[sacw] sacw dispatch 19 sept 99

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
19 September 1999
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#1. Pakistan Death Edict Causes Outrage
#2. Media Reports on Violence Against Civilians In Kashmir [Indian side]
#3. Hindu Zealots Vow To Build Temple On Indian Mosque Ruins
#4. Anti-Slavery Group "Shocked" By Indian Embassy Allegations
#5. Latest News from the Narmada Valley
#6. Book on Education & the state: 50 years of Pakistan
#7. BBC Lecture by a Pakistani feminist
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#1.
PAKISTAN DEATH EDICT CAUSES OUTRAGE

By Kathy Gannon (Associated Press Writer)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, September 16, 1999 (AP): An Islamic cleric has
called for the killing of legislators who oppose Islamic law in
Pakistan, generating outrage Thursday from opposition politicians and
the Christian community.

Maulana Ajmal Qadri, the leader of a breakaway faction of
Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam, or Party of Islamic Clerics, issued a religious
edict earlier this week saying lawmakers opposing a constitutional
amendment to impose Islamic law here deserve to die.

Though not uncommon in Pakistan, the edicts, called fatwas, are rarely
ignored because of the number of militant Islamic groups here and the
hundreds of people who have died in religiously motivated killings in
recent years.

Qadri's party, though not large, has a radical following that might be
willing to carry out his order.

The constitutional amendment calls for the federal government to base
laws on the Koran and to use the Islamic holy book to define right and
wrong.

Punishments for violators could include the amputation of hands and feet
for thieves, stoning for adulterers, executions for killers and public
beatings for lesser criminals.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said the amendment would give
Pakistan a government like that of neighboring Afghanistan, where the
Taliban militia enforces a harsh form of Islamic law.

The amendment was passed last year by Parliament's lower house, where
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has a two-thirds majority.

However, resistance from the Senate, where the opposition holds the
majority, has prevented the amendment's adoption.

Since its creation as a homeland for Muslims on the Asian subcontinent
in 1947, Pakistan's religious right wing has demanded rigid adherence to
Islamic law.

Analysts say the Taliban's success in neighboring Afghanistan has
emboldened Islamic parties in Pakistan, where a fledgling democracy has
been battered by relentless corruption, high unemployment and
backbreaking poverty.

On Thursday, Pakistani opposition politicians and the Christian
community accused the government of colluding with Qadri.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a senator from Ms. Bhutto's Party, said the government's
silence was an endorsement of Qadri's fatwa.

``This is the saddest day in the history of Parliament,'' the
independent daily newspaper The News quoted Ahsan as saying. ``Never
before has a government endorsed and supported a statement that
Parliament be compelled to vote ... under threat of bloodshed.''

The leader of the Christian Liberation Front, Shahbaz Bhatti, said the
amendment ``is tantamount to genocide of religious minorities, women,
pro-democracy forces and broad-minded people of the country.''

``How can the government guarantee protection to its citizens if it
patronizes terrorism, lawlessness and fatwas of death?'' he asked.

Sharif's government says its form of Islamic law would be liberal.

His critics say the amendment gives the federal government vast power to
make laws and establish codes for social behavior in accordance with its
interpretation of Islam.

[Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.]
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#2.
MEDIA REPORTS ON THE VIOLENCE AGAINST CIVILIANS IN KASHMIR:

BBC WORLD NEWS: Saturday, September 18, 1999

Clashes disrupt Kashmir polling
By Altaf Hussain in Srinagar

Police in Indian-administered Kashmir say seven people have been killed
and another six injured in election-related violence.

While Kashmiri militants carried out violent acts to disrupt the polls,
Indian soldiers opened fire to break up an anti-India demonstration at
the village of Shilvath on Saturday morning.

Local villagers were protesting against being coerced into voting by
the soldiers. Three protesters were killed and another four wounded.

Soldiers also fired at a similar demonstration at Haigam, killing a boy
of 17.

Forced to vote

Allegations of coercive polling have been received from a large number
of places across the Baramullah-Kupwara constituency.

