[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (6 Nov.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #2
6 November 1999
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex
_________________
#1. Comment on of the1st lot chosen for NSC & cabinet in Pakistan
#2. India's democratic obligation
#3. Christian presence in India
#4. Who's afraid of Hindutva!
#5. Nepal's abortion scandal
_________________
#1.
Daily Star
5 Nov 1999

SINKING INTO THE SAND
by Ayaz Amir

THIS was supposed to be a blitzkrieg, carrying everything before it,
smashing the pillars of corruption and turning the waters of the five
rivers red with the blood of accountability. It is acquiring instead all
the hallmarks of a classic battle of attrition reminiscent of the trench
warfare of 1914-18.

Nothing so strikingly illustrates this as the first batch of names chosen
for the National Security Council (NSC) and the cabinet. After 15 days of
frenzied consultations, is this what the army has to show for its pains?
It does not say much for the skill employed in the search or indeed for
the abundance of talent available in the Islamic Republic.

Sharifuddin Pirzada as the principal adviser to the Chief Executive? The
mind boggles. Pirzada has been adviser, legal counsel, eminence grise to
every tinpot dictator since Field Marshal Ayub Khan. What are the generals
hoping to get from him? If they want the status quo defended, he is their
man. But if this takeover is about changing the nation's destiny, as the
Chief Executive insists it is, what will be Pirzada's role who is already
saying that his inclusion in the new setup is not a full-time job?
Interestingly, as in the deal he swung with General Zia whose legal
adviser he also was, membership in the highest councils of government will
not debar Pirzada from his private practice.

The finance commissar of the revolution unfolding before our eyes is Dr
Yaqub who in his extended term as State Bank Governor may not have done
much to turn the economy around but who has definitely set a record of
survival which most politicians would envy. Although a clutch of scandals
and scams have hit the banking sector during his stewardship of the State
Bank-the Mehran Bank scandal, the travails of Bankers Equity Ltd, Nawaz
Sharif's various yellow schemes, the Mera Ghar programme- the reputation
for probity and financial brilliance of Pakistan's very own Alan Greenspan
remains intact.

At Attiya Enayatullah's inclusion in the NSC the mind does not only
boggle, it goes into a bewildered sleep. She is a charming lady and a
great lobbyist of the causes she espouses (population control, her own
career, and not necessarily in that order), but as far as having a measure
of Pakistan's problems is concerned, she is simply out of her depth.

The fourth person to have been inducted into the NSC is Imtiaz Sahibzada.
He is a nice person (every one seems to be a nice person around here) and
a Gallian (alumnus of Lawrence College) to boot. But, pray, what in
heaven's name is he expected to achieve?

=46oreign minister is Abdus Sattar. As foreign secretary he was taken
seriously. Ever since he takes himself seriously, a sense of humour
seemingly alien to the man. To plumb his depths further read the longish
dissertation on nuclear matters which he recently co-authored with Mr Agha
Shahi and Air Chief Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan although I suspect most of
it was written by him. That a single document should bristle with so many
contradictions and half-baked generalizations is quite amazing.

=46inance minister is a New York import (Citibank), Shaukat Aziz. Why
Pakistan must remain dependent upon such fly-by-night reformers will
remain a mystery till the cows finally come home.

=46ifteen days if not more of anguished cogitation, and 140 million people
to choose from, and this is what we get. Obviously, there is no escaping
the glitter of mediocrity in this country.

General Jahangir Karamat has a lot to answer for: for the weakness he
showed at several turnings when a bit of firmness was demanded and for
this idea of a national security council (the reason for his quarrel with
Nawaz Sharif) which his successors have picked up from him. What good will
it do? Apart from the other service chiefs who are in it as of right, its
other members are creatures of the Chief Executive. Will they be able to
advise him in the real sense of the word and check him should the need so
arise? If not, and they simply sing to his tune, or pander to the
shibboleths which become the received wisdom of the moment, what useful
purpose will they serve?

As a check on a democratically-elected government, an NSC can make sense
from the military's point of view (I repeat from the military's point of
view). But in a military setup it is not only a contradiction in terms but
also an exercise in redundancy. There will be the corps commanders calling
the shots from the wings. There will be the cabinet advising the Chief
Executive and helping him implement policy (or whatever passes for policy
in Pakistan). How many more layers of advice does the country need?

