Critics say UN pact with business lacks accountability
Malaysiakini.com
Haider Rizvi
11:15:02 AM Jun 26, 2004
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is under fire from the world's leading environmental and human rights groups for his perceived attempts to involve big corporations in shaping the world body's development agenda.
On Thursday, Kofi Annan convened a day-long summit on the "Global Compact," inviting more than 400 corporate and civil society leaders to discuss how private business can play a stronger role in making globalisation more "equitable" and "sustainable".
The Global Compact, a UN network that persuades private business to endorse nine principles covering human rights, labour and environmental issues, was launched by Annan about four years ago.
Growing influence
His words fueled civil society's concerns about the growing influence of corporations within the United Nations.
"It is a bit shocking in a way, the idea that these CEOs are going to be taking the place of governments and deciding how things are going to go," said James Paul, director of the Global Policy Forum, a watchdog group that monitors UN activities. "It's symbolic of the direction in which the Secretary-General has taken the UN, which is to give them a certain amount of legitimacy as members of the Global Compact."
A day before the Global Compact Summit, the Forum, along with a number of international NGOs, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Amnesty International, convened a counter-summit, just a block away from the UN Secretariat, denouncing the Compact under the banner "Alliance for Corporate- Free UN"
UN officials say that more than 1,400 companies have now signed the Compact, almost half of them from the developing world.
"It has become the largest corporate citizenship initiative in the world," said John Ruggie, architect of the Compact and special advisor to Annan, who believes that "corporate citizenship has become corporate risk management.."
Citing a study carried out by McKenzie and Company, a private consultancy firm, UN officials say half of the companies that participated in the Compact "have changed their own policies and engaged in more than 100 partnership projects throughout the world."
Critics say the last few years have shown that voluntary initiatives are not delivering sustainable development.
"The Global Compact is being used by companies to hide behind the fact that they have signed up to nine nice principles, but it doesn't enforce these principles in any way," said Daniel Mittler of Greenpeace, the world's largest environmental group, in an interview with IPS.
His scepticism was shared by other leading NGOs. "Voluntary statements mean nothing. We want to see what these countries do on the ground," added Paul. "They are rather lobbying against more serious regulatory mechanisms. Why are they doing that? Because they don't want to be held accountable."
Challenges remain
Legal accountability is not covered by the Compact, since the participating companies are expected to make a "sincere effort" to adhere to the nine principles. (A tenth principle on corruption was expected to be added during the Summit.)
Despite the criticism from civil society groups, Annan asserts that much has been achieved, though he concedes that challenges remain, especially in terms of inconsistent participation.
"Our experience has shown that voluntary initiatives can and do work," he said during the Summit. "But we have also learned that they have to be made to work."
He did not acknowledge civil society's demand that corporations participating in the Compact be legally bound to take responsibility for their policies and actions in the areas of human rights and the environment.
UN officials admit that many multinational corporations accused of committing human rights violations have signed the Compact, including the oil giants Total (France) and Shell (Britain), but they still defend its viability and performance.
"It's a journey," says Georg Kell, head of the Global Compact. "It's an ongoing experiment."
But women's rights groups critical of the Compact wonder how long millions of women working for low wages in the world's "free trade zones" will have to wait for the positive outcome of this "experiment".
"Foreign private investment and free trade policies have a detrimental effect on women on the ground," Nadia Johnson of the Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) told IPS.
"The principles mentioned in the Global Compact are not enforced. We are not going to participate in it if it does not have an accountability mechanism, if it continued to operate in a non-transparent way where we do not know all the companies involved in the compact."
Integrity of members
Unlike Johnson's group, many civil society groups are still participating in the Compact, though they are no less critical of the way it is working.
"The Compact has failed to live up to some basic expectations, such as integrity of its own members," said Irene Khan of Amnesty International, a London-based human rights group. "It has not taken strong enough measures to ensure that those who violate the principles of the Compact are not part of it. It has not taken the leadership position in developing the U.N. norms on human rights for business."
Critics say one reason the UN is reaching out to corporations is the pressure it faces from the United States, which rejects any anti-business stance. Of about 1,400 companies that have signed up to the compact, only about 5 percent are US-based.
But a different situation seems likely in coming days.
"American firms fear a lawsuit if they sign up to labour and environmental standards, which adversaries might them claim they are not honouring," according to a report by the London-based Economist magazine last week. "That problem is now resolved."
After a three-year effort by the UN and the American Bar Association, US. companies can commit to the principles using a letter full of legal boilerplate, which shields them from lawsuits stemming from claims that they have failed to live up to the Compact, the magazine reported.
The letter has prompted major US companies such as Starbucks, Gap and Newmount Mining to sign up.
The Alliance for Corporate-free UN calls the move "bluewash."
"It's perverse that instead of delivering rights for people, the UN is delivering a public relations smokescreen for business," says Mittler.- IPS
Haider Rizvi
11:15:02 AM Jun 26, 2004
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is under fire from the world's leading environmental and human rights groups for his perceived attempts to involve big corporations in shaping the world body's development agenda.
On Thursday, Kofi Annan convened a day-long summit on the "Global Compact," inviting more than 400 corporate and civil society leaders to discuss how private business can play a stronger role in making globalisation more "equitable" and "sustainable".
The Global Compact, a UN network that persuades private business to endorse nine principles covering human rights, labour and environmental issues, was launched by Annan about four years ago.
Growing influence
His words fueled civil society's concerns about the growing influence of corporations within the United Nations.
"It is a bit shocking in a way, the idea that these CEOs are going to be taking the place of governments and deciding how things are going to go," said James Paul, director of the Global Policy Forum, a watchdog group that monitors UN activities. "It's symbolic of the direction in which the Secretary-General has taken the UN, which is to give them a certain amount of legitimacy as members of the Global Compact."
A day before the Global Compact Summit, the Forum, along with a number of international NGOs, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Amnesty International, convened a counter-summit, just a block away from the UN Secretariat, denouncing the Compact under the banner "Alliance for Corporate- Free UN"
UN officials say that more than 1,400 companies have now signed the Compact, almost half of them from the developing world.
"It has become the largest corporate citizenship initiative in the world," said John Ruggie, architect of the Compact and special advisor to Annan, who believes that "corporate citizenship has become corporate risk management.."
Citing a study carried out by McKenzie and Company, a private consultancy firm, UN officials say half of the companies that participated in the Compact "have changed their own policies and engaged in more than 100 partnership projects throughout the world."
Critics say the last few years have shown that voluntary initiatives are not delivering sustainable development.
"The Global Compact is being used by companies to hide behind the fact that they have signed up to nine nice principles, but it doesn't enforce these principles in any way," said Daniel Mittler of Greenpeace, the world's largest environmental group, in an interview with IPS.
His scepticism was shared by other leading NGOs. "Voluntary statements mean nothing. We want to see what these countries do on the ground," added Paul. "They are rather lobbying against more serious regulatory mechanisms. Why are they doing that? Because they don't want to be held accountable."
