and reconstruction from the September 1999 the Qinghai poverty reduction project in violence that left the entire country a charred Tibet. As of mid-October 2000, the South ruin. As they rebuilt, East Timorese and the Korean government continued to indicate it U.N. Transitional Administration in East would not permit a visit by the Dalai Lama Timor (UNTAET) had to decide on how to in November because the timing was too close handle past abuses, how to prevent new ones, to a planned visit by the Chinese premier. and how to build basic institutions to ensure the protection of human rights. Progress was World Bank slow, particularly in bringing the perpetra- In fiscal year 2000, China received $1.67 tors of the 1999 crimes to justice. By Octo- billion in loans from the World Bank, bringing ber, however, a new court system and police cumulative lending to China to almost $35 force were in place, two daily newspapers billion as of June 30, 2000. Intense debate were circulating, NGOs were flourishing, and continued through much of the year over a intense discussions on the country’s future controversial $160 million poverty reduction constitution were taking place. project in Qinghai. A part of the project, set The new East Timor was not free of to receive $40 million in World Bank funds, human rights violations. Many East Timorese involved the resettlement of some 58,000 returning from West Timor were abused for predominantly non-Tibetan farmers into a alleged militia links by local officials of the traditionally Tibetan area. Though the project National Council of East Timorese Resis- had been approved by the bank’s board in tance (CNRT), UNTAET’s governing part- 1999, a final decision was delayed pending ner, and by members of the former guerrilla receipt of an independent panel’s report that army, Falintil; several returnees were killed. proved highly critical. Attempts by World U.N. police lacked the capacity and often the Bank managers to hold open the project for will to prevent such abuse. Members of the further reassessment and redesign failed in country’s Muslim, Protestant, and ethnic early July when key board members, includ- Chinese minorities found themselves perse- ing European governments, the U.S., and cuted because of suspected ties to the Indo- Japan, opposed China’s request to go ahead nesian power structure. CNRT leaders were with the loan. Beijing said it would implement not always tolerant of political organizations the Qinghai project without World Bank with viewpoints different from their own. funding. The World Bank put a priority on fight- Human Rights Developments ing corruption but declined to intervene in the On October 19, the Indonesian People’s case of An Jun, head of an anti-corruption Consultative Assembly voted to accept the group convicted of subversion. results of the August 30 referendum in which EAST TIMOR 191 close to 80 percent of East Timor’s popula- yers had been trained in Indonesian universi- tion had voted to separate from Indonesia. On ties, UNTAET decided in November 1999 October 22, Xanana Gusmao, for seven years that Indonesian law would be the applicable a political prisoner in Jakarta, returned to Dili law except where it conflicted with interna- as president of the CNRT. UNTAET came tional standards. It took until September, into being through Security Council Resolu- however, to come up with an acceptable tion 1272 of October 25, 1999. East Timor provisional criminal procedure code. became, for all intents and purposes, a U.N. UNTAET police from close to fifty countries protectorate governed by a special represen- had little guidance in criminal procedure in the tative of the secretary-general with close to intervening months and often operated ac- absolute powers. The first regulation adopted cording to the procedures they knew from by the new administration noted that anyone home. holding public office or engaged in public The process of investigating crimes duties in East Timor would be obliged to against humanity in East Timor was slowed observe human rights standards embodied in by some of the same problems of lack of a list of international treaties. (At its incep- institutional infrastructure, untrained civpols, tion in 1998, the CNRT committed itself to and bureaucratic divisions within UNTAET. upholding the same standards in its “Magna As early as December 1999, UNTAET de- Carta of Freedoms, Rights and Duties for the cided that an international panel of the Dili People of East Timor.”) district court would be set up to investigate UNTAET had to create basic institu- international crimes, such as crimes against tions from scratch. The first East Timorese humanity, and all serious offenses, such as judges, prosecutors, and public defenders murder and rape, that occurred from January were installed on January 7, 2000 but the 1, 1999 through October 25, 1999. court building, destroyed by the militias, was None of the civpol who were legally not ready until March. At one point, empowered to investigate the 1999 crimes, UNTAET’s own police stopped making any however, received any training in investigat- arrests of suspected criminals, including those ing crimes against humanity until late June. involved in the 1999 violence, because it had Most civpol treated each case as a routine no place to put them; the one detention center homicide investigation, with no attention to in the entire country, a former Ministry of the role of the Indonesian state or to the links Tourism building, had long since exceeded among the different crimes. The short tours of capacity, and the main prison in the capital, duty meant that every new investigator com- Dili, was only rehabilitated in May. The ing in tended to start the questioning of police academy started training its first East witnesses from scratch. Timorese recruits in late March. Authority for investigations changed As in many other peacekeeping mis- repeatedly. In late November 1999, a special sions, UNTAET’s civilian police (civpol) five-member commission appointed by U.N. were a major problem. Recruitment was ago- High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary nizingly slow, and the overall quality of those Robinson arrived in Dili to hear testimony recruited was low. Most civpols were re- from over one hundred eyewitnesses to mur- cruited for three-month tours of duty, hardly der, rape, and arson. Known as the Interna- enough time to understand the place or the tional Commission of Inquiry on East Timor people. Almost none spoke a language intel- (ICIET), the group issued a report on January ligible to the East Timorese, and interpreters 31, 2000, recommending, among other things, were scarce, leading to a reliance on informal that an international tribunal be set up to security forces set up by the CNRT, whose prosecute those responsible for the abuses. activities civpol had almost no capacity to In his letter forwarding the report to the monitor or control. Security Council, Secretary-General Kofi Because almost all of East Timor’s law- Annan did not endorse the recommendation 192 EAST TIMOR

for a separate tribunal, stressing that full with the Indonesian investigation into crimes cooperation should be given to Indonesian in East Timor remained delicate. The Indone- efforts to investigate the crimes, but recom- sian Commission of Inquiry into Human mended that UNTAET capacity for coordi- Rights Violations in East Timor (KPP-HAM) nating investigations be strengthened. visited Dili in December and January; the From November to late March, civpol defense team for Indonesian army officers alone had full authority for investigations. Its considered possible suspects in the violence investigation unit, however, was responsible came to East Timor on January 20. On not just for investigating the 1999 violence but January 31, KPP-HAM issued a thorough for all ongoing crimes as well. As law and order and professional report timed to coincide concerns in East Timor increased, attention to with release of the ICIET report. the 1999 crimes was often diverted. On March The quality of the KPP-HAM report 22, a war crimes/human rights investigations served to give the Indonesian effort more unit was set up within civpol to be headed by credibility than it otherwise might have had, an investigator from the Office of Human but it also put pressure on the Indonesian Rights Affairs. The change was only on pa- Attorney General’s Office to come up with per; the new unit had no investigators other indictments. To get those indictments, the than civpol. In early June, a prosecution attorney general needed UNTAET’s help; service was set up under UNTAET’s judicial his office had almost no evidence that would affairs department, separate both from civpol stand up in court. UNTAET, for its part, and from the Office of Human Rights Affairs recognized that those most responsible for (OHRA). On July 20, 2000, UNTAET for- the 1999 violence were all in Indonesia. If mally shifted from its original peacekeeping UNTAET was fully cooperative with the structure to a coalition government with the Indonesian process, not only might the inter- CNRT. Among the eight “ministries” created ests of justice be better served, but the Attor- was a Ministry of Judicial Affairs to which ney General’s Office also would have no the investigation unit was formally moved in excuse for not proceeding with prosecutions. August. Accordingly, on April 6, UNTAET and In the meantime, six different agencies the Indonesian government signed a Memo- concerned with accountability for the 1999 randum of Understanding that would facili- crimes— judicial affairs, human rights, politi- tate the exchange of evidentiary materials and cal affairs, legal affairs, civpol, and the East enable one country to request the other to Timorese courts—went ahead with their ef- question witnesses, make arrests, or “trans- forts, sometimes tripping over each other in fer” suspects as necessary. Indonesia made the process. East Timorese witnesses to these its first formal request under the M.O.U. on crimes grew resentful over repeated question- May 15 for assistance in five cases; it sent a ing without any obvious progress in bringing team of seventeen investigators to pursue the perpetrators to justice. that request in July. As of August, UNTAET If investigations into killings were slow, had made no requests of its own. they were close to non-existent in rape cases. In mid-May, Xanana Gusmao, presi- Serious investigations into rape as an element dent of the CNRT, announced the establish- of crimes against humanity only began in July; ment of a National Return and Reconciliation before then only two rape cases from 1999 Commission. Plans for the commission were were under active investigation. One factor further developed in June, and by August, a was the lack of women investigators. Less coordinating committee led by UNTAET than 4 percent of the civpol force overall was was considering a plan that would allow female, and of the handful of women investi- perpetrators of lesser offenses, such as arson gators, only one had special training in inves- or looting, to make a full confession of their tigating sexual crimes. misdeeds before the commission. Traditional Throughout the year, the relationship justice mechanisms at the local level would EAST TIMOR 193 then assign the perpetrator to some form of to an Aileu-based militia. Indonesian community service, but the misdeeds, the businesspeople of ethnic Chinese background confession, and the “sentence” would be faced threats and extortion from gangs appar- registered with the formal court system. ently under the control of CNRT leaders. The The focus on the 1999 violence tended threats became particularly pronounced after to obscure ongoing violations. Violence against a riot in the Dili sports stadium on April 30 East Timorese returning from West Timor in which two businessmen were accused of was a serious problem, although the vast financially backing a group seen as opposed majority of the more than 170,000 who had to the CNRT. No evidence to that effect was returned by September 2000 did so safely. ever produced. East Timorese ethnic Chinese Those linked, or suspected of having links, to were also forced to pay protection money to militia groups or to the Indonesian army gangs linked to local leaders. sometimes faced mob violence, particularly in late 1999 and early 2000 when the two Defending Human Rights major agencies involved in facilitating re- East Timor’s beleaguered human rights turns, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refu- community expanded in size and influence gees (UNHCR) and the International Office during the year. Organizations such as Yayasan on Migration (IOM), gave local communities HAK, a legal aid and human rights organiza- little warning of planned returns. tion; the Sahe Institute, an independent think In some cases, civpols working outside tank; Fokupers, a women’s rights organiza- the capital ceded authority to CNRT or to the tion; and the Student Solidarity Council led former guerrilla army, Falintil, to screen re- the way in human rights training, discussions turnees and question them about past militia on constitutional development, and advo- affiliations. In early February, a returning cacy of greater participation in UNTAET militia member was beaten and stabbed by decision-making. New professional associa- members of an “investigation unit” of the tions like the East Timorese Jurists Associa- CNRT in Liquica, a town near Dili. In the tion and the East Timorese Journalists Asso- town of Tibar, even nearer to Dili, a suspected ciation helped generate discussion on how to militia member was kicked to death in April protect and promote human rights. after having been held for five days in an illegal On July 25, a workshop on human rights detention facility. In the latter two cases, sponsored by UNTAET’s Office of Human UNTAET civpols took the suspected perpe- Rights Affairs together with the East Timorese trators into custody, but the screening pro- Jurists Association secured a commitment cess was allowed to continue. In Aileu, the from different political organizations to up- town in the interior chosen as the country’s hold political and economic rights in East future capital by Xanana Gusmao, where Timor as the country moved toward indepen- Falintil guerrillas were stationed, Falintil ran dence. U.N. High Commissioner on Human detention and “reeducation” centers without Rights Mary Robinson gave the keynote serious interference from UNTAET. address at the workshop. Local CNRT leaders were also respon- sible for intimidation and harassment of mi- The Role of the International norities. Some 265 Indonesian Muslims re- Community mained virtually under siege in the Dili mosque The international community whole- to which they had fled in September 1999. heartedly supported the reconstruction of Most had been long-term residents of Dili. East Timor, with U.S. $522 million pledged Congregations of the Assembly of God Prot- at a December 1999 donor conference in estant church in the districts of Ermera and Tokyo, jointly chaired by UNTAET and the Aileu came under attack, most seriously on World Bank. Japan, the E.U., Australia, Por- June 9 when three churches were burned. The tugal, and the U.S. all made significant contri- pastors were accused of having links in 1999 butions. At a follow-up conference in Lisbon 194 EAST TIMOR

in June 2000, donors agreed to cover the U.S. Commissioner for Human Rights coordi- $16 million shortfall between expenses and nated the visit of the five ICIET commission- revenue in East Timor’s first-ever national ers. budget. East Timorese leaders saw the aid less The UNICEF office in Dili took a lead as overwhelming generosity than as an appro- role in addressing children’s rights issues. Its priate response from the countries that had main concern in this regard was the problem long supported the former Soeharto govern- of children separated from their parents dur- ment in Indonesia. Many bilateral and multi- ing the conflict; reports of hundreds of East lateral donors saw the reconstruction effort as Timorese children taken to Java in late 1999 an opportunity to help lay the foundations were still being investigated as this report for a democratic society; they funded NGOs went to press. UNICEF also took a strong and local professional associations as well as interest in juvenile detention and worked for UNTAET. Some donors earmarked funds regulations on adoptions by foreigners of specifically for human rights and justice East Timorese children. projects: Britain helped with forensic equip- UNHCR had a large office in Dili and ment, Canada with forensic investigators, the together with the IOM had supervised the U.S. with initial efforts toward a truth and return of more than 170,000 East Timorese reconciliation commission, Norway with by September 2000. While heavily criticized criminal investigations, and so on. Australia in the first few months for failing to take played a particularly important role as the adequate precautions to protect returnees new state’s nearest and largest neighbor. who might be accused of militia connections, The killings of two UNTAET soldiers in UNHCR’s preparations improved as the August and of three UNHCR workers in West year progressed. Timor on September 6 sparked international outrage and demands for disarming and pros- International Financial Institutions ecuting the militias. From its Joint Assessment Mission of October 1999 onward, the World Bank played United Nations a critical and positive role in East Timor. The U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and bank was instrumental in securing commit- the U.N. Security Council were supportive of ments from donors at the Tokyo and Lisbon UNTAET throughout the year. Annan was conferences and worked intensively with warmly received during his visit to East Timor CRNT leaders to hammer out a budget that in February, and he underscored his commit- reflected CNRT priorities. The World Bank ment to seeking justice for the 1999 violence. became the unlikely champion of village-level Security Council Resolution 1319, adopted democracy through its Community Empow- on September 8, called the killings of aid erment Project in which local councils, each workers in West Timor “outrageous and con- composed equally of men and women, were temptible,” demanded that Indonesia disarm elected to decide on distribution of develop- and disband the militias, stressed that those ment funds at the village, district, and subdis- responsible should be brought to justice, and trict levels. called on UNTAET to “respond robustly” to the militia threat. Australia In early November 1999, the special Australia played a decisive role in as- rapporteurs on violence against women; tor- sisting East Timor. Australia assumed a criti- ture; and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary cal leadership position in September 1999 in executions visited East Timor. Their report, assembling the International Forces for East released in December, linked grave human Timor (Interfet) under General Peter rights abuses, including murder and rape, to Cosgrove, and continued to play a leading the Indonesian army and the militias it cre- part within UNTAET peacekeeping opera- ated. In November, the Office of the High tions. Darwin, Australia was part of the EAST TIMOR 195 mission area for UNTAET, and for many repatriated from West Timor and militia at- months was the only direct air link between tacks against East Timor had ended. The bill East Timor and the rest of the world. It was was still pending in October. In September, a from Darwin that most supplies were brought bill was introduced that would enable the U.S. into East Timor, and Darwin provided train- to increase support for activities in East ing facilities for civilian police and other parts Timor as the country moved toward indepen- of UNTAET. The Australian government dence, including support for human rights, seconded hundreds of personnel to work in the rule of law, and reconciliation processes. virtually every field of development, includ- Congress had not acted on it before adjourning ing democratization, and arranged for the in October. design and construction of East Timor’s first parliament building. European Union The government took a strong interest in At the December 1999 international the investigations into the 1999 violence. In donors’ meeting, the European Commission mid-2000, it quietly turned over to the Indo- pledged 60 million euros over a three-year nesian Attorney General’s Office all files on period for East Timor’s reconstruction. Also investigations conducted by Interfet into in December, the European Parliament voted militia crimes, with witnesses names removed. to extend the arms embargo against Indonesia imposed on September 16,1999 after the United States post-referendum violence. On January 17, The key contributors for the U.S. on 2000, the embargo expired without debate. East Timor were the State Department, in- The United Kingdom quickly resumed sales cluding ambassadors to the U.N. and Jakarta, of Hawk jet fighters to Indonesia. All member Congress, and President Clinton. In Novem- states, however, remained individually bound ber, U.N. Secretary Richard Holbrooke and by the European Union’s (E.U.) Code of Stanley Roth, Assistant Secretary of State Conduct regarding arms exports. The E.U., for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, made a with holding the Presidency from highly publicized visit to the refugee camps January 1 through June 30, 2000, followed in West Timor and pressed for an agreement closely the investigations into the 1999 vio- between UNTAET and Indonesia on the lence and the situation of East Timorese repatriation of refugees. Holbrooke through- refugees in West Timor. The E.U. repeatedly out the year raised the need to disarm and expressed concern about Indonesia’s failure control the militias and end cross-border to disarm the militias, including in a Presi- incursions. He was a major force behind dency statement on September 7, following Security Council Resolution 1319. the killing of humanitarian workers in West The State Department’s Bureau of De- Timor. mocracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and Ambassador Robert Gelbard in Jakarta, pro- Southeast Asia vided strong support for investigations in The Philippines and Thailand supplied Jakarta and Dili into the East Timor violence, successive commanders of the UNTAET securing funds from Congress to support the peacekeeping forces, and Southeast Asian prosecution efforts in both capitals and to countries were well represented both in those help with training of East Timorese police forces and in the civilian police. and the establishment of a criminal justice Indonesian President Abdurrahman system. Wahid was given an enthusiastic reception by In May, some members of Congress a crowd of thousands when he visited Dili on introduced language into the foreign aid bill February 29. He appeared generally commit- for fiscal year 2001 forbidding direct U.S. ted to normalization of relations with East military sales to or training programs for the Timor, but many members of his administra- Indonesian military until East Timorese were tion, particularly Foreign Ministry officials 196 EAST TIMOR/INDIA

