Human Rights &JMassive Exodus The Aga Khan Report Background from which significant portions of their tion), dissatisifed with government inte Canada was the main initiator when populations fled For example, the study gration policie are fleeing into Honduras the United Nations Commission on of Haiti provides a candid account of the as are other dissidents. Cuba is a prime Human Rights resolved to study the economic and political situation of that example of the alternative scenario. relation between human rights and mas country and describes human rights Almost one million fled Castro's regime, sive exoduses' Sadruddin Aga Khan, violations, including: repression of free- 120,000 leaving in 1980 alone. In the former United Nations High Commis dom of opinion and expression, extreme context of these regimes the repression sioner for Refugees, was appointed restriction of freedom of association, under Chile's Pinochet seems less severe Special Rapporteur. arbitrary detention, intimidation, and torture. (The Inter-American Commis- In Africa as well, both left-wing and right- His study, released in December 1981, sion of Human Rights, which visited Haiti wing dictatorships produce refugees. was controversial not because of the in August 1978 published these findings Civil war in Angola, following independ- main report; it provided a general analy- in 1980.) Haiti would not have had the ence in 1975, produced many more sis of the causes of mass exoduses in the clout to repress the appendices. Annex I refugees In the six months from November past decade, as well as suggested cor- includes the United States governmeni's 1977 to May 1978, for example, new rective measures. The source of contro- reaction to the influx of Haitian "boat arrivals in Zaire - which believed itself versy originated in its three annexes. The people." Haitians who reached the U.S. to be sheltering already about 470,000 first contained succinct studies of 22 were sent to detention centres. Angolan refugees - were estimated to countries which have experienced the total 60,000, while the numbers in Zambia phenomenon of mass exodus. Four "On 30 September 1981, with the justification that rose to 30,000. In Chad, the 13-year old the Haitians' entry was 'detrimental to the interests civil war erupted again on ~&ch21, particularly major situations (i.e., of the United States,' the administration gave Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Indochina and powers to the U.S. coastguard to stop Haitian boats 1980 leading to a massive exodus Mexico) formed the subject matter of the on the high seas, board them and hun back paseengers not in possession of visas nor equipped Political ideologies are not the only second annex which was quite detailed with a p&r reason for wanting to enter the United sources of repression and civil strife and extensive. The third annex presented States - in the form of either proof of actual resulting in mass exoduses. Political an overview of international migration in wlitiul ue-tion bv the Government of Haiti or conflict between neinhbours is another some of the main areas of the world as hefear (hat such pe&cution would start as won as source. In Namibia, ~Guth~fricadisplays recorded by international organizations the individual went back." [Annex I, page 351 "a consistent pattern of gross and reliably or by private researchers. The annexes attested violzkons of hGman rights" not contained the information base for the If Haiti's situation is drastic and the only to its own population. When observations, conclusions and recom- American response is depicted as cold- Mauritania and Morocco divided up the mendations of the report. While the blooded, the situation was even worse in Western Sahara, contrary to the promises study was concerned with potential other areas. Equatorial Guinea, between of autonomy by Spain, the Polisario solutions to the problem, the annexes 1968 and 1979, was, "one of the worst revolt and subsequent conflict produced focused on the root causes. In the official repressive and totalitarian regimes in an estimated 30,000 refugees in a sparse published report, the annexes were ly populated region In 1971, the massive Africa engaging-- - in arbitrary arrests, deleted (repressed?) as well as all refer- torture, summary executions, govern- influx of refugees from East Bengal (now ences to them in the main body of the ment sanctioned murder, including the Bangladesh) of two to four million report2 We obtained a draft of the disappearance of two-thirds of the mem- refugees was a causus belli between India original full report. bers of the 1968 Assembly when Presi- and Pakistan Refugees were not the dent Macias Nguema seized power; at cause of war between Iran and Iraq, but Refugee Producing Countries least onethird of the population fled they were certainly a by-product - one million according to some sources. The reasons for suppressing the annexes. (100,000-150,000 people). Uganda under