[sacw] sacw dispatch (5 July 00)

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Wed, 5 Jul 2000 06:27:37 +0100


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

__________________________

#1. PAKISTAN:
#2. PAKISTAN:
#3. INDIA
#4. INDIA
#5. INDIA
#6. INDIA
__________________________

#1.

Pakistan-Constitution

Islamic articles to be incorporated into Pak provincial constitution

from India Abroad News Service

Islamabad, July 4 - Pakistani Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf has
said that the government will incorporate Islamic articles of the
Constitution into the provisional constitutional order (PCO) and will not
let anything impinge upon the independence of religious schools.

"The chief executive has assured that Islamic articles of the Constitution
will be incorporated into the PCO and investigations will be carried out
against non-government organisations propagating anti-Islam views. He has
also given an assurance that nothing will be done to curtail independent
functioning of the seminaries," Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a faction leader of
the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, told reporters here.

He was talking to reporters after a two hour meeting with Musharraf. Rehman
said that during the meeting, they discussed a host of issues including the
government's policy towards religious institutions, Pak-Afghan relations,
Osama bin Laden, proposed power devolution plan and "anti-Islam" activities
of certain non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Musharraf yesterday held separate meetings with politicians and apprised
them of the government's reforms agenda. Pakistan Muslim League's Raja
Zafarul Haq and Mian Mohmmad Azhar and head of National Awami Party
Pakistan Ajmal Khattak were those who called on the chief executive, NNI
news agency reported.

Rehman said he proposed the formation of a joint ministerial commission of
Pakistan and Afghanistan to control terrorism and narcotics trade. "He
(Musharraf) appreciated the proposal and assured of concrete measures," he
added.

Rehman said the chief executive brought up the seminaries issue. "He
(Musharraf) exonerated religious schools of charges that they were training
militants," he added.

______

#2.

Labour Party Sind Chairman Arrested

Labour Party Pakistan Sind Chairman Dost Mohammed Channa and Aziz
Abbasi general secretary Watan Dost Mazdoor Federation and member
National Committee LPP were arrested last night 1st of July, in
Hyderabad. They went to jail authorities with the bail papers of 9
other trade union leaders whose bail application was accepted by the
court in the morning. At Nara Jail Hyderabad, on the instruction of
the Colonel Maqsood of Army Monitoring Cell of Hyderabad, both trade
union leaders were arrested. They both have been kept at GOR police
station of Hyderabad.

Both of these nationally known leaders were helping the workers of
Dada Bhoi Cement Factory at Norieabad District Dadu to form a union at
the factory. This effort resulted in the arrest of nine workers
including Younas Rahoo, a member of National Committee of LPP. These
workers were released on 1st of July on bail with the efforts of the
two arrested leaders.

It is worth remembering, that just in June 2000, 18 leaders and
members of Labour Party Pakistan have been arrested on the charges of
organizing unions, helping the workers in the struggle and movements.

We appeal to all the trade unions, NGO, s, political activists and
progressive people to raise your voice against these arrests. We
demand an immediate release of all the arrested labor leaders. We
demand the acceptance of right of the workers to form unions. We
demand that National Industrial Relation Commission to accept the
workers request to form the Progressive labor union at Dada Bhoi
Cement Factory District Dadu.

Please send your protests to the following mail numbers.

Dada Bhoy Cement factory Head Office:
Telephone: 92 21 4545704 Fax: 92 21 4918476
Email: mhdadabhoy@c...

=46ederal Minister Of Labour
Umer Asghar Khan
=46ax: 92 51 9224890 Tel: 92 51 9224578

Mr. Zia Mohammed Mirza,
Chairman National Industrial Relation Commission
=46ax: 92 52 9205920

Chief Executive,
General Pervaiz Musharaf
Email: ce@p...

Cpies to
lpp@l...

=46raternally,

=46arooq Tariq

______

#3.

The Washington Post
July 3, 2000

The Burden of the Cross in India
=46rom Harassment to Murder, Assault on Christians by Militant Hindus Is
Escalating

By Pamela Constable

NEW DELHI -- A sleeping priest was beaten to death with pump handles in
Uttar Pradesh state. A Christian graveyard was dug up in Andhra Pradesh
and the tombstones smashed. A missionary distributing Bibles in Gujarat
was seized and the books burned. On one day, bombs exploded in four
churches across different states.

=46rom petty harassment to premeditated murder, Christian clergy and
activists, institutions and symbols are under new assault by militant
Hindus across India. With more than 30 incidents reported in the past
several months, church leaders say the pattern has gained unprecedented
breadth and momentum.

The attackers are rarely caught but often are suspected of belonging to a
network of grass-roots Hindu groups known as the sangh parivar, or "united
family." The groups, which have gained followers and stature since a
Hindu-based party came to national power in 1996, promote Hinduism as a
way of life and act as watchdogs against its perceived enemies.
Most sangh parivar leaders deny involvement in religious violence, but
some openly espouse ousting Christians from India. The groups are also
believed to sponsor alarmist literature, often unsigned, that warns of a
Christian conspiracy to take over India through "forced conversions" of
rural and tribal people.

