[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (21 Oct.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #2.
21 October 1999
__________________________
#1. Asma Jahangir demands time frame for Pak army's departure
#2. Secularism not to be tolerated says JUI Leader in Pakistan
#3. In Memory of Neelan Tiruchelvam: Call for papers
#4. Extracts from RSS doctored textbook on Muslims, Christians & Parsees
#4. Memo to Indian President by prominent citizens to defend NGO's
#5. Indian Human Rights activist arrested for supporting Film
#6. Hindutwa Freak warns SP Udaykumar
__________________________
#1.
DAWN
21 October 1999

http://dawn.com/cgi-bin/dina.pl?file=3Dtop5.htm&date=3D19991021

ASMA DEMANDS TIMEFRAME FOR ARMY'S DEPARTURE
By Masood Haider

NEW YORK, Oct 20: Asma Jehangir, leader of Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, said here on Tuesday that "the night of the generals cannot
continue forever" and demanded a timeframe within which army should go back
to barracks.
Talking to Dawn after receiving the prestigious Award from the New York
based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Ms Jehangir pointed out that past
experience demonstrated when the army first took over power, it sword to
return power to the people but later they changed their minds and stuck
around it forever.
"Pakistani people may not have voiced their concern immediately, but they
have become wiser" Ms Jehangir said. "They will not allow the army to rule
for an indefinite period of time," she added.
Ms Jehangir whose son, Jilani Jehangir was on the same plane in which
Chief Of Army Staff Gen Pervez Musharraf flew into Karachi and which
according to the General was initially not allowed to land in Karachi, said
that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif should be given his day in the
court. "He should be allowed to defend himself," she said.
"We should not deny him the right to defend himself" Ms Jehangir said, "a
right which he tried to deny the Pakistani citizens," she added.
"Every one must have the right to due process" Asma said, adding "we must
make rule of law supreme."
Hina Jilani, a leading Pakistan lawyer who heads Women Legal Aid Cell,
said in a brief interview with Dawn: "People of Pakistan would not tolerate
extended army rule and would eventually want a return to democracy".
AWARD: Earlier Hina Jilani and Asma Jehangir were honoured for their
record of protecting rights of others at a star studded dinner hosted by
New York based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.
The two Pakistanis were among five honourees who were presented as "the
lawyers and advocates who have risked their lives to defend rights of
others". The three others included Jose Zalaquat of Chile, Natasha Kandic,
of former Yugoslavia and Bajram Kelmendi, an Albanian lawyer who was given
the award posthumously.
Almost 800 people attended the dinner and award ceremonies at Chelsea
Piers which were hosted by NBC News Anchor Tom Brokaw. The presenters
included Actress and human rights activist Sigourney Weaver, lawyer Kerry
Kennedy-Coumo, and William D. Zabel a leading lawyer.
At the outset the audience was shown short video clips of honourees work
in their country.
Introducing Ms Jilani and Ms Jehangir, Kerry Kennedy Coumo said that both
lawyers have a record of defending the rights of women, children and
religious minorities.
"Despite repeated death threats the two created the Women Legal Aid Cell
to offer para-legal training and eventually opened a shelter which has
provided legal aid and shelter to more than 1,400. In 1986, the two sisters
also founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan which has been in the
forefront of every human rights effort in Pakistan.
Ms Jehangir who is also United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Extra-judicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions, assured the audience that
she would relentlessly pursue the cause of the helpless women and children
in Pakistan.
The Executive Director of Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Michael
Posner, called on the audience to reinforce the work being done by human
rights defenders around the world.
"These are people who need a lifeline when they are in personal jeopardy.
They need our support. They are taking chances and their ability to be
effective depends on us." _____________________
#2.
DAWN
21 October 1999 | Thursday

SECULARISM NOT TO BE TOLERATED, SAYS QAZI
By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Oct 20: Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmad declared here on
Wednesday that his party would not let anyone enforce "Kemalism or
secularism." In a Press statement, he said Pakistan was a land of slaves of
Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and only an Islamic system could work here.

"If somebody has an obsession with Kemalism or any other system, he should
clear his mind of all such thoughts. The people and the armed forces of
Pakistan will not tolerate any such system. They will rather resist such
condemnable ideas".

Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf had said a couple of days ago that he
was impressed by Kemal Ataturk.

"Those regarding Kemalism as their ideal must bear in mind that the
overthrow of the Nawaz Sharif government was not the result of a coup by a
few individuals. Instead, it was the outcome of the collective thinking of
the armed forces and a well thought out mass movement against the Sharif
government. The brave armed forces and self-respecting people of Pakistan
will not tolerate any system other than Islam".