Challenges remain
Legal accountability is not covered by the Compact, since the participating companies are expected to make a "sincere effort" to adhere to the nine principles. (A tenth principle on corruption was expected to be added during the Summit.)
Despite the criticism from civil society groups, Annan asserts that much has been achieved, though he concedes that challenges remain, especially in terms of inconsistent participation.
"Our experience has shown that voluntary initiatives can and do work," he said during the Summit. "But we have also learned that they have to be made to work."
He did not acknowledge civil society's demand that corporations participating in the Compact be legally bound to take responsibility for their policies and actions in the areas of human rights and the environment.
UN officials admit that many multinational corporations accused of committing human rights violations have signed the Compact, including the oil giants Total (France) and Shell (Britain), but they still defend its viability and performance.
"It's a journey," says Georg Kell, head of the Global Compact. "It's an ongoing experiment."
But women's rights groups critical of the Compact wonder how long millions of women working for low wages in the world's "free trade zones" will have to wait for the positive outcome of this "experiment".
"Foreign private investment and free trade policies have a detrimental effect on women on the ground," Nadia Johnson of the Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) told IPS.
"The principles mentioned in the Global Compact are not enforced. We are not going to participate in it if it does not have an accountability mechanism, if it continued to operate in a non-transparent way where we do not know all the companies involved in the compact."
Integrity of members
Unlike Johnson's group, many civil society groups are still participating in the Compact, though they are no less critical of the way it is working.
"The Compact has failed to live up to some basic expectations, such as integrity of its own members," said Irene Khan of Amnesty International, a London-based human rights group. "It has not taken strong enough measures to ensure that those who violate the principles of the Compact are not part of it. It has not taken the leadership position in developing the U.N. norms on human rights for business."
Critics say one reason the UN is reaching out to corporations is the pressure it faces from the United States, which rejects any anti-business stance. Of about 1,400 companies that have signed up to the compact, only about 5 percent are US-based.
But a different situation seems likely in coming days.
"American firms fear a lawsuit if they sign up to labour and environmental standards, which adversaries might them claim they are not honouring," according to a report by the London-based Economist magazine last week. "That problem is now resolved."
After a three-year effort by the UN and the American Bar Association, US. companies can commit to the principles using a letter full of legal boilerplate, which shields them from lawsuits stemming from claims that they have failed to live up to the Compact, the magazine reported.
The letter has prompted major US companies such as Starbucks, Gap and Newmount Mining to sign up.
The Alliance for Corporate-free UN calls the move "bluewash."
"It's perverse that instead of delivering rights for people, the UN is delivering a public relations smokescreen for business," says Mittler.- IPS
Hopes raised that toxic Bhopal factory will finally be cleaned up
SCMP - Saturday, June 26, 2004
AMRIT DHILLON in New Delhi
With a new generation still suffering the effects of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy that killed more than 17,000 Indians, hopes are growing that the Union Carbide plant at the centre of the tragedy, left abandoned and derelict for 20 years, may finally be cleaned up.
The New York Federal Court, acting on a case lodged by three survivors, said earlier this year that it could order Union Carbide - which ran the fertiliser-making plant in Bhopal in central India - to remove the tonnes of lethal chemicals still stored inside, provided New Delhi has no objection.
"It's a huge, huge step forward. We've been campaigning for years that it should be Union Carbide and not the Indian taxpayer who should pay for the cleanup on the basis of `the polluter pays' principle but legal disputes and delays by the Indian government have meant that nothing has happened," said Namrata Chowdhary, media officer with Greenpeace India.
Last week, three survivors staged a hunger strike in New Delhi to protest against yet another delay. The New York judge had asked India to provide a "no-objection" letter to his suggestion by June 30. Instead of sending it, the law and environment ministries wrangled over which of them should reply.
Anxious that a golden opportunity might be lost after years of protests, the activists hoped to force the government to act in time. The pressure tactics worked. Last Thursday, New Delhi said the letter was being faxed.
Over 3,000 people died immediately after methyl isocyanate leaked from a storage tank and spread into the neighbouring slums, but ultimately 17,000 people died from the after-effects of the world's worst industrial disaster.
About 19,000 still suffer chronic ailments from having inhaled the deadly gas. Bhopal babies are still being born with severe abnormalities because their mothers breathed in the fumes.
The 30-hectare plant was abandoned after the disaster. The chemicals stored inside have seeped into the soil, contaminating the land and drinking water of the people living in the surrounding area.
No one knows precisely how much toxic waste remains, but Greenpeace estimates put the figure at 5,000 tonnes and believes the cleanup cost could run to US$500 million.
Dow Chemical, which bought Union Carbide in 2002, said it had nothing to do with the mess left behind by the previous owners.
AMRIT DHILLON in New Delhi
With a new generation still suffering the effects of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy that killed more than 17,000 Indians, hopes are growing that the Union Carbide plant at the centre of the tragedy, left abandoned and derelict for 20 years, may finally be cleaned up.
The New York Federal Court, acting on a case lodged by three survivors, said earlier this year that it could order Union Carbide - which ran the fertiliser-making plant in Bhopal in central India - to remove the tonnes of lethal chemicals still stored inside, provided New Delhi has no objection.
"It's a huge, huge step forward. We've been campaigning for years that it should be Union Carbide and not the Indian taxpayer who should pay for the cleanup on the basis of `the polluter pays' principle but legal disputes and delays by the Indian government have meant that nothing has happened," said Namrata Chowdhary, media officer with Greenpeace India.
Last week, three survivors staged a hunger strike in New Delhi to protest against yet another delay. The New York judge had asked India to provide a "no-objection" letter to his suggestion by June 30. Instead of sending it, the law and environment ministries wrangled over which of them should reply.
Anxious that a golden opportunity might be lost after years of protests, the activists hoped to force the government to act in time. The pressure tactics worked. Last Thursday, New Delhi said the letter was being faxed.
Over 3,000 people died immediately after methyl isocyanate leaked from a storage tank and spread into the neighbouring slums, but ultimately 17,000 people died from the after-effects of the world's worst industrial disaster.
About 19,000 still suffer chronic ailments from having inhaled the deadly gas. Bhopal babies are still being born with severe abnormalities because their mothers breathed in the fumes.
The 30-hectare plant was abandoned after the disaster. The chemicals stored inside have seeped into the soil, contaminating the land and drinking water of the people living in the surrounding area.
No one knows precisely how much toxic waste remains, but Greenpeace estimates put the figure at 5,000 tonnes and believes the cleanup cost could run to US$500 million.
Dow Chemical, which bought Union Carbide in 2002, said it had nothing to do with the mess left behind by the previous owners.
Thailand trumpets victory over poverty
SCMP - Thursday, June 24, 2004
SIMON MONTLAKE in Bangkok
Thailand joined with the United Nations yesterday to trumpet its record in cutting poverty and disease across much of the country.
Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said Thailand was proud that it had already met most of the UN's millennium development goals, and wanted to raise the bar with a new set of challenges.
But the bout of back-slapping was clouded by mounting outrage elsewhere in Thailand over the killing on Monday of an activist who had accused local officials of corruption at a parliamentary hearing. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday he would personally monitor the police investigation into the murder.
Charoen Wattaksorn was the 16th rights activist to be killed or disappear since Mr Thaksin took power in 2001.
Before his death, he had successfully led a campaign to prevent a coal-fired power plant opening in his southern province, a rare victory in Thailand.
"This is the first time in history that at least 16 activists have been killed during the reign of one government," opposition Senator Niran Pitakwatchara said.
"The government must do something ... otherwise people will live in a state of fear like a police state."
Although the UN's millennium declaration singled out social justice as crucial to sustainable development, officials seemed loathe yesterday to comment on the implications of the latest bloodshed.
Mr Chavalit ducked out of the joint UN launch after he gave an opening speech, stopping briefly to speak only to local reporters.
Foreign media were instead invited to ask senior officials of the National Economic and Social Development Board about the new goals and how Thailand plans to achieve them.
But the board's secretary-general Chakramon Phasukavanich squirmed when asked if the increased oppression of activists undermined Thailand's emphasis on "people-centred development".
"On the government side we try in every way to create justice in our country ... but this violence is not only in Thailand," he said.
Officials said Thailand's new targets include more health spending in deprived regions.
They concede that while Thailand has dramatically cut the proportion of people living in poverty since 1990 to below 10 per cent, the fruits of economic growth have not extended across the country.
The poverty line is defined as an average monthly income of 1,000 baht (HK$190).
The disparity is particularly acute in southern Thailand, where violence linked to a shadowy Muslim insurgency has left hundreds dead since the start of the year.
Mr Thaksin has blamed poverty for stirring tensions in the long-troubled region.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
SIMON MONTLAKE in Bangkok
Thailand joined with the United Nations yesterday to trumpet its record in cutting poverty and disease across much of the country.
Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said Thailand was proud that it had already met most of the UN's millennium development goals, and wanted to raise the bar with a new set of challenges.
But the bout of back-slapping was clouded by mounting outrage elsewhere in Thailand over the killing on Monday of an activist who had accused local officials of corruption at a parliamentary hearing. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday he would personally monitor the police investigation into the murder.
Charoen Wattaksorn was the 16th rights activist to be killed or disappear since Mr Thaksin took power in 2001.
Before his death, he had successfully led a campaign to prevent a coal-fired power plant opening in his southern province, a rare victory in Thailand.
"This is the first time in history that at least 16 activists have been killed during the reign of one government," opposition Senator Niran Pitakwatchara said.
"The government must do something ... otherwise people will live in a state of fear like a police state."
Although the UN's millennium declaration singled out social justice as crucial to sustainable development, officials seemed loathe yesterday to comment on the implications of the latest bloodshed.
Mr Chavalit ducked out of the joint UN launch after he gave an opening speech, stopping briefly to speak only to local reporters.
Foreign media were instead invited to ask senior officials of the National Economic and Social Development Board about the new goals and how Thailand plans to achieve them.
But the board's secretary-general Chakramon Phasukavanich squirmed when asked if the increased oppression of activists undermined Thailand's emphasis on "people-centred development".
"On the government side we try in every way to create justice in our country ... but this violence is not only in Thailand," he said.
Officials said Thailand's new targets include more health spending in deprived regions.
They concede that while Thailand has dramatically cut the proportion of people living in poverty since 1990 to below 10 per cent, the fruits of economic growth have not extended across the country.
The poverty line is defined as an average monthly income of 1,000 baht (HK$190).
The disparity is particularly acute in southern Thailand, where violence linked to a shadowy Muslim insurgency has left hundreds dead since the start of the year.
Mr Thaksin has blamed poverty for stirring tensions in the long-troubled region.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
US will not remove Tamil Tigers from terror list: State Department
SCMP - Wednesday, June 23, 2004
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Washington
Updated at 11.13am:
The United States said overnight (HK time) it would not remove the terrorist tag from the Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers rebel group, even though it had observed a ceasefire for more than two years and conducted informal peace talks with the government.
"We will not remove our designation of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) as a terrorist organisation until it has firmly and decidedly given up terrorism and such policies as the recruitment of children as soldiers," Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca said.
The Tigers have led a bloody three-decade campaign for independence, but opened peace talks in September 2002 after entering into a Norwegian-brokered truce with security forces seven months earlier.
The talks have been deadlocked since April last year.
Ms Rocca, who is in charge of South Asian affairs, told a congressional hearing that she did not expect peace talks to resume before August even though the Norwegian government played a "heroic role" in mediations between the government and the LTTE.
"We are hopeful that they will start sometime soon, because there definitely is the will on the part of the government to move forward on this," she added.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has agreed to discuss a rebel plan for interim self-rule only if the negotiations focus on reaching a final settlement to the three-decade conflict, a condition rejected by the Tigers.
Ms Rocca said although the government was willing to negotiate, "they don't want to create a de facto separate state going into the negotiations."
At the hearing, Illinois Republican Representative Jerry Weller had asked the State Department official when she expected the Tigers to be taken off the US list of international terrorist organisations.
Ms Rocca was also asked whether such a move would be an inducement for the Tigers to participate in productive peace negotiations.
"We look forward to the day when the LTTE will take the steps necessary to get off the foreign terrorist organizations list," she said. "At the moment there is no plans to take them off."
She charged that the Tigers continued to recruit child soldiers, stockpiled weapons and conducted extrajudicial assassinations of politicians who disagreed with them.
"They are continuing to stockpile weapons. They will need to renounce terrorism in word and in deed in order to be taken off the list," Ms Rocca said.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic fighting in Sri Lanka since 1972.
Ms Rocca also said that the United States would revive talks with Sri Lanka on establishing a free trade agreement following discussions with the new government which came to power in April after elections.
The two countries currently have a trade and investment framework agreement.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Washington
Updated at 11.13am:
The United States said overnight (HK time) it would not remove the terrorist tag from the Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers rebel group, even though it had observed a ceasefire for more than two years and conducted informal peace talks with the government.
"We will not remove our designation of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) as a terrorist organisation until it has firmly and decidedly given up terrorism and such policies as the recruitment of children as soldiers," Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca said.
The Tigers have led a bloody three-decade campaign for independence, but opened peace talks in September 2002 after entering into a Norwegian-brokered truce with security forces seven months earlier.
The talks have been deadlocked since April last year.
Ms Rocca, who is in charge of South Asian affairs, told a congressional hearing that she did not expect peace talks to resume before August even though the Norwegian government played a "heroic role" in mediations between the government and the LTTE.
