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HUMAN RIGHTS: Activists and Military Officers Hand in Hand

Mario de Queiroz

LISBON, Apr 25 2007 (IPS) - Joined together in an enormous human chain and singing songs that marked the end of Portugal’s 48-year dictatorship on Apr. 25, 1974, military officers who overthrew the regime and human rights activists from 105 different countries came out in defence of the world’s migrants.

The unique demonstration was planned by the 140 organisations that make up the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) for the closure of its 36th congress, which opened in the Portuguese capital on Apr. 19.

The FIDH described its participation in the traditional march along the downtown Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon as “an homage to Apr. 25, 1974”, when leftist army captains in Portugal put an end to Europe’s longest 20th century dictatorship and to a nearly six-century-old colonial empire.

After toppling the dictatorship – which was led in 1926 by generals Antonio de Fragoso Carmona and Manuel Gomes da Costa and after 1932 by Antonio de Oliveira Salazar -, the Portuguese revolution of 1974 gave rise to democracy and respect for human rights, the FIDH added.

Vitor Alves, an army major in 1974 who was one of the best-known leaders of the Armed Forces Movement that staged the coup or the “Revolution of the Carnations”, told IPS that “this gesture by the FIDH, to bring to Lisbon 250 representatives of the best and most active civil society organisations from the five continents, was not a simple coincidence.”

Alves, who is now a reserve colonel, deplored that “in a world thirsty for freedom, democracy, justice and peace, these values are unfortunately denied in innumerable places and circumstances, while by contrast we see relations based on the exploitation of the weak, often through new forms of colonialism.”

The FIDH decision to meet in Lisbon was explained to IPS by the organisation’s president, Sidiki Kaba. “Why Portugal? Simply because it is a country of the (industrialised) North that has vast experience in the (developing) South, and also because it is a recipient and source of migration flows.”

When Portugal assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) in July, “cooperation between Europe and Africa, between North and South, could receive a big boost.with stepped-up assistance aimed at protecting migrants and bolstering progress in Africa,” said the Senegalese activist.

Kaba hoped that Lisbon “will make a determined effort towards the ratification of the U.N. Migrant Workers Convention, which is such an important mechanism,” and pointed out that “this is the first time that an international human rights group has made the phenomenon of international migration (the theme of the 36th FIDH congress) its central focus.”

“Walls of vengeance” was the phrase he used to describe the security fences designed to keep out immigrants that Spain has built around Melilla – a Spanish enclave on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast -, that “the United States is building along its border with Mexico, and that Israel is building to keep out the Arab population.”

He warned that even in countries that are making positive efforts to come up with solutions to the question of immigration there are people “who fuel the theories of the extreme right: that immigrants are to blame for violence and all of society’s woes.”

For that reason, “In Lisbon we decided to reflect on the question in a rational, scientific and objective way, for a universal vision of migration,” said Kaba.

This phenomenon “involves 200 million people, or three percent of the global population,” he emphasised.

But much confusion surrounds the issue and the current debate is “schizophrenic, because the media report on South to North migration, but rarely point out that these flows are no heavier than South-South flows,” he said.

To illustrate, Kaba mentioned the flows of immigrants into South Africa from other African nations, or from the Philippines, Indonesia and Burma to Arab Gulf nations, as well as the thousands of people who emigrate every year to Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica from other Latin American countries.

Another important aspect “is the feminisation of migration flows, where we find that one out of two people who migrate are now women, who are more than ever affected by the phenomenon of the globalisation of migration flows.”

“Globalisation defends total mobility, but there are attempts to impose limits. Ideas travel, merchandise travels, money travels, but human beings should also be able to travel,” said the head of the FIDH.

To curb flows of people, the North also has some allies in the South, where “there are countries that are entrenching themselves, as in the case of Senegal, which is being pushed to act as gendarme in order to keep migrants from reaching European coasts,” he added.

Kaba ended with a proposal: “To globalise solidarity by promoting development policies that would bolster the progress of poor countries in order to keep their populations in place, so that they would not be forced to choose the route of emigration.”

That approach, he said, would be “advantageous to both source and recipient countries of migration flows.”

FIDH deputy secretary-general Cynthia Gabriel said that although in recent years Asia has experienced several democratisation processes, it is still a continent where human rights are not well-respected, “especially in the case of Burma, which is almost completely isolated internationally and where the people are systematically repressed.”

With respect to the military junta’s continued hold on power in Rangoon, the Malaysian activist – who explained that her surname is a result of the fact that “the Portuguese were in Malaysia for over 200 years” – pointed her finger not only at industrialised powerhouses, especially the United States, but also at “powerful countries in the region, like India and China.”

The two Asian giants “are accomplices of the military regime, which they help maintain itself in power,” Gabriel told IPS.

The European Union “should exercise strong pressure to bring the case of Burma before the United Nations Security Council,” she argued.

Another case that should be denounced, said Gabriel, is that of China, where “no criticism or views against the regime are allowed, although there is an opening to the market economy, which is a contradiction.”

FIDH vice president Alirio Uribe commented to IPS, meanwhile, that in Latin America, “more than 17 million people have emigrated in the last five years.”

The population of Ecuador, which totalled 12.5 million, shrank by one million in the space of just one year, and nearly all of the countries of Central America are sources of major migration flows, while at the same time serving as transit points for foreigners on their way to the United States, he pointed out.

“We are concerned about the strong measures being taken on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, or in Haiti, to prevent people from other Latin American countries from reaching Puerto Rico by throwing them behind bars or deporting them, because emigrants are vulnerable,” said the Colombian lawyer, who has represented victims of crimes against humanity at both the local and international levels.

He said immigrants were often stigmatised and accused of being terrorists or members of organised crime groups.

“All of this occurs because the United States says these policies are necessary for preventing terrorism or drug trafficking, even though immigrants generate wealth, not insecurity,” said Uribe.

The human rights lawyer said that Latin America “is today a continent swept by winds of change,” especially Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela, all of which are now governed by leftist or centre-left administrations.

He admitted, however, that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s controversial style “facilitates to some extent” the treatment he receives at the hands of most of the world’s press, “which picks up on some of his public remarks, that are very contentious, while ignoring the advances made by his public policies.”

Chávez was reelected in “closely observed elections,” he noted, while underlining that in Venezuela, “progress has been made in economic, social and cultural rights, and in health, education and food programmes.”

“The portion of the Venezuelan population that have historically been excluded have today found some response to their needs, as part of a way of addressing human rights as an integral concept,” he said.

Uribe revealed that on several occasions, “the FIDH has been asked to come out against the lack of freedom of expression in Venezuela, but when we ask which journalists have been killed, which ones are in prison, or how many media outlets have been shut down, there is no response, because there are no cases, and the majority of the privately-owned media are still opposed to the government.”