[sacw] sacw dispatch(22 Sept.99) #2

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #2.
22 September 1999
_____________________________________
#1. Intellectuals dismayed over election planks [in India]
#2. [Villagers Hate politicians who have taken em for a ride]
#3. Press Note from Narmada Bachao Andolan
#4. Plan for transport of Indian goods through Bangladesh provokes
factional strife
#5. [...] To (Ab)Use Children in Wars & Political Campaigns?
_____________________________________
#1.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/220999/detCIT08.htm

Hindustan Times
Wednesday, September 22, 1999, New Delhi

INTELLECTUALS DISMAYED OVER ELECTION PLANKS

HT Correspondent (New Delhi, September 21)

DISMAY OVER the issues shaping the present election campaign was
highlighted at a Press conference held in the Capital today. The speakers
at the Press conference, which was organised by Sahmat and an NGO, Lokayan,
included noted academicians such as Prof K.N. Panikkar of JNU and Prof K.M.
Shrimali of the Delhi University.

Speaking first, Prof Panikkar highlighted what he termed as the "two
paradoxes" in the election campaign this time. Criticising the BJP, he said
that there was an attempt by the saffron brigade to differentiate between
the party (the BJP) and its leader by projecting Mr Vajpayee as a great
liberal. The historian wondered how the Prime Minister could really
represent his party if it was an open admission that he was really more
liberal than the rest of his partymen. Prof. Panikkar also said that the
coalition partners, ironically, had lent legitimacy to the BJP's "barbaric"
policies.

Voicing his thoughts, Prof Shrimali lamented that the election campaign had
degenerated into a personality clash rather than a debate on issues.

"The Sangh Parivar is trying to enforce the concept of one people, one
nation, one culture," he charged. Prof Shrimali also hit out at the
"cultural policing being conducted by the HRD ministry," saying that the
BJP was trying to dub anything other than Vedic tradition as un-Indian.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Prof Prabhat Patnaik and Prof
Imtiaz Ahmed of JNU and well-known theatre personality Mr M.K. Raina.

Prof Patnaik lashed out at "the pro-imperialist economic policy of the
BJP-led government. Vast food stocks are lying in godowns but the sheer
callousness of the government has prevented it from reaching the poor," the
professor lamented.

The professor said that the "so-called personality clash" between the Prime
Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi "as projected by the BJP" was
in fact a strategy of communal fascism to mask the real importance of the
elections. If the NDA comes to power, the BJP will change India as per its
ideological mindset, he warned.

Responding to questions by mediapersons, Mr Raina condemned "the
manipulation of history school books to suit the ideology of the Sangh
Parivar." He said the same thing had been done in Pakistan. "We don't want
India to become a mirror version of Pakistan," he said.
____________________
#2.

The Week
Sept 26 1999,
Cover story
http://www.the-week.com/99sep26/cover.htm

The Week visits some villages in the heartland that have seen no progress
in decades.
Votes have no value here and politicians are a hated lot

by Deepak Tiwari

The thirteenth Lok Sabha election had as much talk on nationality as there
was of nationalism in the previous election. And it had much talk on
national security rather than on secularism. Rhetoric which sounds
significant to the elite and the intelligentsia, however, means little to
the ordinary people in India's villages. The bottom line for them is
survival, roti, kapda aur makan.

KHERIA: IN A.B. VAJPAYEE'S CONSTITUENCY
"None of us will vote this time," says the head of the committee formed to
boycott the polls. "It is our protest against poverty and underdevelopment.
Let the netas feel the pinch."

Long after the grandiloquent 'tryst with destiny', one in every three
individuals in the country lives below the poverty line. According to the
Human Development Report, India is ranked 138 among 175 countries; a
quarter of Indian men and half the Indian women are illiterate. The future
looks bleak: 50 million children aged 6-11 years, the future voters, do not
go to school. Other social indicators are as dismal.

Quality of life in the villages remains unspeakable: 70 per cent of the
villages have no post office within 2 km; 60 per cent of the babies are
delivered by untrained, unhygienic, hands. About a quarter of villages in
Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Orissa do not have primary schools.