"We are hopeful that they will start sometime soon, because there definitely is the will on the part of the government to move forward on this," she added.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has agreed to discuss a rebel plan for interim self-rule only if the negotiations focus on reaching a final settlement to the three-decade conflict, a condition rejected by the Tigers.
Ms Rocca said although the government was willing to negotiate, "they don't want to create a de facto separate state going into the negotiations."
At the hearing, Illinois Republican Representative Jerry Weller had asked the State Department official when she expected the Tigers to be taken off the US list of international terrorist organisations.
Ms Rocca was also asked whether such a move would be an inducement for the Tigers to participate in productive peace negotiations.
"We look forward to the day when the LTTE will take the steps necessary to get off the foreign terrorist organizations list," she said. "At the moment there is no plans to take them off."
She charged that the Tigers continued to recruit child soldiers, stockpiled weapons and conducted extrajudicial assassinations of politicians who disagreed with them.
"They are continuing to stockpile weapons. They will need to renounce terrorism in word and in deed in order to be taken off the list," Ms Rocca said.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic fighting in Sri Lanka since 1972.
Ms Rocca also said that the United States would revive talks with Sri Lanka on establishing a free trade agreement following discussions with the new government which came to power in April after elections.
The two countries currently have a trade and investment framework agreement.
Wiranto 'sad' about Timor violence
SCMP - Friday, June 18, 2004
AMY CHEW in Jakarta
Indonesian presidential candidate and former armed forces chief Wiranto has for the first time said publicly that he feels sorry for the violence in East Timor which killed more than 1,000 people in 1999.
Wiranto refused to accept responsibility for the bloodshed during a campaign-stop interview, pointing out he was cleared by official investigations.
"I have been examined by the ad hoc trials and they concluded I cannot be categorised as being guilty or a suspect in that case," he said in Central Java.
"But despite that, morally, I have asked for forgiveness from all parties over what has happened in East Timor. As a human being, I feel very sad over what has happened there."
Wiranto's sorrow over Timor comes as he bids to transform from an ex-general into a political force capable of winning the July 5 polls.
While voters mostly overlook the controversy over his links to the East Timor violence, the issue threatens to undercut him on the international stage.
Wiranto has won the presidential nomination of the powerful Golkar party and is a leading contender along with incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri and former security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Wiranto was the armed forces chief when East Timor voted to break away from Jakarta rule in a United Nations referendum, triggering a rampage by pro-Jakarta militias in the tiny territory.
He has never been charged in connection with the killings in East Timor and has always said he never "ordered or planned'' them. Human rights campaigners say that, as commander of the armed forces, he should take responsibility. The Indonesian military has been accused of arming and training the militias. Wiranto held the top military job between 1998 and 2000 when he became security minister.
"Wiranto should be held responsible, by omission or commission, of the forming of the militias, violence and the scorched earth [policy] which took place in East Timor," said Munir, a member of the inquiry into East Timor's violence.
In 2002, the Serious Crime Unit, a unit within Timor Leste's attorney-general's office, indicted him for crimes against humanity and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Early last month, the office cancelled the arrest warrant.
The annulment of the warrant is expected to help smooth Wiranto's chances of success in the presidential elections. In an effort to burnish his standing and to forge reconciliation, Wiranto met Timor Leste's leader Xanana Gusmao at the end of last month in Bali, under the full glare of the international press. The two men hugged but revealed little of their closed-door meeting.
AMY CHEW in Jakarta
Indonesian presidential candidate and former armed forces chief Wiranto has for the first time said publicly that he feels sorry for the violence in East Timor which killed more than 1,000 people in 1999.
Wiranto refused to accept responsibility for the bloodshed during a campaign-stop interview, pointing out he was cleared by official investigations.
"I have been examined by the ad hoc trials and they concluded I cannot be categorised as being guilty or a suspect in that case," he said in Central Java.
"But despite that, morally, I have asked for forgiveness from all parties over what has happened in East Timor. As a human being, I feel very sad over what has happened there."
Wiranto's sorrow over Timor comes as he bids to transform from an ex-general into a political force capable of winning the July 5 polls.
While voters mostly overlook the controversy over his links to the East Timor violence, the issue threatens to undercut him on the international stage.
Wiranto has won the presidential nomination of the powerful Golkar party and is a leading contender along with incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri and former security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Wiranto was the armed forces chief when East Timor voted to break away from Jakarta rule in a United Nations referendum, triggering a rampage by pro-Jakarta militias in the tiny territory.
He has never been charged in connection with the killings in East Timor and has always said he never "ordered or planned'' them. Human rights campaigners say that, as commander of the armed forces, he should take responsibility. The Indonesian military has been accused of arming and training the militias. Wiranto held the top military job between 1998 and 2000 when he became security minister.
"Wiranto should be held responsible, by omission or commission, of the forming of the militias, violence and the scorched earth [policy] which took place in East Timor," said Munir, a member of the inquiry into East Timor's violence.
In 2002, the Serious Crime Unit, a unit within Timor Leste's attorney-general's office, indicted him for crimes against humanity and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Early last month, the office cancelled the arrest warrant.
The annulment of the warrant is expected to help smooth Wiranto's chances of success in the presidential elections. In an effort to burnish his standing and to forge reconciliation, Wiranto met Timor Leste's leader Xanana Gusmao at the end of last month in Bali, under the full glare of the international press. The two men hugged but revealed little of their closed-door meeting.
Trial of human rights violators not a priority for East Timor: Gusmao
scmp - Monday, June 14, 2004
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Jakarta
Updated at 12.55pm:
East Timor's battle against poverty and unemployment is more important than bringing alleged Indonesian human rights offenders to trial, its President Xanana Gusmao said in an interview published Monday.
"We are still in a condition where everything is still difficult. How can we hold human rights trials?" he told Indonesia's Tempo news magazine.
The former anti-Indonesian guerilla, who was jailed for seven years by Jakarta, supported the refusal by his top prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro to forward an arrest warrant for Indonesian presidential candidate Wiranto to Interpol.
He said the creation of an international court to try human rights offenders was also not his priority.
"My priority now is how this independence can offer something good to the people...if we continue to pry into the past, there will be no time to build (the nation)," said Mr Gusmao.
"Many of the people of East Timor are still trapped by poverty. Foreign investment is not yet working and therefore the growth of job creation is still far from what is hoped."
United Nations-funded prosecutors in East Timor have charged General Wiranto with crimes against humanity. They say that as armed forces chief in 1999 he failed to curb atrocities against independence supporters in the then-Indonesian territory.
An estimated 1,400 people were killed by military-backed local militias before and after East Timorese voted in 1999 to split from Indonesia. The country was Asia's poorest when it became independent in 2002 after a period of UN stewardship.
Mr Gusmao, who last month met General Wiranto, said both Indonesia and East Timor were building democracy and therefore the principle of reconciliation "is a good option for a way out."
