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Special Lectures

Mr.Kurata Masuhiko, Executive Secretary, Centre for Christian^:; Response to Asian Issues-NCCJ, Japan, spoke to the participants on "Human Rights and Solidarity in Asia". Making a quick survey of the countries in the Region, he pointed out that the ruling social elites in the various countries, in their efforts to impose exploitative economic systems on the people, had been compelled to enforce regimes of varying degrees of repression. Whilst in the early post-war years heavy human rights violations had occurred only in some countries, by the 1970s such violations including extra-judicial killings, torture, detention without trial, and massacres, could be observed generally in the entire region. Such violations have been accompanied by an ever-increasing concentrat­ion of state power by ruling elites. Alongside such centralisation the marginal ethnic minorities of Asia's many multi-ethnic societies

 

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have begun to suffer further marginalisation and cultural discrimi­nation.

Mr. Kurata, who had earlier worked with Amnesty International-Japan, said that when such international human rights agencies tried to intervene on behalf of oppressed groups, Asian regimes obstruct such efforts with a common excuse: "Please don't judge us according to Western values". "National Sovereignty" is another excuse used by these regimes to block such human rights solidarity. However, such tactics have never been able to fully obstruct the efforts of human rights groups. Today there is a growing worldwide network of international groups working in solidarity with struggl­ing movements of oppressed peoples in Asia. Strengthened by such international linkages these peoples movements are also gathering momentum. These international agencies, such as AI, and the WCC, have succeeded in establishing a worldwide credibility which re­pressive regimes are unable to completely undermine. The Christian Church is better equipped than other Asian religions to set up such networks because the Church has stronger international links. Originating from a common colonial heritage of Christian mission, today such links are an useful element of Asian unity. Mr. Kurata suggested that WSCF could also contribute to the linking up and sustaining of people's movements in the Region. Earlier there had been a tendency for Asians working in exchange programmes to go for work outside the Region. This must be changed to exchanges between Asian countries, Mr. Kurata argued, and proposed that WSCF take on this role.

 

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Ms. Chris Ledger, Chairperson, Australian SCM and Executive Committee Member of the Federation, led a discussion on the issue of "Nuclear Techonology, Peace and Justice". Strongly criticising the prevailing ideology of science and technology and the concept of so-called "Pure Research", she argued that too much of modern science and technology (S/T) was perpetuating injustice in society and damaging the natural environment. Furthermore S/T is today becoming so centralized and specialized that it is beyond the capacity of ordinary people to decide how much of S/T is really useful or not. Taking up the case of nuclear technology and mining in Australia, she pointed out that the uranium mining itself was hazardous, as was the raw material transport, whilst the mines had been opened in already settled areas thereby displacing the aboriginal communities living there. Nuclear reactors and power plants had proven to be serious disaster and pollution hazards.^. Similar hazards are experienced in the disposal of nuclear waste. Ms.Ledger, a WSCF Asia/Pacific Standing Committee member, charged that it was the big economic interest groups such as the trans­national corporations as well as militaristic governments who benefited from nuclear technology, and therefore there was little effort put into the development of alternative energy sources. Warning that the USA and USSR today have over 7,000 strategic nucl-

 

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ear weapons each, she warned that the nuclear war had already begun. The further proliferation of N-weapons was taking place amongst other countries with frightening rapidity. After a discussion in which many participants shared the problems of N-technology in their own countries, Ms.Ledger radically questioned the need for N-power at all, and called on SCMs to support campaigns for total nuclear disarmement and abandonment of N-energy production.

The participants were provided with a concise overview of the situation of Latin American society and the work of SCMs in that region by Mr. Roberto Fineda of the SCM of El Salvador. Mr. Pine-da was participating in HRD'84 as the guest of WSCF Asia/Pacific in an inter-regional exchange programme. He explained to the parti­cipants the immense struggle for freedom being waged by the El Salvadorean people against the successive, brutally repressive dictatorships which have been ruling his country for decades. Des­cribing also the heroic resistance of the Nicaraguan people against the imperialistic intimidation of the United States, Mr. Pineda warned of the serious danger of actual US military intervention in Central America to stem the tide of popular liberation struggles.

Mr. Ebby Prabhakar led another session with the participants relating to the history of the World Student Christian Federation and its evolving role within the broader ecumenical movement. Pre­senting an extensively researched paper on the formation of the federation and its organisational and theological development, Mr. Prabhakar observed that since the 1970s the WSCF

 

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has been going through a long period of deep soul-searching in order to gain a fresh "self-understanding" of itself. He noted that after several years of radically pioneering mission Ear afield/ of the narrow confines of the established institutions, the Federa­tion was once more renewing its links with these institutions.