[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (13 May 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch # 2
13 May 2000
________________________________
#1. Pakistan-India forum calls for talks
#2. So what's new [in Pakistan]?
#3. India: Protest Against Attack on Christians at hostel run by missionarie=
s
#4. Pepsico Workers Struggles in Kanpur, India
#5. South Asian Domestic Workers Demand Justice in NY Area
________________________________

#1.

DAWN
13 May 2000

PAKISTAN-INDIA FORUM CALLS FOR TALKS
By Our Reporter

KARACHI, May 12: The Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and
Democracy has called upon New Delhi and Islamabad to immediately resume
bilateral dialogue on all contentious issues including Kashmir, cease
hostilities along the LoC and stop all kinds of hostile propaganda.
A resolution adopted in a joint meeting of Action Committee Against Arms
Race and PIPFPD, Sindh chapter, held to mark the second anniversary of
India's nuclear test in Pokhran, called upon the two countries to ensure
effective participation of the genuine representatives of the people of
Jammu and Kashmir in all such bilateral negotiations on Kashmir.
The countries were also urged to sign CTBT and NPT while at the same
time demanding global denuclearisation through the destruction of all
nuclear weapons presently possessed by nuclear powers.
The meeting also called upon India and Pakistan to lift all travel
restriction, which militate against international norms, such as
restricting visa to a few cities, reporting at police stations etc.
It also emphasised the need for promoting exchange of representative
delegations from different walks of life.
"Today, two years on, South Asia lies exposed to the perils of a nuclear
war, as the armies of India and Pakistan shoot at each other along the
Line of Control in Kashmir, and the two governments wage a propaganda
war poisoning the minds of the people of the two countries against each
other," the resolution stated.
The meeting was of the view that the argument that nuclear explosion
served as a deterrent had fallen flat on the high hills of Kargil within
two months of the Lahore Declaration of lasting peace between the two
countries.
It maintained that nuclearisation and militarisation of South Asia had
very adversely affected the quality of life of the people in the two
countries.
"This is an utterly unacceptable situation, one in which, in the name of
national security, the ruling establishments of Pakistan and India have
put the security of their citizens in perpetual peril," the meeting
maintained.
_________

#2.

