[sacw] sacw dispatch #2. (24 May 00)

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Wed, 24 May 2000 17:58:07 +0200


South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #2.
24 May 2000
__________________________
#1. Pakistan: Islamic groups turn back Musharraf's reforms
#2. Sri Lanka: The man behind the Tamil Tigers' new offensive
#3. India / Pakistan / US: Secret diplomacy for Kashmir deal
#4. India: Shiv Sena goons resurrects sons-of-soil campaign
#5. Trinidad: Hindu Group Complains Against Contentious Film
#6. US: Upcoming conference - DesiQ2000: Unfolding Visions
__________________________

#1.

Asia Times
May 23, 2000 India/Pakistan
ISLAMIC GROUPS TURN BACK MUSHARRAF'S REFORMS
By Nadeem Iqbal
ISLAMABAD - After forcing Pakistan's military regime to subordinate human
rights to religion, hardline Islamic groups are rallying the people behind
their campaign to take the nation back in time. Political analysts and
media commentators warned military ruler Pervez Musharraf that his handling
of the stand-off with the radicals would decide the fate of his ambitious
reform plan for Pakistan. Religious conservatives exulted over the mixed
response to their countrywide shutdown call late last week to press the
military government to incorporate Islamic principles in the constitution,
ban citizen's groups and keep hands off Islamic schools. A coalition of
religious parties that called the May 19 public protest claimed this had
shown that Pakistanis disapproved the bid by the ''NGO (non-governmental
organization) mafia in the government to rob the country of its Islamic
identity''. In a statement from Lahore, prominent Muslim cleric Shah Ahmad
Noorani warned the government to ''follow Islam rather than becoming a tool
in the hands of anti-Islam forces.'' Political observers said they expect
calls like this to become shriller in coming days after Musharraf backed
off from a decision last month to modify the controversial anti-blasphemy
law. They said the military ruler had given a handle to Islamic parties who
also seemed to be winning over the moderate political formations in their
anti-government campaign.
Although Musharraf's undoing of his decision to modify the anti-blasphemy
law was slammed by media commentators and rights bodies, Pakistani
political parties were wary of criticizing the turnabout.
Speaking at a human rights conference in April, the military ruler had
announced a change in the rule for complaining against those suspected of
blasphemy, a crime carrying the death penalty. This would have required a
probe by senior district administration officials before a criminal charge
could be registered.
Rights groups have long complained that the present rule empowering a
junior police official to register cases has been heavily abused to harass
religious minorities, specially Christians. Christian leaders want the law,
that was introduced by former army ruler Zia ul Haq two decades ago, to be
abolished.
But less than a month after the April 21 announcement that was greeted by
rights groups, Musharraf yielded to the vociferous protests by Islamic
parties. Denying that the government wanted to modify the blasphemy law,
Musharraf declared: ''Since the Ulema (priests) and the people are
unanimous in their stance, the government has decided to restore the
previous procedure.'' This retains the rule which requires the police to
arrest anyone accused of blasphemy even before investigating the charge.
Under the law, ''whosoever by words, either spoken or written or by
visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation,
directly or indirectly defies the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad,
shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be
liable to fine.'' Hundreds of cases are registered against non-Muslims
every year. Local religious leaders are seen to influence convictions that
are common by the lower courts, though the accused are invariably freed by
higher courts for lack of evidence.
The threat to judicial independence in such cases was obvious in the
October 1997 killing of a Lahore High Court judge, who was part of a
judicial bench that had acquitted two Christians convicted of blasphemy by
a lower court.
Two years ago, the former Bishop of Faisalabad, John Joseph, killed
himself in front of a lower court in Punjab province to protest the death
sentence awarded by the court to a Christian on a blasphemy charge.
Although no death penalty has been confirmed by a higher court, according
to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates, 500 cases are pending in
different courts until December 1994. The commission rapped the military
regime for retreating before Islamic parties. ''It won't take long for the
hollowness of the regime's commitment to human rights and human dignity to
show,'' said a commission press statement.
Media commentators criticized Musharraf for not trying to get the people
on his side in taking on the religious fanatics. ''If there was conviction
in its move, the government would not have beaten such a clumsy retreat. It
made no effort to appeal to the good sense of the people. It could
demonstrate that the object was not remotely to be soft on blasphemers,
only to be just to like non-blasphemers,'' said writer Aziz Siddiqui in the
English language daily, The Dawn.
Although no one said so explicitly, the government's retreat was seen as
countering a perception promoted by the religious groups that Musharraf was
out to please the West. This was also why, having tasted victory, the
religious groups are pushing ahead with a demand to ban NGOs they accused
of espousing causes they termed anti-Islamic. Islamic parties were angered
especially by an NGO campaign for women's rights. The Mill Yekhjehti
Council - the coalition that called the May 19 protest - had criticized the
proposed increase in women's representation in local elected bodies. A
leading NGO was rapped for being anti-Islamic when it issued a document
based on Pakistan's commitments made at the 1995 Beijing World Conference
on Women.
The religious parties also wanted Musharraf to include Islamic provisions
in the Constitution, stop regulating deen madaris (Islamic religious
schools), give up joint electorates and revert to the practice of making
=46ridays the religious day off. Ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had made
Sunday the weekly holiday.
Musharraf's government has been trying to ensure that deen madaris prepare
students for the mainstream education system and not for religious
violence. It has also come under fire for its proposal to stop dividing
voters on religious lines. (Inter Press Service)
________

