[sacw] sacw dispatch (24 Sept.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
24 September 1999
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#1. Report on Asian Parliamentarians Conference, Dhaka
#2. Urban Poverty in India gets worse
#3. Testing ponies and waiting stallions [in Pakistan]
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#1.
[23 Sept.99]

The Hague Appeal for Peace's Report on
the Asian Parliamentarian's Conference on Peace and Cooperation

Prepared by Gouri Sadhwani, Campaign Coordinator

The Hague Appeal sent two representatives to the Asian Parliamentarians
Conference on Peace and Cooperation (APCPC) in Dhaka, Bangladesh from
September 1-4, 1999. The two representatives, Gouri Sadhwani (Campaign
Coordinator) and Patrick McCarthy (Program Coordinator) were among a
handful of civil society representatives invited to attend the conference
which brought together parliamentarians from 31 different countries in Asia.

The countries present included: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia,
China, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon,
Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Republic
of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Socialist Republic of Vietnam,
Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand, Tonga, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

Some countries did not send delegations because of their own internal
situations for example India was preparing for elections and did therefore
not have representatives present.

Civil society representation included:
I.K. Gujral, Former PM of India;
Justice Christopher Weeramantry from the International Court of Justice;
Judge Leila Seth, Former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh, India;
Kuldip Nayer Former member of Rajya Sabha, India;
Katsuya Kodama, Asia Pacific Peace Research Association;
Rajmohan Gandhi, Peace Activist from India;
Johan Hamels, National Democratic Institute, Bangladesh;
Liz Philipson, Conciliation Resources, England;
Ravinder Pal Singh, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;
Raquel Edralin-Tiglao, Women Caucus for an International Criminal Court,
Manila; Savithri Walatara, Center for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lanka;
Rita Manchanda, South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Nepal;
Krishna Banerjee, Mahanirvan Calcutta Research Group, India;
Amit Chakraborty, Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace, India;
Chandni Joshi, UNIFEM Asia;
Steven Staples, International Network on Disarmament and Globalization,
Canada;
Khushi Kabir, Nijera Kori, Bangladesh;
Raja Devasish Roy, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh;
Yoko Furuyama, Peace Boat, Japan;
Praful Bidwai, Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament, India;
Gouri Sadhwani and Patrick McCarthy, Hague Appeal for Peace.

These 22 members were asked to represent all of civil society in Asia and
were amongst the 200 plus delegates that took part in the conference
organized and hosted by Bangladesh. The UNDP in Bangladesh helped provide
funding for the conference and also provided some technical support. The
conference adopted the four main themes of the Hague Appeal as its main
foci and presented papers by parliamentarians from Bangladesh on each of
the themes.

The conference represented a great opportunity for Asian countries and
parliamentarians to come together to discuss building peace and cooperation
in Asia. The fact that the Bangladesh government accepted the invitation
of the Hague Appeal to invite civil society into the process was also
important. However, the role and size of this participation left much to
be desired. Civil society reps were not fully integrated into the
discussion or decision making processes. In fact the keynote address on
behalf of civil society was given by I.K. Gujral the former PM of India!
The fact that Gujral never even consulted with the CSOs at the conference
only added to the irony of the situation. None the less, he did give a
good speech.

The Hague Appeal tried to help facilitate and coordinate the participation
of civil society at the conference. When we got there on Monday night we
got our hands on a list of civil society people and their room numbers. I
called people who had arrived and we all had dinner together. There was
quite an impressive collection of people around the dinner table. Too bad
our energies were focused on figuring out this conference instead of some
major issue like solving world poverty or something:-).

We continued to meet as a group twice a day during the conference to plan
and coordinate our efforts. We designated reps to attend the four working
groups based on our interests and expertise. The Conference permitted us
(all of civil society) to make five interventions from the floor when the
papers on the major themes were presented during the plenary. So the night
before we picked five individuals from amongst us and shared important
themes we wanted them to address in their intervention. We also
distributed a statement from me on behalf of the Hague Appeal, Peace
Matters, and the Hague Agenda to all participants. Interventions were made
by:
-Savithri Walatara on International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
-Justice Leila Seth on Culture of Peace
-Raja Devasish Roy on Conflict Prevention and Resolution
-Rajmohan Gandhi on The Growth of Parliamentary Democracy: the Asian Way and
-Ravinder Pal Singh on Disarmament and Human Security.

