04/02/2004 | Written statement of the Transnational Radical Party, on item 9. Question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world.
The Transnational Radical Party (TRP) remains preoccupied by the general situation in the Russian Republic of Chechnya, where, despite the assurances of the Russian authorities there remains a climate of widespread violence and intimidation.
For years, the TRP has been calling on the international community to facilitate the opening of a political solution of the crisis within and without the Commission on Human Rights exposing the use of force on both sides. The lack of positive response has only intensified the TRP’s actions to achieve such a goal.
In fact, recently, the TRP has been one of the organizations that has promoted a peace plan put forward by Ilyas Akhmadov, the Chechen Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government elected in 1997 under international supervision and approval, and presented it in the form of an appeal to the Secretary General and the Heads of State and of Government of the member countries of the UN. The document proposes the establishment of an interim United Nations administration on the basis of the disarmament of all the Chechen forces and the withdrawal of all the Russian military and administrative personnel. At the end of a transition period, during which the UN would be charged with administering the country and coordinating the re-establishment of the civil, political and material order of a country, the surviving population would be called to elect its own parliament and government.
The TRP urges the Commission to study the document in view of its possible implementation. The TRP hopes that, after thorough consideration of the proposed framework, a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Chechnya is appointed at the UNSG earliest convenience.
The security of the Russian people and the lives of the Chechen people cannot be sacrificed to the logic of a conflict that no-one can hope any longer to win on the battlefield. It is up to the international community and to the United Nations in particular, to enable two peoples that are both losing a war, to join forces in order to win an honorable and lasting peace.
The TRP has been an attentive observer of the general situation for years, one of its members, Antonio Russo, was found dead in Georgia in the year 2000 while he was covering the conflict for Radio Radicale (a murder that remains unsolved and that has all the characteristics of a political assassination) and a couple of days before the ECOSOC was supposed to vote on a proposed suspension of the TRP’s consultative status (the Council eventually rejected that recommendation in a vote in October 2002), and regrets the Russian decision of impeding the independent monitoring of the human rights crises as well as the political process. Without a thorough scrutiny of the situation, a comprehensive assessment is virtually impossible. This, the TRP believes, is particularly troubling if inscribed in the international campaign to combat terrorism, where the inclusion of individuals or groups in lists of alleged terrorists should need some form of scrutiny, transparency and evidence gathering that is presently lacking.
In mid-January 2004, the former Secretary General of the TRP, Member of the European Parliament Olivier Dupuis, began a fasting to urge the international community to take into consideration the Chechen situation asking decision-makers to undertake a series of concrete actions to support the peace plan.
Another situation of great concern for the systematic violation of human right is the one of Tibetans. In particular the TRP would like to bring to the attention of the Commission a few instances that can summarize the degree of preoccupation. According to the Geneva-based Tibet Bureau, on 3 April 2002, the Chinese police arrested Lobsang Dhondup (Chinese: Lorang Toinzhub) after a bomb explosion in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. There are reports of Chinese officials describing Lobsang Dhondup fleeing the site of the explosion. The blast in Chengdu reportedly led to one death and 17 injured. The Chinese police alleged that Lobsang Dhondup was involved with the explosions. A few days after Lobsang Dhondup's arrest, on 7 April 2002, Chinese officials arrested a well known Tibetan lama, Trulku Tenzin Delek (Chinese: Ah-nga Tashi), on suspicion of jointly organizing a series of bomb blasts in Sichuan Province.
The two Tibetans appeared before Kardze's Intermediate People's Court on 27 November 2002, in a secret trial. On 2 December 2002, the court sentenced Trulku Tenzin Delek to death with two years reprieve and deprivation of political rights for life for "committing crimes concerning explosions" and also sentenced him to 14 years imprisonment and deprivation of political right for three years for "inciting the split of the country".
The court also sentenced Lobsang Dhondup to death and deprived him of political rights for his alleged role in the explosions. He was also given 12 years imprisonment and deprived of political rights for two years for "inciting the split of the country" along with another three years of imprisonment for allegedly possessing firearms and ammunition.
