Orange Magazine 1/2004 - Human Rights by Orange Magazine

Photo: K. Grygoruk

human rights in film

Warszawa, Winter 2004

orange

international magazine

»China‘s final solution?«

»Do not turn away!«

»Even on my own skin«

How Tibetans are marginalised in there own country. 4

In North Korea human rights do not even seem to exist. 11

Fabrizio Lazzeretti about his experience with police. 13

orange

editorial

human rights in film ! We are pleased to present you a newspaper that is in its entirety a response to the fourth annual Human Rights in Film documentary festival organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw. First, we want to make clear that this is not a collection of film reviews. Rather, the journalists who have volunteered their time were concerned less with the films and more with the actual problems of human rights abuses shown in the films. We hope that this paper encourages the reader to reflect on these extremely difficult issues. And, we hope, to take action where it is needed most.

What would I do if my rights were violated this way?

Human rights violations take place all over the world, on every continent. In Tibet, Chechnya, Colombia, Ethiopia, this we know – but also in Europe and all over the United States. The films shown this year at the festival, despite there being so many, present only a small part of all of the human rights problems people face. But even this drop in the ocean raises an overwhelming number of complex questions:

opportunity to be whoever we want to be.

Are there gas chambers in North Korea? Why can‘t the Nobel peace prize winner Dalai lama live in his homeland? How can we expect citizens of Chechnya not to resort to terrorism if they continue to be deprived of the right to self-determination?

It is obvious that there are human rights abuses going on in Tibet and Colombia. But we are far less aware of the human rights violations in Poland, in the rest of Europe, and in the USA. First, let‘s ask, why are human rights so important? The common definition is that human rights are the umbrella that shields individuals from the state’s interference into their personal sphere of life. Human rights provide each of us with the

Human rights have to do with the relationship between the state and each individual. Such relations are defined as having a vertical character. Let‘s imagine that someone complains to us and says, “my neighbors abuse me because I am gay.” Are these neighbors abusing this person’s human rights? According to the vertical character of human rights, no – because it is not the state perpetrating the abuse, but instead an equal. However, if a government encourages and supports people who discriminate against gay men and lesbians, and simultaneously does not

enable everyone to demand justice in court, then this government is certainly guilty of human rights abuse. Everyone ought to be treated equally by the law. Circumstances cannot lead to a situation in which the law treats somebody differently from the way it treats the rest. A judge’s sentence cannot be biased because the judge is having a bad day or has a problem with queers. Let‘s imagine another situation. The majority doesn’t accept homosexuals, so the government passes a law that forbids gay people from driving a car. Is this discrimination? Yes. But when this government passes a law that prohibits blind persons from operating motor vehicles, then is this, too, discrimination? No. The difference lies in the necessity of this second law, and in the arbitrariness of the first. We grasp this difference intuitively, but explaining it in human rights terms is much more difficult, and that is the struggle faced by human rights defenders everywhere. The goal of the Helsinki Foundation, and of its film festival, and our goal at Orange is to get more people thinking about human rights and related issues – and their direct and indirect impact on all of our lives today. Aleksander Ulasiuk

What is it like to live in a country like Colombia, where an average of ten politically motivated killings occur each day?

Photo: A. Ulasiuk

What makes people so desperate that they cross deserts and seas to live as refugees? We watch films and listen to the experts and we hope we‘ll find the answers. And with each film that we see, we imagine ourselves in the shoes – or the bare feet, as it were – of the people we see on the screen. And the biggest question of all overwhelms us:

We dedicate this zine to the late Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights director Marek Nowicki our teacher and friend.

international magazine

cambodia

human rights in film

Can an

EXECUTIONER be a

VICTIM ?

The Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia has collapsed. Two million people died due to their genocide. How to judge the executioners? By Magda Pietras we feel like comforting him. We feel his shame

“I

f we killed people... and I personally killed people... and of our own free will, then that‘s evil. But I was given orders. They terrorized me with their guns and their power. That‘s not evil. (...) Ever since I was a child, I have always been good. I still am today. I don‘t steal or do holdups, I don‘t hurt anyone.” Hell Reigns

In Cambodia reigns hell: schools closed, currency abolished, religions banned, forced labor camps, surveillance, famine, terror, executions.

The Trauma: Vann Nath the ex-prisoner of S21 while painting.

There is genocide. Two million dead. It‘s the Khmer Rouge and it‘s what Rithy Panh’s documentary is about. Feeling the shame

Watching movies like this one, we shake our heads in disbelief. How can a man cause so much pain and suffering without blinking an eye? Where does his cruelty come from? We all agree that the torture depicted in the ﬁlm and the personal tragedies shown onscreen are unbearable. We agree that a human being should never be exposed to such trauma. The present situation of victims, of the few who have survived, is clear. We sympathize with them. When Chun Mey, the former prisoner of the Khmer Rouge regime, breaks into tears while standing in front of S-21, the most famous and probably the most savage interrogation center in the world, where he had been imprisoned,

as we watch him become unable to control the stream of violent emotions brought on by painful memories. We feel uncomfortable as we stare at him weep over his murdered family and bemoan his ruined life. The more the details of the atrocities perpetrated by the soldiers are described, the more furious we become. We want to shout out and condemn the executioners. Those who contributed

But who are they? Where are they? If the case of the victims is clear to us, if we know what to think about their past and present tragedies, the situation of their torturers is not so simple. We imagine they look dangerous, with hate in their eyes, clenched ﬁsts, and a gun. We hear them claim that they are proud of torturing and killing people. Isn’t it easy to condemn them this way, to ﬁnd them guilty? But reality is not black and white. Those who contributed to the Khmer Rouge look a lot like the victims. There are no hateful eyes, no pistols in their hands. They justify their cruel deeds with their fear. “I was given orders. They terrorized me with their guns and their power,” one former oppressor explains. Lousy lifes, violent deaths

It doesn’t matter, one may object. Killing is killing. So easy to say from a comfortable armchair, in a safe home, isn’t it? But what would you do if a loaded gun was held to your head? What would you do if saying ‘no’ meant certain death? World history knows hundreds of stories about the choice between a lousy, immoral life and a tragic, violent death. Let us examine the Holocaust and the German concentration camps. Probably each nation of all those represented in this World War II killing machine has its own heroes – those who not only refused to cooperate with the Nazis by

reporting on other prisoners, but those who in fact openly disobeyed them. They usually paid for their courageous acts with their lives. But a lot of very different stories exist as well. Sad testimonies about the dark side of the human soul. Because people stay civilized as long as they are surrounded by a civilized world. But when the situation changes, when the system of values and morality is turned upside down, they can no longer live like they used to. And then some people break down under the burden of the new cruel reality. Treated like animals, they start acting like animals. Brutality becomes their new face. Do we have a right to judge them? Especially if they were children, like those Cambodian prison guards indoctrinated at the age of twelve or thirteen. How much do we know about life and its traps, even in a time of peace, as teenagers? “My son never behaved badly, never insulted the elders. But they indoctrinated him, turned him into a thug who killed people,” cries a mother of one of the jailers. How to judge them?

If we stopped here, maybe we could even feel sorry for those poor Asian children forced to brutalize the “enemy,” that is, to rape women, beat their husbands and murder their babies. But, again, that would be too simple. Let’s assume that they were doing all of this, but deep in their minds they knew that such behavior could be only temporary. The civil war is over, the regime has collapsed. Life in Cambodia is changing slowly. We expect the ex-torturers to expiate their guilt, at least to confess to their sins and apologize for them. To take some responsibility for what they have done. But those shown in Rithy Panh’s film don‘t do anything of the sort. They seem to have no remorse. There are moments when they look mildly ashamed by the questions asked of them, but after a while they show emotionlessly just how the prisoners were treated. They describe with detail the crimes they committed. They even act this way while talking to their former victims, displaying unusual, unbelievable self-confidence. In theory, we could defend them and say that Rithy Panh, the film director, whose sisters and parents were murdered and who himself had been sent to a labor camp, will never be objective. We could, if only we had the slightest impression that the film was not an honest appraisal but a onesided view showing only single episodes of the Khmers‘ unaccountability. But my impression was exactly the opposite… The only question that remains is how should we judge them if one day they say they are sorry.

orange

tibet

group of monks crouches over an intricate construction. Very carefully, grain by grain, they apply the colored sand. Little by little, the mysterious lines drawn on the black table turn into an astonishing composition of geometrical forms. Their colors bring to mind a meadow in bloom, but their patterns remind us rather of the test strips that appears on TV when the programs are over. This is one of the evocative scenes in the ﬁlm “Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion”. The template made by the monks is called a Mandala. In Sanskrit, this means “circle.” An intrinsic element of this “circle” is the ﬁnal act of destruction, or dismantling. The monks sweep up the sand, symbolizing the impermanence of all existence. And that‘s the essential

Tibet, it is completely subordinated to the communist government of China and used only to suppress the Tibetans’ aspiration to self-determination. Regardless of the words we choose to describe Tibet‘s political status – whether we say it‘s an autonomy, a Chinese colony, or an occupied territory – the facts are obvious. The policy implemented by China aims to reduce Tibetans from a separate nation to one of the insigniﬁcant ethnic minorities of their country. China’s “Final Solution”

