[sacw] sacw dispatch 4 Oct.99

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
4 October 1999

#1. [Indian Home ministry witchhunt of NGO's]
#2. An activist's letter protesting Indian govt. witchhunt of NGO's
#2. Kashmir: vale of tears
#3. Kashmir peace initiative by Glasgow Asians
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#1.
The Asian Age
October 4 1999

Home ministry singles out anti-BJP NGOs
by REZAUL H. LASKAR

New Delhi: The Union home ministry has directed several prominent
non-governmental organisations, which have publicly criticised the Sangh
Parivar and the BJP-led government's policies, to show cause as to why
action should not be taken against them for engaging in "political"
activities.

Prominent among the groups which have received the showcause notice are
Voluntary Action Network India, Indian Social Institute, Kali for Women
and Centre for Women's Development Studies. The NGOs connected with
Communalism Combat, a Mumbai-based magazine which ran a high-profile
national advertisement campaign against the Sangh Parivar's ideology,
also received the showcause notice.

The notice was issued to the NGOs on September 27 by Mr Sanjiv Dutta,
director (FCRA) in the foreigners division of the Union home ministry,
accusing them of violating provisions of the Foreign Contribution
(Regulation) Act by associating "with the release of certain
advertisements in the press and with certain documents the contents of
which are in the nature of comments of a political nature" in the "run
up to the ongoing general elections." The Union home ministry notice
has directed the NGOs to show cause within 30 days as to why they
should not be notified as "political" organisations, and why action
should not be taken against them for accepting foreign contributions
without the Centre=EDs permission. Only those NGOs registered with the
home ministry are allowed to accept foreign contributions "to further
any cultural, economic, educational, religious or social programme."
Section 5(1) of the FCRA prohibits all organisations of a political
nature from accepting foreign contributions without the Centre=EDs prior
permission.

Mr Dutta refused to comment on the matter, when contacted by The Asian
Age. Dr Ambrose Pinto, executive director of the Indian Social
Institute, said the showcause notice was nothing but "a form of
harassment." Dr Pinto had served as the convenor of a group of
prominent NGO activists that issued a "People's Agenda" for the
elections which was very critical of the Sangh Parivar. "The ISI has
criticised things which aren't in consonance with the Constitution, and
it has opposed human rights violations. It has never taken a partisan
stand," he said. Mr Anil Singh, executive secretary of Voluntary Action
Network India, said the notice was aimed at suppressing a campaign
launched by his group to ensure transparency in foreign funding. "All
those who do not fall in line with the establishment are being
targeted. One of the demands of our transparency campaign is the
scrapping of the FCRA. The political leadership is not in favour of
secular voluntary organisations, it only approves of organisations like
the RSS," said Mr Singh.

Communalism Combat, in its response to the BJP's allegations that it had
used foreign funding for its advertisement campaign, had accused the
Sangh Parivar of trying "to browbeat organisations and individuals who
have exposed the real character of the BJP."
-------------------------------

#2.

'Lara' Ramu Farm
61, Bhaimala Gaon, PO Kamarle
Alibag - 402201, Raigad Dist, Maharashtra
India

