[sacw] SACW Dispatch #2 | 4 Aug. 00

Fri, 4 Aug 2000 18:19:45 +0200

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #2.
4 August 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

#1. UK | Action to stop forced marriages
#2. Letter from America on Brutal Killings of Civilians in Kashmir
#3. India: Kashmir Massacres crime against Humanity, says Catholic Church
#4. India: How RSS organised its Hate Christians campaign
#5. India: On brutal conditions of workers in Assam's tea plantations

_____________________

#1.

BBC News
Friday, 4 August, 2000, 09:12 GMT 10:12 UK

=3D=3D=3D=3Dvideo=3D=3D=3D=3D
The BBC's Geeta Guru Murthy
"More international contact"
real <olmedia/865000/video/_865419_geetagurumurthy06_4aug_vi.ram>56k

Home Office minister Mike O'Brien
"Multicultural sensitivity is no excuse for moral blindness"
real <olmedia/865000/audio/_865604_cobrien.ram>28k

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

ACTION TO STOP FORCED MARRIAGES

The plans will help women tricked into marriages abroad

The government has set out its
plans on how to help women living in Britain who are sent abroad into
forced marriages.

At least 1,000 young women - many in their teens - are thought to enter
marriages in other countries without their consent every year.

Multicultural sensitivity is no excuse for moral blindness
Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien
The proposals, contained in the document A Choice
by Right, follow a Home Office report published in June, which recommended
that forced marriages be treated like domestic violence or child abuse.

A Choice by Right reveals plans to provide more support for women in need
of help abroad, including more access to High Commissions and more
international police co-operation.

'Breach of rights'

It was drafted by a working group which consulted widely with ethnic
minority communities, voluntary and statutory organisations, and victims of
forced marriages.

Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien said forcing young people into marriage
was a "breach of their fundamental rights" and would not be tolerated by
the Government.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said: "Multicultural
sensitivity is no excuse for moral blindness. The Government needs to look
at the issue with entry clearance, dealing with visas."

Women with families from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India are most likely to
be affected, but the practice is also found among those with African and
Middle Eastern roots.

'Family honour'

Chaired by Baroness Uddin of Bethnal Green and Lord Ahmed of Rotherham,
the Choice by Right group discovered that factors such as protecting family
honour or religious and cultural ideals are the reasons for many forced
marriages.

The strategy, jointly drawn up by the Home Office and the Foreign Office,
aims to identify ways of providing a consistent approach to prevent forced
marriage.

It recommends a number of key strategies, including developing monitoring
policies to crack down on the problem and more co-ordinated support for
victims.

In June, Baroness Uddin said a change of attitude both in communities and
bodies such as the police in trying to combat the problem was already
taking place.

"I don't believe we have to wait forever for the outcome of this practice
being eradicated," she said.

______

#2.

3 August 2000

Sir/Madam:

The massacre of these innocent people has no bearing on the fight for
freedom or self-determination. Perpetrators of this crime and others like
them, no matter who they may be, cannot be defined in human terms. This is
not Islam, this is not jehad, this is a game being played by depraved peopl=
e
where innocent lives are being subjected to terror. People who indulge in
such acts don't care for anybody, they don't even consider the repercussion=
s
that this may have on the minorities in the rest of the country. With
enemies like these, the Hindutva forces need no friends.

I weep with the family of those murdered in such a brutal manner. There is
no justification for such killings. Those who preach hatred and disharmony
may create chaos and mayhem for a while, but they will not succeed. Truth,
brotherhood, love and honor will eventually surpass hate and triumph again.

We should wake up to what is happening around us, work towards establishing
the brotherhood of man and discard all those who are preaching hatred in th=
e
name of religion, ethnicity or any other thing. Hate, division, religious
bigotry has and will take us nowhere. Our silence and hesitation to condemn
expose and puniish these people for who they are, will lead us into any
abyss from which we will not be able to get out of.