Nowadays in Tibet, even a hint of the national consciousness is forbidden. Possessing a picture of the Dalai Lama, singing patriotic songs, displaying Tibetan ﬂags and even speaking with

TEARS on the ROOF

of the WORLD

More than a thousand years ago they had a powerful empire. Today, Tibetans are fighting to preserve their national identity. Will they share the fate of Native Americans and Aborigines? By Kasia Karwan thing: the Mandala is not just simple a work of art; it is rather the symbolic representation of the Universe. But, above all, it is a central aspect of the Tibetan cultural heritage. More than a thousand years ago, the Tibetans had a powerful empire which covered most of south and central Asia. Their indigenous belief in Bon was the precursor to a shamanistic religion mixed with Buddhism adopted in the 7th century. The worldview and way of life that grew from this religion changed the Tibetans into one of the most fascinating cultures on Earth. Today, this culture is in danger of extinction. Today, Tibetans have to ﬁght to preserve their national identity. This is the consequence of the Chinese invasions on Tibet in 1949 – 1951. The second date marks the year of the Seventeen-Point Agreement, which the delegacy of the Tibetan government was forced to sign. Not only did it constitute the basis of China‘s formal annexation of Tibet, but it also served as a symbolic warning for the Tibetans: Here was the beginning of a one-sided struggle, and the Chinese would attempt to win by any means necessary. The national uprising in Lhasa in 1959 gave the invaders an excuse to cancel the agreement and to crush the Tibetan fantasy of autonomy. Although there still exists an organization called the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), which consists of half of the territories of ethnic

foreigners is penalized. Nonviolent demonstrations against Chinese rule are brutally punished. All of these are treated as illegal separatist activities and a menace to the mother country, China. Detention, unfair trials, and torture are just some of the many ways in which human rights in Tibet continue to be abused. In 1992, when the monk Palden Gyatso escaped out of Tibet and into India after 33 years in prisons and labor camps, the world ﬁnally got to see about the atrocities suffered by the prisoners from the hands of the Chinese. Gyatso managed to smuggle out the instruments of his torture, including electric batons and cattle prods. People listened, at last. But these are not the only methods being used by Chinese to get rid of the Tibetan nation. The government is implementing a policy of settling millions of Chinese civilians in the occupied territory. They already outnumber the Tibetan population of around 6 million. China‘s oppressive demographic policy extends to the rigorous birth-control measures imposed in Tibet, which involve forced abortion even in the eighth month of pregnancy and mandatory sterilization. Nonetheless, all the independent statistics do not discourage the Chinese government from stating cynically the following in its latest White Paper: “Another lie is the claim that a large number of Hans have migrated to Tibet, turning the ethnic Tibetans into a minority.”

The struggle with Chinese propaganda is another stage on which the Tibetans have to get along. Manipulation of the historical facts and ignoring the objective data seem to be the essential ways of communication in the communist countries. Even the Chinese government has acknowledged them as fact: Chinese government spokesman, Mr. Hu, said the following in reference to the question of human rights in China: “Some filmmakers have depicted the Dalai Lama as the standard bearer of human rights. The policy he pursued and defended in Tibet before 1959 is much darker and crueler than the Negro slavery system in the United States before the Civil War. Since 1959, China has made progress in all areas, including human rights, in Tibet.” After all, the Chinese legitimization of their attack on Tibet in 1949 was based on the use of such manipulation. Their selective view of history has led them to the conclusion that the Central Chinese Government has been ruling in Tibet since the Yuan dynasty, which reigned in the 13th century. Therefore, we learn from the Chinese embassy website, Tibet has never been an independent country. As for the Tibetans, they continue with their unique strategy. “Because violence can only breed more violence and suffering, our struggle must remain non-violent and free of hatred;” the Dalai Lama rejects the Chinese methods of fight. The occupants call him “a petty tribalist,” but he stands firm: “The Chinese have done horrible things to us; they continue to do these things even now. But I still hold no hatred in my heart for them.” Native Americans, Aborigines...Tibetans?

As a result of this unfair ﬁght, the Tibetans are alienated in their country and marginalized in all walks of life. Every year, about 3,000 of them risk their lives escaping to Dharamsala in India. People are torn between defending their mother culture and adopting the Chinese one, which could enable them at least to make a living. Perhaps these are some of the reasons for the dramatic rise of alcoholism and suicide among Tibetans in recent years. There is no doubt that the Chinese policy of terror combined with the indolence of the international diplomacy has been leading to irreversible changes in the character of the Tibetan existence. We have become accustomed to all these campaigns for a “Free Tibet” and so on, but the phrase “Free Tibet” has by now become a cliché, an idea that does not matter in the world of great politics. For as long as an argument for human rights is welcome, so is the argument for Tibet. But the support runs dry as soon as the Privilege Clause is concerned. If this two-faced policy continues much longer, the fragile situation of the Tibetan nation will not get any better. Ultimately, the people of Tibet will share the fate of the sand Mandala, their culture‘s color and beauty swept away by a more powerful invader. It happened to the Native Americans, the Aborigines, and the Uighurs in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. No longer a nation, and not even a signiﬁcant ethnic group, the Tibetans may, very soon, become nothing more but a tourist attraction in China.

international magazine

refugees

human rights in film

Dream and Lost in Transit, I felt a barrage of onald: “I am twenty-ﬁve years old and I questions arise in me. Why are these people have nothing.” so desperate that they would try such a thing? Ronald and Jonas are from Cotonou (Benin) How horrible must their position be if they in Africa, one of the poorest countries in the are willing to leave everything they own? What world. makes them want to risk their lives? My search Although they earn a lot more than the averfor some answers took me to a refugee camp in age salary, about $75 per month, they ﬁnd it Warsaw. No, I didn‘t get my answers, but I got impossible to make ends meet. A decent level a new understanding of what true desperation of life is completely out of reach. They want to get to Europe. They are in total means to a person. desperation. They have 5000 kilometers to go. Poland is OK, but ... Most of the roads are through harsh desert. Jonas and Ronald discuss how they‘ll do it. Ahmed is from Mogadishu (Somalia). He was They study the photos of other crossers. They delivered through Moscow to the biggest open see a truck in one of the pictures, small and market in all of Europe, the Warsaw Stadium. overstuffed. There are people inside the vehicle His eyes were tied with a scarf. “After some as well as clinging to it. “How do they breathe?” Jonas wonders. Ronald exclaims, “Imagine you have to ride in such conditions for more than three days in enormous How horrible must their position be if they are willing to leave behind heat.” Finally, they decide to go. They have the equivalent of three monthly wages and they hope it will be enough to cover all the costs. They don’t know that after they leave their country, they will have to pay a lot to keep the policemen looking in the other direction. “All my friends live in Cotonou. Here I have met all my girlfriends. Here I left my family, cousins, and brothers. I left everything.” Ronald is in tears at the beginning of his journey. “I thought I would be happy to leave,” he says.

Mogadishu. Since his escape, he has not heard anything about what is happening to his family. There is no way for them to contact each other. He reads about his homeland in the Internet, at www.hiiraan.com. “Now there is no government in Somalia, no police, people are killing each other. That is why post and telephones are not available.” A guitar

Husz Amadit. Welcome to Poland, reads a poster made by Feda from Afghanistan. Feda was born in a place three days on horseback away from the nearest village. He is the representative of the only Shiite group in Afghanistan, the Hazar. Because he was living in a part

Didn‘t Matter Where I WENT -

I Just Wanted to LEAVE

Photo: A. Ulasiuk

Left to die in the desert

everything they own? By Olek Ulasiuk

After 36 hours, the truck breaks down. The drivers leave Ronald, Jonas, and 25 other refugees in the middle of the desert, telling them they will be back when they get the tools. “They’ve done it on purpose,” complains Jonas. “We’ve got nothing to say. They want money. Smugglers can set the rules. Only they know how to cross the desert.” Ronald and Jonas had to pay without saying a word. Otherwise, they would have been left in the middle of the desert. They lost almost all their money in the middle of the journey. Then, because they could not afford to pay the “police taxes,” they were imprisoned and subsequently deported to their homeland. Watching The Other American

time, I realized that I was passing the stadium. It was my ﬁrst impression of Poland.” This was one and a half years ago. Today Ahmed is 19 years old. What does he want to do in the future? He doesn’t know yet. “But if it’s ever possible I’d like to go back to Somali. Poland is OK, but for me it will always remain a foreign country.” Ahmed left his mother and brother. His family sold the house to afford Ahmed’s escape. It cost a staggering $1500, but life is priceless. “If I had stayed in Mogadish, I would have been killed,” Ahmed says. He is a member of the Reer Hammar clan, the minority ethnic group in

Ahmed sets his sight of the country ruled by the Taliban on a better life regime, he was prosecuted. Feda’s father was an Imam and was killed. Feda, the ﬁrstborn son, was to avenge the murder of his father. But he has decided to stop the vicious cycle. He has run away. “No matter where, I just wanted to leave.” Now he is studying in one of the Polish high schools. He doesn’t want to go back. Asked about his dreams, he replies, “A guitar. I would really like to play guitar. I remember I heard someone playing one in Afghanistan.”