who had served in previous administrations, Muslim neighborhoods and villages, detain- were willing to make few concessions to the ing young men, assaulting other family mem- normalization process. bers, and summarily executing suspected The Association of Southeast Asian militants. Many Kashmiri civilians were Nations, ASEAN, invited Xanana Gusmao killed or injured as a result of being caught in and Jose Ramos Horta to attend its annual a crossfire between soldiers and militants, or summit meeting in Bangkok in July. in skirmishes and shelling between Indian and Pakistani troops across their countries’ com- Relevant Human Rights Watch mon border, known as the Line of Control. Reports: In January, the , after its Forced Expulsions to West Timor and the own investigation, announced that fifty-six Refugee Crisis, 11/99 of its personnel in Kashmir would be pun- ished for committing human rights violations. The punishments ranged from discharge to denial of promotion. National and state INDIA human rights commissions, however, were barred from investigating army and paramili- nationalist policies espoused tary personnel. by India’s governing On March 20, just before U.S. President (BJP) and its affiliate organizations under- Clinton’s visit to South Asia, thirty-six Sikh mined the country’s historical commitment men were shot dead in Chithisinghpora, to secular democracy. Violence against Chris- Anantnag district, by unidentified gunmen tian, Muslim, and Dalit, or “untouchable,” reportedly dressed in army uniforms. In the populations was one result. Areas of separat- weeks that followed, Sikh residents took to ist violence such as Kashmir and northeast the streets demanding protection, while India were marked by grave human rights hundreds of Muslim villagers staged protests abuses on the part of Indian security forces against Indian security forces. They alleged and armed rebel groups. Violence against that in the aftermath of the Sikh massacre, women continued, from infanticide to dowry- blamed by the army on militants, many related deaths to attacks on women whose Muslim civilians had been “disappeared” or male relatives were sought by the police. A killed. major campaign on Dalit rights gathered In early April, at least seven people strength, but some human rights defenders were killed when police opened fire on Mus- were targets of a state-sponsored backlash lim protestors demanding the exhumation of against their activism. the bodies of five men killed by members of the Indian army’s Special Operations Group Human Rights Developments in Anantnag district. The protestors claimed Abuses by all parties to the conflict were that the men had been detained in the after- a critical factor behind the fighting in Kashmir. math of the Chithisinghpora massacre and Emboldened by the successful hijacking of an killed in a “staged” encounter. On April 6, the Indian Airlines plane in December 1999 that charred and disfigured bodies were exhumed. secured the release of three jailed associates, DNA tests were performed to confirm their pro-independence guerrillas or “militants” in identities, but as of this writing, the govern- the region stepped up their attacks on civil- ment had not released the results. ians, as well as on camps and barracks of On June 26, the Jammu-Kashmir state government forces. The Indian army, operat- assembly approved a controversial autonomy ing under the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed plan that was subsequently rejected by the Areas Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Indian federal cabinet. On July 24, the Hizb- Kashmir) Special Powers Act, continued to ul-Mujahideen, Kashmir’s largest armed gue- conduct cordon-and-search operations in rilla group, declared a unilateral ceasefire and INDIA 197 announced its willingness to enter into nego- three in Rohtas district, Bihar. Rajputs sub- tiations with Indian authorities. On July 29, sequently burned down the entire Dalit ham- India suspended its offensive against the let, leaving all twenty-five families homeless. group, but hopes of a peaceful resolution to The attack was reportedly in retaliation for the conflict were dashed by a series of the killing of two Rajputs a few days earlier massacres on August 1 and 2 that left ninety by members of the outlawed PWG. On June Hindu pilgrims dead in Pahalgam, in the 16, in Miapur village in Bihar’s Aurangabad Kashmir valley. The massacres were be- district, the Ranvir Sena slaughtered thirty- lieved to have been carried out by militant four lower-caste men, women, and children. factions opposed to the ceasefire, but reports Survivors reported that police left the scene suggested that some of the victims were killed when the attacking mob entered the village. by fire from Indian security forces. On The massacre was reportedly to avenge the August 8, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen called off the killings by Maoist guerrillas of twelve upper- ceasefire, citing the Indian government’s re- caste Bhumihars the week before, and thirty- fusal to include Pakistan in three-way peace four Bhumihars in March 1999. Some Ranvir talks. Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani on Sena members were arrested in the weeks that August 22 rejected calls for an immediate followed, but there was no precedent for judicial inquiry into the Pahalgam massacre. successful prosecutions in such cases. Militants were believed responsible for Police blamed the July 13 killings of four several attacks against Hindus, who form a upper-caste Hindus in Garwah district on the minority in the state. On August 19, a group PWG. On September 13 the Maoist Commu- of men carrying assault rifles entered two nist Centre, another armed group, slit nine houses in the village of Ind, Udhampur dis- people’s throats in Ranchi district. The trict, and opened fire on the occupants, killing victims included Muslims and tribespeople. four. Two nights earlier, another group of Bihar was not the only state affected by gunmen had raided several Hindu homes in caste violence. On March 12, seven members the village of Kot Dara, killing six. Some of of a Dalit family were burned alive in their those killed in the Kot Dara attack were homes by an upper-caste mob in Kolar dis- reported to have been members of the local trict, Karnataka state. The attack was pre- Village Defense Committee (VDC), estab- ceded by the stabbing of an upper-caste man lished by the state government in the hill in a nearby village. Although police were districts ostensibly to protect all of the aware of escalating tensions in the area, they region’s inhabitants. The VDCs recruited failed to take preventive action. their members almost exclusively from local Attacks against Christians, which have Hindu communities, however, and were seen increased significantly since the BJP came to by militants as adjuncts of the Indian security power in March 1998, continued. By mid- forces. year over thirty-five anti-Christian attacks Caste violence continued to divide the had been reported throughout the country, impoverished state of Bihar. There, the Ranvir with the states of and Uttar Pradesh— Sena, a banned private militia of upper-caste both BJP-led—particularly hard hit. landlords that had been operating with impu- Activists belonging to militant Hindu nity since 1994, waged war on various Maoist extremist groups such as the Bajrang Dal and guerrilla factions, such as the People’s War the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Group (PWG). These guerrilla groups advo- Council, VHP) were often blamed for the cated higher wages and more equitable land violence. Both groups are members of the distribution for lower-caste laborers. The , an umbrella Hindu organiza- cycle of retaliatory attacks claimed many tion that boasts the ruling BJP as its political civilian lives. wing. These Hindu groups blamed the vio- On April 25, upper-caste Rajputs shot lence on popular anger over Christian efforts and killed four Dalits and seriously injured to convert Hindus. While government offi- 198 INDIA cials at the state and central level condemned magisterial probe was ordered after a Chris- the attacks, they did little to prosecute those tian organization filed a complaint. responsible. In May, the National Commission for On January 31 a year-long manhunt Minorities (NCM), a government agency, came to an end with the arrest in Orissa of issued a report stating that attacks against Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh. Singh was Christians were either accidental or the unre- wanted in connection with several murders, lated actions of petty criminals. Outraged including those of Australian missionary Christian activists said the report showed Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons in that the government condoned attacks on 1999. Christian relief at the arrest was tem- Christians. Earlier reports by the NCM, pered, however, by a state government order, issued before it was overhauled by the central believed to be aimed at limiting the activities government in January, had recommended of Christian missionaries, requiring a police prosecutions for such attacks and accused the inquiry before anyone adopted a new faith. government of willful neglect at all levels. The state governments of Gujarat and In June, a series of blasts damaged Chris- Uttar Pradesh lifted a ban against civil ser- tian churches in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, vants joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak and . A month later, crude bombs were Sangh (National Volunteer Corps, RSS), a set off in two more churches in Karnataka. In sangh parivar member. In Gujarat, Delhi, and August, police charged members of a Muslim Orissa, district administrations conducted sect, allegedly based in Pakistan, with mas- surveys to assess the activities and where- terminding the attacks. Human rights activ- abouts of minority community members and ists maintained that the arrests were meant to leaders. Meanwhile, the BJP and its allies deflect attention from Hindu hardliners’ cam- continued to implement their agenda for the paign of anti-Christian violence. “Hinduization” of education, mandating Hindu On July 14, the Maharashtra state gov- prayers in certain state-sponsored schools ernment announced its intention to prosecute and revising history books to include what Bal Thackeray, leader of the right-wing Hindu amounted to propaganda against Islamic and organization Shiv Sena, for his role in inciting Christian communities. Bombay’s 1992-1993 riots in which over 700 On April 11, three Christian missionary people, the vast majority of them Muslims, schools were ransacked and six people beaten were killed. The decision to prosecute came in related attacks by the Bajrang Dal in Mathura, two years after a government-appointed ju- in BJP-led Uttar Pradesh. The group sought dicial commission had named Thackeray as to justify its actions by calling the schools one of those responsible for the violence. On “machines for conversion.” On April 21, a July 25, amid rioting by Shiv Sena support- group of Christians was attacked near the city ers, Thackeray was arrested only to be re- of Agra. These attacks followed the beating leased a few hours later after a judge ordered to death of two tribal Christians in Hazaribagh, the case closed on the grounds that the statute and an attack on two nuns and a priest in of limitations relating to the incitement charges Mathura. had expired. On June 7, a Catholic priest was battered Violence in the northeastern states, par- to death while sleeping outside his school in ticularly Assam, continued throughout the Uttar Pradesh. Government officials were year, claiming many civilian casualties. quick to rule out any religious motive, attrib- Members of the United Liberation Front of uting it to burglary. Within days the sole Assam (ULFA), a militant group seeking witness to the attack, Vijay Ekka, died in Assam’s independence from India, repeat- police custody. Ekka had told parishioners edly clashed with the police and with surren- who visited him in detention that he was being dered ULFA members working with the tortured by the police and that he feared for government, known as “SULFA.” The Bodo his life. Two policemen were arrested and a Liberation Tigers (BLT) fighting for a sepa- INDIA 199 rate homeland for the Bodo tribal people six demonstrators following a protest against extended their ceasefire by one year beginning the proposed Maroli-Umbergaon Port Project September 15. in Gujarat. While all were released on bail In April, the Law Commission of India within forty-eight hours, six of the protesters recommended the introduction of the Preven- were beaten in custody by police. One, Col. tion of Terrorism Bill into parliament. If (retired) Pratap Save, suffered a brain hemor- enacted, the bill would reinstate a modified rhage, went into a coma, and died from his version of the notorious Terrorist and Dis- injuries on April 20. ruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), In June, the Indian navy alerted Sri repealed in 1995. TADA had facilitated tens Lankan authorities to the presence of forty- of thousands of unjustified arrests, torture, seven Sri Lankan refugees who had become and other violations against political oppo- stranded on an island between the two coun- nents, social activists, and human rights de- tries while fleeing to India. A Sri Lankan naval fenders. Human rights organizations pro- vessel then picked them up and took them tested against the bill arguing that, if enacted, back to Sri Lanka. In August, Indian authori- it would have similar effects. ties in Mizoram state forcibly repatriated In a positive move, the law commission over one hundred ethnic minority Chin refu- also called for sweeping changes to the gees who had fled from Burma. country’s rape laws following an increase in the incidence of sexual violence. Women’s Defending Human Rights rights activists welcomed this recommenda- Many human rights defenders were tion. Female infanticide persisted as the physically attacked, while others were la- female to male ratio continued to drop—a beled threats to national security. On Decem- reflection of the lower status of women and ber 9, 1999, six armed men entered the office girls, who were more likely to be deprived of of the Save the Narmada River Movement food, education, or health services, or to be (Narmada Bachao Andolan, NBA) in Baroda, seen as an economic liability under the dowry Gujarat, assaulted an activist, and vandalized system. the office. They warned the activist that the Women whose relatives were sought NBA, which had been campaigning against by the police continued to be detained. In big dam projects along the Narmada river, February, in Tamil Nadu, twelve women would face dire consequences if it did not were illegally detained and tortured and re- leave the state. When the NBA organized a peatedly sexually assaulted in custody be- march in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh, cause of their ties to a suspected robber who in January, over 500 protestors were arrested had himself died in police custody. The for demonstrating in defiance of the local National Human Rights Commission, a gov- authorities’ orders. Among them was promi- ernment-appointed body, also took particu- nent author and activist Arundhati Roy. All lar note of alarming numbers of deaths in were released the following day. On October police custody. 18, in a major setback to the fifteen-year old Police brutality against Muslim stu- anti-dam campaign, the Supreme Court ruled dents of the Jamia Millia Islamia, an institu- that construction on the controversial Sardar tion of higher education in Delhi, made na- Sarovar dam along the Narmada river could tional headlines. On April 9, while searching continue. Large-scale protests followed the for two criminal suspects, hundreds of police decision which activists criticized as sanc- broke into one of the institution’s dormito- tioning the continued displacement of hun- ries and physically assaulted Muslim stu- dreds of thousands of villagers. dents, destroyed their property, and vandal- On April 20, a mob of local residents and ized the campus mosque. politicians raided the Almora and Jageswar Two days earlier, members of the State offices of SAHAYOG, a NGO working pri- Reserve Police beat and arrested up to forty- marily on women’s health and empowerment 200 INDIA

