minorities in focus

Ishbel Matheson, MRG’s Head of Policy and Communications, reports back from a trip to Kenya to research the situation of minorities following the recent violence

From the moment I landed, the effects of the recent convulsive violence were felt. Politics are an obsession. When the evening news comes on, busy restaurants and bars fall silent. Everyone is trying to figure out whether the Grand Coalition government, bringing together the opposition ODM and President Kibaki’s PNU, is going to last. Although it is early days - it looks pretty fragile. Already the opposite wings of the coalition have publicly contradicted each other, on key issues such as how to bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice. Every detail of senior politicians movements, and statements, are pored over. For example, when the new Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, went to ’sell’ the new government in his heartland of Western Kenya at the weekend, it was immediately noted that no senior PNU official accompanied him. How much of a partnership is this government, in reality, Kenyans are asking themselves.

They are, however, anxious that the terrible ethnic violence doesn’t return. On a drive up through the Rift Valley, from Nakuru to Eldoret, the landscape was scattered with sobering reminders of what the violence cost - in human terms. Burnt-out shells of buildings - shops, sheds, homes - dot the side of the road. Farms have been abandoned. Here, the Kikuyu ethnic group was targeted by the Kalenjin. Scores of lives were lost and tens of thousands displaced. Although the largest ethnic group in Kenya (and one which has been dominant politically and economically since independence), the Kikuyu are a minority in this part of the Kenya.

Weeks have passed since the last violence, but no one feels secure. 20,000 Kikuyu are still camped in Eldoret’s showground. The government is threatening to forcibly relocate them back home, but many are simply too fearful. They say there must be talks with Kalenjin village elders first, to get guarantees about the return of property and security. On the Kalenjin side, there are calls for those arrested in the wake of the violence to be freed as a gesture of reconciliation - something the Kikuyu see as completely unacceptable. Depressingly, although everyone agrees that tribalism in Kenya has got completely out of control, and that the political class are mostly to blame, there has nevertheless been a hardening of ethnicity. One Kikuyu told me the main message his community drew from the violence is that “the Kikuyu weren’t strong enough…we won’t be caught out like this again”. It is simply too early to say yet whether Kenya is on the road to recovery - or to ruin.

You can find out more about how different ethnic groups in Kenya were affected by the post-election violence on MRG’s dedicated page Minority Voices from Kenya.

Matilde Ceravolo, MRG’s Fundraiser, makes friends in Pristina and hopes for peace

Such a statement would attract international worries, had it not come from Besnik, a smiling, lovely 12-year-old, excited about practicing his English.

We are sitting atop the Prizren castle ruins, admiring the fascinating Turkish-style city at our feet, and the snow-capped mountains in front of us. Prizren is the main town inhabited by Kosovar Turks, and the only one where Turkish is still an official language. From our exceptional point of view we can observe the impressive quantity of minarets, but next to them, also several orthodox churches, demonstrating how this city has been a crossing point of different cultures.

Today, orthodox churches are surrounded by barbed wire, protected by German KFOR, behind ostensible UNMIK notices informing that no offence will be tolerated. Just under the castle, the Serbian quarter is still destroyed and inhabited. The owners never felt secure enough to return to their houses.

As I chat with my new friend and his schoolmates, I wonder how he gathered so much hate. He is too young to remember the Milosevic era. What must he be hearing from his father, commenting on the evening news?

The Serb quarter in Prizren

During my short stay in Kosovo I have heard and read testimony of hate against Serbs on a daily basis. Since 1989, Albanians in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have been victim of systematic discrimination and violation of human rights. FRY forces are believed to have implemented deliberate ethnic cleansing. The hate against Serbia is understandable.

But Kosovar Serbs have also been victims of the conflict. It is estimated that about 200,000 of them were displaced. A number of extra-judicial killings have been documented, of which the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was considered responsible.

Nowadays, KLA members have become political leaders of the independent Kosovo. Pristina and the whole country are filled with posters celebrating the KLA and its fighters. Albanian flags are everywhere; the National Museum in Pristina dedicates one entire floor to KLA history.

I wonder how Serbs could ever feel safe in a country that celebrates their killers; how would they ever accept to being a part of such a country?