orange

cuba

t‘s April, 1980. Within a few short weeks nearly 130,000 Cubans leave their homeland for America. The boats transporting them are so overcrowded that some sink. People die. Those who make it have left behind almost everything they owned. Why? In the ﬁlm Beyond the Sea (Mas allá del mar), Lisandro Perez-Rey describes the events that culminated in the boatlift at Port Mariel. Two decades later, the documentary follows the lives of some of those who escaped from Mariel and are now immigrants in the US. I wanted to travel…

The conditions were awful. Archival footage shows the poverty, the shortages, the rations, the censorship, and the people‘s lack of privacy from the government. But for some, there were worse things – like the sense of captivity. “I wanted to travel. Not

BETTER LIFE

in the USA

130 000 Cubans leave their homeland to look for a better life in America. By Karolina Gajewska being able to leave was something so oppressive that it made me even more desperate to leave,” says a Cuban man. Endless queues

His opportunity appears on May 5, 1980. In just a few hours, about 11,000 people, desperate to leave Cuba, ﬁll the Peruvian embassy. This is an international ﬁasco for the Cuban govern-

Cuba: The bittersweet taste of revolution

ment. In a last attempt to get the people to leave the embassy premises, the government makes an offer: “Those who want to leave are free to go”, proclaims Fidel Castro to the “traitors of the revolution.” But now they must prove their undesirability to the government clerks. For days, endless queues people claiming to be homosexuals, prostitutes, mental patients, and dissidents accused of “ideological deviance” line up for their permission slip to go. The majority are ordinary families – just desperate ones. Within a few weeks many of them manage to leave Cuba. There is no doubt that if it had not been for the American ﬁshermen who came with their boats to help transport them, the whole operation might not have succeeded. Setting out for a new life

Some of the boats sink. Some people never ﬁnd their loved ones. Today, so many years later, there are happy Cuban-Americans who have assimilated into life in US society. They have managed to ﬁnd jobs, they have their families by their side. But there are the others – lonely, incarcerated, ostracized. Did they make the right choice? Could they have made a different one?

in A BETTER LIFE

Cubans have made an enormous effort and their support has been a great act of courage. “Signing meant Oswaldo Sardina fights for democracy in Cuba. By Sylwia Maciejewska being exposed to deterrence and repression,” one signer admits. ne man chose differently. Instead of Although in May 2002 enough signatures to escaping to Miami in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, Oswaldo Payá Sardiña stayed in Cuba to make the Varela Project a draft law were prework for democratic reform. sented to the National Assembly, this has been ignored by the Cuban government. But Payá Action: Project Varela isn‘t giving up: “Despite it all, the campaign continues. More and more people want to sign In 1996 he started Project Varela, consistthe Varela Project.” ing of five proposals: the right to freedom of speech and free enterprise, amnesty, the right Counter-action for Cubans to create enterprises, and a new electoral law. But Cuba responded by arresting dozens of Payá says that the organization‘s aim is to opposition figures, independent journalists, “open the necessary space for the free and and economists in the biggest crackdown on responsible participation of all citizens within government dissidents in years. “Their only the political and economic life of society.“ It’s crime was to have different political views than the first time that ordinary Cubans have had the the regime required” says the announcer in the opportunity to make a change. documentary Cuban Spring. Finally, two years ago, Project Varela is put But Oswaldo Payá Sardiña did not stop his to the people’s consideration by means of a work. In December 2002, he won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, thus officially referendum, requiring at least 10,000 citizens‘ gaining the international public‘s support for his signatures to be valid.

CUBA

efforts. In a tribute to the 1968 Prague Spring, Oswaldo Payá proclaimed a “Cuban Spring“ in a public letter released on the anniversary of the government crackdown on the dissidents. Payá announced that the suffering of Cuban dissidents had focused the world‘s attention on President Fidel Castro. However, most participants seem to agree that there is little chance of an anti-Castro uprising while the old dictator still is in power; most, therefore, are focused on the post-Castro scenarios. Our turn

Regis Iglesias, Varela Project coordinator sentenced to 18 years in prison is ﬁrm: “Until all political prisoners are released, and the Cuban people are granted the freedom of speech and assembly, and will have the right to own businesses, elect their own government, until then, will we continue with the Varela Project. “The international campaign for the release of the Cuban prisoners has to continue. The ordinary workers, students, religious institutions, all people of good will should join the campaign. People from abroad should also support a peaceful change – the one we are ﬁghting for here in Cuba. Cuba desperately needs solidarity.”

international magazine

chile / kyrgyztan

human rights in film

Go Away,

Winkas!

“I’m almost 100 years old and there has never been a winka here, only Mapuches!” By Piotr Maciejewski

“I

‘m almost 100 years old and there has never been a winka here, only Mapuches!” The rhythm is aggressive, dynamic. The voice, accusatory. The lyrics, “Everything winka touches, he destroys it / All throughout our history always the same thing / Steals and makes war, kills like poisoned water...” This is Mapuche hip hop, and it‘s the voice of the one and a half million Mapuches who live in Chile. The struggle against the invaders

Image 1: An old Mapuche woman. Her face is covered with wrinkles, but she speaks with fervor. “We must live here, this land is of the Mapuche, not of the winka! I’m almost 100 years old and there has never been a winka here, only Mapuches, raised barefoot on the land, like my grandfather, like my grandma! We were real Mapuche, go away winka, go away!” Winka means invader. There were many of them in Mapuche history. First, the Inca Empire, which was adjacent to the Mapuche territory. Then, in 1541, came the brutal colonists from Spain. Finally, the Chileans and Argentineans. After declaring independence from Spain in 1810, these two states began to exhibit the same brutality in their conquest of the Mapuche land as that employed by the Spanish before them. As a consequence, today the Mapuche Nation, situated in the south of Chile and Argentina on both sides of Andes, occupies only ﬁve percent of the ancestral territory. The Chilean government is constantly neglecting the Mapuche people’s right to their ancestral land, which has legally been taken into private ownership. “They have surrounded us,” says an old Mapuche farmer with a cloth band tied around his forehead. “I have three hectares and one hectare is for my son. But I have many children. How will I provide for them?” Jose Paillal, Mapuche Leader in Santiago,

explains the Chilean government’s policy: “They are fostering the creation of a Mapuche identity that is disinterested of the land. They tell us that it is possible to be Mapuche in the city.” The Chilean constitution does not mention the existence of the Mapuche people. Therefore, it does not prescribe that the educational system ought to distinguish between Mapuches and those Chileans of European origin. The government stands for cultural uniformity, which contributes to the difﬁculties people have maintaining true Mapuche identity. Due to these policies, the Mapuche culture – thus, also the Mapuche people – are in constant danger of disappearing. Maintaining cultural identity

Image 2: Mapuche children stand in front of a schoolhouse with their teacher. The teacher prompts, “In spite of being Mapuche, we are part of the territory called what?” “Chile!” the children call out in unison. “Correct. And this is our flag,” the teacher points to the Chilean flag fluttering in the wind. The children begin to sing the national anthem: “Chile your sky is pure blue, streaked by pure breezes, your country is embroidered with flowers, like a merry copy of Eden...” “Nowadays our children go to school,” says Ricardo Melinir, chief of the Mapuche Quinquen community. “But we are also rescuing our culture, our identity.” He lists the most important values for the Mapuche: “The knowledge of the ancestors is our source of wealth and richness. Grandfathers teach grandchildren. Sometimes they talk until dawn and they never get tired. The books talk about the history of the winkas, which is not in favor of the Mapuche.”

Kidnapped RESPECT A good marriage starts with tears. Really? By Lidia Puka

ne after another. The tears are silently falling down the cheeks of a Kyrgyz teenage girl. She is standing in the far corner of a room, trembling. The group of older women is encircling her, trying to put the white scarf on her head. – Be reasonable! Look at us, we have all been kidnapped brides once! The girl, Kairgul, manages to escape back to her family and her boyfriend. She wants to ﬁnish her studies before getting married. She is lucky to have her parents agreed upon her rejection of a boy. She is lucky that not having spent a night at her “groom-to-be” house. Otherwise

Mapuches are known for their worship of Nature. “We are deeply connected to Nature”, explains Ricardo Melinir. “We can understand it

she would have risked lots of honour and respect and, as a consequence, a social exclusion. Kairgul is quite an exception in the rural population of Kyrgyzstan, where bride kidnapping, although illegal from 1994, still constitutes a tradition. As shown in “Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan” by Petr Lom, “woman yields, man takes” is still one of the rules of a marriage there. Hence, approximately 80% of kidnapped girls stay with the new husbands, trying to “learn how to love them”. The power of tradition stays above the doctrine of law. The boys involved in the procedure are never sued, hence kidnapping remains practised as a cheaper (than paying the bride’s

through our dreams. We know what the winter or summer will be like, whether there will be harsh times or a good harvest.” Whenever I read or hear about a small nation, which is oppressed by a stronger state, I ask myself “Why?” Actually, the answer seems to be very simple: It‘s the weaker state that‘s more easily conquered, plundered, and robbed. These have been the ones vulnerable to abuses throughout the centuries. But why do the stronger nations so rarely accept the smaller ones without ﬁghting wars? It’s probably a question of human nature. Greed, hostility, and the inability to understand other people – these features are common in everyday life. It‘s when they are adopted by the state that they become far more dangerous. Image 3: An old Mapuche man sings a slow song, fraught with feeling. His words: “Here I am with my brothers, together we support each other. But if something goes wrong, what shall we do…?”

parents) way to get a wife. According to the current statistics, every third bride is won in the illegal way. Some of the couples holds water, but the number of divorces rising parallely to the rise of the number of kidnappings suggests that the “duty to love a husband” may become an unbearable burden on the wife’s life. The problem is extremly complex, as the violation of human rights oures in the sphere of tradition, which cannot be changed instantaneously. Only by campaigns and education, can the situation be changed. One of the Kyrgyz proverb says that “a good marriage starts with good tears”. Does it really? Lom’s movie leaves the viewers with doubts and questions.