The Week chose to visit one village each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa to highlight the national tragedy that
vote-seeking politicians have exploited and forgotten election after
election. They promised the moon each time but not even a moonbeam has yet
filtered in. Promises have been rehashed this time, too, but people are
growing wiser. The villagers of Kheria in Uttar Pradesh have made a strong
political statement by deciding to boycott the polls. Voices of protest,
strong or feeble, have been heard elsewhere.

Leaving behind 'inhuman statistics', we invite you for a first-hand
experience of another India in the following pages.

Waiting with an oiled cane
BIHAR: Kailash Singh will not be able to revel in the colour and chaos of
the world's biggest electoral exercise. Nor will Birendra Singh and a dozen
other villagers of Bairipur. All of them died, Kailash and Birendra in the
last three months, because there is no health facility in the village. By
the time they were rushed to the hospital at Nokha, 9 km away, it was too
late.

BAIRIPUR VILLAGE; POPULATION: 1,500
CONSTITUENCY: BIKRAMGANJ
There is no health facility here and the ailing are carried on cots to the
nearesthospital, 9 km away. Many die on the way.

A health centre is not the only necessity missing in Bairipur. There is no
pucca road. There is an apology for a school; students desert it on rainy
days because of seepage from the roof. And, of the two hand-pumps in the
village, one is perennially out of order.
Little surprise then that the villagers are mulling some drastic measures.
"We are oiling some canes to teach the vote-seekers a lesson," says Daroga
Ram, 70. "And this time, we will pour water into the ballot boxes."
Politicians have gauged the mood: till September 12, not a single party had
come to seek votes.

The village, which is in Bikramganj constituency, has elected several
high-profile politicians, including the late Ram Subhag Singh, who was
opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, and Kanti Singh, former Union minister.
Last year's winner was Basisth Narain Singh. "None of them fulfilled our
sole demand of a pucca road," says a villager wistfully.

The absence of a road is felt more during emergencies. "Minor health
problems are taken care of by quacks, but patients whose condition has
deteriorated are carried to Nokha on a cot," says Ram Lakhan Yadav.
More than a dozen women have died during childbirth, some of them on the
mobile cot. "It is a traumatic experience," says Baban Lohar, who has borne
the cot.

Right now the gynaecology expert of the village is a woman innocent of
medical science and hygiene. "After the child is born she severs the
umbilical cord with a blunt razor," says Ram Lakhan Yadav.

Most of the 1,500 villagers, Paswans, Yadavs, Nonias (blacksmiths), Tels
(sweepers) and Musahars (rat-eaters), are landless and work on the farms of
the upper castes in neighbouring Purbari village. But there is not even a
kutcha road linking the village to the outside world; purchasing essentials
involves a trek to the nearest market, at Nokha.

The frustration is showing. Daroga Ram, mistaking the team from The Week
for government officials, burst out angrily: "The British rule was far
better than the Laloo-Rabri regime. Since 1950, we have been deluged with
assurances from leaders."

The younger generation, too, may not have something nice to say. The roof
of the government primary school, constructed in 1993, may cave in any
time. The school ground has been taken over for cultivation by a local RJD
leader. The children, after completing their primary education, used to
attend a government middle school at Purbari. But the British-era building
is on its last bricks: vandals walked away with its windows and doors long
ago. The three teachers come to school daily, though, to sign attendance.

Welfare schemes seem to benefit the corrupt. Though each 'red card' holder
is entitled to three litres of kerosene, "we are given only two and only
when we pay an extra Rs 5 per litre," says a villager.

Officials at the block development office in Dinara are allegedly bribed to
include names in the list of beneficiaries of old-age pension. "I paid Rs
500 a year ago to an agent to get pension for my mother," admits Sudama
Chaudhary. The money went waste. Shivpujan Nath, 80, has a different
problem: his name was deleted from the list for reasons best known to the
officials.

Basisth Narain Singh, of the Samata Party, says he regrets his inability to
fulfil the promises he made at Bairipur in 1998. "We got 13 months. Had I
continued for the full term, I would have connected all the villages with
pucca roads," he says.Despite the failures, Singh is confident he will have
the last laugh in the polls. As they do in every election, at the expense
of the poor villagers.
Kanhaiah Bhelari

The burden of poverty
ORISSA: Bantala is 40 km from capital Bhubaneswar, and just 10 from
Khurda, the district headquarters. Proximity to the power centres has,
however, made little difference to the fortunes of the 150-odd families
here. The only gains they can count since independence are a primary school
and a couple of tube wells. Yes, some of them have power connections too.

