World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

The Asia-Pacific region spreads from the Caspian Sea in the West to Japan in the East, from New Zealand’s southern tip to the northern reaches of Kazakhstan and the Korean peninsula. It contains six of the ten most populous countries in the world and is breathtaking in its ethnic and religious diversity.

Central Asia

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, each of its former Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan has remained largely mired in authoritarianism marked by intolerance for ethnic and religious minorities. In Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, inter-ethnic violence occurred just before, at, or just following independence in 1991. All five countries have become more homogenous through the emigration of minority groups, often Russians or dominant nationalities of neighbouring states. Minorities have left in part due to laws, policies and practice of discrimination against them, usually on the basis of language. Uzbekistan has clamped down on alleged Islamic fundamentalists, who are disproportionately ethnic Tajik. Cloaking its policies in the rhetoric of the ‘global war on terror’, the regime of Islam Karimov nonetheless even drew muted American criticism following the May 2005 Andijan massacre that killed as many as 750 unarmed protestors. To varying degrees, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan have all used the western need for basing or airspace rights for military operations in Afghanistan to deflect criticism of human rights abuses. The authoritarian regimes in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have likewise successfully leveraged international thirst for their oil and gas reserves to avert significant pressure for human rights improvements and democratization.

South Asia

Across South Asia, abuse of minorities and the politicization of ethnicity, language and religion have fuelled long-running conflicts. The massive human displacement accompanying the Indian sub-continent’s partition in 1947 and three subsequent Indian-Pakistani wars have left India’s large Muslim minority feeling vulnerable amidst a majority Hindu population with vocal extremist elements. Kashmiris have suffered particularly as Indian and Pakistani politicians, security services and militants have turned the divided region’s disputed status into a highly charged political symbol. In Sri Lanka, ethnic Tamils and Muslims have been caught in fighting between the government and rebel forces, and specifically targeted for abductions and disappearances. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and ensuing proxy war with the United States significantly worsened inter-ethnic relations. Following the US-led ousting of the Pashtun-dominated Taliban regime in 2001 in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks, ethnically-based Afghan warlords have posed a major obstacle to the consolidation of the country’s nascent democracy. A nominal partner in Washington’s ‘global war on terror’, Pakistan’s regime has tolerated and participated in attacks on Pashtun villages along its border with Afghanistan.

Despite legal protections, India’s turbulent democracy has not secured the rights of its many minorities. Within the Hindu majority, low-caste Dalits (‘Untouchables’) suffer pervasive marginalization in public and private life, as do diverse indigenous Adivasis (or tribal) peoples. ‘Untouchability’ likewise remains widespread in neighbouring Nepal, where the government has demonstrated little ability to provide protection, and Dalit women have particularly suffered through sexual exploitation by higher caste men.

Since its founding in 1947, Pakistan has increasingly suppressed religious and ethnic minorities and such indigenous peoples as the Kihals through enforcement of official Islam and development strategies imposed with little or no regard for minority and indigenous rights. Following Bangladesh’s split from Pakistan in 1971, Bengali settler communities have attacked indigenous Jumma settlements with the tolerance of the government.

East and South-East Asia

Ethnic and religious minorities in the most populous country in the world, China, confront threats to their rights from a mix of authoritarian government, Han nationalism, and rapid development. Beijing strictly defines minorities, leaving some groups - often those in regions of rich natural resources - unrecognized. The government routinely handles large minority groups as potential separatists or threats to the Communist regime, and has acted with brutality to crush dissent. Buddhist Tibet has seen its leadership driven into exile, regime-friendly leadership appointed in its place, and government-rigged mass immigration of Han Chinese. The government has suppressed the Falun Gong movement, Christian communities, and has wrapped its crackdown on the Muslim Uyghur community of Xingian in the rhetoric of the ‘war on terror’.

Efforts to defeat the threat of radical Islamists have posed challenges for minorities in many states in the region. The government of the Philippines has pursued a war against Islamist militants, but in the name of that fight has also targeted opposition activists. Following the 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali, the Indonesian government likewise began labelling all perceived opponents as ‘terrorists’.

Ethnic and religious minority groups in Indonesia have long chafed at the Javanese-dominated central government, renowned for its corruption during General Suharto’s three-decade reign. Indonesia’s military has exploited sectarian and ethnic tensions to maintain influence and prevent close examination of its past human rights abuses. In Burma, where ethnic conflict followed independence from Britain in 1948, the rigid and brutal military regime in power since 1962 has likewise targeted minority communities; much of the resistance to it centres on ethnic minority militias.

Large-scale migration of Chinese and Indian populations to countries throughout South-East Asia has led to local resentment of their relative economic success and to discrimination, notably in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Oceania

Minority issues in Australia and New Zealand centre on approaches to their oldest and newest communities: indigenous peoples and new migrants.

Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia remain deeply marginalized and mired in social problems including alcoholism, violence and the sexual abuse of women and children. Memories of government efforts until 1969 to forcibly integrate Aboriginal children and current government efforts to overturn Aboriginal land-rights victories in the courts have contributed to a climate of distrust for new official initiatives to curb chronic social ills. In New Zealand, the indigenous Maori people also face lower life expectancy and higher unemployment rates than the general population, but improving trends in these areas and a truth and reconciliation process initiated in 1975 have created hope for reconciliation and a possible basis for dealing with outstanding Maori land claims.

Asian and Muslim communities in Australia constitute nearly 8 per cent of the population and have faced harassment and recent government emphasis on ‘Australian-ness’.

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