We must live here, this land is of the Mapuche

orange

izrael / usa

Dancing for PEACE A Jewish dancer and a group of Arab Musicians want to perform together. By Kilian Geiser

lina Pechersky is in charge of five proud Arab men. Five guys with a clear picture of how women should behave; five guys accustomed to being superior to all the women around them. Except she doesn‘t fit their picture of femininity. She is the boss. She is the one giving the orders. Arabs have lost their homes as a result of the fatal doctrine of “the land without people for the people without a land.” From their point of view, hostile Jewish immigrants came and took away what had belonged to the Palestinians. Elina Pechersky is Jewish. For her, too, the situation is difficult. Imagine her life as she works with people who treat her with enormous disrespect, both for being female and for being Jewish. Still, the belly dancer Elina Pechersky and the five Arabs are held together by their love of music. Elina has hired the Arab musicians to accompany her on stage. Together, they work hard toward a common goal as they aim for a great performance for their audience. They go on stage together. Transcending the fear and the hatred, going beyond age-old prejudice and disrespect, they perform as one group. The music unites them. And the people watch. Some inevitably learn. The film Oriental, directed by Avi Nesher, shows that there is a glimmer of hope for the Arabs and the Jews to live together in peace – if only they try hard enough.

RACIST MAP J

ane Elliot criticizes our traditional map of the world, the so-called Mercator projection. “All the white countries in the world take up half the land. This is not a true picture of the world. This is racist teaching.” Is she right or is this an exaggeration?

It is true that the map we use nowadays severely distorts the shapes of the southern, non-white continents: South America, Africa, and Asia. Here are some examples: Africa (11.6 million square miles) looks as if it were at least two times smaller than the Former Soviet Union (8.7). South America (6.9) is almost twice the size of Europe (3.8), but on the map the two continents look about the same. The most interesting case is Greenland. With only 0.8 million square miles, it appears on the map to be the size of Africa, which is 12 times bigger than Greenland!

American

WEATHERMEN

Is communism the best cure for injustice? By Bartosz Zawada

hey wanted to make America more human, they said. No war, no discrimination, no exploitation. And they had a clear idea of how they would do it. “Bring the war home!” they called. And they did it. “Hello. I’m going to read a declaration of a state of war. (...) Within the next 14 days we will attack a symbol or institution of American injustice.” Bernardine Dohrn, one of the Weather Underground leaders, uttered these words in October 1969. After that, nobody in the US was left feeling safe.

The Weather Underground’s members were mainly young, white students from upper middle-class families, who wanted to destroy the capitalist system and “put in its place something much more human,” according to Bill Ayers, WU member. They were against the Vietnam

This shape of the map was surely convenient for the European colonial powers. They were in the center of it and looked much larger than they really were, whereas the colonies were diminished and made to look less important, even on the map. However, it is controversial to state that this was the reason why the map has been so widely used. Cartographers have always had to deal with the following problem: Do we want to present the exact shape or the exact size of the continents? If we choose shape, the size is deformed. If we choose size, the shape is distorted. The Mercator map shows the precise shapes, so the sizes are changed. It was particularly useful for navigators because they could see exactly what the continents looked like. No racism, just practicality.

By Piotr Maciejewski

war. They were also against oppression of all minorities, including Afro-Americans, Native Americans, and factory workers. They found the perfect cure for injustice, they believed: communism. And they were determined to use all possible methods to implement it. Their attacks started in 1969. During the next 10 years the activists planted bombs at more than 20 public buildings. But this did not break the American government. What changed was only the situation of the Weathermen. They were getting tired, they were missing their families, some of them had no money. In the late 70’s most of them turned themselves in to the local authorities. It was the end of the Weather Underground. What happened to them and to their utopian ideals? Today, decades later, the most determined enemies of capitalism are exactly the kind of people the WU members were ﬁghting against – mostly members of the upper middle class, university professors, bar owners, teachers. Only two of the original activists are still in prison. Asked about his present attitude toward what they were doing back then, one of them says, “I would do it again. I’d like to do it better, differently, smarter – but I would certainly do it again.” Are we surprised? Bob Dylan sang, “the times, they are changing.” So are the people. But some of them just don‘t want to notice.

Or is it? One thing is certain: Changing the map will not change racist views.

* Below the Mercator map superimposed over the Peter’s projection which presents exact size but distorts shape.

international magazine

discrimination

human rights in film

“W

e have created an environment in the United States for black people in which they feel the way Jews felt in Nazi Germany,” claims Jane Elliott, America’s most charismatic diversity trainer. Such a statement may seem unbelievable, but the ﬁlm Blue Eyed Elliott has strong arguments to support Elliott‘s point of view. “What is your name? Can you read that?” Jane Elliott doesn‘t smile as she questions a

We Have the

In his autobiography, Malcolm X said that white peoples’ belief that they are superior in some way is “so deeply rooted that these things are in the national White subconscious.” He explained “Many Whites are even actually unaware of their own racism, until they face some test, and then their racism emerges in one form or another.” Elliott cites as an example of this White subconscious the lower expectations of black

RIGHT to be

DIFFERENT

If you don’t want to be discriminated, why do you accept discrimination against others? Racism can be unlearned – read how a diversity teacher changes the rules. By Piotr Maciejewski and Olek Ulasiuk workshop participant. A blue-eyed one. “Sure.” He answers with a tentative smile. “What does that say?” – “Louis A. Wright,” he replies, a bit confused. “Cross it out and write it so I can read it.” Louis is getting angry. He doesn’t know why he is being treated this way. He refuses to sign the form. “Are you the security person?” Elliott asks a black woman in a uniform who is standing nearby. “He isn‘t going to follow the rules, so he isn‘t going to stay.” she continues. “Get him out of here.” But in a few minutes he’s back. He has thought it over. Now he is going to behave and he is ready to do anything he is asked. So are the other participants. They are divided into two groups. “Blue eyed white folks today are going to learn more than they want to know,” informs Elliot. “They will walk in the moccasins of a person of color for a day.” “I’m going to assign these people, on the basis of their eye color, all the negative traits that we have assigned to females, to people of color, to gays and lesbians, to people who have disabilities of any kind, to those who are obviously physically different.” The blue-eyed people get strips of green cloth that are fastened to the neck as collars, so that they can be easily recognized. The strips are uncomfortable. Seventeen people are ushered into a room without windows, with only three chairs. They will ﬁnd out why in a couple of minutes.

people and the way they are forced to “live down” to these expectations. For instance, when we call a black adult male a “boy”, although he may be over seventy. A stressful look in the mirror

From the windowless chamber, the blue-eyed people are taken to a bigger room. They sit on the ﬂoor, next to the brown-eyed ones who sit in chairs. They are treated with rudeness and malice. Elliott demonstrates her superiority. “You don‘t understand. Your low IQ is one of the problems I‘ll have to deal with today.” She raises her voice to make the blue-eyed feel uncomfortable. She gives fast, assertive orders. Afterwards, she starts to discuss the topic of stress. A blue-eyed woman admits that the experiment is stressful for her.

