[sacw] [ACT] sacw dispatch (3 Feb 00 )

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
3 February 2000
[[[This issue of the dispatch is dedicated to the memory of 'Allarakha'
(India's tabla maestro) who died earlier today at 81]]]
________________________
#1. Bangladesh cracks down on abuse of women, children
#2. Pakistan's General Musharraf &The Taliban
#3. Sri Lankan Feminists Slam Blatant Violation of Women's Rights'
#4. Fascists threaten the Indian Constitution
________________________

#1.

Reuters Ltd.
RTw 1-30-00 3:35 PM

BANGLADESH CRACKS DOWN ON ABUSE OF WOMEN, CHILDREN

DHAKA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The Bangladeshi parliament passed a law on
Sunday clamping down on the widespread torture, mutilation and sale of
women and children, the official BSS news agency said.
It introduced stiff penalties for offences including using flammable
chemicals, rape, murder, amputating childrens' limbs to make them more
effective beggars, trafficking and kidnapping.
The worst crimes were made punishable by death. Others carried a
prison sentence or heavy fine.
"The existing law in this regard was inadequate to deal with the
escalating repression of women and children," Minister for Law, Justice and
Parliamentary Affairs Abdul Matin Khasru said.
Women in Bangladesh are often tortured to death for their dowries or
by jealous husbands. Many are doused with corrosive acid and suffer
incurable burns, police say.
The Bangladeshi National Women Lawyers' Association says at least
7,000 women and children are smuggled out of the country each year and many
are sold to brothels.
Children are often abandoned when marriages break up and end up in
criminal gangs. Some boys are picked up by traffickers and sold abroad to
be jockeys in camel races, according to police.
The new law also imposed restrictions on publishing the identity of
abused women and children in order to protect them.
_________

#2.

Analyst (Central Asia Caucasus Institute)
Wednesday/February 2, 2000

PAKISTAN'S GENERAL MUSHARRAF AND THE TALIBAN

by Ahmed Rashid

After the October 12 military coup in Pakistan, there was increasing
speculation that the army's promised agenda to bring about major reforms
in Pakistan may also include a change of policy towards the Taliban in an
effort to bring peace to war torn Afghanistan.
While General Musharraf appears to show greater flexibility toward
pressuring the Taliban to accept peace initiatives, the neo-fundamentalist
generals on whom Musharraf depended during the coup are blocking such
efforts. These same generals have been emboldened in their resistance to
policy changes by renewed tensions with India in the aftermath of the
Indian Airlines highjacking and by the Taliban's recognition of the
Chechen government.

BACKGROUND:
During his visit to Iran on December 9, Pakistan Chief Executive General
Pervaiz Musharraf's stated that Pakistan supports ''a broad based
representative and multi-ethnic government in Afghanistan.'' The statement
raised hopes that the Pakistan army may be willing to improve relations
with Iran to bring about an Afghan settlement. At the same time Pakistan
would use its influence with the Taliban to force them into negotiations
with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.

Pakistan has supported the Taliban with military and political support
since the movement's inception in late 1994. It is one of only three
countries that recognizes the Taliban government and defends it at all
international forums, while condemning the Northern Alliance and other
peace initiatives. Meanwhile, Iran, Russia, India, Uzbekistan and Turkey
support the Northern Alliance. Recently, the army has shown greater
flexibility about other Afghan peace initiatives. Pakistan did not condemn
and even expressed mild support when former King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan
met with a group of Afghan exiles in November. These exiles are pushing
for a reestablishment of a Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly), a traditional
Afghan institution for resolving conflicts and governing the country.
Pakistan also did not negatively react to meetings in Iran between
Northern Alliance leaders and Iranian officials. The meetings involved all
the major leaders from the Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic minorities who
are part of the Northern Alliance. Iran and Russia are the principle
providers of military aid to the Northern Alliance. Meanwhile, the army is
attempting to deal with the domestic backlash from the Afghan conflict.
The government has held three rounds of talks with the Taliban in an
attempt to stop the massive cross-border smuggling of consumer goods, fuel
and foodstuffs between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Such smuggling has
amounted to US$ 2.5 billion dollars in 1998 and has created a massive loss
of revenues and industrial stagnation in Pakistan.

