Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 13:16:40 -0800 From: crosswix@ix.netcom.com (camille ) THE MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS William A. Courson, Executive Director Courson & Zanni Post Office Box 1974 Bloomfield, New Jersey USA 07003-1974 March 7, 1996 RE: Call to Action to Protest the Selection of Zimbabwe as Host Country for June/July 1997 CITES Meeting Dear Reader(s): At the last (Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA - November 1994) meeting of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) the Government of Zimbabwe offered to host the June/July 1997 sitting of that international treaty organization. The offer was tentatively accepted and endorsed by the organization. Last year, a Zimbabwe Government delegation visited the US and stated (to representatives of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) that the Government of Zimbabwe proposed to site the meeting at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, notwithstanding the fact that that venue lacked sufficient accomodations for NGO representatives wishing to attend. It was the Government of Zimbabwe's stated intention to exclude NGO's from participation in the meeting. In January 1996, the CITES Standing Committee met with the Zimbabwe Government and was informed by the latter that, owing to the fact that NGO representatives could not be excluded, such persons would be accomodated in neighboring Botswana and Zambia, two hours travel away from the meeting site and subject to immigration and customs controls at each border. It has been brought to our attention that USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) has been approached by the Government of Zimbabwe (and, by implication, representatives of the CITES secretariat and standing committee) for the purpose of providing funding for the proposed meeting. A representative of CITES is scheduled to travel to Zimbabwe in April (1996) to lend final approval to the proposed site. The government has refused entreaties to move the meeting to Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, where sufficient accomodations are available for all (governmental and NGO) attendees. At least two reasons exist to object very strongly to the proposed site of the meeting: (1) The Government of Zimbabwe should, as a minimum safeguard, be approached to give its assurances that gay and lesbian persons present as delegates would be safely permitted to discharge their functions. The Government of Zimbabwe, and particularly its head of state President Robert Mugabe, has been engaged in a two-year-long effort to marginalize and stir up public hatred against homosexual persons. Indeed, President Mugabe, among others, has publically stated that homosexual persons were to be rounded up by their neighbors and fellow citizens and turned over to the law enforcement authorities, and has embarked on a course of conduct that would lead one to reasonably believe that gay and lesbian persons are not safe to remain in Zimbabwe and further has implied that such persons, for their own safety, should not seek to enter the country. (2) Zimbabwe does not permit entry into the country of holders of Israeli passports. Although verbal assurances have been offered CITES organizers that this would not impinge on their attendance, requests for written confirmation has been refused by the Government. (In 1994, President Robert Mugabe was believed to have made a series of anti-Semitic remarks in the Shona language which were not reported in the English-language press). Clearly, representatives of Israel's Government and individual Jewish attendees at the meeting may be denied entry and/or subject to harrassment. A precedent exists, on CITES part, for refusing to convene under such conditions or in such an environment: In October, 1989 CITES moved the site of its meeting from Indonesia to Switzerland on the ground of potention exclusion of Israeli delegates; In November 1994, CITES moved its meeting venue from Denver, Colorado (USA) to Fort Lauderdale, Florida (USA) owing to the former's having enacted anti-gay legislation. It is imperative that if the proposed meeting is to be re-sited, activists and concerned individuals and organizations make their objection known to the organizers. Please direct letters to: Mr. Izgrev Topkov, Secretary-General THE SECRETARY-GENERAL CITES Secretariat 6, rue de Maupas Case Postale 78 CH-1000 Lausanne 9, SWITZERLAND FAX: 41-22-797-3417 J. Brian Atwood, Administrator Carol Lancaster, Deputy administrator USAID/U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Department of State Room 509-SA19 2201 C Street Washington, DC 20513-1812 Director, Bureau of Global Programs, USAID OFFICE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT DM 509 -SA18 Washington, DC 20523-1812 (FAX: 703-875-4639) USAID BUREAU FOR AFRICA Assistant Administrator John F. Hicks (SAME ADDRESS AND FAX AS ABOVE) USAID OFFICE FOR SOUTHERN AFRICAN AFFAIRS Director: Wilbur Thomas Deputy Director: JoAnne Hale Staff: Meredith Scovill Bernard Lane Will Elliot Bill Martin (SAME ADDRESS AND FAX AS ABOVE; e-mail: africalink@info.usaid.gov) Glenn T. Prickett, Deputy Assistant to the Administrator USAID (SAME ADDRESS & FAX AS ABOVE) Singleton B. McAllister, General Counsel USAID (SAME ADDRESS & FAX AS ABOVE) Gareth Porter, International Programs Director Environmental & Energy Study Institute USAID (SAME ADDRESS & FAX AS ABOVE) USAID Office in Harare, Zimbabwe (FAX: 263-4-722418) Valerie Dickson-Harton Director USAID Regional Center for Southern Africa U.S. Embassy Gaberone, BOTSWANA Copies of replies received from any of the foregoing would be most gratefully received by: William A. Courson, Executive Director MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS c/o Courson & Zanni P.O. Box 1974 Bloomfield, New Jersey USA 07003-1974 E-Mail: crosswix@ix.netcom.com FAX: 201-746-3147 Your assistance is most gratefully appreciated.