BANTALA VILLAGE; POPULATION: 1,500
CONSTITUENCY: BHUBANESWAR
Nalu Barik (left) has to support his family on the Rs 30 he makes
at the quarry every day. There is no money to treat his TB.

The school, which was built nearly 40 years ago, has only one teacher
today. That amazes Hemanta Kumar Mansingh, a contractor who studied here
some 30 years ago. "Even at that time there were two," he says. "Our
requests to the authorities have been in vain."

Though the village got electricity in 1982, a third of the households is
yet to get wired. Anakhita Barik, a 60-year-old tribal, remembers the
promises made by Prasana Patsani in the last elections. The saffron clad
leader of the Biju Janata Dal said he would provide quick power connections
to those still living in the dark. "After Patsani became MP we went to him
many times. He said it would be done, but nothing happened," says Barik.

Patsani, in the fray this time too, doesn't deny it. "But how can I do it
in one year?" he grumbles. "Besides, electrification comes under the state
government. The Congress didn't listen to me." It is the same old story of
unkept promises. Yet villagers like Devraj Mohanty, 73, are grateful to be
alive. "Earlier people didn't get anything to eat. Now they are getting
food," he points out.

The indices of progress do not have much to show here, though. Only 20 per
cent of the villagers are literate. Unemployment is high. The government
has made matters worse by leasing out the quarry in Bantala to an outsider;
villagers used to take it on auction and eke out a living.

Some 50 villagers continue to work in the stone crushers near Khurda,
making less than Rs 30 for their toil. Many of them have fallen prey to
tuberculosis and respiratory diseases. But most people have no money to see
a doctor. Nalu Barik, 40, cannot even think of it. He has to support his
wife and two daughters with his meagre earnings. "Then how can I arrange
medicine?" he gasps.
Lalit Pattajoshi

We have been living like insects
UTTAR PRADESH: Kheria, 35 km from Lucknow, is part of Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee's constituency but he cannot count on the villagers' votes
this time. Nor can Karan Singh, the Congress candidate. The people of
Mahona, which envelops Kheria, have decided to boycott polls, protesting
neglect.

KHERIA VILLAGE; POPULATION: 250
CONSTITUENCY: LUCKNOW
The health centre (left) was closed down long ago and the dilapidated
building stands as a reminder of the neglect of the authorities.

Not that their decision will influence the outcome of the battle of
Lucknow. But the villagers, setting aside their party colours, are
determined to send out a clear message to the politicians who have taken
them for a ride for five decades.

Mahona, which was declared a town 10 years ago, is one of the poorest
regions in the country. The only health centre, which came up over a decade
ago, is now home for stray animals. It was closed down long ago and the
dilapidated building stands as a reminder of the neglect of the
authorities. The junior high school building in Mahona is also on the verge
of collapse, and the condition of the girls' school is not much different.
The children have to travel several kilometres to the nearby town Itauja
for education.

The roads are nothing to speak of and in rainy season Mahona lies marooned.
The average family income in this predominantly Dalit area is Rs 30 a day,
which is hardly enough to sustain life.

"We have been living here like insects," said a villager from Kheria, which
has a population of 250. He could not have been closer to truth.

Lying on his dirty cot, Nanhu is writhing in pain. He has been ill for
several days and reaching the nearest clinic, which is several kilometres
away, is not in his immediate scheme of things. A few metres away from
Nanhu's house, silver-haired Nilkant, who once owned some land, toils
manfully in a paddy field. Acute poverty has forced him to become a farm
hand.

Politicians of every hue have visited Mahona with promises of development
projects and basic infrastructure. Vajpayee last visited Mahona three years
ago and promised a health centre. The villagers gave land for the centre
but it was shifted to Gonda, state Health Minister Ramapati Shastri's
constituency. "Vajpayee can bring all-round development here with a stroke
of his pen," said local BJP leader Umesh Shukla. "But he is not keen to do
so."

A couple of years ago a delegation from Mahona met Vajpayee in Lucknow
seeking basic amenities. "Vajpayee grabbed my hand and asked me not to
worry," said Munna Beg, who led the delegation. "He told me that Mahona
would soon change beyond recognition." Nothing happened.

