[sacw] [ACT] sacw dispatch #2 (4 feb 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
4 February 2000
____________________
#1. ALERT: Fundamentalists attack on University in Sylhet (Bangladesh)
#2. Report on Police Firing in District Bhatinda, Punjab (India)
#3. Facts on INS Raid at Randolph AFB, San Antonio, TX (USA)
#4. The Cost of Living: An Essay by Arundhati Roy
____________________

#1.
4 February 2000
Dear Friends,
Posted below is an urgent action request recieved from friends at the
Ain-O-Salish
Kendra [A well known Legal Aid, Human Rights initiative in Bangladesh] in
Dhaka. The Shahjalal University of Science and Technology is under severe
attack by the Muslim Right wing fanatics. Please do write letters
expressing concern to the authorities in Bangladesh
(South Asia Citizens Web)
______________

ALERT FOR ACTION !

28 January 2000

BANGLADESH
CAMPUS UNREST: UNIVERSITY UNDER ATTACK

The Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in the district of
Sylhet, northeastern Bangladesh, has recently come under attack from
religious fanatics. The agitation commenced when different buildings of
the university and residential halls were named after personalities famous
both for their outstanding and unique contributions to their respective
fields of science, philosophy and education and the fact that many of them
have lead in building steps towards the liberation movement of Bangladesh
and subsequent movements for the realisation of the ideals of the
liberation war of 1971.

As soon as the University's decision was made public, Maulana Habibur
Rahman, the person notorious for fixing a price on author Taslima Nasreen's
head began an agitation programme. He was joined by the fanatic Jamat-i-Isla=
mi
(members of whom were against the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan),
members of
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jatiyo Party. They called general
strikes in the
area, bombed houses of known pro-liberation personalities, issued death
threats against the teachers and persons supporting and initiating the
naming process and physically assaulted some of them. Exams were
postponed since students were threatened not to sit for their exams.

On request by the students of the university, the Mathematics Department
decided to go ahead with its exam schedule. The students were prepared, but
the members of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), the student wing of the
Jamaat-i-Islami, forcibly entered the concerned teacher's
house and physically assaulted him. Needless to say, the exam was cancelled.
=46urthermore, teachers supporting the naming process are virtually
living in confinement in their campus apartments. Their families are under
threat and some even have stopped their children from going school, for
security reasons. The teachers and their supporters are constantly reminded
that if anything happens to them, it will be their sole responsibility. It
may be mentioned here that the students of the university are supporting
the names which have been selected. It is the reactionary, anti-liberation
political forces that are creating the problem.

Parliamentarians, both from the opposition and the ruling party, have also
played a very damaging role in the matter. The opposition members have
allied themselves with the Jamat-e-Islami and Maulana Habibur Rahman while
ruling party parliamentarians, led by the Speaker, have advised the Prime
Minister to take the policy of appeasement in order to win the next election=
=2E

ASK, a legal aid and human rights resource centre, aims at creating a
worldwide support for the cause. Please support our concern by writing
urgent alert to the Hon'ble President, the Chancellor of Shahjalal
University of Sylhet, Hon'ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh, the Hon'ble
Minister, Ministry for Home Affairs, The Hon'ble Minister, Ministry of Law,
Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and the Speaker of the National
Parliament, demanding that, in order to preserve the memory of the valient
and brilliant Bangladeshis:

* The naming process should take place without any delay.
* The effected persons and their families should be provided with proper
security.
* The government should immediately order the concerned authority to take
appropriate action against the agitators and rioters and punish them in
accordance with the laws of Bangladesh.

We appreciate your cooperation.

=46ax Numbers and Addresses:

The Hon'ble President, Mr. Justice Shahbuddin Ahmed:Fax: 880-2-9566242

The Chancellor of Shahjajal University, Sylhet: Fax: 880-2-9566242

The Hon'ble Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina : Fax:880-2-8113244

The Hon'ble Minister, Ministry of Home Affairs: Fax: 880-2-8619667

The Hon'ble Speaker: Address: Bangladesh Jatiyo Sangsad
Sangsad Bhaban
Sher-e-Bangla Nagar
Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The Hon'ble Minister, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs:
Address: Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka, Bangladesh.

________

#2.