Meanwhile Pakistan's Interior Ministry has pledged to disarm the Pakistani
population, curb military training in the country's thousands of madrassas
(religious schools) and rationalize the curriculum of these schools. The
Pakistani madrassas provide thousands of Pakistani recruits who fight
alongside the Taliban.

IMPLICATIONS:
All these measures remain partial and piecemeal. The military has still
not undertaken a major review of its policy towards Afghanistan. Despite
increasing public calls for a review of Pakistan's ''Jehadi'' foreign
policy in Kashmir and Afghanistan and considerable pressure from the
United States and other close allies of Pakistan to wind down its support
for the Taliban, General Musharraf has been reluctant to do so.

The reason is that the army remains sharply divided over this issue.
Senior generals who form the core group of advisers (junta) around
Musharraf and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are united on
Musharraf's agenda for domestic economic and social reforms. But they are
profoundly divided on policies towards the Taliban and United States
demands for the curbing of Pakistan based terrorism. Musharraf himself is
heavily dependent on several neo-fundamentalist generals who helped him
during the coup and who believe in maintaining the foreign policy status
quo.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry is reluctant to order a policy review
until the army gives the signal that it itself is willing to do so. Since
his visit to Iran, Musharraf has hardened his stance on support for the
Taliban. He told journalists in Lahore on 24 December that he has "given
several proposals to Iran and urged Iran to talk to the Taliban.

These proposals include a methodology for a settlement but they have to
understand that 90% of the ground is held by the Taliban and the other
forces only hold 10%, and you have to accept that reality.'' Musharraf
also appeared to rule out United Nations or Western mediation in the
conflict. He stated, ''There are only four parties that need to get
together-Iran, Pakistan, Taliban and the Northern Alliance. There is no
need to include the Six-Plus-Two or the Five-Plus-Two or any other such
(international) group. They should be cut out.'' This statement was in
reference to United Nations initiatives.

CONCLUSIONS:

Pakistan's hardline generals and the Islamic parties, who are resisting
any policy change, have only been further emboldened by India's hostile
attitude toward Pakistan and its demands to declare Pakistan a terrorist
state. Without an overall strategic change in policy, the army's piecemeal
attempts to curb smuggling or the madrassas cannot succeed. In fact the
Taliban, confident of continued Pakistani support, have rejected all
Pakistani proposals to end smuggling while the campaign to contain the
madrassas is on hold. Moreover, many fundamentalist leaders in Pakistan=E2s
army do not want to antagonize Pakistan's fundamentalist Islamic parties
who support the Taliban.

Should a widescale clampdown on madrassas go forward, they might very well
weaken Musharraf's support within his junta. Pakistan's renewed tensions
with India in the aftermath of the Indian Airlines highjacking, coupled
with United States claims that the hijackers were supported by Pakistan,
will indefinitely delay any major review of Pakistan=E2s foreign policy. Th=
e
Taliban's recognition of the Chechen government will also strengthen
Pakistani Islamic parties support for the Chechens in the form of military
supplies, funds and fighters.

The Taliban now provide a direct link to Chechnya. Hundreds of Pakistani
militants fought in Chechnya during the 1994-96 war and continue to do so.
Thus, there will be no immediate change in the military's support to the
Taliban. Both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance are marshalling
supplies from their regional allies and preparing for a renewal of the
spring fighting season. Fighting could start as early as March with a
major Taliban offensive against Ahmad Shah Masud's forces north of Kabul.

AUTHOR BIO: Ahmed Rashid has covered the war in Afghanistan for 20 years.
He is Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia Correspondent for the Far
Eastern Economic Review and author of The Resurgence of Central Asia:
Islam or Nationalism? His latest book Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and
=46undamentalism in Central Asia has just been published.
Copyright 2000 The ANALYST
All rights reserved.
_________

#3.
Tue, 01 Feb 2000 16:27:05 -0800

SRI LANKAN FEMINISTS SLAM BLATANT VIOLATION OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS'

Several women rights activists, including Radhika Coomaraswamy and
Kumari Jayawardena, have condemned the arson on the house of actress
Anoja Weerasinghe describing it as a politically motivated attack.
In a statement issued to the media, they said:

"Such assaults on cultural producers have been witnessed in the past
under all governments and fit into a history of attempts to control the
culture and the free expression of artistes.