He said his stance was also based on pragmatism.
"We have to be realistic," he said, adding that East Timorese were still eating instant noodles from Indonesia, drinking mineral water from Indonesia and wearing cloths and shoes from its giant neighbour.
"If East Timor wants to be firm in the implementation of laws and sever ties with Indonesia, the problems arising will be complex. Even more so if General Wiranto turns out to be elected president," Mr Gusmao said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Jakarta
Updated at 12.55pm:
East Timor's battle against poverty and unemployment is more important than bringing alleged Indonesian human rights offenders to trial, its President Xanana Gusmao said in an interview published Monday.
"We are still in a condition where everything is still difficult. How can we hold human rights trials?" he told Indonesia's Tempo news magazine.
The former anti-Indonesian guerilla, who was jailed for seven years by Jakarta, supported the refusal by his top prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro to forward an arrest warrant for Indonesian presidential candidate Wiranto to Interpol.
He said the creation of an international court to try human rights offenders was also not his priority.
"My priority now is how this independence can offer something good to the people...if we continue to pry into the past, there will be no time to build (the nation)," said Mr Gusmao.
"Many of the people of East Timor are still trapped by poverty. Foreign investment is not yet working and therefore the growth of job creation is still far from what is hoped."
United Nations-funded prosecutors in East Timor have charged General Wiranto with crimes against humanity. They say that as armed forces chief in 1999 he failed to curb atrocities against independence supporters in the then-Indonesian territory.
An estimated 1,400 people were killed by military-backed local militias before and after East Timorese voted in 1999 to split from Indonesia. The country was Asia's poorest when it became independent in 2002 after a period of UN stewardship.
Mr Gusmao, who last month met General Wiranto, said both Indonesia and East Timor were building democracy and therefore the principle of reconciliation "is a good option for a way out."
He said his stance was also based on pragmatism.
"We have to be realistic," he said, adding that East Timorese were still eating instant noodles from Indonesia, drinking mineral water from Indonesia and wearing cloths and shoes from its giant neighbour.
"If East Timor wants to be firm in the implementation of laws and sever ties with Indonesia, the problems arising will be complex. Even more so if General Wiranto turns out to be elected president," Mr Gusmao said.
Fanatics of the world unite
scmp - Thursday, June 10, 2004
MAI YAMANI
Online beheadings and fatwas (religious decrees): the subterranean world of Islam's radical fringe can be found on countless internet sites. These technologically sophisticated fanatics are able to reach a wide audience. But that audience exists because of the deep dissatisfaction and anger of so many young Muslims everywhere. The internet has brought together a worldwide community of the alienated and the embittered.
The west thinks that this anger is a sign of some clash of civilisations: "us" versus "them", which implies that only one side can win. But the anger of young Muslims results primarily from revulsion at their corrupt leaders, and the subservience of these rulers to the United States. It is a bitterness rooted, in other words, in material causes, not in some fanatical, irrational and anti-democratic sentiment whose adherents must be re-educated or crushed.
The problem starts at the top of Muslim societies, not with the disaffected at the bottom. Muslim rulers have mostly failed to satisfy the needs of their populations. At the same time, in much of the Muslim world, authoritarian regimes typically attempt to control and propagate exclusionary forms of Islamic dogma.
For many years, these regimes succeeded in suppressing pluralism and individuality. But, as their regimes increasingly came to be seen as politically illegitimate, their model of Islam was also discredited. So the disappointed and disaffected search for an Islam that meets their expectations.
For the many websites that attract these disaffected people, it helps that no central authority exists today for the Muslim umma (the world community of Islam). By humiliating, degrading and outlawing any Islamic tendency that disagreed with the prevailing dogma, authoritarian regimes did not eliminate pluralism, but merely sent it underground. Today's technology allows that underground to speak and meet.
In the face of repression, internet Islam appears to speak with authentic authority. But Islam has traditionally always been pluralistic and tolerant of differences. Indeed, prior to Saudi Wahhabi rule in 1932, Mecca was cosmopolitan and open. But the Wahhabis tried to appropriate Mecca for their own version of Islam, and to export their exclusionary doctrine. For a while they succeeded. Today, however, we are witnessing the failure of the Wahhabi project to monopolise Islam.
What has followed is the hijacking of Islam by radical, angry men raised on Wahhabi dogma but disillusioned with the world they inherited. Their fatwas are almost always horrendous in their intolerance and virulence, and certainly appear backward and anti-modernist. They clash not only with the west, but with the golden age of Islam, when Muslim astronomers, mathematicians, physicians, philosophers and poets flourished. Although the internet appears to be renewing Islamic pluralism, today's online fatwas are non-negotiable orders, not a call for fresh creativity.
Hundreds of websites now compete to be the new Mecca, the place where all devout Muslims turn for guidance. The most extreme preach the ideas of al-Qaeda and their ideological brethren.
Online fatwas harbour animosity not only towards the west, but also other Muslims. Most have a violent streak that the Saudi establishment is quick to dismiss as belonging to the Middle Ages. The fact is, however, that these fanatics are a modern phenomenon, a creation of the Muslim world's failed political systems, and a stark reminder of the price of long years of repression.
Far from disappearing, the repressed are returning from the underground to haunt the world they grew up in. No matter how much their countries' rulers try to disown them, they cannot escape their creation. Globalisation and technology have given the disaffected a new homeland to profess Islam as they see it. In that internet world, no authority can silence or satisfy them.
Mai Yamani is an author and research fellow at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London.
MAI YAMANI
Online beheadings and fatwas (religious decrees): the subterranean world of Islam's radical fringe can be found on countless internet sites. These technologically sophisticated fanatics are able to reach a wide audience. But that audience exists because of the deep dissatisfaction and anger of so many young Muslims everywhere. The internet has brought together a worldwide community of the alienated and the embittered.
The west thinks that this anger is a sign of some clash of civilisations: "us" versus "them", which implies that only one side can win. But the anger of young Muslims results primarily from revulsion at their corrupt leaders, and the subservience of these rulers to the United States. It is a bitterness rooted, in other words, in material causes, not in some fanatical, irrational and anti-democratic sentiment whose adherents must be re-educated or crushed.
The problem starts at the top of Muslim societies, not with the disaffected at the bottom. Muslim rulers have mostly failed to satisfy the needs of their populations. At the same time, in much of the Muslim world, authoritarian regimes typically attempt to control and propagate exclusionary forms of Islamic dogma.
For many years, these regimes succeeded in suppressing pluralism and individuality. But, as their regimes increasingly came to be seen as politically illegitimate, their model of Islam was also discredited. So the disappointed and disaffected search for an Islam that meets their expectations.
For the many websites that attract these disaffected people, it helps that no central authority exists today for the Muslim umma (the world community of Islam). By humiliating, degrading and outlawing any Islamic tendency that disagreed with the prevailing dogma, authoritarian regimes did not eliminate pluralism, but merely sent it underground. Today's technology allows that underground to speak and meet.
