[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (5 July 00)

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South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #2
5 July 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

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#1. Pakistan struggles with legacy of Afghan war
#2. India: Kashmir remains volatile
#3. India: Note from EKTA- Kashmir Autonomy resolution
#4. India: National Hinduism - Bajrang Dal goons at work
#5. India: Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh platform for Indians Abroad
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#1.

=46inancial Times (London), July 5, 2000,

Pakistan struggles with legacy of Afghan war

By FARHAN BOKHARI and DAVID GARDNER, ISLAMABAD

Pakistan is struggling to control the violent legacy of the Afghan war
which the US, its ally against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the
1980s, has left it to sort out alone, Abdul Sattar, Pakistan's foreign
minister, said yesterday.
Reacting to US concern that Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan have
become the breeding ground for Islamist extremists threatening regimes
across central and south Asia and the Middle East, Mr Sattar said
Washington was trying to shift the burden of responsibility on to Pakistan.

"The US has transferred the consequences of our common effort in
Afghanistan entirely on to the shoulders of Pakistan and that is not fair,"
the foreign minister said in an interview with the FT.
He said the CIA had admitted bringing 25,000 Arab volunteers to fight in
the US-backed jihad, or holy war, against the Red Army in Afghanistan. "But
no American has admitted that the US did nothing to try to take these
people back," Mr Sattar said. After Moscow withdrew its troops, "the
Americans walked away, leaving Pakistan, with its limited resources, to
deal with the mess".
These Arab volunteers - such as Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi
Islamist sought by Washington in connection for the bombings of its
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania two years ago - are now seen by the US as a
threat to Pakistan and the regions around it.
But Mr Sattar, who had talks in Washington last month, said the US was
beginning to acknowledge Islamabad's efforts to track down and extradite
foreign militants on Pakistani territory, and to supervise and broaden the
curriculum at the madrasas, the religious schools run as recruiting centres
by indigenous Islamist groups.
He underlined, however, that Pakistan "does not accept any equation
between terrorism and the freedom struggle in Kashmir", where India says
Pakistan is abetting foreign militants fighting in the 11-year insurgency
against India's 600,000-strong force in the disputed territory.
New Delhi says it will not resume dialogue with Islamabad - broken off
after seven weeks of fighting in the Kashmiri mountains last summer between
forces of, or backed by, the two nuclear powers - until Pakistan reins in
the jihadi groups in Kashmir. Mr Sattar said Pakistan "neither prescribes
nor will accept any precondition for resuming the dialogue".
The foreign minister also said the US was the country which best
understood why General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, deposed
the government of Nawaz Sharif last October, after a decade of civilian
misrule and "dysfunctional kleptocracy" which nearly destroyed the country.
Now that Pakistan's Supreme Court has given Gen Musharraf's
military-technocrat administration three years from last October to rebuild
Pakistan's economy and governance, the road-map to new elections in 2002 is
clear, Mr Sattar said.

Copyright =A9 The Financial Times Limited
______

#2.

=46inancial Times
Published: July 5 2000 18:16GMT | Last Updated: July 5 2000 18:26GMT

Kashmir problem remains volatile

By David Gardner

Three months after US president Bill Clinton visited south Asia to call for
a resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan over the disputed
territory of Kashmir, the good news is that there has been no repeat of the
prolonged fighting of last year. Less encouraging is that there is no sign
of the two adversaries - nuclear-armed after tit-for-tat test explosions
two years ago - re-opening the contacts broken off at the time. So too is
the news that New Delhi this week rejected calls for autonomy by the
parliament in that part of the Himalayan territory it controls.