#2.

Newsweek International,
May 29, 2000

THE MAN BEHIND THE TAMIL TIGERS' NEW OFFENSIVE
By Ian MacKinnon
It's dangerous to get on the wrong side of the Tamil Tigers. On a quiet
street in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, a wary eye peers from a spy-hole
in the 10-foot-high steel gate. It opens to reveal a shoeless guard
carrying an AK-47 rifle and pistol. Inside, Douglas Devananda, a
legislator, greets visitors in a windowless room behind a reinforced
remote-controlled door. As a former guerrilla who 13 years ago abandoned
the fight for an independent Tamil state, Devananda is on the watch for
assassins. He has survived two attempts on his life. Other Tamil leaders
who've defected have been killed by the henchmen of Velupillai Prabhakaran,
the separatist movement's leader. "We're seen as traitors," says Devananda.
"[Prabhakaran] is ruthless."
The Sri Lankan government is far more concerned about Prabhakaran's
talents as a military strategist. He is leader of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam, one of the world's most brutal=97and most successful=97guerrill=
a
movements. Prabhakaran not only demands total loyalty from his fellow
rebels. In recent weeks his army of about 10,000 fighters has launched an
assault that has thrown the Sri Lankan Army on the defensive. Last week the
Tigers were closing in on the northeastern city of Jaffna, their cultural
capital, threatening to cut off about 40,000 government troops from their
supplies. After heavy shelling, the rebels captured a garrison town just
three kilometers from the city. Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga,
who was blinded in one eye last December when Tamil Tiger suicide bombers
attacked her at a Colombo election rally, vowed to defeat the rebels. "Let
us learn the lessons from our recent setbacks and march forward to wipe out
Tiger terrorism completely," she declared.
How has Prabhakaran, 46, a soft-spoken fan of Clint Eastwood movies who
likes to quote the thoughts of Mao Zedong, outmaneuvered the Sri Lankan
forces? He seems to hold almost cultlike powers over his followers.
Prabhakaran founded the Tamil Tigers in 1976 when he was 22, in response to
government discrimination against the country's Tamil minority. His rebels
have been fighting a full-fledged war with Colombo for 17 years; about
60,000 people have been killed. Prabhakaran, a socialist who has said he is
inspired by such disparate leaders as Hitler, Napoleon and Che Guevara,
gets funding for and weapons from the Tamil diaspora. The United States has
named the Tigers a terrorist organization. "It's a very efficient killing
machine," says Dayan Jayatilleka, director of Colombo's Premadasa Center, a
think tank. "They're a secular Taliban."
Born into the fisherman's caste, Prabhakaran grew up in the postcolonial
years, when the country's Buddhist Sinhalese majority started curbing the
powers of the Hindu Tamils. The new government declared Sinhala the sole
official language, effectively barring Tamils, who make up 12.5 percent of
the population, from government. The government required Tamils to get
better grades than Sinhalese to win university spots. Communal violence
erupted.
To many impoverished Tamils in the northeast, Prabhakaran is a savior. The
families of recruits get $40 a month and food rations. Young Tamils are
sometimes forced to join, according to the Colombo-based University
Teachers for Human Rights. "One day you will have to die," recruiters told
a group of youths recently, according to a report by the group. "If you die
fighting, it will be a hero's death. But if you die a natural death it will
be a coward's death." Recruits watch action movies like "Rambo."
Some of Prabhakaran's bloodiest ideas seem to come from the movies. Tamil
suicide bombers, called Black Tigers, wear explosive-packed jackets that
Prabhakaran devised after seeing "Death Wish II." (In the film, a woman
blows herself up killing a world leader.) A female Tamil bomber killed
former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, in revenge for India's
support for Colombo. Each fighter carries a cyanide vial to commit suicide
if captured.
The Tigers' terror reaches far beyond the battlefield. Three Jaffna mayors
are among many politicians murdered in recent years. Two years ago, Tiger
prison inmates stabbed Devananda, the former rebel, with spikes and bricks
wrapped in cloth=97blinding him in one eye. Whether the Tigers win Jaffna or
not, there is more bloodshed to come.
=A9 2000 Newsweek, Inc.
________

