[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 26 July 00

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Tue, 25 Jul 2000 21:50:35 +0200


South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
26 July 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

#1. Bangladesh: Rapists in Uniform
#2. Semitising Hinduism: 'Missionaries to Peddle Hinduism in overseas market=
s
#2. India: A Nation in Denial
#3. Sunil Gupta's Classic Photo Essay, "No Solutions"
#4. India's Rights Groups Object to the proposed Prevention of Terrorism Bil=
l
_____________________

#1.

RAPISTS IN UNIFORM : WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Saira Rahman

According to Odhikar's annually documented reports , in 1997 six women were
raped by police.In 1998, the number of such incidences was 16 and in 1999
it was 10. Between January and June 2000, seven women were reportedly
raped by law enforcing agents. The victims have to live with the physical
and mental scars all their lives. What happens to the 'rapists in uniform'?

On 31 August 1997, former police officers Mainul Huq, Abdus Sattar and
Amritlal Burman were awarded the death sentence for raping and murdering
Yasmin in Dinajpur. The story of the young woman's rape and death in the
hands of police in the back of a police van, made headlines for a long
time. On 15 June, almost a year later, the case was sent to the High Court
Division of the Supreme Court for confirmation. It is now July 2000. The
case is still pending in the High Court. Another tragic example of
'justice delayed is justice denied'. According to the police department
rules and regulations such misdemeanour results in suspension and
departmental proceedings. According to section 9 (5) of the Repression of
Women and Children Act 2000, if a woman is raped while in the custody of
the police, those who were responsible for the lapse in their duty in
protecting her, would be subjected to a maximum of 10 years and a minimum
of five years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of ten thousand taka. A
very small price to pay for ruining a woman's life.

How many of these 'rapists in uniform' are actually suspended by their
department or punished according to the law? The case of Yasmin created
waves and prompted swift action to arrest the criminals due to pressure by
women's groups and human rights bodies. Unfortunately, in the other well
known case of Shima Chowdhury in Chittagong, all the alleged criminals were
acquitted. Shima had no 'concerned public' rallying for her. According to
newspaper reports of the crimes, in all the incidences of rape by police
between January 1997 and June 2000 the culprits are either named or
ranked. None have been classified as being totally unidentifiable. Why are
there no investigations and identification parades to mark the rapists
whose names the victims does not know? No one seems to make an effort to
support the victims and see that justice is meted out. Even the media just
mentions the incident while it is still 'hot', but gives us no follow up as
to what happened to the criminal or the victim afterwards. Maybe such
pressure will get the clogged wheels of the police department moving.

Year Total number of incidences Number committed by Police
1997 733 6
1998 961 16
1999 841 10
Jan.-June2000 - 7

The British local daily the 'Metro' reported on 22 June 2000 that from that
day, a 33 year old policeman, Paul Banfield begins his eighteen year
sentence for sexually assaulting and raping four women in the police cells
of the Parkside Police Station in Cambridge while he was custody officer.
On passing the sentence judge Justice Morland told him "You subject these
women to humiliating and terrifying experiences to satisfy your squalid
sexual depravity".

Britain has a Police Complaints Authority which states that every custody
cell complex should have at least one female officer on duty and that more
close circuit televisions need to be installed in order to keep a check on
the inmates and prevent further such occurrences. The chairperson of the
Authority, Molly Meacher commented "Banfield has let down the police force
and the women he was sworn to protect. Women must be able to feel safe in
custody".

Banfield admitted to indecently assaulting two women in the cells at
Parkside police station in September and October 1999. One woman was a
twenty year old, arrested for shop lifting. Another was a 24 year old
arrested for being drunk and disorderly. His arrest came after a third
victim, a 26 year old women who had been arrest for failing to appear in
court, complained the Banfield had sexually assaulted and then raped her.

