N Korean defectors to testify on torture and executions
17 Aug 2013 5:25 AM IST
North Korean defectors will start testifying at UN hearings in Asia next week about alleged rights abuses, including torture and executions, for which they hope their country's leaders may one day face trial.
Three independent investigators, backed by 10 UN staff, have convened the hearings in Seoul and Tokyo to document alleged abuses, also including food deprivation and arbitrary detentions, in the country of 23 million people.
North Korea is under sweeping United Nations sanctions over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but this will mark the first time its human rights record has been examined by international experts with a mandate to establish accountability for possible crimes against humanity.
Activists and alleged victims hope that the evidence gathered by the commission of inquiry, led by former Australian judge Michael Kirby, will begin building a criminal case for prosecuting its leaders.
North Korean officials have denied repeatedly that there are serious human rights violations in their isolated country, a Communist dynasty ruled by Kim Jong-un. ‘Given that we will have five days or so in Seoul we expect about 40 people to testify,’ Giuseppe Calandruccio, coordinator of the UN human rights office secretariat supporting the inquiry, told Reuters before departing for South Korea.
Julie de Rivero of Human Rights Watch welcomed the unprecedented hearings, which she expects to produce ‘dramatic stories’.
‘It is a way of acknowledging the victims' suffering as well as an evidence-gathering exercise,’ de Rivero said. ‘North Korea has denied most allegations of human rights violations are taking place and this will set the record straight.’
South Korea, which says it is home to 25,000 North Korean defectors, will host the first set of hearings at Seoul National University from August 20-24. UN staff there have begun screening potential witnesses, including former North Korean prison guards, who may prefer to give testimony in private, diplomatic sources said.
Three independent investigators, backed by 10 UN staff, have convened the hearings in Seoul and Tokyo to document alleged abuses, also including food deprivation and arbitrary detentions, in the country of 23 million people.
North Korea is under sweeping United Nations sanctions over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but this will mark the first time its human rights record has been examined by international experts with a mandate to establish accountability for possible crimes against humanity.
Activists and alleged victims hope that the evidence gathered by the commission of inquiry, led by former Australian judge Michael Kirby, will begin building a criminal case for prosecuting its leaders.
North Korean officials have denied repeatedly that there are serious human rights violations in their isolated country, a Communist dynasty ruled by Kim Jong-un. ‘Given that we will have five days or so in Seoul we expect about 40 people to testify,’ Giuseppe Calandruccio, coordinator of the UN human rights office secretariat supporting the inquiry, told Reuters before departing for South Korea.
Julie de Rivero of Human Rights Watch welcomed the unprecedented hearings, which she expects to produce ‘dramatic stories’.
‘It is a way of acknowledging the victims' suffering as well as an evidence-gathering exercise,’ de Rivero said. ‘North Korea has denied most allegations of human rights violations are taking place and this will set the record straight.’
South Korea, which says it is home to 25,000 North Korean defectors, will host the first set of hearings at Seoul National University from August 20-24. UN staff there have begun screening potential witnesses, including former North Korean prison guards, who may prefer to give testimony in private, diplomatic sources said.
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