Celebrating Defiance

                         Is it possible that there is a glimmer of light
                         at the end of the human-rights tunnel?

                         Obdurate governments -- even ones that go in
                         for barbed wire and searchlight surveillance,
                         beatings and interrogations under torture --
                         are beginning to get it. That is not to say
                         that second thoughts or remorse are setting in
                         with fiends. It's just that from time to time
                         they want something other than to demonstrate
                         their capacity for inhumanity to man.

                         The long-sought release of China's
                         Olympic-class dissident, Wei Jingsheng, was
                         finally accomplished because China's president
                         wanted a 21-gun salute, a red carpet and a
                         state dinner during his recent visit to the
                         United States. He knew it would cost him. U.S.
                         Ambassador to China James Sasser presented the
                         tab before Jiang Zemin put a foot on the plane.
                         Jiang could have it all, Sasser told him, but
                         there was a quid pro quo: Spring Wei Jingsheng.
                         Such is the allure of presidential glamour that
                         Wei was soon on a non-stop flight to Detroit.

                         Wei's arrival went through the human-rights
                         community like an electric current. What
                         happened is, of course, an argument for
                         engagement with China. It was also an argument
                         for Wei's central message: Tyrants understand
                         only pressure.

                         In the long and impassioned diplomatic debate
                         over how to handle bullies, how to lean on them
                         to be decent while not threatening their
                         sovereignty -- they're frightfully sensitive,
                         the poor dears -- Wei took the aggressor's
                         line: a sharp blow up the side of the head.

                         What most people noticed about Wei -- a
                         relentless agitator who wrote sardonic,
                         insulting letters to the rulers of his country
                         and became a world symbol of defiance through
                         his cheek and courage -- was his unquenchable
                         cheerfulness. His round face was almost radiant
                         with purpose and pleasure. Depend on yourself,
                         was his bracing message. In an era notable for
                         its whiners and hand wringers, Wei's refusal to
                         excuse himself from valor beyond the call made
                         him a miracle.

                         The same week that brought Wei out of his
                         dungeon also brought forth two award-winning
                         human-rights activists from Turkey. The Robert
                         F. Kennedy Foundation for Human Rights cited
                         them for their bold and principled efforts to
                         find justice for Turkey's Kurds, who are in
                         trouble with the Turkish government for
                         insisting on their ethnic identity and speaking
                         their own language. (The Kurds in Iraq have
                         always been an irresistible target for Saddam
                         Hussein. After the Gulf War, the United States
                         had to send a special expeditionary force to
                         rescue them.)

                         The Turkish government feels so strongly about
                         Kurdish aspirations for independence --
                         although not for a separate state -- that it
                         jailed the first Kurdish woman ever elected to
                         the Turkish parliament, after

                         she and 17 other Kurds won seats in 1991. She
                         was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 15
                         years. Among other things, she testified before
                         Congress's Committee on the Helsinki
                         Commission, where she spoke of the aspirations
                         of her ancient people and called on the
                         government to seek a peaceful solution to an
                         old feud. The Turkish military claims that the
                         separatist Kurdish Workers' Party, an armed
                         resistance group, is a terrorist organization.
                         The Kurds deny it. Washington has shown Ankara
                         the special friendship reserved for NATO
                         partners.

                         Sezgin Tanrikulu, a Kurdish lawyer, said it
                         never occurs to him to give up his dangerous
                         work for his people. He went to see the
                         imprisoned parliamentarian, Leyla Zana, just
                         before he came here to collect his prize.

                         His fellow winner, Senal Sarihan, is 49 and has
                         two children. She served three years in jail
                         for her opposition and has founding a political
                         party that believes in equality. She, too, has
                         the ebullience that is apparently
                         characteristic of civil rights activists. Her
                         deep dimples flashed continuously during an
                         interview. In her only show of impatience, she
                         said, "People here are always asking me if I'm
                         afraid, if I wish I didn't have to go back. My
                         parents were teachers, I have been an activist
                         all my life."

                         After the two went home things moved, almost
                         imperceptibly, the only way they do in the
                         glacier age of human rights. Ferda Beyrikan, a
                         pizza parlor operator from Boston who is
                         fasting in support of Zana, was taken into the
                         House of Representatives by Kathryn Porter,
                         wife of a Republican congressman from Illinois.
                         Beyrikan met U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson,
                         who begged Beyrikan to stop his fast and
                         promised that he would do everything he could
                         to free Zana.

                         And the deputy chief of staff of the Turkish
                         army said for the first time that the
                         government should seek a peaceful solution to
                         the Turkish-Kurdish dispute. Has he begun to
                         see the light? Probably not. It's just that
                         Ankara wants more: permanent membership in the
                         European Union. Britain, France and Germany
                         have let it be known that they do not want to
                         admit countries that do not treat their own
                         people in a civilized way.

                           © Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company