The recent burning of the contents of the house of Ms. Weerasinghe, is
one example of a criminal act of vandalism and arson.

The attack on Weerasinghe's house was a follow up to an assault on
various women artistes at a political rally in Veyangoda in December
last year in which actress Chandi Rasika was also injured.

We condemn the recent politically motivated attack on award winning
film and stage actress Mr. Anoja Weerasinghe.

Anoja Weerasinghe, who has won several international awards for her
performances was recently playing the role of Hecube, in the Sinhala
anti-war play "The Trojan Women" In this context, the destruction of
Mrs. Weerasinghe's house and 22 year cultural archive at her home in
Moneragala is disturbing. Its destruction is a great public loss since
we do not have a national film archive in this country. Some of the
films burnt were the only copies in existence. There were other
artistes both women and men who pledged their support openly and freely
to different candidates and addressed to meetings and sang on the
political platform during the Presidential Election in December 1999.
We believe that Ms. Weerasinghe was targeted both for her politics and
because she is a woman artiste. As such this attack constitutes a
blatant violation of women's human rights.

Given the implications for democratic rights, all concerned parties
should unite to protest against such violence. We demand a full, fair
and impartial inquiry into this attack.

Signatories

Women's Education and Research Centre Selvi Thiruchandran
Women's Coalition for Peace Darini Rajasingham
Women's NGO Forum Ksharma Rahavana
International Center for Ethnic Studies- Radhika Coomaraswamy

Gender Unit

Women and Media Collective Kumudini Samuel
=46eminist Forum Kumari Jayawardena
Social Scientists' Association-Gender Unit Mangalika de Silva
Muslim Women's Research and ActionFront Faizun Zachariya
Center foe Women's Research Swarna Jayaweera
INFORM Sunila Abeysekera
Kantha Shakthi Rohini Weerasinghe
Women's wing-People's Coalition for Peace Chandirika Kumarasiri
& democracy, Kandy
Sama Liya Collective, Kandy Samanthi Ganegoda
Centre for Development Alternatives-Gender Unit S. Rajeswary Kany
Women's Development Center, Kurunegala Sumika Perara
Sooriya Women's Development Center, Batticaloa Vasuki Jeyashankar.
__________

#4.

3 February 2000

Dr. Ram Puniyani
Secretary- EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity)
B-64, IIT Qtrs, Powai, Mumbai [India]
Phone-5775045, 5783522

[India's] President K.R. Narayanan's views on the review of the
constitution, expressed on the 50 anniversary of the republic need to
be taken with utmost seriousness. Dr. Narayanan feels the present attempt
to 'review' the constitution is totally unwarranted as constitution's
basic premises of, responsibility and answerability should not be touched
at all. Our present constitution is the product of National struggle for
freedom drafted through the constituent assembly, which had the
representative character. It is based on the laudable principles of
Liberty. Equality and Fraternity. These principles are the core of our
democracy. The current instability, which is being projected as the major
problem of our country, should be understood as the sign of turmoil in the
society rather than as a sign of failure of the constitution. We also have
to question as to whether a panel, whatever be its 'level' can have a
representative character to review a document which is the product of the
representative body-the constituent assembly.
The present move of the BJP Govt. to appoint a 'high level' panel to
review it is a motivated attempt to work towards its long-term agenda of
Hindu Rashtra. Some years ago BJP's affiliate VHP's highest body- Dharma
Sansad passed a resolution calling for a change in the constitution. As
per them it is an anti-Hindu constitution so it should be changed and a
Hindu constitution should be brought in. BJP's parent body RSS has been
clamoring for Hindu Rashtra right since its inception. In the light of
these facts the BJP's move's dangers are very apparent. We call upon all
those valuing the democratic values to come forth and call for the
scrapping of this sinister move of the BJP Govt.