All the interventions went very well and the speakers did an outstanding
job. I have copies of the speeches if anyone is interested in seeing them.
Some of the issues we covered included: nuclear disarmament, peace
education, ratification of the ICC, creation of a small arms register,
emphasis on conflict prevention by respecting ethnic and other minorities,
women's rights, economic justice, development, environmental protection,
the new diplomacy, and poverty.

We, the civil society reps, also produced a press release everyday to
highlight issues we thought needed more attention. These releases were
drafted by the Hague Appeal team and approved by the others. The releases
were printed in the conference's daily newsletter. We also held a press
conference on Friday, September 3. There were over 30 journalists there
and we got in some of the papers. The largest paper to cover us was The
Independent which is one of the two major papers in Dhaka. We even got a
picture in! We were after all an impressive bunch to look at too.

The conference's main goal was to create an Association of Asian
Parliamentarians for Peace. This goal was met. The name of the new
association was changed to, The Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace
(AAPP). The AAPP's main objectives are to:
-Provide a forum to Parliamentarians for exchange of views and ideas on
promoting peace in the continent of Asia in particular and in the world in
general;
-Cooperate in international, regional and other forums for attainment and
promotion of peace;
-Respect and support the purposes and principles of the Charter of the UN
and the Inter-Parliamentary Union and develop friendly relations among
Asian countries and their Parliaments;
-Foster cooperation and coordination among Parliaments of Asia in order to
respect and defend human rights and humanitarian principles and for the
establishment of a civil
society based on democracy and justice;
-Provide forums at regional and national levels for interaction between
Parliamentarians on the one hand and the Civil Society Organizations and
peace workers on the other for promotion of peace and for enhancing the
awareness of the need for peace; and
-Promote culture of peace in every society by educational, cultural and
other means.

The AAPP consists of a) The General Assembly b) The Executive Council and
c) The Secretariat. The PM of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina was elected the
President of the AAPP and Bangladesh is serving as the Secretariat for now.
The Secretariat will rotate and go to the country which will host the
annual conference. Prince Norodom Ranariddh, President of the National
Assembly of Cambodia, was elected as Vice President of the Association.
Cambodia has also agreed to host the next meeting.

There were working group meetings on each of the four papers presented on
the major themes. Civil Society members were able to join these groups and
make recommendations on resolutions that each working group would propose
the body adopt. We discovered that we were most effective in the working
groups because the parliamentarians did not have papers ready so most of
the resolutions were drafted completely by civil society reps.

Although we included important points in the draft resolutions like: a
small arms registry; complete and total nuclear disarmament; implementation
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights; etc. some important recommendations were taken
out in the final drafting committee where we were not represented.

However, the resolutions that were passed represent very positive steps
forward for Asia. But as with all resolutions its in the implementation
that we really see results. (I can send copies to anyone interested in
seeing the resolutions).

Some highlights from the resolutions passed by the Association include:
-the creation of an Asian Charter of Human Rights (we proposed that they
base this Charter on a Charter done by CSOs from Asia two years ago but
they did not accept this);
-that adequate measures be taken to eliminate all forms of discrimination
against women, children, including the elimination of child labor, and
other disadvantaged sections of society;
-support the UN in its central role in conflict prevention and resolution;
-that the AAPP may examine the establishment of a regional early-warning
system for effective detection, prevention, resolution and transformation
of violent conflicts;
-urge countries to consider reducing their defense expenditures in order to
commit greater resources towards the welfare of their peoples;
-make efforts to ensure transparency and accountability on Arms Trade
Agreements and processes among the countries of the world;
-take steps to initiate an effective agreement on Nuclear disarmament
(worldwide);
-introduce legislation requiring peace education be introduced as part of
the traditional and non-traditional education system at all levels (we set
a time limit of 5 years for this legislation to be introduced but they took
it out);
-introduce legislation to protect the rights of ethnic and religious
minorities; ...

One item that was very hotly debated because of it's implications was
Article 11 which states, "Bilateral and contentious issues shall be
excluded from deliberation in any forums of the Association, unless so
agreed by the General Assembly." Well Pakistan (we think) asked Palestine
to propose deleting the article. China of course was opposed to its
deletion and since India was not there to contest its deletion, the article
was eventually deleted. This may prevent the Association from doing
anything at all if it's forums are highjacked for bilateral issues by
countries. But we will have to wait and see. An interesting note is that
this new Association will be the only venue in Asia that permits bilateral
issues to be discussed in it's general assembly.

