European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 22, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Defending human rights or. Clean of the French government a pin n Claude Mathura is France s Secretary of state for human rights Paris official watchdog. By Jeffrey Ulbric associated press laude Mal Huret is a slight soil spoke physician Wilh an ear to ear Mustache that has made him one of the the most familiar faces in France a a also something of an Experiment in government since fac conservatives came to Power a year and a half ago. Mal Hurt has been Premier Jacques Chirac s Sec Elary of Szalc Tor human rights. As such the balding 37-year-old Mal Huret is Paris official watchdog. Frequently a rare voice of humanitarian reason in Iho political and bureaucratic quagmire of a modern Western government the Job is no airy unique Argentina and Canada have similar  posts others where they exist Are lower positions such As Washington s assistant Secretary of slate Lor human rights. An admirable commitment most would a Force creating a lop level human rights overseer in a country with a Long tradition of offering Asylum to the world s displaced or politically persecuted several european countries Are watching the Experiment with Inlet esl. But at Homo opinion is mixed. Yves Jouflas. President of France s league of human flights which was created in 1b88, has said that if a Secretary of stale Lor human rights were to do the Job Well to would have to resign once a week. I think Sheie is an incompatibility Between a government and the defense of human rights Rouffa says the defense of human rights must be by the people a Sod of  added Jean Pierre Khevent men. An opposition socialist candidate of president in next year s elections Mal Hurel is the or clean of government they can bring out whenever they need him. He serves nothing. He is a political  Mal Hurel. Unsurprisingly thinks that s Hogwash particular to since Delias on occasion been an uncomfortable i Norn in the Side o his own government with Trank. Outspoken statements i am Here to doa certain number of things and to Page 18 the stars and stripes say a certain number of  he said in an interview in his office directly across the Street from the Premier s office. You can always say or. Clean bul it is a commitment on the part of this government and it is an even larger commitment because i say what i think and i Don t have any electoral  if the Job is unusual so is the Man. Mal Huret is a product of the 1968 student worker uprisings in Franco that nearly toppled Charles de Gaude and marked a generation of frenchmen. A medical student at the time he became a Leader of a let Lisl student Union later joining the Una tied socialist party then on Tho extreme non communist left. After his internship he immediately launched into a career of humanitarian work in the third world serving in a government run Aid program in Morocco in lieu of military service thai was followed by a world health organization smallpox eradication Mission in Endia. A turning Point in his thinking came when he joined doctors without Borders a French based humanitarian organization that operates medical missions throughout the third world. I went to the cambodian Border to help cambodian refugees he recalls. At first i did t want to go i was still on the Tell and i said to myself i did t want to help the Bourgeois o phenom penh who had tied. I arrived and i discovered that the Bourgeois had All been killed and Hal those were poor peasants. I did t  it at the Limo ii was t976 they explained Lomo what happened under the Khmer Rouge regime. It was unbelievable but there was no Way not to believe. I resumed to France and i explained and i was Spil upon people told me that it was not True that i was playing the game of the Light it was not until 1978 and the vietnamese invasion that everybody accepted what i was saying " Aller Cambodia came Afghanistan Lebanon Ethiopia and Poland. I saw that All i had Al envied when i was 18 years old the demonstrations in support of Vietnam and Cambodia and All of that had prepared dictatorships even worse than those i fought. As a whole generation in France. I passed from an attitude of extreme left to an attitude of re entered left. That was at the end of sunday november 22,1987 the 1970s" in i960, he was named Diro Clor of doctors without Borders. His ngh Lward slide went another Slop when Francois Millerand was elected president in 1981 and the socialists decided to Oiler ministerial posts to communists people male ural had discovered Over 10 years were unacceptable the Lolalita Ransol our  he became intends Wilh a number of Young Bright Center right politicians such As Francois Leotard now minister of culture and Alain mad Elm current minister of Industry. When the right look control of the National Assembly in March 1986. Ual Hurel was asked to become Secretary of state Tor human rights the led has always portrayed itself As the repository of French human rights and morality an image the Chirac government would like to change. Yet. Neither Mitterrand nor his socialist governments from 1981 to i too evtrtijttslb"cj"i3ihymlaf pcsjr"mim5niid7 it s Champion of human rights preferred to keep the Field to himself. From the beginning Mal Hurt insisted his office be directly responsible to the Premier rather than of cached to the foreign ministry giving him immediate Access and influence. The easier part of Iho Job is watching Over the human rights abroad to says. More Touchy is dealing with the situation at Home where there is a direct Impact in Tho foreign sector a Thurot s biggest Job is instilling what to Calls a human rights reflex in France s dip totals. That 13. Motivating them to think not Only in political terms hut also making human rights part of their trame of reference he claims some Success. For example Iho decision of France to support organza Lions working in the liberated zones of Afghanistan. That was a big change because Tho Golden Rule of diplomacy is the non interference in the internal a lairs of a country. Bul that is an interference in the name of human  linking development Aid to human rights also is a product of male ural s a forts. Bul the interference line is Fine. Yes it s delicate he acknowledges. When we decided to give this Aid to Afghanistan there were protests from Kabul protests from Moscow and there is always a Price to pay. But i think this Price is  internally the situation is not Tho same because As the Secretary of state Points out people have recourse to Iho courts. And despite Rouffa s prediction Mal Huret has Only threatened to resign once in 18 months. That was during what he terms his greatest failure or rather a Battle that 1 won too late ii was during the student Demoi rations of november 1986 protesting the Gou. Moment s University Reform Bill a Slud enl of North african origin Malik Ous Sekine. Was killed by police. The Day thai Malik Ous Sekine died. I told my friends Leotard and Madelin that if to did nol withdraw the Bill i would resign because the death of Ous Sekine was an Accident but on the other hand if the Bill continued i was obvious thai the following week the students would be even More radicalized in the Street that the level of violence would  Tho Bill was withdrawn and the student Agi Lalion evaporated. When tie government As part of its tight against Clandestine immigration put 101 malian on a special Charier for Home Mal Huret stepped in and stopped any further such flights. Terrorism is even More delicate particularly when expanded Powers Given to police approach acceptable democratic limits. "1 have always said since the first bomb that exploded in Paris last year that it would be to fail into the trap of the terrorists to go beyond the Law to fight them. That s whal the terrorists want they want the government to radicalize  on the other hand he said terrorism is the greatest of threats a War against democracy. We have the right to go to the extreme  if tomorrow there Are new bombs and if i had the impression that in one Way or another i had without imperious necessity inhibited the action of the Interior minister i could not forgive  the larger Success it the Job. In Mathures s View is the thousands of individual cases the Secretary of slate has resolved for refugees seeking Asylum. People threatened with expulsion people in an begat situation or Wilh particular social problems. That is an activity that nobody knows about because it is not a subject of press articles or  he said