According to the Metro, the Police Complaints Authority stated that it had
dealt with a rising number of allegations of sexual harassment by police
officers. In a 1998 report, it stated that "women complaining of
harassment had sought police protection only to suffer the same treatment
from the officer supposed to be assisting them." In the year the report
came out, more than 30 officers were suspended over allegations of
indecency, indecent assault and rape. It is nice to know that more
developed countries suffer the same problem - but what is unnerving is that
for some reason, we do not apply the same solutions.

The police force anywhere is an institution built to protect the citizens
of any country and any breach in that protection needs to be swiftly dealt
with in order to prevent the disease from spreading. In Bangladesh , given
the recent evidences of torture, rape and death in custody, attacks on
journalists and political processions, the police force is increasingly
becoming an entity of mistrust, violence and corruption. One wonders
whether the authorities are really willing to take up the task of cleaning
up the police force and taking out those who give the rest a bad name.
Could it be that there are too many rotten apples in the barrel to throw out=
?

* The writer is a member of the Executive Committee of Odhikar [Odhikar is
a human rights group in Bnagladesh].
______

#2.

BBC News Online: World: South Asia
Tuesday, 25 July, 2000, 13:25 GMT 14:25 UK

HINDU 'MISSIONARIES' HEAD OVERSEAS

By Rahul Bedi in Delhi
Nearly 600 years after the first Christian missionaries landed in India,
Brahmin priests are being readied at a seminary near Delhi to take their
religion worldwide.

Religious organisations aligned with India's Hindu nationalist-led
government, committed to preserving Hinduism in its purest and most
traditional form, said the priests would try and dilute the influence of
Christianity on expatriate Hindus.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is not only Hinduism the priests are taught, but also other religions
to enable them to counter Christian arguments
Shashi Sham Singh

------------------------------------------------------------------------
This upsurge in Hindu nationalism has, say observers, coincided with a
series of well-organised attacks on churches, missionaries and other
Christian organisations - reportedly by Hindu extremist organisations -
across India.
The extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) - which
opposes the church's proselytising activities - has recently established
a branch at Durban in South Africa to defend "the rights of Hindus
against conversion".

Spreading the word

Equipped with geometrical-shaped urns, water from the Ganges river -
considered holy by millions of Hindus - and a variety of incense, three
Brahmin graduates from the Hindu Heritage Parishthan at Modipuram, 70 km
from Delhi, left recently for the United States, Singapore and
Mauritius.

Their missionary work amongst overseas Hindus will last at least a
decade.

"Well versed in ancient scriptures, these priests are expected to spread
the virtues of Hinduism and perform rituals for the Indian diaspora,"
said Shashi Sham Singh, head of the seminary where Brahmin priests are
put through their religious paces.

All entrants to the Modipuram seminary are required to be proficient in
Sanskrit and have a working knowledge of English.

During nine months of training, at the end of which they are awarded a
diploma, they study ancient texts, learn to perform complicated Hindu
rituals like marriages, child-naming ceremonies and death rites.

They also recite lengthy and complicated Sanskrit prayers by rote.

"It is not only Hinduism the priests are taught, but also other
religions to enable them to counter Christian arguments," Mr Singh said.

Overseas demand

Over the years Hindu religious organisations and temple trusts like the
Temple Society in North America and the South Indian Religious Society
in Singapore have "imported" Brahmin priests from India.

The Hindu Temple Society said the proliferation of Hindu temples
overseas has proved to be a godsend for Indian priests eager to move to
richer pastures.

And although overseas Hindu religious organisations play a major role in
importing priests, many manage to secure appointments through networking
skills and personal contacts.

At the end of it all, it is worth the trouble as priestly duties can
have material benefits too.

A name-giving ceremony, for instance, costs the patron $31 in Singapore.

The sacred thread ceremony, essential for all traditional Brahmins costs
$101 and a marriage ceremony, $251.

Charges for all rituals and ceremonies double when conducted at home.

Some temples allow their priests to freelance but take a percentage of
the income earned.

The younger priests have reportedly become more outgoing, convinced
their earning capacity overseas is tremendous, especially for those with
an appealing ecclesiastical manner.