Last Sunday Serb voters were divided, but the pro EU Democratic Party of Serbia’s president Boris Tadic got a clear majority. The new government is still to be decided and it is difficult to imagine that Serbia would accept the independence of Kosovo.

However, on behalf of MRG, during the last 10 days I have been meeting members of all the communities. The common issue that came out from all the meetings is that Kosovars have similar worries and aspirations: to live freely and safely in a country that respects their identity, no matter if the country is called Serbia or Kosovo.

Tomorrow I will be leaving this complex country and its fascinating people. I am far from having answered all the questions I had on the creation of this new state and the international intervention. But I believe that only dialogue and trust can create the premises for a sustainable solution, and for this to happen, leaders on both sides must abolish hate speech and adopt peaceful language.

All I wish to Besnik and his friends is they have the chance to grow up without enemies.

Matilde Ceravolo, MRG’s Fundraiser, reflects on the similarities and differences of two cities caught up in ethnic feuding

As my flight left Ljubljana, I wondered why it would take as much time to reach Pristina as it took to come from London. Naïve question soon answered. The plane went all along the Croatian coast, then into Italian airspace towards Brindisi, turned right into Albania and then North again to Pristina… Direct flights to Kosovo are not allowed into Serbian airspace.

I went to Mitrovica today, to meet the Serbian community. Airspace is not the only thing they are not prepared to compromise.

It is quite impressive how perceptions change when you change the point of view. South of the river, you are in independent Kosovo which contains a northern Serbian-inhabited region. You cross the river, and you are in the southern region of Serbia.

Mitrovica and Nicosia are the last divided cities in Europe. Different language, different religion, and a history that makes barbed wire difficult to remove.

In Cyprus, accession to the EU is playing a key role for the solution of the stalemate. The Turkish Cypriot community has showed a clear interest in dialogue, as does the newly elected President of the Republic. The hopes for reunification are at the highest point of the last 30 years.

Serbs in Mitrovica hope that the accession of Serbia will have the same effect on Kosovo, and that the independence process will be reverted. What they forget is that Northern Cyprus was never recognized by the international community (with the exception of Turkey), while Kosovo as been brought to life under the international protectorate.

As an outsider, walking in the streets of Mitrovica as well as in Nicosia, I feel the nonsense of once-neighbours transformed into enemies, while these places could host all their children in a peaceful community. Before 1999, Mitrovica used to be the most multi-ethnic municipality in Kosovo. Now it is the symbol of national identity for both Serbian and Albanian Kosovars.

Most of the responsibility lies at the door of the international community. Crimes of the recent past have never been prosecuted, ethnic cleansing has not been punished, displaced people have not been given the security to return to their homes.

Kosovo is at an historical turning-point. On 11 May, Serbian citizens (including Kosovars) will be called to elect the Government that will lead the country for the next year. It is the moment for Serbs to choose between renewed nationalism or dialogue.

Meanwhile, the new constitution of the Republic of Kosovo has been designed and must now be implemented.

Unless the new authorities on both sides – with the support of the European Community – create a safe environment for all communities, where human rights are protected and every citizen has equal opportunities, irrespective of its ethnicity, the frustration will rise again. And again… History has shown what unanswered frustrations and fear can bring. This is the moment to give answers.

Co-incidentally the focus of the morning TV news in New York was also on the environment. It was amazing how the debate on television news in a capital city (on the east coast) was simplified into entertaining little quizzes on whether you should do your dishes by machine or hand?! I would have thought that the world’s biggest polluter had moved beyond this level of discussion - there were no experts, there was no analysis, there weren’t even statistics - so a comfortable avoidance of where US households stand with their carbon foot print.

But inside the UN the debate was very different. At the Indigenous Peoples Forum I was attending, the communities contributing the least to pollution were explaining how they were suffering the most.

The Inuit and Sami communities who live in the Arctic across Alaska and Greenland and Scandinavia are severely affected by melting ice caps. Patricia Cochran of the Inuit Circumpolar Council explains to me that there have been cases where peoples and villages have simply vanished as a resulting of the melting snow. Sami reindeer herders speak of how their everyday lives are affected as warmer winters prevent the reindeer climbing to the top of the mountains to find their food.