Voters failed to show up in many polling booths
I saw about 200 people assembled in open ground at the village of
Palapora in Rafiabad area - they were then forced by soldiers to go to
the polling booths.

At some places, people complained that they had been called out of
their homes even before they could have any breakfast.

A large number of people, including women, also held a demonstration at
the village of Chogul, near Handwara town, against the behaviour of the
security forces.

Hardly any voter turned up at the polling booths in areas where the
security forces did not force them into voting.

No votes had been polled at all at in some booths of Sopore town.
However, long queues of voters were seen at several polling booths in
Pattan, Baramullah, Handwara and some other areas.

Many voters at booths said they were voting by their own choice. But
such booths were exceptions rather than a rule.

REUTERS

FOCUS-Boycotting voters shot dead in Kashmir
11:52 a.m. Sep 18, 1999 Eastern
By Sheikh Mushtaq

BARAMULLA, India, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Indian security forces in Kashmir
shot dead four people, who had refused to vote on Saturday amid
separatists' call for a boycott of the parliamentary elections,
witnesses said.

In addition, two Indian paramilitary men were killed in a shootout with
guerrillas in the Baramulla constituency, where a landmine explosion
early in the morning set the tone for a day marked by violence and a
poor voter turnout of 27 percent.

Two people were shot dead by guerrillas elsewhere, in violence which
took Saturday's death toll to at least eight.

Polling booths were empty in several areas of the northern Kashmir
constituency, one of the six in Jammu and Kashmir, a state racked by a
separatist insurgency for nearly 10 years.

At Shilwat, in the Baramulla district, the army opened fire on a group
of people when they refused to go to the polling booths, witnesses
said.

``Three people were killed and three others were wounded,'' a
government source said.

However, an army spokesman denied the charge, saying: ``Local people
tried to snatch the rifle of a soldier and it accidentally went off.''

TEENAGE BOY SHOT DEAD

At Hiagam village, hundreds of wailing Kashmiri men, women and children
gathered beside the blood-soaked body of 17-year-old Altaf Hussain, who
was shot in the back by an Indian soldier when he refused to go to a
polling station, witnesses said.

``He was explaining to them (soldiers) that his name was not on the
voting list, and he refused to go to the polling station,'' said the
teenager's grandfather, Mohamad Mir.

``As we turned back, one of them fired three bullets at his back. He
died there,'' Mir told Reuters.

AFP

Kashmiris largely boycott Indian elections in Kashmir

BARAMULLA, India, Sept 18 (AFP) - A separatist boycott kept most voters
at home in the single Kashmir constituency that went to the polls
Saturday, amid scattered violence which left a young man dead.
Several polling stations across the Moslem-majority constituency of
Baramulla bordering Pakistan recorded zero or poor voting in response
to the boycott call by militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

An AFP correspondent was told by officials that only 10 of 2,179 voters
had cast their ballots till midday in five heavily-guarded polling
centres in rural Baramulla.

"There are no polling agents (of political parties) here, nobody is
coming here to vote and there is no security for us," said G.M. Sofi, a
polling official in Chanderseer village.

"The government has not provided us with even tea and food."

At Higam, 35 kilometers (21 miles) north of Kashmir's summer capital
Srinagar, hundreds of angry Moslems blocked traffic on a highway to
protest against the alleged killing of a young man by Indian troops.

Residents said soldiers arrived at the village early Saturday and
ordered men and women to vote. The victim, Altar Mir, was reportedly
shot when he argued that he was not a registered voter.

"He was shot in cold blood," alleged Abdul Rashid, a school teacher.

The protestors shouted slogans against India and the current staggered
parliamentary elections.

Baramulla is one of Kashmir's six parliamentary constituencies. Low
voting marred elections earlier this month in four of them. The sixth
one will go the polls on October 4.

Moslem separatists waging a separatist campaign in the Himalayan state
have called for a bocyott of the elections, arguing India had no right
to rule the divided province.

Six bomb blasts were also reported across Baramulla on Saturday. One of
them damaged a police station in the town, leaving a civilian injured.