"None of us will vote this time," said Kallu Chaudhary, head of a committee
formed to boycott elections. "It is our protest against poverty and
underdevelopment. Let the netas feel the pinch."

Workers of all parties are united in their boycott decision. They care two
hoots about what the senior leaders think of their move. "Let them do what
they can," said BJP's Shiv Shanker Gupta. "At the most they will throw us
out of the party. We are prepared to sacrifice anything for the development
of Mahona."
Ajay Uprety

Sun, sand & parched throats
Rajasthan: The sun-soaked desert reverberates with the drone of fighter
planes on one of their sorties. Tourists from round the world go on
captivating camel safaris on the highway a little further away. But for the
villagers of Damodra, 70 km from the Pakistan border, life is hardly as
enchanting. How could it be when they have no electricity and potable
water, or even a proper means of livelihood?

DAMODRA VILLAGE; POPULATION: 600
CONSTITUENCY: BARMER
Water scarcity is severe and people threaten a movement in protest.

"Leaders came this time also, asking for votes and promising water supply
and electricity," says Govind Singh, who works as a guide to foreign
tourists in Jaisalmer, 30 km away. "They have been doing that for so long
now that we have stopped hoping," chips in village elder Sher Singh. "Who
cares about electricity anyway?"

For the villagers, water shortage is a bigger problem. The storage tank
outside Damodra is filled with water from the tubewell at Khoodi village,
some 15 km away. "It is salty," says Jugat Singh. That leaves villagers
with only the monsoon water, stored in an underground tank.

Last year's winner from Barmer, Sona Ram Chaudhry of the Congress, is
taking on Manavendra Singh of the BJP this time. The Congressman has
grandiose plans, including a railway line from Kandla to Jaisalmer,
communication networks and better roads. When reminded that water is the
pressing need, he responds: "Of course, there are plans to bring water from
the Narmada dam in Gujarat into the desert!"

The villagers prefer water from the Indira Gandhi canal, 30 km away. Sona
Ram Chaudhry blames the Central and state governments for their apathy. "I
have told the CM if the desert areas are ignored, we will be forced to
launch an agitation for a separate state, Maru Pradesh," he warns. Wonder
if he'll remember the threat, or the people, after the polls.
K. Sunil Thomas

Too small to count
MADHYA PRADESH: Bhopar in Panna district is just 450 km by road from
Bhopal, but several thousand kilometres away in terms of development. And
development is the issue raised by all political parties in successive
elections, only to forget it later.

BHOPAR VILLAGE; POPULATION: 500
CONSTITUENCY: DAMOH-PANNA
The villagers have to climb a 2,700 ft mountain (left) and trek 8 km
to sell the forest produce in Satna.

The twin village of Mehgavan-Bhopar is among the 57 outbacks on the
Shyamgiri range in the southeastern part of Panna, one of the most backward
districts in the state. It was only in 1992 that a school came up in this
village and the building lasted just five years! The hand-pumps installed
in this Rajgond-Yadav dominated area have never functioned properly.

The people's awareness about the elections is zero and they don't know who
Sonia Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee are. The area falls under Pawai
assembly segment of Damoh-Panna Lok Sabha seat. Sitting Samajwadi Party MLA
Ashok Vikram Singh alias Bhaiya Raja has represented the constituency twice
but has visited the area only once, that too in a chopper to celebrate New
Year's Eve. "That was the first time people saw bulbs aglow," said Singh.
The 57 villages in the ranges do not have power connection.

"The reason for the backwardness is the number of voters, which is only
5,500," said Singh. "Shyamgiri does not figure in political calculations."

BJP's sitting MP, Ramkrishna Kusmaria, has won the seat three times but has
visited the area only once, during the last elections. Shyamgiri does not
have even a proper health centre. The136 sq. km area is looked after by one
multi-purpose health worker.

The 51-km road to Shyamgiri from Pawai block, constructed by the miners,
can be used only in summer as one has to cross several small rivers without
bridges. "If you go there you will get stuck," warned the MLA.
The only other way is from the neighbouring Satna district, but then one
has to walk 8 km and climb a 2,700 ft mountain. The villagers have to carry
the sick several kilometres on cots for treatment. In most cases the
government doctors extract as much as Rs 50, much more than a villager's
daily earning, for treating a fever or a dysentery. The average life
expectancy is around 50 years. The main source of income is the money
generated from selling the forest produce.