#3.

18 May 2000
Source: Jane's Intelligence Digest
SECRET DIPLOMACY FOR KASHMIR DEAL
Despite rising tensions along the Line of Control (LOC) dividing Indian-and
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir; increased militancy in the Indian-controlled
sector of the disputed province; and India's consistent refusal to resume
talks with Pakistan, Washington is sponsoring a round of intensive secret
diplomacy intended to bring Delhi, the Kashmiri militants, and Islamabad to
the peace table. During his recent visit to the sub-continent, President
Bill Clinton showed a willingness to mediate between India and Pakistan,
along with an urgent desire to see tensions reduced between South Asia's
two nuclear-armed rivals. In the past, Delhi has vehemently rejected any
outside involvement in Kashmir and has constantly maintained that the issue
must be resolved bilaterally within the parameters of the Simla agreement
of July 1972. However, in the wake of the emergence of a unipolar world and
the internationalization of Islamic terrorism, the Indian government this
time took a less rigid stance on the issue. It should be noted that it was
mainly as a result of international-especially American-pressure that India
refrained from escalating the Kargil crisis last summer. In return, the
Indian government sought US help in ending the Kargil crisis and tried to
get another pay-off by trying to persuade Washington to declare Pakistan a
terrorist state.

India's changed perspective

The following considerations have contributed to the Indian government's
acceptance of American-orchestrated back-channel mediation over the Kashmir
dispute:

1. The Indian defence establishment is increasingly worried about the huge
amount of defence resources used up in monitoring the LOC and fighting the
insurgency in Kashmir. This is affecting the modernization of India's armed
forces.
2. The Indian government hopes that it might face less international
pressure to cap its nuclear programme if tensions with Pakistan are
reduced.
3. Delhi is using the US's mediation over Kashmir as a bargaining chip for
securing American backing for a permanent Indian seat on an expanded UN
Security Council.
4. The growing Indo-US understanding has created a congenial atmosphere of
trust between Delhi and Washington. Sensing flexibility on the part of
India, the US intensified its secret diplomacy soon after President
Clinton's visit to South Asia. Its main objective is to push the Kashmiri
militants, India, and Pakistan back to the negotiating table.