REPORT ON POLICE FIRING IN VILLAGE JETHUKE, DISTRICT BHATINDA, PUNJAB ON
31 January 2000

by Insaaf International & Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Punjab

Released on 2 February 2000

Background
A dispute between the villagers led by Bhart Kisan Union (BKU) and mini
bus operators was going on for many weeks over the issue of overcharging
of bus fare. Villagers were demanding that bus fare be charged at the
prescribed rates and the same be displayed in the buses. They alleged that
the bus pliers were over charging and for that purpose they were not
displaying the rates in the buses. Since 12.1.2000, the dispute became
acute. The matter was reported in the daily newspapers many times. The
district authorities were very well aware of the escalating situation.
This dispute took an ugly turn on the evening of 31st Jan, when the
negotiations between the district administration and BKU leaders failed.
On this the police detained the leaders of BKU. The villagers collected at
village Jethuke to seek release of their leaders.

Incident of 31.1.2000

As informed by the Protesters and eye witnesses
In the after noon of 31.1.2000, the news of detention of their leaders
spread in the villages. The villagers from Jethuke, Buggar, Gill Kalan,
Chotian and Jeond started collecting in Jethuke. They sat dharna on the
railway track and blocked the traffic. They were demanding immediate
release of their leaders. The leaders whereabouts were not disclosed to
the protesters. Fearing for the safety of their leaders, they were
agitated. They were using Public address system and making speeches. The
police force was led by the SP (Operations) Mr. M.S. Chinna. According to
eye witnesses the police team headed by the SP threatened the agitators of
dire consequences if they did not stop their protest immediately. But the
protesters did not bow down to their threats and continued. On this the
police team went berserk and tried to snatch the addressing system of the
protesters. This further agitated the demonstrators and a scuffle
followed. The police force was further reinforced by teams >from Bhatinda.
Police started lathi charging them. and threw tear gas shells and started
firing at the mob. The villagers started running towards the village. But
police chased the villagers to their homes and bet them not sparing even
women, kept firing and also threw stones at them. The police party kept
firing late at night. Stones were thrown by the police in large number.
The protesters did not have any fire arms. The injured protesters were
rounded up by the police and taken to unknown places. More than 80 were
missing from the village, few for the fear of the police retribution and
others rounded up by the police. Villagers suspected that many more must
have been killed in the firing and taken by the police to unknown places.
They had no means to know as the police did not allow them to move out.
Two dalit youths were killed and 80 villagers suspected to be missing in
the above episode. Many people including women showed the injuries to the
team. The villagers hid in the local Gurudwara to save them selves but
were chased by the policemen even inside. The men showed the injuries to
the team, which were caused while scaling the wall of Gurudwara when the
police party chased them inside. The Gurudwara was sealed and address
system was also seized and daily Ardas was not allowed to be performed.
The women compared this episode with operation blue star. Some called it
worse than that on the plea that Ardas never stopped even during those
gory days. Following the incident the whole village was sealed by hundreds
of policemen. All this happened after about 9 PM. Many empty shells of the
bullets were shown to the pressmen and the team members by the villagers,
which were alleged to be found from the houses.

As informed by the police men
The team met the police men injured in the episode and some others. Their
version was that the police in a bid to save the situation had to open
fire in the air and youth were shot accidentally. The police used extreme
degree of restrain. The protesters had firearms, who had opened fire at
them first. No stones were thrown by the police. No precise details were
given by the police men as to how all this started. No senior police
officer could be contacted due to the visit of the DGP as informed by the
SSP office.

Observations of Insaaf and PUCL team
The team of the Insaaf International and PUCL reached the Civil hospital
Rampura Phul in the morning of 1.1.2000, where the dead bodies of the
dalit youths were kept for post mortem. The team was shocked at the way the
hospital was converted in to a police camp. The Deputy commissioner, SSP,
SP (operation), ADC, Civil surgeon, Assistant Civil surgeon and hordes of
other officers were present. The immediate family members of the deceased
were under extreme stress and were sitting in one corner in front of the
mortuary. They appeared under lot pressures and were not communicative
with any of the persons, team members, or media men. They were fear
stricken. The dalit youths named Deshpal Singh (18) and Gurmeet Singh (22)
died of bullet injuries. Gurmeet Singh is survived by his wife and two
little children, younger aged about 3 years. Both had been hit in the
abdomen. One of them had two bullet injuries.

None of the injured BKU activists and villagers was seen admitted in the
civil hospital Rampura Phul. Their whereabouts could not be found out
making role of police in their disappearance, doubtful.
The injured policemen had minor injuries except one having blunt injury on
his nose and mouth. Team could not verify bullet injuries on the body of
the police men alleged to have been shot at. To the team they appeared
abrasions rather than the fire shots. A few of the police men just pointed
at their head when asked where they were hit but no injury could be seen.

