A/49/677 English Page 23 107. For Korean schoolgirls studying in Japan, the chima chogori - the traditional Korean skirt and blouse - has become something of a curse. For the last three months, girls dressed in chima chogori have been subjected to harassment and assault. Their dresses have been slashed off, and they have been verbally and physically abused on trains and in the streets. The assailants are Japanese men. At the Tokyo Korean Junior and Senior High School, 29 girls have become victims of this kind of violence over the last three months. A school spokesperson said that 11 girls had had their uniforms ripped off, and that 8 others had been kicked and beaten. More recently, a 17-year-old student’s beautiful, long hair was cut off on an escalator at Tatsumi station. She froze in fear when the incident occurred. Just a week after this incident, the same girl was knocked over by a young Japanese man who then cut up her skirt and ran away. This is not the first time that such "Korean bashing" has become rampant in Japan. 48/ 108. In Kuwait, housekeepers of Indian, Sri Lankan, Bengali and Philippine origin are now targets of rape, physical assault, non-payment of salaries, debt bondage and abusive work conditions because of their nationality. Although these abuses are illegal under Kuwaiti law, very few cases are prosecuted. The Government of Kuwait has all but ignored the plight of these women. 49/ 109. In interviews with witnesses in the course of his mission, the Special Rapporteur was told of the double discrimination that affects women who belong to ethnic minorities, especially with respect to employment, health care and social aid. 110. In Mexico, the number of incidents of rape of indigenous women is increasing in the insurrection zone of Chiapas. On 4 June, a group of approximately 30 soldiers of the Mexican Federal Army raped three young women of the Tseltal indigenous group who were from the community of Santa Rosita Sibaquil, Municipality of Altamirano. The rape took place at a military roadblock outside Altamirano, where the soldiers were on duty. After being accused of being Zapatistas and threatened with death, they were violently forced to have sexual relations with all of the soldiers at the roadblock. IV. CAUSES AND VECTORS OF RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND XENOPHOBIA 111. As emphasized in the first part of this report, racism is a phenomenon of civilization that goes back to the dawn of time. It is a persistent sentiment that finds periodic expression. 112. Today, despite two decades of sustained combat against racial discrimination by the United Nations, racism is re-emerging from the fertile ground of race, a notion scientifically proved to be meaningless, in the forms described above. 113. Today, the causes of racism and racial discrimination are the world economic crisis and competition for economic resources, which is fed by underdevelopment in some cases and poverty or extreme poverty in others. Development has become the watchword, and States feel compelled to proceed with /...