The JI leader pointed out that Kemal Ataturk's system had been rejected
even by the Turkish people. He said Kemal Ataturk had introduced Sunday as
weekly off instead of Friday, introduced Roman script in place of Arabic
and ordered calling of Azan in Turkish instead of Arabic.

"Do the lovers of Atatuk plan to do the same things in Pakistan?", he asked=
=2E
_____________________
#3.

IN MEMORY OF NEELAN TIRUCHELVAM: MINORITY RIGHTS IN SOUTH ASIA=07=07
SPECIAL ISSUE: CALL FOR PAPERS

"The real challenge is to enable us to construct a future which
acknowledges the diversity of the people of the world and provides for a
plurality of belonging to the world, the nation and the community."
Neelan Tiruchelvam, speaking at the South Asia Editors Forum, Delhi, April 1=
999

Neelan Tiruchelvam, lawyer, academic, politician, human rights activist and
a member of the International Editorial Board of Contemporary South Asia
(CSA) since its inception in 1992=F3was assassinated on 29 July 1999,
ostensibly because of his dedication to the constitutional protection of
minority rights.

Neelan=EDs lifelong work for the promotion of non-violent and constitutional
solutions to minority and human rights grievances began as a law student at
the universities of Ceylon and Harvard, respectively. Along with developing
his legal career at Tiruchelvam Associates, Neelan enjoyed prestigious
academic appointments=F3including a Fulbright fellowship=F3in Sri Lanka and =
the
US. At home, he helped draft the District Development Council law before
entering parliament in 1983 as a Tamil United Liberation Front
representative. Later, Neelan was part of the think tank behind the 1987
Indo-Sri Lankan Accord and played a key role in the 1995 constitutional
reform and devolution programme of the Chandrika Kumaratunga
administration. Outside the government, he founded and directed the
International Centre for Ethnic Studies (Colombo) dedicated to promoting
non-violent solutions to ethnic conflict. Abroad, he served as a member of
member of international observer and expert missions to Pakistan, Chile,
Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and South Africa and, in 1999, was elected chair of
the human rights organisation, Minority Rights Group International
(London). At the time of his death, Neelan was working on a government
programme of major constitutional reform, including an Equal Opportunity
law seeking to end social and gender discrimination, and was shortly to
take up a visiting professorship at Harvard this autumn.

In recognition of his work and in honour of his memory, CSA is soliciting
submissions for a special thematic issue, In memory of Neelan Tiruchelvam:
Minority rights in South Asia. Papers may examine any aspect pertaining to
the current state of minority rights in the region by drawing upon new
empirical research and/or fresh theoretical approaches. Papers giving a
comparative perspective of minority rights=ED issues in two or more South
Asian countries=F3India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan,
Maldives=F3are particularly welcome. (Selected papers also may be published
in an edited book.)

Submissions of no more than 7000 words in length should be written in
accordance with CSA=EDs Notes for Contributors (available at
www.carfax.co.uk/csa-ad.htm or from the address below) and submitted (as an
email attachment if at all possible) by 1 February 2000 to:

Dr Apurba Kundu
Co-Editor, Contemporary South Asia, Department of Applied Social Sciences,
University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Tel +44-(0)1274-235-046 ( Fax +44-(0)1274-235-295 ( Email
a.kundu@b...)
_______________________
#4.
[Extracts From a School Text Book produced under the aegis of the RSS
ideologues in Gujarat, India (Courtesy: Communalism Combat, Mumbai)]

