[sacw] sacw dispatch 14 sept.99

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
14 Sept 1999
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#1. Text of Montreal Declaration
#2. An Article on the Montreal Conference
#3. U.N. Rapporteur lashes out at Taliban
#4. Websites on Indian Elections
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#1.
Montreal Declaration [5 September 1999]

International South Asia Forum Founded

One hundred and twenty four delegates with origins in different
countries of South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka) and from both sides across the Line of Control in Kashmir met in
Montreal on September 4 and 5, 1999 at a Conference hosted by South Asia
Research and Resource Center (CERAS). Participants came from New York,
New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, Washington, British Columbia,
Ontario, Newfoundland, Quebec, France and England. There were also
specially invited guests from India, Pakistan and France. The Conference
expressed serious concern about the deteriorating human rights situation
in South Asia. It took note of the worsening quality of life for the
masses, growing militarization and acquisition of nuclear tools of mass
destruction, the emergence of fascistic and bigoted political forces and
the increasing hostility between India and Pakistan as evidenced by the
recent war in Kargil.

The objectives of the Conference were to build solidarity among the
various people from South Asia, and to formulate programs for
strengthening secular and democratic forces among the South Asian
Diaspora - especially among the youth - and to contribute to the
betterment of life for the people of South Asia.

The Conference unanimously adopted the following Resolution, which has
also been endorsed by the Secular People's Alliance, Edmonton, East
Indian Workers Association, Toronto, Non-Resident Indians for Secularism
and Democracy (NRISAD), Vancouver, South Asia Research and Resource
Center (CERAS), Montreal and Pakistan Association of Quebec, Montreal.

Text of the Resolution

The rise of religious fundamentalism, its open links with organs of
state power, accompanied with nationalistic jingoism, intolerance of
dissenting views, and militaristic postures have combined to create an
alarming situation in the sub-continent. The gradual Talibanizatin of
Pakistan and the spread of the Sangh Parivar in India pose serious
threat to polity of these countries. These dangerous forces are nurtured
and supported by the politics and economics of globalization and
neo-liberalism, which are not only imposing anti-people agenda on the
lives of the people in the region, but also denuding it of its vital
natural and environment resources.

The forces of religious extremism have increasingly permeated all levels
of civil society. Consequently replacement of the BJP government in
India or a change of government in Pakistan would not be sufficient to
ensure peace, human rights, secular values and democracy in these
countries.

The state-to-state relations between India and Pakistan, which have
never been good, have taken a turn to more hostile postures with
unsettling consequences for the whole of South Asia.

On the other hand, there is a tremendous, almost palpable, longing for
peace, friendship and amity among the people. There is a realization
that half a century of hostility and military confrontations have not
solved any problem. The massive deployment of scarce resources should
be used to meet the basic needs of the ordinary people - education,
health, housing, and general economic well-being. In recent years
people-to-people exchange and dialogues have begun to occur in the form
of cultural programs and conferences.

We, the members of South Asian Diaspora located in North America and
Europe, desire peace, harmony and good neighborliness among the
countries of South Asia, and social justice and economic wellbeing for
the people there. We also have a responsibility to make a contribution
in these directions. Over the years many of us have been engaged in
individual or organized capacity to work for secularism, democracy,
human rights and social justice. Time has come for us to come together
and work in concert with each other.

Accordingly, this Conference resolves to create a Forum, hereby named as
the International South Asia Forum (INSAF), with the following
objectives.

Objectives

1. To work for peace and friendship among the people and countries of
South Asia.

2. To join hands with the people and organizations in South Asia:

(a) to work for demilitarization and de-nuclearization in India and
Pakistan;
(b) to demand that all contentious issues among South Asian countries -
especially between India and Pakistan - be resolved through negotiations
in a spirit of mutual respect and good neighbourliness. The Kashmir
issue should be settled in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri
people;
(c) to promote the rights of the minorities in all countries of South
Asia;
(d) to promote the protection of human rights of the people, especially
of the most vulnerable sections of the society such as women, dalits,
tribal people and poor peasants;
(e) to demand that the human, social and economic resources in the
region be deployed toward improving the quality of life of the people;

3. To carry out extensive educational and organization work among the
members of the South Asian Diaspora, especially among the youth - in
order to fight the forces of fundamentalism, narrow chauvinism - and to
promote goodwill among the Diaspora;

4. To seek the support of trade unions and other democratic organization
for the struggle of South Asian people for human rights, peace and
social justice.

Acitivities

1. Sponsor seminars and invite speakers from South Asian countries to
further these objectives.

2. Coordinate and sponsor cultural and social events of mutual interest.

3. Act as a center for issuing statements to the media on political,
economic, enviornmental, social and cultural developments in South Asia
and among the South Asian Diaspora.