Ram Puniyani
------
[Posted below is a detailed note to back up the above re dangers to the
Indian Constitution]
-----
THREATS TO INDIAN CONSTITUTION?
by Ram Puniyani

During last few years' number of opinions have been put forward to modify
and totally change Indian constitution. With the rise of the power of RSS
and its affiliates our Indian constitution has come under different types
of criticisms. In one of the major congregations of the V.H.P.'s Sants and
Mahants, who are the guiding lights of a VHP a quasi-religious outfit, a
resolution was passed in its Dharma Sansad (Religious Parliament). This
resolution said that Indian Constitution is an anti-Hindu constitution and
so it should be done away with and be substituted by the one based on the
Hindu holy books. They also constituted a committee to formulate a
constitution based on Hindu scriptures. As per some news paper reports
they recommended that the universal adult franchise should be scrapped and
the power of voting should be restricted only to the educated people,
teachers and the Hindu Holy seers. They should also be the one's who
should not only elect the parliament but should also constitute the law
making and implementing bodies. Normally such opinions should be ignored
and forgotten but in this case as this organisation is the associate of
the major political party B.J.P., which is leading the coalition at the
center, it can not be taken lightly. One also remembers that the the lead
given by B.J.P. to Babri demolition campaign was preceded by the efforts
of V.H.P. to rouse the sentiments of Hindu elite and other gullible
sections of population around the issue of Ram Janm Bhumi.
Currently the B.J.P. led Govt. at the center has been talking of
appointing a commission to review the same with the idea of examining the
possibilities of doing away with the parliamentary system and to bring in
the presidential form of govt. There is also a talk in the air to fix the
term of Lok Sabha to five years and to do away with the provisions of mid-
term polls. We will like to argue that all these are anti-democratic
moves, which will be detrimental to the basic, spirit of our country i.e.
that of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

Indian constitution was formulated by the constituent assembly which was
representative of the people and its drafting was a careful effort aimed
at incorporating the most enlightened aspects of most of the world
constitutions. It was finalised in the backdrop of the situation where
different parts of the countries, different princely states and different
people for the first time were coming forward as a modern Nation state. It
was a challenge to come up with a document, which could ensure the
representation of different interests. It had to ensure that starting from
colonial legacy we should be able to lay the foundation of a state which
is not only acceptable to different sections of people but also is
democratic down to the core. It had to ensure laying down of the
principles of welfarism in the same. Its emphasis was on the democratic
principles and it took in to consideration the plural and diverse nature
of Indian society. Its first major achievement was to introduce the
Universal adult franchise, the basis of the democratic norms. In most of
the fundamentalist countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. not only that the
democratic institutions are conveniently done away with, the downtrodden
sections are marginalised from the mainstream of society. The Mullahs and
other vested interests rule the roost in the name of religion. They derive
legitimacy from the selected parts of scriptures and impose other
practices suitable for the interests of elite by keeping the weaker
sections out of the political processes. This marginalisation of theirs'
is to the extreme, much worse than in the present democratic societies.
The proposal of Fundamentalist organisations to restrict the franchise to
the educated and Sadhus and Mahants is fairly close to these
fundamentalist tendencies. Before we come to present moves to curb the
democratic spirit of our constitution we should register that even Hitler
went in for major constitutional changes before he could impose the
=46ascist rule and cause havoc in Germany and parts of Europe. Also many
amendments were brought into the constitution in the seventies and they
laid the ground for the imposition of emergency in 1975. But even those
changes were much mild compared to what is being asserted by different
communal and fundamentalist groups, the conglomerate called Sangh Parivar.
As the current proposals have the potential of undoing the very
foundations of our democracy carefully nurtured by the founding fathers of
our constitution.

