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Statement of Grave Concern for North Korean Refugees

I hold in my hand the official published collection of international instruments and other legal texts concerning Refugees & Displaced Persons published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The official UNHCR definition of a refugee reads as follows: "A refugee is a person who, owing to persecution or well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, colour, religion, political belief or membership of a particular social group:

(a) leaves the State of which he is a national, or the Country of his nationality, or, if he has no nationality, the State or Country of which he is a habitual resident; or
(b) being outside such State or Country, is unable or unwilling to return to it or to avail himself of its protection.

China is a proud signatory of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951. In fact, Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya of the People's Republic of China declared at the 50th anniversary celebration of the 1951 Convention that this landmark international law is the "Magna Carta" of refugee law and a "guide to action" to countries who have signed the convention as China has. It is especially important to note that a representative of the goverment of China has indicated unequivocally on the 12th of May, 2000, that the 1951 Convention on Refugees will take precedence over its own domestic law in case of a contradiction.

As we are all too painfully aware, the government of China has declared that every North Korean crossing the border into China is an "economic migrant" and not a refugee. However, to put the matter very simply, that is not the government of China's call--the determination of who is a refugee and who is not a refugee is to be determined by the UNHCR Beijing office headed by Mr. Colin Mitchell. Why? Because China signed the UN Convention and is bound to that responsibility.

In reality and tragically, the Chinese government does not even allow the UNHCR Beijing office staff to even visit the North Korean border area, let alone interview North Korean defectors who are living in constant fear of being caught by Chinese police and repatriated to a dreaded fate in North Korea. But there is even a greater tragedy: The UNHCR staff in Beijing sit passively in their ornate offices and consistently abstain from utilizing either of the potent legal weapons available to them.

These powerful legal instruments were given to them thanks to the bilateral treaty signed, once again, between the UNH CR and the government of China in 1995. The first legal instrument is the power of "inimpeded access" to areas where border crossing takes place to enable the UNHCR to determine by interview who is a refugee. We know of not a single case in which the Beijing UNHCR office has invoked this clear legal right of "unimpeded access."

The second powerful legal instrument bestowed on the UNCHR in China is the right of "binding arbitration" in the event that there is a disagreement between its office and China regarding how to handle a refugee issue. Within 45 days a third party is to be identified to settle the issue. It is beyond our understanding why the UNHCR office in China, or Geneva headquarters, have not invoked on a single occasion its right to "binding arbitration."

Highly documented field experience by aid workers reveals that North Korean defectors in China, when caught are repatriated to North Korea against their will. What the Chinese government does not say is that North Korean defectors are considered political criminals by their own North Korean government when they cross the Tumen River to China according to Article 47 of the DPRK or North Korean Criminal Code and punishable by a minimum of seven years in a "re-education camp" and a maximum sentence of execution

The examples of the minimum sentence are innumerable. Here is the recent account of four who received the maximum penalty. In May of 2002, four North Korean defectors in northeast China under the care of a South Korean missionary were discovered by Chinese authorities, detained and sent back to North Korea. During their time in China they had converted to a belief in Jesus Christ. As usual, one of the first questions by the State Security police of North Korea upon their return was, "have you been with Christians?" When the four defectors did not deny their new-found faith and the police found Bibles in their clothing, the four were marched to a public square of the North Korean city of Namyang, near a hospital that treats liver patients. The residents in the neighborhood were called together in the public square. Five soldiers were ordered to form a firing squad. As is military procedure when executing civilians in North Korea, each soldier shot three bullets to the head, killing them all. The acount of this execution was carried by those in Namyang who later fled to China and told their eyewitness account to the same missionary.

We do not expect this account to move Chinese officials, but we do have every reason to expect that this execution, and many other documented cases like it, are irrefutable evidence to the United Nation's High Commissioner, Professor Ruud Lubbers and the UNHCR Beijing Office Director Mr. Colin Mitchell in Beijing and of the reality of persecution and fear of persecution experienced by North Korean refugees.

Summary execution and imprisonment for religious and political belief are not the only crimes under examination here. Silence and passivity in the face of monstrous barbarity and inhumanity are also crimes and sins of the heart.

February 18th, 2003

Peters, T.A.
Representative
Helping Hands Korea