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World Council of Churches
Press Release PR-03-13
For Immediate Use
19 March 2002

UN Human Rights Commission: 
WCC to highlight increasing religious intolerance

Increasing religious intolerance in India, Indonesia and Pakistan is being 
highlighted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the current (59th) 
session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) that began on 
17 March and continues through 24 April. The denial of socio-economic and 
cultural rights to the people of West Papua, as well as human rights violations 
committed under the Israeli military occupation of Palestine will also be 
addressed by the WCC. 

In one of two written submissions, the WCC Commission of Churches of 
International Affairs (CCIA) draws UNCHR attention to "the growing environment 
of religious intolerance and violence in Indonesia, India and Pakistan that has 
claimed many lives". The submission calls on UNCHR to "urge the governments of 
these countries to seek means by which dialogue may be promoted between 
religious communities and their governments as well as between religious 
communities themselves". 

In the other written submission, the CCIA addresses the situation in West 
Papua, were the Indonesian government "over the years has followed policies 
that have been unjust, unfair and exploitative of the Papuan people". It asks 
the government to make serious efforts "to implement the autonomy law in 
consultation with the representatives of the Papuan people". And it requests 
the UNCHR "to urge the Indonesian government to take serious steps to ensure 
that the Province of Papua gets its due and just share of the proceeds raised 
from the exploitation of its abundant natural resources". 

The CCIA will also intervene orally on human rights violations under the 
Israeli military occupation of Palestine, focusing on the human rights 
implications of a wall now going up between Israel and the West Bank. It will 
provide UN-based journalists with eyewitness accounts of this phenomenon; the 
reports come from participants in a WCC-based Ecumenical Accompaniment 
Programme whose mission it is to accompany churches in Israel and the Occupied 
Palestinian Territories (OPT) in their actions and advocacy to end the 
occupation. CCIA is arranging a small photo exhibition of the wall, and will 
present a report by one of the ecumenical accompaniers. It will also show a 
video, "Ending Occupation: Voices for Just Peace", produced by the WCC. 

During this UNCHR session, the CCIA, together with other international and 
national non-governmental organizations, will organize a parallel meeting on 
Indonesia. It will also convene a meeting of Lobindo, a strategy group that 
coordinates ecumenical advocacy work on Indonesia. Two representatives of the 
Evangelical Christian Church in Tanah Papua (West Papua) will attend the 
session. 

In addition, the CCIA will monitor developments related to justice, impunity, 
security legislation and terrorism, racism, indigenous people, and country-
specific situations in Sudan, Nigeria, Colombia, Guatemala and Iraq. 
Representatives from church-related partners in Pakistan, Nigeria, and 
Argentina will be attending the session. A six-member delegation from Guatemala 
will meet with diplomatic missions as well as representatives of the Swiss 
government. 

For further information, please contact the Media Relations Office,  tel: +41(0)
22 791 64 21 /61 53
**********
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in 
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian 
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works 
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which 
meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 
in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary Konrad 
Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
Media Relations Office
Tel: (41 22) 791 6153 / 791 6421
Fax: (41 22) 798 1346
E-mail: media at wcc-coe.org 
Web: www.wcc-coe.org 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Age (Melbourne)
Opinion
The humanitarian arguments for this war are spurious
March 21 2003
-- Why, asks Scott Burchill, does the liberation of Iraq take precedence over 
concerns in West Papua and Palestine?

The onus is always on those who argue for war. They need to demonstrate a casus 
belli or just cause. There is no need to mount an argument against the use of 
violence, unless peace and order are regarded as undesirable conditions.

So how should we assess the argument of supporters of this intervention in 
Iraq, that war can be justified on humanitarian grounds? There are four major 
problems with it.

1. While there is no disputing the brutal nature of Saddam Hussein's regime, 
the case for intervention made by those in Canberra, London and Washington is 
weakened by the fact that at the peak of Saddam's crimes in the late 1980s, 
they were either directly supporting him with weapons, technology and 
intelligence or were entirely indifferent to his behaviour. Even if they have 
belatedly recognised the error of their ways, how seriously can we take their 
concerns about weapons of mass destruction now, given they were his suppliers 
then?

2. In some quarters the humanitarian commitment to the people of Iraq appears 
only skin deep. Despite adumbrating Saddam's awful treatment of his citizens, 
both John Howard and Tony Blair said last week that he could stay in power - 
presumably to continue his brutality - provided he gave up his weapons of mass 
destruction. So much for their ethical concern.