In the face of repression, internet Islam appears to speak with authentic authority. But Islam has traditionally always been pluralistic and tolerant of differences. Indeed, prior to Saudi Wahhabi rule in 1932, Mecca was cosmopolitan and open. But the Wahhabis tried to appropriate Mecca for their own version of Islam, and to export their exclusionary doctrine. For a while they succeeded. Today, however, we are witnessing the failure of the Wahhabi project to monopolise Islam.
What has followed is the hijacking of Islam by radical, angry men raised on Wahhabi dogma but disillusioned with the world they inherited. Their fatwas are almost always horrendous in their intolerance and virulence, and certainly appear backward and anti-modernist. They clash not only with the west, but with the golden age of Islam, when Muslim astronomers, mathematicians, physicians, philosophers and poets flourished. Although the internet appears to be renewing Islamic pluralism, today's online fatwas are non-negotiable orders, not a call for fresh creativity.
Hundreds of websites now compete to be the new Mecca, the place where all devout Muslims turn for guidance. The most extreme preach the ideas of al-Qaeda and their ideological brethren.
Online fatwas harbour animosity not only towards the west, but also other Muslims. Most have a violent streak that the Saudi establishment is quick to dismiss as belonging to the Middle Ages. The fact is, however, that these fanatics are a modern phenomenon, a creation of the Muslim world's failed political systems, and a stark reminder of the price of long years of repression.
Far from disappearing, the repressed are returning from the underground to haunt the world they grew up in. No matter how much their countries' rulers try to disown them, they cannot escape their creation. Globalisation and technology have given the disaffected a new homeland to profess Islam as they see it. In that internet world, no authority can silence or satisfy them.
Mai Yamani is an author and research fellow at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London.
Li Peng's son heads one of the biggest-polluting firms in Beijing
scmp - Wednesday, June 9, 2004
IRENE WANG
A power company run by a son of former premier Li Peng is among the top five firms on a list of the worst air polluters in Beijing.
It is the first time authorities have adopted a name-and-shame approach to try to improve the capital's chronic air pollution.
The pollution-control office under the municipal Environmental Protection Bureau has released a list of 28 companies that it says produce a total of 78,000 tonnes of sulfur dioxide and 13,000 tonnes of particulate matter each year.
It said this accounted for 68 per cent of the city's sulfur dioxide emissions and 44 per cent of particulates.
Five coal-powered electricity-generating companies were cited as the worst offenders, including the Beijing subsidiary of Huaneng Power International, which is the mainland's largest independent power producer and is run by Li Xiaopeng .
The five power companies emitted 60 per cent of the city's sulfur dioxide and 26 per cent of the particulates, the pollution office said.
Apart from emitting pollutants, companies have also been put on the list for failing to introduce environmental-protection measures and for being located in environmentally sensitive zones.
All companies on the list not involved in power generation had been told to reduce emissions by the end of the year or face punishment, officials said, without stating what the penalties would be.
But they said that the power companies, by far the worst culprits, would be given more time to implement reforms because the nature of their business made it more difficult to reduce emissions. Officials would not say how long the power companies would be given.
Du Shaozhong, of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said that if the 28 companies on the list adhered to city regulations, annual levels of sulfur dioxide would drop by 50,000 tonnes.
The amount of particulate matter could be expected to fall by 4,000 tonnes.
Mr Du said the maximum penalty of 100,000 yuan allowed under the air pollution law was not an adequate deterrent.
It would cost the companies much more than 100,000 yuan to install environmental-protection equipment.
An official said the city government would add more names to the list of serious polluters later in the year.
IRENE WANG
A power company run by a son of former premier Li Peng is among the top five firms on a list of the worst air polluters in Beijing.
It is the first time authorities have adopted a name-and-shame approach to try to improve the capital's chronic air pollution.
The pollution-control office under the municipal Environmental Protection Bureau has released a list of 28 companies that it says produce a total of 78,000 tonnes of sulfur dioxide and 13,000 tonnes of particulate matter each year.
It said this accounted for 68 per cent of the city's sulfur dioxide emissions and 44 per cent of particulates.
Five coal-powered electricity-generating companies were cited as the worst offenders, including the Beijing subsidiary of Huaneng Power International, which is the mainland's largest independent power producer and is run by Li Xiaopeng .
The five power companies emitted 60 per cent of the city's sulfur dioxide and 26 per cent of the particulates, the pollution office said.
Apart from emitting pollutants, companies have also been put on the list for failing to introduce environmental-protection measures and for being located in environmentally sensitive zones.
All companies on the list not involved in power generation had been told to reduce emissions by the end of the year or face punishment, officials said, without stating what the penalties would be.
But they said that the power companies, by far the worst culprits, would be given more time to implement reforms because the nature of their business made it more difficult to reduce emissions. Officials would not say how long the power companies would be given.
Du Shaozhong, of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said that if the 28 companies on the list adhered to city regulations, annual levels of sulfur dioxide would drop by 50,000 tonnes.
The amount of particulate matter could be expected to fall by 4,000 tonnes.
Mr Du said the maximum penalty of 100,000 yuan allowed under the air pollution law was not an adequate deterrent.
It would cost the companies much more than 100,000 yuan to install environmental-protection equipment.
An official said the city government would add more names to the list of serious polluters later in the year.
Group urges release of dissident writers
SCMP - Thursday, June 3, 2004
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE and ASSOCIATED PRESS in Beijing
An international media watchdog yesterday urged Beijing to release all journalists and internet writers who had been jailed for writing on the massacre, and to end its censorship of the event.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said the central government should free 27 journalists and 61 so-called cyber-dissidents.
Beijing should also stop harassing journalists who participated in the protests and authorise exiled journalists and dissidents to return to the mainland in complete safety.
"On June 4, 1989, Chinese army tanks were crushing the student revolt on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, sounding a death-knell for public democratic public protest in China," the group said.
"Fifteen years later, the use of the term `June 4' is still banned in the press and on the internet."
Since the crackdown, more than 130 journalists and internet users have been jailed for writing on the protests, including 43 who directly participated in the demonstrations, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said last night that a group of activists had been forced to leave their homes and had been placed under watch by authorities two days before the June 4 anniversary.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE and ASSOCIATED PRESS in Beijing
An international media watchdog yesterday urged Beijing to release all journalists and internet writers who had been jailed for writing on the massacre, and to end its censorship of the event.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said the central government should free 27 journalists and 61 so-called cyber-dissidents.
Beijing should also stop harassing journalists who participated in the protests and authorise exiled journalists and dissidents to return to the mainland in complete safety.
"On June 4, 1989, Chinese army tanks were crushing the student revolt on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, sounding a death-knell for public democratic public protest in China," the group said.
"Fifteen years later, the use of the term `June 4' is still banned in the press and on the internet."