All this amounts to running on the same spot. What does it betoken? To
most people it would look like confusion. If something looks like a duck,
waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, in all probability it is a
duck. In the same way, something smelling so strongly of confusion is
probably confusion. Most of this confusion stems from a lack of clarity
about aim and objectives, a serious failing in any endeavour but
absolutely fatal in a military undertaking where decisiveness of action is
lost if the mission is not defined with clarity and precision.

Reviving the economy, carrying out accountability, strengthening national
cohesion are objectives which have tested the collective wisdom of the
Pakistani nation for the last 52 years. How much time does the Chief
Executive want for fulfilling this agenda? In Saudi Arabia he said it
could take anything from six months to three years or even longer.

A six months' limit we can safely discard for if it took 15 days to pick
Sharifuddin Pirzada and his team, it gives us an idea of the speed at
which this dispensation is likely to work. As it is, the economy is being
revived since Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's time. Accountability became a
catchword under Zia, a good 22 years ago. Strengthening national cohesion
is an open-ended exercise. Free elections will follow not precede the
fulfilment of these aims. We are talking therefore of a flexible
time-frame made finite or infinite depending upon the convenience of the
time-keepers.

The trouble is that whenever the army has ridden into the political arena
it has done so on the back of iron certainties, convinced that to every
problem there is a black and white solution. It has usually not tended to
understand (1) that life is a complex affair, often a messy one, with
little of the beguiling simplicity of the parade ground; (2) that politics
is not a search for perfection, because perfection we will find only in
heaven, but an undertaking in which a choice all the time has to be made
between lesser and greater evils; and (3) that given its make-up and
ethos, its conservative background and the intellectual limitations of its
higher echelons, the Pakistan army can never be a wholly satisfactory or
ideal instrument of lasting reform.

It is not a question of individuals being good or bad. General Musharraf
may be a very nice person but that is not the issue. The issue is that
power, especially untrammelled power, encourages arbitrary and whimsical
behaviour. This has been the sub-continental norm throughout history. This
has been the Pakistani norm since 1947. Ghulam Muhammad, Iskander Mirza,
Ayub Khan, Yahya, Bhutto, Zia, Benazir, Nawaz Sharif: all of them,
regardless of whether they were elected or not, have exercised power in
the manner of mediaeval despots, treating the state as their personal
estate, the state's servants as their personal retainers. This is the
Pakistani problem and from it flow the other symptoms which so agitate us
and form part of our national discourse: corruption, misuse of authority,
the looting of banks, the squandering of national resources, etc.

How can the army solve this problem when its first and last resource in
the political arena is the untrammelled exercise of authority?

Wherein lies the answer then? At the risk of sounding anti-climactic, it
lies in creating an ethos in which institutions are developed and laws
respected. If this task requires time and hard work it begins with a
crucial step: ensuring that in all seasons the state's functionaries are
chosen for their merit and talent and not their political usefulness. If
the army can provide just this, if it can leave in place
constitutionally-protected checks which ensure, firstly, that in the
judiciary and bureaucracy the best available people are appointed and,
secondly, that the administration of justice and the maintenance of law
and order are insulated from the influence of politics, sifarish and
money, it will have done its job and earned the nation's gratitude.
Addressing the other problems facing the country can then proceed in an
institutional rather than an ad-hoc manner.

The army's own self-interest is tied to this approach. More than most
countries in the same league, Pakistan needs a professionally competent
and politically neutral military, qualities put at risk when generals,
admirals and air marshals acquire a taste for power. The choice,
accordingly, is simple: to be distracted by an open-ended agenda and sink,
inevitably, deeper into the mire or concentrate on essentials and get out
while the sun still shines?
_________________
#2.
Indian Express
Saturday, November 6, 1999
Op-Ed.