3. The argument for humanitarian intervention in Iraq implies that sovereignty 
is no longer a protection against attack from outsiders who object to the 
nature of another government's rule. This principle, if widely adopted, would 
overturn the UN charter and international law more generally, and revolutionise 
international relations.

The idea of humanitarian intervention is widely contested and debated by 
academics, non-government organisations and governments around the world. No 
clear, consensually recognised criteria for it exist, even in recent cases such 
as Somalia and Kosovo where the principle was invoked. When Vietnam brought an 
end to Pol Pot's genocidal regime in Cambodia in 1979 it was treated as a 
pariah by the West, despite the improved humanitarian conditions the 
intervention produced.

To simply claim non-intervention will produce a worse humanitarian result than 
war ignores the significant reality that, for all its faults, the international 
system is still based on the independence of sovereign states, which enjoy an 
administrative monopoly over a bounded territory. To raise the principle of 
humanitarian intervention to the same legal and moral status of national 
sovereignty would have immediate and chaotic consequences for people across the 
world.

4. Howard's claim that "doing nothing about Iraq, potentially, is much more 
costly than using force, if necessary, to ensure Iraq's disarmament" is both 
wildly hypothetical and morally suspect. No one can accurately predict the 
number of innocent civilians who will be internally displaced, forced to become 
refugees, or be killed by this war. To imply there is a moral balance sheet 
that can be reconciled if the humanitarian effects of the war can are minimised 
is grotesque. As British philosopher Ted Honderich has said: "There is no 
parity between our doing something with the dead certainty of killing and 
maiming thousands, and not doing it with only the probability that some people 
will suffer."

We are directly responsible for the effects of our intervention in Iraq. We are 
not responsible for the consequences of our inaction, unless - at the very 
least - the West suddenly owns up to the vital support it gave Saddam when he 
was gassing Kurdish villagers and Iranian soldiers in the 1980s. This has not 
happened.

However, by this logic we are equally accountable for much of the immiseration 
of Africa, Asia and Latin America. So why does the liberation of Iraq take 
precedence over longer-standing concerns in West Papua and Palestine, to cite 
only two peoples betrayed for more than 30 years by the UN and the West?

The sudden discovery of a humanitarian crisis in Iraq by people who were silent 
when it peaked in the 1980s is an unconvincing acknowledgement that all other 
arguments for this war against Iraq have collapsed.

It's a grab for the moral high ground which is, at best, tendentious, and at 
worse an action with unforeseen and possibly catastrophic consequences for 
Iraqis and others.
-- Scott Burchill lectures in international relations at Deakin University.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tempo Interactive
Japan Interested in Buying Tangguh LNG
20 Mar 2003 22:41:11 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Japan has said that it is interested in buying 
liquid natural gas (LNG) from Tangguh gas field in Papua. 

“We are still studying the contract,” said Baihaki Hakim, President Director of 
the State Oil and Gas Company Pertamina, to reporters in Jakarta on Thursday 
(20/3). 

He explained that Pertamina and Japan had not yet spoken about the amount and 
price because the contract would only start in 2007. 

“I do not expect the process will be started in the near future,” said Baihaki. 

He did not mention the amount of LNG that Japan needs from the Tangguh field, 
but Pertamina has set a sales target of between 2 and 5 tons per year, starting 
in 2007. 

As regards price, Baihaki said that the international market tends to set the 
price as with the selling price of Tangguh gas to Fujian, China. 

At that time, Tangguh gas was sold at US$2.4 per mmbtu (mmillion metric british 
thermal unit). 

“It is the real price based on the market mechanism,” said Baihaki. 

He suggested Indonesia follow the price of gas on the international market. 
-- (Multazam – Tempo News Room) 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Asia Pulse/Antara
March 21, 2003
Japan eyes Indonesia's LNG 

Jakarta - Japan has expressed interest in importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) 
from the Tangguh field in Papua. 

Some of Japan's LNG-purchasing contracts with Indonesia are due to expire in 
2007-10. 

The president director of Indonesia's state-owned oil company Pertamina, 
Baihaki Hakim, said Tokyo wanted his firm to conduct a roadshow in Japan. 

China is Indonesia's No 1 LNG customer, followed by Japan, South Korea and 
Taiwan. China has signed a contract to buy 2.5 million tons of LNG a year. 

Japan has thus far received LNG from fields in Bontang, East Kalimantan and 
Arun in Aceh.