DEMONISING CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM

IN a chapter titled, ' Problems of the Country and Their Solutions', the
Social Studies, Std.IX text of the Gujarat Board has a section with a
sub-heading, 'Minority Community',that labels Muslims, even Christians and
Parsees, as 'foreigners'. It also states that Hindus are in a minority in
most states. It reads:
"But apart from the Muslims, even the Christians, Parsees and other
foreigners are also recognised as the minority communities. In most of the
states the Hindus are in minority and Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are in
majority in these respective states".
The same text also selectively denigrates the Catholic priesthood of the
middle ages which may be legitimate but is suspicious when similar exacting
criticism is not accorded to the Brahmin religious hierarchy. Monetary
exploitation and persistent sexual harassment by the caste hierarchy in
India which was not merely historically legitimised by caste but brutally
holds Dalit women to ransom even today.
"The priests of the Catholic church had accumulated plenty of wealth
through unjust taxes, illegal fees, ownership of large tracts of land,
selling miracles and indulgences. They spent this money on worldly
pleasures and immoral behaviour. (SS, Std.IX). "The Christian Church was a
part and parcel of this integrated feudal system. Almost half of the land
and other property belonged to the bishops or the heads of parishes. The
Pope who was the head of the Roman Catholic Church was himself a big
landlord. The Church received sumptuous gifts of land from the king as well
as the lords. Thus the Church had amassed great wealth. The Pope,
archbishop, bishops and other priests lost their heads, forgot their duties
and lived a life of luxury and sensual pleasures." (SS, Std. X)
The following extract is from a recommended third year B.A. textbook for
the student of history in Maharashtra. The chapter on Mahmud of Ghaznavi is
used blatantly by the author to launch a tirade against Islam itself. The
opening para reads: "The advent of Islam might have been a boon to the
Arabs who got united under its banner, and were enthused by it to carry on
conquests in Asia, Africa and Europe but it has been a curse for the people
outside Arab world because wherever the Islamic hordes went, they not only
conquered the countries, but killed millions of people and plundered their
homes and places of worship and destroyed their homes, places of worship
and above all their artworks".
The author continues: "The general Islamic belief that political power can
be claimed by anyone who can wield power goes not only against the legality
of inheritance to throne but encourages intrigues, plots rebellions and
assassinations of father by his son, brother by his brother, ruler by his
military commander or minister and above all master by his servant, nay,
even by his slave. There might have been some killings of such a type among
the people of other religious faiths like the Hindus or Christians but
those were exceptions while in the Islamic people these have occurred as a
rule, not as exceptions".
The author makes his orientation more and more plain as we read on. The
question, however, is how did such a text past muster and how does it
continue to be one of the recommended texts at the graduation level in
Maharashtra. "The king of the Ghaznavides, Subuktagin, who started raids on
India in the last decades of 10th century A.D. was a slave of Alptagin, who
himself was a slave of Samanid ruler of Khorasan. So it is the slave of the
slave who set in process, the Islamic invasion from 10th century A.D." This
is how the concluding para reads."Why these atrocities? Because Islam
teaches only atrocities. Have not Islamic invaders done so wherever they
had gone, be that India or Africa or Europe?" (Emphasis added). Mahmud
returned to Ghazni with a large booty." n
_______________________
#4.
October 1999
MEMORANDUM TO THE PRESIDENT [of India]
Prominent citizens and representatives of women's groups, human rights
groups, trade unions and secular activists, it was decided to address a
memorandum to the President of India to protest against the Union Home
Ministry's attempt to stifle all dissent. Currently signatures are being
collected

To,
His Excellency, The President of India,
Shri K. R. Narayanan,
Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi 110001

Your Excellency,
We are concerned citizens, organisations and associations who uphold and
have worked for civil liberties and people's rights, secularism and
democracy, gender equality and social justice. We understand that several
NGOs across the country, fourteen of them, according to the statement of
ex-minister of the state for Home, Mr. Ram Naik as reported in the press,
have been served 'show -cause' notices by the Foreigners Division of the
Ministry of External Affairs, threatening to penalise them. The provocation
to this action is said to be their association with 'certain advertisements
and documents' in the run up to the recent elections.
These are NGOs who were registered under 6(I) of the FCRA fifteen years ago
or even earlier. They are now sought to be shifted to section 5(I) of the
Act and to have section 10(B) applied to them. This move is aimed at
bringing secular NGOs under the arbitrary decision and control of the
bureaucracy in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The NGOs served with these
notices have been working on social issues such as the empowerment of
women, socio-economic development of the dalits, tribals and other
marginalised groups, literacy, education, human rights, health, violence
against women, environment, income generation and rural development.
The tenor and timing of these notices gives rise to the suspicion that they
were motivated by a desire to silence all secular and democratic voices,
particularly those critical of the policies of the parties in power, as
exemplified by the 14 targeted NGOs. The Home Ministry with this action has
shown an intolerance of even highlighting in the media the reprehensible
attitude of the associates of the ruling party towards women. The Home
Ministry is expected to be objective in the exercise of powers vested in it
and not act in such a partisan and vindictive manner.
We would like to bring to your notice the fact that this is not the first
time that women's organisations, for example, have taken strong and
assertive positions on gender issues even at the time of elections. We are
aware of specific actions, during election period by the women's group on
issues of violence against women where associates of the other political
parties were involved. The instances of the Mukti Datta case in Delhi and
the response to the Jalgaon sex scandal in Maharashtra come to mind. It is
significant that only in this instance, when the right wing's attitude
towards women was sought to be exposed that the reactions have been
authoritarian and therefore questionable. As individuals and groups
committed to the propagation and protection of social justice, gender
equality, and human rights in society we communicate our strong objection
and opposition to this barely veiled attempt to throttle the right of civil
society action and freedom of expression in favour of these values.
Sir, We urge you as the President of India, to ensure
=D8 that the letter and spirit of the Constitution are upheld in this instan=
ce
=D8 that no ministry in your government acts in an arbitrary, capricious,
vindictive or unconstitutional manner
=D8 that the fundamental rights of the citizens to democratic dissent and
freedom of expression are upheld, and
=D8 That through your good offices, these notices are immediately withdrawn.

