War against terror and the danger of violating human rights

In the light of the present discussions on the final statement at the oncoming Jubilee Summit of the United Nations (UN) the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) warned on Wednesday that the persecution of ethnic or religious minorities could be legitimised under cover of combating terror. Therefore the chance must be taken before the summit on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the UN to find a formulation which is clear in terms of human rights in condemning arbitrary violence and the collective persecution of whole ethnic groups by the state and its troops as a way of combating terror. A working party comprising 32 countries has since Monday evening been discussing joint initiatives of the UN member states in combating terror, which in the framework of a new charter of the UN is to be passed in mid-September by the heads of state all over the world.

Since the beginning of the worldwide war against terror persecuting states like Russia, China and Egypt have been using this struggle to justify conflicts of their own making, criticises the GfbV. This strategy is contra-productive because it has grossly abused human rights and even led to an increase of terrorist activities in some countries. If the definition of errorism is written into the final statement in the sense suggested by the USA there is a danger, says the GfbV, that state terrorism would be egitimised.

Thus the Russian „war against terror“ in Chechnya since 1994 has cost some 200.000 people their lives. The political root of the conflict, the struggle of the Chechnyans for an independent state, is however ignored by Vladimir Putin. Chechnya and especially the capital, Grosny, have been razed to the ground, massacres, carpet bombing, torture in so-called filtration camps, arbitrary arrests and murder have driven thousands to flight. Exemption from all sanctions is the rule for the Russian soldiers. There is on the part of the GfbV complete condemnation of the acts of terror perpetrated by individual Chechnyan extremists against the whole civilian population. However it is only a political solution of the conflict which can prevent violence, emphasised the human rights organisation.

In China there is a new wave of repression against Muslim Uigurs, warned the GfbV. In August 2005 alone more than 190 Uigurs were arrested in the province of Xinjiang for political reasons. The Communist leader of the region, Wang Lequan, called on Sunday at a party conference for a stepped-up battle against Uigur terrorists. „Terrorists are hated and detested. They are like rats running out on the street and everyone cries out: Crush them!“ said the regional party leader, Ismail Tiliwaldi. Under cover of the fight against terror China is brutally putting down all protests against the discrimination of the Uigurs and making blanket accusations of terrorism against a whole ethnic group, warned the GfbV.

In Egypt also the battle against terror is aiding and abetting severe violations of human rights. Thus after the bomb attack of Sharm el-Sheik on 23rd July more than 700 Beduins were arrested arbitrarily and many of those arrested were tortured. This could not be reported in the Eqyptian media when the authorities put a stop to information being disseminated. A force of some 5000 from police and army combed the Sinai mountain reas at the time and declared the Beduins “outlawsâ€?. So in Egypt also a whole ethnic group has been sweepingly defamed as „terrorists“.