Since the crackdown, more than 130 journalists and internet users have been jailed for writing on the protests, including 43 who directly participated in the demonstrations, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said last night that a group of activists had been forced to leave their homes and had been placed under watch by authorities two days before the June 4 anniversary.
The real enemy was inflation
SCMP - Thursday, June 3, 2004
ALLEN T. CHENG in Beijing
There has been no official apology, but the lessons learned from June 4, 1989, are on the minds of the mainland leadership, according to a western expert on China.
"Because of Tiananmen, China's leadership has undergone a lot of introspection on what it needs to do to avoid a political crisis: what doesn't work, what causes instability, and what is dangerous to the economic system," says Laurence Brahm, a US lawyer based in Beijing.
"What they learned foremost is the need to control social factors through economic growth to avoid crisis situations."
Mr Brahm, the author of several books, including Zhu Rongji and the Transformation of Modern China, said the root cause of the June 4 crisis was imbalanced economic reforms between rural and urban areas in the late 1980s.
Reforms were introduced in the countryside allowing farmers to increase their incomes by independently planting and selling their own crops. Meanwhile, urban price controls were being phased out, causing hyper-inflation in the cities at a time when urban incomes were stagnating.
"June 4 was not only about democracy and idealism," Mr Brahm says. "Agricultural reforms were way ahead of urban reforms. Urban wages were falling, while price controls were relaxed. You had panic buying, and it was at this time that the students began protesting. It gained momentum because urban workers joined the protests. They were angry."
Faced with the massive social action, Mr Brahm believes, the government was in shock.
"At the height of the protests, the government did not have rubber bullets or riot police. So they brought in the People's Liberation Army," he said.
Since the crisis, the government has accelerated urban economic reforms and invested heavily in anti-riot police who are trained and equipped with the necessary gear to put down uprisings with a minimum of physical harm to protesters. But more importantly, the country's leaders have instituted a system of economic management to promote economic growth and job creation.
In the early 1990s, when Mr Zhu, who was then premier, cut credit lines to out-of-control property deals in the provinces, he did it with June 4 in mind, Mr Brahm says.
"China's leaders saw how hyperinflation brought forth the June 4 protests," he explains, "so premier Zhu had to keep inflation under control."
The economic transition of the 1990s was driven by the need to guide, rather than react to, problems as they arise to prevent them from getting out of control. The same can be said for Premier Wen Jiabao's urgent calls today to again slow irrational investment in property-related sectors.
In fact, Mr Brahm believes that political reforms - something the student protesters asked for - will happen sooner or later. However, rapid democratisation will not.
"If you have rapid democratisation of a society that doesn't have the economic freedom to support and maintain that political process, it would be a disaster," he said.
Beijing has always resisted the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund's prescription of rapid transition from a Marxist, centrally planned economy to a democratic, free market economy.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the social and political dislocation in Russia only reinforces in leaders' minds the necessity of taking the evolutionary approach.
During the last National People's Congress session, people missed a very important point, Mr Brahm says.
"Deng Xiaoping talked about material civilisation and spiritual civilisation. Jiang Zemin talked about spiritual civilisation to try to balance the excesses in the pursuit of material goods.
"Wen Jiabao has added a third term. It's political spirituality. It sets the tone for things to come. It puts on the table political evolution of government institutions. To keep up the economic evolution which has occurred and the social evolution which is now happening, political evolution has to occur."
Mr Brahm sees experiments in village and urban community elections expanding up through the hierarchy into possibly the NPC and even the Communist Party itself in the coming decade.
He predicts Mr Wen will strengthen rural land lease contracts to give peasants secured rights to the land they plough.
Local cadres frequently abuse rural land leases by seizing plots and handing them to property developers with minimum compensation to peasants. Peasants now have 30-year land lease rights, but Mr Brahm predicts that the government may extend that to 70 years - the same given to urban residents on commercial property. "By doing this, you give peasants capital. They in turn can mortgage and invest in the land or lease the land for income," he said.
The June 4 tragedy did not go to waste, he said. The government learned an immense lesson.
"Officials learned that they must look into the future, to predict and pre-empt, and that evolution is the best way forward."
ALLEN T. CHENG in Beijing
There has been no official apology, but the lessons learned from June 4, 1989, are on the minds of the mainland leadership, according to a western expert on China.
"Because of Tiananmen, China's leadership has undergone a lot of introspection on what it needs to do to avoid a political crisis: what doesn't work, what causes instability, and what is dangerous to the economic system," says Laurence Brahm, a US lawyer based in Beijing.
"What they learned foremost is the need to control social factors through economic growth to avoid crisis situations."
Mr Brahm, the author of several books, including Zhu Rongji and the Transformation of Modern China, said the root cause of the June 4 crisis was imbalanced economic reforms between rural and urban areas in the late 1980s.
Reforms were introduced in the countryside allowing farmers to increase their incomes by independently planting and selling their own crops. Meanwhile, urban price controls were being phased out, causing hyper-inflation in the cities at a time when urban incomes were stagnating.
"June 4 was not only about democracy and idealism," Mr Brahm says. "Agricultural reforms were way ahead of urban reforms. Urban wages were falling, while price controls were relaxed. You had panic buying, and it was at this time that the students began protesting. It gained momentum because urban workers joined the protests. They were angry."
Faced with the massive social action, Mr Brahm believes, the government was in shock.
"At the height of the protests, the government did not have rubber bullets or riot police. So they brought in the People's Liberation Army," he said.
Since the crisis, the government has accelerated urban economic reforms and invested heavily in anti-riot police who are trained and equipped with the necessary gear to put down uprisings with a minimum of physical harm to protesters. But more importantly, the country's leaders have instituted a system of economic management to promote economic growth and job creation.
In the early 1990s, when Mr Zhu, who was then premier, cut credit lines to out-of-control property deals in the provinces, he did it with June 4 in mind, Mr Brahm says.
"China's leaders saw how hyperinflation brought forth the June 4 protests," he explains, "so premier Zhu had to keep inflation under control."
The economic transition of the 1990s was driven by the need to guide, rather than react to, problems as they arise to prevent them from getting out of control. The same can be said for Premier Wen Jiabao's urgent calls today to again slow irrational investment in property-related sectors.
In fact, Mr Brahm believes that political reforms - something the student protesters asked for - will happen sooner or later. However, rapid democratisation will not.
"If you have rapid democratisation of a society that doesn't have the economic freedom to support and maintain that political process, it would be a disaster," he said.
Beijing has always resisted the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund's prescription of rapid transition from a Marxist, centrally planned economy to a democratic, free market economy.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the social and political dislocation in Russia only reinforces in leaders' minds the necessity of taking the evolutionary approach.
During the last National People's Congress session, people missed a very important point, Mr Brahm says.
"Deng Xiaoping talked about material civilisation and spiritual civilisation. Jiang Zemin talked about spiritual civilisation to try to balance the excesses in the pursuit of material goods.