Indian newspapers recently reported that one Hindu group was running arms
training camps. Another group promotes the hero worship--and possible
political candidacy--of Dara Singh, a Hindu activist who is in prison
awaiting trial in the fatal burning of Graham Staines, an Australian
Baptist missionary, and his two sons in January 1999.

"Dara Singh is the protector of the Hindus, a reformer who is fighting the
conspiracy," said Dhirendra Nath Pande, 27, a software developer who is
secretary of the Save Dara Singh Committee here. "The biggest danger to
our religion is from Christianity. . . . It is slowly planned, like sweet
poison," he asserted. "Now because of our work, the Christian reality has
been exposed. What will you do by arresting one Dara Singh? Thousands of
Dara Singhs will be born."

The Indian government, while embarrassed at the tarnishing of its secular
image abroad, seems paralyzed by the attacks. Top officials of the ruling
alliance, which is dominated by the Hindu-based Bharatiya Janata Party and
beholden to the sangh parivar, have played down the crimes and made bland
appeals for religious harmony.

In Rome last week, Pope John Paul II told Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee he was disturbed by the violence and said it had "seriously
wounded" India's tradition of religious tolerance. Vajpayee said he, too,
was concerned but dismissed the attacks as "isolated incidents" and
suggested that the problem be viewed "in its proper perspective."

Church officials and human rights groups say the government's weak
response is encouraging a climate of hatred and allowing fears of a
"Christian takeover" to fester, even though India is more than 85 percent
Hindu and less than 3 percent Christian.

The sense of vulnerability among Indian Christians deepened last month
when their leading defender, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New Delhi,
died in a car crash in Poland. Before his trip, Archbishop Alan de Lastic
told journalists here that India's Christian community was facing its
worst crisis since the state was founded in 1947.

"I blame the government for this," de Lastic said, noting that he had
spoken to Vajpayee about the attacks, "yet nothing seems to be getting
done."

At de Lastic's funeral in New Delhi's cathedral Tuesday, thousands of
people filed past the garlanded coffin, and hundreds filled a condolence
book with messages that spoke of more than spiritual bereavement.

Church officials say the Hindu militants' real motive is not to defend
their religion, but their economic privileges. They say upper-caste Hindus
feel threatened by the work of Christian missions to uplift India's rural
and tribal poor, many of whom are trapped at the bottom of society by the
rigid Hindu caste system. Hindu activists say Christian churches convert
illiterate Indians in the guise of service to the poor.

When violent crimes do occur against Christians, police usually attribute
them to theft or personal grudges rather than religious motives. On the
night of June 6, the Rev. George Kuzhikandam, an Indian-born teacher at a
convent school, was bludgeoned to death by a group of unidentified men
near the city of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, becoming the fourth Christian
clergyman killed in India in the past 18 months.

The unsolved slaying became instant grist for competing rumor mills. Some
Hindu groups suggested the priest was involved in sexual misconduct or
killed by Pakistani intelligence agents. The police blamed robbers,
questioned a school cook who was then found strangled in his cell and
admitted they did not even consider questioning local Hindu extremists.
=46ellow priests believe the slaying was another organized attempt to
intimidate Catholic activities.

"In the context of what's happening around the country, we can only
conclude that this, too, was a planned attack," said the Rev. Emmanuel
Ulahannan, the headmaster. He said that some parents might withdraw their
children from school and that church workers posted in schools and chapels
across India feel even more vulnerable since de Lastic's death.

"He had a lot of influence and was able to put some pressure," Ulahannan
said. "We feel lost now."

As criticism has mounted in India and abroad, some conservative Hindu
organizations have strongly denied any links to the religious violence,
but they described it as a natural reaction by Hindus who feel their faith
is under siege. They also have stepped up "reconversion" campaigns to
bring new Christians back to the Hindu fold. On June 2, a Hindu priest
triumphantly "reconverted" 72 tribal Indians in the same village where
Staines, the Australian missionary, was killed.

Critics say continuing mixed signals from Delhi and state governments may
bolster, rather than chasten, the fanatic Hindu fringe. Some top
officials, such as Home Minister L.K. Advani, are Hindu hard-liners who
see no reason for alarm; others, including Vajpayee, seem more eager to
avoid alienating Hindu constituents than to salvage India's reputation as
a tolerant, secular democracy.

"If the sangh parivar groups have been bold enough to announce their
plans, it is evidently because the [government's] response to the threat .
. . has left much to be desired," said the Hindustan Times in an
editorial. "It is time that the Government unambiguously clarified that it
will not allow such openly provocative remarks and actions."

Special correspondent Rama Lakshmi contributed to this report.

______

#4.
HATE POLITICS / RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE
Look Delhi, Aim Rome (Bajrang Dal)
http://www.outlookindia.com/20000710/affairs1.htm

______

#5.

LOK ABHIYAN
A-893, Indira Nagar
Lucknow-226016, U.P.
Ph: (0522) 347365, e-mail: ashain@l...