“Then you don’t know what stress is” says a black man sitting among the brown-eyed group. Stress is to know that when you send your son or daughter to school, no matter what they say or do, it’s never good enough. A black woman next to him says she is one of the two black teachers in a school with sixty teachers. “Every morning when I look in my mirror, that’s where

my stress begins. Sure I am treated differently than the white teachers.” I do what Hitler did

After the workshop the blue-eyed participants looked confused and sad. “If you are so angry after two and a half hours, can you imagine what it must be like to live with this feeling for a lifetime?” Elliott came across the idea for her workshops from reading about how the Nazis treated their victims. One of the ways they decided who went into the gas chamber during the Holocaust was by looking at eye color. “I decided on the day after Martin Luther King was killed that I would do what Hitler did.” At the time, Elliott was an elementary-school teacher in her allwhite hometown of Riceville, Iowa. I picked out a group of children from the third grade on the basis of a physical characteristic over which they had no control. One group was placed on top, the rest on the bottom. Elliott was horrified when she saw how quickly the kids became what she told them they were. Within thirty minutes, a blue-eyed girl had regressed from a self-confident, carefree, excited little girl to a frightened, uncertain person. On the other hand, a brown-eyed boy became self-confident, high and mighty. Suddenly, brown-eyed boys with dyslexia could read words that Elliott “knew they couldn’t read” and spell words that she “knew they couldn’t spell.” Racism is learned

But the teacher paid a high price for expressing her anti-racist views. After the experiment she received vicious calls and ﬁve hundred death threats by mail. Some parents of Elliott’s pupils demanded to move their children from Diversity teacher a “nigger-lover’s class.” Her parents’ Jane Elliott: business went bankrupt because they Inoculating against lost all their customers. She and her discrimination

White subconscious

Jane Elliott calls herself a “diversity trainer” and describes her work as “inoculation against discrimination.” However, inoculation protects us from viruses in advance, whereas Elliott ﬁghts the “live virus of racism” that we already have inside our brains. “If you as a white person would be happy to receive the same treatment that our black citizens do, please stand” Elliott announces at the beginning of the workshop. Nobody gets up. “You know you don‘t want it for you. So why are you accepting it or allowing to happen for others?”

family have experienced cruel racism throughout their lives. Despite the horrible setbacks, Elliott continues to work in the ﬁght against racism. “To sit and do nothing is to cooperate with the oppressor,” she emphasizes in the ﬁlm. The most important thing for her is that no one is born with racism: “It is learned. And if it is learned, it can be unlearned as well.”

orange

north korea

Is THERE a CHANCE?

In the film Access to Evil, BBC documentarist Ewa Ewart shows the horrifying truth about human rights abuse in North Korea. Ewart was able to find witnesses whose testimonies confirm that biological and chemical weapons are being tested on the prisoners of labor camps. By Anna Suchinska and Piotr Maciejewski Why did you make this film?

Whenever there was a question of nuclear conﬂict between North Korea and the rest of the world, North Koreans have always been spoken for. So I proposed that I would like to give them a chance not to be spoken for but to speak for themselves, in the ﬁrst person. I think they liked the idea.

But something happened that made you change your plans...

The most dramatic person in your film is the former chief of Camp 22.

We had a list of wishes that were not fully honored, despite the initial promises – so it was very difﬁcult to carry on with the nuclear subject. More importantly, we started coming across horrendous evidence of human rights abuses that we simply could not ignore and we decided to change the topic of the ﬁlm.

This man is the source of the ﬁercest accusations against the regime. His authenticity was conﬁrmed when he didn‘t try to excuse himself speaking out in freedom. He said, “At that time when I was carrying out the tortures and witnessing the human experimentation, I really believed that these people were the enemies of North Korea and the cause of our problems.” He didn‘t show a trace of remorse. He didn’t say, ever, “I’m terribly sorry for what I have done.” Nevertheless, he ultimately realized that what he had been doing was wrong.

What was your

Photo: K. Grygoruk

reaction when it turned out that you would be changing

Make

THEM

AWARE

the subject of the film?

Will the North Korean people ever become able to rebel against the regime, in your opinion?

I felt a desire to carry out my mission to the end, and to let the world know what is happening. There were concerns on a very practical level – how are we going to ﬁnish this ﬁlm at all, we wondered.

I don’t think so. They are not going to have the solidarity it takes. Is there a chance that the issue of human rights abuse in North Korea will at last be met with a reaction from the Western politicians?

Of course there is shock and indignation over the fact that human rights are not on the agenda of any ofﬁcial talks between North Korea and the other countries. We hope that this is going to change eventually.

Joanna Hosaniak studied Korean at Warsaw University while working with The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. She has already been to Korea and is now an activist with the Citizens Alliance for North Koreans Human Rights and the Polish Special Office for North Korean affairs. By Carolin Zimmermann and Anna Suchinska What has changed since the last conference held concerning human rights in North Korea, held in Warsaw in February 2004?

Young people have started to organize associations that help refugees. They have been collecting petitions and writing letters in urgent campaigns to release those who have been arrested. I hope that their voices gain power, because in every country the public opinion has a great impact on the government. Can a conference change the situation?

I suppose that the more people know about the situation in North Korea, the more they become engaged in efforts to help. Even if it‘s by giving small donations to non-governmental organizations active in China. The conferences are there to tell the world what is going on in North Korea and not to remain silent. Why do people flee to China and not directly to South Korea?

After the war in Korea, which went on between 1950 and1953, there was established a militarized zone at the 38th parallel area.

Nobody has access to it. Some military officers can, in fact, escape to South Korea – but ordinary people have no access to this zone. The only way to escape is to cross the river into China. And even though the people know that the situation in China is bad, they have no other options. China defines them not as refugees but only as economic immigrants – but such sub-group doesn’t exists in the refugee treaty. Therefore, they are illegal and China doesn‘t grant anyone access to them. Is it just that a person who is afraid of returning to his or her motherland not be granted refugee status? No, but China is afraid of the possible instability caused by an influx of North Korean refugees. Do ordinary people in North Korea take into account that Kim Jong II may be responsible for their misery?

I think that they don‘t want to blame Kim Jong II. In North Korea, you are punished even if you say a single bad thing about the leader. If a child rips up a newspaper that contains a picture of Kim Jong II or Kim Ir Sen, the entire

family gets severely punished. The leader and his father are treated like gods. That is why people may complain about the other ofﬁcials involved in politics, but never about Kim Jong II. This point of view is also shared by some refugees who survived the tortures and are now living in South Korea. They might say that the situation in North Korea is bad, and that the people who tortured them were evil, but they will counter their testimony by saying that perhaps the great leader doesn‘t know about this. Is it possible to make North Koreans more aware of what’s happening in their country?

It is not easy but possible. First of all, when they go to China they see a different world. When they return, they report to other people what they have seen. They meet foreigners while involved in smuggling mobile phones to North Korea, who are another inﬂuence. And thanks to the phones, some people get to speak with their relatives in South Korea, with whom they haven‘t had contact since the war. These exchanges improve the opportunities for North Koreans to understand their situation.

international magazine

north korea

human rights in film

Korean authorities against the people of Korea. “WE ARE SO HAPPY IN OUR FATHERLAND” words on a banner displayed during a demonstration in Phenian North Korea, instead of being a country governed In North Korea human rights are not violated, they do not exist at all. by the idea By Maciek Sadowski of national unity, is a world split in two. The German doctor Norbert that came before. Today, the totalitarianism of the Vollerstern remembers working as a volunteer in the last century is gone. Instead, we have democracy. factory hospitals of North Korea and later being But in some countries the genocide has continued. sent to a hospital in Phenian. He describes the stark Only most of us, citizens of the free world, turn contrast between the shortages of such staples as our backs. We cared when it was happening to us basic medicines and bandages in the factory hospiand our neighbors, but now we wince at the sight tals and the fully-equipped modern hospitals in the of oppression, complaining that living in awareness capital. Only these were reserved for the privileged of world’s atrocities makes for a dreadful life. Yes, not only do they not treat the “average citizens” in the “Workers’ Paradise” of North Korea, life is they don‘t even permit them to enter these worlddreadful. But, unlike us, the North Koreans cannot class facilities. just turn away. Even those fortunate enough to live in the nation‘s capital live in a cruel reality. The Parade, a Human rights do not exist film by Andrzej Fidyk, presents some episodes out of a person‘s life in Phenian. Images of the constant In this small country, viewed as peripheral by celebrations and parades show millions of people the “modernized” world, human rights are best described not as something being violated; it is much in identical clothing waving flags and decorations closer to the truth to say that in North Korea human in perfect synchronization. The patriotic fervor is supported by hymns glorifying the Leader. We rights do not exist. Lots of things that are viewed as see an image of a crowd from above. In unison, immoral and are typically penalized in the so-called the people contort and create the inscription “we “free world” are merely an integral part of North Korea‘s system. The oppression has existed for over love our Leader.” A few seconds later, some squat, others raise colored panels, and suddenly we see the half a century, since the end of the Korean War in 1953. From the North Korean point of view, atroci- face of Kim Ilsung set against a backdrop of the national flag. “The Great Leader Comrade” likes to ties are normal. watch these rituals from above. Enthusiasm abounds One of the most significant problems is the wherever he appears. Everyone is called upon to rampant starvation, suffered by a majority of the prove his or her love. Denunciation is each citizen‘s population. But the climate in North Korea is not patriotic duty. harsh. So why the lack of food? The responsibility lies with the government‘s thievish politic of redistribution. Most of the provisions go to Phenian, directly into the hands of the party members. The closer to the top you are, the more you get. The provinces get much less. In theory, the amount of foreign support being fed into North Korea could easily spell freedom from hunger for all of the citizens, but the government does not allow the aid transports into those regions where they are most needed. Different “categories” of people receive different amounts of food. The independent organizations report that the average daily portion for children is 200-300g of food. Teenagers and pensioners get about 400g. The soldiers and workers The authorities will show you the right way. are given more – 900g. The resulting permanent hunger causes diseases of Fidyk shows us the true face of the capital deficiency and malnutrition, especially to children, affecting their growth as well as their ability to learn. community. He shows what is viewed as “best“ in North Korea, and the way this parade of glee is When harvests are poor the situation becomes even more dramatic, as in the period 1996-97, when about used to educate the rest of the citizens. Or is it to brainwash them? In democratic countries, Fidyk‘s 300,000 people died of famine. Anyone guilty of film is received as sad evidence of totalitarianism. stealing food was sentenced to death. Limiting the It captures the difference between true democracy supply of food has been a powerful weapon of the he 20th century has disenchanted the world, revealing the cruel truth about the evil endemic to human nature and shocking the world with machines of mass-death worse than anything

