[Nasional-e] From eating rats in North Korea to sex abuse in China

[Ambon]

>From eating rats in North Korea to sex abuse in China
   Mike Jendrzejczyk IHT  Tuesday, November 19, 2002
A refugee travesty

WASHINGTON The head of the United Nations food program was in Beijing last
week, pleading for China's help to prevent more death and famine in North
Korea. Facing a funding deficit, the world body has suspended humanitarian
assistance to 3 million North Koreans in the western part of the country.
More aid cuts may come.
.
Emergency shipments of Chinese grain could ease the crisis. But to stabilize
the situation on its border, China must also address the rights of thousands
of North Koreans who have fled into China.
.
In a new report to be released on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch has documented
the refugee crisis and its human toll. A former detainee in a North Korean
logging camp described how prisoners survived, catching rats using shoes as
traps, then roasting and eating them secretly.
.
The embarrassing rush of North Koreans into diplomatic compounds in China
beginning last March provoked the Chinese authorities to tighten border
security, to search for North Koreans in hiding and to go after those
suspected of helping them.
.
Hiding in villages among Chinese citizens of Korean descent, North Korean
asylum seekers are victimized twice. Once they make it into China, they are
highly vulnerable to abuse, extortion and exploitation. Desperate women sell
sexual services through prostitution or arranged marriage. Or they are sold
or abducted into sexual slavery. Some are beaten by violent Chinese husbands
after seeking shelter with church groups who tell them marriage is the only
way to avoid detection.
.
At any moment, North Koreans risk being picked up by Chinese authorities and
returned to North Korea under the terms of a secret 1986 agreement between
Beijing and Pyongyang. Yet under the UN Refugee Convention, to which it is a
party, China is obligated not to push back asylum seekers in danger of
persecution. In North Korea, anyone leaving the country without authorizatio
n is subject to three years in a labor camp, or even the death penalty.
.
A comprehensive strategy is needed to address the human rights disaster in
North Korea and the impact on neighboring countries. North Koreans are
entitled to leave their homeland under the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Pyongyang must immediately cease punishing those who flee and also
stop persecuting their family members.
.
China should halt the forcible return of North Koreans, and begin a
high-level dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to establish
a screening mechanism for asylum seekers.
.
Countries that hold bilateral talks with China – including the United
States, Japan, the United Kingdomand Australia – should raise this issue
with Beijing. As an interim step, Beijing should be urged to grant all North
Koreans an indefinite humanitarian status and allow aid groups to operate in
border areas without intimidation or arrest.
.
Addressing the refugee crisis must be part of a broader strategy to bring
North Korea out of its isolation. Giving humanitarian aid is one answer.
Exposing North Korea's human rights violations, now largely hidden, should
also be a priority.
.
The writer, Washington director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, contributed
this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

< < Back to Start of Article A refugee travesty

WASHINGTON The head of the United Nations food program was in Beijing last
week, pleading for China's help to prevent more death and famine in North
Korea. Facing a funding deficit, the world body has suspended humanitarian
assistance to 3 million North Koreans in the western part of the country.
More aid cuts may come.
.
Emergency shipments of Chinese grain could ease the crisis. But to stabilize
the situation on its border, China must also address the rights of thousands
of North Koreans who have fled into China.
.
In a new report to be released on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch has documented
the refugee crisis and its human toll. A former detainee in a North Korean
logging camp described how prisoners survived, catching rats using shoes as
traps, then roasting and eating them secretly.
.
The embarrassing rush of North Koreans into diplomatic compounds in China
beginning last March provoked the Chinese authorities to tighten border
security, to search for North Koreans in hiding and to go after those
suspected of helping them.
.
Hiding in villages among Chinese citizens of Korean descent, North Korean
asylum seekers are victimized twice. Once they make it into China, they are
highly vulnerable to abuse, extortion and exploitation. Desperate women sell
sexual services through prostitution or arranged marriage. Or they are sold
or abducted into sexual slavery. Some are beaten by violent Chinese husbands
after seeking shelter with church groups who tell them marriage is the only
way to avoid detection.
.
At any moment, North Koreans risk being picked up by Chinese authorities and
returned to North Korea under the terms of a secret 1986 agreement between
Beijing and Pyongyang. Yet under the UN Refugee Convention, to which it is a
party, China is obligated not to push back asylum seekers in danger of
persecution. In North Korea, anyone leaving the country without
authorization is subject to three years in a labor camp, or even the death
penalty.
.
A comprehensive strategy is needed to address the human rights disaster in
North Korea and the impact on neighboring countries. North Koreans are
entitled to leave their homeland under the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Pyongyang must immediately cease punishing those who flee and also
stop persecuting their family members.
.
China should halt the forcible return of North Koreans, and begin a
high-level dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to establish
a screening mechanism for asylum seekers.
.
Countries that hold bilateral talks with China – including the United
States, Japan, the United Kingdomand Australia – should raise this issue
with Beijing. As an interim step, Beijing should be urged to grant all North
Koreans an indefinite humanitarian status and allow aid groups to operate in
border areas without intimidation or arrest.
.
Addressing the refugee crisis must be part of a broader strategy to bring
North Korea out of its isolation. Giving humanitarian aid is one answer.
Exposing North Korea's human rights violations, now largely hidden, should
also be a priority.
.
The writer, Washington director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, contributed
this comment to the International Herald Tribune. A refugee travesty