Follow up: Civil Society reps at the conference decided that it was
important to ensure that our work and experience with the process was
shared with other groups in Asia that may be asked to participate in the
future. It was decided that Kodama Katsuya of Japan would propose some
sort of formal Asian civil society structure to monitor and influence the
newly created Association.

The conference on the whole was a very interesting experience. We learned
that the concept of new diplomacy is indeed very new and still needs to be
elaborated. Civil society cannot simply be invited to take part in
processes and discussions in symbolic measures but need to be considered as
equal partners if the true sprit of the new democratic diplomacy is to be
realized. The conference in Dhaka was a good first step but much more
work needs to be done in making genuine efforts to have the AAPP more
comprehensively incorporate civil society and its issues into their
initiative. The involvement of local NGOs was also lacking. Only two
Bangladeshi NGOs participated in the conference. We all agreed that this
was an important component to build on for the future.

The two overarching benefits to come out of the conference were 1)the
connections made by civil society representatives that were present and
the potential for future work together and 2) the creation of this new
Association which can provide a great opportunity for Asia to promote peace
regionally and internationally.

_________________________________
#2.

DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Urban Poverty Gets Worse and Desperate
By Bharat Dogra

NEW DELHI, Sep 21 (IPS) - Unable to any longer endure the pitiful
wails of her starving children who hadn't eaten for two days,
Pushpa sprinkled kerosene and set both them and herself ablaze in
Kanpur, once a thriving industial city in north India.

Elsewhere alert neighbours saved a jobless factory worker,
Muhammad Subhan, and his family, foiling his desperate attempt to
end their lives. Subhan later said they hadn't had a morsel of
food for three days.

As urban joblessness increases, the poor are being driven to
tragic limits, particularly in the older, densely-populated
industrial centres like Kanpur, once the 'Manchester of India'.

Many factories have shut down, some rendered obsolete by
technological advances that make them less profitable for owners
or closed by court orders on polluting industries, as in Delhi
where 168 factories were shut in 1997.

An estimated 50,000 workers suddenly found themselves out of
jobs when India's apex Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling on a
public interest petition, ordered the removal of mills and
factories from the highly polluted capital city.

Although the court also ordered several measures to compensate
the out-of-work employees, the owners were quicker to seal off
the premises than pay up the money owed them, leading last year
to the tragic, protest immolation by one worker outside the
Indian parliament.

Nearly 100,000 blue-collar workers and self-employed persons
in the transport sector in Delhi have also lost their livelihoods
as a result of pollution control norms relating to emission
levels of the older models of vehicles.

Ever since the opening up of the Indian market and the
implementation of economic liberalisation policies at the start
of the nineties, large numbers of urban Indians who were not poor
earlier have been pushed below the poverty line.

Even official data on urban poverty admits that while the
percentage of poor has declined, the absolute number of poor has
increased. According to the latest figures in the Ninth Plan
document, the number of urban poor has increased from 60 million
in 1973-74 to 76 million in 1993-94, the latest figures.

The workers of the now closed Hindustan General Industries
live near the railway crossing in Nangloi, an ugly, overcrowded
residential area of West Delhi. Their factory was relocated on
the Supreme Court's order and they were asked to report for work
at the new site in Rajasthan state, northwest of Delhi.

Most stayed on as they were uncertain of the working and
living conditions in Rajasthan, and those who moved have reported
much reduced earnings because of the availability of cheaper,
locally available workers for the employers.

Both sets of workers have been forced to stop the education of
their children, in some cases even sending them back to the
village from where they migrated out of poverty.

Shakuntala's husband Vidyaram lost his job as a result of the
closure of his Delhi factory, and he became ill later. In
desperation Shakuntala clings on to a most exploitative job that
pays her only 750 rupees (roughly 18 dollars) a month for a 12-
hour day. ''Life is a relentless grind,'' she says.

Manchand drove a goods carrier, 'tempo', which was forced off
the road by anti-pollution policies. He has been forced into
becoming a a headload worker to feed his family. He says his
earnings have been reduced and the work is very uncertain.

Amarjit Singh was forced to junk his 30 year old 'Ambassador'
taxi car under a 'clean Delhi' campaign that targetted taxi
drivers. For some months he remained unemployed and became very
depressed, ''then I felt I should do something otherwise I'll go
mad sitting idle and without any money to feed my family.''