DO NOT

TURN away

and one that is merely an image out of a propaganda show. The Parade is also poignant because there is no announcer telling us what to think: every word uttered in the movie is spoken by a North Korean. Only the title hints at the ﬁlmmaker‘s view of the reality captured on ﬁlm – rigorous, disciplined, well-rehearsed, obedient, like a military parade sent through the city to mobilize the people. Myulhada means “to destroy“

The obligatory cult of the political leader, limitation of people‘s civil liberties, and far-reaching forms of social control are merely some of the injustices rampant in North Korea. There‘s the lack of free media. There‘s the dramatic legal extermination. All of these issues are connected, and all keep the citizens in a constant state of fear. Fear guarantees obedience. And the undercover police hunt for the “enemies of the revolution” deepens the people‘s fear. In North Korea, the “enemy” is not merely the dissident who stands against the regime, but also every member of his family – even three generations back. Detentions in North Korea are often made without a sentence. In the prisons people live under inhuman conditions, suffering torture and rape. Prisoners are often forced to kill other prisoners. Camps are an important part of the North Korean system, serving as an instrument to destroy parts of the nation. They are also the foundation of the existing economic system, in which the incarcerated work in mines and factories as an unpaid and self-renewing labor force. When the number of workers drops beneath a minimum, the oppressors send in new ones. The authorities are well prepared, keeping special reserve lists of “suspects.“ The number of prisoners in the labor camps is estimated to equal between 100,000 and 300,000. To be born in a trap

The people in North Korea are cut off from the rest of the world. The national media create a world and feed this depiction of it to the citizens. It is virtually impossible to escape. There is only a wall to the south, China to the north. The borders are carefully guarded. Any attempt to cross them is a crime. On the Chinese side there flourishes a slave trade. Few have managed to escape. It‘s thanks to them that we know what is happening in North Korea. Nothing indicates that that things are going to change. We don‘t know if the people want to resist. It is difficult to influence the regime from the outside. As long as it has the support of China, Phenian does not care about UN resolutions. The nuclear program is running at full speed. Even now Seoul is in the range of missiles from the North. On the international forum, instead of alarm, we feel only incapacity. The advantages coming from the peaceful trade with China seem much more important to our leaders than the dire situation in North Korea. Until people realize our responsibility toward the North Korean people – because we‘re all in this together – they will be alone, waving the flag, singing hymns, and wondering if they‘re next on Kim Ilsung‘s list of suspects.

orange

colombia / chechenya

To be an

UNARMED BODYGARD

Since the 1980 people have been organising themselves against militant groups involved in the killing of civilians. By Olek Ulasiuk

COLOMBIA

in the world. Approximately 10 politically motivated killings occur each day in this country. “From the year 1980 to 2002, our economy grew only 2% because of violence,” states the present Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe. Where are they?

Demonstration: Young people against Violenence

“W

hen governments are killing their own population, they don‘t want the rest of the world to know about it,” says Liam Mahony, Peace Brigades organizer. So the presence of foreigners works as a shield. The main aim is just to be. Who are they?

Peace Brigades International was founded in Canada in 1981. Peace Brigades work is called “Protective Accompaniment.” It is a strategy that uses the presence of international observers to protect the native human rights activists who are in danger. PBI volunteers have successfully accompanied hundreds of human rights activists through brutal civil wars in many regions, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Haiti, and Colombia. Most Peace Brigades volunteers in Colombia are from rich European countries like Germany, England, or Canada. They have never faced danger like that in Colombia. Colombia has one of the highest murder rates

The presence of foreigners helps the local people to overcome their own fears and do the work they need to do to improve the tragic situation in Colombia. At present there are several military groups ﬁghting against one another. What’s more, they attack and intimidate innocent people. FARC, initially an organization created to stir up a socialist revolution, is now getting rich from the cocaine trade. The Paramilitares, whose original mission was to defend people from the FARC, are now also involved in the drug business. They are secretly supported by the Colombian government. There are also many smaller criminal groups which make their living selling drugs. The question all these organizations ask is simple: “Are you with us or against us?” If you‘re with us, we will protect you. If you‘re not, we will kill you. None of the groups welcomes human rights activists. How do they work?

According to Liam Mahony, they never use force. “There are ways that you can react nonviolently to conﬂict situations,” he says. “We always interview the local power,” adds Bodo Von Borries. “We try to make military forces feel that there is the constant international presence. We show the government that illegal activities won‘t be accepted by the international public.”

Andrew Viggeas from England tells us “some people call us ‚unarmed bodyguards.‘ But how can you be a bodyguard who‘s unarmed?” Unarmed but effective

It has already turned out that the foreigners are doing very well. The have even saved a human rights activist. One day, two armed men with pistols came to the HR headquarters and asked for one of Colombia’s activists. “They said they just wanted to take him,” reports Von Borries, from Germany. “It was obvious. They would take him, he would be killed. So we told them, we are internationals and you just can‘t take him.” They were embarrassed and left the building. “We have never met a military or a paramilitary checkpoint, despite the fact that they‘re there all the time. They are quite aware of our presence,” says Steve Law. Chico Campo, Colombian Human Rights Activist, is very grateful to the Peace Brigades. “After four years of international presence in Colombia, aggression still continues but our organization hasn’t lost a single member in this time,” Campo reports. Peace Brigades hasn’t lost anyone either. Support them!

“When will they come and knock on my door? This is what human rights work is like,” says Marco Tulio, Colombian Human Rights activist. Osiris Bayter, ex-President of the Regional Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Colombia, puts it this way: “I am convinced that I owe my life to Peace Brigades.” Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies calls them “people of great courage.” He appeals to us all: “Support them, join them!”

HIDDEN CAMERA

Olga Niwinska talks to Krystyna Kurczab-Redlich, director of The Chechens After Beslan. Will any Russians get to see your film?

Since 1999 there has been no way to tell the whole truth about Chechnya to the Russian public. Journalists are allowed only to write about bandits and terrorists. The events occurring in Beslan on September 1st of this year were not revealed to the Russians. It has all remained a mystery. People have only been fed selected facts. So how did you get all the information you needed to make your film?

There are two ways of obtaining them. The ﬁrst one is legal. First, you have to become a journalist accredited by Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then, you can apply for the

accreditation for going to Chechnya. Usually, you get it, but that still doesn’t mean that you can travel on your own. A special accompanying group organized by the presidential administration is required. And the second way?

You use a hidden camera. Very often, it is impossible to film officially. But you have to be careful. There are Russian troops everywhere. When we were working on my previous film, there was a point when we were suddenly surrounded by them. They were going to take our camera and arrest us. After a lot of persuasion they agreed to let us go on a bribe, but they demanded that we delete what we had filmed.

Viewing the Film: Krystyna KurczabRedlich with the Festival-Program

international magazine

colombia

human rights in film

EVEN on My

OWN SKIN

Photo: K. Grygoruk

The Italian student Giacomo Turra has been slaughtered by the Colombian police. Despite the autopsy evidence, the perpetrators have not been convicted – instead, they have been granted immunity and the Colombian Supreme Court has declared them innocent. Fabrizio Lazzaretti, director of the provocative documentary Justice: In Time of War, has traveled all the way to Warsaw to attend this year‘s Human Rights in Film festival. He is recipient of this year‘s festival prize for best film. By Anna Migdal and Till Julian Möwes

What was your motivation for making this film?

I wanted to show that if government forces violate human rights it is likely that they will not be held accountable. It‘s not only in Colombia that nobody cares what the police does. Sometimes, it happens that a human life is lost this way. I want to change this. It’s remarkable, but yesterday after the screening we saw policemen catch a couple of people and start beating them down on the streets of Warsaw. Why do you think police officers often don‘t have to face the consequences when they violate the law?

The problem is the loyalty among policemen. If a policeman violates the law, his colleagues will often not denounce him, because they consider him a part of their group. If policemen report the violation of laws, they often get mobbed by their colleagues. That is why even the good ones often don‘t help. Have you had any personal encounters with the abuse of power by the police?

When I was 20 years old, I was severely beaten by the Italian police. They broke three of my ﬁngers, three bones, and they gave me eye injuries. The reason was that when they became rude with me, I dared ask them “what the hell are you doing.” Then they started to kick me until my leg was broken. Afterwards they arrested me. Here, see these scars? So even on my own skin I can demonstrate the abuse of power. That is why I am so interested in human rights. When I got to know the story of Giacomo Turra I learned that his family was alone. They wanted to be helped and I wanted to be the one to help them. And what did the political human rights organizations in Colombia do?