4 October 1999

I am writing in response to an item which has apparently appeared in
several newspapers, including the Asian Age, [Rezaul H. Laskar],
regarding a series of 'show cause' notices which have apparently been
issued to several prominent NGOs. The Asian Age Report entitled 'Home
Ministry Singles out anti-BJP NGOs', (lists some of the best known and
the most active groups) groups that have been working for over three
decades in fields covering the most critical areas in social
development, education, health, gender, rural development, tribal
development, dalit and human rights issues across the country and the
region.
As founder director of ANKUR, one of the several groups which have
chosen to associate themselves with the advertisement campaign
initiated by Communalism Combat; as citizens who have always appreciated
the democratic space provided by our Constitution and our polity; it is
with alarm and concern that we view the present actions which point to
increasingly unhealthy trends to harrass, choke, and silence all dissent
and the right to freedom of expression. The dark days of the emergency
apart, there are few precedents to this kind of action to stifle the
voices of civil society. Whether it was in the post 1984 Riots period,
or the post Babri Masjid period, the right of citizens=ED groups and NGOs
to exercise their `watchdog=ED role was never in question or under assault
as it is today.
It is also important to analyse and open up to public debate, the notion
of what constitutes 'political activities' and who has the right to
decide and determine these definitions in an allegedly open and
democratic society. Here again, the role of the organs of the state in
defining and determining the parameters of 'patriotism', of
'nationalism', and now of `political activity', must be subject to
scrutiny and widespread critiques. Especially, during the run up to
elections, it is not only the prerogative, but the duty, of civil
society organisations [the globally accepted terminology for a range of
organisations and groups, including NGOs ] to provide information,
facts, create awareness among, and educate the public so that they are
in a position to exercise their franchise in an informed manner. Most of
us joined social movements precisely in order to be better able to reach
out to the unreached and oppressed and exploited masses through
education and other programmes, and with a clear, overtly stated
objective of empowering people who had been denied all access to human
rights through oppressive systemic social , economic and political
structures. The role of NGOs and CSOs in bringing about a universal
recognition for the language of peoples=ED empowerment is well accepted
today by groups and institutions across a wide spectrum.
In a country which pioneered and spearheaded structural and
consitutional changes by way of the 73rd and 74th Amendments to enable
the practice of grassroots democracy; and in a land which takes pride in
calling itself the 'largest democracy in the world'; it is appalling to
see the highhanded use of power and authority to curb and limit
precisely these voices and institutions of democratic participation and
opinion. This is the sure path to fascism and it is up to every right
thinking Indian to speak out against the actions of the Home Ministry,
(if these are true) and to stand up for the freedom and the right to
form and propagate opinions . Quoting FCRA provisions and other
interpretations of the laws governing social institutions as grounds for
such action, is nothing short of harrassment and should be condemned
without hesitation.

Lalita Ramdas

-------------------------------
#3.
The Gazette (Montreal)
September 26, 1999, FINAL
SECTION: Magazine; C3

Kashmir: vale of tears:
The once-storied serenity of this valley has yielded to a 10-year circus
of killing as India suppresses a Pakistan-backed insurgency. A dream of
autonomy is caught in the crossfire

By BARRY BEARAK

SRINAGAR, Kashmir

Sadly, alarmingly, endlessly, there is trouble in paradise. The Vale of
Kashmir, once exalted for the lotus blooms in its lakes and the yellow
tapestry of its mustard fields, has become a valley of despair-a place
haunted by senseless murder and hideous torture, wherever the famously
sweet winds blow.

=46or a half century, India and Pakistan have fought over this land,
sustaining a hatred so venomous as to rival any in the world. For each,
possessing Kashmir is a matter of life and death, with both persistently
willing to forsake the former for the latter.

A macabre carnival of killing has come to mock a once-storied serenity
as India suppresses a Pakistani-supported insurgency: people blown
apart, ambushed, caught in a crossfire, snatched and disappeared. During
the past decade, 24,000 have died by the Indian government's official
count. Others say 40,000 is a better estimate. Others, 70,000.

Here in Srinagar, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir's summer
capital, life has assumed a quality of war-weary numbness and morbid
fatalism.

''If only we could turn back the clock,'' said Irfan Maqsood, a
21-year-old student, in a typical lament. ''The fighting goes on and on,
and for what? We belong to India, and India will never let us go.''

People have grown used to the street's stern accoutrements. Heavily
armed soldiers or policemen are always within sight. Bunkers are
maintained every few blocks, their sandbags covered with blue tarpaulin,
rifle barrels peeping out of rectangular slits.

The police conduct dozens of ''cordon and search'' operations each day,
surrounding a small area and then entering homes and shops, rousting out
the men and taking away suspects.

Kashmir is caught in one of the world's violent loops, death begetting
death. A grenade is flung into the courtyard of a police station. An
hour later, in a crowded, airless hospital ward, Mohammad Yusuf Mir, a
wounded policeman strung to an IV, is coupling his moans with an oath:
''Whoever did this, I hate them. I curse them. I'll kill them.''

The rebellion itself began 10 years ago. Weapons flooded in, tourists
scurried out. At first, the insurgency was home-grown. Kashmiri youth,
shouting ''azadi,'' or freedom, became guerrillas, trying to send India
packing with a few well-placed bombs and high-profile kidnappings.
Shopkeepers gave them cash. Mothers made them sandwiches.

To New Delhi, this was a threat to its nationhood, to Islamabad an
opportunity to wage war by proxy. India has since tried to stamp out the
revolt with all the fury of an enraged elephant, while Pakistan has
tried to provoke the uprising further and arm it and bend it to its
will.