Dr.Jawaid Quddus
Ann Arbor, MI:481008

______

#3

MASSACRES CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, SAYS CATHOLIC CHURCH
Peace process must continue to bring end to suffering of people
>
> NEW DELHI, August 4, 2000
>
>
> The Catholic Church in India had expressed deep shock and anguish at the
> senseless massacres in Jammu and Kashmir on 1st and 2nd August 2000 that
> have left more than 100 persons dead, and many injured. In a press
> statement issued in New Delhi on Friday, Deputy Secretary General of
> Catholic Bishops' Conference of India Dr. Donald D' Souza said, "the
> innocent victims of this outrage belong to almost all religions in this
> great land; many of them were pilgrims, and several were women and
> youth. Their brutal murder shows the scant respect the killers have for
> human life, and for peace."
>
> According to Dr. Donald D'Souza though the state of Jammu and Kashmir
> has seen much violence through the years, it is quite obvious that the
> latest killings are timed to thwart the peace process that has been
> courageously initiated by the Central and State governments and some
> Kashmiri groups.
>
> In his press statement he further said that there is no alternative to
> peace. Dr. Donald said , " A just peace can return to the beautiful
> valley only through dialogue and discussions. The governments and the
> people of the state as well as the entire nation must ensure that no one
> vitiates the atmosphere of goodwill so essential for this dialogue."
>
> He has appealed to the terrorists to give up the way of violence that
> brings untold suffering to the people, and give peace a chance. He also
> said that the Catholic community shares the hurt of the victims, and the
> grief of the families of dead.

______

#4.

The Asian Age
4 August 2000

HATE CHRISTIANS: HOW RSS ORGANISED ITS CAMPAIGN

By C. Martin

The militant face of Hinduism that Organiser fuels In June, Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called for a thorough investigation into
every incident of violence against the Christian community. Mr Vajpayee
said that reports of recurring incidents of violence and institutions and
individuals belonging to the Christian community 'are a matter of deep
concern to all those who believe in communal harmony and national unity."

Obviously, the saffron brigade does not agree. Organiser (the main
RSS-affiliated journal, and the most prominent forum for the Sangh
viewpoint) has sustained a long hate-campaign aimed at fuelling suspicions
against Christians in the country, even as the anti-Christian campaign grew
more intense.

Using a mix of insinuation, half-truths and outright propaganda, the
saffron brotherhood =97 which is prompt at blaming the ISI for anti-minorit=
y
incidents =97 has been working overtime. Christians, whose population have
stagnated or relatively declined, are targeted for 'conversions'. Critiques
of Christianity are highlighted to justify the cause of the extreme Hindu
Right, or that version of politicised Hinduism we now know as Hindutva.

Fringe fanaticism by small Christian groups in the West is used to defame
a section of India's population that is known for its peace-loving nature.
Incidentally, this campaign has been carrying on undeterred, even after the
Prime Minister went to the Vatican to needlessly genuflect before the Pope.
(He could have instead simply showed the determination to tackle the
situation back home).

In its issue dated July 9, the Organiser highlights a story dominating
half a page and titled "Sex, Church and a secular murder." It claims that
the "Boys Town" in Kerala's Kottayam district's Palai locality "was used
for flesh trade by a group of Catholic priests and politicians." In the
same issue, three letters are devoted to decrying the "imaginary
hate-campaign" against Christians in the country.

In the July 9 issue, V.P. Bhatia alleges that "pseudo-secular media and
mediamen" were sweeping all "anti-Hindu conspiracies" under the carpet.
Bhatia goes on to talk about the "ISI or church-inspired subversion in the
Northeast." In a word, the church is equated with the dirty tricks
department of a country with whom we have fought three wars. But at the
same time, an attempt is underway to show that Muslims and Christians are
at loggerheads.

Or that Christians in India have a far better deal than their counterparts
in Pakistan anyway. Organiser reproduces an article titled "Pakistan's War
on Christians" from the Sunday Times in London, and interestingly chooses
to highlight the following quote: "In towns and cities, Christians in
Pakistan are more likely to be sweeping the streets or cleaning toilets
than teaching in schools or presiding in court."

On the opposite page, N.S.Rajaram says that Christians have been "crying
wolf" over attacks on them, and that the community "should refrain from
unsavory propaganda tactics and cultivate the goodwill of the majority."
This piece pushes the ISI-is-involved line to explain the blasts in
churches.

Organiser, the RSS's mouthpiece, also highlighted the recent reports of
the National Commission of Minorities =97 which Christians have dismissed a=
s
being guilty of playing handmaiden to the BJP government's interests. To
give credence to their claims, there are token Christians also taking part
in the saffron side of the debate. One frequent letter-writer to the
Organiser is Jubel D'Cruz of Mumbai.