in Uttar Pradesh. The attack was in response The Role of the International to a pamphlet SAHAYOG had published in Community September 1999 on HIV transmission, which Once again the conflict in Kashmir fea- made reference to a specific sexual practice of tured prominently in India’s dealings with the area. By day’s end eleven staff members the international community. While many and trainees had been arrested; some were governments pushed for a peaceful resolu- physically assaulted by the police and pro- tion to the crisis, India maintained that no testors. Six were charged with the “produc- talks would be possible until Pakistan ended tion and distribution of obscene literature to its support of militant groups in the region. under-age persons,” and “inciting Army/ Airforce to violence/mutiny.” The remaining United Nations five were charged with disturbing the public In January, during its review of India’s peace. Five of the eleven were released within initial report under the Convention on the days and on April 24, after their offices had Rights of the Child, the Committee on the been closed and bank accounts frozen by Rights of the Child concluded that the caste order of the district magistrate, SAHAYOG system was an obstacle to children’s human was made to issue an unconditional public rights. The Committee also expressed con- apology for hurting public sentiments with cern about India’s juvenile justice system, their study. On May 10, the National Secu- prison conditions, and the use of the death rity Act was invoked against four staff mem- penalty against juvenile offenders. bers, but later revoked after much public The Committee on the Elimination of protest. On May 29, the remaining six detain- Discrimination against Women also raised ees were released on bail after spending forty concerns about the caste system during its days in jail. As of this writing, the charges February review of India’s initial report un- against SAHAYOG were still pending. der the Convention on the Elimination of All In July, the national convenor of the Forms of Discrimination against Women. United Christian Forum for Human Rights, The Committee expressed concern over ex- John Dayal, asked for and ultimately received treme forms of physical and sexual violence armed protection through the National Hu- against women belonging to particular castes man Rights Commission after numerous or ethnic or religious groups, and over cus- threats to his life. He was publicly accused by tomary practices such as dowry, sati, and the a member of India’s National Commission on devadasi system, all of which contribute to Minorities of engaging in “anti-national ac- a higher incidence of gender-based violence in tivities,” and threatened with treason charges the country. by a spokesperson for the BJP. In March, Secretary-General Kofi On the eve of Human Rights Day 1999, Annan expressed his outrage over the the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights Chithisinghpora massacre and urged both presented Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee Pakistan and India to find an immediate with a petition bearing 2.5 million signatures. “political solution to this long-standing dis- Collected from across the country, the peti- pute.” On August 2, he reiterated this plea tion demanded the abolition of untouchability after the killings of over ninety Hindu pil- and full implementation of national legislation grims. In August, in response to a NGO criminalizing abuses against Dalits. On April briefing organized by the International Dalit 18 and 19, the campaign held a “national Solidarity Network—of which Human Rights public hearing” in Chennai to “try” fifty-eight Watch is a member—the U.N. Sub-Commis- cases of atrocities against Dalits, selected sion on the Promotion and Protection of from over a dozen states. A jury of three Human Rights passed without a vote a reso- former high court judges and several senior lution on “discrimination on the basis of work lawyers issued a statement condemning India’s and descent.” The resolution was aimed at caste system as “hidden apartheid.” addressing the plight of Dalits. The Commit- INDIA/INDONESIA 201 tee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimina- sides pledged to work towards the universal tion considered the term “descent” to encom- ratification and implementation of all major pass caste. international human rights instruments. Echo- ing last year’s initiatives, the European Par- United States liament also pressed India to foster tolerance Buoyed by President Clinton’s visit to and protect freedom of religion; ratify the India in March, the first of a U.S. president torture convention; and impose a moratorium in over twenty years, Indo-U.S. relations on executions and step up efforts to abolish improved markedly. While the massacre of the death penalty. Sikhs on the eve of Clinton’s visit forced Kashmir to the forefront of discussions, the trip was notable for its lack of attention to rights issues. INDONESIA In September the U.S. Department of State released its second annual report under Indonesia lurched further toward de- the 1998 International Religious Freedom mocracy during the year, but serious regional Act detailing attacks on religious minorities conflicts, a weak legal system, and delicate throughout India and many other countries. civil-military relations posed ongoing ob- The State Department indicated that India stacles to the protection of human rights. was close to earning the dubious distinction While most of the country continued to ben- of “Country of Particular Concern” because efit from increased civil and political liberties, of the many attacks on religious freedom three areas wracked by conflict—Papua, Aceh, during the year. Later that month, the U.S. and the Moluccas—continued to experience Commission on International Religious Free- widespread violations. The government failed dom held public hearings on religious perse- adequately to protect the hundreds of thou- cution in India and Pakistan. The hearings sands of people displaced in Aceh and the were followed by a visit to India in November Moluccas as well as East Timorese refugees by members of the commission. in West Timor. Efforts of human rights de- fenders and some government officials to hold Japan perpetrators of past serious abuses to ac- During his South Asia tour in late Au- count produced some results, but huge ob- gust, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori stacles remained to bringing senior culpable urged a resumption of talks on Kashmir and leaders to justice. condemned violent attacks on civilians caught in the conflict. Despite Japan’s suspension Human Rights Developments of all new grants and loans to both India and For the first time in more than four Pakistan following their successive nuclear decades, Indonesians had both a freely elected tests in May 1998, Mori announced that U.S. parliament and a democratically chosen presi- $176 million would be provided for two dent. On October 20, 1999, the People’s existing projects in India. Consultative Assembly (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat, MPR) chose European Union Abdurrahman Wahid as the country’s fourth The European Union (E.U.) condemned president in a cliffhanger vote. Megawati the violence in Kashmir and in various public Soekarnoputri, head of the Indonesian Demo- statements called upon both India and Paki- cratic Struggle Party (Partai Demokrasi Indo- stan to resolve the conflict quickly and peace- nesia - Perjuangang, PDIP) became vice-presi- fully. A joint declaration resulting from the dent. The jockeying for power among the first ever E.U.-India summit in June empha- most influential parties characterized domes- sized the importance of coordinating efforts tic politics for much of the year, with Wahid to promote and protect human rights. Both struggling to outmaneuver the opposition. In 202 INDONESIA August, unhappy parliamentarians forced from the worst period of abuses, 1989 to him to issue Presidential Decree 121, turning 1992. On May 17, 2000, twenty-four sol- over some of his administrative tasks to diers and one civilian were sentenced to Megawati, but a cabinet reshuffle later the between eight and a half and ten years in same month showed he was very much in prison for the 1999 massacre of a Muslim charge. Throughout the year, Wahid proved teacher, Teungku Bantaqiah, and fifty-six of strong on the symbolism of human rights and his followers, but the commander who gave weaker on the implementation of safeguards. the orders went into hiding as investigations From the outset, although he retained were underway and was not apprehended. several senior military officers as ministers, On May 12, the Wahid government, Wahid began to assert civilian control over the through the intervention of the Henri Dunant military. He appointed a civilian as defense Institute in Geneva, signed a Memorandum minister and, in February 2000, removed of Understanding with GAM, agreeing to a General Wiranto from his Cabinet pending the three-month “humanitarian pause” in the outcome of investigations into Wiranto’s role conflict. The agreement was controversial in the 1999 East Timor violence. On March inside Indonesia, as some saw it as the first 11, President Wahid formally disbanded the step toward legitimizing the rebels. Abuses hated internal security organization, diminished with the agreement but did not Bakorstanas. In April, commander-in-chief stop. In September, it was extended until Admiral Widodo endorsed the concept of January 2001. civilian supremacy and announced that the On August 5, one of Aceh’s most promi- military no longer claimed a social and politi- nent human rights defenders, Jafar Siddiq cal role. In a number of highly publicized Hamzah, founder and director of the New cases, generals who had previously enjoyed York-based rights group International Forum absolute impunity were questioned by inves- for Aceh, vanished while on a visit to tigators in connection with past military atroci- Indonesia’s third largest city, Medan. His ties. Through its nationwide network of ter- body, showing signs of torture, was found ritorial commands, however, the military’s with four other corpses in an unmarked grave dominant role in local government continued on September 3. Jafar was the third well- and, in August, the MPR approved a decree known Acehnese activist to have “disap- allowing the armed forces (Tentara Nasional peared” in Medan. On January 24, an Acehnese Indonesia,TNI) to retain a bloc of appointed parliamentarian went missing from his home; seats in that body through 2009. his body was found several days later. On Regional armed conflicts continued to June 3, a former student activist and spokes- pose a challenge to the democratic transition man for GAM, Ismail Syahputra, vanished. and undermine human rights. In Aceh, disaf- No information about his whereabouts had fection with the central government showed emerged by mid-September. On September itself both in the form of a strong civil society- 16, Safwan Idris, a prominent university based movement for a referendum on Aceh’s rector in Banda Aceh who had supported a political status and in an armed rebel group, referendum, was shot and killed at his home. the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh While the army was widely blamed in all of Merdeka, GAM). Indonesian security forces the above cases, there was no hard evidence made little distinction between the two. While as of October to indicate who was respon- army, police, and GAM were all responsible sible. for abuses, including extrajudicial executions A civilian pro-independence movement of civilians, the violations were dispropor- gathered strength during the year in Papua, tionately on the government side. A special formerly Irian Jaya. President Wahid offered government-appointed commission of inquiry the name change on January 1, 2000 to signal into past violations in Aceh produced five a change in policy toward the rebellious priority cases for trial, but not one of them province. (The name change had not been INDONESIA 203 approved by parliament by the end of the and Halmehera, and continued to engulf year.) A month earlier, tens of thousands of Ambon, Ceram, Buru, Saparua and other Papuans had celebrated the thirty-eighth an- islands of the central Moluccan archipelago. niversary of “West Papuan independence” in In May, thousands of volunteers for ceremonies throughout the province, the first “holy war forces,” or laskar jihad, arrived in time that such coordinated pro-independence Ambon from elsewhere in Indonesia, prima- demonstrations were permitted. In a com- rily Java, to strengthen the Muslim side, and promise with authorities, both the Indone- attacks on Christian villages increased. On sian and West Papuan flags were raised in the June 27, President Wahid ordered a state of December 1 ceremonies. When demonstra- civil emergency imposed in the two provinces tors in Timika, on Papua’s south coast, re- of Maluku (Ambon and surrounding islands) fused to take down a West Papuan flag flying and Maluku Utara (the North Moluccas). By in a church courtyard the day after the cer- mid-September, the latter was fairly calm, but emonies, however, security forces fired into there was no end in sight to fighting around an angry crowd, wounding sixteen. Tension Ambon. Civilian and military authorities in and conflict over flag raisings continued Indonesia, sensitive to the loss of East Timor throughout 2000. Major clashes between and the nationalist backlash it engendered civilians and security forces claimed the lives from a wide range of politically powerful of three pro-independence youths in Nabire groups, rejected any notion of outside assis- in late February and early March. Three more tance in resolving the conflict. While it ap- independence supporters were killed by gov- pealed for humanitarian aid for the hundreds ernment forces in Sorong on August 22. of thousands of displaced people, it also On June 3, in Jayapura, the Papuan obstructed delivery of that aid. Groups inside capital, a National Congress of leaders from and outside Indonesia also faulted the govern- throughout the province declared the desire ment for failing to ensure the neutrality of of the Papuan people to separate from Indo- troops sent to stop the fighting and for failing nesia. Papuan leaders repeatedly expressed to stop the dispatch of laskar jihad forces, their commitment to pursuing independence although the police argued that as they were through peaceful means, but civilian defense not armed when they boarded passenger ships “task forces” (satuan tugas or satgas) grew for Ambon, the government had no legal in size and importance throughout the year. means of stopping them. Critics also pointed Some such groups received Indonesian mili- to the ineffective interdiction of weapons tary support, leading many to draw parallels bound for Ambon and a failure to protect the with the army-backed militias in East Timor rights of the displaced. in 1999; other groups were set up by pro- Treatment of internally displaced per- independence Papuans. sons (IDPs) was a major issue during the year, The conflict that produced the most with close to 400,000 displaced by the civilian casualties, however, was not a rebel- Moluccan conflict alone. The eruption in lion against the center but rather a civil war in April of a separate Christian-Muslim conflict the Moluccan islands between Christians and in Poso, Central Sulawesi, which had first Muslims. Exact figures on casualties were emerged in a 1998 fight over a local political difficult to obtain, let alone verify, but esti- appointment, left at least 200 dead and an mates put the toll from October 1999 to estimated 60,000 people temporarily dis- September 2000 at over 5,000 dead. The placed. In Aceh, the number of persons conflict had erupted in 1999 in Ambon, the displaced by the conflict ebbed and flowed, product of elite rivalries, a delicate communal but tens of thousands fled their homes over balance upset by in-migration from other the course of the year, many in the face of islands, and a changing socioeconomic struc- violent police and military “sweeps” for sus- ture. By 2000, the conflict had spread to the pected rebels. Thousands of non-Acehnese North Moluccan islands of Ternate, Tidore, immigrants fled the province, many after 204 INDONESIA

having been threatened by rebels. and discredited judiciary made slow headway More than 170,000 East Timorese re- with the selection of sixteen new Supreme turned home from West Timor during the Court justices in September, but the admin- year, but more than 100,000 remained, many istration failed to put forward a plan for having been forcibly expelled during the post- systematic overhaul of the courts. Corrup- referendum violence in East Timor in Septem- tion proceedings against former President ber 1999. Many remained under the control of Soeharto held the spotlight for much of the militia leaders whom Indonesian authorities year until the case was dismissed on Septem- chose not to disarm or in any way challenge. ber 28 on the grounds that Soeharto was unfit Militia control over the refugee camps of to stand trial. Public demands for justice for Tuabukan and Noelbaki, outside Kupang, past army abuses in Aceh, Papua, Lampung, was particularly strong; these camps also Tanjung Priok, and East Timor remained housed East Timorese members of the police strong, but the government dithered in taking and army and their families. On August 13, the necessary measures for prosecution. To after a series of militia incursions from West get around the dysfunctional court system, Timor into East Timor, the Indonesian gov- plans were made for new human rights courts ernment bowed to international pressure and to hear cases involving gross abuses, but the announced that it would close the camps, enabling legislation was bogged down in par- offering the East Timorese there a choice liament for much of the year and had not been between resettlement in Indonesia or return to passed as of October. In August, the MPR East Timor. The decision was cautiously enacted a constitutional amendment, after welcomed by the international community, heavy lobbying by generals, barring “retroac- but nothing happened. The level of militia tive” laws. As a result, many Indonesian legal intimidation in these and other camps was scholars concluded that individuals respon- high, directed not just against refugees wish- sible for orchestrating past atrocities could ing to return but also against the staff of only be charged with ordinary criminal of- agencies such as the United Nations High fenses and not with international crimes such Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). as war crimes and crimes against humanity. From August 22 to 29, UNHCR tempo- On September 1, Indonesian prosecu- rarily closed down operations in West Timor tors formally named nineteen individuals, after three of its staff were injured in an attack. fifteen of them army and police officers, as Despite renewed promises from the Indone- suspects in the 1999 East Timor crimes. sian military that it would provide protection, Although this was a long-overdue first step, three UNHCR workers were killed on Sep- advisors to the attorney general said that tember 6 in an attack by a mob that had investigators had not even begun to unearth gathered for the funeral of a notorious pro- the kind of evidence needed for chain-of- Indonesia militia commander, Olivio command convictions. General Wiranto, com- Mendonca Moruk. International outrage mander-in-chief of the Indonesian armed prompted efforts at disarmament. Military forces at the time, was not on the list. and police organized searches in major camps On a morning television show on March and confiscated a few dozen firearms and 14, President Wahid asked for forgiveness for hundreds of homemade guns. Even militia the 1965-67 massacre of suspected members leaders acknowledged that they were retain- of the banned Indonesian Communist Party ing weapons, however, and, at this writing, (Partai Komunis Indonesia, PKI), and for the there had been no new arrests on weapons role of his own organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, charges or any evidence of a serious effort to in the killings. He also called for repeal of a identify the source of the large quantities of 1966 decree, TAP MPRS No.XXV, that ammunition used by militias making incur- instituted a pattern of discrimination against sions into East Timor. families of suspected PKI followers down to Efforts to revamp Indonesia’s corrupt the third generation. The President’s call, INDONESIA 205 however, was greeted with noisy street pro- forces suspected them of supporting the tests from some Muslim groups and, in Au- rebels. gust, the MPR set aside the proposal, leaving The murder of Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, the 1966 decree in effect. described above, again put a spotlight on the dangers faced by human rights defenders. Defending Human Rights Human rights groups continued to be at The Role of the International the center of legal reform and justice efforts. Community Independent human rights lawyers, including In general, the international community Munir of the Commission for Disappeared was strongly supportive of the Wahid admin- Persons and Victims of Violence, played a istration but deeply concerned about the key role in strengthening and regional conflicts, both in terms of the human professionalizing the work of the investiga- cost as well as the impact on Indonesia’s tive team for East Timor put together by the democratization policies and long-term po- Indonesian National Human Rights Commis- litical stability. sion (Komnas). On January 31, the Komnas team issued a hard-hitting report on the 1999 United Nations violence. Other human rights lawyers, in- Important U.N. concerns in 2000 also cluding Ifdhal Kasim of the Institute for included protection of refugees in West Timor, Research on Public Adovcacy (Elsam), were justice for the 1999 scorched earth destruc- actively involved in drafting legislation on tion of East Timor, and efforts to mitigate the human rights courts and the first draft of a bill impact of continuing economic crisis on for a proposed “Truth and Reconciliation Indonesia’s poor. Commission.” Still others were appointed to On January 31, 2000, a U.N. commis- a team of experts advising the attorney gen- sion of inquiry issued a report concluding that eral on the East Timor prosecutions. the systematic and large-scale nature of the Komnas also monitored the efforts of East Timor crimes warranted the establish- the attorney general and military courts on ment of an international criminal tribunal. The other leading human rights cases throughout U.N. Security Council, however, declined to the year. In June, Komnas was widely criti- establish such a court, deferring instead to the cized for a weak report on 1984 army violence Indonesian government’s stated intention to in Tanjung Priok, Jakarta, and for doing little bring those responsible to justice. In a cover to document ongoing abuses in Aceh and letter accompanying release of the interna- Papua. In October, Komnas issued new re- tional commission’s report, Secretary-Gen- port on the Tanjung Priok case, naming eral Kofi Annan announced that he would twenty-three suspects, reportedly including “closely monitor progress” of the Indonesian high-ranking generals. effort to ensure that it was a “credible re- In Aceh, Papua, and the Moluccas, hu- sponse in accordance with international hu- man rights defenders operated at great risk. man rights principles.” In early August, U.N. The worst conditions were in Aceh, where High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary assassinations were commonplace and per- Robinson met with victims of the violence in petrators seldom identified. On January 31, East Timor as well as with Indonesian Attor- Sukardi, a volunteer with the Bamboo Thicket ney General Marzuki Darusman, reiterating Institute (Yayasan Rumpun Bambu Indone- that the U.N. would call for an international sia), a local environmental and human rights war crimes tribunal if Jakarta failed to bring group based in Aceh, “disappeared”; his the perpetrators of the Timor violence to trial. naked and bullet-riddled corpse was found on The Security Council and Secretary- February 1. Dozens of other activists and General also denounced continuing violence local humanitarian aid workers were beaten in West Timor. In a February visit to Indone- and threatened, apparently because security sia, Annan complained to President Wahid 206 INDONESIA

