Warsaw Conference Calls For Global Human Rights Solidarity
Nov 22, 2006 By Jan Jekielek Epoch Times Staff on assignment in Warsaw
A new transnational human rights movement, the World Solidarity Freedom Center (WS), was born on the heels of Asia Human Rights Week in Warsaw on November 17.
"It's an initiative that works with an opposite logic to Amnesty International, which is led by Westerners who want to monitor human rights abuses elsewhere," said Ton Van Anh, Editor-in-Chief of the Polish-Vietnamese internet human rights magazine Cau Vong.
"In this case, people from the countries [where abuses are occurring] themselves say what their needs are, and will find solidarity with others."
Ton, a 27-year-old Vietnamese refugee to Poland, was one of four Asian human rights organizers who signed WS into existence. The other inaugural expatriate signatories were U Than Htike, Director of Polish-Burmese Solidarity, Balli Marzec, Director of the Kazakh Community Association in Poland, and Chinese dissident Man-Yan Ng, Board Member of the International Society for Human Rights.
"Most important is the sharing of information. Then come the calls to action. That is what solidarity is all about," said Ton. A major goal of WS is to unite hitherto isolated groups fighting for human rights together in shared aims and actions.
The first appeal of the newly formed WS Freedom Centre will be directed at the Polish Olympic Committee, said journalist and free-Tibet activist Michael Orzechowski.
The Chinese regime in no way congruent with the idea of the Olympic Charter, he said.
The Olympic appeal capped five days of seminars on human rights in Asia, held November 13-17, including sessions on Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, North Korea, Vietnam, China, Tibet and Bhutan.
David Kilgour, past Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific and special guest of the proceedings, revealed new evidence pointing towards organ harvesting from living Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China. Kilgour detailed a recent interview he conducted with a foreign organ transplant patient, who said that his Chinese surgeon had eight separate people killed to arrange for a kidney that matched him.
During discussions on North Korea on day two, panelists were accused by an audience member of not allowing "the other side" to be heard.
"We are fighting for truth and freedom…until the terror ends, we will treat those responsible for it as criminals, not as partners to have a discussion with," responded Jedrzej Karpinski of the Oriental Culture Center in Warsaw, one of the organizers of the week.
"Smiles and handshakes, we'll leave those to the diplomats."
The forum was also organized by Collegium Civitas, a top Polish private university specializing in the humanities. It was held under the patronage of the former Prime Minister of Poland Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, the Polish Minister of Culture and Heritage Michal Kazimierz Ujazdowski, the Free Word Association, the Citizen's Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, and the Vietnam Human Rights Network.
With files from Jedrzej Karpinski
Vietnam Human Rights Network |