Comments on: Wait on, we appear to have forgotten something

By: Blinger

Blinger — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 01:54:42 +0000

Hamel,
Glad you told me about your post - well written and I’m looking forward to reading more of what you have to write. My offer to host a blog for you and our mutual friend D still stands, just let me know.

By: Mankyongdae

Mankyongdae — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 23:26:00 +0000

Hey that’s good to hear. I quote this from a recent e-mail from Dr Norbert Vollertsen:

Demos in Seoul at the 7. International Conference
for National Human rights institutions

Time : Sept. 14 - 17, 2004, 9:00 am - 6:00pm,
Sept 13 : Opening ceremony with 450
diplomatic deligates, Gov. officilas
and NGO-Activists

Place : Lotte Hotel, near City Hall, Seoul

Because North Korean human right issues are not
included in the official agenda we will stage several
protest with North Korean defectors in front of the
Lotte Hotel every day from Sept 13 - Sept 17 around
11: 00 am. Right after we will try to get access to
the high secured Chinese embassy…

Host : The National Human Rights Commission of Korea
Co-Host : UNHCHR ( UN Office of the High Commisionar
for Human Rights)

For more informations : http://www.icni.org

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:04:23 +0000

This is so old probably no one will read it, but it makes me happy to note the last line here: International Human Rights Experts Gather in Seoul
SEOUL, Sept 14 (Yonhap) — South Korea will play host to a series of international conferences on human rights this week, officials said Tuesday.
Participants include Louise Arbor, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other high-profile U.N. officials, professors, and activists in the field.
The seventh International Conference for National Human Rights Institutions will open today at 2 p.m. at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul and close Friday, the National Human Rights Commission said.
The presidential agency added that Arbor is scheduled to give a welcoming speech at the opening session.
The biennial meeting, aimed at protecting and promoting human rights, will draw about 180 participants from 60 countries, most of whom are working for nongovernmental organizations.
The main theme of the Seoul meeting will be how to uphold human rights during conflicts and while countering terrorism, organizers said.
“Participants will also discuss the issue of North Korean defectors’ human rights,” Park Sook-mi, an official from the organizing body said.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 00:13:31 +0000

Oranckay–maybe I was overly harsh in my earlier response, and if so I apologize. I did note that the conference agenda basically precluded discussion of NK because it focused on conflict and terrorism, two areas NK isn’t (recently) involved in. But I do see Hamel as rightfully taking the Roh administration to task for failing to “see” human rights abuses in NK–and beyond that, it actively discourages other countries from criticizing the North. That still seems the “point” of the post, not whether NK was on the conference agenda. It isn’t just stating “no evidence,” its the Human Rights Commission’s wholesale refusal to even consider defectors’ testimony and other sources on NK that is inexcusable.

By: Fabius

Fabius — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:06:32 +0000

I love how SK tolerates NK telling it to scrap that National Security Law while SK doesn’t even DARE to bring up the NK death camps that house hundreds of thousands in any Unification talks.

Heres a thought: If the NK gov’t is supposed to stay intact through peaceful reunification, are the death camps supposed to keep operating through post-unification?

…one of the many details that don’t even occur to South Koreans…

By: MF

MF — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 08:16:26 +0000

3rd para:

And to boot - it would take boatloads of gall for Seoul, who’s still working out its post-liberation past, to criticize Pyeongyang, whose past is pure.

(Preview is my friend).

By: MF

MF — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 08:14:04 +0000

If the alleged “human rights violations” in the North aren’t even in the newspaper, what’s the big deal.

And you gotta cut Seoul’s Human Rights Commission some slack; the details are pretty scanty, if they exist at all.

And to boot - it would take boatloads of gall for Seoul, whose still working out its post-liberation past, to criticize Pyeongyang, whose past is pure?

The agenda for this human rights pow-wow must needs focus exclusively on Abu Ghraib and Ariel Sharon.

By: oranckay

oranckay — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 07:38:44 +0000

Oops! The following paragraph from comment above should be followed have a link in it like this:

I think that?€™s unreasonable to expect as much. And more importantly, if they don?€™t have NK human rights on the agenda, that?€™s as much the fault of the UNHCR and other groups as it is the SKorean human rights commission, as can be seen here.

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 07:37:49 +0000

I would wager that the South Korean Government will forcibly keep any North Korean refugees away from such proceedings, since the reality of their complaints would run counter to their wishful thinking about the Korean “minjok” and all that. Hypocrisy, thy name is South Korea.

By: oranckay

oranckay — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 07:36:10 +0000

RE COMMENT: “I think that?€™s the point of Hamel?€™s post, to rightfully scold the Roh administration for its negligence. ”

I thought the point of Hamel’s post was to say the conference that includes human rights officials (from places as far away as Uganda and El Salvador) should come here and have NK human rights on the agenda. But hey, maybe I just can’t read.

I think that’s unreasonable to expect as much. And more importantly, if they don’t have NK human rights on the agenda, that’s as much the fault of the UNHCR and other groups as it is the SKorean human rights commission, as can be seen here..
I was recently at an international conference of newspapers held in Istanbul. Naturally, being in Turkey, everyone wanted to know about how much press freedoms had improved there, and when the Turk prime minister spoke he boasted that there’d been much progress. But when we met in various sessions on the agenda, we talked about page layout, tabloids, and hwo to make money off news websites. That’s how international conferences work, and the host country does not usually get to decide what happens.

Frankly I would say Korea was being pretty arrogant if it insisted that officials from all over the world come here to talk to each other about how they go about their work AND strategize about what to do about NK.

Roh’s govt can be criticized for much, but not getting an international conference to spend special time on things Korean is not one of them, however important the issue may be in this case. If SK government or human rights commission is guilty of not getting NK human rights on the agenda, the UNHCR and others are just as guilty for not insisting that it be on the agenda.

The problmes with Roh government’s approach to NK human rights don’t mean you get to turn “no details” (however cowardly a statement) into something slighly more serious, even if in our (Hamel’s, mine) view might be pretty close.

Knowing the mystery figure Hamel personally, I know he potentially has much that’s valid to say about NK, NK human rights, and SK’s approach to both… but in my humble opinion, the upcoming conference just ain’t one of them.