"Wen Jiabao has added a third term. It's political spirituality. It sets the tone for things to come. It puts on the table political evolution of government institutions. To keep up the economic evolution which has occurred and the social evolution which is now happening, political evolution has to occur."
Mr Brahm sees experiments in village and urban community elections expanding up through the hierarchy into possibly the NPC and even the Communist Party itself in the coming decade.
He predicts Mr Wen will strengthen rural land lease contracts to give peasants secured rights to the land they plough.
Local cadres frequently abuse rural land leases by seizing plots and handing them to property developers with minimum compensation to peasants. Peasants now have 30-year land lease rights, but Mr Brahm predicts that the government may extend that to 70 years - the same given to urban residents on commercial property. "By doing this, you give peasants capital. They in turn can mortgage and invest in the land or lease the land for income," he said.
The June 4 tragedy did not go to waste, he said. The government learned an immense lesson.
"Officials learned that they must look into the future, to predict and pre-empt, and that evolution is the best way forward."
A mother's hope endures 15 years of disappointment
scmp - Thursday, June 3, 2004
JOSEPHINE MA in Beijing
Tiananmen mother Ding Zilin refuses to give up hope that the June 4 movement will be rehabilitated, even though it may not happen in her lifetime.
After her son was killed 15 years ago during the military crackdown, Ms Ding - with relatives of other victims - formed the Tiananmen Mothers advocacy group. Its prime purpose is to call on the authorities to re-examine the official condemnation of the democracy movement.
The mothers insist that even if the students may have been wrong in some of their methods, it was still a crime for the government to kill its own people.
Ms Ding's group has so far documented the names of 182 people who were killed, providing firm evidence to disprove claims by some officials that the massacre did not happen.
Ms Ding is now 67 and she has watched as time has taken its toll on her group.
"Among the victims' families who signed petition letters [demanding rehabilitation] every year since 1995, 11 have passed away," she said.
"My husband and I are not the oldest among the victims' families, but I am mentally prepared that I may not live to see that day" that June 4 is revisited, she said.
That reality was brought home about a week ago when an official from the Ministry of State Security visited.
"He told me that it is impossible for the present leadership to resolve the problem of June 4," Ms Ding said in a phone interview. "He said he did not come to discuss the issue but to pass on the message.
"Moreover, he told me that they were going to impose residential control over me," she said referring to a form of house arrest used by police to isolate people seen as troublemakers.
Ms Ding said there had been hope the change of leadership that brought President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to power would create a political climate where the Communist Party could right the wrong done 15 years ago, but the message she received meant such expectations were misplaced.
"There are signs of backtracking. I have to say I feel sorry about the new leadership under Hu-Wen," she said.
In March, Mr Wen defended the crackdown but did not call the student-led movement a "rebellion", as previous leaders have done, raising hopes that the leadership might take a more conciliatory position.
The "residential control" measure was a slight surprise because Ms Ding was told three years ago by officials from the same department that they no longer wanted to restrict her movement.
Last year, Ms Ding spent the period around the anniversary in her home town of Wuxi and therefore was not harassed by police.
Despite the setbacks, Ms Ding remains optimistic.
"I am not pessimistic. I am still hopeful. One day the truth will become clear," she said.
"What is important is the process, and we have tried our best. Since we have already started, we cannot give up. We must press on because we have done no wrong."
Ms Ding is convinced the Tiananmen Mothers took the correct path by advocating dialogue with the authorities to resolve the deadlock over June 4.
"We insist that the National People's Congress should set up a special committee to investigate and make public the truth of June 4 and compensate victims as the laws require," she said.
"And we want peaceful and rational dialogue [with the government] on equal basis, and I don't think we are asking for too much."
Ms Ding said she could understand why many intellectuals and even activists who took part in the movement 15 years ago had now chosen to remain silent. And she was not surprised by the ignorance among young people regarding what happened 15 years ago.
"Everybody has his own choice. If there is no suppression and cover-up of the truth, people will act differently," she said.
JOSEPHINE MA in Beijing
Tiananmen mother Ding Zilin refuses to give up hope that the June 4 movement will be rehabilitated, even though it may not happen in her lifetime.
After her son was killed 15 years ago during the military crackdown, Ms Ding - with relatives of other victims - formed the Tiananmen Mothers advocacy group. Its prime purpose is to call on the authorities to re-examine the official condemnation of the democracy movement.
The mothers insist that even if the students may have been wrong in some of their methods, it was still a crime for the government to kill its own people.
Ms Ding's group has so far documented the names of 182 people who were killed, providing firm evidence to disprove claims by some officials that the massacre did not happen.
Ms Ding is now 67 and she has watched as time has taken its toll on her group.
"Among the victims' families who signed petition letters [demanding rehabilitation] every year since 1995, 11 have passed away," she said.
"My husband and I are not the oldest among the victims' families, but I am mentally prepared that I may not live to see that day" that June 4 is revisited, she said.
That reality was brought home about a week ago when an official from the Ministry of State Security visited.
"He told me that it is impossible for the present leadership to resolve the problem of June 4," Ms Ding said in a phone interview. "He said he did not come to discuss the issue but to pass on the message.
"Moreover, he told me that they were going to impose residential control over me," she said referring to a form of house arrest used by police to isolate people seen as troublemakers.
Ms Ding said there had been hope the change of leadership that brought President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to power would create a political climate where the Communist Party could right the wrong done 15 years ago, but the message she received meant such expectations were misplaced.
"There are signs of backtracking. I have to say I feel sorry about the new leadership under Hu-Wen," she said.
In March, Mr Wen defended the crackdown but did not call the student-led movement a "rebellion", as previous leaders have done, raising hopes that the leadership might take a more conciliatory position.
The "residential control" measure was a slight surprise because Ms Ding was told three years ago by officials from the same department that they no longer wanted to restrict her movement.
Last year, Ms Ding spent the period around the anniversary in her home town of Wuxi and therefore was not harassed by police.
Despite the setbacks, Ms Ding remains optimistic.
"I am not pessimistic. I am still hopeful. One day the truth will become clear," she said.
"What is important is the process, and we have tried our best. Since we have already started, we cannot give up. We must press on because we have done no wrong."
Ms Ding is convinced the Tiananmen Mothers took the correct path by advocating dialogue with the authorities to resolve the deadlock over June 4.
"We insist that the National People's Congress should set up a special committee to investigate and make public the truth of June 4 and compensate victims as the laws require," she said.
"And we want peaceful and rational dialogue [with the government] on equal basis, and I don't think we are asking for too much."
Ms Ding said she could understand why many intellectuals and even activists who took part in the movement 15 years ago had now chosen to remain silent. And she was not surprised by the ignorance among young people regarding what happened 15 years ago.
"Everybody has his own choice. If there is no suppression and cover-up of the truth, people will act differently," she said.