The current effort to revise the Indian constitution, to have the
presidential system should be viewed in the light of earlier debates on
the same issue. During the formulation of our constitution this point did
come up and the founding fathers did consider it in all seriousness before
rejecting it. The argument was that ours' is a diverse country with many
cultures, many religions any ethnicities and many contrasting interests of
the people living in different parts of the country. The parliamentary
systems' elements were already present in the rudimentary form as
established by the British and they had not only some experience of them
but the overweighing fact was that the parliamentary model avoids the
arbitrariness of the presidential system. To recapitulate, the
presidential form depends on the fixed term of the house (Lok Sabha). The
president is close to irremovable and he chooses his executives
(ministers) from the general citizenry who are not answerable to the house
of the representatives in contrast to the parliamentary form where the
ministers are generally the members of the either house, except for brief
periods at the best. These members are much more answerable than the
handpicked ones' chosen by the will of the president. Again the
presidential form and the fixed term for the LokSabha is being demanded by
those for whom 'stability' is more important than answerability to the
people, who should be sovereign in a democracy. After the experience of
the dreaded Emergency, which Indira Gandhi imposed in 1975 most of the
current champions of the restriction of the rights of the 'uneducated
masses', shouted from the housetops about the murder of democratic rights.
Bur now as it suits their interests they are unashamedly propagating the
norms which will slowly puff the libertarian life out from our polity and
bring in a Religion based Nationalism or to put it in more forthright
terms -Hindu Rashtra (Brahminical Hinduism based Nationliasm).
Ours is a democracy in the process of formation, i.e. the constitution is
democratic but the social and political norms have yet to fully mature as
democratic ones. Ours is a Nation in the making i.e. the concept and the
reality of diverse parts is striving towards the nation state in practice.
These are processes and to imagine them as static 'arrived' things is
wrong. It is very likely that we will be facing several tests in this
arena. Just because of the recent experience, where the elections have
been held a bit more frequently, it is wrong to bring in all the
restrictions on the evolving democracy of ours. We need to ensure that the
central point of our democracy has to be its genuine representative
character. No elite, whatever their intentions can represent the
aspirations of the people. In a diverse, plural country like ours a
patient observance is needed and to jump to throttle the rights of
citizens is ruled out as a matter of principle. We have to oppose the
attempts to strangulate the democracy and its attendant strengths and
limitations in our country. Two party systems if it evolves in our system
as a part of democratic process will be a welcome phenomenon, but than it
has to emerge out of the grass root realities. Its imposition on the
people will be counterproductive. The present multiparty system is a mere
reflection of the ground realities. It represents the diverse pulls and
pressures of different sections of society. As we have pointed out above,
ours is a plural society in more ways than one. In such a society
multiparty system is but natural till a time that substantial development
and progress ensures the betterment of vast masses of our countrymen.
The current argument that poor and illiterate are not capable of
exercising their democratic options and can be bought over by corrupt
politicians is the most elitist way of humiliating the deprived and weak
sections of society. They do exercise their options very judiciously as
seen in the results of different elections. It is only the communal
parties, which reject the right of the poor and illiterate. What is needed
is to increase the democratic rights of these sections through education
and empowerment. The present tirade against the illiterate is a motivated
one aiming to bring in a religion based nationalism, as in such states, it
is the elite alone who dominate and hegemonise the power in more ways than
one. To emphasise on the merit of educated ones' alone, will strengthen
the status-quo which will result in the rigidification of the caste system
and other prevalent inequalities.

As a matter of fact what we need is an improvement in the representative
character of our system. This can be achieved by ensuring the increased
answerability of the elected representatives. The present pattern is
ensuring that the elected representatives can remain aloof from the
citizens. Those who can get elected are the one's who have vast sums at
their command and who once having got elected can remain in their own
world of manipulations and keep doing further politicking for enhancement
of their own social, economic and political interests. Mechanisms like
small electorates and right to recall those not doing their representative
duties well may be some of the measures in this direction.

The concept of Hindu Constitution being demanded by those playing politics
in the name of religion, those spearheading the politics of hatred against
minorities, needs not only to be rejected but also needs to be fought on
intellectual and social terrain's. These are the political forces, which
in the wake of Babri demolition were openly asserting that their loyalty
is more to God Ram than to Indian Constitution. One can very well see that
this sort of play with emotions in the name of Lord Ram has nothing to do
with the good of society. It is only for the sake of power that such
misuse of the God and religion is done. These fundamentalist political
formations have no democratic aspirations. As pointed out above
fundamentalists across the countries have an agenda similar to each other
in its retrograde values and pre-modern systems being brought in under the
attractive garb of 'our glorious heritage' and 'cultural nationalism'. The
present smear campaign against democracy, secularism and liberalism has
support amongst the upper middle class and amongst the upper castes. They
have been enjoying the privileges for centuries and with the democracy and
the visible assertions of the lower castes coming to the fore, are feeling
threatened about their status in the society. It is this section which has
the morbid fear of the ongoing travails of a democratic order and are keen
to extinguish the light of modern values; be it democracy, be it
secularism, be it wel-farism or be it the very concept of universal
franchise. Our present democratic constitution is the achievement of our
freedom struggle, our struggle to get freedom from the clutches of
imperial- colonial powers. To further nurture and strengthen it is what we
need.
__________________________________________
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.