INDIA'S DEMOCRATIC OBLIGATION
by Mushirul Hasan

Tim Sebastin, of `Hard Talk' fame, needs a dressing down from his boss in
London. Normally pleasant and gracious towards his guests, his tone and
temper tend to change whenever he interviews third world personalities. He
conducts an inquisition rather than a dialogue with them. This was
illustrated on Wednesday, when he was talking to Hasan Sharif, son of the
deposed Pakistani Prime Minister. He tried to extract a confession of
sorts that the coup evoked support rather than condemnation, that his
father presided over a massively corrupt empire, and that he himself lived
like a prince in a rented Mayfair Garden flat that was paid for by two
off-shore companies. Added to this was Hasan Sharif's own weak defence of
his father's misconduct in public life.

The celebrated interviewer, using his vast experience and skills, managed
to bludgeon a young student into submission.The problem with Tim Sebastin
was that he did not address himself to the more fundamental issues of
governance in Pakistan. Perhaps, he chose the wrong person to talk to.
Perhaps, he is not well informed about the ill effects of a fractured
polity and the gravity of the economic crisis in Pakistan. If so, I would
not blame him. In recent weeks, Pakistan watchers in India and elsewhere
tend to focus more on the causes rather than the consequences of the
military take-over. For me the key question is not the enormity of
corruption in Pakistan (was it any less at any other time?), but the
legitimacy of a military government and the future of democracy. Likewise
the unmistakable unpopularity of Nawaz Sharif is not central to my
concerns.

The real challenge is to explain how and why an elected government was
removed with such ease. Some might say the predictable has happened. I am
not quite sure if I agree. Military dictators have their own way, their
own ambitions, and their own style of functioning. Whether in Pakistan or
elsewhere, they are not in the habit of relinquishing power. I doubt if
General Musharraf will prove to be an exception to this rule. The early
signals are disconcerting, though quite in keeping with the tradition
pioneered by Yahya Khan and Zia-ul-Haq. Having usurped power from an
elected government, he chose a site in Saudi Arabia to announce that the
restoration of democracy might take as many as three years.

Whatever opposition parties might say at present, for fear of persecution
or reprisals, they must know that the general's intentions are far from
clear. If they are not alerted to this fact at the earliest, they may well
bemoan Musharraf's reign as an epic tragedy. When their brief honeymoon
with the existing regime is over, they may well regret their ill-advised
decision not to defend democracy. For India, the choices are not so simple
as they appear. For one, the general, emboldened by the short-lived
support he has, may well turn out to be a hard nut to crack. Second,
India's experience with previous generals has not been a happy one. We
cannot forget the military aggression of Yahya Khan and his brutal
repression of the people's movement in Bangladesh. We cannot ignore the
fact that the recent unprovoked aggression in Kargil was also the
handiwork of the military government.

Surely if this is Pakistan's army record, we cannot expect an entente
cordiale with the Pakistan establishment in future. I suspect that once
Pervez Musharraf tightens his grip, he may well decide to heighten
anti-India sentiments to legitimise its authority among the people. If the
past is a guide, we can expect this to happen sooner rather than later.
Time and time again both military and civilian rulers have whipped up
anti-Indian feelings to diffuse discontent and opposition ag -inst their
authority. A wise general like Musharraf must know that this strategy paid
off in the past. There is no reason why it should not work as long as he
controls the levers of power.

It is nobody's case that civilian governments, starting with Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto, were friendly towards India. But this does not mean that we lend
legitimacy to military rule. There can be no doubt that the US will do
business with the Pakistani general but not Saddam Husain, President of a
beleaguered nation. It is also true that the IMF and the World Bank,
having produced the familiar noises, will soon pour in their dollars to
rescue Pakistan from bankruptcy. Equally, the Commonwealth, having
occupied the high moral ground for a week after the coup, appears to have
abdicated its commitment to democracy in Pakistan. This is what
international diplomacy is all about.

This is what morality in politics amounts to. Still, if the international
community's ambivalence towards this regime continues, the return of
democracy in Pakistan may take much longer than expected. In the long run,
this may not suit the freedom-loving countries of the West.If India wants
to leave its imprint on the 21st century we must act differently. As the
largest and one of the most successful democracies, we have a moral
responsibility towards the restoration of democracy in our neigbouring
country. The spirit of the Lahore accord, though violated by Sharif and
his generals, should continue to guide our relations with their
successors. At the same time, our long-term interest lies in stable
democratic governments in South Asia. There is merit in reiterating this
point also because of the growing Taliban menace.