Taking a desperate gamble, he sold his small flat and
purchased a new taxi. Although he has a vehicle that complies
with pollution control norms, the loss of his house has made the
family's survival in Delhi more precarious than before.

In Raipur and Bhilai towns of central Madhya Pradesh state,
nearly 4,000 workers have remained unemployed for a long time
since being thrown out of jobs by several local industrialists
who wanted to keep out a well organised trade union.

Janak Lal Thakur, prominent leader of the Chattisgarh Mukti
Morcha which unionised the exploited and mainly tribal work force
of the area, said the ''industrialists use their huge resources
to delay justice and keep our workers unemployed and without
jobs. How long can they survive like this?''

The government has not considered it important to initiate
relief and rehabilitation schemes despite the obvious urgency.
Instead there are a number of poverty alleviation programmes, for
self-employment, but the budget has not increased.

According to the World Resources Report, 1998-99, quoting U.N
data, India's urban population is likely to increase from around
20 percent now to around 39 percent in 2020.

By 2015, India's business capital of Mumbai on the west coast
is likely to have a population of 226 million, while Calcutta and
Delhi are 17 million each, and Bangalore, 8 million and Madras, 9
million. Urban poverty will get worse and more desperate.
(END/IPS/bd/an/99)

[c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
All rights reserved
_________________________________
#3.

DAWN
17 September 1999
Op-Ed

Testing ponies and waiting stallions
By Ayaz Amir

THE sad truth is that a popular movement or agitation has never brought down
a Pakistani government before. It is not going to do so in this season. If
the only threat to the empire of the heavy mandate was from the 19-party
alliance, now expansively dubbed the Grand Democratic Alliance, Mian Nawaz
Sharif would have little to fear. His real concern is different and arises
from another quarter: his relationship with Rawalpindi which, not to put too
fine a point on it, is fraught and tense because of the great Kargil fiasco.

The public owning of responsibility is a tradition which has never existed in
Pakistan. If there was no night of the long knives after Pakistan was
dismembered in 1971, it is too much to expect that there would be an outburst
of honesty or blood-letting because of Kargil in 1999. The Islamic Republic
in crisis has always seen the ruling elites closing ranks and protecting
their own so as to pull a blanket of discretion over even their greatest
follies.

There is a telling and crucial difference this time. Kargil has dealt a blow
to the unity of the governing class, driving a wedge between the heavy
mandate and Rawalpindi. While both have had their fingers burnt, both are
trying to put the blame for this fiasco on the shoulders of the other. In the
shades of Islamabad this is the real cat-and-mouse game being played.
Compared to this game the opposition agitation in the rest of the country,
for all its sound and fury, is a side-show.

To be sure this agitation is not without significance, for the more it picks
up steam the more rattled and disoriented becomes the heavy mandate. But it
is not of decisive importance. The key to political change has never been in
the hands of the people.

The great objection being levelled at the opposition alliance is that it does
not have a common programme or a single candidate for prime minister. This
objection is pointless. Even if the present opposition had Karl Marx to write
its manifesto, and Akbar the Great as its prime minister-in-waiting, it would
still make no difference.

Change in Islamabad, even when undertaken in pursuance of a constitutional
clause such as the now-defunct Article 58(2)b, has always occurred after a
nod or signal of active support from Rawalpindi. Any political hopeful
forgetting this elementary principle of Pakistani politics is not likely to
carry his ambitions very far.

Mian Nawaz Sharif should know the truth of this since the inexorable rise to
glory and power of Ittefaq Inc. is a direct outcome of military benevolence.
Without generous help from that quarter, Nawaz Sharif would have been another
industrialist living the good life in Lahore.

Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan also knows this eternal verity of Pakistani
politics. Although he has spent his life putting together political
alliances, some of them quite amazing, against autocratic regimes (except for
that one time when he found himself supping at General Zia-ul-Haq's lurid
table), who should know better than him that as often as not democratic
movements have served as the enabling instruments of dictatorial ambition?
Thus it was in 1968-69 when the movement against Field Marshal Ayub Khan
culminated in the coup d'etat of General Yahya Khan. Thus again in 1977 when
General Zia-ul-Haq stole the fruits of the agitation against Zulfikhar Ali
Bhutto.

There are of course fearless knights in Pakistan, and not a few of them in
the English press, who angrily declare that never again will they tolerate
another adventurer. If only wishes were horses and adventurers could be
stopped from riding into power by searing columns in the English language
press.