We Sir anticipate prompt justice from you. Thank You,
_______________________
#5.
PRESS RELEASE
=46rom:
R.R Srinivasan
Kanchanai Film Society
62, Paruvatha Singa Raja Street
Tirunelveli-627006 (Tamil Nadu), India

Contact Mr.Jnani
Address: 9 B Parmeshwari Nagar
1st Street,Adayar, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India
Phone: 044-4901208

'DEATH OF A RIVER'(NATHIYIN MARANAM)
AND DEATH OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

SUB: With regard to the arrest of Mr T.S.S Mani for being involved with
the screening of the documentary film "Nathiyin Maranam" based on the
Tamiraparani massacre of July 23,1999.

The general public ia aware of the massacre of 17 people on July 23,1999
on the banks of the Tamiraparani river in Tirunelveli, owing to police
brutalities, which the media described as'another Jalianwalabagh'. Any
sensitive person would react to such an incident. And I, as a filmmaker,
expressed myself through the video film, "Nathiyin Maranam", produced by
Kanchanai Film Society, Tirunelveli.

A preview screening of the film was arranged on sunday in Chennai at
Umapathi Hall, Anand Theatre Complex,by the Chennai Film Society, Tamil
Nadu Thiraipada Iyakkam and Kanchani Film Society. It was a film society
screening only for members and invitees. (For a review of the film, see
Newstoday and Malaichudar of Oct, 11, 1999). The purpose of film
socieities is to take films, especially those which are not accessible
through regular channels, to the people. And what happened on Sunday was
one such exercise. It must be pointed out that there are no legal
sanctions against such screenings in this country.

Moreover, this film does not say anything that has already not been said.
Publications like Junior Vikatan, Frontline, India Today, Nakkeeran etc
and channels like Star News and Nila TV have already used the visuals
which I have only collated in my film.

This film, shot on in video format, does not require any Censor Board
clearance. In fact, Nathiyin Maranam has already been sent to the "Mumbai
International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films'
under the Documentary Category. Even for this festival, censor clearance
is not necessary.

However, in this context, the arrest of Mr. T S S Mani on the night of
Oct, 11 in Chennai, is something that civil society should condemn. Mr.
Mani was one of the persons directly affected by the July 23 incident at
Tirunelveli, and I consulted him for the making of this film.
The arrest of Mr. Mani is clearly an attempt to gag freedom of expression.
I believe that he has been arrested for being involved with a film which
supposedly ' instigates caste clashes". This is far from the truth; for
as a director, I have only made an effort to collect visuals on the
incident and interweave these with narratives of persons who survived the
police onslaught. In fact, the film is a humanist statement against such
caste-based actions and activities as was witnessed along the Tamirapaani.
It is entirely a people's film which should reach the people. It is
indeed ironical that people associated with an anti-caste film should be
arrested for 'instigating caste clashes'.

As for me, I am a filmmaker and a literary person, and I do not owe any
affiliation to any political party or group. "Nathiyin Maranam" is my
artistic reaction to what was a gross instance of State - sponsored
violence.
The arrest of Mr. Mani, a human rights activist, is only as expression of
an intolerant State's attempt to muffle a democratic voice. And I, on
behalf of Kanchanai Film Society, demand that the Government immediately
release Mr. T S S Mani and ensure that no further attempt is made to
prevent the film from being screened anywhere in Tamil Nadu.

Sincerly

R R SRINIVASAN
(Director of Nathiyin Maranam)
October 12, 1999.
_______________________
#6.
[POSTED BELOW IS A THREATENING E-MAIL RECIEVED BY PROMINENT INDIAN SECULAR
ACTIVIST S.P. UDAYKUMAR (FOUNDER OF BJP GOVT WATCH). PLEASE MAKE NOTE TO
THE SENDERS ADDRESS & SPREAD THE WORD]

=46rom: Subash Reddy <sereddy99@g...>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 21:02:42 -0700
To: S P Udayakumar
Subject: Just thought we would share some thoughts on your campaign

Your hatred campaign will not go very far. We are watching your campaign,
every
step of the way. Dont worry, we will make sure we are one step ahead of your
hate campaign !!!

We know how Islamic Fundamentalist Agents and Foreign Agents like you that
have
been destroying India for centuries, operate, and this time you will not get
away destroying my country anymore !!!

We know who is financing this activity. Rest assured, we are alert to
Subversive Elements. We will not let you subvert Largest Democracy of India.
WE ARE WATCHING YOU
____________________________________________

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH is an informal, independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since1996.=07