The last thing we want is to allow a bunch of misguided religious zealots
to take advantage of political uncertainties in Pakistan, cross over our
western borders, and stir up trouble in the already wounded Kashmir
Valley. A democratic Pakistan al-one can act as a bulwark against the
fundamentalist tide. I say this regardless of our experience with Zufiqar
Ali Bhutto, his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif. When the night
of the generals is over and the dawn of freedom arrives, the democratic
forces in Pakistan will have to perform a Herculean task. They will have
to ensure that no general would ever place an elected Prime Minister in
custody, lock up Parliament, and suspend the constitution. For the moment,
the political elites in Pakistan seem to have accepted the status quo.
Even the more enlightened sections are resigned to their fate. This augurs
ill for their own future. If they have a stake in democracy, they can
ill-afford to give precedence to their personal or party preferences
overestablished constitutional norms. Today, Nawaz Sharif is languishing
in custody; tomorrow it could be the turn of their elected representatives.

Copyright =A9 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd
_________________
#3.
The Hindustan Times
Saturday, November 6, 1999, New Delhi =20
Op-Ed. =20

CHRISTIAN PRESENCE IN INDIA
by Khushwant Singh

I WAS educated at St. Stephen's College. So were two of my brothers and my
wife. My son went to St. Columbas School and St. Stephen's before he went
to Cambridge. My daughter went to the Convent of Jesus and Mary in
Mussoorie before she went to Cambridge. My old mother had her gall bladder
operation at the Holy Family Hospital which was then the best for surgery,
post-operation care and very reasonable in its charges. A family I know
well, most of whose members also got their children educated in Christian
colleges are the Shouries: Arun, who is critical of missionary activities,
went to St. Stephen's in Delhi, his father H. D. Shourie to Foreman
Christian College in Lahore.

It will be no exaggeration to say that there will be few educated Indians
who at some time in their lives have not gone to a Christian school or
college and not received medical attention in a Christian-run clinic or
hospital. Christian presence in the countryside and tribal areas is even
more significant in the fields of education and medicine. Come to think of
it, Christians have given more in the way of schools, colleges and
hospitals than all other religious communities: Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs
put together.

Christians form a bare 3 per cent of the population of our country. Then
why this great hoo-ha created by Hindu fundamentalist groups against the
visit of the Pope? He is the head of the largest Christian sect in the
world, the Roman Catholics. He has been invited by the Government of
India: The two arguments put forward against giving him a warm welcome are
that many Indians were converted to Christianity by use of force. That may
have been true of the Portuguese invaders in the middle ages but not since
British rule when government functionaries kept missionaries at a
respectable distance.

They won converts largely from the poor and the deprived sections of our
society which after centuries of neglect and disdain found people who were
willing to care for them. It was gratitude rather than force or
inducements that made them opt for Christianity. I know a few well-to-do
educated Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs who also converted to Christianity:
they did so of their own free will. No attempt was ever made to convert
any of us who were educated in Christian institutions. Bible classes were
optional. I am glad I attended them. They opened my eyes to the beauty of
the English language. Parts of the Bible are great literature.

It cannot be denied that conversion from one faith to another gives rise
to tension. But so do inter-religious marriages. We have to learn to put
up with them. It is the basic right of every human being to profess the
faith he or she likes and marry anyone he or she desires to marry.

While on the subject it is also worth remembering that most of our sacred
texts were first translated into English by Christian missionaries and
made available to the rest of the world. To them we owe the discovery of
our rich religious and literary heritage. I am glad our government despite
its saffron tinge decided to welcome the Pope with open arms and ignore
bigoted rabble-rousers unconcerned with giving our country a bad name.

Babri fiction

NO EVENT has generated more novels in India than the destruction of the
Babri masjid. I have read quite a few published in English. They have
three things in common: all are written by Hindus, all describe the act of
vandalism being unworthy of the Hindu tradition of tolerance, and all
express fears about the future of secularism in India. The latest addition
to post-Babri fiction is Idol Love (Ravi Dayal) by Anuradha Marwah-Roy who
teaches English at Zakir Hussain College, Delhi. She is Punjabi, married
to Bengali and mother of two children.