4. Create a Web site for popularizing its activities and promoting its
objectives.

5. Publish a newsletter to promote the objectives of INSAF.

6. Encourage all organizations and individuals affiliated with INSAF and
other democratic individuals to work at all levels of community
activities.

7. Develop specific programs in accordance with local conditions to
encourage participation of youth with South Asian identity into
progressive nonsectarian associations and institutions.

Organizational Guidelines

1. INSAF will function as a coalition of groups and individuals.

2. Affiliation to INSAF is open to all groups and individual in any
country subject to their compliance with democratic, secular and
nonsectarian objectives.

3. INSAF does not aim at interfering with activities of its affiliates.

4. Affiliate members are encouraged to identify their affiliation with
INSAF.

5. Affairs of INSAF will be conducted by a Coordinating Committee
elected at this conference and its mandate will last until the next
Conference of INSAF. Additional names can be added to the Coordinating
Committee at the suggestion of affiliate organizations.

6. The Coordinating Committee will decide upon most efficient and
economical way of advancing the mandate of INSAF.

7. Given the specifics of India-Pakistan relations and their influence
on South Asian politics, an Indo-Pak subcommittee of INSAF be
constituted to specifically deal with Indo-Pak issues.
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#2.
[IPS ]

South Asian activists of North America unite!

by Beena Sarwar

MONTREAL, Sept 11: When 24,000 taxi drivers in New York brought the city to
a halt during a strike last year just after India and Pakistan's nuclear
tests, their ethnic composition was the focus of much attention: 16,000 of
them were of South Asian origin and stood solidly united despite the
tension between their home countries.

''This kind of solidarity is possible when people realise they have more to
gain than lose by uniting,'' says Biju Mathew, a coordinator for the New
York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA).

''Many journalists from the Pakistani press, the Indian press, kept
focusing on taxi drivers from their countries, and there were many attempts
to drive a wedge between the strikers, but they didn't sway from their
united front.''

Mathew, an organiser of that strike, was one of the speakers at a recent
conference in Montreal, the largest city of Canada's French-dominated
Quebec province. Some 200 activists attended, most of them young people of
South Asian descent.

The two-day North American Conference on Peace and Human Rights in India
and Pakistan was organised by the South Asia Research and Resource Center
(Ceras) under the Alternatives umberella organisation, with the aim of
forming a platform for secularism, peace and democracy in South Asia and to
build a common front for the progressive forces among the diaspora.

The 'Montreal Declaration' reaffirming these values at the end of this
process also announced the formation of the International South Asia Forum
(INSAF), which affirms the need for a peaceful and secular South Asia and
will work towards this end.

The idea of INSAF was initiated by Ceras president Daya Varma, a
Pharamacology professor at McGill University, who has been a resident of
Canada for over thirty years. "We are handing over the baton to the new
generation," he said. "As South Asians living elsewhere in the world, we
have a responsibility not only to our countries of origin, but also to the
world to work for peace and influence events."

''The conservatism in our societies back home is reflected in the South
Asian communities here,'' said the New York-based Mathew in his talk on the
role of non-resident South Asians in defense of secularism, human rights
and peace in their home countries.

''Here it can be even more extreme, as a response to racism, guilt at being
away, and particularly unhinged identities. The structure of nostalgia then
feeds into the right, which offers packaged forms of tradition for young
professionals to consume.''

Kiran Patel, a young sociologist from London agreed. ''For many young
second generation Asians, the mental conflict and confusion they may
experience in order to find an identity, has led to the adoption of a
religious identity. They have little else to pledge allegiance to...

''The ideas propagated by the religious parties make them feel that part of
being a 'real' Hindu is to instrinsically hate the 'other' religion, Islam.
And vice versa,'' she added. ''This way of thinking conveniently fits into
the anti-Muslim hysteria within Britain and the USA. Such so-called
nationalisms promote racism, capitalism and patriarchy, and women are
relegated to being the symbols of values, tradition and culture.''

Participants agreed that a wider view needs to be taken of South Asians
both at home and in the diaspora. ''Colonisation of the mind ensures that
the oppressed do not look at the oppressors for the reasons for their
subordination. The 'superiority' of the oppressor is internalised,'' said
Patel.

South Asians living in North America, as Mathew noted, have access to each
other, which is difficult in their home countries. ''We should use this
access to create bridges here and contribute to the democratic process at
home,'' he suggested.

Such involvement can make a difference as the Forum of Indian Leftists
(FOIL) proved last year when it lobbied successfully to stop the phone
company AT&T, from allowing subscribers to divert one percent of their
monthly bills to the right-wing Indian party Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
which had registered itself in the USA as a non-profit cultural
organisation.

''Last year, the VHP in USA was taxed on 620,000 dollars of declared
income,'' explains Mathew. ''As much as fifty per cent of the BJP's
donations came from NRIs - non-resident Indians - in dollars and pound
sterling. As a bare minimum, we need to examine how the money is raised,
and to get the multinational companies to be more discerning when they
promote charities.

