THE NEW YORK TIMES

Monday, December 9, 1996

Abroad at Home

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Anthony Lewis

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

Boston, - Dr. Ma Thida, a 29-year-old Burnese surgeon, is confined

alone in a Rangoon cell, forbidden reading material. She was sentenced

to 20 years in prison in 1993 for "endangering public tranquillity, having contact with unlawful literature." That means she supported democracy in Burna. She is a symbol of the cruelty of Burna's military rulers, and of other oppressive regimes. Physicians for Human Rights

and other groups have brought her name out of the darkness. This week

Ma Thida will be among the winners of the Reebok Human Rights Award for courage in the face of tyranny. Her case raises painful questions for us. Around the world now there is concern for human rights, but does it actually help the victims? How do we explain the fact that after decades of protest, inhumanity still flourishes from Burna to the Serbian sector of Bosnia? A comprehensive world report just published by the organization Human Rights Watch underlines those doubts. Major governments talk about human rights, the report says, but they mostly put other things before - notably what they perceive as their economic interests. But in the end the report and reflection tell us that the struggle for human rights does make a difference. China is a heavyweight on the down side of the balance of decency. In the last year its persecution of dissenters has intensified. The great advocate of democracy Wei Jingsheng, the Sakharov of China, is serving a 14-year prison term under reportedly harsh conditions. The repr

ession of Tibetan culture and religion has become even more vicious. The response of most Western governments to China brutality has been to change the subject. The Clinton Administration made trade and investment the prime target of its relations with Beijing. Its argument that "strategic dialogue" with China would be helpful on human rights has been mocked by growing repression. The other signal American failure has been in the former Yugoslavia. Despite the promises of Dayton, the U.S. and its partners have allowed Croatia and Serbian entity in Bosnia to harbor men indicted as war criminals. That failure threatens the first effort since Nuremberg to call the authors of a genocide to account. "President Clinton would not hesitate to ask a big-city cop to risk his or her life to apprehend a murder suspect," the Human Rights Watch report said. "since that is the price to be paid for upholding the rule of law at home. But when it came to deploying law enforcement officials abroad - in this case IFOR - to arr

est suspects in genocide and mass murder and uphold the most basic international law, he balked." European governments failed an easier test of will in the Balkans. The Council of Europe admitted Croatia as a member last year even thought President Franjo Tudjman had not carried out the Council's demand that the first cooperate in arresting war criminals, allow an opposition leader elected mayor of Zagreb to take his post and let Serbian refugees return. Against those combers facts of the last year there are encouraging ones. South Africa is an important example. Its Truth and Reconciliation Commission has begun to expose the official murders and other horrors of the apartheid years. But the particulars are less important than a general reality. for all the setbacks, growing awareness of the need to protect human rights has violators on the defensive. And public protest often works. During the last year, for example, Americans have became aware that some of the clothes they bought were made by children worki

ng under sorry conditions in Asia and Latin America. the outrage that resulted forced the U.S. importing companies to change their sources of supply or make those sources follow decent labor practices. Even a place remote as Burna can feel pressure. At the end of this year the Disney Company will not have Mickey Mouse clothes made in Burna; its licensed supplier will stop manufacturing there for "strictly business reasons" - evidently meaning the pain of a boycott. Attention may now shift to Unocal, a U.S. corporation that has invested in a huge pipeline project in Burna.

But if we want to make gains for human rights, we cannot pay mere lip service to principle as the Dayton enforcers and Council of Europe have done. We have to be serious. If we are, a world more aware of what should be can slowly turn governments toward decency and humanity.