[sacw] [ACT] sacw dispatch #2 (20 March 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch # 2
18 March 2000
-------------------------------------------
#1. Pakistan India: Peace and war
#2. India's Minorities Are Targets of Government-Abetted Violence
-------------------------------------------

#1.

Himal
March 2000

PAKISTAN INDIA: PEACE AND WAR

by Adnan Rehmat

One year ago, the progress of a bus entering Pakistan from India was keenly
followed by over a billion people across South Asia and closely monitored
the world over. The bus carried Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
to Lahore, where he was warmly received by the most powerful prime minister
in Pakistan's history. Vajpayee remained in the country's cultural capital
for a couple of days and, together with Nawaz Sharif, expressed the desire
to end the 50-year animosity between the two countries. The poet in
Vajpayee couldn't resist from reciting Hum jang na honay dengay (We won't
allow a war anymore) at the Lahore Fort, built at a time when India and
Pakistan were one.

The neighbours had never been closer as potential friends. Now, a year on
from those fateful few days in February 1999, the two have never been
closer to their fourth all-out war and this time it could be a nuclear one.
Within a single year, India and Pakistan played out their entire chequered
history of half a century, giving the world both a glimpse of a promising
future for a fifth of humankind as well as the threat of a horrendous
mass-end.

What did not happen in the course of one year? From signing a peace treaty
to domestic political upheavals that saw both Vajpayee and Sharif being
unseated; from fighting a near-war in the icy mountains of Kashmir to
tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats; and from familiar border clashes to
missile testing and the hurling of threats of a nuclear exchange with gay
abandon.

Even though Sharif and Vajpayee did not publicly renounce their countries'
conventional stands on Kashmir at the unprecedented summit, they seemed
ready to move towards a give-and-take settlement. (Sharif even dared to try
and replace Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf with a crony, not only to
strengthen his hold on power, but basically to have a commander who would
not object to a deal with India on Kashmir. As events played out, this was
not to be.)

The Lahore Declaration which sought resolution of all mutual problems
bilaterally and peacefully and committed both countries to
confidence-building measures, was soon in the dustbin, with the Kargil
conflict nearly engulfing the two in full-scale war. Fortunately, the
threat was defused with Sharif's visit to Washington and the withdrawal of
the militants.

Kargil left a legacy of harm. It destroyed not only whatever hope of
peaceful bilateral ties the two sides had evoked after the Lahore summit,
but also any trust in Pakistan as far as India was concerned. Feeling let
down and betrayed, India made use of Kargil to malign Pakistan in the world
stage, while Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party and allies took advantage of
it to fashion a return to power in the general elections of September 1999.
In Pakistan, on the other hand, Kargil blew into the open the simmering
conflict between the Sharif government and the country's powerful military
culminating in the stunning coup of 12 October.

The transition of power in the two countries only highlighted the stark
contrasts that are India and Pakistan. Vajpayee was thrown out of power by
just a single vote; he went out democratically, and came back through
elections. Sharif, meanwhile, went out in true Pakistani fashion, following
the military's knock on the door. And, of course, he cannot climb back to
power, at least not in the foreseeable future.

The coup against Sharif and the swearing-in of Vajpayee took place barely
within 24 hours of each other. And with the near-simultaneous advent of a
new democratic government in India and a military regime in Pakistan, the
two states were doing what they do best: exchange barbs and spar over
Kashmir.

The threats of war and possible nuclear exchange have escalated since the
new govern-ments assumed power. Both have tested new versions of
nuclear-capable missiles, expelled diplomats over charges of spying,
exchanged blame for sabotage activities in each other's countries,
continued with the regular border skirmishes, and hurled diplomatic abuse
at each other. With bilateral ties at their lowest ebb, the Indian Airlines
hijack in late December was a diplomatic disaster. Two months after the
hijack, India-Pakistan ties still haven't reverted to even the poor state
before the episode.

And if all this wasn't enough for the roller-coaster 12 months since the
peace bus, to round off the eventful year, there is now the bizarre
spectacle of both haggling over US President Bill Clinton's trip to South
Asia. The journey will surely serve to sour the India-Pakistan relationship
further, and indicate what havoc a year can wreak in bilateral relations.
The only sign of hope is that the Delhi-Lahore bus service, which kicked
off the turbulent year in the first place, is still running packed.

________

#2.

International Herald Tribune
Paris, Monday, March 20, 2000

INDIA'S MINORITIES ARE TARGETS OF GOVERNMENT-ABETTED VIOLENCE

By Smita Narula International Herald Tribune

NEW YORK - The international community protested loudly last month against
the inclusion of an extremist right-wing party in Austria's coalition
government. But the policies espoused by India's governing Bharatiya Janata
Party, the BJP, and its sister organizations are equally insidious. They
have already resulted in much violence against India's Christian, Muslim
and Dalit, or ''untouchable,'' minorities.

When President Bill Clinton meets with India's leaders, he must put
pressure on the government to reverse this dangerous trend: The BJP , are
dedicated to recruiting young boys and men. They give them extensive
physical and ideological training, creating disciples full of ''Hindu
fervor'' and military-like discipline.

Caste violence is also increasing. On March 12, seven Dalits were burned to
death in a rural village in Karnataka, reportedly in retaliation for the
killing of an upper-caste youth.

Although ''untouchability'' was abolished by the Indian constitution in
1950, some 160 million Dalits are denied access to land, forced to work in
degrading conditions and routinely abused or even killed by the police and
higher-caste groups that enjoy the state's protection. In what has been
called India's ''hidden apartheid,'' entire villages remain completely
segregated by caste.

This issue is as critical in India today as was the movement for racial
equality and civil rights in the United States in the 1960s. The United
States should use every opportunity to raise the problem of caste-based
violence and discrimination. Mr. Clinton should also pressure the Indian
government to prosecute both state and private actors responsible for
attacks on religious minorities and Dalits.

Kashmir is a key issue for Washington on this visit. But here again, the
BJP's jingoistic policies are playing a role. Indian security forces use
brutality and terror to reign over Indian-controlled Kashmir, while
Pakistan continues to support and train militant groups that target and
assassinate security personnel and innocent civilians.

India and the United States recently formed a joint working group on
counterterrorism. But before he considers any joint strategies, the
president should be aware that the government has introduced controversial
anti-terrorism legislation that circumvents due process in the name of
national security.

India has been down this road before. The current criminal law amendment
bill is a modified version of a 1985 law that led to tens of thousands of
unjustified arrests, political abuses, torture and other violations against
political opposition and human rights defenders. That law was repealed in
1995, but if the new bill is passed, it is likely to be similarly misused.

Mr. Clinton's trip is properly highlighting regional security concerns,
from nuclear proliferation to the conflict in Kashmir to the military coup
in Pakistan. But far too little attention has been paid to the dangers for
both India and its neighbors of the divisive Hindu nationalist policies
that are subverting Indian democracy from within.

The writer, a researcher on South Asia for Human Rights Watch in New York,
contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

______________
SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH (SACW) is an informal, independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since1996. Dispatch archive from 1998
can be accessed by joining the ACT list run by SACW.
To subscribe send a message to <act-subscribe@egroups.com>
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D