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September 6, 2001
Corinna Schuler, National Post [www.nationalpost.com]
DURBAN, South Africa - In an oft-ignored chamber of the cavernous convention centre, the real victims of racism struggle to have their stories of suffering heard.
This is not one of the dozens of rooms where international negotiators spend days behind closed doors, locked in debate about where to place a comma or whether to spell "Holocaust" with a capital "H."
Here, persecuted people from every corner of the globe take their turn on stage between 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. every day to tell simple stories about real suffering -- the only forum at this massive United Nations gathering where the personal pain of discrimination is laid bare.
One day, the speaker was an escaped slave from Niger. The next, an aboriginal woman from Australia. Then, a migrant worker from Brazil.
Yesterday it was Murugesan Manimegalai's turn.
The 29-year-old mother of four is a member of India's lowest caste, so impoverished she had never left the confines of her squalid settlement before boarding a plane this week for Durban.
"I was very worried that it might fall," she confides with a shy smile.
But she pushed her fear aside yesterday, took a deep breath and told the story of her husband's horrifying murder to a crowd of 200 human rights activists and a few journalists.
By the time she was done, even the moderator was blinking back tears.
"We are Dalits" -- untouchables -- began Ms. Manimegalai.
As one of India's 1.4 million lowest-caste people, she grew up in a segregated village -- forbidden to draw water from the communal well or to attend the same temple as upper-caste people.
Her husband had only a Grade 10 education, but became an eloquent activist and was elected president of a village council. Members of the upper caste warned he would not last six months.
"We will see how the president functions without a head," said one written death threat.
After six months in office, when Mr. Manimegalai took a trip into town, upper-caste people followed him home in a bus. A crowd of men blocked off the road, screaming wildly for everyone to run away -- "except Dalits."
"They grabbed my husband by the shirt and stabbed him in the stomach. Even then, my husband pleaded with the dominant caste people not to kill the rest of the Dalits. They ignored him, and chopped the [six] others in front of his eyes."
Ms. Manimegalai did not stop for a breath as the next words tumbled out.
"Even after my husband's death, the anger, the bitterness, the caste-fanatic feeling did not subside."
"They cut off his head and threw it in a well nearby."
Witnesses were too terrified to come forward and it was only after three years of protest that some of the attackers were finally jailed.
"We strongly demand," Ms. Manimegalai concluded, "that the caste system in our country be abolished. We demand education for our children, job opportunities -- and dignity."
The roar of applause continued for a solid minute. When the diminutive Ms. Manimegalai stepped off the stage, a burly African woman grabbed her in a bear hug, sobbing.
Ms. Manimegalai was overwhelmed as others waited in line to give a hug or shake her hand. Tears streamed down her face as she stood in the glare of the TV lights.
It was not the first time the Voices Forum has borne witness to such raw emotion. But many of the 1,100 journalists in Durban to cover the UN's World Conference Against Racism have been too preoccupied by arguments over Israel and demands for reparations for the colonial-era slave trade to take much note.
The armies of suited government officials working to write up a "historic" blueprint for fighting racism and intolerance were not present to hear Ms. Manimegalai's demands.
Many were in a room down the hall, arguing about whether words such as "descent" and "ethnic origin" should be included in the list of grounds for discrimination.
At the end of her speech, a moderator thanked Ms. Manimegalai and other presenters for having the courage to speak out.
"You should never doubt raising your voice in this chamber," she said assuringly. "Never doubt the importance of doing that."
The sorry truth is that the powerful testimonies heard in the Voices Forum have little chance of being incorporated into the UN's final declaration on racism, or its program of action.
"Cast out Caste" posters have been plastered all across Durban and activists have handed out thousands of information brochures in an effort to highlight the injustice of the caste system in Hindu society.
But India has fought all attempts to include any mention of caste, and neither the UN nor any government is pushing the point. The strongest language in the draft declaration comes in a single paragraph that refers to discrimination based on work or descent -- and even those watered-down words seem set to be withdrawn.
Likewise, Eastern European countries refuse to acknowledge the discrimination endured by the Roma, or gypsies, no matter how many emotional stories they have told in Durban this week.
The African slave girl who told her story moved an audience to tears, too.
Inside conference rooms, however, African government delegates are so engrossed in debate about the slave trade of centuries past there has been almost no talk of how people like 17-year-old Mariama Oumarou and 20,000 others in Niger could be spared the horror of slavery today.
Will this conference change Ms. Manimegalai's life? The document under such hot debate is not an international treaty or a UN resolution. In fact, it's not a legal document of any kind and -- if agreement is reached here by tomorrow -- countries are free to ignore it.
But, Ms. Manimegalai lives with the hope her presence here will help the suffering Dalits of India break free from their oppression.
"I am destitute," she said. "My house is just a matchbox and I do not have enough money to care for my children. They are living with relatives.
"But when I saw the big crowd in the room today, I was not afraid. I was happy. At least I can tell the world our story. There are many people back home who are relying on me here."
*****
Dr Awatar Singh Sekhon's (Associate Professor (Retired), Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Director (Former), National Centre for Human Mycotic Diseases Canada, and Managing Editor and Acting Editor in Chief of International Journal of Sikh Affairs) comments on the above article:
First of all, Dr Sekhon would like express his sincere thanks to Madam Corinna Schuler of the National Post of Canada and the News Section editorial staff to carry the above news item in the National Post (World) and on-line National Post (News). The National Post has done an exceptional service to the mankind, in informing the stories of the victims (Ms Manimegalai, Dalit widow, and an African women, 17-year-old Mariama Oumarou).
As far as the commentator is concerned, this is the first time when a national newspaper of Canada has carried a story of 'one' Dalit woman, who has been the victim of the elite 'class or caste' of the alleged Indian democracy. The democracy which kills its own people, deny civil liberties to its people, and carries out barbaric acts of 'terrorism' on its people. Such acts include, since 15th August, 1947, the day when the British East India Company's agent transferred political power to an 'unelected' class of elite Hindu leadership. Since receiving the reign of political power, the New Delhi administration of the alleged Indian democracy has exterminated more than 1.4 million Sikhs; more than 260,000 innocent Sikh infants, children, male and female folks and elderly since 1st June, 1984; more than 200,000 Dalits; more than 200,000 Muslims in general; 80,000 Kashmiri Muslims, since 1988, who have been struggling to control their destiny of self-rule in the internationally disputed area of Jammu and Kashmir (under the Indian occupation); more than 200,000 Christians of Nagaland; and hundreds of thousands of Assamese, Manipuris, Tamils, Adivaasis, Biharis, etc. Additionally, the Indian administration has sponsored the killings of the Christian Missionary and his 8- & 10-year-old sons, raped Roman Catholic nuns, burnt/destroyed/destructed the Houses of God or religious and historical places of the non-Hindu minorities. This is India! Who says that "Everything is fine in India?"
The commentator offers his sincerest congratulations to the victim ladies to tell the truth to the UN Assembly on Racial Discrimination in Durban. Amen!
Posted on 2001-09-07
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