______

#3.

Indian Express
25 July 2000
Op-Ed.

A NATION IN DENIAL

by Siddharth Dube

The official view is that we are a uniquely moral society, literally
that Indians don't have sex. Virtually every Indian political leader,
bureaucrat and opinion-maker whom I have interviewed or talked to about
HIV/AIDS has asserted this as an unquestionable truth. They argue in all
earnestness that Indian society is more moral than others, that the
average Indian does not have sex before or outside marriage, and that
this will protect India from ever suffering from an epidemic of
HIV/AIDS. The denial would be funny were it not so dangerous.

Thus, even in 1991 when their own estimates showed that about five lakh
Indians were infected with HIV, India's top health decision-makers
continued to insist that we had higher moral values than Africans or
Westerners, and consequently that an HIV epidemic could never develop
here. The then Union health secretary R.L. Misra told me that
``considering our social and cultural values and traditions, I feel
quite confident that AIDS will not spread as far and fast as in
Africa.'' At the Indian Council of Medical Research, Director-General Dr
A.S. Paintal added, ``Nowhere else in the world is chastity considered
an important aspect of a woman's life apart from India.'' Dr A.N.
Malviya of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi,
asserted that Africans were promiscuous but Indians were ``of a higher
moral order.''

Their belief continues unshaken. Hence, in 1996 an MP from Bihar
asserted in Parliament that ``AIDS could never dare show its face in the
land of the Buddha.''....

But these leaders and the many others who think like them are absolutely
wrong. Travel across India with your eyes and mind wide open to its
realities and you will see that there is sex happening everywhere,
across its length and breadth, from the Kutch to Kohima, from Kashmir to
Kanyakumari. Husbands and wives, unmarried lovers, teenaged boyfriends
and girlfriends: they are all copulating. Sex workers whether female or
male or hijra, child, adolescent or adult are desperately hawking their
sexual wares.

There's homosexuality aplenty: men are having sex with men, women with
women. Girls and women, and often boys and sometimes men, are being
raped. Infants and children are being sexually abused. Indians are
having sex in rural fields and huts, on the pavements in towns and
cities, in tenements and slums, in low-income housing complexes, in
plush bedrooms, in corporate boardrooms, in offices, in mantralays and
ministries, in the bungalows uninhabited by the country's most powerful
politicians. Hindi-speaking, Urdu-speaking, Gujarati, Tamil, Punjabi,
Malayalam ... Anyhow, even if it were true that most Indians were more
``moral'' than other nationalities, having just one or a few sexual
partners over their lifetime, it would not automatically follow that
India would be spared a severe HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Just how severely a country will be hit by HIV/AIDS depends not just on
the sexual behaviour of its people but on whether they are vulnerable to
contracting sexually-transmitted diseases when they do indeed have sex.
The distinction is straight-forward. Are people empowered to have safe
sex by learning about HIV/AIDS, using condoms, having their STDs
treated, forgoing or being able to refuse high-risk sex? Or are they so
disadvantaged, for whatever mix of reasons, that they continue to have
unsafe sex that puts them at risk of contracting HIV? It is because the
vast majority of people in rich ``industrialised'' countries, from
Canada to Japan to Australia, are able to learn about HIV/AIDS and then
to act on their knowledge that these countries have, so far at least,
prevented widespread epidemics of HIV/AIDS...

Excerpts from `Sex Lies and AIDS' by Siddharth Dube, HarperCollins
Publishers India, Rs 295

Copyright =A9 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

______

#3.