The White House is being propelled in this direction by two major
motivating forces:
1. The US business lobby has deep interests in the huge Indian market, and
without peace in the region it will be difficult to tap its lucrative
potential.
2. The US wants to curb the nuclear programmes of India and Pakistan which
will be almost impossible while Kashmir remains at boiling point. Sources
disclose that the White House is using the services of an American-Kashmiri
who is constantly shuttling between Delhi and Islamabad and Washington.
Encouraged by the positive response to his efforts, President Clinton is
reportedly considering nominating a personal secret representative to
monitor and assist all parties involved in the negotiations.

Getting ready for talks

It was against this background and with constant pressure from the White
House that the Indian government not only released the top All Parties
Hurriyet Conference (APHC) leaders but also started preparing for talks
with them. According to our sources in Delhi, the Indian government has
already chosen a team of experts who would talk to the APHC leaders. These
sources further claim that Farooq Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and
Kashmir, is playing a prominent role in this secret diplomacy. At the same
time, our sources say that the US has instructed Islamabad not to block the
possible talks or any putative peace deal between Delhi and the APHC
leaders. The APHC leadership is in a state of confusion and is sharply
divided over the issue of talks with the Indian government. It finds itself
in a tight corner as it cannot afford to overlook the American pressures to
start negotiations with Delhi nor is it prepared to negotiate with the
latter within the provisions of the Indian constitution. According to the
strategy, once India and the APHC work out a tentative formula to resolve
the Kashmir issue, Pakistan will join the talks to find a comprehensive and
lasting solution to the five-decade-old problem. In the meantime, the White
House is pressing Islamabad to limit the activities of the fundamentalist
and militant groups in Pakistan and reduce the scale of cross-border
terrorist incidents so that direct India-Pakistan talks can be resumed in
the next phase.

=A9 Jane's Information Group 2000
________

#4.

India Abroad
24 May 2000

SHIV SENA RESURRECTS SONS-OF-SOIL CAMPAIGN By Shiv Kumar, India Abroad
News Service Mumbai, May 23 -- The Shiv Sena has resurrected its
sons-of-soil campaign with a demand that 80 percent of all public and
private sector jobs in Maharashtra be set apart for people who belong to
the state. The move has worried corporate houses and mainstream trade
unions, which have always had an uneasy relationship with the right-wing
Sena. On the orders of its leader Bal Thackeray, the party has apparently
put its Hindu nationalist agenda on hold. The focus will now be on
bread-and-butter issues: jobs for Maharashtrians, as against "outsiders."
Led by its middle class employees' wing, the Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti
(committee for the protection of locals' rights), Shiv Sainiks have already
attacked the State Bank of India headquarters at Nariman Point and the
prestigious Tata Memorial Hospital. "We will first try convincing
companies to keep the interests of locals at the time of recruitment, but,
if it does not work, will try other tactics," former Minister of State for
Home Gajanan Kirtikar, head of the samiti, told India Abroad News Service.
The Sena threatens to use its clout to paralyze business and administration
in Mumbai. "We will disrupt flights, air traffic control, trains and the
banking system if our demands are ignored," warned Kirtikar. The Sena had
ransacked the Tata Memorial Hospital on grounds that candidates from within
Maharashtra, who applied for the posts of nurses, were rejected in favor of
outstation applicants. The hospital denies the allegation. "We are a
charitable organization with a good reputation in Mumbai. We certainly did
not expect this," said an official of the hospital. The Shiv Sena, besides
demanding the lion's share of jobs in the state for Maharashtrians, wants
people from the state in important bodies like the Banking Services
Recruitment Board, Railway Recruitment Board, Staff Selection Commission,
the Union Public Service Commission and other agencies. According to
Kirtikar, job interviews by companies in Mumbai attract a large number of
candidates from outside the state. "Candidates from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh
are at an advantage since the universities there award marks liberally,
unlike Mumbai University," he felt. Citing the instance of recruitment by
a public sector undertaking, Kirtikar noted that only 43 of the 80
candidates called for the interview belonged to Maharashtra. "With people
from other states treating Mumbai as a 'dharamshala' (wayside inn) the
locals are losing out," the Sena leader said. In the 1960s, the party
targeted migrants from southern India but has now apparently shifted its
sights to the north. The change reflects the altering profile of migrants
into Mumbai. "In the 1960s, the south Indians with their higher levels of
education grabbed the jobs from Maharashtrians. The newer migrants are less
educated, sometimes even unskilled," Kirtikar said. Leftist organizations
have accused the Sena of working against the interests of locals during its
four-and-a-half years in power. "The Sena worked hard to increase power and
water costs thereby forcing hundreds of small-scale units to close down in
Maharashtra. This has affected the Maharashtraian community most," says
Prabhakar Sanzgiri, president of the Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
Copyright =A9 2000 India Abroad Publications, Inc.
________