"The politicians are to blame for the plight of the people," said social
worker Vir Singh Bundela, who has worked here for the last 30 years.
According to him votes are demanded on the same issues in successive
elections: water, road and hospital. Both Vikram Singh, SP's candidate for
the Lok Sabha seat, and Kusmaria say they have plans for Shyamgiri. While
Singh talks of a Rs 50-crore project proposal rejected by the Centre,
Kusmaria tom-toms the Rs 25 lakh he has spent on a bridge. The people, it
seems, have stopped believing them.
____________________
#3.

Press Note [from Narmada Bachao Andolan]
22-9-99

Medha Patkar and 300 people still under arrest at Dhadgaon. Indefinite
Dharna starts as villagers from the Narmada Villages reach Dhadgaon.
People at Jalsindhi still in one feet water- Satyagraha continues.

Medha Patkar and 300 people were arrested and brought to Dhadgaon, by
the police late last night after an intense fight by people of the
Narmada valley, as the waters reached neck deep level of the Samarpit
Dal at the Domkhedi Satyagraha House and as waters entered villages
destroying fields and homes, for the third time this season.
The Samarpit Dal was neck deep in water at Domkhedi, for more
than 28 hours before they were arrested. Waters also entered people's
homes and fields at Sikka, Bharad, Pipalchop where people were in 2-3
feet water for hours. All the three hundred arrested and brought to
Dhadgaon are still under arrest.

Meanwhile hundreds of villagers from the Narmada valley and the
surrounding area are walking towards Dhadgaon where an indefinite
Dharana starts to demanded that the Government of Maharashtra must
initiate a dialogue with the people and answer their questions . The
indefinite sit in at Dhadgaon is to protest against the suppression of
the real issues through the police actions against the satyagrahis who
have been challenging the increase in back water due to the Sardar
Sarovar dam.

In a statement Medha Patkar said " When people have been raising the
basic issues and have been challenging injustice, the response of the
State Government was to trivialize it with the police actions. This is
not at all a law and order problem but the situation has arisen due to
the wrong policies and actions regarding the dam and displacement on the
part of Maharashtra rulers. It is the question of tribals rights."

The people arrested are demanding that the Government stop cat and
mouse game with them of arresting and releasing and rearresting. People
are serious on their demand and their resolve. The State Government
cannot shrink from its responsibility by hiding behind the police. They
demanded that the Chief Secretary or some such functionary of the State
Government must come to Dhadgaon where the people were detained and
answer their questions.

On the other hand, the increase in water in the Narmada had entered the
lowest house of the village Jalsindhi and its satyagraha house where
more than a hundred people including Luharia, Bawa Muharia, and others
have been sitting in 1 to 1.5 feet of water since yesterday afternoon.
It is important to note that this is just the starting of submergence in
MP where more than 193 villages are to be submerged, consisting of
33,000 families. The Madhya Pradesh Government has not yet given land
to a single family in its state. It is important to note that the Madhya
Pradesh Government has not yet been able to rehabilitate those displaced
years ago by the Bargi, Tawa, Sukta, Barna, etc. dams built on the
Narmada and its tributaries. Also the track record of the performance of
already existing dams in MP is very poor, for example, the Bargi
dam has submerged more land than it is irrigating today as MP Government has
no money to build the canals. Against this background, the MP
Government cannot be pardoned to have allowed submergence in MP due to
SSP and for having started other dams in the Narmada valley like
the Narmada Sagar and Maheshwar dams.

Meanwhile support groups are continuing programs against the Government
and in support of the demands of NBA in both Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh. At Bombay, activists of Samajwadi Janparishad, National
Alliance of People's Movements, various small groups in and around Thane
district blocked the main road of the metropolis. At Mandleshwar in MP,
the people of the Maheshwar dam affected area met the SDM in large
number and registered their protest. At Badwani people of the plains of
Nimad and in the submergence area of SSP had a rally at the district
head quarters and told the collector that they will drown but not move
if waters are allowed to rise further and condemned the flooding of the
village Jalsindhi.