Today, what is left in the valley is a populace stunned with confusion
and sorrow, unwilling to give up the dream of independence and yet
unprepared to endure more killing. People feel betwixt and between,
their fate out of their hands. A common complaint is that India and
Pakistan seem pitted against each other in a fight to the death of the
last Kashmiri.

''We want to stand up and say to them both, ''Thank you for loving us,
but spare us the honour of being your battleground,''' said Muzafar
Baig, a prominent lawyer.

Life seems forever transformed. A valley whose culture was once
identified with the gentle teachings of Sufi mystics is now overwhelmed
by the culture of the gun and the morality of the mercenary. Insurgency
and counterinsurgency have bled into one another. Kashmir has become a
place of double-crosses and extortion and vaporous truths.

Some days back, ''Papa Kishtwari,'' a man with hard eyes and strong
opinions, sat in his house sipping tea as a dozen or so supplicants
waited outside to tell him their troubles. His real name is Ghulam
Hassan Lone and he is one of the leaders of the so-called
''friendlies,'' onetime insurgents who surrendered and then switched
sides, becoming India's eyes and ears against the insurgents, and
sometimes its fists.

He recalled his days as an anti-India militant. According to him,
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency gave him money, guns and
marching orders. ''They told us what positions to hit,'' he said. ''They
gave us a list of people to be shot dead. ''

Then he changed allegiance. The money was still good, the work similar,
he said. He would identify militants for the Indian security forces.
''There is a policy of extra-judicial killings,'' he said, something
India denies. ''This is done to impress New Delhi.'' But the days of the
''friendlies'' appear to be over. India has changed tactics and relies
more on its own intelligence units to ferret out militants.

Kashmir is one of the world's most confounding morasses, a 52-year-old
custody battle where the contesting parties disagree on the details of
every scrap of their common history. The very term Kashmir is ambiguous.
Most often, it is used as shorthand for the entire Indian state of Jammu
and Kashmir, which has about 8 million people.

But the state has several distinct regions, of which the fabled valley,
with slightly more than half of the population, is but one. Only there
do people speak Kashmiri-and only there do people have a distinct
feeling of being a separate nation. Jammu is roughly two-thirds Hindu,
though there are districts with a large Muslim majority. Sparsely
populated Ladakh is half Buddhist and half Muslim.

Once a princely state ruled by a maharajah, Jammu and Kashmir had even
broader boundaries, including territory now claimed by Pakistan and
China. In 1947, the year that India and Pakistan were born, the
departing British colonial masters demanded that the subcontinent's 562
landed maharajahs opt to belong to one infant nation or the other.

Hari Singh, the state's Hindu maharajah, dithered past the deadline, but
then, as tribesmen from Pakistan's northern frontier aided a local
rebellion, he decided to cast the lot of his predominantly Muslim domain
with predominantly Hindu India.

To many Muslims, it seemed the land had fallen under the thumb of the
infidel. War broke out between India and Pakistan, and an ensuing
ceasefire left about one-third of the densely populated part of the
state with Pakistan, where it remains today.

Jammu and Kashmir, while never happily a part of India, nevertheless
lived in relative peace until the rebellion. State-wide, between Jan. 1,
1990, and July 15, 1999, the state police recorded 7,922 attacks with
explosives, 9,393 random firings, 12,460 ''cross firings,'' 3,553
abductions, 619 rocket attacks. The years 1993 through 1996 were the
worst.

During the past few years, the mayhem had actually moderated. Death
tolls were nearly halved, curfews in Srinagar were lifted. Indeed, this
spring 100,000 tourists-mostly Indians-visited Kashmir. Dal Lake was
again busy with colourful boats, the oarsmen gently paddling while
visitors delighted in the graceful swoop of a kingfisher.

But then in late May came ''Kargil,'' the convenient term given to 10
weeks of fighting along snow-capped peaks in Kashmir.
Pakistani-supported militants-New Delhi contends they were mostly
Pakistani soldiers-sneaked into India and seized the high ground above a
vital supply route. India responded with air power and a vast
deployment, with both sides finally braking at the brink of what would
have been their fourth all-out war.

As the Kargil battleground, named for a town in central Kashmir, calmed
down, hit-and-run tactics picked up throughout the entire state. More
than 1,000 militants have recently crossed into Kashmir, making a total
force of about 3,500 insurgents, Indian officials say.

