The New York Times

Friday, June 25, 1999

ON MY MIND

By A.M. ROSENTHAL

Slaves, Stay Out

Very quietly, without a word about it on paper, the United Nations is creating a new human rights policy for the organization and putting it into operation one step at a time.

If it were a document, honestly and clearly written, it would read so:

"The U.N. will honor and from time to time try to uphold the human rights of oppressed countries and peoples -- provided that they have reasonable power of their own or effective help of nations with economic and military strength. If not, the U.N. will not be of use to victim-nations, and in some cases will increase the power of the oppressor."

In the past week alone, while still pondering the lessons of the war over Kosovo, the beneficiary of all-out Western support, the U.N. used its power against the interests of two of the most persecuted, isolated and abandoned peoples on earth -- one Asian, the other African.

In Washington, the World Bank, a U.N. agency that distributes low-interest loans to countries desperately in need of money for health care, food and water supplies and other causes, approved another loan to China, this one of $160 million.

Stated purpose: to help Chinese in particularly poor districts, and to move some of them to areas where they might live better. Of the 58,000 who would be moved, at a cost of $40 million, all would go from China to Tibet, the Qinghai area.

This infuriated supporters of Tibet and set off a dispute in the bank, headed by James D. Wolfensohn, a much-respected man in Washington.

Americans can take pride that the U.S. voted against the loan, joined only by Germany in the 24-nation bank board. The loan is the deliberate use of U.N. money that will speed the steady increase of the Chinese population of Tibet since the Chinese Communist invasion in 1949.

It is also a judgment that the occupation is permanent, worthy of international U.N. support. And it is one more shackle to the work of the Dalai Lama, since he fled Tibet in 1959, to keep Tibetan nationhood and religion strong in his people's hopes.

Tibet is claimed in its entirety by Beijing -- despite 3,500 years as a nation broken by a total of 400 years of domination by China, Mongolia and Britain.

No country except India, where he lives in refuge, has helped the Dalai Lama. By world leaders, Tibet is mentioned only for brief spurts of hypocrisy.

But enough people of good heart raised so much protest about the loan helping China occupy Tibet that the World Bank ordered an "inquiry" before the $40 million is actually spent. Mr. Wolfensohn said that the project would be entirely "transparent."

The delay does not satisfy Tibet's supporters, at all. But at least the protests tell Tibetans they are not alone, not entirely.

In Africa, a U.N. human rights committee removed voice and representation from Sudanese who have been defending themselves against their own Government. Khartoum is carrying out a civil and religious war aimed largely at Sudanese Christians and followers of native African religions.

The committee refused to hear the appeal of the resistance leader, John Garang. The offense was writing his request on his letterhead instead of the stationery of Christian Solidarity International, his sponsor for the meeting. Then the organization was disaccredited.

The Swiss-based group had the status of "non-governmental organization" at the U.N. Hundreds of such help organizations, each with a specialization in fields like medical relief, human rights, the welfare of children and aid to refugees, have a forum at the U.N. They are allowed to speak, but not vote, at specified U.N. committees or the special agencies that supervise U.N. action and spending in world health, banking, agriculture, aviation and other major U.N. fields.

Christian Solidarity International was impudent enough to prove the existence of slavery in Sudan by buying 1,000 people, and of course setting them free. By disaccrediting the organization the "human rights" committee established the penalty of ouster for incurably forthright groups, and for itself the punishment of infamy.

If allowed to stand, the decisions on Tibet and the Sudanese resistance will live on as a U.N. message to nations weak, isolated and persecuted: Slaves, stay out.