about continuing harassment by militias in the Japan refugee camps. After a Nepalese soldier serv- In its bilateral relations with Indonesia, ing with U.N. peacekeepers was shot and which received U.S. $1.6 billion in loans and killed on August 11 by militias who had grants in 1999 (latest figures published by the crossed the border into East Timor, the sec- foreign ministry), Japan emphasized sup- ond peacekeeper killed in as many months, port for President Wahid’s democratization Annan issued a statement calling on Indonesia efforts and for preserving the country’s ter- to take effective measures to control the ritorial integrity as it addressed regional vio- militias and stop the incursions. In a unani- lence. In April, Japan said it would resched- mous resolution on September 8, the Security ule $5.8 billion in Indonesian debt. Prime Council condemned the murder of the three Minister Yoshiro Mori met with Wahid when U.N. refugee workers in West Timor and he came to Tokyo in April and again in early insisted that the Indonesian government take June at the time of former Prime Minister immediate steps to disarm and disband the Obuchi’s funeral, and urged a constructive militias believed to be responsible. solution to regional conflicts. Japan was also considering providing police training to Indo- Asia-Pacific Region nesia. But the foreign ministry was reluctant Relations between Indonesia and China to raise specific human rights concerns with warmed following President Wahid’s Decem- Jakarta, or to send observers to trials in Aceh, ber 1999 visit to Beijing. Despite prior visits though it did provide assistance for people to other countries, Wahid called the December displaced by the Aceh conflict. On October trip his first “formal” state visit to highlight 18-19, Japan was scheduled to co-host with the importance of the relationship. Wahid the World Bank the annual donor consulta- sought and obtained Chinese statements in tive conference for Indonesia. support of the territorial integrity of Indone- sia and against separatist movements in Aceh Australia and Papua. In July, Indonesia lifted onerous Relations with Australia continued to visa requirements to make it easier and cheaper be strained by Indonesian anger over for Chinese citizens to visit Indonesia. Also Australia’s role in East Timor and perceived in July, the two countries signed a bilateral slights to Jakarta in 1999, notwithstanding agreement promising mutual legal assistance strong economic ties. Australia organized and in fighting transnational crime. commanded the International Force for East Indonesia lobbied successfully to keep Timor (Interfet) that entered East Timor on any reference to the continued bloodshed in September 20, 1999 to put an end to the the Moluccas out of the joint communique militia violence. Australian troops were vili- issued at the end of the annual Association of fied in much of the Indonesian press. Al- Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministe- though there were improvements in relations rial Meeting held in Bangkok in July, although during the year, including increased ministe- instability in Indonesia was discussed by the rial contacts initiated by a January 24 meeting ministers. Under the leadership of President in Jakarta of Australian Foreign Minister Wahid, who had requested a meeting with Alexander Downer and President Wahid, each Aung San Suu Kyi during a visit to Myanmar setback in West Timor reopened the diplo- in 1999, Indonesia had been expected to move matic rift. A long awaited visit by President a step closer toward an ASEAN foreign policy Wahid to Canberra was postponed in Octo- of “flexible engagement,” as recommended by ber when leading Indonesian legislators spoke Thailand and the Philippines. Instead, its out against the trip. actions hardened ASEAN’s existing “non- intervention” policy. European Union On January 17, the E.U., noting with approval the democratic developments in INDONESIA 207

Indonesia and the election of President Wahid, but distanced itself from the June 3 call of decided not to renew the sanctions imposed Papuan leaders for independence. On August in September 1999 in the wake of the violence 17, ECHO, the humanitarian aid office of the in East Timor, including a ban on arms ship- E.U., granted EUR $2 million to be spent, ments. The United Kingdom quickly resumed among other things, aiding displaced persons sales of Hawk jet fighters. The E.U. insisted, in the Moluccas and West Timor. however, that its policy regarding arms ex- The third biannual Asia-Europe Meet- ports would be governed by “strict imple- ing (ASEM), held in Seoul October 20-21, mentation of the E.U. Code of Conduct” and was dominated by the issue of North Korea, that the E.U. would continue to monitor with the United Kingdom and Germany an- closely developments in Indonesia. nouncing they would establish diplomatic On February 2, the European Commis- ties with Pyongyang, while France said that sion issued an important policy paper, “De- progress on human rights and security issues veloping Closer Relations between Indonesia must take place as a precondition for diplo- and the European Union.” It signaled the matic relations. The final communique said importance of human rights in those rela- ASEM III participants would “promote and tions, calling promotion of those rights a protect all human rights...and fundamental prerequisite for democracy and sustainable freedoms,” language that was adopted over development. The paper called for better China’s objections. delivery of justice, support for the Attorney- Five ambassadors representing the E.U. General’s legal reform efforts, regular con- visited Ambon and the north Moluccas in tacts with human rights organizations, and Indonesia from October 12-14 to assess the close cooperation with Indonesia’s National human rights and humanitarian situation. Commission on Human Rights. It noted the “slow progress” of refugee repatriation from United States West Timor and of Indonesia’s own investi- U.S. officials repeatedly and publicly gation into human rights violations in East expressed support for President Wahid but Timor. The “enhanced” partnership was of- also spoke out strongly against the failure of ficially launched on June 14 in a meeting the Indonesian military to rein in militias in between Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi West Timor and resolve the refugee crisis. Shihab and E.U. foreign ministers. Chris Early in the year, Secretary of State Patten, External Affairs Commissioner, vis- Madeleine Albright identified Indonesia as ited Indonesia at the end of May, raising one of four priority emerging democracies for concerns about obstacles to democratization U.S. foreign policy. President Clinton wel- and civilian supremacy; earlier in April, a comed Indonesian President Wahid to the delegation of members of the European Par- White House shortly after Wahid assumed liament went to East Timor and Indonesia. the Presidency, and numerous U.S. officials— The European Parliament adopted a strong including secretaries of treasury, defense, and resolution on the Moluccas, urging Jakarta to state, as well as U.N. Ambassador permit international observers and allow Holbrooke—made high profile visits to the NGOs free access. In September, the E.U. country. U.S. bilateral assistance to Indone- presidency issued a statement strongly con- sia was increased to U.S. $125 million. Priori- demning the deaths of UNHCR workers and ties included judicial reform and justice for continued insecurity in West Timor. past gross abuses, improving civil-military The E.U. consistently declared its sup- relations, police training, and professionalizing port for Indonesian national integrity but national and local parliaments. Even as the urged dialogue as a means of resolving regional U.S. stepped up its efforts to assist democ- conflicts. It formally welcomed the May 12 ratization, leading officials spoke out force- M.O.U. ceasefire between the Indonesian fully on the need to disarm and disband government and the Free Aceh Movement, militias in West Timor, and for accountability 208 INDONESIA/MALAYSIA

for past military atrocities, including the 1999 ing commitments of $ 5.5 billion to Indonesia; violence in East Timor. of those funds, $ 2.8 billion had yet to be The Clinton Administration in late Au- disbursed as of mid-September. In fiscal year gust lifted an eleven-month ban on commer- 1999, the World Bank had said it would cial military sales to Indonesia, approving the provide another $ 2.7 billion in future loans. sale of spare parts for C-130 transport planes Meanwhile, a new letter of intent was signed just one week before three U.N. refugee aid by the government with the International workers were killed in West Timor. The ban Monetary Fund (IMF) in September, open- originally had been imposed in response to the ing the way for a package of U.S. $400 million 1999 East Timor violence. Congressional re- in loans. In June, the IMF had approved a strictions remained in place on military train- $372 million loan after it reviewed Indonesia’s ing and direct U.S. military sales. U.S. De- compliance with fiscal and structural reforms fense Secretary Cohen visited Jakarta in mid- mandated by the IMF. Overall the IMF had September. Prior to his visit, he confirmed offered $5 billion in assistance to Indonesia, that the Pentagon had decided to “re-engage” contingent on progress in its reform efforts. with the Indonesian military, inviting officers to conferences and participating in joint hu- Relevant Human Rights Watch manitarian exercise, but that the U.S. would Reports: stop short of directly selling arms. The State Forced Expulsions to West Timor and the Department strongly condemned the abduc- Refugee Crisis, 11/99 tion and murder of Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, Human Rights and Pro-Independence Ac- urging at the highest levels a full investigation tions in Papua, 1999-2000, 5/00 and prosecution, and supported the humani- tarian pause in Aceh. Members of Congress expressed concern about the violence in the Moluccas; several House of Representatives MALAYSIA members wrote to President Wahid in July urging him to invite international observers The trial of former Deputy Prime Min- and humanitarian aid groups to the region and ister Anwar Ibrahim, culminating in his con- to prosecute members of the laskar jihad viction for sodomy in August, provided the responsible for instigating new violence. backdrop for the Malaysian government’s ongoing repression of perceived political op- International Financial Institutions ponents. While continuing to target liberal In advance of the World Bank-convened activists, the government stepped up its annual consultative group conference in To- attacks on the fundamentalist Islamic party kyo in October, the president of the World PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia), following Bank took the extraordinary step of sending elections in November 1999. Human rights a personal letter to Wahid urging his interven- activists, lawyers, politicians, and publish- tion in West Timor and warning that donor ers affiliated with the opposition were pros- commitments could be affected. The donors ecuted under expansively-worded laws re- pledged a total of $4.8 billion to support the stricting freedom of expression. Police broke Indonesian government’s budget, plus an up peaceful rallies, arrested protestors, and additional $530 million for Indonesian NGOs. beat some detainees in custody. Anwar’s Several donors addressed the government’s conviction cast further doubt on the indepen- response to crises in West Timor, Maluku, dence of Malaysia’s judicial system. Refu- Aceh, and West Papua. The U.S. said it would gees and migrants faced harsh conditions in condition its aid on Indonesia’s full compli- immigration detention camps, and Malaysia ance with the UN Security Council’s resolu- continued to return refugees to countries tion on West Timor. where they faced persecution. The appoint- In 2000, the World Bank had outstand- ment of a Human Rights Commission held MALAYSIA 209 out the promise of greater government atten- dominated by the United Malay National tion to human rights, but the extent of its Organization (UMNO), maintained its two- power and effectiveness remained in ques- thirds majority in parliament, it lost signifi- tion. cant ethnic Malay support as a result of Anwar’s controversial prosecutions. PAS Human Rights Developments won control of the state governments of The second trial of Anwar Ibrahim con- Kelantan and Terengganu, giving it leadership cluded in August. He was sentenced to nine of two of Malaysia’s fourteen states. years in prison on sodomy charges, to run Anwar’s principal counsel, Karpal Singh, consecutively with the six-year sentence for was one of four individuals charged in January corruption imposed on him in 1999, which with violating the Sedition Act, a colonial-era was confirmed by the Court of Appeal in law that criminalizes any speech deemed to April 2000. Anwar’s adopted brother, Sukma have a “seditious tendency,” regardless of the Dermawan, was also convicted and sentenced speaker’s intent and the statement’s veracity. to six years in prison and to receive four lashes Singh, the deputy chairman of the Democratic with a rattan cane. Action Party (DAP), was arrested on January Anwar’s prosecution was widely viewed 12, 2000 for telling the trial court in September inside and outside Malaysia as a case of 1999 that Anwar might have been poisoned in political revenge by Prime Minister Mahathir custody and that he suspected that “people Mohamad against his most prominent critic. in high places” were responsible. As of His two trials were marred by heavy-handed October, his trial had not begun. The charge tactics and irregularities. Key witnesses re- against Singh ran counter to international canted their confessions and alleged that they standards and Malaysian common law, which were extracted through police coercion and grants lawyers absolute privilege for all state- physical abuse. The judge admitted into ments made during legal proceedings. Marina evidence a contested confession that interro- Yusoff, former vice president of the National gators had obtained from co-defendant Sukma Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Nasional or Dermawan while he was in incommunicado Keadilan), also faced sedition charges for detention without access to counsel, and that allegedly “provoking racial discord.” In a he subsequently retracted. Prime Minister speech on September 29, 1999, Yusoff alleg- Mahathir repeatedly stated publicly that edly told a mostly ethnic Chinese Malaysian Anwar was guilty before the court delivered audience not to vote for UMNO because it its verdict. Defense attorneys Zainur Zakaria had started the massacres of ethnic Chinese and Karpal Singh were prosecuted for state- during the race riots of May 13, 1969. Her trial ments made in court in the course of Anwar’s was ongoing in October. Zulkifli Sulong, defense. Finally, the court permitted the editor of the popular PAS newspaper prosecution to twice change the dates of the Harakah, and Chia Lim Thye, who held the alleged crime. permit for the newspaper’s printing com- In March, former Inspector-General of pany, were charged with sedition for publish- Police Abdul Rahim Noor was convicted of ing an article allegedly written by Chandra “causing hurt” to Anwar for beating him in Muzaffar, Keadilan’s deputy president. The custody after his arrest. The charge was much article alleged a government conspiracy against reduced from the original, and Noor was Anwar. Chia pleaded guilty and received a fine sentenced to a fine and two months in prison. in May. Zulkifli pleaded not guilty, and his At this writing, he remained free on bail trial was ongoing at the time of this writing. pending the outcome of his appeal. The Home Ministry used the Printing Following November 1999 elections, Presses and Publications Act to intimidate the the government retaliated against its oppo- press and restrict media associated with the nents by charging them under broadly worded opposition. On December 24, 1999, the laws. Although Malaysia’s ruling coalition, ministry accused Harakah of breaching the 210 MALAYSIA

