COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-first Session, 14 March – 22 April 2005
Item 14: SPECIFIC GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS

Oral Statement by Mr. Thach Ngoc THACH, International Federation for the Protection of the Rights of Ethnic, Religious, Linguistic and Other Minorities.

Mr. Chairperson,
although the Turkmen represent a large community, they have suffered from systematic assimilation policies and have seldom enjoyed fundamental freedoms and human rights. When US forces entered Iraq two years ago, the Turkmen hoped for an end to violence and systematic discrimination of minorities’ linguistic and cultural rights. However, new discriminatory policies against the Turkmen have been implemented. The first action of the US occupying forces in Iraq was to appoint and instate Kurds in the most important official posts,[1] in Kerkuk and other Turkmen regions, and changing the ethnic composition of Kerkuk before the January 2005 elections.

The Turkmen wish to live in peace with their Arab, Kurdish and Kaldo-Assyrian compatriots in a free and united Iraq, where all citizens irrespective of their ethnicity or religion can enjoy equal rights and where the country's oil wealth is shared in an equitable manner among all Iraqis. Mr. Chairperson, our organization calls upon the Commission to take serious note of the situation of Turkmen and urge the High Commissioner for Human Rights to pay equal attention to the human rights abuses suffered by the Turkmen people.

Mr. Chairperson, Tibetans are now fast becoming a minority in their own homeland due to implantation of settlers while the Ahwazi people of South-western Iran similarly feel treated as foreigners in their own land. Kept backward by successive regimes in Iran, the Ahwazi have been subjected to the eradication of their national identity, culture, language, and customs; and faced with forced assimilation and imposition of Persian language and culture. We appeal to the relevant thematic mandates of Commission to investigate the situation of the minority Ahwazi-Arabs in Iran, and also express concern about the safety and security of thousands of Ahwazi-Arabs refugees and their families, who have escaped political repression and persecution by the Iranian government during the past two decades, and have sought refuge in southern Iraq.

Mr. Chairperson, while considering Viet Nam’s Second Periodic Report the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) requested the country “to provide information on minorities in Viet Nam, including the Khmer Krom community.”[3] The assurances provided, in Viet Nam’s response to the HRC,[4] contrast sharply with the actual reality of Khmer Krom situation. We are concerned that the Khmer Krom are a particularly vulnerable minority in terms of health services, to the degree that they are now suffering a health crisis with devastating effects. Since 2003, an epidemic of blindness, for which no treatment is available, has spread and affected thousands of Khmer Krom.[5] Viet Nam has so far failed to address the problem and to direct efforts to find the causes and remedies for this part of the population. Our organisation calls upon the thematic mandates of this Commission to seek official missions, including to the region of the Khmer Krom people.

Mr. Chairperson, the Khmer Krom people from Cambodia and Khmer Krom Buddhist monks are facing abuses when they visit their homeland in the Mekong Delta. Their minority rights as recognized by international human rights standards are not respected. Buddhist temples have been and continue to be destroyed. Buddhist monks are imprisoned and assassinated. Religious festivals are banned, and there have been attempts to control the practice of Buddhism. The dignity of Khmer Krom people, as human beings are severely degraded. Their children are being victimized of child labour, human trafficking and prostitution, lack of nutrition, lack of medicine and proper education and employment.

We call upon the Commission to take serious note of the human rights situations highlighted in this oral statement and appeal to the High Commissioner for Human Rights to take urgent measures commensurate with the gravity of the situation for vulnerable groups.

I thank you, Mr. Chairperson.