Rehmat
Nandini Oza.
Baroda.
________________________
#4.
>From the World Socialist Website
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/bang-s16_prn.shtml>

Plan for transport of Indian goods through Bangladesh provokes factional
strife [...]

By K. Ratnayake 16 September 1999

Use this version to print

A Bangladeshi government plan to allow India to transport goods to and from
its remote, northeastern states via Bangladesh has become another issue in
the bitter factional struggle between the ruling Awami League and its
bourgeois political opponents.

In July, the Bangladesh cabinet agreed to a request from New Delhi to use
Bangladesh's waterways, railways and roads to ferry goods to its landlocked
northeastern states. The opposition quickly seized on the issue, in the
hope of using nationalism and communalism to further its campaign to unseat
the government and force new elections.

To protest the agreement with India, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)
and three allied parties called on their supporters to march on the Dhaka
residence of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wajed last Sunday. The government
responded by cordoning off the area with more than 5,000 police and
paramilitary personnel and banning all meetings for 24 hours. Police later
used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse an opposition rally after
crude bombs were thrown by “unidentified persons.” More than 150 persons
were reportedly injured in Sunday's skirmish.

The opposition subsequently called a three-day national general strike to
protest the government repression. The strike, which was slated to end last
night, succeeded in paralysing much of the country. At least one person was
killed and 200 injured in strike-related violence.

Prime Minister Shiek Hasina claims that under the transit deal with India
her cash-strapped country will earn US$400 million annually in custom
duties and transportation charges, and that this will result in the
creation of 250,000 jobs. In the current fiscal year Bangladesh is running
a $2 billion budget deficit and is thus under intense pressure from foreign
lenders to find a means to close the budget gap. At the same time, the
government fears that its political rivals will be able to exploit popular
opposition to any attempt to resolve the budget crisis through further cuts
to social spending and public sector employment.

Because of the potential economic benefits, big business is largely
supportive of the transit agreement. The government also has political
reasons for seeking to improve relations with India. The worsening economic
situation has helped fuel an upsurge in Maoist guerrilla activity in rural
areas. Many of the guerrilla groups operate from the Indian state of West
Bengal. In the name of curbing terrorism, Shiek Hasina's government
launched a massive crackdown against the rural poor last April, in which
thousands were detained.

Responding to pressure from international investors who perceive the
long-standing strife between the government and its opponents as disruptive
to business and politically destabilising, the Awami League regime has
coupled repression of opposition protests with appeals to the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party and its allies to enter into a dialogue. In a televised
address Monday, on the eve of her departure for the UN General Assembly,
Sheik Hasina declared, “I am leaving the country at a time when the
opposition has resorted to murder, arson [and] gun running to create an
anarchic situation with an artificial issue and enforced the general strike
in a pre-planned way. I am calling on the opposition to sit for talks and
raise your objections either simply sitting across the table or at the
national parliament.”

The main constituents of the opposition alliance are the BNP, which is led
by Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister and the widow of former military
ruler Zia-ul-Rahman; the Jatiya Party, which is led by another former
military ruler, Mohammed Ershad; and the Islamic fundamentalist
Jamart-I-Islami. The opposition claims that the proposed agreement would
undermine Bangladesh's “sovereignty” and “security” and that Prime Minister
Sheik Hasina has become a “puppet of the Indian government.” In particular,
they have raised fears that India might use the agreement to ferry troops
and equipment to its northeastern states, which for the past
quarter-century have been rocked by a series of secessionist agitations.

Shiek Hasina denies the agreement gives India any right-of-way for military
operations. She has also noted that in 1980 the BNP leader's husband signed
a similar deal with India “giving land, water and rail transit facilities”
and that other governments have renewed the agreement, although it has
never been implemented.

Legacy of the communal partition of India

India is seeking cheaper transport facilities to the states of Assam,
Manipuri, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Mizoram, which lie to the east
of Bangladesh and are connected to the rest of India only by a thin stretch
of land at the foot of the Himalayas in West Bengal's extreme north. India
is also interested in developing closer economic ties to Bangladesh,
particularly to participate in the exploitation of Bangladesh's newly found
natural gas deposits.