At Khargam village north of Srinagar, where all its 410 voters remained
inside their homes, a middle-aged Moslem woman, Begum Zeenat, said she
saw no point in voting.

Forth-five houses in the village were destroyed in a fire following a
gunbattle between Moslem separatists and Indian security forces in
July.

"Why should we vote when nobody has even come here to give compensation
for our houses," Zeenat said, sitting outside her gutted house.

An election boycott appeared to be in place in neighbouring villages
too.

At nearby Khamiyar village, only three of 390 voters had exercised
their franchise until midday. Of the 380 electorate at Chanderseer,
only two men had voted.

At Tilgam, barely five votes were cast. At Dholipura, another village,
all the 499 voters boycotted the elections.
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#3.
HINDU ZEALOTS VOW TO BUILD TEMPLE ON INDIAN MOSQUE RUINS

NEW DELHI, Sept 19 (AFP) - Hindu zealots linked to India's ruling
nationalists Sunday pledged to construct a temple on the ruins of a
16th-century mosque razed seven years ago.
The Press Trust of India quoted the World Hindu Council (VHP) as saying
it was determined to build a multi-million-dollar temple for Hindu
warrior God Rama in the northern town of Ayodhya.

Thousands of Hindu fanatics tore down the mosque in Ayodhya in December
1992, setting off the worst Hindu-Moslem violence in India since
independence in 1947, in which some 2,000 people were killed.

The Hindus then hurriedly raised a makeshift Hindu temple at the site.
The VHP has promised to replace it with a grand temple.

The VHP is allied with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu
nationalist BJP party. The BJP has been espousing Hindu moderation in
recent years in a bid to widen its mass appeal.

VHP secretary Pravin Togadia told reporters in the southern city of
Madras that building a grand Rama temple on the mosque rubble at Ayodhya
was "a national issue."

"The VHP is committed to build the temple," he said.

Hindus form the overwhelming majority among India's nearly one billion
people. Moslems are the largest minority.
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#4.
ANTI-SLAVERY GROUP "SHOCKED" BY INDIAN EMBASSY ALLEGATIONS

PARIS, Sept 17 (AFP) - A French anti-slavery group on Friday said it was
"shocked" by Indian embassy allegations in the case of a sexually
mutilated Indian housemaid who claims she was treated as a "slave" by an
Indian diplomat.
A medical probe into the nature and timing of the maid's wounds is
expected next week amid a dispute over her injuries.

In a statement this week the Indian embassy in Paris accused the
Committee Against Modern Slavery (CCEM) of "maltreatment" towards Lalita
Oraon.

The CCEM responded by saying it was "deeply shocked" and called on the
diplomat to wave aside his diplomatic immunity and come forward to
explain his case. It said it could not file suit against him because of
his immunity.

"If Lalita's employer has statements to make and if he is totally alien
to this affair as he says, then he should ask his government to lift his
immunity to allow him to openly confront judicial authorities in charge
of the case," the CCEM said.

The embassy statement followed press reports incriminating the
Paris-based diplomat in either trying to remove or surgically close the
maid's vagina.

Oraon "seems to have been seriously maltreated by the Committee," the
embassy said.

"The stories being put up by the Committee and others on the origin of
the sexual injuries suffered by Ms Oraon suggest a clear attempt at a
cover-up by the concerned organisations and individuals of the exact
circumstances in which she sustained serious injuries," it added.

Oraon, a tribal woman from the eastern Indian state of Bihar, fled her
employer's home on September 5 before being questioned by police and
then taken by the anti-slavery group to a convent for shelter.

A day later she was admitted to a Paris hospital after jumping off the
wall of the convent, suffering fractures to the ankle and back.

It was at the hospital that grave wounds to her genitals were
discovered.
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#5.

Narmada Bachao Andolan
Press Note 19-9-99

Medha Patkar and 135 arrested from Pipalchop. Medha begins fast.
Satyagraha on at Domkhedi and Jalsindhi. Waters continue to rise.

