[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (24 Nov.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #2
24 November 1999
-------------------------------
#1. Train from Lucknow to Moenjodaro
#2. A valuable article on History & Fictional writing on Partition
#3. Dangerous encounters of the Nuclear Kind
#4. Wife abuse in India
#5. Nearly 25,000 Bangladeshis trafficked a year-study
#6. On 15th Anniversary of Bhopal Greenpeace flagship to arrive in India
-------------------------------
#1.
DAWN Magazine
21 November, 1999

TRAIN FROM LUCKNOW TO MOENJODARO
By Gulzar Bano

IN 1947, I was a resident student of the Isabella Thoburn College, and my
father was posted as the land management officer of the United Provinces of
India with its headquarters in Lucknow. As a silviculturist, he had to
travel all over the province preparing afforestation plans to reclaim vast
eroded lands. His stay in Lucknow was very limited. My mother, with my
sisters and brothers, lived in the city.

>From about May, 1947, onwards, Lucknow was the scene of tremendous student
activities with Hindu and Muslim activists organizing Jai Hind and Pakistan
Zindabad processions and public meetings. The Second World War was over and
the sahibs and memsahibs were on the way out. Women like Sarojani Naidu
lectured on the glory of Islam, and Allama Iqbal was everybody's hero. In
those days, three of my cousins from the Punjab were also living with my
parents.

By the beginning of August, the city was ready for independence.
Excitement and a magical, mad frenzy was in the air. Most of us Pakistanis
in heart and soul were inwardly nervous. On August 14, as the sun was
setting, I and a few others, including a cousin, climbed on to the roof of
our house and shouted Pakistan Zindabad. My parents had taken me out of the
hostel for a few days, and at home I had the facility of listening to radio
programmes.

Next came India's Independence Day, August 15, and I got permission to
bring a few friends from the hostel to join my entire family in the
celebrations that evening. We were all in an open truck with only standing
space, while my parents sat in front next to the driver. Hazratganj and
Aminabad, high parts of Lucknow, were beautifully illuminated and the noise
of songs and firecrackers was deafening. Just to cover half a mile took
hours and it seemed the night would never end.

In this atmosphere, we children forgot our Hindu friends riding in the
truck with us and in unison shouted Pakistan Zindabad as often as our lungs
could manage. Our friends would shout Jai Hind and we would embrace. It was
a joint celebration, an unforgettable moment announcing the independence of
400 million peoples. Dr Radha Kamal Mukerjee had just started classes in
economics at Lucknow University in Hindi, and all his students rejoiced
singing his translation of "elasticity of demand and supply" as lain dain
ki lachak. For the moment the horrors predicted in his book Food Planning
for Four Hundred Million were irrelevant.

In 1947, meetings between Muslim officials of the government often took
place after dark. My father's friends and contacts included officers of the
military resident in the Lucknow Cantonment. Some time in early October, he
confided to my mother that he was confident he could send some of the
family members to Pakistan in a military special. It must have been the
most difficult decision for my parents. They decided that the first
priority was to secure the safety of the three children left in trust with
them by my maternal uncle, Mr Anwar (Bar-at-Law). The commandant of the
military special had indicated he could take four children. My parents
decided to send my cousins, Mumtaz and Abbas, as well as my brother Saeed
and myself.

My heart almost misses a beat when I try to recall those weeks and days of
October when the four of us were being prepared secretly for our journey to
Pakistan. Each one of us was allowed to take one small piece of luggage. I
packed two books, one a gift from Mr Anand Krishna, my economics teacher,
and Dr Radha Kamal Mukherjee's Food Planning for Four Hundred Million.
Other possessions included small gifts from my best friends and paintings I
had done in my school.

Around November 1, my father came to meet Dr Sarah Chakko, principal of
the Isabella Thoburn College. He confided to her that he was taking me out
of the college and that I would be going to Pakistan soon. I burst out
crying and she sternly told me that it was my "duty" to go to Pakistan
since I was almost a Pakistani already. I said I would miss all my teachers
and my friends. Dr Chakko, a historian, said kindly: "You are going to the
land of Harappa and Moenjodaro. I have never been there and now I can visit
them with you. You have got to leave me with a smile." I did smile and left
the college with my father.