Insaaf and PUCL team went to the village. The sight was beyond
imagination. All roads to the village were surrounded by policemen. It was
a village under siege. Hundreds of policemen had surrounded the village
and large number was seen around the cremation ground. Some of the
villagers were collected in the cremation ground and waiting for the
bodies of the victims. Mr. Bhan Singh Bhora MP (CPI) and Mr. Darhan Mehraj
(CPM) were there with the villagers. There was atmosphere of fear among
villagers. The women were wailing uncontrollably in the houses of the
deceased.

Stones were scattered in large number. Pelting of stones was also visible
on the walls and doors of the houses of the village. The police has
registered a FIR against the demonstrators at Bhatinda Railway police
station.

Conclusion

Administration totally failed to handle the situation. This unfortunate
happening resulting in the loss of two precious lives could have been very
easily averted if the administration had taken wise and timely steps. The
issue of over charging of the bus fares by the transporters was a small
matter if the administration had dealt with it sensibly.

The arrest of the BKU leaders immediately after failure of the
negotiations by the police

is the out come of the dictatorial, arbitrary and high handed attitude
inherited from the colonial Rulers further strengthened by unlimited
powers enjoyed by the police force during the period of extremism in the
state. They fail to realize that people enjoy right to protest, express
the dissenting views and freedom of speech in a democratic country.

Stone throwing was from both the sides. Provoked by the use of force by
the police against the protesters, one of the protesters pelted the stones
at the police and was joined by others when the police started lathi
charging them. The police in turn threw tear gas shells, stones and started
firing at the mob. On this the villagers ran helter skelter to save
themselves. The policemen armed with lathis and guns chased them to their
houses and Gurudwara and beat them mercilessly. They also maltreated,
abused and hit women folk of the village.

Definitely it was an excessive use of force by the Bhatinda Police against
the villagers. Some shots were fired in line of body, hitting the deceased
in the abdomen. If the fires were either shot in the air to disperse the
agitators or to incapacitate them then they would not have killed any body,
hitting them in the center of the body.

The attitude of "teach them a lesson" of the law enforcing agencies
resulting in ruthless suppressions of agitation of people, a democratic
right, adds to the ever-increasing discontentment, anger and frustration
of the people against the rulers.

Demands

The Insaaf International and PUCL demand: -
* A thorough and time bound investigation in to this gruesome murder of
two young dalit youths and unprecedented repression on the men and women of
the villages by a high court judge. Stringent punishments to the officials
found guilty by the judicial inquiry*
* Action against officials who let this minor dispute result in death
and destruction. *
* Immediate suspension of the officers responsible for this ruthless
repression on the people.*

* Payment of compensation to the family of the deceased and injured
without any delay.*

* Immediate release of the all the innocent people arrested by the poli=
ce.

Dr Vineeta Gupta
General secretary, Insaaf International
Ved Parkash Gupta
General Secretary, PUCL (Pb Branch)
________

#3.
=46rom: Suresh_Ramamoorthy@d...
Subject: Facts on INS Raid at Randolph AFB, San Antonio, TX

This email is sent on behalf of every Indian who is working at Randolph Air
=46orce Base. We have been working at the base since 1996 developing some
state of the art applications. Most of us are distributed among two major
projects Civilian Modern DCPDS and Military Modern DCPDS or simply called
CIVMOD and MILMOD. These two projects are supposed to serve about 350,000
military and 180,000 civilians based all over the world. Both the
applications are being developed in Oracle's tool called Oracle HR (Human
Resources).

Incident at the Randolph Air Force Base

This is exactly how it happened with minor differences in some cases. This
happened on the morning of Thursday; 20th Jan 2000 around 9.00 AM at our
place of work. As we (other colleagues) were busy involved in our work, we
heard from the program manager that all U.S. citizens need to go out of the
building for 45 minutes. We assumed that it s a routine military drill or
exercise etc. and started walking towards the exit door. On our way to the
exit door, we saw that INS agents were manning the exits. As we walked
towards the door, they asked us to step aside while letting all the
Americans to go. They then asked for our identifications and started asking
about our names, company name, etc. For some of the people they asked about
5-6 questions and then arrested, but to most of them got arrested based on
their name alone. They already had arrest warrants issued on them and none
of us had any idea what's happening.

All these time, we had no idea why the INS agents were asking all these
questions and what crime had we done. We felt so humiliated when they
handcuffed us in front of our fellow colleagues and paraded us down through
the hallways looking for their van. Some of us even had to walk all around
the block searching for their vans. They never read any rights to us nor
did they explain why they were arresting us. There was no resistance of any
kind from us but we were still treated like common criminals. The biggest
irony is that a lot of us were pleading to use the restroom and the request
was mostly denied and had to wait about 4 hours. They then asked for our
passport, H1's etc. and some of us said that they have it in their
apartments, bank lockers etc. Some of us even had copies of it at our
workplace and showed them to the agents. But, this was of no use.