Indigenous activist from Siberia (left) talking to
pastoralists from Kenya

Further down in Ethiopia and Kenya pastoralist communities are finding the desserts hotter as a result of longer and more persistent droughts (I have pledged to stop complaining about the hot summers in Europe). They are dependent on their livestock, much of which is being lost to the drought together with people who die of the heat and starvation. The consequences are far reaching because in some cases men and specially women face exploitation as they migrate to cities and struggle to make a living.

In the pacific indigenous communities explain how the underwater sea life is for them similar to the forests that the South American Amazon dwellers are fighting to protect. For pacific tribes they are dependent on the fish and other sea-creatures who are affected by the rising water temperature that in turn is affecting the entire eco-system.

Every community represented at the UN from all regions of the world had their own unique story of how climate change was affecting them. Climate change for many years has been seen as a strictly environmental issue though later accepted as also a developmental issue. It is only now being recognized as a human rights issue but looking at it under a human rights lens is fairly new territory for many and that was clear even at the UN forum.

But for the indigenous communities it is less relevant how the debate is framed. For them the stark reality is that their communities are facing (or in some cases have already faced) a threat to life, development, self-determination, culture, etc. In some cases there is even a fear that entire communities may become extinct or at the least communities will lose fundamental aspects of their language, culture and literature that are so closely linked to nature.

This I think was the main point of emphasis at the forum - the exceptional, close relationship indigenous peoples have with the environment. Their dead live on in the soil, their Gods are in the waterfalls and the rivers, their spirits are in the wind. Their elders can interpret nature and have a way of communicating with the environment and although climate change challenges some aspects of this traditional knowledge these communities argue that their knowledgebase is diverse and they have historical experience of adaptation.

Hence the argument goes like this - because Indigenous peoples are the worst affected by climate change yet have the closest relationship to nature any solution on climate change should include them.

Getting world leaders grappling with issues of carbon footprints and CO2 emissions to also recognize this human cost is going to be tough one.

MRG’s Media Officer Farah Mihlar is learning about indigenous communities at the UN in New York

Aaahhh New York!!

There is just something about the Big Apple that makes it impossible to resist a trip here even if it comes at the busiest of times. It’s difficult to pin down exactly what it is about New York – something to do with the buzz, the vibrancy, the colour, the anonymity, the attitude, the art, culture, knowledge on offer – all of which makes it special even to someone who does not easily appreciate western capitalist culture and symbolism!

But this is not about New York (I eventually did wake up to the fact that I was not on paid holiday). I am here to attend the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFI) focusing this year on the impact of climate change on indigenous peoples. Following the release of a recent publication on climate change and minorities, MRG is looking to expand its work on how the scourge of our times affects minority and indigenous communities. We have chosen this issue as one of our online campaigns for this year and the UN forum, which brings together UN member states, experts and indigenous community representatives, could not be missed.

My mission: keep my antennas up, put on my journalist cap (never succeeded in getting rid of that), network but most importantly understand the issues, figure out what the communities want so we at MRG can better represent them.

Based on my experiences with other UN mechanisms such as the Human Rights Council (HRC) I was ready for an element of chaos, prepared for the politics, the diplomacy, the manoeuvring that often stains the work of the UN. But I was quite pleasantly surprised.

The first taste of what was to come was at the registration queue at the entrance to the UN headquarters in New York. Men and women in crisp suits were replaced by people wearing the most unusual, colourful shirts, dresses, sarongs, feathered hats, turbans and shawls woven, as they explain, in centuries of history and tradition. They were accessorized with beaded chains, metal medallions, feathers, flowers all heavily symbolic – as a young reindeer herder from the Sami community in Finland explains the shape of the button in their belts go as far as to indicate if they are married or not.

Two young Sami reindeer herders discuss climate change

In the main conference room the usual delegate boards naming member states are replaced by scribbled boards titled Batwa, Sami, rainforest people, Elmolo… hundreds and hundreds of different indigenous peoples from across the world proudly representing their status as the original inhabiters of the world.