The military special was to leave Lucknow Cantonment on the night of
November 5. For a few days before that my mother started preparing some
special halwa to send with us on the train together with a parcel of tinned
fruits. Our relatives from the Punjab had reached Lahore, but there was no
communication. We used to listen to the radio during the night in secret
for messages from Pakistan. Besides, when and how was the family to unite?
We did not formulate these questions, thinking all the time that somehow a
miracle would occur.

On November 5, the military special was ready to leave at night after many
ceremonies in the cantonment. My parents took us to the station in the
evening. Cousin Mumtaz and myself were accommodated in a carriage for women
and children, cousin Abbas and brother Said in the carriage for men. At the
Lucknow station there was a gala atmosphere of guns and drums, pipe bands
and terrific comradeship. The train had food and water and, of course,
medical facilities. After what seemed a million handshakes and salutes,
slowly at about 10pm, the train steamed out and within minutes I lost sight
of my parents. The families of the officers were exceedingly kind to Mumtaz
and myself. Very small children were put to sleep. There was food and water
in the carriage, but hardly any luggage. I was awake all the time and the
darkness of the moving landscape outside threatened like a shapeless terror.

I do not recall the first station at which the train stopped. Suddenly on
both sides of the train armed soldiers descended and facing away from the
train took guard positions. Waves of tension passed over us till it was
time to resume the journey to Pakistan. The next big station was Delhi. It
was our Delhi of the Red Fort and the Kutab Minar. We stopped there for
some time and the guards turned out again. Abbas and Saeed came to see me
and even brought fresh water to drink. As we left Delhi, I thought my heart
would break, as I would never walk this city with my loved ones again.

Abbas gave me lots of news about our entry into the Punjab. Now the train
would have two drivers, one Muslim and one Hindu or Sikh. As the train left
Delhi, tension was ready to explode. The women were informed that when the
train stopped anywhere in the Punjab, the lights were to be put off and all
window shutters put up. Children were to be put to sleep under the seats.
Above all, no water or food was to be obtained from outside once we left
Delhi. They could be poisoned. The women of the military may have expected
all this. To me it was a command to be vigilant, to will to survive to
reach Pakistan.

The journey to Lahore took three nights and two days. Twice in the Indian
Punjab, the train was stopped for more than two hours somewhere. Water and
food had finished and the children were famished. My tins of fruit were
opened and rationed; only the children were given the juice and fruit. The
intrepid Abbas brought us news that in one of the women's' carriages, a
baby had been born. I was really disappointed I was not in that carriage.

It is very painful to recall the scenes witnessed as we moved slowly
across the Punjab. One image is too sharp to forget-vultures eating the
body of a child on top of a barren tree. Where the slaughtered had been
flung outside civilian trains, dogs were fighting over the bodies of the
dead. The train moved so slowly that the sad, sorrowful stench was
sickening for the body and the soul. Did Amma and Abba know what I was
suffering?

My father had instructed me that we should get off the train at Lahore.
Some time during the last few hours of the journey, the commander of the
train met me and said he would not let us get off unless there was somebody
to meet us in Pakistan. He knew that there was such a possibility as my
uncle Anwar was in charge of information about population movements between
the two countries.

The moment the train crossed the border and we were on Pakistan's soil, we
stopped to earth-shaking cries of Pakistan Zindabad. Almost everybody
jumped off the train to fall into a sijda and kiss and even eat the earth.
After that, the next stop was Lahore. It was a heart-breaking sight as
slaughtered bodies were being removed from the platform, patches of blood
all over. In the distance, stepping over bodies I could spot uncle Anwar.
We had arrived in Pakistan, the land of Moenjodaro. In that instant, Dr
Sarah Chakko's spirit and shadow were my companions. It was late in the
morning, of November 8, in Lahore. The city of Shalamar Gardens soaked in
blood. A city of love and light from the immortal Data Darbar.

In relative time a century would pass before I could visit Moenjodaro.
Earlier, Dr Sarah Chakko clad in tennis shorts had collapsed and died in a
match between staff and students. I sneaked out to share Moenjodaro with a
great historian to complete my journey to Pakistan.

My poem of this precious experience is very personal and I conclude with it=
:

Moon over Moenjodaro
Ancient moon of millenniums over Moenjodaro;
Did you drown and rise bathed from these dead wells;
To shine in ecstasy on the Jewelled Dancer's mobile feet;
Alone with Sarah Chakko I sift the sands of memory;
Wandering tonight the lanes of shivering History.