One hundred and thirty five satyagrahis including Medha Patkar,
Devrambhai Kanera, Kamlubehen Yadav, Rania Daya, Noorji were arrested
from the lowest house at Pipalchop at 5:30 pm on 18-9-99 after being in
waist deep water for several hours. More than a hundred police barged
into the house, breaking a side wall of the house they were in and
dragged the satyagrahies out- manhandling the people in the process.
The 135 satyagrahis gave a strong fight and could be pulled out of the
house only by force. The arrested Satyagrahis have been taken to
Dhadgaon where Medha Patkar has started fast since yesterday itself in
police custody, till the waters continue to rise and till several
Satyagrahis at village Domkhedi and Sikka continue to be in 1.5 to 3
feet water at Domkhedi, Sikka and Bharad since yesterday. Meanwhile, all
the 135 arrested are sitting on a dharna in the police station, refusing
to eat and demanding that they be released and taken back to the
satyagraha centres.

Meanwhile, the Satyagraha at Domkhedi is going on with more than 400
people near the Satyagraha house in which the Samarpit dal is standing
in 1.5 feet of water since yesterday. The satyagrahis are also sitting
in the lowest house at Jalsindhi in MP, where the waters have come
close to the house. The satyagrahis arrested on 17-9-99, have been
released yesterday and they have once again joined the satyagraha at
Bharad, Domhkedi and Sikka. Several fields and houses have been
submerged in many villages in both Maharashtra and MP once again this
season causing serious damage.

As the waters continue to rise, people are joining the satyagraha from
the plains, the tribal villages, and even from the submergence area of
Maheshwar dam. Protest actions against this human made destruction took
place at Poona, Bombay, Bhopal, Nagpur and supporters from all over the
country are appealing to the Government to stop such destructive
development. Meanwhile, relay fast in front of the collector office at
Badwani, MP, has started since yesterday. In an important
development, representatives of several peoples movements ,
writers, students, artists, intellectuals from all over the country are on
a week long Yatra, having public meetings and programs
against SSP in different parts of the country and in support of NBA are
on their way to Delhi and will be meeting the President tomorrow at New
Delhi. They will appeal to the President to take note of
the serious situation in the valley and the violation of the rights of
thousands of tribal families due to the Sardar Sarovar Project and do
the needful immediately.

The cause of this submergence is not just the heavy rains at
Jabalpur and Hoshangabad but is compounded by release of waters from
Barna, Tawa and Bargi dams in large quantity in Madhya Pradesh and due
to the obstruction of these waters by the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat.
The satyagraha in the Narmada valley against this destruction is on
since 20th of June with the resolve that people of the Narmada valley
will drown but not move. The people in more than 50 villages likely to
be affected due to the increase in the height of the SSP this year by
6.5 mts., have continued to stay in their homes inspite of the certainty
of submergence with the determination - No one will move, the dam shall
not be built. Men, women and children continue to face waters in these
villages that have been affected the second time this season. It shows
the determination of the people of the Narmada valley that they shall
drown but not flee. The Government had expected that the people will
flee like rats when the waters rise but in every village, man, women,
old and young with children are sitting in their houses and are ready to
face waters and are facing waters.

Reports say that the waters are still rising at the dam site and are
expected to rise further as more water is being released from the Bargi
dam and rains continue at Jabalpur and Hoshangabad. People in the
Narmada valley are ready to face any eventuality and will continue to
face waters but not move from their homes , lands and villages.

Nandini Oza.
Baroda. 19 September 99 12:30 pm
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#6.

Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan

Edited by PERVEZ HOODBHOY, (Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad)

Beginning with a critique of structural adjustment in Pakistan, this
book presents an alternative approach to social and economic
development. It also tackles several issues concerning human
development, and relates the necessary institutional reforms required
for this process.

1998, 372 pp.
ISBN 0-19-577825-1
Oxford University Press
U.S.A.
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#7.

[ BBC] The World Lectures series

PATRIARCHY, THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT AND THE NEED FOR A NEW WAVE
By Nighat Said Khan (Dean of the Institute of Women's Studies in Lahore)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/features/worldlectures/week5.ram