The uniqueness of the UNPFI was stark. This is not a forum where states dominate with diplomats at the edge of their seats waiting to attack a country or defend their own. In fact this is forum where state parties are confined to one corner of the room and a majority of the delegates pay no respect to strictly defined borders. They often represent nations unrecognized as states and their communities spread across regions and countries. This is a forum where proceedings start not with acknowledgement to the UN or to the host country but by giving thanks to the Onondaga people, native Americans who were the original inhabitants of the land the UN is situated on (sorry, no thanks to George W Bush – not even for the visas). Elders, who are revered and respected in indigenous communities bless the forum and open the session by giving thanks to mother earth, the waterfalls and rivers, the thunder that brings rain, the sun and the air.

This is an event where the superpowers have no place and the heroes are those who defy the mainstream. Bolivia’s new Indigenous President Evo Morales, got a thundering applause and long standing ovation as he took up contentious issues of historic injustice to indigenous people and recommended a shift away from capitalist developmental models. It is a forum that not just introduces one to a whole different world but to vastly different world views – many issues that make our headlines have little relevance here – these are people that subscribe to entirely different belief systems (Samuel Huntington may want to rewrite ‘Clash of civilizations’ after a day of being here). Here you can not accuse ‘Americans’ of invading Iraq. Americans they will say are confined to reserves and national parks and had no role in invading Iraq.

For me it has been one of the most humbling and exciting learning. Throughout my work in human rights, coming from a country affected by conflict myself, I have grappled with issues of ethnicity and religion in identity formation and issues of nationhood. But this is another paradigm. The usual human rights jargon of oppression and injustice take on entirely different dimension.

I feel like making a run to a book store but I realize few history books and atlases will be accurate. The story is with the people themselves.

So I am off now, equipped with voice recorder and camera.

New mission: Climate change plus, plus.

Emma Eastwood, MRG’s Media Officer, wraps up her work in Budapest and is left with some food for thought

Apparently there was a reassuringly strong presence from the anti-racists yesterday afternoon at the demo – even former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder showed his face, along with the Hungarian Prime Minister (who some here accuse of scoring political points from the whole affair). Maybe they feared a repeat performance from the extreme right, who went on the rampage a while back and ‘trashed the city’… I saw some photos of the riots later at a photo exhibition in the Hungarian National Museum, the Hungarian Guard, a right-wing group leading the movement, is sinister and of great concern, but frankly I must admit that I find the penchant of neo-Nazis for quasi-military uniforms and dodgy insignia both ridiculous and absurd.

Tracey, from Hungarian NGO Védegylet, paints a different picture of Slovenian society from the journalists I spoke to yesterday. She tells me that the Slovenian activists she’s met are some of the most inspiring and positive people in the region. On a different note she’s a fellow vegetarian and we have an ‘interesting’ discussion over lunch with Angela, an expert on rights and development from Brussels and Esther from the Uganda Land Alliance (who are both speakers at the event), defending the concept that animals have rights too.

Max Slimani

Max Slimani, from the Africa Centre in Slovenia, provides one of the most thought-provoking presentations of the seminar today. He provides us with examples of how in many countries in the EU stereotyping of Africans continues apace in children’s books and educational materials. Max is a commanding speaker and I can sense that he makes many of us squirm in our seats as we remember with a shudder the textbooks of our childhoods – despite the UK today having one of the most enlightened school curricula in the EU in terms of global education, Little Black Sambo and golliwogs were still around when I was a girl. MRG is well aware that these stereotypes entrench prejudice from an early age and has incorporated educational reform into its own campaign goals.

Talking of campaigning I’ve heard of some real creative and inspiring examples from many of the NGOs here. An old favourite of mine, Critical Mass, a global direct action movement of cyclists, attracted some 35, 000 people in its last incarnation in Budapest (although Tracey tells me that the crowds of cyclists aim to cause as little disruption as possible - quite the opposite of my own experience of actions in San Francisco and London). How they manage that with so many people beats me…

The seminar draws to a close this afternoon and I relish breaking out of the bubble of the last few days and the feel of the wind on my cheeks as I cross the Danube on Margaret Bridge. The truth is it’s been a privilege to meet so many people doing such diverse work in so many countries, which should certainly help when I’m churning out press releases back at my desk on Commercial Street.