On a hill a leafless tree snares fragments of the moon;
Home to deathless bird of mystery guarding sacred secrets;
Moenjodaro's ghosts like passionless jugnoos invade their city;
High Priests flash by yearning for incarnations till Time's end;
Sarah Chakko's spirit aches in joyous pain beyond the moon;
Spellbound beneath the tree I salute the thundering silences;
Till the bird cries "Away, away leave us alone.
--------------------------
#2.
Economic Political Weekly
October 30, 1999 =20
Special Articles

MEMORY, HISTORY AND FICTIONAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE PARTITION
by Alok Bhalla

(The above 40 k article is too long for inclusion in the SACW dispatch, but
for those requesting copies it can be e-mailed)
--------------------------
#3.

The Hindu
Sunday, November 21, 1999

DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS

Nuclear plants are intricate, high-risk technologies. Accidents at these
centres, even if categorised as "small" or "minor" do not exhaust the
possibilities for failure or error. The sheer complexity of the system can
be a cause for mishaps. Compounding the problem is the secrecy and control
maintained by the institutions. Therefore, argues M.V. RAMANA, it is
imperative to make the nuclear complex more transparent, and ensure better
design, safety and training.

IT was an accident that was never supposed to have happened. Just three
years earlier, an article in the Bulletin of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (Volume 25, June 1983) claimed: "The design feature of having
more than 1000 individual primary circuits increases the safety of the
reactor system-a serious loss of coolant accident is practically
impossible. The safety of nuclear power plants in the Soviet Union is
assured by a very wide spectrum of measures=8A." But, on April 26, 1986, Uni=
t
4 of the Chernobyl reactor went prompt critical and exploded, releasing an
immense amount of radioactivity (estimated at somewhere between 50 and 200
million curies) into the atmosphere. Practically every country in the
northern hemisphere received some radioactive fallout. Between 100,000 and
150,000 hectares of agricultural land had to be abandoned. Estimates of
number of worldwide deaths resulting from the radioactive contamination
vary from a few hundreds to tens of thousands.

Chernobyl is not the only case of a major nuclear reactor accident. Nor is
the RBMK design that was employed in Chernobyl the only kind that has
suffered an accident. Even the much-touted "inherently safe" reactors are
not risk free. A 1990 study by the Union of Concerned Scientists concluded:
"As a general proposition, there is nothing 'inherently' safe about a
reactor. Regardless of the attention to design, construction, operation,
and management of nuclear reactors, there is always something that could be
done (or not done) to render the reactor dangerous. The degree to which
this is true varies from design to design, but we believe that our general
conclusion is correct."

The best known instance of a reactor that is not of the RBMK variety and
which did undergo a major accident was in March 1979 at Three Mile Island,
Pennsylvania, U.S.. Following a cooling system failure, this pressurised
light water reactor underwent a partial meltdown. Fortunately only a small
amount of radioactivity was released into the atmosphere. But even that
small release does have consequences for the people exposed to it. A 1997
study by University of North Carolina epidemiologist Steven Wing suggested
that the release might have caused an increase in the rates for lung cancer
and leukemia among area residents.

Other countries have been prone to accidents, both in nuclear reactors and
associated nuclear facilities, as well. For example, in Japan, the recent
criticality accident in the Tokaimura uranium processing plant led to large
radiation doses to at least 49 people. The accident comes at the end of a
number of others in recent years in Japan, all of which have contributed to
a large increase in public opposition to nuclear power in the country.
Earlier in July of this year, 51 tonnes of coolant water leaked from the
Tsuruga nuclear power station. In March 1997, the Tokai Bituminization
facility suffered a major fire, releasing radioactivity that was detected
even 60 km away. At least 37 workers were internally contaminated with
radioactive cesium. Prior to that, in December 1995, was the massive leak
of sodium, which is used to cool the reactor core, in the prototype
fast-breeder reactor at Monju as the reactor was operating. A major fire
followed since sodium reacts violently with water and burns on contact with
air. The fire and chemical reactions attacked the metal lining of the floor
to a depth of three cm.

The Monju accident was only the latest in a long series of accidents at
fast breeder reactors. In March 1994, during the dismantling of the French
fast breeder reactor, Rapsodie, an unexpected reaction involving about 100
kg of sodium led to a violent explosion. One technician died and four
others were severely injured. Since Rapsodie was only a small experimental
reactor, the magnitude of the accident was limited. Potentially much more
severe was the one that occurred at the Enrico Fermi fast breeder reactor
in Michigan, U.S.. In October 1966, while operating at about a sixth of
full power, the reactor suffered a partial meltdown resulting in
radioactive release into the reactor building. Despite these portents, a
few countries, including India, have persisted in pursuing fast breeder
reactor technology. The vast majority, including the U.S. and Germany, have
thankfully stopped.