Marwah-Roy spells out the theme in the early part of her novel: "Had
anybody in the country even imagined that the communal volcano, so grassed
over by our secular platitudes, would burst forth in this manner, spewing
hatred and violence? Now, we as a nation will wear the broken masjid like
an albatross round our necks for years and years of severe penance. I feel
shaken. It is as though the familiar ground is slipping from under my
feet. This attempt to distort history is also an attempt to handicap
identity. If we lop off years of Muslim rule as foreign encroachment, we
are left with a very incomplete image of ourselves. I shudder at this
incapacitation of the self. As a movement we need to avoid the language of
"us" and "them" and focus on the commonality of experience."

Having made her point Anuradha lets her imagination run riot to portray a
lurid picture of the shape of things to come in the next millennium.
Sadhus take over the management of the country and make strict laws
according to their weird notions of dharma; no mingling of castes, Dalits
will be kept on the outer limits of cities and towns. Muslims will be
boycotted as traitors and are forced to assume Hindu names to avoid
persecution. Their places of worship and monuments will be demolished to
make way for Hindu temples: amongst the doomed are the Dargah of Hazrat
Nizamuddin Auliya regarded by Delhiwallas as their patron saint and the
grave of Asadullah Khan Ghalib. Surely this sort of wild conjecturing is
unwarranted and not acceptable even as fiction. There is not the slightest
danger of India become anything like Marwah-Roy's nightmarish dream.
However, it has to be conceded that she is erudite, has a way with words
and compels attention.
[...]
_________________
#4.
The Hindustan Times
Saturday, November 6, 1999, New Delhi
Op-Ed. =20

WHO'S AFRAID OF HINDUTVA!
by S. S. Gill

AFTER A longish period of uncertainty and threatened instability, the
country seems to have settled to a spell of relatively stable government
with a reasonable prospect of lasting its full term. What is particularly
gratifying to the "pseudo secularists" is that the Bharatiya Janata Party
seems to have dropped its Hindutva agenda under the compulsions of
coalitional politics. When questioned as to how he reconciled his secular
credentials and his alliance with a communal party, Ramakrishna Hegde
claimed that it was a great achievement of the alliance partners to have
pulled the BJP away from its Hindutva moorings. And this view is shared by
a large section of the informed opinion.

But is that really so? Or, are the alliance partners labouring under a
self-serving delusion? On the face of it, this seems to be a tenable
proposition. The BJP has publicly declared that it has dropped for the
time being the three contentious issues which constitute the Hindutva
agenda. And true to its promise, it never raised them during their
previous tenure in office, nor is it likely to do so during the current
term. But how are the building of the temple at Ayodhya, scrapping of
Article 370, or introducing the common civil code central to Hindutva?
They will definitely serve the purpose of humiliating the Muslim community
and give a sense of triumph to the Sangh parivar, but how do these
achievements serve the real ideology goals of Hindutva? Hindus have any
number of ancient temples of great sanctity, and the addition of just one
more is not of such great import. Then, the scrapping of Article 370 may
satisfy an impulse of aggressive and narrow-minded 'cultural nationalism',
but how does it benefit the BJP? In fact it would further alienate the
Kashmiri Muslims, give a fresh cause to the militants in the valley,
without any corresponding gain for the cause of Hindutva. As to the third
item of the agenda, the enactment of a common civil code is bound to hurt
the Muslims deeply and is likely to result in prolonged communal strife.
Even this price may be worth paying from the Hindutva point of view if the
resultant gains were substantial. But what do the Hindus gain from this
move, except the perverse satisfaction of having rubbed the nose of the
Muslim community in the dust.

If the gains from the three major components of the Hindutva agenda are so
meagre, then how has it become its centre-piece in the perception of the
people? For one, this serves the Sangh parivar very well, as it helps to
camouflage its basic and far more insidious programme. And secondly, the
three easily identifiable, high-profile elements of the agenda help to
define the communal profile of the BJP in the popular imagination.

