HUMAN RIGHTS SEEM TO HAVE GONE OUT OF FASHION

by mary McGory

The Washington Post/The International Herald Tribune

Tuesday, May 5, 1998

The Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, a notoriously cheerful man for someone who served 18 years in jail for speaking well of democracy, said glumly the other night that "you can put a lot of effort into human rights, but you don't necessarily get a lot back." Last week's events proved him right. They produced feelings of shock and foreboding among human rights advocates. Their de facto leader, the president of the United States, talked a good game as a candidate but hardly gives human rights even lip service these days. Recently, a high-level delegation led by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has been in Beijing to smooth the way for the June visit of America's peripatetic president. His people, according to human rights groups, seem prepared to declare progress in China proper and concentrate on Tibet. The idea is to be able to say, as George Bush so often did, "Been there, done that" if human rights comes up in June. At the summit, there will be no talk of China's ongoing violations, such as the use o

f slave labor, forced abortions, the sale of prisoners' organs and the continued imprisonment of more than 2,000 dissenters. The planners arranged the ultimate kowtow: Bill Clinton will begin his visit in Tiananmen Square, site of the murder of human rights in China. Administration spinners cite China's release of Mr. Wei and Wang Dan (the latter as preparations began for the summit) as examples of progress. But Tibet, by all accounts, is one large concentration camp. Last week, six Buddhist priests protesting the fate of their country were dragged away from their hunger strike in New Delhi, taken to prison and force-fed. One of six monks who replaced the original protesters set himself on fire. Meanwhile, Central America, always a reliable source of human rights outrage, offered the horrendous murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera. The 75-year-old bishop, who had just finished a multivolume report on human rights violations in Guatemala, was bludgeoned to death in his garage. In Guatemala, the death squad

is alive and well. Bishop Gerardi had planned to distribute copies of his report to peasants, seeking further information. His intention was his death warrant. Mr. Wei said somberly of his fallen brother, "I know he will be replaced." Mr. Wei came to Washington to pick up the award conferred on him in 1994 by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation. He was in prison when it was announced. He was guest of honor at a dinner in the Georgetown home of Elizabeth and George Stevens. Ethel Kennedy gave him a bust of her husband. Mr. Wei, 53, was in the excellent spirits that are his trademark. In an interview, he explained that he survived his long and often brutal incarceration by thinking of other prisoners of conscience and working out scientific problemshe conjured up for himself. He also drove the authorities crazy with a stream of cheeky letters pointing out the error of their policies and the inevitability of their downfall. He recounted his Dec. 8 visit with President Clinton, and the subsequent U.S.

reversal on human rights. He told of a quintessentially Clintonian moment in the Oval Office. The president was effusive in his greeting and expansive in his enthusiasm for human rights. Then his national security adviser, Sandy Berger, joined them and added a large dose of reality - about $4 billion in contracts with China, and the importance of the U.S. share in the Chinese market. According to Mr. Wei, Mr. Clinton broke in and said, "Berger doesn't really mean that - we are concerned about trade, but we are much more concerned about human rights." A thunderous retreat in Geneva at the recent meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights showed that Mr. Berger really did mean it, and spoke for Mr. Clinton, too. Mr. Wei went to Geneva, where the United States opposed human rights sanctions on China. The effect on European leaders, whom Mr. Wei visited was devastating. "If the U.S. is no; going to say anything, why should we?" he said one European Union foreign minister told him. Mr. Wei obviously thinks Mr.

Clinton is all wet in believing that pushing human rights will harm the U.S.Chinese trading relationship. "China needs you more than you need China," he told Mr. Clinton, who can't have it both ways on China much longer. It is equally clear that the worldwide consensus about China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has been shattered. Without the United States carrying the flag, the cause of human rights withers and dies. No wonder human rights activists are feeling gloomy.