Although India is not seeking to use the current transit agreement to
strengthen its military campaign in the northeast, this is far from
precluded in the future. India maintains a massive military presence in
Assam and the Indian and Bangladeshi ruling classes have often collaborated
in suppressing secessionist movements. Answering Indian critics of the
pact, who have raised the possibility that it might be exploited by
guerrilla groups to transport men and equipment, an Indian diplomat noted
that it was the Bangladeshi government that apprehended United Liberation
Front of Assam leader Anup Chetia.

Although the current Indian and Bangladeshi governments appear ready to
open their borders for commerce, they are determined to enforce and indeed
strengthen barriers to the free movement of people. Both countries maintain
tight border controls and have given their respective security forces
orders to shoot down anyone who tries to cross the border illegally. The
Left Front government of West Bengal is currently erecting a barbed wire
fence along the border to stop the immigration of impoverished
Bangladeshis. Last month security forces of the two countries clashed at a
border village over rival claims for a small piece of land, called
Muhurichar, which is situated in the river of Muhuri, the frontier between
Bangladesh and the Indian state of Tripura.

The borders of India and Bangladesh do not conform to either geographic or
national-linguistic frontiers. They were imposed as a result of the
communal carve-up of the Indian subcontinent that was imposed in 1947 by
India's departing British colonial rulers, with the connivance of the
Indian National Congress of M.K. Gandhi and J. Nehru and the Muslim League
of Ali Jinnah.

Final authority for deciding the frontiers was vested in a Briton whose
chief recommendation for the job was that he had never before set foot in
India and knew nothing about the country. Partition resulted in a million
deaths, and cut the Bangali nationality in two, with millions of Hindu
Bengalis forced to flee from East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) to West
Bengal and millions of Muslim Bengalis forced from West Bengal to East
Pakistan.
_____________________
#5.
News on Sunday
19 September 1999
Political economy section

IS IT MORALLY AND LEGALLY PERMISSIVE TO (AB)USE CHILDREN IN WARS AND
POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS?:
Traumatized minds, maimed lives

Shockingly, we have become totally insensitive towards our children.
Majority of the parents actually feel proud when their young ones appear
in military uniform in tableaus staged in various schools. Innocent
children, who can hardly appreciate the horrifying effects of war, carry
mock guns and take pride in killing 'imaginary enemies'. Their class
fellows perform the enemy role. Encouraged by our apathy, Taliban are at a
liberty to highjack hundreds of innocent Pakistani students

by Zaffarullah Khan

Thousands of school children recently protested on the roads of Lahore
carrying placards, demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The
shocking inscription on one placard was an invitation to "Uncle Pervaiz
Musharif" for help and rescue. Having experienced General Zia's military
rule in my childhood and youth, the placard sent a cold wave through my
body.

The innocent children, who could never have pondered on issues like
democracy and opposition, apparently took to streets to voice their concern
over the increasingly undemocratic Sharif regime. The age group of the
majority, hinted that these children were born after 1988, when a plane
crash rescued the nation. While one condemns the repressive measures of the
present government, using children to fuel a political campaign is even
more deplorable.

The poor children have been exposed to the lexicon of violence-- flogging,
prison, violation of human rights- when they should actually be learning
and playing in a healthy environment. The protesting children hailed from
the children's wing of Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAI) headed by a religious
cleric, Maullana Tahirul Qadri.

Maullana also runs a chain of schools under "Minhajul Quran Schools
Network" throughout the country. Perhaps, he is impressed by the right-wing
Jama'at-i-Islami, which abused students for perpetuation of violence in our
educational institutions. Maullana must learn from Jama'at's plight that
such strategies hardly pay off in the long-run.

Internationally, the principle of adult franchise entitles persons above
18 to vote for or against any political party. Pakistan's mutilated
constitution gives such rights to persons above 21. Nowhere in the world do
children vote in or vote out any government. The Election Commission of
Pakistan must take notice of such abuse of Pakistani children.

One would have appreciated had these children demonstrated in favour of
more educational, health and sports facilities. Unfortunately, we have an
odd track-record of abusing our children for nefarious purposes. Few days
before this shocking development, the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC) was alarmed over extensive use and abuse of children in armed
conflicts. The UNSC also suggested economic sanctions against those
countries, which are indulging in such practices.

Prior to this resolve, an official of the United Nations also expressed his
serious concern over recruitment of young "Taliban" from Pakistan's
religious seminaries. Though such recruitment takes place outside the ambit
of the government's approval, yet it could be accused of not checking such
inductions. One also fails to understand the silence of the civil society
over this shameful development.