Actually, Hindutva is not a programme of action but a state of mind. It is
a specific view of one's Indianness or Bharatiata, of one's cultural
heritage and civilisational springs of the content of one's national
ethos. The defining characteristic of this view is that it is exclusivist
in nature: it admits of no diversity or dissent. And this is where the
problems arise. Hinduism itself being a highly pluralist religion and
Indian society being the most diverse, the exclusivist approach of the
Sangh parivar sharply 9clashes with the country's all-inclusive ethos and
encourages divisive forces.

If the votaries of Hindutva had confined their views to the personal
domain, nobody had any reason to complain. But it is in the very nature of
their ideology that they have to go about their business with the zeal of
an evangelist. And in doing so they operate at two levels. One, of
aggressive and belligerent proselytizers, and two, of the subtle
mind-conditioners.

The first technique has obviously greater appeal for the hot-heads and the
hard-liners. The three items of the BJP agenda which have been temporarily
moved to the back burner belong to this category. But even if this is the
official line, the Sangh parivar cadres do not subscribe to it. Off and on
the mask slips down and the true face of the Sangh is exposed. Despite the
BJP's disclaimer to build the Ram temple, Ashok Singhal and his ilk keep
chanting that the temple will be built within the promised deadline of
2001. During his election campaign, even Pramod Mahajan asserted that the
temple would come up as suddenly as the Babri mosque was demolished. And
the parivar has never made a secret of the feverish preparations being
made for building the temple. The work on carving its pillars and beams is
being carried on in Rajasthan and close to Ayodhya itself in the open, and
money is continuously flowing in for the completion of the good work.

But far more menacing is the systematic campaign of intimidation and
violence unleashed against the Christians. The destruction of their
churches, incineration of popular social workers like Staines along with
his children, molestation of nuns-all these are aimed at coercing the
missionaries into stopping their conversion activities. In line with this
approach is the VHP's plan for a protest march from Goa to Delhi against
the Pope's visit to India, and the demand for an apology from him for the
alleged forcible conversions of Hindus to Christianity.

What is the provocation for this sudden stepping up of violence against
the Christian community? It is the vigorous campaign launched by the
parivar to "reconvert" the tribals to Hinduism. As this is also the main
area of activity of the Christian missionaries, this results in direct
confrontation between the two proselytizing groups. But as the stance of
the parivar sevaks is belligerent, and there is the arrogance of numbers
on their side, the shuddhi practices often result in violence. Whereas
both the parties have equal right to propagate their faith peacefully, and
the methods adopted by some Christian missionaries are highly
questionable, the injection of violence in this process and resort to
aggressive tactics is destroying the peace of the tribal communities. Not
only villages have got divided on communal lines, even families have been
ripped apart.

The above instances, however disturbing in themselves, hardly produce any
lasting impact. It is the second-level operations designed at conditioning
and controlling the minds of the people which pose a real threat to the
polity. Education and information are the two most vital
mind-conditioners, and the BJP has always given the highest importance to
these two subjects. In the Janata Party ministry set up in 1997, the Jana
Sangh did not bother to get any high-profile economic ministries, and
opted for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Sangh cadres were
placed in strategic positions in the information sector and the premier
news agency of the country was specially targeted.

Then, in the BJP ministries formed in 1996, 1998, and now in 1999, the
party has taken good care to keep the ministries of Information and
Education to itself. During its previous stint, the BJP went all out to
dismantle Prasar Bharati brick by brick so as to acquire full control of
the powerful information engines of Doordarshan and All India Radio.
Pramod Mahajan publicly stated that Prasar Bharati has no relevance in the
present scheme of things.

The Ministry of Education is much more important of the two, and that is
why it is headed by a committed ideologue. And how are the minds of the
people being conditioned? Well calculated moves have been made to ensure
that educational institutions and research centres are headed by persons
with firm commitment to the Sangh ideals. The outcome of these
appointments will have a lasting impact on the educational system and
academic climate of the country. The holders of these key positions would
have a decisive say in the appointments at the operational level, and this
will have a cascading effect in infiltrating the educational system with
the parivar cadres. History books will be rewritten and the students would
imbibe a saffronised view of their cultural heritage. Also, by excessive
and slanted glorification of the past, revivalist and reactionary values
will be promoted. The RSS slogan that "Hinduism is nationalism" will be
stamped on impressionable minds through this process.
_________________
#5.
BBC News
Thursday, November 4, 1999
World: South Asia

NEPAL'S ABORTION SCANDAL
Min Min Lama: At the centre of calls for reform
By Sue Lloyd-Roberts in Nepal

The women's jail in Kathmandu is a grim place.