conditions of its license by selling the paper were met by tear gas, water cannons, and to non-PAS members. On March 1, it re- police in riot gear using batons, bamboo stricted Harakah to two issues per month, canes, and dogs. Forty-eight people were down from twice weekly, and banned it from arrested for illegal assembly. A judge ordered newsstands. The minister for energy, com- forty-six to be held for over a week without munications, and multimedia also stated that charges. Several detainees reported being Harakah’s online edition would be limited to beaten in custody by police. Police also two issues per month, although the ministry arrested Cheah Kah Peng, lawyer for Keadilan had repeatedly said that the government would vice-president Tian Chua, one of those charged not interfere with the Internet. with illegal assembly, when he tried to gain On March 27, the Home Ministry re- access to his client at a local police station. fused to renew the publishing permit of Detik On August 4, the day originally sched- magazine, a privately financed publication on uled for Anwar’s sodomy trial verdict, sev- domestic politics which criticized the govern- eral hundred people gathered outside the ment. Among other things, the government courthouse; seven were arrested for illegal alleged that the magazine had failed to print assembly. When the verdict was finally the publisher’s address and had not obtained announced on August 8, around 700 people the ministry’s consent to the editor’s ap- demonstrated peacefully; approximately pointment. The ministry also banned Al twelve, including Tian Chua, were arrested. Wasilah, a monthly youth magazine affiliated Several reported being punched, kicked, and with Detik, in August. In September, it partially choked by police officers during suspended the weekly tabloid, Ekslusif, for arrest and at the police station. Since Septem- “imbalanced [sic] reporting and non-compli- ber 1998, police had consistently refused to ance with publication rules and regulations. grant opposition parties permits for public Police continued to use force to break up rallies. peaceful opposition demonstrations. On Opposition supporters also faced re- March 11, around 200 people gathered at the taliation from the ruling party at the state National Mosque to protest the government’s level. In March, the Malacca state govern- decision to reduce the frequency of Harakah’s ment blacklisted doctors, lawyers, architects, publication. Seven people, including promi- contractors, and other professionals who nent human rights lawyer Sivarasa Rasiah, were opposition party members. The gov- opposition supporters, and journalists, were ernment transferred civil servants support- arrested for illegal assembly. On March 25, ive of the opposition out of the state or to the government banned public rallies in the other agencies, forbade its employees from capital for an indefinite period. The ban visiting the two states controlled by PAS, and applied to all outdoor gatherings in Kuala withdrew some state funds from two banks Lumpur of more than four people. On April with employees who had campaigned for the 9, police shut down Keadilan’s first anniver- opposition. The banks responded by prom- sary celebration on the grounds that it had no ising to take action against those employees. permit and called in Dr. Wan Azizah Wan One, Bank Islam, gave the government a list Ismail, Anwar’s wife and head of Keadilan, of employees who openly supported the for questioning. opposition, promised disciplinary action In advance of protests planned to mark against them, and dismissed those who had the anniversary of Anwar’s corruption con- stood as opposition candidates in the No- viction on April 14, police arrested three vember elections. Chief Minister Mohamed opposition leaders and ordered four others to Ali Rustam explained that the measures were turn themselves in. Despite the arrests, as intended “to serve as a warning to opposition well as police roadblocks around Kuala Lumpur party supporters that they have no place in and a heavy police presence, several hundred Malacca.” people gathered at the National Mosque and Thirteen members were appointed to a MALAYSIA 211 national Human Rights Commission publishing for her July 1995 memorandum on (Suhakam) in April, with former Deputy abuses in immigration detention camps. The Prime Minister Musa Hitam named as chair. government maintained that the report was The commission began receiving complaints inaccurate. Beginning in January, former in April, primarily of police abuse. It met detainees from Bangladesh, after initially be- with representatives of nongovernmental ing denied visas by the Malaysian govern- organizations (NGOs) in May and with mem- ment, testified in court that they had been bers of the police in June. In late July, Musa severely beaten, subjected to gross sexual Hitam acknowledged the public’s right to abuse, and kept in crowded, mosquito-in- peaceful assembly and stated that persons fested rooms with foul toilets. should be allowed to gather at the Kuala Malaysia continued its policy of detain- Lumpur High Court to hear the Anwar ver- ing and expelling persons recognized as refu- dict. The Malaysian Home Ministry and the gees by the United Nations High Commis- UMNO Youth deputy chief disagreed pub- sioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and continued licly with this statement. Wearing armbands, to deny UNHCR permission to visit immigra- commission members observed the public tion detention camps where refugees were gathering on August 8, the day of the Anwar detained. In October 1999, Mohammed verdict. Malaysian NGOs criticized the Sayed, a refugee from Burma, was arrested limited scope of rights falling under the after he led a demonstration in front of the commission’s jurisdiction and its lack of Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Sched- powers. uled for expulsion to Thailand several times, In July the Malaysian High Court dis- he was held in an immigration detention camp missed one of the four defamation suits brought until June when, following domestic and in- by corporations against Param ternational protest, he was resettled in Aus- Cumaraswamy, the United Nations Special tralia. Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. It ordered Cumaraswamy to Defending Human Rights bear the litigation costs, however, which were Malaysia’s human rights groups contin- US $110,000 at the time and rising. The three ued to operate despite government pressure. other cases were still pending at the time of In April, Anwar’s daughter, Nurul Izzah, met this writing. The corporations were seeking with United Nations High Commissioner for over US $100 million in damages for state- Human Rights Mary Robinson about her ments in Cumaraswamy’s 1995 interview father’s imprisonment and addressed the 56th with International Commercial Litigation Session of the United Nations Human Rights magazine in which he referred to allegations Commission in Geneva. Three Malaysian of corporate interference in the Malaysian human rights organizations, Voice of the judiciary. Malaysian courts have long re- Malaysian People (Suara Rakyat Malaysia, fused to recognize the immunity granted him SUARAM), Aliran, and the National Human in his capacity as U.N. Special Rapporteur. Rights Society (Hakam) met in May with the In April, the Malaysian government at- new Human Rights Commission and deliv- tempted unsuccessfully to block ered a memorandum signed by thirty-one Cumaraswamy’s reappointment at the an- NGOs. On August 1, SUARAM organized nual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights a gathering of NGOs to protest the fortieth Commission. anniversary of the Internal Security Act (ISA). The trial of Irene Fernandez, head of the The Malaysian Bar Council in March Kuala Lumpur-based advocacy organization adopted a motion urging Malaysia’s chief Tenaganita (Women’s Force), entered its fifth prosecutor to withdraw the charges against year, making it the longest trial in Malaysian Karpal Singh and to respect the rights of an history. Fernandez faces the possibility of independent bar. In June, the High Court three years in prison on charges of malicious enjoined the Bar Council from convening a 212 MALAYSIA/PAKISTAN

special meeting to discuss allegations of im- the impartiality of Malaysia’s judicial sys- propriety against the chief justice. In July, the tem. Court of Appeal affirmed a November 1999 decision that if the Bar Council held a special Europe meeting on the independence of the judiciary, The European Parliament sent a five- it would contravene the Sedition Act, erode member delegation to Malaysia in May. The public confidence in the judiciary, and be in delegation praised the creation of the national contempt of court. In both instances, the Human Rights Commission but expressed court ordered that the Bar Council meet the concern about the fairness of Anwar’s trials litigation costs. and the independence of the judiciary and the press. Following Anwar’s conviction in The Role of the International August, the European Union issued a state- Community ment of concern about the verdict and ex- Anwar’s sodomy conviction evoked pressed serious doubts about the fairness of widespread condemnation. the trial.

Asia and the Pacific United Nations and the World Bank Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan On April 10, United Nations High Com- Yew called Mahathir’s handling of the Anwar missioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson case “an unmitigated disaster,” referring to the voiced concern about a possible crackdown use of the ISA to detain Anwar and Mahathir’s against opposition leaders in the run-up to weak response to Anwar’s being beaten in the anniversary of Anwar’s conviction on custody. (Lee later denied that he intended to April 14, stated that her office would actively criticize Mahathir.) Australian Prime Minis- monitor the situation, and called on all parties ter John Howard questioned the indepen- to respect the right to peaceful expression. In dence of Malaysia’s judiciary and stated that August World Bank President James the sodomy conviction was politically moti- Wolfensohn expressed concern about vated. New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs and Anwar’s conviction. Trade Minister Phil Goff expressed concern about the fairness of the trial, including ques- Relevant Human Rights Watch tionable evidentiary rulings, restrictions on Reports: the defense, and the judiciary’s independence Living in Limbo: Burmese Refugees in Ma- from the executive. laysia, 8/00

United States and Canada The U.S. in April criticized Malaysia’s crackdown on freedom of speech and peaceful PAKISTAN assembly and called on the government to respect its citizen’s civil and political rights. Respect for civil and political rights In May, the U.S. expressed concern about the deteriorated significantly in the year follow- rejection of Anwar’s appeal of his corruption ing the bloodless military coup, on October convictions and urged the judicial system to 12, 1999, that deposed Prime Minister Nawaz address due process concerns. In August, the Sharif in Pakistan. General Pervez U.S. State Department stated that the U.S. Musharraf’s administration began to address was “outraged” by Anwar’s conviction and some longstanding justice issues—notably, that the cooperative relationship between the through the adoption of Pakistan’s first fed- U.S. and Malaysia had been impeded by the eral juvenile justice law and the establishment latter’s poor human rights record. Canada of a commission on the status of women— also strongly condemned the trial and the but it also greatly augmented executive pow- sentence, stating that they reflected poorly on ers and curtailed the independence of the PAKISTAN 213 judiciary. It moved to neutralize political to land in the hours leading up to the coup— parties through the application of broadly under the Anti-Terrorism Act, and sentenced defined laws governing terrorism, sedition, to life imprisonment on April 6 following a and public order, and through the establish- trial marred by procedural abuses. ment of a powerful extra-constitutional “ac- In December 1999 the military govern- countability” bureau. Opposition party mem- ment amended the Anti-Terrorism Act to add bers were subjected to prolonged detention hijacking and conspiracy to the list of offenses without charge; some were tortured in cus- falling within the Anti-Terrorism Court’s tody. Sectarian violence and attacks on reli- jurisdiction. These offenses were then ap- gious minorities continued and, despite re- plied retroactively to Nawaz Sharif. Another newed attention to the issue, the government amendment allowed the government to re- failed to provide meaningful recourse for place the judge originally assigned to hear the women victims of domestic abuse and sexual case, a Sharif appointee. In January, the new violence. judge stepped down, publicly complaining of the presence of intelligence agents in his Human Rights Developments courtroom. In March, only days before the Early in the year, the military govern- final arguments were to be presented in the ment moved to strip the judiciary of much of trial, Sharif’s lawyer, Iqbal Raad, and two of its power. On January 26, General Musharraf his colleagues were assassinated in their of- issued an order requiring all Supreme and fice. Other members of the defense team High Court judges to take an oath binding charged that the government had failed to them to uphold his proclamation of a national provide them protection despite repeated emergency and to adhere to the Provisional warnings that they were being threatened. A Constitution Order (PCO). Many, including month after Sharif’s conviction by the Anti- the chief justice of the Supreme Court, re- Terrorism Court, he was shifted to Attock fused to take the oath. A total of fifteen judges Fort—an army-occupied sixteenth century were removed. The PCO, which remained in fortress west of Islamabad—to face trial on effect at this writing, had been announced by charges of concealing assets and evading taxes Musharraf just days after the October coup. in connection with his acquisition of a heli- It suspended the constitution and legislative copter. He was convicted on July 22, and bodies and prohibited the Supreme and High sentenced to fourteen years in prison, with a Courts from making any decision against the fine of Rs. 20 million (U.S. $380,000). chief executive. The new government’s principal ve- On May 12, a reconstituted Supreme hicle for detaining former officials and party Court issued a verdict rejecting petitions leaders, however, was the National Account- challenging the coup’s legality. The court set ability Ordinance, a law ostensibly created to a deadline of three years for the holding of bring corrupt officials to account. The ordi- national and provincial elections, but reserved nance confers sweeping powers of arrest, authority to review the continuation of the investigation, and prosecution in a single Proclamation of Emergency, leaving the door institution, the National Accountability Bu- open to future extensions of military rule. reau (NAB), and permits detainees to be held Top officials of the deposed govern- for up to ninety days without being brought ment were detained on the day of the coup; before a court. The law was later amended to two of them, former Information Minister facilitate conviction by shifting the burden of Mushahid Hussain and former Petroleum proof during trial from the prosecution to the Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan contin- defense. ued to be held without charge as of this There were persistent reports of ill treat- writing. Nawaz Sharif himself was tried and ment in NAB custody, particularly in the case convicted of hijacking and terrorism—for of high profile detainees who were held early refusing to allow General Musharraf’s plane in the year in Attock Fort. Persons convicted 214 PAKISTAN under the ordinance were prohibited from Nawaz, had planned to lead, resulted in the holding public office for a period of twenty- arrests of at least 165 PML leaders and one years. An amendment to the Political activists. On September 21 the ban was also Parties Act in August also barred anyone with invoked against 250 members of the hardline a court conviction from holding party office. Sunni Muslim group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, who The combined effect of these acts, as they had planned a march to celebrate a religious were applied, was to eliminate the existing anniversary. leadership of the major political parties. While Other police and army operations tar- administration officials said that parties would geted the two leading ethnically-based par- be allowed to participate in future elections to ties in , the the Senate and national and provincial assem- (JSQM) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement blies, local government elections, scheduled (MQM). rangers and police in to be held in December, were to be conducted Sindh province launched a crackdown against on a non-party basis. activists and leaders of the JSQM and the The Musharraf government also sup- MQM on , 2000 after the two pressed political activity by conducting raids parties jointly called for a strike against the on party offices, preventing political rallies government’s dismissal of 400 Pakistan Steel from being held, and lodging criminal cases Mills workers. Paramilitary troops and rang- against rally organizers under laws governing ers responded with search and siege opera- sedition and the Maintenance of Public Order tions in the cities and a search for JSQM (MPO) Ordinance. The sedition law, Section activists in rural areas of Sindh, resulting in 124-A of the Pakistan Penal Code, criminalizes the arrest of about forty activists. speech that “brings or attempts to bring into The JSQM and MQM called for further hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to protests to be held on February 22 against the excite disaffection towards, the Central or police violence of February 19, but withdrew Provincial Government established by law.” their call after setting a deadline for the gov- Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order ernment to accept two demands: the release Ordinance prohibits speech that “causes or is of jailed MQM leader Farooq Sattar and the likely to cause fear or alarm to the public” or reinstatement of laid-off Pakistan Steel Mills any section thereof, or which “furthers or is employees. On the night of February 21, likely to further any activity prejudicial to police and paramilitary rangers rounded up public safety or the maintenance of public and detained fifty-four JSQM and MQM order.” activists. They were released the following Rana Sanaullah Khan, a member of the day. suspended Punjab provincial assembly from Many local observers maintained that a Sharif’s (PML), major consequence of curbs on political par- was arrested in Faisalabad on November 28, ties and activism was that the relative influ- 1999. The arrest came after he criticized the ence of mainstream religious parties—whose army at a meeting of former legislators and authority General Musharraf largely refrained urged his colleagues to launch a protest move- from challenging—would grow. Indeed, that ment against the military government. He was influence was apparent from the government’s tortured while in custody, and criminal charges abrupt withdrawal—in the face of planned were registered against him under the sedition protests by religious groups—of plans to law and MPO . restrict application of Pakistan’s much criti- On March 15, the government formally cized blasphemy laws and to repeal laws curtailed freedom of association and assem- providing for separate elections for members bly with an order banning public rallies, dem- of religious minorities. These laws are seen onstrations, and strikes. The order’s enforce- by many minority group advocates as having ment against a procession from Lahore to contributed to their communities’ political Peshawar that Nawaz Sharif’s wife, Kulsoom marginalization. In the absence of legal re- PAKISTAN 215 form, the blasphemy laws, which set forth sex if they failed to “prove” rape under the stringent penalties, including capital punish- 1979 Hudood Ordinances, which criminalize ment, for offenses against Islam, continued to adultery and fornication. be used against Muslims and non-Muslims According to a report released by the alike. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Following up on promises made during March, a nongovernmental body, more than a government-sponsored national human 1,000 women died in Pakistan in 1999 as rights convention in April, President Rafiq victims of honor killings—the practice of Tarar announced the promulgation of a juve- punishing women said to have brought dis- nile justice ordinance in July that incorpo- honor to their families. Most of the killings, rated a number of recommendations made by the report added, were carried out by the local and international nongovernmental or- victims’ brothers or husbands. The same ganizations and the official Pakistan Law report concluded that at least 1,000 people Commission. The ordinance included a ban had been killed in religious or ethnic violence on the death penalty on persons for crimes each year since 1990. Sectarian violence committed while they were under the age of between rival Sunni and Shi’a Muslim groups eighteen, provision of state-funded legal as- continued in 2000, reaching its peak during the sistance for juveniles, the creation of juvenile holy month of Moharram. On April 12, courts with exclusive jurisdiction over juve- gunmen attacked a Shi’a prayer meeting in nile cases, a prohibition on joint trials of Rawalpindi, killing nineteen. adults and children, and a requirement that Religious intolerance continued to gen- probation officers prepare reports on a child’s erate new abuses. In December 1999, several circumstances prior to adjudication of his or hundred persons looted and burned property her case. belonging to a local Ahmadi leader, Mohammad On September 1, the government an- Nawaz, in Okara district, Punjab. Nawaz was nounced the establishment of the National accused of planning to build an Ahmadi house Commission on the Status of Women, with a of worship. Police personnel did nothing to mandate to safeguard and promote women’s stop the crowd and instead registered a case interests but few powers to implement it. of blasphemy against Nawaz and his two The first issue that the commission was sons. In May 2000, a lower court in Sialkot directed to examine was violence against district, Punjab, sentenced two Christian women. The government—empowered by brothers to thirty-five years’ imprisonment the Supreme Court to amend the constitution and Rs. 75,000 (US$1,500) fine. They were and enforce new laws without parliament’s convicted of desecrating the Koran and blas- approval—also reserved one third of the pheming against the Prophet Mohammed. seats for women in local government elec- Both cases were reportedly registered by an tions that were scheduled to commence in ice cream vendor who had fought with the December. brothers after insisting that his dishes were Thousands of women fell victim to do- reserved for Muslim customers. mestic violence, so-called honor killings, and Though the government repeatedly stated sexual assault, with virtually no access to the that the Pakistani press enjoyed uncondi- country’s justice system. Women who at- tional freedom, local human rights activists tempted to register a police complaint of reported that self-censorship on political is- spousal or familial physical abuse were in- sues was increasingly common in the vernacu- variably turned away and sometimes pres- lar press, and there were indications that the sured by the police to reconcile with their English-language press was coming under abusers. Women who reported rape or sexual official pressure as well. On September 27, an assault by strangers fared marginally better, army monitoring team conducted an unan- but they too faced harassment by officials at nounced, four-hour inspection of the head- all levels and risked being prosecuted for illicit quarters of Karachi’s respected English-lan- 216 PAKISTAN