He writes: "Even though I am a Roman Catholic, I am against conversions.
(The) government has done the right thing in banning it. Conversions take
place because people are uneducated and have not seen the outside world.
(The) government must educate these people in some form or another like
building hospitals and schools.

I am writing a book on conversions "who started them, how they got
started, and why do people want to get converted. Readers who have
information on this topic may please write to me."

Over the past year, the Organiser has been highlighting what they see as
the conflict emanating from Christianity in India. In its issue dated April
2, 2000, Organiser claims that Christians were issuing 'death threats' to
those chanting the 'Hari nam kirtan.' It also said that Hindu sants
nowadays "never dare to come out from their ashrams for fear of harassment
by the Christian tribals."

Organiser of June 11 also quotes the BBC saying that the Tripura chief
minister Manik Sarkar has said that the state=92s Baptist Church is involve=
d
in backing separatist rebels. In its June 11, 2000 issue Organiser also
evinces interest in trying to discredit the Church.

Writes N.S.Rajaram: "Christianity's collapse in Europe following the Dead
Sea Scrolls=92 revelations (casting serious doubts on the authenticity of t=
he
Bible) is having its impact in India also. This has made the Church revive
long discredited "miracles" like the Shroud of Turin." Through such
articles, the journal argues that Jesus may have never existed, and just
could have been a "later fabrication" based on what people thought would
happen to the Messiah!

If the minorities are facing problems, it's of their own making. So argues
the Organiser. Dr Keshav Agnihotri writes (June 11): "The minorities also
have responsibilities towards the majority, the least being respect for the
majority sentiment and not to target the majority for their survival or
propagation."

Re-creating history, and imaginatively re-writing it, is another agenda.
Writes G.S. Hiranyappa of Bangalore (June 12): "The Christianity that St.
Thomas is supposed to have brought to India in the first century of the
Christian era was no more than a variant of Hinduism. Till about 300 CE,
Christians believed in and preached acceptance of karma and rebirth.

When Christianity abandoned the twin Hindu doctrines of karma and rebirth,
it became a mere superstition. The Cross became a double-cross, or deceit."
Organiser in its June 18 issue says that "a lot of the Bible is an
editorial fabrication is the truth, the terrible truth, and nothing but the
archaeologically-exposed gospel truth."

Organiser also finds time to pillory Christianity from a variety of
angles. It points to reports in an Urdu weekly from Pakistan, on why Christ
couldn't have been born on December 25 (in its April 30 issue). Revealing
its near-Fascist approach, the Organiser reprinted an article from its
March 21, 1970 issue which argues that =93it should be interesting to note
that in the United Kingdom, recruitment to MI5 is strictly limited to
persons who are of pure British stock"

Quoting from pamphlets of fringe and fanatical Christian groups, the
saffron lobby sought to strengthen its own case. It cites "a Church
pamphlet" issued on February 1, 1999 in Kerala, which calls upon to
Christian community to convert thousands by the week.

It claims the "Church" pamphlet says: "Our target is to convert 50,000
Indians every week into Christianity. Those who is (sic) helping in
conversion can get full support of international community in terms of
money and facility(sic). We can give you any amount of dollars and pounds
if you do good work for Christianity."

"Ban conversions" the Organiser quotes Chinmaya International School
(Coimbatore) head Swamini Vimalananda as saying. (March 20-26). It's March
26 issue highlighted the RSS demand for an "atmosphere free of cultural
pollution."

Top on its agenda was The Pope's visit. "Let it be borne in mind that to
allow a Hindu to get converted to Christianity is tantamount to making him
religiously intolerant and uprooting him from his social, cultural and
familial ties and transform him into a potential secessionist," the RSS
thundered.

It called on Hindu bodies to come together to halt the "rampant
conversion" and also to "bring back to our fold those what were converted
to intolerant faiths by force, fraud or allurement." Strangely, even after
the Prime Minister's many assurances, the ideological fire and incitement
of the saffron lobby against Christians continues unabated.

Its July 23 issue contains a series of articles showing Christianity in
poor light. On Page 18, it blames Christian leaders with being responsible
to "stall" the dialogue between Church and Hindu leaders (though it is
beyond anyone=92s comprehension as to the need for such dialogue if the
saffron lobby was not involved in the hate-campaign, as they claim).

Tripura's militancy is interpreted in communal terms =97 "the State (is) i=
n
the grip of Church-backed extremist outfits that are running a parallel
government in the region and collect regular taxes from non-Christians at a
certain rate every month."