In the wake of the recent tussle and clashes between the Taliban and the
Afghan opposition, a number of news items hit the headlines stating that
more than 2000 young Taliban have migrated to help out their brethren in
war-torn Afghanistan. The very gesture is a clear violation of
international law; more shockingly it reflects how religious clerics are
abusing innocent souls.

All armed conflicts are a global scourge with devastating effects on
children. According to UNICEF, the estimated number of child victims of
armed conflicts during the past decade are: two million killed, four-five
million disabled, twelve million left homeless, more than one million
orphaned or separated and some ten million psychologically traumatized.

The same report goes on to say that the women and children usually comprise
80 percent of the refugee and displaced populations. Up to five percent of
refugee populations-often more in cases of panic evacuation- are children
separated from their families. The United Nations Security Council rang
alarm bells when it said that over 300,000 children under 18, some as young
as 7, are living as vulnerable citizens in different conflict zones.

One can find innocent human faces hidden behind these statistics in Afghan
refugee camps in NWFP and Kashmiri refugee camps in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
In Pakistan, one can find more than four hundred thousand refugee children
from disturbed war theaters and conflict zones like Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia
and Afghanistan. Their future appears to be bleak, as there is a little
hope of their return to homeland. The shelling across the Line of Control
(LoC) has also killed a number of school going children besides injuring
several.

All this should serve as a wake-up call for our decision-makers and the
general public. Shockingly, we have become insensitive towards our
children. Majority of the parents actually feel proud when their young ones
appear in military uniform in tableaus staged in various schools. One
wonders if the photographs of such tableaus evoke a sense of guilt in the
hearts of our rulers. The young souls, who can hardly appreciate the
horrifying effects of war, carry mock guns and take pride in killing
'imaginary enemies'. Their class fellows perform the enemy role.

Encouraged by our apathy, Taliban are at a liberty to highjack hundreds of
innocent Pakistani students. Being oblivious to the impact of jingoistic
gestures on the psyche of children, quite a few organizations and
institutions have used them to stage demos in favor of destructive nuclear
weapons in the recent past. Prudence demands that these children be taught
a gospel of peace. They should be shown films on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
especially like "Children Prayer" and "Cranes for Peace." so that they can
learn about the catastrophes unleashed by the nuclear weapons.

In the wake of the recent Kargil crisis, PTV went about abusing the
innocence the children of those Pakistani soldiers who had been killed in
the show-down. Children, who barely had any idea of what had just befallen
their families and the country, were called on to the stage and asked to
comment on their ambitions in life and reminisce about their deceased
fathers. It was one of the most blatant attempts to glorify wars and
violence.

The scars of war and killings affect the emotional development of
children. Such incidents only inculcate aggression as a dominant part of
their personality. Reports emanating from the Afghan refugee camps state
that the refugee children have been subjected to the most gruesome of
atrocities, including organs trade. A recent report, presented by Women's
Alliance for Peace and Human Rights America, claims that children under
ten, have been victims of sexual violence. Countless youngsters have been
beaten-up and forced into child labor and marriages.

Yet another sad story in our neighborhood is about the handicapped
children, who fell prey to landmines. Children in Afghanistan still
continue to be killed and maimed because of these remnants of the
Afghan-Soviet war. Shaped like stones, pineapples and even butterflies,
these weapons line the residential, commercial, agricultural areas,
playgrounds and school routes in the war-ravaged country.

One survey conducted in ten hospitals and clinics of Kabul, revealed that
52 percent of all mine victims were male under 18 and five percent of mine
victims were female of the same age group.

These real stories from Afghanistan and Kashmir should be an eye-opener for
us. The Convention on the Rights of the Child restricts the abuse of
children in armed conflicts and specifies the rights of refugee children
and war victims. While the rehabilitation of these children is of immediate
importance, what is perhaps even more crucial is a sustained movement
against the inclusion of children in wars.

Almost every country and party engaged in armed conflicts, claims to be
fighting for the posterity of the people. But let's think for a while as to
what kind of a world we will be handing over to the future generations if
our whimsical style of hurting children continues. No sane person would
like to have a future eclipsed with physically handicapped and
psychologically crippled children.