The decline in countries investing in fast breeder reactors also stems
from the general disenchantment with nuclear power. The most recent
forecast by the International Atomic Energy Agency, one of whose functions
is to promote atomic energy, showed the share of nuclear power to total
electricity generated decreasing from the current 16 per cent to somewhere
between 10 to 14 per cent in 2020. Safety related concerns and the costs
associated with the technology employed to reduce the risk of accidents
have played an important part in this decline. For example, in August 1997,
over a third of all nuclear power reactors in Ontario, Canada were closed
down following an official report that revealed safety problems in them.
Safety levels at reactors were said to be only "minimally acceptable" and
their performance was said to be "well below the level of performance=8A
allowed by the world's best facilities."

The performance of Canada's nuclear reactors should be of particular
interest to the Indian nuclear programme since the bulk of Indian reactors
are based on Canadian designs. However, the Department of Atomic Energy
(DAE) seems not to have even taken notice of the Ontario report and
examined its own reactors in light of their findings. Nor did the recent
Tokaimura accident prompt examination.

Instead, we have the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman saying:
"There is no possibility of any nuclear accident in the near or distant
future in India. We have 150 reactor years of safe operation." This
statement goes much further in its conviction than the one about the state
of Soviet reactors in 1983. What makes the assurance even more absurd is
that at the time of the Chernobyl accident, the Soviet Union had over a
thousand reactor years of experience. The confidence is also misplaced
because there have been several accidents over the course of the India's
nuclear history-these include the fire at Narora, multiple heavy water
leaks in Kalpakkam, the collapse of the containment at Kaiga and flooding
of the pumps in Kakrapar. It was lucky that some of these did not result in
major catastrophes.

Compounding the problem of over-confidence is the secrecy and control
maintained by the institutions that construct and operate these reactors.
This is not limited to India. But, with secrecy written into its mandate
through the 1962 Atomic Energy Act-described as draconian even by a former
AEC chairman-the DAE has been able to get away with it in a manner that has
not been possible in many other countries. In part, the secrecy reflects
the close connection between nuclear power production and nuclear weapons
development. But, it also serves to cover accidents, safety violations and
poor performance. Therefore, one important step that needs to be taken to
reduce the risk of accidents is to make the nuclear complex much more
transparent. Making the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, currently
answerable to the AEC, independent and giving it clout to enforce safety
standards would also help.

A complete list of accidents at nuclear facilities around the world would
be impossible to compile. But, a list like that, even if it is compiled and
catalogued according to the kinds of accidents, would not exhaust all the
possibilities for failure or error. Nuclear power plants and the associated
facilities are intricate, high-risk technologies. As sociologist Charles
Perrow has argued, the sheer complexity of the system can be a cause of
mishaps, mishaps that he terms "normal accidents" because of the
inevitability of systemic failures associated with the technology. In such
systems, small beginnings can cause major disasters. The fact that there
have been few major accidents so far is no guarantee that they will not
occur in the future. What starts as a minor "incident" could quickly spin
out of control leading to a huge calamity. At Chernobyl, less than 90
seconds elapsed between a computer warning to shut down the reactor and the
total destruction of the reactor. Thus, each and every accident, small or
large, should be treated as a close encounter with disaster.

Often, accidents in the nuclear industry are attributed to "human error."
But tracing accidents to this cause does not help because operators of such
complex systems are frequently confronted by unexpected events and it is
only in hindsight that one can say what they "ought" to have done.
Alternatively, it is human error at every level-starting from the design
and construction of the system, to training operators, to preparing
emergency plans to even societal reliance on such systems in the first
place-that should be considered as the cause of accidents when they occur.
But what human error does cause, humans can also ameliorate if not
eliminate. Possibilities for doing so range from some of the obvious-better
design, construction, training, etc.-to actively pursuing safer and more
sustainable forms of energy production and use.

(The writer is a research associate at the Center for Energy and
Environmental Studies, Princeton University.)
------------------------

#4.
BBC News
Wednesday, 24 November, 1999

WIVES ABUSED IN INDIA:
Abuse is particularly common among men having extramarital affairs
By Toby Murcott of BBC Science

A survey in northern India has found that nearly half of husbands
interviewed abused their wives either physically or sexually.