Idi Amin Dada was a close contender for are obvious. Annex I details the econo- Ethnic conflicts are even more insidious mic and political situation of 22 countries the heavyweight title for repression The military regime of Zaire and its 'pacifica- than ones which are primarily ideological ~u.N.Rcsdution 29, March 1981. This originated in part fmm tion' program produced 220,000 refu- and politicaL The Palestinian refugee Resolution 30 (XXXVI) in which the U.N. Commission on gees who fled to Angola by May of 1977; situation remains intractable and unre-, Human RWts expreued concern that large aoduvs or pup uc frequently the mult of human rights violations Rim the numbers who fled totalled over solved after 30 years. We all know of the Sadmddin Aga Khan was appointed Special Rapporteur by the attempts of a small white population to Cluimun of the U.N. Commission on Human Ri@ in April 320,000 a year later. 1981. dominate a majority of blacks in Central and South American regimes are Zimbabwe which resulted in 250,000 21t is, in fact, possible to see where the reference were deleted almost as bad In a country with the refugees. Few know of the Tutsi domina- kow the &ages have been made in a different typeface. The United Nations Division of Human Rights provided the follow- highest population depsity in the hemi- tion of the Hutu who constitute 85% of ingaplanation: the original report exkedthe UN's pmribed sphere, the economic situation and con- the population of 3.5 million people in kn@h for such studies A different reaeon is indicated in the introduction to Be study itself: flict in El Salvador produced a quarter of Burundi. 140,000 have fled, most of them "Thereareduubtless many situations ill which rnasstLxodusesarecaused a million internaily displaced people widows and children In Cyprus, the by dends of human rights, and the Secretary-General dues nut fail to point this uut in his contacts and onsultatiuns with the prtics with at least the same number leavineV the concerned Huwever, the Secretory-General often finds that cunsiderable country. Installation of left-wing regimes caution needs tu be exercised in thr public disclosure of the precise substance of his mntacls wilh Guvernrnents cu~rcrnrdbtcluding those does not seem to solve the problem. One un the nexus between mass exuduses and the full enjuynlet~tof humart hundred thousand Nicaraguans fled the Refugees in Somalia and rights, so as tu awid prejudicing future cotltacts and closing the ywssibility of his being uf assistance i,r the future tu the victisls uf such repressive regime of Somoza and now, situations" the ethnic Indians (4% of the popula- Turkish-Greek conflict resulted in the Push Factors uprooting and resettlement of onethird, Canada's Ambassador, C.D. 220,000, of the population. In Lebanon, The introduction of radical volitical and McPhail, in his speech to the intercommunal strife erupting in 1975 economic policies by revolutionary go- UNHCR Executive Committee, call- resulted in an estimated one million vernments of underdeveloped nations in ed Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan's displaced persons by 1978 (over one- their attempts to modernize (e.g. study an important fir2 step in third of the population); over 250,000 left Kampuchea, after the ascendance of the dealing with the question of mas- the country. Khmer Rouge, and Ethiopia) can be a major sive exoduses. Governments and push factor. Basic human rights are often international organizations have an Repression and political conflict are denied; epidemics and famine can result obligation to tackle both causes and frequently intermixed with ethnic and from economic policies that neglect the consequences of massive exodus communal strife. In South Africa, gross agricultural sector. Large segments of the es, he said Ambassador McPhail and flagrant violations of human rights, population are uprooted and displaced. also expressed hope that a U.N. as well as discriminatory apartheid laws Occasionally, minorities are used as group of experts, to be established produce refugees. In the Philippines, we scapegoats to divert attention from the under FRG initiative at the General find not only a dictatorship, but a Muslim policies of a new regime. In Vietnam, the Assembly, will soon begin examin- organization, the Moro National Libera- government's treatment of the indige- ing possible international legal tion Front, struggling for independence nous ethnic Chinese (closing 30,000 mechanisms to avert flows of refu- in the south; hundreds of thousands have businesses, 80% of which were owned by gees. This and the Sadruddin Re- been uprooted by the struggle. In Burma, Chinese) provoked a massive flight of port are of vital importance, ill treatment of the Muslim minority in these people from that country. Other he said the State of Arakan instigated both an significant push factors are wars and exodus and an insurgent movement insurrections and their resulting chaos.