The scientific division is pleased to provide information on subjects pertaining to minorities and autonomy. For example, in the last year, delegations from the South Moluccas, Chechnya, and the Kurds have come on informational visits. But students from the universities in Trent and Munich are also welcomed as guests by the scientific division. Diploma and dissertation candidates find good counsel in the collaborators of the scientific division and extensive material for inquiry in the library.

Ms. Mila Simic and Ms. Milena Klajmer, Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Minorities of the Croatian government, escorted by Dr. Sieghart Gamper of the Autonomous Region Trentino-Südtirol, visited the European Academy for a brief exchange of ideas on current minority protection issues in Croatia and South Tyrol.Visits 200016. March: South Moluccans

The South Moluccas are part of a group of islands east of the Malay Archipelago in Indonesia. In 1663, the islands came under Dutch rule. Occupied by the Japanese from 1942-45, after the Second World War they became part of Indonesia. In 1950, a rebellion against the Indonesian central government broke out in the South Moluccas, calling for an independent republic. In the same year, however, the revolt was struck down. Many South Moluccans emigrated to the Netherlands, and in the 1970s tried to compel the government there to petition the Indonesian government to allow south Moluccan independence using terrorist methods.

President Abdurrahman Wahid has signalled that he is ready to negotiate with the government-in-exile. The dialogue has been restricted, however, to autonomy, with independence excluded from discussion. Frieda Souhuwat-Tomasoa is the Foreign Minister of the South Moluccan government-in-exile in the Netherlands. Together with other members of the exiled government, she is visiting the scientific division in spring, in order to obtain information regarding the local situation and solution to ethnic conflict.

In December 1994, troops from the Russian Federation marched into Chechnya under the pretext of defending Russian constitutional order. Residential districts, hospitals, schools and kindergartens were bombed, Russian sharpshooters shot waiting lines at bus stops and mourners at funeral services.

About 80.000 people died in Russian attacks in the first Chechnyan war, and 500.000 were driven out. The Chechnyans were the main victims of the bombings and mass-expulsions. Since autumn of 1999, the civilian population has again been fired upon. The excuse for the renewed war is the claim that Chechnyan separatists were responsible for the bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities last year, which killed over 200 people.

Sainab Gaschjewa and Libkan Basajewa of the movement for the protection of human rights in Chechnya were guests at the conference organized by the Alexander Langer Foundation under the title "The Art of Coexistence." It thus brought an exchange of ideas between human rights activists and the collaborators of the Scientific division of "Minorities and Regional Autonomies."28. August - 1. September und 9.-10. November: Tibetans

"With regard to an acceptable solution to the Tibet Problem my position is quite simple: I am not demanding independence. As I have already said many times, I want simply that the Tibetan people get the opportunity for real self-government, to preserve their civilisation and to protect and develop the unique Tibetan culture, religion, language and lifestyle. My principal concern is to ensure the survival of the Tibetan people, along with their unique Buddhist cultural heritage."

Excerpt from: Vision for the Year 2000–China, Tibet and Prospects for Peace, by H.H., the 14^th Dalai Lama

In the course of the division's consultation project, two delegations from the Tibetan government-in-exile found themselves in Bozen. South Tyrolean autonomy stood at the Centre of their informational visits. The collaborators of the scientific division informed the Tibetan guests about the historical development and the South Tyrolean model's legal bases. Practical questions could be addressed in numerous dialogues.

12. December:

The Kurds are a people without a country. Almost half of the 25 million Kurds live together in an undivided settlement in Turkey. The rest are spread predominantly through Iraq, Iran and Syria. For centuries, language (Kurdish), history and culture have bound together this people denied a national state. Their struggle for independence or autonomy has been led primarily by the Marxist "Kurdish Workers' Party" (Partya Karkeren Kurdistan – PKK), founded in 1978, and led by Abdullah Öcalan.

In the bloody conflict between PKK-soldiers and Turkish troops, tens of thousands of people have lost their lives since 1984. Neither has Iraq tolerated any independence: Before the establishment of a protection zone in 1991, Baghdad's dictator Saddam Hussein used poison gas, among other weapons, against the Kurdish civilian population in northern Iraq.

Two representatives of the exiled Kurdish parliament were welcomed at the initiative of the Society for Threatened Peoples by the South Tyrolean provincial parliament, and then visited the scientific division of "Minorities and Regional Autonomies." Both representatives want to become acquainted with the South Tyrolean model of autonomy in numerous discussions.