MRG’s Media Officer, Emma Eastwood, hears tales of strife from Kenya and right below her nose in Hungary

Last night I interviewed Nyang’ori Ohenjo from the Kenyan Indigenous Fisher Peoples Network, whose analysis of the recent (and current) post-election violence in Kenya is somewhat more thorough than that portrayed by the international media. He tells me that even though many of the concerns of minority communities in Kenya were addressed in the 2001 Constitution review process, the 2002 government led by Mwai Kibaki reneged on those constitutional promises thus setting the stage for serious resentment and animosity towards the Kikuyu community loyal to him. Nyang’ori claims that come the December 2007 elections many people had simply had enough, with their backs up against the wall their only recourse was to turn to violence. For an in depth look at this issue see MRG ‘s 2005 report, Kenya: Minorities, Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Diversity, which Nyang’ori helped to write.

Nyang’ori Ohenjo

Talking to the journalists present at the seminar today from the new EU member states was informative but at times disheartening. The Slovenians told me of the difficulties they face getting coverage of international development issues past their editors and painted a picture of Slovenian society as increasingly inward looking following an initial euphoric period post-independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

As we sipped our coffee on the balcony admiring the view of the Danube, one of the Hungarian journalists alerted us to a neighbourhood conflict happening right under our noses. Apparently a shopkeeper in the Jewish quarter of Pest refused to sell a ticket to a skinhead for a concert by an extremist group a few days ago and her shop was firebombed. A broad coalition of anti racist activists turned up the following day to show support for the shopkeeper and this afternoon the extreme right wing has organised a counter demonstration. Am I imagining it or can I hear more sirens than usual…

I’ll encourage the journalists to let us know what happened tomorrow morning - from what I’ve been told by members of the Hungarian NGOs here it’s not an isolated incident and reflects wider tensions throughout the country.

MRG’s Media Officer, Emma Eastwood, is in Budapest for an MRG Europe seminar on the rights-based approach to international development

I’ve finally escaped the MRG office in London and am holed up in the Buda hills with NGOs and journalists from the new EU member states.

The venue couldn’t have been better placed for those of us new to Hungary, Budapest spreads out as far as the eye can see below our eyrie in the Council of Europe Youth Centre. Dominating the view is the gothic National Parliament building on the banks of the Danube, resplendent in the spring sunshine.

My role at the seminar is multi-faceted - I’m here to learn more about human rights and development, the work of the NGOs present and all importantly to build relationships with journalists from the new EU member states. At the same time I’ll also be giving an online demo of the new MRG World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples and will run a workshop on harnessing the power of the media for advocacy.

My covert mission however is to seek stories that bring the work of MRG to life and my eyes and ears are open for news ‘angles’. Tales of discrimination against Roma in this part of Europe abound… We’re meant to be looking at development in the South, yet many of the NGOs from this region are rightly focusing on their own neighbours - a 2003 report by UNDP found that Roma living conditions in central and eastern Europe were comparable to sub-Saharan Africa. Viera from the Slovakian NGO Center for the Support and Development of Human Potential illustrates the point when she tells me about over-crowding and lack of even the most basic amenities in what is effectively a Roma ghetto in the town of Kosice. Apparently the neighbourhood, called Lumik IX, appears in a gritty film about migration in central Europe called ‘Import Export’ by Austrian director Ulrich Seidl if anyone wants to check it out.

I’ve come well armed for the job of documenting the proceedings - laptop, MP3 recorder, mic, headphones, camera, mobile phone. I battle with a bona fide spaghetti junction of cables in my room… My hope is to interview MRG partners from Kenya and Uganda who’ve come to the seminar to contextualise the theory with case studies from the front line of EU development projects.

We begin by delving deeper into the definitions of poverty and human rights and examine the motivations behind overseas development assistance (we’re a cynical lot I’m afraid, I won’t depress you with our answers). I look around and realise that the gender balance of the seminar is shockingly awry – out of 30 NGO participants and speakers only four are men – interestingly it’s a trend similarly reflected back at the MRG office in London. This is gender mainstreaming gone mad, what about the introduction of quotas I say…

MRG’s SE Europe Programme Coordinator Snjezana Bokulic enlightening us all on UN mechanisms – I can’t help wishing that we could steal the Council of Europe’s slogan ‘all different, all equal’ - it embodies the protection of minority rights in just a few words compared to our tongue-twister of a mission statement (and maybe that way journalists would stop thinking I was calling them about a shareholders’ story).