Dear Friends,
As part of the nuclear disarmament and global peace campaign we are
going to observe this year=92s Hiroshima Day, i.e., 6th August, in
Jadugoda. Jadugoda is the place in Jharkhand, Bihar where Uranium mining
takes place and nuclear waste is brought back here for disposal. The
radiation due to these activities here is taking a heavy toll on the
health and lives of the Santhali tribal community which inhabits this
area. The people and children of this area are affected by physical
disability, improper mental growth, leukemia, skin diseases and women
not baing able to retain pregnancy, and other such diseases.
By participating in the Hiroshima Day programmes this year at Jadugoda
we can lend our moral support to the movement against Uranium mining and
nuclear waste dumping which is being carried out by the Jharkhandi
Organization Against Radiation (JOAR).
You are requested to make a contribution to this effort. Motivate
children to make paper cranes (symbols of peace) and send them to
Jadugoda. It'll be even better if you could motivate some teachers and
children to come to Jadugoda on 6th August, 2000. There is a day long
programme at Jadugoda that day. As you may know paper cranes as symbols
of peace are associated with the story of a Japanese girl called Sadako.
Sadoko died ten years after the Hiroshina bombing due to leukemia caused
because of radiation. Motivated by a Japanese folk tale she had dreamt
of remaining alive by making one thousand paper cranes. However, she
died when she had completed only 644 cranes. Her classmates completed
the remaining 356 and she was buried with 1000 paper cranes. A statue of
hers with cranes in two hands stands even today in the Hiroshima Peace
Memorial.The Japanese children offer paper cranes to her every Hiroshima
Day and pledge not to let incidents like Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing
take place again on this earth. We believe that our children too would
strengthen this pledge by participating in this event.
We have a animation video cassette of Sadako's story and a booklet
containing Sadako's story in Hindi. We can also come and show how to
make paper crane.
We are also running a signature campaign so that Uranium mining and
nuclear waste dumping can be stopped in Jadugoda and children can lead a
healthy life here. You are also requested to help in the signature
campaign. The statement on which we are collecting signatures is given
below.
Please indicate how we can be of help towards your participation in the
event of Hiroshima Day observation in Jadugoda this year.

Kusum Verma, Sheetal Sharma, Bobby Ramakant, Sandeep, Mahesh, Arundhati
Dhuru, Ram Pravesh Shashtri

Signature Campaign Statement

We want the Uranium mining and nuclear waste dumping in Jadugoda,
Jharkhand, Bihar to be stopped immediately so that the inhabitants of
this region can be freed of the hazards of radiation. Like children of
elsewhere, the children here too have a right to lead a healthy life.
The dangers of radiation violate this right of theirs.

Name and Address Signature Voluntary Contribution

______

#6.

India-West Bengal-Conversions

Hindu group converts six members of Muslim family in Calcutta

by Krittivas Mukherjee, India Abroad News Service

Calcutta, July 3 - A radical Hindu organisation has converted six members
of a Muslim family at a "private religious ceremony" here, in what is
perhaps the first such instance in an Indian metropolis.

So far, the religious propaganda war and conversions and retaliatory
re-conversion have been restricted to backward rural areas. But in the
latest incident, members of the right-wing Hindu group, the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Council), organised a brief unpublicised
ceremony in the downtown College Street area of the city where the Munna
Jamadar family was "brought into the fold of Hinduism" from Islam.

The function was kept a secret, but a local news channel got wind of the
ceremony, and telecast footage on it during a bulletin.

Munna, who was renamed Ashis, later said he and his family had become
Hindus of their own will. An unidentified VHP functionary also claimed that
Munna and his family had been proselytizes because he had approached the
Hindu organisation with a request.

However, when contacted by IANS, a VHP leader, who supervised the whole
function, refused to divulge details of the ceremony. He just confirmed
that the VHP did convert Munna and his family. He sought "donations" from
the media for providing information on the VHP's re-conversion activities.
"We need money, and we know the media pays up to get information. We can
provide you information if you give us some donation," he said.

Police and the civil administration was apparently unaware of the religious
exercise. It was also not clear if the converted Muslims had filed a court
affidavit declaring their willingness to change their religion.

When contacted, the Imam of the Nakhoda Mosque denied knowledge of any
conversion. "I don't know anything about all this," he said over the
telephone.

The VHP had so far restricted its proselytization drives to rural areas. In
its last known operation, the Hindu right wing organisation "re-converted"
about 250 tribespeople, mostly Christians, in a swift and secret operation
in West Bengal's Birbhum district in January.

The re-conversion rituals are usually short and secretive to avoid
publicity. A VHP spokesman told IANS that, "we do not need publicity.
Whatever has so far been reported in the media about our re-conversion
drives, is a fraction of our actual effort".

The VHP, which initially publicised its exercises, changed its stance and
decided to keep the re-conversion ceremonies secret because the West Bengal
government had thwarted an attempt to re-convert 500 non-Hindus in March
last year.

The VHP maintains that Christian missionaries had taken advantage of the
poverty and ignorance of these people and converted them with the lure of
material comfort. The missionaries, however, deny the charge, and claim
that no true Christian is actually changing his faith.

--India Abroad News Service

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