The government of Atal Behari Vajpayee, dominated by his Hindu revivalist
Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), threw out the autonomy proposal at a special
cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The Jammu and Kashmir state assembly had last
month voted for self-government within India, with Delhi to retain control
over defence, foreign policy and telecommunications.
While the rejection accurately reflects the mindset of the BJP and most of
its coalition allies, this may not be quite the setback it appears, Kashmir
analysts in Delhi say. On the one hand, the Hindu nationalists
instinctively oppose any weakening of central authority and empowering of
Kashmir's overwhelmingly Muslim majority, claiming it will lead to a second
partition of India to Pakistan's benefit. "They are enjoying autonomy
already today," says Pramod Mahajan, minister for parliamentary affairs.
But looked at another way, the autonomy proposal seems to have emerged out
of the fears of Delhi's client administration in Indian Kashmir that it was
about to be sidelined by the Vajpayee government. Since the visit by Mr
Clinton in March, government officials say Delhi has been trying to open
lines of communication to the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, the Kashmiri
nationalist coalition largely eclipsed by the insurgency launched by
Pakistan-backed Islamist factions in 1989.
In response, many observers of Kashmir believe, Farooq Abdullah, the chief
minister of Kashmir and BJP ally whose family has dominated the territory's
politics before and since partition, has rather hurriedly discovered the
virtues of autonomy. This manoeuvre, however, is almost certain to raise
the bar for the aspirations of Kashmiris; if they were ever likely to
settle for anything less than generous home rule, that chance appears to
have evaporated.
"It [autonomy] was never an issue for us when it was passed by the
[Kashmiri] state assembly. It is not an issue now that it has been rejected
by the cabinet," said Sayed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman of the Hurriyat, in
his dismissive response to Delhi's decision. In April, Mr Clinton told the
military government of General Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan, Washington's
closest regional ally during the cold war, faced isolation if it continued
trying to "redraw borders with blood". But, in remarks addressed as much to
Delhi as Islamabad, he said there was no military solution to the Kashmir
dispute and referred to the "legitimate rights" of its people.
Senior Indian officials have since acknowledged they have to clean up
their act in Kashmir, where more than half a million troops are struggling
to hold back an insurgency that has already cost about 70,000 lives and
badly tarnished India's human rights reputation.
"We recognise that we have to do something in Kashmir, and we also
recognise there is no military solution," one government official said.
"But we also think these legitimate grievances [of the Kashmiris] can be
taken care of within the democratic framework India has."
Tactically, however, Delhi has sought to capitalise on Washington's fears
that Pakistan is becoming a breeding ground for international terrorism by
sponsoring Islamist fighters in Kashmir. Some of these groups are veterans
of the US-backed jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the
1980s that have since continued their holy war from Algeria to Chechnya, as
well as in Kashmir.
Abdul Sattar, Pakistan's foreign minister, observes that victory for the
US and Pakistan-backed Mujahideen against the Red Army in Afghanistan
coincided with India "closing the political road in Kashmir" and
substituting it with the army, he says. Many concluded that only taking up
arms would make India change its mind.
"India must examine its own record," Mr Sattar says, "especially on how a
movement which in its inception was political became largely military.
Pakistan will not bend its knees to resume dialogue," but he adds that "if
the political road re-opens our perception is that military activity will
die down."

______

#3.

=46rom

Dr. Ram Puniyani
Secretary

EKTA
(Committee for Communal Amity)
B-64, IIT Qutrs,Powai, Mumbai 400076 [India]
Ph-5723522 (R), 5767763(O)
------
Sir/Madam

The recent move of Kashmir assembly to pass the resolution for autonomy
within the Indian state is an expression the people of Kashmir's desire
for autonomy. While the resolution was being discussed Mohammed Shafi,
Education Minister of Jammu and Kashmir said "we want to strengthen
India's federal system and ensure that confidence of the people of Kashmir
in the democratic system is restored." The reaction of Congress and
especially BJP and its affiliates to this is very unfortunate to say the
least. A mass hysteria is being created by the BJP and its affiliates
against Farooq Abdullah and Pakistan for this resolution.

When India became Independent, Kashmir as a Princely state had the option
of remaining Independent, to merge with Pakistan or to merge with India.
In the wake of Pakistani aggression Sheikh Abdullah insisted upon the
reluctant Maharaja to sign the accession treaty with India, and Kashmir
acceded to India with special provisions of autonomy. This was the time
when many a supporters of Hindutva politics in Kashmir opposed the
accession of 'Hindu Ruled Kashmir' to Secular India. Over a period of time
Indian state started to go back from the terms of the treaty, in a
unilateral way, paving the way for the birth of militancy and the
consequent semi-military rule in Kashmir. Meanwhile Pakistan played no
mean role in worsening the situation. The result has been a gross
violation of Human rights of Kashmiri people at the hands of Militants
(many of them trained and instigated by Pakistan) and the Indian army. It
also resulted in mass migration of Kashmiris, especially the Kashmiri
Pandits, out of the valley, who are now forced to live as refugees in
different parts of the country.
The solution of Kashmir problem though complex lies in respecting the
aspirations of Kashmiri people and this resolution should be welcomed as a
good beginning. This resolution of the Kashmiri legislature deserves to be
made the starting point of initiating the 'democratic solution' to the
Kashmir problem.
We condemn the continued communalisation of this issue (Hindu- Muslim,
Hindu-Muslim-Buddhist) especially by different wings of Sangh parivar, and
urge upon the all the citizens of the country to respect the aspirations
of the people of a region, which has been made to bleed during last few
decades. The victims of this communal politics have been the people of
Kashmir, whose democratic and ethnic aspirations have been ignored. We
hope this autonomy resolution' may be a good beginning in reversing the
process which has resulted in gross violation of democratic norms.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ram Puniyani
Asad Bin Saif
Prof. Nand Kumar
Masood Pesh Imam
Dr. Uday Mehta
Sukla Sen
Irfan Engineer
(Members of EKTA)

______

#4.