"NO SOLUTIONS"
by Sunil Gupta
in: Ecstatic Antibodies: Resisiting the Aids Mythology. Edited by Tessa
Boffin and Sunil Gupta, pp.103-111. (1990 / Rivers Oram Press, London)

In all the anxieties surrounding the AIDS crisis one paerticular obsession
has marked public statements and medical research; the need to find a
guilty population to blame and then isolate. This has led national
governments to institute AIDS testing directed at various levels of foreign
visitors. Hence potential American immigrants need a test, whereas casual
visitors do not. Other countries throughout the world have followed suit.
Third World countries have employed similar restrictions on long term
visitors.
Indigenous populations of 'the other' present a more difficult problem to
isolate. Although various suggestions have been made to quarantine these
populations, politically it has been more acceptable to focus on the
'foreigner'.

The following quotes are an extract from an article in the Indian magazine
India Today (11 July 1988) in which Avtar Singh Paintal, Director General
of the Indian Council of Medical Research, having shocked India with the
his statement of June 1988: ' Sex with Foreigners and NRI's (Non Resident
Indians) should be banned', is now wanting to turn that into law,
punishable with imprisonment and or a fine.

"It's not a question of putting policemen under the bed. You dont have the
right to have sex with anyone if it can destroy the country. Fear of the
law is what Indians understand.(I recommend abstinence.) How is man the
only unique animal who's doing it throughout the year? All other animals
have phases. It is the duty of the physician to look after the patient
sympathetically. To us he's not a criminal, he's only a number - an
unfortunate number.

Q: How fast do you expect AIDS to spread in India?
A: Without people like me very fast.
Q: People say you are crazy.
A: I dont mind the amount of tomatoes thrown at me. For every tomato I get
1000 readers."
______

#4.

MEMORANDUM TO INDIA'S LAW COMMISSION

25 July 2000

A delegation to Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) met
Justice (Retd) Jeevan Reddy, Chairperson, Law Commission of India, in
Calcutta on 24 July, 2000, and submitted a momerundum on behalf of the
All-India Coordination Committee of Civil Liberties, Democratic Rights and
Human Rights Organisations (AICCCLDRHRO), opposing the proposed Prevention
of Terrorism Bill. Justice Reddy was in the city to attend a state
government function. The delegation members told Justice Reddy that the
AICCCLDRHRO viewed the Bill as draconian and unnecessary, and wanted it to
be scrapped. It would organise a convention and dharna in New Delhi on 29
July with this demand. Justice Reddy said that he was aware that human
rights workers were opposed to the Bill and wanted further consultation
with them.
However, the government seemed to be in a hurry to pass the Bill, he
remarked. "We have sent about 20 draft Bills to the government. All of
these are relating to important matters pending for a long time. One is
about the forfeiture of property of corrupt public servants. I don't know
why the government is rushing only with this Bill," the Law Commission
chairperson said. While commenting that the media were blowing the
repressive character of the Bill out of proportion, he said that more
discussions may be necessary for strengthening the safeguards built into
it. Accepting the brief memorandum, Justice Reddy invited all human rights
organisations to present their views on the Bill to the Law Commission in
writing. He said he would get back to them or call them for discussion. =20

Memorandum =20
To Justice (Retd) Jeevan Reddy
Chairperson Law Commission of India
New Delhi =20

Re: Objection to the proposed POT Bill =20

Sir, We, on behalf of All-India Coordination Committee of Civil Liberties,
Democratic Rights and Human Rights Organisations, register our strong
objections to the proposed Prevention of Terrorism Bill.
Our grounds, breifly, are as follows:
1. It expands absurdly the definition of terrorism to include all
legitimate and democratic opposition and curtail not only freedom of
action, but also freedoms of association and expression.
2. It overturns the principle of natural justice to presume a person
guilty from the beginning.
3. It gives licence to police to torture and kill to extract confession
bypassing Section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act.
4. It seeks to perpetuate a confrontationist stand-off between the state
and the armed opposition movements, instead of addressing the
socio-economic roots of these movements.
5. It goes against the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India and
all international human rights instruments.
6. The Bill has a communal undertone. We, therefore, urge you to ensure
that the Bill is scrapped and no such draconian law is enacted in future.

Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,=20
Tapas Chakrabarty
General Secretary Association for Protection of Democratic Rights =20

______________________________________________
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