The prisoner I had come to see, 16 year-old Min Min Lama, was immediately
identifiable among the inmates who were chatting and hanging out the
washing in the prison courtyard.

Nearly 100 women are jailed on abortion charges. She is after all, at 16,
Nepal's youngest woman prisoner.

She looks much younger and is extremely pretty.

Taking me by the hand, Min Min Lama took me to a quiet corner of the
prison courtyard to tell her story.

Raped

She explained that she was 14 when she was raped by a male relation, the
brother of her step sister-in-law.

"He opened the door and shoved a towel in my mouth and raped me."

"Later, I told my step sister-in-law what had happened and she said she
couldn't believe that her brother would do such a thing."

She said that when it was discovered that she was pregnant, her step
sister-in-law wanted to protect her brother and, without Min Min Lama
knowing, she gave her a drug which induced an abortion.

When the aborted foetus was found in a public toilet, the sister-in-law
called the police.

Abortion is illegal in Nepal and the teenager was sentenced to 12 years in
jail.

This tiny and fragile girl has become a symbol for those campaigning in
Nepal to change the abortion laws.

Nearly 100 women, or a fifth of the female prisoners in Nepal are serving
time on abortion-related charges and many of them, like Min Min Lama, have
been raped by a male relation.

Sue Lloyd-Roberts on her way to the villageWhat makes Min Min Lama's case
extra poignant is that she claims she wasn't responsible for the abortion
and she asked me to go and find the woman who was, the sister in law..

It was a seven-hour journey from Kathmandu, five of them on foot, to reach
Min Min Lama's home and on the way I learned more about her family and the
plight of women in Nepal.

=46inding the family

There was the local hospital which I stumbled on en route, nearly falling
over a woman who was lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the entrance
hall awaiting medical attention.

She too had been the victim of an amateur abortionist.

A victim of an amatuer abortionA doctor told me that he deals with such
cases all the time-women with punctured uteruses and even intestines after
traditional birth attendants use whatever sharp object comes to hand,
bamboo sticks and even shards of glass, to get rid of the foetus which
would otherwise cause the family shame.

I resumed my trek to Min Min Lama's home.

Min Min Lama's father: Could do nothing to help None of Min Min Lama's
full brothers and sisters were there and I learned that after Min Min
Lama's mother had died, her father had remarried and the new wife had
driven Min Min Lama and her two brothers from the family home.

=46urthermore, the new family were afraid that under Nepali property laws,
Min Min Lama might inherit some of her mother's estate and so it might be
convenient for Min Min Lama to be behind bars.

Min Min Lama's father and stepmother assured me that they loved Min Min
Lama but could do nothing to help her as they had no money.

Sent away

As for my search for the step sister-in-law, they said she wasn't there
and sent me away.
But I returned to the house at midnight and, as I suspected, the
sister-in-law was there.

The family was humiliated and mortified.
Sister-in-law: Admitted her guiltThe entire village was awake by now and
the neighbours who had gathered around shouted at the woman that she had
been found out and that she must now tell the truth.

The step sister-in-law admitted to giving Min Min Lama the poison which
had caused the abortion and to lying to the police about Min Min Lama's
age so that, although she was still a minor, she would be imprisoned.
"OK, I am guilty. I feel guilty, but what good will that do now?", she said=
=2E

Good news
Min Min Lama's lawyers had been campaigning for her case to be reviewed
and they said that the fact that the BBC was in town to film the story and
that we had uncovered vital, new testimony helped.
Before leaving Kathmandu. I paid a final call on Min Min Lama with the
news that her sentence might be reduced.
She was beaming from ear to ear as I waved good bye to her through the
prison bars.

Two weeks later, Min Min Lama was released.
The plight of the teenager has focused attention on the issue, and might
prove the catalyst for change.

There are, however, 99 women facing similar charges who still languish in
prison in Nepal today. =00=00=00=00

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SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH is an informal, independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since1996.