Sannyasins were forced to "discard their Hindu robes and to wear Christian
dresses." It quotes reports saying "The Christian terrorists are pulling
down the Hindu temples. The Christians are converting Hindus at gun point."
This same issue has a full-paged article on the "church's role in the
recent genocide in Rwanda."

S. Gurumurthy, writing in the same issue, takes off on the Pope for
voicing concern about attacks on Christians in Indonesia and India. It
argues that 12 of the 24 rape accused in the Jabhua (MP) case were
Christians, that reports from places like Jhajjar were completely false,
and that there were other reports which proved to be "sheer fabrication."

This article says Sister Mary=92s complaint that she was raped at Baripada
in Orissa was "a made up story," according to the Justice Wadhwa
Commission. As for Graham Staines, he was apparently projected by the media
as a social worker but "the Staines couple were continuously involved in
Baptist conversions."

Dara Singh=92s misplaced fundamentalism was actually a violent reaction to
conversions, the Observer said. For an organisation claiming no role in the
anti-Christian hate campaign, the mouthpiece of the RSS seems to be taking
an amazing amount of interest in it.

______

#5.

TEHELKA.COM
27 July 2000

WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY?

Illustration by: Uzma

Sanjay Barbora reports on the brutal conditions of the workers in the Assam
tea plantations, their lives are worthless and can be taken at will

On April 22, 2000 six workers were shot dead at 7:30 in the morning, as
they were protesting inside the factory compound at Bargara tea estate. The
cast of actors involved in the actual shooting and the events that followed
it, would shock even the most cynical observer. The manager ordered his
security guards, comprising two Assam Police personnel and 15 Home Guards,
to shoot the workers, then follow them as they were running away and shoot
them till they were definitely dead. The management, the State and the
workers-it couldn't have been more lucid.

Bargara tea estate is situated in what is perhaps the least developed area
in Mangaldoi district. The only road that links it to Dalgaon via Kopati is
a mud pit. The authorities claim that the area is a hotbed of insurgent
activity. The fact that the superintending manager of Bargara was killed in
1997, supposedly by NDFB activists, is cited as reason for the deployment
of security personnel for the managerial executives. The irony that
those deployed to "protect" the manager were those who shot the workers, is
symptomatic of class relations in the plantations. This truth is
unpalatable to the industry itself. Employers associations like ABITA, TAI,
ATPA have been less than coy about their "welfare work". The Bargara
incident is but a minor aberration in an otherwise calm situation, they
would insist. That six workers were killed by police officials, will be
explained as the "unfortunate outcome of a foolish manager, vested
political interests and trigger-happy policemen". The fact is, colonial
relations of control have not really changed in the plantation system. No
amount of feigned innocence by planters will absolve them of this social
reality which is built into the plantation system in its present form.

No amount of feigned innocence by planters will absolve them of this social
reality which is built into the plantation system in its present form The
workers of Bargara are unionised. Whether that has meant something to their
lives is a different matter altogether. The manager, one was told, did not
really consider the finer details of the Industrial Relations Act in his
dealings with the workers and their union. Last year, the workers had
complained to him about one of his assistants who was sexually harassing
some women workers.The workers were told to lay off and for some
unfathomable reason they (the workers) were told that he (the manager)
'plays with fire'. In February, some workers were picking up firewood from
the estate. They were caught by the manager, who would have forced them to
eat half a kilo of salt had the local gaonburah not appeared in the scene.

In March, a permanent worker, only 37 years old, was forced into voluntary
retirement. In April, against the conditions agreed upon, the workers were
forced into working two shifts for fencing work on the perimeter of the
plantation. These were the immediate instances that came to the workers'
minds when they spoke to the press and human rights activists who had
gathered there. There are other causes as well. Bargara has a
non-functional dispensary, which tries to pass itself off as a hospital. It
has an excuse of an ambulance.

Most of the 750 odd workers employed are temporary or casual workers. The
management has a Rs 9 daily wage (along with the stipulated Rs. 37. 50) for
this dubious category-"children workers". Housing benefits for the
permanent workers are substandard and for the others, there are no housing
facilities at all. Most children are malnourished and underweight. The
local school does not function, and the management actively discourages
children with the Rs. 9 per day wage, from attending school.

(copyright =A9 2000 tehelka.com)

______________________________________________
South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch (SACW) is an
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