[USFK Forums[ Conferences look at abuses by Pyongyang [JoongAng]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Conferences look at abuses by Pyongyang

The JoongAng Daily

March 22, 2006 ㅡ Despite protests by South Korean activists, an international conference to address human rights abuse in North Korea opens today in Belgium, to coincide with the European Parliament’s hearing on the issue tomorrow. The U.S.-based civic group Freedom House is hosting the rights conference, the third of its kind.

The conference is scheduled to begin with an opening session at the Crown Plaza Hotel. European, U.S. and South Korean rights groups, including the international organization Human Rights Without Frontiers, will attend the sessions, which include testimonies by North Korean defectors, documentary screenings and discussions by experts.

The European Parliament will hold its hearing on rights abuses in the North tomorrow, also in Brussels. Istvan Szent-Ivany, a Hungarian member of the parliament, is organizing the session.

The European Union has been active in promoting improved human rights in the North. Last year, it initiated a United Nations resolution to condemn the Kim Jong-il regime’s rights abuses.

Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. human rights envoy for North Korea; Pierre Rigoulot, president of the French Committee to Help the Population in North Korea, and Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy in the United States, are among the participants.

Some South Korean activists, however, are criticizing the events for raising unnecessary tension with the North. They also claim the sessions are dealing with sensitive human rights issues from a unilateral U.S.-perspective.

About 100 South Korean activists from pro-Pyongyang organizations, such as Hanchongryon and the Unification Alliance for the 6.15 Joint Declaration and Peace, also known as Tongil Yeondae, are already in Brussels, Belgium, to express their opposition to the events. The protesters include about 20 Koreans who reside in Europe. The group plans to deliver its position to the European Parliament today.


by Ser Myo-ja


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