– Seen from a human rights perspective, there is hardly a place on earth worse  than North Korea. At the same time, depressingly little attention is paid to the problems suffered by substantial parts of the population. In that sense, the regime?s closure of the country?s borders has been a success. In every other sense, the country must be deemed a failure, says HRH?s Niels Jacob Harbitz (picture), just back from an international conference in Seoul, South Korea, focussing on the human rights situation north of the border. (23-FEB-05)

Last week, four representatives of HRH, two from the Rafto Human Rights House in Bergen, two from the Human Rights House in Oslo, attended ?The 6th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights & Refugees?. -Once again, says Harbitz, who also attended last year?s conference in Warsaw, -the picture drawn of the human rights situation in North Korea is grave and alarming, not the least for the nonetheless steadily rising numbers of defectors and refugees. China?s policy remains to return as many refugees as possible, regardless of their destiny after their forced repatriations. In that sense, the People´s Republic of China serves as the North Korean dictator Kim Jung-il?s extended arms. the People´s Republic of China even returns refugees from its border with Mongolia, in other words, caught right as they are about to leave the People´s Republic of China and thus no longer represent a problem to the Beijing authorities.

-The hidden and forgotten Gulag
-Just as we arrived in Seoul, continues Harbitz, -we learnt that up to 60 refugees, all of them returnees from the People´s Republic of China, had been killed in a public mass execution somewhere back in North Korea. While this is not at all unique, many more are sent straight to a much slower death in the approximately twenty concentration camps that are alsao spread across the country. Here, the prisoners suffer torture, mal- and undernourishment, forced labour, severe torture, and exposure to deadly diseases, not th least TB. Testimonies from people who have succeeded in fleeing the world?s last Stalinist regime suggest that some of the camps also experiment with chemical methods of killing their inmates, among them gas chambers.

-HRH will do its part, beginning now
-The pressure on North Korea for all this to stop must be kept up through all channels and at all times, says Harbitz. -HRH will do its part right away, through publicising news and background information throughout its growing network, and also join the lobbying for increased international pressure on the Pyongyang regime already at this year?s UNHCHR?s sessions in Geneva . It should also be mentioned that the Rafto Human Rights House in Bergen has monitored the human right situation in North Korea closely, all since the Rafto Foundation, located at the Rafto Human Rights House, began its search for a deserving laureate among all those working to improve the human rights situation in North Korea back in 1999. This search resulted in awarding the then South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung with the 2000 Rafto Award. Later the same year, Dae-Jung also received the Nobel Peace Prize. 

-To China: You improve, or we?ll shame you at the Olympics
-In addition, Harbitz adds, -all those who do not make it clear to Chinese authorities that their practice of returning refugees is unacceptable and must change should also consider themselves silent supporters of Kim Jung-il?s regime. They are partners in crime, of the now punishable kind called crimes against humanity. With the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics only a little more than three years away, and with several countries, among them Norway, involved in what adds up to an international human rights dialogue with the People´s Republic of China, one could for instance warn already at this point that participation in the forthcoming Olympics is conditional on radical improvements of China?s policy towards North Korea. HRH encourages both the Norwegian and International Olympic Committees to be explicit about their human rights concerns towards the hosts of the forthcoming summer games, and make it clear that unless radical improvements are documented well in advance of the games, the International Olympic Committee may feel obliged to either move the games elsewhere or cancel them altogether.   

-Extensive network
-Through our participation in this conference now for the second year running, HRH has developed an extensive network of experts and activists, all resources to be drawn upon in the build-up to next year?s conference, which will be co-hosted by the Human Rights Houses in Oslo and Bergen. -Our ambition for that event, continues Harbitz is to make it all more engaging and interactive than what we have experienced so far, not the least through pin-point-focussed workshops on different aspects of the work that needs to be done not only directy towards the Pyongyang regime, but also in international fora, and towards the general public worldwide, to rise attention to the gross human rights violations that are taking place only 40 kilometers north of where the conference was held this year.

-A national tragedy
-Looking across the border, concludes Harbitz, walking down into one of the tunnels dug by North Korea in its permanent attempt to intimidate South Korea to maintain its low-profile so-called ?Sunshine Policy? and then, finally, spending time at the War Memorial Museum for the 1950-53 Korean war all made it very clear to us what a tense relationship there is between the two halves of what used to be and should still have been one Korean nation. The whole division, and the almost totally different paths the two regimes have taken since is a national tragedy one way or the other affecting all Koreans, north and south. From the west, it may seem as if the cold war has come to an end. At the Korean peninsula, though, it is very clear that this sad and dark chapter of world history isn?t quite closed yet. Now, all those who have experienced the benefits of bringing the cold war to an end should see it as their responsibility to let all Koreans enjoy the same freedoms.

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