From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: WRI: Women cross the barriers
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 09:11:27 GMT

/** wri.news: 585.0 **/
** Topic: Women cross the barriers **
** Written  4:28 pm  Dec 18, 1992 by gn:peacenews in cdp:wri.news **
One hundred and seventy women from 63 countries met in Bangkok for the 4th WRI
women's conference -- the organisation's most international gathering ever. 
 
"Perhaps the most powerful moments" said Maggie Helwig, one of the conference
organising group, "were seeing an Indonesian woman and a West Papuan woman
setting up a joint information table, a Croatian woman and a Serbian woman
setting out to tour Bangkok together -- experiencing the way we can use our
common experiences as women to cross the barriers set up by armies and
governments."
 
Sumpeecha Baotip of EMPOWER, a Bangkok self-help group for women working in
the sex trade, noted that she was particularly impressed with the consensus
process used by the organisers. "There were no leaders, we went around in a
circle and women really listened to each other. There was no blaming. I'm
going to go back to my group and tell them about this way of working." 
 
The resolutions and statements which came out of the conference included:
 
*     building on the work done by the women's and anti-war movements in
      Croatia and Serbia, that rape in time of war be treated as a war crime,
      under the 3rd section of the 1949 Geneva Convention
 
*     a proposal to carry out actions on 8 March -- International Women's Day
      -- which would link women on opposite sides of regional conflicts, such
      as Cyprus, former-Yugoslavia, and Israel/Palestine; women from different
      ethnic groups in the USA and other countries could carry out similar
      actions
 
*     support for Thai groups seeking changes in their country's prostitution
      laws, shifting penalties from sex-workers to pimps, brothel owners, and
      clients and ending the forced imprisonment of prostitutes.
 
While the conference was meeting, participants learned that Yasushi Akashi,
the head of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) had
referred to the rise in prostitution which accompanied the deployment of
Japanese peacekeeping troops as "normal", as "18-year-old hot-blooded
soldiers" deserved to enjoy "young, beautiful beings of the opposite sex".
Subsequently, as women's groups -- including the women attending the
conference -- complained, he issued formal instructions to all UNTAC personnel
regarding "appropriate behaviour". He also undertook to start an information
campaign on sexually transmitted diseases and to appoint a community relations
officer.
 
Implicit in Akashi's response was his recognition that there was a problem
with sexual harassment and that the UN presence in Cambodia meant an increase
in prostitution. Similar tensions have emerged over the UN intervention in
Somalia, with news in mid- December of local vigilantes beating a Mogadishu
woman for allegedly "fraternising" with French troops.
 
The February _Peace News_ will feature a special four-page supplement on the
conference.
 
 ****************************************************************
* Reprinted from _Peace News_ 2362 (January 1993).       Please  *
* credit if reprinting.      Peace News and War Resisters' Intl, *
* 55 Dawes St, London SE17 1EL, England    (tel +44 71 703 7189; *
* fax 708 2545, email peacenews@gn.apc.org or peacenews@gn.uucp) *
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** End of text from cdp:wri.news **

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