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DURBAN,
Sep 7 (IPS) - Twenty-one people who told the World Conference Against
Racism about their experience with racism in a special forum entitled
'Voices' have called for their voices never to be forgotten .
The
speakers, from countries including Brazil, South Africa, Turkey,
the United Kingdom, India, Niger, the United States, Australia,
Bosnia and Rwanda handed 'The Voices Vision' to the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson on Thursday.
The
vision stated, ''As individuals we speak of deeply personal experiences
but make no mistake, these stories are not ours alone. We speak
for all of our brothers and sisters who suffer in every country,
on every continent, in every part of the world.''
In
response, Robinson said that she never would forget their voices.
''None of us who heard you will ever forget your voices.'' She said
that the speakers had told ''shocking stories'' and that they were
correct in saying that they represented millions of people. ''This
is our world,'' stated the high commissioner.
An
organiser of the forum, Gay McDougall of the UN Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination, said the speakers did not
just publicise their personal stories. ''They speak of how systemic,
institutionalised forms of racial discrimination plague our societies
and limit the lives of millions of people around the world.''
Amongst
the stories heard was that of 17-year old Mariama Oumarou, a Tuareg
of Niger who grew up as a slave to lighter skinned Tuaregs. She
was sold to a trader in Nigeria at the age of 15, but at first Oumarou
believed that she was her new master's wife. For several months
her master demanded to have sex with her at the same hour every
day.
When
she refused to work and found out that she was a slave, her master's
four wives told their children to beat Oumarou. ''The girls found
me in bed in tears and began to hit me. They tore my clothes. I
cried all day long in the room without anything to drink or eat.''
Oumarou eventually fled Nigeria and returned home.
Immaculee
Mukamuhirwa, a 33-year-old Tutsi, lost her parents, four sisters
and two brothers in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. She and her Hutu
husband Francois-Xavier Nsanzuwera were attacked while trying to
escape to the airport. They were hit with rifle butts, knives, machetes
and rocks.
''We
negotiated that they would shoot us because we felt being shot would
be quick and a better way to go. They said that bullets were expensive
and that you needed dollars to pay for them. We reached for all
the money and jewellery that we carried but it was useless,'' Mukamuhirwa
said.
Monica
Morgan spoke of the effect of the removal of indigenous peoples,
including the removal of children from their families, in Australia.
''In
my own family the father of my children was removed from school
at 10 years of age. He and seven of his brothers and sisters, five
who were at school, were removed and placed in a jail cell and transported
to places known as detention centres or homes where they were trained
to be domestics, brain washed to be assimilated and violated,''
she said.
Ashid
Ali (25) is from Bangladesh, but grew up in a segregated community
in Oldham in the United Kingdom. He said that there has always been
tension between white people and the Asians in Oldham and that the
police had been part of the tension rather than the solution.
''I
remember the days when we couldn't play football in the local part
without being chased and stoned by white youths with dogs. When
the police would come to respond, they would usually scream at us:
'You Pakis, you bastards, go back to your own country.' And this
still continues today,'' he said.
Saikou
Diallo said that his son, aged 22, was murdered in New York a few
years ago. Forty-one shots were fired, and he was hit by 19 of the
bullets. He was not carrying a gun when the police fired the shots.
McDougall
said that the speakers had made a ''tremendous contribution'' and
that the forum was ''the one thing that had brought soul into the
conference''.
However,
she said that there were concerns about the safety of every one
of the speakers - ''some more than others'' - as they return home.
Certain United Nations bodies would assist to monitor their safety.(END)
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