guage daily Dawn. Although the ostensible of the military government attempted to purpose of the inspection was to check me- bolster diplomatic ties overseas. But the tering equipment for electricity billing fraud, international community remained steadfast the team demanded access to all floors of the in its demands for a return to democratic publishing house, including the offices of the governance and peaceful resolution of the publishers, editors, and journalists. Accord- conflict in Kashmir. ing to Dawn, the inspection was preceded by legal notices to the newspaper from the Infor- United Nations mation Ministry to restrict its coverage of a In a December 1999 report, the U.N. draft Freedom of Information Act, and by Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary complaints from government officials about Disappearances stated that it continued to an article in Dawn stating that the administra- receive reports that Pakistani authorities failed tion was preparing new curbs on press free- to adequately investigate and prosecute “dis- dom. appearance” cases. In March, the U.N. Spe- The UNHCR pledged to continued its cial Rapporteur on violence against women yearly repatriation of 100,000 Afghan refu- submitted a written report on her September gees from Pakistan, which is currently home 1999 visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Among to over two million refugees. Though the her findings were a rise in violence against repatriation was voluntary, the refugees re- Afghan women, including domestic violence, turned to face ongoing civil war and severe honor killings, and trafficking of Afghan refu- violations of women’s human rights. gee women in Pakistan. She also found that individuals working on the plight of Afghans, Defending Human Rights including members of Afghan nongovern- Despite numerous crackdowns on po- mental organizations, the majority of which litical activism, human rights organizations, had moved to Pakistan, continued to receive for the most part, were permitted to function death threats, were subject to harassment, freely. Groups such as the Human Rights and often lacked protection from local au- Commission of Pakistan openly condemned thorities. The rapporteur also noted local the military government’s treatment of de- NGO concern over what they termed the tained political figures, and its curtailing of “Talibanization” of Pakistan, and its impact judicial independence. According to a report on Pakistani women. in Dawn, following the shutdown of nearly 2,000 NGOs and the imposition of new United States registration requirements for NGOs by the During a brief stopover in Islamabad at Punjab provincial government last year—a the end of his South Asia tour in March, U.S. move that was initiated under the Sharif President Bill Clinton urged the military gov- administration—NGOs in the province con- ernment to restore democracy, seek a peace- tinued to require clearance from the Intelli- ful resolution to the conflict in Kashmir, and gence Bureau in order to register with the pressure the Taliban in Afghanistan to both government. While NGOs in Sindh province improve their treatment of women and cease did not require such clearance, the Sindh Social sponsoring terrorist groups. Clinton took Welfare Department began scrutinizing the pains not to legitimize the military govern- workings of all NGOs functioning in the ment by making a state visit. province, including their financial records and In its second annual report on interna- sources of funding. tional religious freedom released in Septem- ber, the U.S. Department of State noted that The Role of the International there was a “slight improvement” in the Community Pakistani government’s treatment of reli- In a bid to build international support, gious minorities between July 1, 1999 and General Musharraf and other senior officials June 30, 2000. It cited General Musharraf’s PAKISTAN/SRI LANKA 217 abandoning of his predecessor’s proposal to urged Musharraf to restore civilian rule by impose Shari’a law through a constitutional 2002, and indicated that while most Japanese amendment as a positive move, but asserted grants and loans would remain suspended more generally that discriminatory legisla- following Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May tion continued to fuel religious intolerance. 1998, some funds might be released for devel- Later that month, the U.S. Commission on opment work in response to Pakistan’s pledge International Religious Freedom held public to continue its freeze on nuclear tests. The hearings on religious persecution in India and Japanese government maintained, however, Pakistan. At this writing, members of the that Pakistan’s refusal to sign the Compre- commission were preparing for a visit to hensive Test Ban Treaty was the main ob- Pakistan in November following the stacle in the resumption of Japanese aid. government’s invitation. Earlier in the year, Japan also provided small grants to NGOs carrying out Afghan refugee European Union assistance in camps in Pakistan and inside Almost a year after its forceful condem- Afghanistan. nation of the coup in Pakistan, the E.U. initiated political contact with the military International Financial Institutions government in an effort to formalize a time- At this writing, the World Bank had yet table for national elections. Following the to schedule the donor conference on Pakistan April verdict in the trial of former Prime that had been put on hold since the coup. Minister Nawaz Sharif, the E.U. also voiced Proposed loans that were in the pipeline, but concerns over the oath of loyalty to the PCO not yet approved, amounted to more than required of judges, retroactive application of U.S. $800 million. In late September, the IMF amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act, and and Pakistan were reported to have reached a the broader question of judicial indepen- preliminary agreement on a $3.5 billion loan dence, stating that the E.U. would closely program, to be spread out over three years. follow Sharif’s appeal. IMF cash credits during the first year would be limited to $700 million from the fund’s The Poverty Relief and Growth Facility (PRGF). Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon visited Pakistan in August to Relevant Human Rights Watch convey the Commonwealth’s concerns re- Reports: garding the restoration of constitutional and Prison Bound, The Denial of Juvenile democratic rule. Pakistan was suspended Justice in Pakistan, 10/99 from the councils of the Commonwealth Reform or Repression?: Post-Coup Abuses in following the military coup. The visit was Pakistan, 10/00 followed by a warning by Commonwealth foreign ministers—who met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar during the U.N. Millennium Summit in September— SRI LANKA that Pakistan would face full suspension from the Commonwealth if it did not provide Renewed fighting between Sri Lankan a firm timetable for a return to democracy. government forces and the separatist Libera- tion Tigers of (LTTE) overshad- Japan owed other developments and generated seri- As part of a South Asia tour in August, ous abuses. Intensified battles for control of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori used key territory in the northern part of the island Japan’s leverage as a top donor to call for a claimed scores of civilian lives and displaced resumption of talks on Kashmir and con- some 250,000 people, bringing the estimated demned violent attacks on civilians. Mori number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) 218 SRI LANKA

nationwide to more than one million. Emer- Civilian deaths and injuries on the gency government powers, in place almost peninsula were reported in the hundreds, but continuously since 1983 and enhanced from casualty figures could not be confirmed be- May to September by additional regulations, cause relief agencies and journalists were granted broad powers to security personnel barred from the hardest hit areas. There and to arrest and detain suspects, restricted free- in eastern Sri Lanka, many conflict-related dom of association, and authorized media deaths were the result of errant shells and censorship. The LTTE was implicated in a gunshots. On May 24, four adults and two series of suicide bombings that killed and children were killed in a village near Batticaloa injured hundreds of civilians. It continued to when a shell fell on their house during a LTTE recruit and deploy child soldiers and to physi- offensive against a nearby Sri Lankan army cally attack and intimidate critics in the Tamil base. On August 10, army shelling injured community. three civilians, including a ten-year-old girl, Although the government continued to near Muttur, in district. On press for constitutional changes aimed at a September 12, fire aimed at the LTTE political resolution to the conflict, it failed to damaged houses and injured four civilians in secure necessary parliamentary support. Kalkudah village, north of Batticaloa. Land Political violence outside the war-zones in- mines and unexploded ordinance also contin- creased in the run-up to parliamentary elec- ued to take a civilian toll. Four such injuries tions in October. were treated by doctors in Mallavi in May; one victim was a ten-year-old child who lost Human Rights Developments both hands and eyes in the blast. Sri Lanka had On November 2, 1999, the LTTE still not signed the international treaty ban- launched operation “Unceasing Waves” to ning land mines due, the government said, to reclaim northern territory lost to government security concerns arising from the conflict forces over the preceding four years. On with the LTTE. November 22, shells hit a Catholic Before the escalation in fighting in April, shrine in the northern Vanni region that had government-run welfare camps housed some long sheltered IDPs, killing forty-two and 170,000 IDPs island-wide; some 600,000 injuring sixty more. Each side blamed the other IDPs relied on friends or relatives for other for the attack. shelter. Although most received some gov- Intensified fighting in April 2000 near ernment assistance, about 100,000 people in Jaffna town trapped thousands of civilians in Sri Lanka’s north and east were thought to be conflict zones for several tense weeks. The struggling for survival unassisted. By mid- LTTE called on the civilians to move south September, another 250,000 people, almost into the Vanni or into other parts of the Jaffna all of them residents of Jaffna district, had peninsula that they controlled. The army said reportedly been displaced. civilians should stay in government-controlled Displaced persons and other Tamil ci- territory closer to the town, moving north if vilians in the north and east also faced dis- necessary. By the end of July, a lull in fighting crimination, restrictions on their freedom of allowed many civilians to move to safer areas, movement, arbitrary arrest, and custodial and permitted the delivery of badly-needed abuse at the hands of government forces. Due medical supplies into the Vanni. On July 22, to government restrictions, Tamil civilians the two sides allowed International Commit- were often unable to reach work sites to earn tee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers to a living, attend schools, or seek urgent medical evacuate residents of the Kaithady Elders’ care. In eastern Sri Lanka, army and police Home near Jaffna, where they had been trapped units continued to impose forced labor, de- since May. Some thirty residents reportedly manding that IDPs and other civilians work died during the two-month period, many as a without pay building sentry posts, cutting result of shelling. wood, and cleaning military camps. In mid- SRI LANKA 219

July, villagers north of Batticaloa were re- sity Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) portedly forced to construct a sand bul- provided information on fifteen children re- wark around an army camp; some were beaten cruited since April 1999, nine of whom had for refusing to comply. been killed in the fighting within a year of their Mass arrests of Tamils occurred after recruitment. The LTTE imposed restrictions violent incidents attributed to the LTTE and on civilians wishing to leave areas it controlled were often accompanied by reports of “dis- and forced all villagers in some areas to join its appearances” and torture in custody. In one civilian defense units. LTTE attacks and two-week period in January, more than five intimidation against what it referred to as thousand people were detained for question- “quislings” within the Tamil community had ing in search operations in neigh- a chilling effect on dissent. Particularly at risk borhoods. The Sri Lankan Human Rights were members of Tamil political parties hold- Commission, a government-appointed ing positions in local government. Between agency, said in July that it had been unable to January and May, three members of local trace seventeen people detained by security administrative councils in Jaffna were killed forces in Vavuniya since the beginning of the by unidentified gunmen. The LTTE held a year, while Amnesty International reported number of political prisoners and prisoners of a rash of “disappearances” in Vavuniya in war, but access to detainees and details of August. A Vavuniya district judge in Septem- confinement were unavailable. On February ber criticized local doctors for failing to report 28, the LTTE released four soldiers they had torture-related injuries, and threatened legal captured more than six years earlier. action against practitioners who submitted Freedom of the press was also under false reports denying custodial abuse by the attack by the government. Intensified press army or police. censorship and denial of independent access On October 25, a mob in Bandarawela to conflict areas frustrated accurate war re- stormed a government-run rehabilitation camp porting and civilian access to vital security housing, among others, suspected LTTE sup- information. On May 3, as the LTTE pushed porters and former LTTE child soldiers, kill- towards Jaffna, the government issued new ing over twenty-five. According to initial emergency regulations banning live television reports, those killed ranged in age from four- and radio coverage of the war, requiring gov- teen to twenty-five. After the attack, police ernment approval before such news could be briefly detained more than 250 suspects from transmitted outside the country, and empow- the majority Sinhalese community. At this ering the authorities to detain journalists, writing, President Kumaratunga had called block the distribution of newspapers, seize for two "high-level probes" into the incident, property, and shut down printing presses. while Tamil community leaders alleged po- On June 5, the government relaxed restric- lice complicity. tions on the foreign media, but those relating The LTTE committed numerous and to the local press remained in place. gross abuses. Bombings of public places in From May 13 to July 4, government the north and east, and suicide bombings in censors closed Jaffna’s only local Tamil daily Colombo on December 18, 1999, January 5, newspaper, , after it reported that 2000, March 10, June 7, September 15, and five civilians had died in a May 12 air force raid October 19 killed more than one hundred and that President Kumaratunga had wept civilians and injured many more. Beginning in during a meeting with the head of the Indian April, the LTTE engaged in increasingly ag- air force. On May 22, police seized the Leader gressive recruitment drives in the Vanni, in- Publications printing plant, blocking the pub- cluding recruitment of children as young as lication of the independent Sunday Leader ten years old for combat. Schools and IDP and its Sinhala-language counterpart, Irida camps were common targets for such drives. Peramuna, for publishing reports on the war A July report by the Colombo-based Univer- that the chief censor said “would have benefit- 220 SRI LANKA