Nothing about this case. But this case is only one out of a thousand – although it‘s a very important one if you consider the reaction of the victim’s family and the legal proceed-

ings. Because of the bad economic situation in Colombia, most people cannot afford to pay for legal proceedings, lawyers, and so on. If you can afford a trial, you will be threatened by the institutions. And, of course, the human rights organizations are being threatened too. What happened to the witnesses of Giacomo’s capture?

In the beginning, there were three witnesses who decided to talk. One witness was a street kid who had made friends with Giacomo. A few days after testifying he disappeared. And a woman who had seen everything from a window came forward, but then she had to ﬂee from Cartagena. Another witness managed to escape to Italy. What was it like for you to work under these circumstances? Didn’t you expose your own life to a lot of risks?

Sure. But I haven‘t really been afraid. Of course you have to stay streetwise if you go to a place like Bogota, but at the same time you can get beaten by the police in Warsaw, too – like I saw yesterday.

And were there any problems after the film was finished?

Personally, I didn‘t have any problems afterwards, but I was told that the pacifist native tribe, the Wiwa people portrayed in the film, have recently been attacked by helicopters and machine guns. Eighty of them died as a result of the fighting going on between the paramilitaries and the guerrillas near their village. Are there any movements engaged in the struggle for change?

The country‘s greatest hope are the student organizations in Bogota that fervently believe that change has to take place. They are organizing talks and trying to explain to the people why things must change. I don‘t know how strong they are, but they are definitely the hope of the country. This film is a tribute to Giacomo and to his sad story. I hope that many policemen will watch this film and that things will change – not only in Colombia.

How do people behave when they see that you have a camera?

Sometimes my camera protects me because I can produce evidence with it. But other times camera makes things even worse. Especially in war areas, where people will often start ﬁghting because they want to be on television. Were there any threats by the authorities? Didn’t the police try to hinder your work?

I told them the truth from the beginning: “We are here to make a film about the case of Giacomo Turra. We want to hear some witnesses, film the police and have your point of view.” They denied our request for an interview, but they let us film their exercises.

Fabrizio Lazzeretti is winner of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Award in 2004. One of the most renowned European ﬁlmmakers of the young generation, he was born in Rome in 1966. He has been the director, director of photography, and producer of remarkable documentaries that stand out as carefully composed, with strong visual impact, vivid characterization, and a courageous portrayal of the truth.

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> European Youth Press

Orange is an international magazine produced by young journalists destinated to a mainly young readership. From the press-accommodations up to the final delivery to the printer the magazine is entirely created by its international team. By bordercrossing cooperation young journalists are given an opportunity to cover a broad range of topics. Their work is presented in a magazine distributed throughout Europe. Furthermore Orange brings together young journalists widening their cultural horizon. Doing so Orange is designed to strengthen their responsibility for a peaceful future in Europe. Still Orange is fresh and juicy. Creating it means having an exciting time in a quite unusual environment. Reading it means getting facts and opinions directly from an upcoming generation of international instead of national journalists. As the editors of this first issue we hope to satisfy you.

European Youth Press is an umbrella organisation of nine regional and national youth media associations all over Europe. The European Youth Press was founded May 5th, 2004 in Berlin during the congress News in Motion. The founding members are: Youth Press of Austria, ASPJ – Swiss Youth Press, Youth Press of Germany, Balkan Youth Press, League of Young Russian Journalists, FAR – Bulgaria, Polis – Polish Youth Press, DUE – Hungarian Youth Press, Ungmedia – Swedish Youth Press. Please have a look on www.youthpress.org The projects of the European Youth Press are realized by project groups, to involve as many people as possible in the concrete work of the association. Beside the magazine you are currently reading project groups are e.g. Education and Service, Communication, Public Relations, Development”.

> A bilateral cooperation

The Young Journalists’ Association Polis (founded in 1995) aims to help young people to overcome passivity and helplessness – to discover, express and share the vocation to participate in policy making. Our

This issue is the first project involving Polis and Jugendpresse Deutchland – both of them memebers of the European Youth Press.

> Polis

inprint main fields of interest and action are workshops and summer camps which concentrate on civic journalism, training in responsible media work and use, and Human Rights. We educate by providing an opportunity to participate in editorial work and to share responsibility for publishing online, event- and workshop-magazines. Have a look on www.polis.pcp.pl. From the very beginning Polis has been connected with Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. Halina Bortnowska – professional journalist and HFHR member – started the activity of Polis with group of youths in 1992. She wanted to show them the way of quality writing about public life and Human Rights, which is still one of Polis’ main aims.

> Jugendpresse Deutschland The Jugendpresse Deutschland e.V. is a network for young journalists. Based on more than twenty regional associations 10.000 members are linked. They meet on about 250 workshops covering jounralistic topics andon great events like the Jugendmedientage. Visit on www.jugendpresse.de

Festival:

Sponsor:

Youthpress:

This first issue of Orange created at the international film festival Human Rights in Film in Warza is a bilateral cooperation involving Polis and Jugendpresse – both members of the European Youth Press. All articles signed with the names of the author do not necessarily represent the opinion of the editorship. Editorship and Staff: Orange Magazine c/o Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights Zgoda 11, Warszawa Tel. (+4822) 556 44 40, Fax (+ 48) 504 498 844 www.politikorange.de www.jugendpresse.de www.polis.pcp.pl Chief editor: Aleksander Ułasiuk (aleku@gazeta.pl) Secretary of the editorial board: Anna Sulewska (asulewska@gazeta.pl) Editors: Magda Pietras Piotr Maciejewski Andreas Weiland Carolin Zimmermann Kilian Geiser Till Möwes English Language Editor: Natalia Osiatynska Editorship: Karolina Gajewska, Kasia Karwan, Sylwia Maciejewska, Anna Migdal, Olga Niwinska, Natalia Osiatynska, Magda Pietras, Anna Suchinska, Agata Wójt, Marta Wisniewska (all Warsaw), Carolin Zimmermann (Karlsruhe), Kilian Geiser (Augsburg), Piotr Maciejewski (Warsaw), Till Möwes (Münster), Maciek Sadowski, Aleksander Ulasiuk (all Warsaw), Andreas Weiland (Berlin), Bartosz Zawada (Warsaw) Layout: Jona Hölderle (jona@allesbesser.com)

Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

he Warsaw-based Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) was established in 1989. Currently, the Foundation is one of the most experienced professional non-governmental organizations in Poland, and it is an active, vigorous player on the European human rights arena. The Foundation provides professional consultations for all those whose problems concern the violation of personal and political rights. It also helps to implement educational programs, locally, nationally, and internationally. The HFHR‘s tasks include the observation of court proceedings and visits in prisons and detention facilities, as well as other forms of human rights monitoring. The Human Rights in Film documentary festival is one of the Foundation‘s educational initiatives. The Foundation has been organizing an annual film festival since the year 2001. The Festival is a forum for public education and the popularization of the issues surrounding human rights. The Foundation‘s message is made captivating and current by the medium of film. But it‘s not educational videos and propaganda that‘s being presented – in order to be shown, a film must, first of all, demonstrate quality craftsmanship or in fact high artistic value.

The project targets two groups. One is the wider, mainly academic audience. The other is composed of those who actively participate in non-governmental organizations and their initiatives. The screenings are accompanied by panel discussions and meetings with film directors, human rights specialists, NGO activists, politicians, and journalists. The program even includes photo exhibitions. The Festival’s only rigid rule is that there be no entrance fees for any of the screenings or other events. This policy, combined with the logistical support of the well-organized student volunteers and the interesting subject matter of the films themselves has secured high attendance for the fourth year running. Over seventy films were shown during this year‘s festival. As in previous years, these were predominantly documentaries and newscasts, as well as one educational film. The main themes represented at the 4th Festival were terrorism, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, issues in Latin America, human rights problems in penitentiaries, discrimination against sexual minorities, the problems of refugees, the plight in Tibet, the Palestine-Israel conflict, and the Holocaust.

international magazine

jews / muslims

human rights in film

The

EXILED

“Dunabe Exodus”, a documentary by Péter Forgács, reminds us of the Danube as a route of escape for both Jews and non-jewish Germans during World War II. What are the experiences these refugees share? By Kasia Gorgol

uly 1939. A group of Slovakian Jews board the ship “Queen Elizabeth”, captained by Nándor Andrásovits, in order to escape persecution. They hope to reach Palestine by sailing along the Danube and later to cross the sea. Their emigration is illegal, and was organized by the Jewish community in Bratislava. The British, who rule over Palestine, have decreased the number of Jews allowed to settle there because of Arab protests. However, they are lucky. They reach Palestine after a voyage of 83-days. During the entire war, seventy-six thousand Jews from Eastern Europe managed to escape genocide by following this route. October 1940. The “Queen Elizabeth” is one of the ships taking Besarabian Germans back to Germany. Again, it is Nándor Andrásovits, who captains it. The Germans were settled in Besarabia by czar Alexander I. By the time of World War II, the 5th generation of Germans has been living there. However, as a result of the Russian-German agreement (Ribbentrop-Molotow Pact), these lands are to fall into Soviet hands. Knowing the situation of national minorities

