种族大会上的“受害者心声”

 

 

'Voices of Victims'at Durban Racism¹ Conference

Challiss McDonough

Durban

5 Sep 2001 01:19 UTC

 

The U.N. anti-racism conference in South Africa has been 1)dominated by the Middle East issue. But other issues also are being discussed. One of the most 2)compelling panels is called simply "Voices of Victims."And that is exactly what it is, 3)victims of 4)racism, 5)xenophobia, and other forms of 6)discrimination get a chance to tell their stories.

Nusreta Sivac used to be a judge in the city of Prijedor, in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina. She remembers 7)vividly² the day the war first touched her life. "That morning, as usual, I went to my work, to the court where I used to work at that time. But I was prevented to enter the building by some armed people who were standing³ in front of it. They said they had a list, and my name was on the list, and that I didn't work there anymore,"she said.

Not long afterward⁴, she was taken to the 8)concentration camp at Omarska. Her only crime, she says, was not being an ethnic⁵-Serb. Ms. Sivac is Muslim.

She was one of 36 women 9)imprisoned at Omarska, along with thousands of men. They ate one meal a day, just bread and a few beans. Beatings and 10)torture became a way of life. "So in the evening, the women went to the rooms. Eighteen women in one room, and 18 in the other one. Before we lay on the floor, we had first to clean the floor from the blood. Because during the day those rooms were used for questioning and torturing people,"she said.

Ms. Sivac says every night, the guards would take the women one by one and 11)rape them. She thought she might be spared because there were younger women in the camp. But she was not.

From time to time, her former 12)colleagues from the court would come through the prison camp. She hoped one of them would help her. But she says they pretended not to recognize her. "So being there, I started thinking about my profession and about what I had at school. No international convention, nothing that they used to teach me at the university existed. In the camp, my best friends, my relatives, my colleagues were being killed,"she said.

By the time Ms. Sivac finishes her story, the audience is in tears. She thanks them for listening.

Officials at the World Conference Against Racism regularly repeat that this conference is about the victims of racism and ethnic intolerance. The Voices of Victims forum⁶ is one of the few places where delegates actually hear from the victims themselves. Every day, four people tell their stories.

The conference rhetoric⁷ also says every nation on Earth has to deal with racism, xenophobia, or some other form of intolerance within its borders. Voices of Victims shows how true that is.

The victims come from all over the world, 13)indigenous people in Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, China; Asians in Britain; Dalits, or so-called "untouchables"in India; Kurds in Turkey; Arabs in Israel; people of African 14)descent in Brazil and the United States.

The forum has heard from a victim of the genocide in Rwanda. It has heard tales of growing anti-Semitism in Austria. One compelling story came from a young Tuareg woman from Niger, who grew up as a slave.

Another voice came from right here in the host country, South Africa. The story of Lorraine Nesane shows that racism still 15)plagues this country, seven years after the death of 16)apartheid.

Last year, a shopkeeper accused 15-year-old Lorraine of 17)shoplifting. The manager ordered one of her 18)employees to 19)strip the young girl's clothes off and paint her white. She still has flashbacks. And the 20)humiliation has not ended.

"That has not treated me well, because I feel like an animal. I know that people are not supposed to be painted, but walls. And whenever I have quarrels with other students at school, I cannot respond because they always tell me I have been painted,"she said. "When I am walking down the streets, people point fingers at me,[and say] that I was painted."

A South African human rights commissioner⁸ says she hopes Lorraine's story will go a long way toward healing the racial division that continues to plague this country, and toward building 21)reconciliation.

Conference organizers hope Voices of Victims will do the same for societies around the world.

 

 

(1)      dominate[5dRmIneIt]v.支配, 占优势

(2)      compelling[kEm5pelIN]adj.强制的, 强迫的, 引人注目的

(3)      victim[5vIktIm]n.受害人, 牺牲者, 牺牲品

(4)      racism n.种族主义, 人种偏见, 种族歧视

(5)      xenophobia[zenE5fEJbIE]n.仇外, 惧外者

(6)      discrimination[dIskrImI5neIF(E)n]n.辨别, 区别, 识别力, 辨别力, 歧视

(7)      vividly adv.生动地, 鲜明地

(8)      concentration camp n.集中营

(9)      imprison[Im5prIz(E)n]vt.监禁, 关押v.监禁

(10)      torture[5tC:tFE(r)]n.折磨, 痛苦, 拷问, 拷打vt.拷问, 曲解, 折磨

(11)      rape[reIp]n.掠夺, 强奸vt.掠夺, 强奸

(12)      colleague[5kRli:^]n.同事, 同僚

(13)      indigenous[In5dIdVInEs]adj.本土的

(14)      descent[dI5sent]n. 世系, 血统, 侵袭

(15)      plague[pleI^]n.瘟疫, 麻烦, 苦恼, 灾祸vt.折磨, 使苦恼

(16)      apartheid[E5pB:theIt]n.(南非)种族隔离

(17)      shoplifting[`FCp9lIftIN ]n.入店行窃

(18)      employee[emplCI5i:]n.职工, 雇员, 店员

(19)      strip[strIp]vt.剥, 剥去n.条, 带

(20)      humiliation[hjU:9mIlI`eIFEn]n.羞辱, 蒙耻

(21)      reconciliation[rekEnsIlI5eIF(E)n]n.和解, 调和, 顺从

 

 

1 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

2 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

3 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

4 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

5 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

6 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

7 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

8 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。