ted the enemy.” At the end of June, the were believed responsible for the 1995 mur- Supreme Court struck down the ban on Leader der of twenty-three Tamil youths; an army Publications on procedural grounds. Days massacre of more than 180 villagers near later, the president invoked new emergency Batticaloa in September 1990; and the 1980s regulations intended to correct those proce- crackdown on members of the left-wing in- dural problems. The move reimposed restric- surgent group Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna tions on all reporting deemed by the govern- (JVP) which resulted in tens of thousands of ment to be detrimental to national security, people being extrajudicially executed or “dis- preservation of public order, or the mainte- appeared” by the authorities. On July 18, nance of essential services. 2000, however, a court ordered retired Major In September, the government suspended General Ananda Weerasekera and two subor- key emergency regulations banning public dinates to stand trial on charges of murder and meetings and some of the broader censorship abduction. This was the first time that a high- provisions, but restrictions on military-re- ranking military officer had been ordered to lated news remained in place. At this writing, stand trial in connection with the JVP “dis- a ban remained in effect covering “any matter appearances.” pertaining to military operations in the North- The government continued to press for ern and Eastern Province . . . [and] any constitutional revisions that would devolve statement pertaining to the official conduct, more power to regional councils, thus in- morale, or the performance of the Head or of creasing the autonomy of the Tamil-domi- any member of the Armed Forces or the police nated north and east. The proposed revisions force.” also would have granted citizenship to some Individual journalists also came under 86,000 Tamils of Indian origin and their fire. In April, Nellai Nadesan, a senior colum- children, officially categorized as “Indian nist for the newspaper Tamils,” who had been stateless for some Veerakersari, narrowly escaped a grenade forty years. The proposal was rejected both explosion at his home in Batticaloa. In June, by the LTTE, as insufficient to satisfy its journalists attending a media workshop in separatist demands, and by Sinhala hardliners, eastern Batticaloa received threats after the as a dilution of the unitary state and too government-owned media accused them of accommodating of Tamil interests. On Au- links to the LTTE. In September, Sunday gust 8, further consideration of the amend- Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga re- ments was indefinitely postponed when it ceived a two-year suspended sentence for an became clear that other political parties, in- article he published in 1995 criticizing Presi- cluding the main opposition United National dent Kumaratunga’s performance during her Party, would not support the bill. first year in office. Jaffna-based journalist Political violence escalated in the weeks Maylwaganam Nimalarajan was shot and leading up to parliamentary elections in Oc- killed by a group of unidentified attackers on tober. By October 10, the nongovernmental the night of October 19. The attack occurred Centre For Monitoring Election Violence at his home during curfew hours in a high (CMEV) had recorded seventy-one election- security area of Jaffna, and may have been related murders, at least twenty-six attempted linked to his reporting on vote-rigging and murders, and over one thousand injuries, intimidation during the October parliamen- assaults, acts of intimidation, and other abuses. tary elections. Prominent social critics faced particular With renewed fighting taking center stage, dangers from non-state actors. On January there was little progress in obtaining justice 5, Tamil lawyer and politician G.G. for past human rights abuses although the Ponnambalam was killed in Colombo. An identities of many perpetrators were known. outspoken supporter of Tamil separatism, Examples included the stalled “Bolgoda Lake” Ponnambalam had acted as legal councel in case, in which Special many important Tamil human rights cases. A SRI LANKA 221 group calling itself the National Front Against In September, the Alliance for Democ- Tigers claimed responsibility for his murder, racy in Sri Lanka, composed of nearly sev- warning that it should be seen as a lesson by enty civic groups, trade unions, religious all those who supported the LTTE. institutions of different faiths, and NGOs, launched a nationwide “yellow ribbon” cam- Defending Human Rights paign to support free and fair elections. The Nongovernmental rights activists con- alliance sought to persuade one million Sri tinued to play a critical role, sometimes in Lankans to wear yellow ribbons each day difficult and dangerous circumstances. In the until the conclusion of the parliamentary lead-up to parliamentary elections, human elections in October to symbolize their sup- rights defenders campaigned against political port. violence. Trade unions and media freedom groups joined them in opposing censorship The Role of the International and other emergency measures. Community At the end of January, two hundred International attention to Sri Lanka fo- participants from around the world com- cused on support for a political settlement to memorated the life and work of Neelan the conflict and humanitarian efforts to miti- Tiruchelvam, a renowned Tamil human rights gate the worst effects of the war. Sri Lanka activist who was killed in a LTTE suicide sought and received increased military assis- bombing in 1999. The gathering launched the tance from key donors and cultivated rela- Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Fund, dedi- tions with potential arms suppliers, including cated to the promotion of human rights, , with which it renewed diplomatic ties minority rights, and the resolution of ethnic in May after a break of thirty years. Norway, conflict. In late March, Sri Lankan human India, and the United States played major rights defenders welcomed the appointment roles in as yet unsuccessful efforts to bring of new commissioners to Sri Lanka’s Na- about negotiations between the warring par- tional Human Rights Commission, which had ties. Intensification of fighting in April caused been criticized in its first three years of a postponement of the annual meeting of the operation as lacking in leadership and re- Sri Lanka Aid Consortium, but as the war sources. raged on many of Sri Lanka’s donors released Early on the morning of June 27, a statements encouraging Norway’s efforts as grenade was thrown into the compound of the a facilitator for peace between the warring Save the Children Fund office in Colombo. A parties. car parked at the premises was damaged but no one was injured in the attack. Norway In June, the Sri Lankan Press Council In January, the Norwegian government rejected a complaint filed by Sherman de announced that it would play an intermediary Rose, founder of Companions on a Journey, role in efforts to bring about an end to the a gay rights organization, against the Island seventeen-year war in Sri Lanka. Norwegian newspaper for printing a letter that called for delegates met with government and LTTE convicted rapists to be sent to attack lesbians. representatives in separate meetings outside The council ruled that the letter was pub- the country. Norway also sent senior officials lished in the “interest of the community,” and to Colombo several times during the year for that De Rose had no standing because he was discussions on the escalation of fighting. male. The Council maintained that “lesbian- ism itself is an act of sadism,” and noted that India homosexuality was an offense under Sri On May 8, the Indian government indi- Lanka’s penal code. De Rose was ordered to cated for the first time that it would be willing pay the newspaper 2,100 rupees (U.S. $28) to mediate in the crisis if asked by both sides. in costs. On May 23, Indian officials rejected sugges- 222 SRI LANKA tions in the press that the calling for negotiations. The Japanese gov- was considering military intervention in Sri ernment issued a similar appeal and warned Lanka, amidst reports of an increased Indian that the emergency measures and continued naval presence off the Kerala coast. Mean- censorship of the media could violate Japan’s while, India continued to play host to more Official Development Assistance human than 100,000 Sri Lankan refugees, including rights guidelines. about 65,000 in government-run camps in In July, following a fact-finding visit to Tamil Nadu. Small numbers of refugees Sri Lanka, two British members of the Euro- continued to arrive in India by boat during the pean Parliament criticized the government’s year, but the Indian navy intercepted many human rights record stating that it had not vessels, preventing would-be refugees from done enough to protect civilians caught in the landing on Indian soil and seized Indian fishing conflict and was using press censorship to boats used to transport refugees. India offered cover-up abuses. They also urged the lifting to increase humanitarian assistance. of a military policy that banned even essential supplies, including food and medicine, from United States reaching areas controlled by the LTTE. The United States encouraged efforts by Norway and India to promote a negotiated United Nations settlement to the Sri Lankan conflict but In October 1999, the U.N. Working continued to label the LTTE a “foreign terror- Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disap- ist organization,” and increased anti-terror- pearances visited Sri Lanka to follow-up on ism aid to the Sri Lankan government. On more than 12,000 cases. Its December 1999 May 29, U.S. Undersecretary of State Tho- report stated that Sri Lanka was still second mas Pickering met with President only to Iraq in numbers of unresolved cases, Kumaratunga in Colombo. He expressed and noted that there had been few prosecu- concern over the humanitarian crisis in north- tions of alleged perpetrators within the secu- ern Sri Lanka, urged the parties to press ahead rity forces, some of whom remained on active with efforts to negotiate a political settlement duty or had even been promoted. short of secession, and encouraged the Sri In mid-March, U.N. Special Rappor- Lankan government to lift press censorship teur on Violence against Women Radhika and other restrictions on civil liberties. In Coomaraswamy, who is herself Sri Lankan, June, President Clinton forwarded to the emphasized the lack of government response Senate for ratification a treaty signed in Sep- to allegations of sexual violence by security tember 1999 that would facilitate extradition personnel in Sri Lanka. She noted too, that, of LTTE members to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka despite a presidential directive, little effort sought the treaty to prevent the LTTE from had been made to investigate the December fund-raising or organizing political support in 1999 gang-rape and murder by naval person- the U.S. nel of twenty-nine-year-old Saravanbavananthatkurukal near Jaffna. Other Major Donors UNHCR played an important role in The E.U. joined Japan and most of Sri assisting many of Sri Lanka’s internally dis- Lanka’s other major donors in urging the placed in northern Sri Lanka, though its ef- LTTE and the government to cooperate with forts to assist some of the newest IDPs were the Norwegian government’s efforts to facili- hampered by conflict-related restrictions. The tate talks. Many donors also criticized the agency had no presence in most of eastern Sri emergency measures imposed in May. On Lanka, and only a limited mandate for protec- May 15, the E.U. emphasized the need to tion. In the past, the Sri Lankan government’s reestablish civil liberties, noting the responsi- rejection of a protection role for the agency bility of both sides to ensure the safety of the had forced it to focus largely on humanitarian civilian population in conflict zones, and relief. In 2000, a core component of UNHCR’s SRI LANKA/THAILAND 223

Sri Lanka program was seeking “access to ment also moved forward in establishing a national protection” for IDPs. National Human Rights Commission, with Representatives of the United Nations Senate selection in October of nine of eleven Children’s Fund (UNICEF) made several slated commissioners. The remaining two statements expressing concern for child vic- members were to be chosen at the next Senate tims of war and denouncing the LTTE’s use session in early 2001. On October 3, Thailand of child soldiers. In July, UNICEF represen- signed the Rome treaty. tatives in Colombo accused the LTTE of In June, after pressure from democracy breaking its promise not to recruit children for advocates, the media, and victims’ families, combat. the government released a 605-page Defense Ministry report on the army’s May 1992 Nongovernmental Efforts shooting of pro-democracy demonstrators in On May 6, the International Working Bangkok. A summary had been made public Group on Sri Lanka, a coalition of aid agencies in June 1999. The government censored about and human rights organizations, called on the 10 percent of the report, however, and the international community to avert an impend- May 92 Relatives Committee, an organiza- ing humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka. In mid- tion of families of thirty-eight people whose May, government and NGO delegates from fate has still not been clarified, demanded that thirty countries attending an Asia-Pacific the remaining material be revealed. The com- conference on child soldiers appealed for a mittee also called for the release of two other global ban on child soldiers. The delegates’ official reports on the incident. “Kathmandu Declaration” noted that a grow- Abuses against refugees remained a se- ing number of children were being used in rious problem. Two incidents had a major armed conflicts, particularly where insurgent impact on Thai refugee policy. On October groups were active, and said that Sri Lanka 1, 1999, five Burmese gunmen calling them- was among the worst offenders in the region. selves the Vigorous Burmese Student War- riors (VBSW) seized the Burmese embassy in Bangkok and held it for a day. Thailand’s deputy foreign minister negotiated the release THAILAND of hostages and accompanied the gunmen to the Burmese border aboard a military helicop- While the government began to look into ter. On January 24, the VBSW and armed serious abuses of the past, it made little Burmese from the ethnic minority Karen progress in addressing police abuse, human insurgent group called God’s Army seized the trafficking, and protection of refugees, par- Ratchaburi provincial hospital, holding over ticularly those from Burma. Thailand took 500 people hostage. The men demanded that major steps, however, toward instituting a civilians from a God’s Army base be allowed more accountable and transparent political to cross the border into Thailand and that the system and became the first country in South- Thai army immediately cease shelling the east Asia to sign the Rome treaty establishing area. Early in the morning of January 25, Thai the International Criminal Court. commandos stormed the hospital and freed the hostages. Witnesses reported to the press Human Rights Developments that some of the attackers surrendered and The Thai parliament took steps to in- were led away to a separate section of the crease the accountability of government offi- hospital compound. Shortly thereafter, the cials and protect rights codified in the 1997 corpses of ten men were displayed on the constitution by establishing three new insti- sidewalk. Human Rights Watch joined nu- tutions: a National Counter-Corruption Com- merous Thai and international human rights mission, a Parliamentary Ombudsman, and a organizations in calling for an impartial, pub- Supreme Administrative Court. The govern- lic investigation into the incident. The Thai 224 THAILAND

government claimed to have initiated an inter- procedure, which initially recognized as refu- nal investigation, but as of October, no find- gees only those persons fleeing from imme- ings had been released. diate fighting. Throughout the first half of Following these two incidents, the Thai 2000, the new provincial admission boards government instituted measures that increas- rejected thousands of applicants, declaring ingly placed Burmese refugees at risk. In them illegal immigrants. On , Thai November 1999, the government announced authorities expelled 116 refugees from Don that by the end of 2000 it planned to close the Yang refugee camp in Kanchanaburi prov- Maneeloy Student Center, a refugee camp ince. Of the 116, less than half came from the primarily housing Burmese dissident refu- original group rejected by the provincial board. gees, and pressed other countries to accept its The others had been rounded up by Thai residents for resettlement. Thai authorities officials and had not yet appeared before a said all Burmese refugees in Bangkok and board. On August 17, approximately 100 other urban areas should move to the border; persons were returned from Nu Pho refugee those who stayed would be considered illegal camp in Tak province. In August, the Mae immigrants and be deported. On February 28, Hong Son provincial board reversed an earlier five Burmese, four of whom had applied for decision to reject thousands of asylum seek- refugee status to the Office of the United ers and agreed to admit some 3,400 refugees Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to camps in Mae Hong Son province. (UNHCR), were deported to the Burmese Ethnic minority Shan refugees contin- town of Myawaddy, where they were de- ued to flee to Thailand from Burma, but the tained by Burmese authorities. Several re- majority of Shan asylum seekers did not have portedly received seven-year sentences, and access to international protection and the Burma’s state-run Radio Myanmar reported refugee camps. on May 19 that one of the men, Saw Tin Oo, Other human rights problems persisted, had been sentenced to death for treason. He including killings of suspected criminals in had been arrested by Thai authorities in front police custody. In October 1999, a Thai of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok on the provincial court ruled that three police offic- day of the embassy siege. ers in Suphanburi province had killed three The transfer of urban refugees to the suspected drug dealers in their custody on border was slow. The first refugees scheduled November 27, 1996, but did not address the to be transferred in August were reluctant to circumstances surrounding the killings. The move, and the community surrounding the attorney general was to determine whether to refugee camp in Umphiem Mai, near the proceed with murder charges, but had not border town of Mae Sot, did not wish them to done so as of October 2000. be moved there. Several attacks on the press took place Throughout much of the first half of the during the year. Amnat Khunyosingh, owner year, senior Thai officials stated that the and editor of the northern Thai newspaper, government wished to see the more than Phak Nua Daily, was shot and wounded by 100,000 refugees living in camps along the three gunmen as he was returning home from Thai border return to Burma within three work on April 18. Police arrested three army years. In February, a district officer from Mae officers and said that the attack was probably Hong Son province passed around a list for related to the paper’s coverage of Senate refugees in Mae Khong Kha camp to sign up elections in Chiang Mai province. Early on for voluntary repatriation. No one volun- August 24, a bomb exploded just outside the teered. home of Suriwong Uapatiphan, news editor Burmese newly arriving at Thailand’s of Khao Sod, a leading Thai language daily, refugee camps had difficulty making asylum but there were no casualties. Suriwong had claims. At the end of 1999, the Thai govern- reported on police corruption and just before ment instituted a group status determination the attack had been sued by a police general THAILAND 225 for defamation. Khao Sod’s offices had been tunity to challenge charges of illegal entry. bombed in 1999, but the perpetrator was not identified. Defending Human Rights The Thai government instituted several Thai human rights organizations and measures to reduce statelessness. On May 3, other advocacy groups generally operated the Local Administration Department de- without restrictions. Some nongovernmental cided to shift decision-making on the citizen- organizations providing assistance to Bur- ship of hilltribe children born in Thailand mese dissidents and others monitoring the from the provincial governor’s office to that human rights situation in Burma were inves- of the district chiefs. Decentralization of the tigated by Thai authorities after the Burmese procedures was intended to make access to embassy siege in October 1999 and the citizenship easier. On August 29, the Thai Ratchaburi hospital incident in February 2000. cabinet granted citizenship to the descen- These agencies remained under scrutiny in dants of three groups of displaced persons: October 2000. Burmese who entered the country prior to March 1976, Nepalese migrants, and Chinese The Role of the International migrants who had migrated to Thailand since Community the 1960s. Members of other groups, how- The principal concerns of the interna- ever, remained without a nationality or full tional community continued to be the regional citizenship rights, including a number of trade in narcotics and Thailand’s recovery Thailand’s ethnic minority hilltribes. Around from the Asian financial crisis, but some 300,000 such people registered with the gov- governments remained engaged on refugee ernment were permitted to reside and work in and human trafficking issues. Britain’s for- the country but faced restrictions on their eign minister, Robin Cook, visited Tham Hin movement, could not participate in elections, refugee camp on April 20, where he called for and could not own land. Hundreds of thou- changes in Burma which would allow the sands of other hilltribe villagers remained refugees to return. Australia, Canada, the unregistered and were officially considered as United States, and a number of European illegal immigrants. Union states agreed to resettle over 1,500 Thailand continued to be a hub of human refugees from the Maneeloy Student Center. trafficking within the region. Enforcement of UNHCR continued to urge Thailand’s pro- Thai laws on trafficking remained weak. In vincial admission boards to apply a broad one exception, police and an activist from the definition of refugee when screening asylum Centre for Protection of Children on April 18 seekers. On October 17-18, U.N. High Com- rescued two Lao girls, aged thirteen and six- missioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata visited teen, from a house where the girls were Thailand. Ogata urged the Thai government reportedly being prepared to work in the to sign the 1951 U.N. Convention relating to commercial sex industry. Police arrested the the Status of Refugees and requested a owners of the house. On March 20-21, the UNHCR presence in the refugee camps and a Thai government hosted a seminar for justice greater role in determining who would be ministers from twenty Asian countries on admitted into the camps as refugees. Prime combating transnational crime, including hu- Minister Chuan Leekpai reportedly assured man trafficking. Ogata that the Thai government would not The government’s treatment of migrant seek to repatriate Burmese refugees until workers from neighboring countries was un- UNHCR secured a presence on the Burmese satisfactory. During a November 1999 crack- side of the border and the U.N. agency was down on undocumented foreign labor, over- confident that returnees would not face per- crowding in a number of immigration deten- secution in Burma. tion centers reached dangerous levels. Many The trafficking of women and children to migrants still did not have an effective oppor- and from Thailand received attention in re- 226 THAILAND/VIETNAM gional meetings. Delegates to the September restricted access to areas affected by social 5-7 Asia-Pacific preparatory meeting of the unrest. U.N. World Conference against Racism, held Human Rights Developments in Bangkok, drew attention to the problem of Twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations human trafficking to and from Thailand. in April highlighted recent social and eco- The United States maintained a close nomic openings and the government’s suc- relationship with Thai security forces. In cess in reintegrating returning refugees and May 2000, US, Thai, and Singaporean troops bringing recovery after decades of war. Peace- drilled for two weeks during “Cobra Gold”— ful critics of the government, however, con- the largest joint military exercise organized tinued to have few outlets for independent by the United States in Asia. The U.S. expression. Communication among dissi- government sought funds for fiscal year 2001 dents, and between them and the outside in excess of U.S. $5.8 million for State Depart- world, was hampered by official interception ment training and assistance programs to of mail, blockage of telephone lines, and Thailand ranging from de-mining to counter- denial of publishing rights. When dissidents narcotics operations. An additional U.S. or former political prisoners criticized the $27.287 million was requested to underwrite CPV or called for reforms they were subject commercial military exports to Thailand. to heightened surveillance or interrogation by officials. The 1997 Administrative Deten- Relevant Human Rights Watch tion Decree 31/CP remained in force. It al- Reports: lowed officials to detain individuals sus- Owed Justice: Thai Women Trafficked into pected of posing a threat to national security Debt Bondage in Japan, 9/00 without a warrant or prior judicial approval. Early in the year, the CPV’s ideological commission accused Nguyen Thanh Giang, a leading geologist and outspoken intellectual VIETNAM who had been detained for two months in 1999, of writing documents which showed The twenty-fifth anniversary of “close collusion with reactionary forces Vietnam’s reunification saw the government abroad to disrupt the social order.” Giang maintaining tight control over freedom of remained under surveillance throughout the expression and other basic rights. Highly year. publicized steps to liberalize the economy, On May 12, police in Dalat put dissi- including the signing of a landmark trade dent intellectual Ha Si Phu (Nguyen Xuan agreement with the United States and the Tu) under house arrest and threatened to establishment of the country’s first stock charge him with treason under Article 72 of exchange, were not accompanied by rights the Criminal Code. Authorities apparently improvements. Authorities continued to take linked him to dissident intellectuals who were strong action against those who criticized the drafting an open appeal for greater democ- ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) or racy. On April 28, police searched his house spoke out in favor of democratic change. and confiscated his computer and diskettes. Disaffected former CPV leaders, long-time As of October, Ha Si Phu remained under academic critics, independent religious lead- investigation and confined to his home, al- ers, and the press were common targets. A though he had not yet been officially charged. wide range of political subjects remained off- The government announced several times limits to the media. In a show of reconciliation, during the year that it was taking steps against the government granted amnesties to more terrorist plots allegedly supported by over- than 20,000 prisoners during the year, but seas Vietnamese and “imperialist countries.” only a handful were people held for their On August 16, Nhan Dan (The People) political or religious views. The government newspaper stated that more than forty people VIETNAM 227 had been arrested since March 1999 for Culture proposed new regulations that would “directly participat[ing] in the reactionaries’ more than triple the number of activities, from sabotage plan,” but it was unclear whether 200 to 650, defined as offensive to Vietnam- those arrested were indeed saboteurs or peace- ese culture. The regulations, which had not ful critics. been officially adopted as law as of October, Several religious leaders and former would impose fines for the production or political prisoners were denied exit visas to possession of “culturally inappropriate” attend conferences abroad, including promi- materials, including those which “distorted nent dissident Nguyen Dan Que, Thich Tue Vietnam’s history or defamed its national Sy of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of heroes.” Vietnam (UBCV), and Thich Thai Hoa, a Foreign journalists based in Vietnam leader of the Buddhist order in Hue. received strong warnings from government Despite government repression, several officials after trying to contact and interview dissidents issued critical public statements dissidents. On December 26, 1999, Pham The though, typically, they were able to do so Hung, a French journalist for Radio France only on the Internet and primarily reached an International, was expelled from Vietnam overseas audience. On May 19, five promi- after meeting with Catholics whose names nent dissidents issued a public appeal to the were not on a list of interviewees he had National Assembly for greater democracy, submitted with his journalist visa request. In the withdrawal of charges against fellow April, French reporter Arnaud Dubus, trav- dissident Ha Si Phu, and the repeal of Admin- eling on a tourist visa, was interrogated and istrative Detention Decree 31/CP. In April, had his notes confiscated by police after he Thich Huyen Quang, supreme patriarch of met with several dissidents. On April 12, the UBCV, who remained under pagoda ar- security police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested rest in Quang Ngai province throughout the Sylvaine Pasquier, a reporter for the French year, issued a letter to the party leadership weekly L’Express, after she tried to meet calling for greater religious freedom. dissident Nguyen Dan Que. Pasquier was The domestic media remained under deported on April 14. strict state control and published scarcely Vietnamese listeners had access to most any criticism of the government. One excep- international radio stations, but the govern- tion, however, was criticism published in ment jammed access to Radio Free Asia and Nhan Dan by Vietnam’s most prominent war Hmong-language Christian broadcasts from hero, General Vo Nguyen Giap, who stated the Far East Broadcasting . In June, that the CPV should be more democratic and the Foreign Ministry confirmed that the Brit- accused it of “ideological stagnancy.” Re- ish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which quests by dissidents such as Tran Do and had an application pending since 1993, would Thich Quang Do for publishing licenses were be authorized to open a Vietnam bureau. either denied or ignored by the authorities. While foreign language newspapers and Provisions in the 1999 Press Law, which magazines could be purchased in the major allowed media outlets to be sued for defama- cities, an internal Customs Department bul- tion whether the information they publish is letin in December 1999 announced a crack- accurate or not, were applied for the first time down on illegally imported foreign publica- in September 2000. The Haiphong Agricul- tions because of their “poisonous” content. ture Materials and Transport Company sued Singled out were the South China Morning Tuoi Tre Hanoi (Youth News) for damaging Post, Asian Wall Street Journal, Singapore’s the company’s prestige because of its critical Straits Times, and Thailand’s Nation. Foreign reporting on the company’s operations. As publications were occasionally censored. In of October, the case had not yet gone to trial. May, government censors blacked out an The potential for press censorship in- International Herald Tribune editorial that creased in August when the Ministry of criticized Vietnam’s human rights record. In 228 VIETNAM