We were dumped into their vans with our hands cuffed and were taken from one
apartment complex to the other to retrieve our documents. Even pregnant
women, green card holders were not spared from this ill treatment. Most of
us got all of our documents from the apartments and they did not verify
anything over there. They took all of us to INS office and dumped us into a
cell occupied by others. They invited one by one for questioning with our
files already in their hand and it took an average of 2-3 hours per person.
They want us to fill a questionnaire, which will be filed in our cases, and
we are not sure what to answer. They gave us an option to wait until our
attorney arrives from Houston (about 200 miles away) and hinted that it will
delay the whole process waiting for him. We were really eager to get out of
there as soon as possible and it looked like they took advantage of the
situation.

Before they asked us questions, they read out our rights and they still did
not reveal the charges against us. We answered their questions to the best
of our knowledge and memory under the given circumstance. Once we signed
the questionnaire then they told us that we were arrested because we failed
to comply with Immigration Law. Their charge is: "You failed to maintain
status or to comply with the conditions of your nonimmigration status in
that you were not working in Houston, Texas in accordance with your approved
Labor Condition Application and petition for nonimmigrant worker; to wit:
You were working at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas." None of
us were aware of this law and we were always under the belief that we were
staying and working legally since the day we entered here in United States.
As a matter of fact most of us are still working for the same company since
day one.

The valid documents an employee should have are original passport and a copy
of H1B approval. The H1 approval just shows the address of the company
(sometimes address of the attorney) and doesn't show the supposed location
of our work. Even if any law is violated, it's not the responsibility of
the individual employee but it is the responsibility of the employer. We
have no clue why we are being punished instead of the corresponding
employers.
INS stated that none of the 40 people arrested has any criminal record and
not considered a threat to the community. AFPC stated that none of us have
access to classified data and were not believed to have breach the security
at the base.

Basic impression put out by the media was that all foreign nationals were
replacing U.S. citizens jobs, US Federal law permits 1,15,000 H1-B visa
approvals a year. In the last couple of years, Indians are snagging more
than 40 per cent of this quota because of the heavy demand for information
technology professionals in the US. Recently U.S. Congress passed a law
allowing more foreign hi-tech workers to come into the U.S. because there is
a acute shortage of hi-tech workers in the country. It proves the local
media's version of saying U.S. citizens are replaced with foreign nationals
is totally unjustified and mistaken. The demand is so great that some US
lawmakers, lobbied by the industry, are seeking to raise the cap to 2,00,000
next year.

The whole questioning and interrogation went unto 6.30 p.m. and we came to
know that our bond was set to $5000 per head. At that point they charged 23
employees including 4 women. The men were transferred to Wachenhut
Correction Center in Karsen City (about 80 miles away) and women were
transferred to a detention center in downtown. We had to stay overnight in
those detention centers in most deplorable conditions. We posted the bond
on Friday and everybody was released by evening.

Inconsistency observed:
Green Card Holders: They were about 5 or 6 green card holders and they were
also handcuffed and dragged along with us. They were released after they
showed their green cards either in their corresponding apartments or in INS
building. Even though INS declared that they were targeting only two
companies (Frontier & Softech) they arrested other Indians even though we
showed proof that we were working for different companies.

Hardships:
INS arrested some of us even though we don't work for those two companies
and the reason was that we were not carrying our passport and H1B documents
in person. We were not aware of this rule and it is not practical and
advisable to carry those important documents with the crime rate rising up
day by day.

"Is this criteria not applicable to other than Indian nationals working in
the same place?" We are asking this question because INS did not bother to
check the same documents with other foreign nationals working at the same
place.

They retained driver license and social security cards of some of the
detained persons. It is extremely difficult for anybody to survive without
a driver license particularly with small children. We are facing problems
even to buy groceries and perform our daily activities. We are not sure how
long the case might prolong and INS indicated that we cannot work for that
period of time. We are not sure whether it might take two months or one
year and it is extremely difficult for anybody to survive for that long
without pay.
________

#4.

=46rontline
Volume 17 - Issue 03, Feb. 05 - 08, 2000
Essay

The Cost of Living
by Arundhati Roy

[This is the text of the Nehru Memorial Lecture delivered by the writer
at Cambridge University on November 8, 1999. The lecture was delivered
at the invitation of Professor Amartya Sen, Master of Trinity College. ]
http://www.the-hindu.com/fline/fl1703/17030640.htm

__________________________________________
SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH (SACW) is an informal, independent &
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