The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
is one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind carried out in India.

Violence against women is increasingly being recognised as a global health
care problem.

Studies from a variety of countries around the world suggest that between
17% and 60% of women face some form of abuse from their husbands.

The data in this study, one of the biggest of its kind, comes from more
than 6,000 men who were interviewed privately in their homes over a period
of two years in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

In total, 46% of the men interviewed said they either beat their wives or
abused them sexually.

Link with Aids

The survey, led by Dr Sandra Martin of the University of North Carolina in
the USA, also showed that abuse was more common among men who had
extramarital affairs as well as those in rural communities or of lower
social standing.

Dr Martin said this sexual abuse could be the reason for the increase in
HIV infection-the virus that causes Aids-among monogamous Indian women.

These new findings highlight the problem in northern India, and Dr Martin
recommends that health care professionals should be aware of the
possibility that women in their care had been abused.
------------------------
#5.
NEARLY 25,000 BANGLADESHIS TRAFFICKED A YEAR-STUDY

RTw 11-23-99 1:47 PM

DHAKA, Nov 23 (Reuters)-Nearly 25,000 Bangladeshi women and children are
illegally trafficked into neighbouring countries and the Middle East every
year, according to a Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association survey
released on Tuesday. "Human traffickers have lured the women and children
to migrate to another country on false promises of employment," association
chief Salma Ali told reporters while releasing the survey. She said
poverty and lack of education were mainly responsible for women stepping
into traps laid by the traffickers. "Poverty is the most influential
factor. Ninety percent of women victims are illiterate and only five
percent have primary education," she said. Ali said the survey conducted
recently in 10 villages found that 33 out of 51 victims were still missing.
Others returned home on their own or with help from various human rights
and voluntary organisations in Bangladesh and other countries. "Our
estimate is at about 25,000 women and children are trafficked out of the
country every year and many of them remain missing for ever," Ali said Her
association rescued 400 women and children from India, Pakistan and Middle
East countries over the last few year, she said. "Lack of enforcement of
proper prosecution, use of children as commodities, powerlessness and
vulnerability of women, corruption and bribery at all levels from border
police to (officials in the) passport office are the main causes of
trafficking of women and children," she said. Police said most of the
trafficked women end up in brothels while the children are used in crimes
and for cheap labour.
------------------------
#6.
Times of India, Nov 23

GREENPEACE FLAGSHIP TO ARRIVE ON THURSDAY

MUMBAI: Greenpeace's flagship, The Rainbow Warrior, will arrive here on
Thursday to mark the 15th anniversary of the Union Carbide disaster in
Bhopal, and spread the message-No More Bhopals.

The 1984 gas diaster was one of the worst of ts kind in history, killing
more than 16,000 and maming hundreds of thousands others.

Rainbow Warrior''s visit here, the first to India, will kick start its
campaign, "Toxics Free Asia Tour", where it travels to other Indian and
Asian ports in the last leg of its two-year anti-pollution campaign.

The wind-powered Rainbow Warrior has a long and rich history of the
national cmapaigns for environmental justice.

The Warrior will sta yhere for a week, with a range of activites,
including a photo exhbition, the launch of a campaign film, street plays,
music vdeos, and special visits by students, activists and other
dignitaries.

The ship's programme aims to reach out to students and communities
affected by pollution to convey ts vison of a toxic- free future.

"The ship comes as a message of solidarity and peace with the people of
Bhopal who will complete 15 long years of injustice and unfilled
promsies," said a Greenpeace representative.

Greenpeace representatives say that years after the disaster, virtually
nothing has happened to prevent Bhopal-like situations from recurring as
people still do not have access to information about the poisons brewing
in their backyards.

"Increasingly, Western countries, which are succumbing to community
demands for a clean environment, are pushing their dirty technologies to
countries lke India," said Greenpeace's Asia toxics campaigner Nityanand
Jayaraman.

The name Rainbow Warrior is taken from a North American Indian legend,
which prophesies that when man has destroyed the world through his greed,
the warriors of the rainbow will arise to save it.

The new Rainbow Warrior replaces the original ship that was sunk by the
=46rench secret service in 1985. (ENDS)

NOTE: Contact address is "MV Greenpeace" <mvgp@d...>
__________________________________________
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.