From

in the USSR the Germans choose emigration. Ninety-three thousand Volksdeutsche left Besarabia between 1940 and 1941, many of them from Poland. Knowledge of these events comes from amateur ﬁlms recorded by the Captain, which were used in the documentary “Danube Exodus”. There is a German idiom “to be in the same boat as somebody”, which means to be in a similar situation. But in this case, it also seems to have an almost literal meaning: Germans sailed aboard the same ship which the Jews took one year before while ﬂeeing their homes during the war. We could say that this is a paradox of history. But is it only a paradox? What about the metaphorical meaning of the idiom? According to the stereotype of common guilt, the whole German nation is seen as persecutors. It is impossible to argue that these were Germans, seduced by inhumane nazi ideas, who organized a legal system of extermination, which is responsible for the deaths of about 5-6 million people during the war. Can a sound-minded person, bearing histori-

cal facts in mind, really claim that Jews and Germans were “in the same boat” during the war? Speaking about the history of World War II is extremely difﬁcult. Never before has there been a conﬂict which revealed so much inhumanity in human beings. The extermination of Jews is indisputably a crime incomparable to any other. But there are voices from many different sides demanding to have their sorrows remembered. This is why we should look back at history from our own perspective, as individuals. Only Even behind then can we understand that by remembering the veil: the suffering of some, we do not deny that Look into the future there were others who suffered too.

the

Behind VEIL

Khursheed from India calls it a privilige. Rune from Afghanistan sees it as a part of her culture. Faegheh Shirazi tells about the veil of the compolsoly vail in Irani society. By Marta Wisniewska the fear of being controversial. When she had

urka, chador – in the Euro-American culture, these are the symbols of oppression, subjugation, and women‘s exclusion from the public life. We don’t try to understand why Muslim women veil themselves. The media supplie us with all the information we need, we think. The pictures in the newspapers show veiled women next to articles that leave no room for questions. Everything is made clear and explicit: We, western women, are in a very good situation, we are free. They, the women in the East, are kept locked away, they are oppressed, faceless, and denied a personality. We believe that we must set them free and show them that if they take off their clothes and denounce their veils their hard lives will change. Prejudice against Islam

Farheen Umar challenges this stereotype of Muslim women’s lives and their position in society. A Pakistani, she has been living in the US for seven years. The impulse for a ﬁlm about the tradition of veiling came from the hostile situation that Muslims in the US suddenly encountered following September 11th 2001. The prejudice and suspicion directed against them convinced Umar that the true and diverse face of Islam had to be shown. She too had suffered

to travel on a plane she found herself opting to give up performing the traditional prayer consisting of both words and movements such as arm raising, kneeling, and the bowing of the head. Before September 11th 2001, this practice would not have been a problem. The veil is the women’s choice

Umar wanted to show that the veil is not just a religious requirement or the proof of women‘s oppression by the men. The women shown in the ﬁlm describe their custom of veiling as their own free choice, and a practice that constitutes a very important part of their lives. Umar traveled through Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey for almost three years to talk with women about the importance of religion in their lives and about their attitude towards the tradition of veiling. Khursheed from India calls it a privilege. Runa from the Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan sees it as a part of her culture. Faegheh Shirazi talks about Iranian women and the meaning of the compulsory veil in Iranian society. The veil gives many women from traditional families, who would otherwise not be allowed to study, the chance to participate in the public life. But Umar also shows some women who live in the bigger cities and don‘t have to cover themselves.

The problem doesn’t only concern the Muslim world. Muslim women living in the US also perceive the veil as a marker of their identity. Many want to manifest their views through it – and they want to have the right to do so. But this requires a lot of courage, because these days there is so much violence and intolerance to overcome. Hear all the arguments

Umar‘s ﬁlm was produced for public television in the US. Its message was that Islam is not an oppressive religion and that the custom of veiling actually gives women freedom. The ﬁlm shows the Western world that its arbitrary judgments are not good. Muslims have their own opinions, and often “their own truth.” Umar reveals a new face of Muslim women and Islam, and she reminds us of the need listening to the arguments on both sides. Freedom is not limited to the freedom not to veil. Women who choose to veil also deserve their right to be honored. And they too deserve our respect.

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last page

Letter: One festival participant shows her experience in a letter to her friends in America.

She Must Be

and Have

the Best

Dear Friends, It‘s day five of a documentary film festival put on by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw and I have seen over a dozen films about what‘s going on in the world. I‘m hit hard by what I have seen. Unlike politicians, documentarists stay away from euphemisms, so it has been shocking. But I‘m not numbed by any of it: Unlike the media, cause-driven filmmakers seem to veer away from sensationalism. I‘m also humbled because I complain of inequality sometimes and I forget that I already have it. It turns out that Poland is a haven for the privileged. This makes me proud, and grateful, and sad. I‘m also better informed. I‘d always heard the Dalai Lama speak so peacefully, I‘ve seen the smile on his face, I kept seeing these cheerful tie-dyed “Free Tibet!” stickers and posters everywhere – all of it so light, so casual. I never recognized the seriousness involved. I never imagined that the suffering of the people in Tibet was so dramatic. And yes, I‘m inspired. I‘m moved by the courage of the people who speak out on behalf of others who can‘t, and they do it for no material gain. But they don‘t do it for nothing, either. They do it for justice. That‘s extremely uplifting. The films show so much pain and suffering, but most of them also offer proof that people‘s efforts to help others do bring about real changes. That, in turn, is deeply empowering. And I am just as inspired by what‘s going on in front of the screen as by what‘s being depicted on it. Dozens of university students have been spending their days working the doors and the projectors and putting out a newspaper for the festival attendees. Their engagement is a powerful call to action. There are crowds of people coming to see the films and I‘m starting to get a new impression of Warsaw and of the people who live here. There‘s a real sense of community among those participating in the events. There‘s a lot of kindness, too. The festival has captured my undivided attention and it‘s managed to keep it for days. I have learned so much, but it has been much more than a learning experience. It‘s also been a solidarity-building thing, as well as a forum for altruism and tolerance – so often missing from the contemporary circus of the holiday season. It‘s come at a time when I am making my first steps out into the Warsaw community. What a warm welcome it is.

Natalia Osiatynska Warsaw, December 14, 2004

Justice presents the social circumstances of Rio de Janerio. By Andreas Weiland

ne of the last scenes of Maria Ramos‘ ﬁlm Justicia shows the birth of a baby girl. The child, of course, doesn‘t know what the audience has just learned about her parents, who have to put up with life in the Favelas – the ghettos of Rio de Janeiro. Out of desperation, the father has committed a crime while his girlfriend was pregnant. Now he is facing a sentence to three years in jail. The inhumane prison is full of people who all share the same problem: Not only are they jailed behind iron bars, but they are also chained to a vicious cycle of poverty, drugs, and violence. Does society have the right to condemn a person who did not have an alternative? One prisoner shouts, “Oh Lord, I want

to go home! Please, Jesus, take me out of here!” It‘s hard to imagine that all this man wants is to leave jail so that he can go back to the slum. Rather, you watch and imagine that this prisoner wants to quit the life of misery – no matter how. Like everybody else, he would rather feed his family legally and have dinner at a table he shares with his wife and kids, just like the judge who has sentenced him does. “She must be and have the best,“ says the convicted boy’s mother as she looks into her newborn granddaughter’s eyes for the ﬁrst time. Yes, of course, the audience wishes this were possible. Is it? Almost impossible, we fear. But some of us come away hopeful. Break through the circle, baby girl!

Behind ENEMY LINES

The conflict in the Middle East as seen through the eyes of a Palestinien journalist and an Israeli police officer. By Agata Wójt

urder. An Israeli man has been killed in a Palestinian village. An Arabic journalist goes to cover the story. From the other side, an Israeli police officer is called to search the area. What happens when the two meet behind the enemy line? After the Second World War, Palestine was divided into two states – one Jewish, the other Arab. In the years 1948-49, Israel invaded Palestine and seized two-thirds of the former Palestinian territory. The rest was given to Jordan. This was the beginning of the conflict. Now we cannot see the end of it. Is it insoluble? The example of Palestinian journalist Adnan Joulam and Israeli police officer Benny Hernnes gives us a glimmer of hope for the future. They travel through places that signify a lot for each of their nations. Both men choose places essential for understanding their point of view of the conflict. It is an excellent opportunity for them to judge many things, for Benny as an invader, and for Adnan as a representative of the people

under occupation. They visit a cave that suffered one of Jerusalem’s worst suicide bombings. “Suicide bombing is a reflection of the frustrations, of the lost hope. These desperate Palestinians see no light at the end of the tunnel,” says Adnan. They go to the Holocaust Memorial which shows the Jewish tragedy during the Second World War. Sometimes, the memory of the Jewish victims of Hitlerism is used to justify the savage Israeli military actions against Palestinian civilians. These military actions are committed for the sake of peace, they say, and to protect the Israeli people from “the new Holocaust” which is supposedly being planned by the warriors for Palestinian freedom. Adnan and Benny debate and argue. They really want to come to an understanding. At one point Adnan says something with which most ordinary Jewish and Palestinian people would probably agree: “I feel that all of us are just victims. We must find a solution to this conflict. Everyone will then live a normal life.” We sure hope so.