In the aftermath of the court's verdict, Trulku Tenzin Delek appealed to Sichuan's Higher People's Court to revoke the death sentence. During a closed retrial on 26 January 2003, the Higher People's Court stayed the earlier verdict. The same court upheld the verdict on Lobsang Dhondup and he was summarily executed on 26 January 2003.
The Chinese police and prosecutors imprisoned and tried Trulku Tenzin Delek solely on the alleged confession of Lobsang Dhondup. The officials also claimed that Trulku Tenzin Delek confessed his involvement during the investigation. However, according to unofficial reports, including eye-witness accounts and Trulku's testimony, there are solid reasons to believe that Lobsang Dhondup's so-called confession was the result of coercion. The reports have indicated the use of torture and beating on Lobsang Dhondup while he was under detention.
In China is also of great concern the systematic persecution against Buddhists, Muslims and Catholics. Persecutions that have provoked several deaths and the exclusion of entire parts of the population from the public and economic life of the country. Deaths both as extra-judicial killings, summary executions as well as death sentences issued on charges of plotting against the State.
The TRP is also extremely concerned by the news coming from Cambodia, where, over the last few months, several members of the Sam Rainsy Party and of organizations affiliated with it or with the free trade unions have received frequent death threats. In particular MPs Son Chhay, also member of the TRP, and Eng Chhay Eang were threatened on January 29, 2004.
The TRP commends the work carried out by these courageous individuals and commends their struggle to affirm freedom and democracy in a country devastated by the Pol Pot genocide and under the political influence of external forces.
The TRP believes that the United Nations, together with other observers, which ensured a commendable degree of stability and order during the political elections last July, should keep its personnel under high alert in Cambodia, as there are great risks of violent acts all over the country. The TRP, which sent a 6-people delegation for a month for the elections last June, was critical of the final phases of the elections; those concerns are unfortunately becoming a worrying reality.
The TRP urges the international community, and in particular all those that were active, attentive and critical monitors during the political elections last July, to pressurize the leadership of the major Cambodian political party to put and end to the cycle of violence and threats in the country, and to finally initiate a comprehensive political negotiation with the SRP and the FUNCINPEC, which last fall created the Alliance of Democrats, to address the outcome of the popular vote of last year in a democratic and accountable manner.
Finally, the TRP would like to draw the Commission’s attention to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which convened its first phase in December 2003. The WSIS is a commendable endeavor that the UN has undertaken in conjunction with other organizations, but is has already encountered some problems: not only officials who attended the meeting were unknowingly bugged, as their badges were affixed with radio-frequency identification chips, but several major issues concerning the information society were overlooked. The TRP has already addressed some of those issues in its contributions to the WSIS throughout 2003, nevertheless the TRP believes that also the Commission should look into those issues during its regular session.
In particular the TRP is concerned by the fact that in the documents adopted by the Forum have given particular emphasis to the so-called e-government rather than to e-democracy. This, the TRP believes, can pose problems for the empowerment of citizens that live in countries where the democratic system is either frail or non-existing. In order to bridge the so-called “digital divide” there is a big need to foster freedom of individual expression, rather than providing more instruments for governments to enforce law and order. New technologies should be considered a means, not an end.
As regards freedom of expression, the TRP is in general quite concerned by the various directives issued by dozens of governments that impose strict restriction to the use of the Internet and full responsibility for service providers concerning the actions and opinions of their clients. Certain regulations are running the risk of impeding freedom of expression on the Internet rather than ensuring accountability for opinions.
Finally, The TRP is also particularly concerned about the decision to convene the second phase of the WSIS in Tunisia in 2005 as it has been in contacts with several Tunisian individuals that have suffered from their government’s restrictions and unfair treatment in their daily work. The TRP hopes that before November 2005, the Tunisian government will undertake a series of internal reforms in order to facilitate the work of human rights activists and journalists that today are not allowed to operate freely in that country. Addressing issues relating to the information society, with a hope to address them fully, can only be done in a free, fair and accountable environment.
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