On stud farms, as a ficionados of equine matters are well aware, mares are
put in the right frame of mind by horses called 'testing ponies'. Only when
things reach the desired pitch does the stallion who is supposed to do the
final honours brought on the scene. The pity of democratic politics in
Pakistan is that opposition alliances, in all sincerity and with the best
intentions in the world, have played the role of testing ponies to
Bonapartist stallions. When things get hot, someone else appears on the scene
to carry the prize away. This is not to disparage democratic politics but
merely to point out one of the structural defects of our Republic. What's
more, till such time that the Republic's stables are thoroughly cleaned (by
what Herculean process we do not know) this structural defect will remain.

Indeed, if George Orwell were to rise from the dead and write a book on
Pakistan he would have to call it Stud Farm not Animal Farm. But if the
opposition has problems, Nawaz Sharif has problems of his own which are of a
much more serious nature.

How will the stallions behave? That's his problem and not what pranks the
testing ponies of the opposition are getting up to. Why then curse or
belittle the opposition parties as Mian Nawaz Sharif and his loudspeakers are
increasingly doing? And what point in working the crowds in Santnagar, Mian
Azhar's home base in Lahore? If Mian Azhar was the only threat which Nawaz
Sharif faced, he could play cricket to his heart's content and resume his
foreign travels, now sadly interrupted because of his domestic
preoccupations. From all of which the conclusion can be drawn that instead of
tilting the windmills, the rattled barons of the heavy mandate should be
seeing the larger picture and trying to put their own house in order.

But this precisely is the problem. It is difficult changing course in
mid-stream. If a particular style of government is confused and bumbling,
there is no instant formula which can turn it overnight into a model of
vigour and clarity. What Dostoyevsky said about the second half of a man's
life - that it is mostly a repetition of the first half - is also true of
statecraft. If you do not have this gift in you, acquiring it is difficult.
That is why it will take more than magic to make the second half of the heavy
mandate look any different from what we have seen of it in the first half. So
Nawaz Sharif's problem is not that he should become a more efficient and
effective ruler. That is not going to happen. His problem is stark in its
simplicity: how to disperse the testing ponies and keep the stallions
tethered firmly in their proper place.

Therein lies the rub. In the giant stables in Rawalpindi where Pakistan's
champion stallions are kept, the mood is dark; some would go so far as to say
even dangerous. One indication of this is the almost permanent scowl that has
come to sit on the army chief's face. A carefree man before Kargil, he now
looks visibly unhappy. Niaz Naik has only made matters worse. Whatever he may
have meant to convey, his remarks in Karachi will be taken by the army high
command as another attempt at putting the entire blame for Kargil on its
shoulders while absolving the civilian leadership of all responsibility.

Naik has said that because of poor coordination among those planning the
Kargil venture, the prime minister was not fully in the know of it, the
implication being that had he known what was going on he would have put a
stop to it - which is to put more faith in the prime minister's powers of
observation than even his partisans might be willing to allow. Naik has gone
on to say that back-channel contacts between India and Pakistan (of which
Naik was a part from the Pakistani side) were leading to some sort of an
agreement on Kashmir but that the possibility of any progress was spiked by
the fighting in Kargil.

This is a travesty of the facts. Whatever secret contacts there were between
India and Pakistan were post and not pre-Kargil and for Naik to imply
anything different is irresponsible, especially at a time when there is
tension and growing distrust between Rawalpindi and the heavy mandate.

In private, senior army officers are not above conceding that the army high
command was guilty of serious errors of judgment about the Kargil expedition.
What they resent are attempts to put the entire blame for this fiasco on the
army command while giving a clean chit to the prime minister. This too is a
travesty of the facts. The PM was in the know from the beginning.

I have been accused by friends of writing about Kargil endlessly. I write
about it not because I am fond of the subject but because Kargil is stuck in
the throats of the civilian and military leaderships and unless they can get
it out from there it will keep causing problems all around. In any other
half-mature country the government would have taken the lead and owned up to
the blunder committed, asked for some sort of public forgiveness and then
tried to get on with life. But this would have required a breadth of vision
and a largeness of heart that on the political stage are nowhere to be seen.

This is precisely why the disease instead of being cured continues to linger.
Since it lingers the big question remains: will the sullen mood that can be
felt in Rawalpindi pass or will it gel into something harder? To know the
answer to this question is to understand how Pakistani politics will unfold
in the critical months that lie ahead.

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