#5.

TRINIDAD HINDU GROUP COMPLAINS AGAINST CONTENTIOUS FILM By S. Jay Palit,
India Abroad News Service New York, May 21 - A Hindu group in Trinidad and
Tobago has lodged a complaint against the Caribbean Communications Network
(CCN 6) over the broadcast of the film ''Candle in the Dark'' with the
telecommunications authorities, saying it wrongly depicted Hindus and their
religion. According to Devant Parsuram Maharaj of the Sanatan Dharma Maha
Sabha, the film depicted Hinduism and Hindus in a "dishonest manner that
only reinforced all the colonial Christian view(s). The show promoted
Christianity at the expense of Hinduism." The film was broadcast on April
24, Easter Monday. Sabha leaders said Richard Purcell, operations manager
of CCN 6, told them that the film was not viewed by the management or staff
of the television station prior to the broadcast to check its suitability
for public consumption. Shida Bolai, general manager of CCN 6, told India
Abroad News Service that she is aware of the complaint filed against her
station and planned to get more details on the case from the
telecommunication authorities. The Sabha holds the position that the CCN 6
has breached the terms of the Special License under the Wireless and
Telegraphy Ordinance by broadcasting the film, which it said would
encourage discrimination against Hindus and Hinduism.
Copyright =A9 2000 India Abroad Publications, Inc.
________

#6.

DESIQ2000: UNFOLDING VISIONS
Dates: Thursday - June 22, 2000 to Saturday - June 24, 2000
Where: San Francisco, CA

Trikone is hosting DesiQ2000: Unfolding Visions, a conference on South
Asian lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues from June 22-25 2000.
DesiQ2000 will be an exciting opportunity for South Asian queer activists,
artists, and community members from all over the world to come together and
celebrate our culture and sexuality.

Don't miss out on what promises to be a very exciting conference. We have
people registering from as far away as South Africa and Germany. We have
had a range of proposals coming in from one on a South Asian erotic video
director to one on Sufi poetry. We have plans for a grand banquet,
performances, plenaries, readings, as well as a desi queer film night.
You'll get to meet activists, writers and performers from all over the
world such as Funny Boy author Shyam Selvadurai and the brand new executive
director of International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Surina
Khan. We are thinking about workshops on coming out, commitment ceremonies,
alliance building, flirting, drag, faith and spirituality, mixed race
issues and many, many other topics.

The conference runs from Thursday, June 22 through Saturday, June 24 and
ends with the San Francisco Grand Pride contingent on Sunday, June 25.
The conference committee is working hard to financially help activists
from South Asia come to the conference and when you register it helps the
process along. You can register online at www.trikone.org or use one of the
forms in Trikone Magazine. If you need a form, email sandip@t... or
call (415) 789-7322
______________________________________________
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