''The new ones are better-armed and better-trained than we're used to,''
said Gurbachan Jagat, the state police chief. ''They're professionals,
with good radios and heavy explosives.''

The character of the insurgency has been steadily changing, too.

According to Indian military observers, about 40 per cent of the
militants are now foreigners, mostly Pakistanis but also Afghans. They
belong to various groups-with varying political and religious
beliefs-but a few of the most powerful, like Lashkar-e-Taiba, are
Islamic fundamentalists who have come to Kashmir on a holy war.

While the Vale of Kashmir is overwhelmingly Muslim, a less dogmatic
version of the faith is commonly practiced here, and Kashmiri
nationalism has never been equated with religion. To some then, it seems
the fight for independence has taken odd turns and attracted strange
confederates.

Yasin Malik, a chain-smoking, gangling 33-year-old, is head of the Jammu
and Kashmir Liberation Front, the most important group among the rebels.
Since 1994, it has abided by a self-proclaimed ceasefire, but it does
not condemn anti-India violence by others, anything to keep the pot
stirring.

Still, Malik has regrets: ''It is too bad that when Lashkar-e-Taiba
speaks, people believe this is the voice of the Kashmiri people.''

The active guerrilla groups are not united in any single military
strategy, though they now often avoid the concentration of Indian
security forces in the valley and operate in the thick forests and
isolated villages of Jammu. One tactic is to massacre Hindu innocents,
hoping to set off communal violence. Another is political assassination.
Another involves bold rocket attacks against army installations.

New Delhi continues to use a heavy club to fight back, something that
has repeatedly drawn condemnations from international human-rights
groups. From the Indian government's vantage point, however, the nation
deserves to be commended for restraint.

''We've kept our response low-key and measured,'' said Governor Girish
Saxena, New Delhi's man in Srinagar. ''We did not use tanks and armoured
personnel carriers. We have generally confined our response to small
arms, and that has made an impression on people that we are trying to
deal with the situation in a civilized way.''

India maintains about 200,000 regular army troops in Kashmir, most of
them warily guarding against a Pakistani attack. Fighting the guerrillas
is now largely left to 125,000 others from paramilitary units and the
state police, Saxena said.

Additionally, the state has armed 18,000 villagers-mostly Hindus in
Jammu-to defend themselves. They call them village defence committees.

That is a lot of firepower-and its presence fuels the continued reproach
of rights groups. It is not difficult to locate men with convincing
tales of recent torture, ugly engravings on their skin, a palette of
black and blue on their limbs. Parents wait by the gates of army camps
and police stations, holding photos of sons who have been taken into
custody and never seen again.

Bystanders are too often mistaken for perpetrators, said Raja Banoo,
whose 16-year-old son has been gone for 28 months. ''Before the army
took him, they beat him right in front of me and dug a hole and said,
'We'll bury your son alive,' '' she said.

The state government opened its own human-rights commission in August
1997, but it is widely regarded as toothless. By and large, the state
police have been entrusted to look into rights abuses. Their records
show a total of 3,197 complaints, including allegations of 1,105
''custodial deaths,'' 1,248 ''innocent killings'' and 512
''disappearances.''

Of these cases, barely 3 to 4 per cent seem to ''merit any follow-up,''
said R. Tikoo, the assistant director-general of the central
intelligence division. The rest, he said confidently, are exaggerations
or outright lies.

A common sentiment heard in Kashmir comes out as a question: Why isn't
the world paying more attention? And if there is a silver lining to the
Kargil episode, it is that for a time the world did-and may still. With
India and Pakistan now nuclear powers, hostilities between them have
apocalyptic potential. A turning point in the crisis came after
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with President Bill Clinton in
Washington on July 4.

This may be grasping at straws, but many here are putting considerable
hope in a two-word pledge issued after the Clinton-Sharif meeting. The
president agreed to take a ''personal interest'' in urging the
resumption of Indian-Pakistani peace talks.

How personally he will be involved, and how interested he truly is, is
uncertain. The position of the U.S. remains that Kashmir is a disputed
territory, and a solution is best left to bilateral talks between the
two nations. That would be fine with India, which considers Kashmir to
be an open-and-shut case and officially refuses to acknowledge that a
dispute even exists.

Still, Kashmiris are encouraged. Shahid-ul-Islam, a former guerrilla
commander from the group Hezbollah Mujahedeen, said: ''We take a
positive sign from Kosovo. We had thought Mr. Clinton was anti-Muslim,
but now we believe he may be an angel for peace.''

