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Selected excerpts from
STANDING UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS April 6, 2001
Panelists Vladimir
Koudinov Father
Michael Perry Moderator:
Sichan Siv Introductory Remarks John
D. Hamill Welcome. Today's Roundtable, sponsored by the U.S. Delegation, will feature a discussion of human rights in three countries that are of particular concern to the United States and the Commission on Human Rights. Our moderator today is Mr. Sichan Siv. He is a member of the U.S. Delegation to this Commission. Born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Mr. Siv escaped the killing fields of Cambodia to Thailand in 1976, after having been in forced labor camps for one year. During that time, he was twice marked for death. After a few months in a refugee camp in Thailand, where he was ordained a Buddhist monk, he was resettled as a refugee in Wallingford, Connecticut. There he picked apples, washed dishes and later drove a taxi in New York City. In 1980, he attended Columbia University as a Maguire Scholar and International Fellow and received his master's degree in international affairs. In 1989, President George Bush named Mr. Siv Deputy Assistant to the President for Public Liaison. He was the first American of Asian ancestry to attain this level in the White House. In 1992, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs. In 1993, he returned to the private sector, where he has been an international consultant and investment banker. He is also a senior advisor to the International Republican Institute, where he is involved in election monitoring, political party and institution-building and good governance and democracy training.
Thank you, Dave, for the kind words of introduction. Some of the things you mentioned happened a quarter of a century ago. But the memories are still very fresh. I am privileged to be here today. On behalf of the U.S. Delegation, I welcome all of you to this roundtable with our very distinguished panelists: two of them just got off the plane a few hours ago. I think it is only natural that, after listening to long hours of speeches here -- some of which stray quite a distance from the truth -- you begin to wonder just what all this has to do with human rights and the situation on the ground in many countries. Let me say first of all that freedom of expression is one of the most important human rights. I know what it's like to live in a country where people are terrified to express their opinions because they know it can cost their life. So I will defend anyone's right to express himself or herself at the Commission, irrespective of their views. I just wish that this freedom were possible in every country. Clearly, it is not. Some nations spend a lot of time here perverting and distorting the truth. A most important job for us is to challenge that practice and do our utmost to shine a spotlight on the really brutal violations of human rights that take place. That's not always easy, but it is always necessary that we try. All over the world, there are people who have dedicated their lives and fortunes to fighting violations of basic human rights. Many face torture, jail, and even death for that. Still, they are willing to pay the price. That tells us something about the value of freedom and the value of human rights, and it tells us something about human courage, too. We have an exceptional panel today: three men with three difficult stories to tell; stories full of brutality and human suffering. I hope that they will share with you something about the human spirit, too so that when you return to your delegations and NGOs, you will know more clearly than ever why this Commission is so important, and why we must continue to fight on behalf of universal human rights. And now, let me introduce our panel. Our first speaker is Mr. Vladimir Koudinov. He is a member of the 13th Supreme Soviet, which was dissolved following an unconstitutional referendum in 1996. The 13th Supreme Soviet continues to be recognized as the legitimate Belarusian parliament by most of the international community, including the U.S. Mr. Koudinov has been an active and vocal critic of the Lukashenko regime. In February 1997, he was arrested and convicted on trumped-up charges of bribery. As a result, he was sentenced to prison and his family was harassed. Released in February 2001, he has continued his criticism of the Lukashenko regime. Mr. Koudinov was also one of the representatives of the 13th Supreme Soviet to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in February of this year. Our next speaker is Mr. Jan Bubenik, a Czech citizen, who was held in a Cuban jail for 25 days after having met with two Cuban dissidents this January. He played an important role in the Velvet Revolution that brought his country independence following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Elected to Parliament at age 21, he was the youngest member of that body. During the 1990s, Mr. Bubenik worked as a consultant for both the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute,
which I am associated with, conducting civil society building activities
in Bulgaria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. In 1999, he created his
own NGO, Spolecnost 89, which organized events celebrating the Last but not least: Father Michael Perry is a Franciscan Priest. He currently serves as foreign policy adviser at the U.S. Catholic Conference, specializing in African religious and political affairs. Father Perry arrived this morning from Sudan where he was part of a U.S.C.C. delegation. He has worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a teacher, development director, and seminary rector and has conducted extensive anthropological field research on the relationship between culture and religion I am proud to say that U.S.C.C. was the agency that helped bring me from a refugee camp in Thailand to America in 1976 so that I could start a new life as a free man. I thank all the panelists for sharing their insights and my colleague Maria Pica for organizing this roundtable. MORE.....
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