Marusca Perazzi, MRG’s Programme Officer, takes the opportunity to visit an Ethiopian organisation working with marginalized women in Addis Ababa

By pure coincidence, I meet with Mr Mengist, the Director General of Welfare for Street Mothers and Children Organisation (WeSMCO), an NGO that carries out an impressive range of activities and essential community development work - the organisation promotes good-governance and democracy, focuses on conflict prevention measures in the northwest areas of the country bordering Sudan, concentrates on the empowerment of women and works to alleviate the socio-economic problems of marginalized and destitute communities in Ethiopia.

During our talk in a cafe on Meskel Square, Mr Mengist kindly offers to take me to WeSMCO’s office in the middle of Addis in a large community of 400 households that the organisation supports. I take the opportunity to visit the workshops, the classroom and the allotments where the community is growing vegetables on a large strip of land. I get to see the sewing machines that enable women in the community to support themselves by gaining skills that will allow them to find employment.

I am overwhelmed by the extremely well organised manner in which this organisation is run; the record keeping is simply astonishing given the large amount of work and diverse projects that WeSMCO carries out. Whilst discussing opportunities to work in partnership with MRG, the issue of funding inevitably comes up. In fact, despite the fact that WeSMCO projects are funded by various national and international donors, Mr Mengist points out that it is increasingly difficult to deliver projects on a 1-year funded basis as the timespan is too short to see a major impact on the ground for some of the programmes.

After spending the afternoon visiting the community’s households and allotments, it’s time to say goodbye. It was an unexpected but enlightening encounter, and splendid opportunity to appreciate the work that local NGOs are doing in the cities.

Marusca Perazzi, MRG’s Programmes Officer reports from a visit to minority organisations in Addis Ababa

It’s time to say goodbye to colourful and friendly South Africa to take off to Ethiopia. When I land in Addis Ababa; despite all the unexpected delays during the day, I reach my accommodation and am instantly reminded of the purpose of my travels - the building opposite my lodge is called the “Bahá’í Centre”.

In the first hours of the morning, Addis Ababa is rather quiet and offers a spectacular and breath-taking view of an upturned half moon. My initial thought is that this is yet another country in Africa which shows a different face, but I also wonder whether that’s really the case…

In fact, after a few hours the reality of what this city is really about starts surfacing more strongly. Traffic jams, pollution… luckily the gentle breeze that characterizes this city is accompanying me on my way to meeting Alawis Ahmed, Programme Manager of the MRG partner organisation Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia (PFE).

On the way to PFE’s office, it becomes obvious that the government is investing heavily in road construction and planning, but the people on the streets and the obvious levels of poverty and inequality are what really catch my attention. Yet, apparently, this is a rather fine quarter of the city where a number of embassies and international organisations are based.

PFE is currently working on a research project on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) processes with specific reference to pastoralists communities in Ethiopia. Mr Alawis and his colleagues are particularly welcoming and we discuss how the project is progressing on the ground and the kind of challenges that may be lying ahead. He complains of a lack of knowledge on the part of government officials about both PRSPs and the difficulties faced by pastoralist communities around the country on a daily basis. However, I am impressed by PFE’s strategies to promote the project and raise awareness around PRSPs and minorities.

Mr Alawis, a pastoralist himself, explains that it is very important to engage with the Ethiopian government to ensure its participation and give it the opportunity to address patterns of inequality that affect pastoralist communities.

Afterwards I visit the PFE community centre which offers a number of publications on subjects ranging from land issues, conflict prevention, indigenous peoples, governance, gender and human rights.

Later whilst on the balcony of my lodge, I see a group of women walking on the busy main road gesticulating wildly. To my surprise I realise that they are all waving at me and shouting “Good night sister! I love you.” I just manage to warn them in time to pass on the other side of the road as a big 4 x 4 almost hits them. Still waving at me, they cross the road and slowly disappear from sight; what a joy and genuine welcome to Ethiopia.