''The FOIL campaign to get AT&T to stop sending money to VHP started out
initially by looking at the budgets of right-wing parties. From there it
led to the question of young people and how they get involved in these
parties, which leads to the next level of funding and involvement through
identity politics.''

Ceras coordinator Feroz Mehdi said that the conference was an attempt to
draw young people into the fight for progressive values. ''It was a
historic meeting,'' he added, pointing to the convergence of progressive
individuals and organizations from all over North America.

''There were activists from both sides of the Line of Control, Indian
pandits and Pakistani Kashmiris, Indian and Pakistani expatriats and
migrants, even people from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, all of whom
agree on the need for peace in South Asia,'' he said.

He hoped that the activists, who came from various communities, schools and
colleges from all over North America, as well as some from the U.K., would
take up the thoughts and ideas discussed at the meeting.

''We hope the process will continue,'' said Mehdi. As follow-up, rotational
meetings in other towns and cities are planned in an attempt to mobilise
the South Asian diaspora. The next such meeting is expected to be held in
December, in either Boston or Vancouver.

(ends)
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#3.
U.N. Rapporteur lashes out at Taliban for rights record
from India Abroad News Service

Islamabad, Sep 13 - The U.N. Special Rapporteur for Violence against
Women, Radhika Coomaraswami, has lashed out at the Taliban militia for
systematic violation of human rights of women in Afghanistan.

"We found widespread, systematic violation of human rights of women in the
Taliban areas of Afghanistan," Coomaraswami told a news conference here on
her return after a four-day visit to Afghanistan, NNI news agency reported.

She said public beating of women with leather cricket bats, mainly for
the violation of edicts issued by the Taliban Ministry of Virtue and Vice,
continues in Afghanistan. The U.N. Rapporteur urged the Taliban authorities
to respect international conventions on human rights and dismantle the
Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

"We found violations in the areas of physical security, the right to
education, the right to health, the right to employment, of movement,
freedom of association, protection of the rights of women, protection of
the family and trafficking and prostitution," Coomaraswami said. Public
lashing of women on Fridays for violation of the Hadood Ordinance also
continues, she said.

Coomaraswami said because of war and poverty many of the women cannot
work, the level of begging by women is extremely high and "we did find that
prostitution does exist in Kabul and that many people told us that it was
on the increase."

She said the freedom of movement of women is extremely restricted. "There
are allegedly no passports for women in Afghanistan. But we still have not
confirmed it," she said.

The Ministry of Virtue and Vice has issued edicts that prohibit women from
working and going to school, force them to wear the 'burqa' and order
people to paint their first floor windows black so passers-by could not see
women inside, she noted.

Coomaraswami said the ministry issued edicts saying women should step out
of their homes only when accompanied by a male relative. Violators are
publicly beaten, sometimes with a car antenna ripped off the nearest
vehicle, she added.

"The Ministry of Vice and Virtue is the most misogynistic department in
the whole world (and) their edicts are quite unacceptable," Coomaraswami
said. She claimed she had interviewed scores of Afghan women, both in
Afghanistan and in neighbouring Pakistan, where tens of thousands of
Afghans live as refugees.

Coomaraswami said discrimination against women exists throughout the
world, but in Afghanistan it is the official policy of the Taliban. The
militia has imposed its own interpretation of Islamic laws.

She said also visited areas controlled by the opposition United Front led
by ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani where she was shown girls' schools
and told about the alliance's support for women.

However, she said "for the record" Rabbani's government ruled Afghanistan
from 1 9 9 2 until 1 9 9 6, when bitter factional fighting destroyed 70 per
cent
of the cities and "some of the worst violence against women in a war" was
committed.

She said in Kabul, depression among women is rampant. There were reports
of trafficking in women, forced marriages and prostitution. She said women
were separated from their husbands and relocated to camps from the Shomali
Plains. There also were reports of sexual assaults, which should be
investigated, she added.

Coomaraswami said she has never seen as much suffering as she did in
Afghanistan. "The situation looks very bleak in terms of poverty, in terms
of war, in terms of the rights of women," she added.
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#4.
Those who are interested in Elections in India may follow them up online at:

http://www.indiavotes.com/

and at:

http://www.indiamap.com/elections/

Information content, broadly speaking, pertaining to latest News flashes,
lists of candidates, party menifestoes and symbols, opinion polls, message
boards, schedules etc. is on display.

One is likely to aquaint oneself with electronic voting procedures and the
no. of States using the technology at

http://www.indiavotes.com/electronic.html

However, a smart search engine is available for more searches redarging the
modus operandi of electronic machine usage.

Regards,
-. Zubair Faisal Abbasi
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