Indian Express
5 July 2000

In lord's name, bullying BD men swoop on Christian school

by BASHIR PATHAN

GANDHINAGAR, JULY 4: Barely 24 hours after the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh
national executive adopted a resolution disowning the attacks on Christians
by the Sangh Parivar, a group of Bajrang Dal activists barged into the St
Xavier's School here on Monday and attempted to drive students out of the
school to participate in the Rathyatra in Gujarat's Capital.
While the Rathyatra organised by local Hindu organisations was winding its
way through Sector 8 where the school is located, as many as six Bajrang
Dal activists with `kirpans' with saffron straps came to the school on
motorbikes.
They ordered the school supervisor R Parmar `set free students so that
they will have a darshan of Lord Jagannath and participate in the rath
yatra'. However, Parmar informed the Parivar activists that since the
school authorities had already decided to curtail two periods for the
higher classes for the day, they should not insist for the closure of the
school.
As the Bajrang Dal volunteers were having heated arguments with the school
supervisor, the school bell rang as scheduled earlier by the school
authorities, allowing the students of secondary and higher secondary
sections to go home. However, the BD activists stay put in the school
building and insisted that the students of primary section should also be
set free for the rath yatra, he said.
But, Parmar did not concede their demand and told them that "the school
authorities cannot run a risk of releasing the primary students before the
school hours, as the parents themselves come to the school everyday to
fetch them". This appeared to convince the Sangh Parivar workers. But
before leaving they issued a stern warning to the supervisor - "we want
this school to be closed down on the rath yatra day next year".
Principal Father Hector Pinto was not present in the school when the
incident took place. He had gone to a private clinic for his eye check-up.
When he returned to the school minutes after the BD activists fled on their
motorbikes, Parmar narrated the whole episode to him. Apprehending the
trouble, the principal rang up his counterpart of the Mount Carmel School
Sister Prescilla, forewarning her about Bajrang Dal episode. Acting
swiftly, the Sister contacted District Collector S J Haider and DSP E
Radhakrishna and requested them to provide adequate police bandobust at her
school located in Sector 21, the next route of the religious procession.
The DSP responded to her plea immediately and rushed a posse of cops to
stand guard at the main gate of the missionary school. Besides, the DSP
instructed the police escorting the rath yatra to be on strict vigil.
The Sister said, "though the troublemakers did not visit our school, we
had to lock the main gates of the institute to avoid any trouble. Moreover,
we cancelled the regular PT (physical training) period on the school
grounds as a precautionary measure".
Father Hector Pinto recalled that his school had become a target of Sangh
Parivar activists last year, too, when the school was closed on the protest
day in response to the nationwide call given by the various Christian
organisations against the attacks on the community members and their
institutions. The school authorities had to seek the police protection,
when Parivar volunteers had made a vain bid to get the school opened.

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

______

#5.

The Times of India
5 July 2000

Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh to give NRIs [Non Resident Indians] a common forum

By Dilip Chaware

MUMBAI: A world gathering will be organised here in December with the
object of bringing Indians settled in different countries on one platform a=
nd
to devise strategies to propagate more forcefully the ideology of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Effective ways to prevent
conversion from Hinduism would be one of the highlights of the gathering.

Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) organising secretary Ravi Kumar told
TOINS here on Monday that out of nearly 190 countries of the world,
Indians were settled in 102 and they had substantial presence in 40 of
nations including UK, USA, Canada and Australia. While Sangh shakhas
are being held in 32 countries, regular functions are being held in the
remaining eight nations.

``Indians settled abroad meet every five years. They met in Bangalore in
1990 and in Vadodara in 1995. The coming gathering will be held at
Keshav Srushti at Uttan near Bhayandar. Nearly 600 delegates from all
corners of the world will be together for six days," Mr Kumar, who
operates from Sydney, said.

According to him, Indians abroad were not a cohesive group unlike the
Japanese. Indians are scattered among a very large number of diverse
organisations, which were formed on the basis of Indian states, languages
and religions; there is a Sindhi association, a Tamil federation or a Punja=
bi
sabha. ``For a foreign government, it becomes extremely difficult to
understand all these fine differences. Therefore, the HSS will make an
effort to form one representative religious body of all Indians in a partic=
ular
country so that the government of that country will find it easy to liaise =
with
that body," Mr Kumar explained.

Working in the west since 1972, Mr Kumar said a representative body
would be able to articulate the needs and aspirations of Indians in various
countries in an organised manner and would be much more successful than
expressing stray demands, he explained.

Describing his own experience, Mr Kumar said Sydney had around 50,000
Indians. About 6000 of them used to gather once every year to celebrate the
Ganesh festival. Since meeting just once annually was not adequate, he hit
upon the idea of celebrating Divali together. For the first such festival m=
ore
than 10,000 Indians turned up and stayed together for a full day. The
experience was quite rewarding and could be replicated at places where
Indians are settled in large numbers, he said.

Mr Kumar said the December gathering would deliberate on how to
strengthen the network of shakhas all over the world. The gathering's `main
person' will be Modi group's head Bhupendra Kumar Modi, he revealed.

Seva International, another organisation in the HSS fold, would also be
represented at the gathering. Assistance is sent to calamity victims throug=
h

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