The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.59/No.34           September 18, 1995 
 
 
Reports On China Forum Differ From Real Events  

BY MAGGIE TROWE AND SHELLIA KENNEDY
HUAIROU, China - For many participants in the Fourth World Conference on Women Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Forum, the difference between the conference they are experiencing and the one portrayed in the U.S. media is striking. To read the U.S. daily International Herald Tribune or to watch TV coverage on CNN, you would think the conference is an organizational nightmare and that the Chinese government is making it impossible for conference participants to exchange ideas freely. But by the sixth day of the conference, this campaign of slander had begun to offend thousands of participants. In an article in the September 4 International Herald Tribune, Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic Party candidate for vice president of the United States, said of the Chinese hosts, "What they are doing outside the conference is appalling."

More than 100 workshops take place every day on numerous topics followed by open discussion. Debate is common, and is usually quite civil. Women from every continent introduce themselves with ease and exchange ideas and experiences about the different struggles they are involved in. Marches and protest rallies are common.

Chinese security officials put some restrictions on march routes, and some surveillance was reported by supporters of Tibetan independence from China and initially by lesbian activists. At the same time, Tibetan and Taiwanese participants who oppose Chinese policy have been given visas and accredited for the forum, while women organizing the lesbian tent are now functioning without restrictions.

Silvia Cerqueira, a member of the Brazilian Association of Lawyers, said, "We couldn't do the conference in my country better than the Chinese are doing it here.... I think the Western media is attacking China because it is a communist country and because they don't want a successful conference on women's rights to take place."

Others at the forum were more critical of China. Ruby Beltran, president of the Policy Research Center for Migrant Workers of the Alliance of Women in Politics, from the Philippines, said, "By putting the conference in Huairou, the Chinese government gave pariah status to women. By having the NGO forum so far from the UN conference, our advocacy activities have been limited and we lack satellite TV to follow the deliberations.

"But on the other hand, we are having no problems giving workshops here in Huairou," she added.

Activists staffing the Lesbian Tent explained that there had been some incidents they considered harassment by Chinese forum officials the first few days of the conference. Monika Reinfelder, a member of the Lesbian Caucus of the National Women's Network in Britain, said, "They took some photos after we explicitly asked them not to, and they took a stack of Chinese-language leaflets on lesbian rights. But the problems have been resolved, and now conference participants of every nationality, including Chinese, are visiting the tent to chat and take literature without restriction." Reinfelder was opposed to singling out China for violations of human rights. "Which country hasn't had human rights abuses?" she asked.

Several thousand Chinese delegates circulate freely at the conference, participating actively in most workshops. Hundreds of students from Beijing-area universities who volunteered as interpreters for the conference mingled with women from other countries, and some Chinese workers at the forum site took their break time to do the same.

 
 
 
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