March, the Ministry of Culture and Informa- highlanders in Dak Lak province stormed a tion ordered the confiscation and withdrawal lowland Vietnamese settlement in protest from circulation of a book by Hanoi author over encroachment on their land, part of Bui Ngoc Tan. The only book to be banned which was being developed for coffee plan- during the year, Chuyen Ke Nam 2000 (An tations and gem mining. In September, more Account of the Year 2000) described the than one hundred protesters from provinces author’s experiences in North Vietnamese in the south as well as the central highlands prisons between 1968 and 1973. camped outside government offices in Ho Chi Internet access remained tightly con- Minh City for several weeks, protesting graft trolled for Vietnam’s approximately 85,000 and land confiscation. subscribers (0.1 percent of the country’s As the Ninth Party Congress, scheduled population). The government maintained for March 2001, neared, party officials ap- control over Vietnam’s only Internet access peared increasingly apprehensive about the provider, Vietnam Data Communications potential for rural unrest to boil over, as it had (VDC), as well as over five Internet service in Thai Binh and Dong Nai provinces in 1997. providers operated by state organizations, Party Secretary Le Kha Phieu announced in including one owned by the army. VDC was September that cabinet-led inspection teams authorized to monitor subscribers’ access to would be dispatched to fifteen cities and sites and to use firewalls to block connections provinces to look into citizen’s complaints to sites operated by groups critical of the about corruption and abuses by officials. In government. In January, the Foreign Minis- October, Nhan Dan reported that more than try stated that all information relayed through 2,000 government and party officials had the Internet in Vietnam must comply with been disciplined in Thai Binh as a result of broadly worded national security provisions peasant demonstrations in 1997 against graft in Vietnam’s press laws and could not damage and unfair taxation. the reputations of organizations or citizens. Religious freedom also remained sharply These measures had been selectively applied curtailed. The government’s ban on indepen- in the past to keep critical voices out of public dent religious associations continued, with all media. In September, the government launched religious groups required to register with and a new domestic Internet service, which, unlike seek the approval of the state. In March, a other services did not require users to register year-long controversy escalated over whether with the government. The new service, how- the party had the right to appoint, not simply ever, restricted subscribers to Vietnamese to approve, abbots at the historic One-Pillar websites only. Several protests over alleged Pagoda in Hanoi. Congregation members con- abuses by local officials reported during the tacted UBCV members abroad and prepared year, although coverage was limited by strict a petition protesting the replacement of their controls on media access to the affected areas. abbots with party appointees. In March, the In April, several dozen people from southern Hanoi People’s Committee ordered head abbot Dong Thap province assembled for several Thich Thanh Khanh to leave the pagoda by days in front of the CPV headquarters in April 30; however, as of October, he re- Hanoi to protest corruption and lack of de- mained in place. mocracy in their province. That same month, Members of the Hoa Hao sect of Bud- villagers in Nam Dinh province denounced dhism came under increased pressure, with at alleged interference by local Communist Party least twelve in detention or prison as of mid- officials in commune-level People’s Council 2000. Sect elder Le Quang Liem’s telephone elections. In June, citizens in Nam Dinh held line was disconnected in December 1999 and two district party members hostage for a he was interrogated several times by police week. After promises that the hostage takers after he signed a joint appeal calling for greater would not be punished, the officials were religious freedom. Surveillance of Liem in- released. In August, a group of 150 ethnic Ede creased in February 2000, when he announced VIETNAM 229 the restoration of the Central Hoa Hao Bud- tempts to suppress the growth of Protestant dhist Association, separate from a govern- evangelical churches which had gained con- ment-dominated Hoa Hao committee estab- verts among Vietnam’s ethnic minorities. lished in 1999. Hoa Hao members in An Giang While two dozen ethnic Hmong Protestants province clashed several times with police, reportedly were released from detention at who reportedly blocked a pilgrimage to their the end of 1999, at least eight other Hmong prophet’s birthplace, and detained and beat and Hre remained in prison or police custody some adherents in December 1999. Police as of October 2000. The government, how- arrested at least eight Hoa Hao members in ever, began to recognize more “Tin Lanh” March 2000 as tensions increased in the (Good News) churches, mostly in the North, approach to a religious anniversary. On March and hundreds of Protestants were able regu- 30, police detained ten Hoa Hao members and larly to attend un-recognized Tin Lanh blocked thousands of other followers from churches in southern and central Vietnam. observing the religious anniversary. Addi- Catholics, too, were not immune from tional clashes with security forces broke out state meddling, with the government continu- in An Giang in September, when Hoa Hao ing to restrict the number of parishes, screen followers protested the trial and conviction candidates for the priesthood and for ap- of five members arrested in March. pointments as bishops, and to reject requests Conflict continued between the govern- for a papal visit. One member of the Catholic ment and the UBCV. In April, police made Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix late-night visits to the pagodas of church was released in April, but at least three other leaders Thich Quang Do and Thich Tue Sy, Catholics remained in prison. ostensibly to conduct identity checks. On Unregistered sects and religious activi- April 24, police took leaders Thich Khong ties officially labeled “superstitious,” pro- Tanh and Thich Quang Hue to a Ho Chi Minh hibited by a 1999 decree on religion, came City police station for questioning. In July, under increasing pressure. In November 1999, Quang Ngai provincial officials and police the state press reported that Vietnam had interrogated UBCV Patriarch Thich Huyen more than thirty illegal cults. That same Quang about a statement critical of the gov- month, officials fined members of an unregis- ernment that he had issued in April. In late tered religious sect in Hanoi known as Long September and early October, UBCV monks Hoa Di Lac (Chinese Dragon Buddha Sect) for attempting to conduct independent flood unlawful assembly and use of religion for relief missions in the Mekong Delta and propaganda purposes. In June, the state press distribute aid packages marked with UBCV reported that police in Thai Binh were “crack- labels clashed with local authorities. Govern- ing down on heresy.” The target was the ment regulations limited flood relief opera- Thanh Hai Vo Thuong Su sect, originally tions to state-sanctioned organizations. On established in Taiwan but led by a Vietnamese September 21, authorities halted a UBCV woman. In August, police in Quang Binh flood relief mission in An Giang province, led reportedly confiscated religious texts from by Thich Nguyen Ly. In early October, a the Tam Giao Tuyen Duong sect, forcing contingent of UBCV monks, including Thich members to destroy altars and pledge to Quang Do and Thich Khong Tanh, travelled abandon the sect, and fined the group’s leader to An Giang, where security police blocked for allegedly providing illegal medical treat- their flood relief plans. Police reportedly ment. detained the monks for twelve hours on Prison conditions remained poor, with October 7 before ordering them to leave the prisoners reporting the use of shackles, dark province and return to their pagodas in Ho cells, and torture. Dozens of death sentences Chi Minh City. The Foreign Ministry later were issued during the year, with twenty-nine denied that the monks had been detained. crimes considered capital offenses, including The government also continued its at- drug trafficking, many economic crimes, some 230 VIETNAM

sex offenses, murder, and armed robbery. In man Rights stated that it would be examining April, Canadian citizen Nguyen Thi Hiep was complaints against Vietnam for human rights convicted of heroin smuggling and executed. violations under the “1503 Procedure,” a While the government insisted it had no confidential procedure whereby complaints political prisoners, in March the Public Secu- are investigated and sent to the full U.N. rity Ministry stated that more than one hun- Commission on Human Rights. In May, dred people were then imprisoned for crimes Vietnam was elected to the U.N. Commission against national security. on Human Rights for a three-year term. The In its largest ever prisoner amnesty, U.N. Development Program’s Growth in Vietnam released 12,264 prisoners on April Governance program focused on legislative, 30 to commemorate the reunification of the judicial, and procedural reforms, including country, and a further 10,693 on National revision of the labor code. Day on September 2. The government did not publicly release the names of those freed, but United States political and religious prisoners known to U.S. policy towards Vietnam centered have been released in the two amnesties in- on using trade and investment as a means to cluded Catholic Brother John Euder Mai Duc press for gradual political and economic re- Chuong, Hmong Protestant Vu Gian Thao, forms. Human rights concerns were addressed political dissident Nguyen Ngoc Tan (alias through a bilateral “dialogue” meeting that Pham Thai), Protestant Nguyen Thi Thuy, failed to include concrete incentives for and Cao Daist Le Kim Bien. progress and had minimal effect on overall U.S.-Vietnam relations. The State Defending Human Rights Department’s annual report on religious free- No domestic human rights organizations dom provoked an angry response from the were allowed to operate in Vietnam, nor were Vietnamese government, which rejected be- international human rights organizations al- ing labeled one of several “totalitarian or lowed to monitor conditions or conduct re- authoritarian regimes” along with China, search there. Myanmar, Laos, and North Korea. In July, after four years of negotiations, Vietnam The Role of the International signed a bilateral trade agreement with the Community United States. As of this writing the agree- In December 1999, Vietnam’s donors ment had not received U.S. Congressional pledged U.S. $2.8 million in aid to Vietnam, approval. In November, President Clinton with $700 million conditioned on accelerated was scheduled to become the first U.S. presi- economic reforms. For the most part donors dent to visit Vietnam since Richard Nixon in were publicly silent about human rights vio- 1969. lations, aside from the international outcry after the execution of Canadian citizen Nguyen Japan Thi Hiep. Convicted of drug trafficking, she Japan, which was Vietnam’s largest was executed by firing squad in April, despite donor, announced in June that it had extended the fact that Vietnam had pledged to review Official Development Assistance (ODA) to her case on the basis of additional information Vietnam for another five years. The foreign provided by the Canadian government. After- ministry was considering including human wards Canada temporarily withdrew its am- rights and legal reform in a bilateral dialogue bassador and its support for Vietnam’s entry with Vietnam at the vice-foreign ministers’ to the World Trade Organization. Talks on level beginning late in 2000. In 1999 (the restoring full diplomatic ties resumed in Sep- latest year for which figures were available), tember, when Hiep’s mother, Tran Thi Cam, Japan gave $680 million in loans and grants to was granted an early release from prison. Vietnam. In April, the U.N. Commission on Hu- 231 European Union The E.U., Vietnam’s third largest donor and its biggest trade partner, has provided approximately U.S. $2 billion in ODA since 1993. Most of the bilateral assistance to Vietnam came from France, Germany, Den- mark and . During a visit to Vietnam in May, the Swedish Minister of Culture called for more openness in the media and greater democracy when she announced a grant of U.S. $4 million to support media training and live broadcasting programs. During a December 1999 visit to Hanoi, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman raised issues of de- mocratization and political prisoners.

Relevant Human Rights Watch Reports: The Silencing of Dissent, 5/00 232 233