Abdul Ghani Bhat, a professor and head of the Muslim Conference
political party, said: ''The president of America wants to go down in
the annals of history as a peacemaker. That is why he said 'personal
interest.' He will force India to negotiate.''

Clinton hopes to visit the subcontinent early next year-and certainly
the issue of Kashmir will come up. It has poisoned the relations between
two poor countries with a combined population of 1.1 billion-nearly a
fifth of all humanity. But if the president forcefully enters the
Kashmir fray, he will find himself wandering within that 52-year-old
morass, which has so defiantly resisted solutions.

Twice, back in 1948 and 1949, India committed itself to a UN-sponsored
plebiscite, allowing the state's people to decide whether to be part of
it or Pakistan. This vote, however, was made to be contingent on a
pullback of armed forces by both sides, an exercise requiring trust. The
vote has yet to occur.

''That referendum must be held and we would abide by the decision, but
the choices must include independence, '' said Malik of the Liberation
=46ront. But the results of any state-wide vote- even one with three
choices-is likely to leave as many people dissatisfied as there are now.
Ladakh and parts of Jammu would want to stay with India, parts of Jammu
would prefer Pakistan.

To deal with that prospect, a half-century of thinking has yielded any
number of options, including joint sovereignty arrangements and ways of
dividing up the state between India and Pakistan and allowing the valley
to become independent. Holding regional plebiscites, instead of a
state-wide one, is another suggestion frequently made.

But nothing will happen unless all parties are willing to negotiate and
compromise. ''President Clinton could get everyone to talk, don't you
think?'' said Abdul Majid Wani, a retired engineer who was walking in a
cemetery called Martyr's Graveyard.

His son is buried there. Ashfaq Majeed Wani, one of the first young men
to take up arms against India, was killed on March 30, 1990. He was 23,
and when his father identified the body, he counted 21 bullet holes.

There are more than 1,000 simple graves in the cemetery. Wani conducted
a brief tour, pausing at one marker or another to describe more death.

At the end of one row rested a 4-year-old, Master Shaheed Yawar, killed
in a crossfire. Wani did not want the poetics on a nearby sign to be
missed.

It said: ''Do not shun the gun, my dear younger ones. The war for
freedom is yet to be won.''

GRAPHIC: P; M Photo: SAURABH DAS, AP / Indian artillery readies shells
to be fired 160 kilometres north of Srinagar.; Photo: ARKO DATTA, AFP /
A lone shikara sails at sunset along the waters of Dal Lake, in peaceful
times a popular tourist spot.; Map: Kashmir

Copyright 1999 Southam Inc.
---------------------------------
#4.
The Herald (Glasgow)
September 25, 1999
SECTION: Pg. 9

City Asians take up Kashmir peace initiative

By John Mccalman

TWO senior Asian businessmen have suggested establishing a "forum for
peace" in Glasgow as a step towards solving the long-running conflict
between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, writes John MacCalman, Local
Government Correspondent. The move by Mr Yaqub Ali and Mr Subhash Joshi
follows last week's initiative by Lord Provost Alex Mosson to offer the
city as a neutral venue for talks between the parties. Mr Ali, a former
president of the UK Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Mr
Joshi, president of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, issued a joint
statement urging representatives of their countries to come to the
table, resolve all outstanding challenges by peaceful means, and
negotiate a settlement. They said: "We believe we are brothers in India
and Pakistan. Warfare between our two countries doesn't have any outcome
other than destruction, poverty, and death. "We should stop the killing
and bring about peace, harmony, and co-operation with the intention of
promoting free movement of people, trade, and wealth throughout the
entire region. "We hope all peace-loving people will join with us in
supporting these negotiations as a climax to the millennium." The peace
initiative was launched by the Lord Provost after members of the Indian
and Pakistani communities in Glasgow had expressed their concerns to him
about the conflict, which was now potentially catastrophic since both
sides had tested nuclear weapons. Adding The Herald's weight to the
peace move, editor Harry Reid said: "We welcomed the initiative of Lord
Provost Mosson and we are delighted that Glasgow businessmen of the
status of Yaqub Ali and Subhash Joshi have decided to take this project
forward. We will do anything we can to facilitate this important West of
Scotland initiative."

Copyright 1999 Scottish Media Newspapers Limited

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