DAWN
12 May 2000

SO WHAT'S NEW ?
By Ayaz Amir

TO THE long list of its other achievements the government has added a
desert trophy: its handling of the drought crisis afflicting the
forgotten corners of Pakistan. If there is any close parallel to this
exercise in inertia it lies in the Yahya regime's response to the
cyclone which hit East Pakistan in late 1970.
While a tidal wave of death and destruction swept over the eastern wing,
the military government was slow to respond, paralysed by what I can
only think of as a sense of remoteness. East Pakistan and its coastal
people were just too far away. Which is a bit like the Bheels of Thar
and the Koochis and other nomads of Balochistan. Mainstream Pakistan
passes them by. Imagine if the water supply of Islamabad were to be
closed for two or three days running. The howls of anguish rising as a
result would touch the heavens.
The 1970 cyclone at any rate was a sudden calamity which came surging
with little warning out of the seething waters of the Bay of Bengal.
There has been nothing sudden about the slow march of death across the
terrible deserts of Thar and Balochistan. Its grim progress could be
seen from a distance, the warning signs deciphered almost six months
ago. But true to ourselves, and to one of our foremost national
characteristics, we failed to lift a finger in advance. The failure of
anticipation was thus complete. Everyone concerned, including the proud
and independent press, closed their eyes and their senses to the
impending tragedy. When it finally hit us we could only advertise our
helplessness.
A belated and wet appeal for funds now? Why not three months ago? Water
trains to the burning hell of Balochistan now? Why not in early spring?
To be fair to the media, a trickle of reports about drought conditions
in Thar and Balochistan had started coming through some months ago. But
would anyone have cared about them?
Looking ahead, in any case, is not our game. When India set off its
nuclear firecrackers in this same dire month two years ago, we as a
nation could not look ahead two months let alone anything longer. The
BJP fire-eater, L.K. Advani, had only to issue a few tough statements
for the knights templars of Pakistani national security (may their
repeated sins be forgiven) to be stampeded into ill-considered action.
Are any tears being shed, any regrets expressed, for that supreme act of
juvenile folly? Surely not. Regret for self-inflicted sorrows has always
been as difficult for us as the art of anticipation.
But the connecting link between these otherwise disparate happenings
remains: if we could not foresee the consequences of our nuclear anxiety
how could this government, or the administrative structure of Pakistan,
respond in time to the developing tragedy in Thar and Balochistan?
Even so, now that the worst is upon us and likely to last for the
duration of this cruel summer, why is the government finding it so
difficult to doff its ties and dark suits and get into a semblance of
battle gear for the emergency at hand? True, the National Security
Council is a reminder of nothing so much as a slice of Jurassic Park.
True, the cabinet looks like nothing more than a breakfast table with
too many eggs on it. Even so, these guardians of the national interest
could try to look sprightly and alert. Instead of which every screen
image of them in session gives an impression of second-rate bankers
meeting in the lower reaches of Wall Street: ties, dark suits and
bottles of mineral water stacked on the table.
Not that the people of Thar and Balochistan have much passion to watch
television these days but the feelings of ordinary Pakistanis elsewhere
might be considered. Why pour salt over them? Just consider the
contrast. Raging thirst across broad expanses of desert. Cool looks,
coiffured heads and bottles of mineral water back at the ranch in
Islamabad. Great Hollywood copy for which reason Cecil B. de Mille would
have loved it. But not smart politics. Even Goebbels, or perhaps
especially Goebbels (why is he so maligned?), would have known better.
Perhaps at this point a dirge is in order for the helplessness of the
Pakistani people. As opposed to the drawing room classes, the mass of
the Pakistani people do not care about democracy. They are used to
authoritarian ways. In their daily lives they are used to being kicked
around by anyone who has authority over them. They want a semblance of
good government without really knowing or realizing what good government
stands for. Since there is no democracy in their daily lives (I am not
counting the newspaper reading public or the chattering classes) and
there has not been any for the last 5,000 years, they have always looked
to strongmen to deliver them from their condition and give them an
approximation of justice and order.
But this wait is now exhausted. Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif put them
off democracy. A succession of tinpot figures have put them off strong
government. Who has caused more harm to the country? Who has more
fuelled the fires of cynicism? In this competition the father-figures of
authoritarianism beat their democratic counterparts hollow. Benazir and
Nawaz Sharif have picked the nation's skin and done a clean job of it.
General Zia, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and his bureaucratic henchmen (some of
whom are re-inventing themselves as topdog columnists), and General Beg
have broken the nation's bones. How to put those bones together is the
national task we now face.Any genuine attempt at national reconstruction
will have to consider what to do with the upper-crust denizens of
Rawalpindi and Islamabad: drive them up the mountains or take them down
to the sea. These two cities swarm with retired mandarins and
ex-generals whose contribution to the mess we are in is second to none.
Mandarins who were experts at democratic obstructionism, spymasters who
did everything in the book to further poison the already black
atmosphere of the capital, all now posing as bleeding-heart patriots.
Even against a backcloth of surrealism such performances would be
considered amazing. Not in Pakistan where political hypocrisy has been
turned into a fine art.
General Karamat now emerging slowly (or is this too a feint?) from
self-imposed hibernation asks an important question (in a speech he
delivered somewhere): "Having been forced to take over in the national
interest, should the army apologize and retreat to the barracks till the
next government brings us to the brink of disaster...?"
The brink of disaster indeed. Who triggered the 1965 war? Field Marshal
Ayub Khan. Who presided over the defeat of the army and the break-up of
Pakistan in 1971? General Yahya Khan. Who at disastrous cost turned
Pakistan into an American instrument during the upheavals in
Afghanistan? General Zia-ul-Haq. Who mishandled Pakistan's role in the
Gulf war? General Aslam Beg. Who failed to foresee the consequences of
dismissing Benazir Bhutto in November 1996? General Karamat (amongst
several others). Who helped push Pakistan into its nuclear tests in May
1998? General Karamat. Who wrote the script for the Kargil adventure? My
eyes grow dim and my imagination fails me here.
To the study of the past, a past responsible for our disastrous present,
we should bring if not great intellectual rigour (not to be found on our
supermarket shelves) at least an open mind. In the hammam (Turkish
sauna) that is the higher politics of Pakistan no one is innocent. All
of us, barring the hapless masses, are equally naked. So in trying to
understand the causes of things, which if we do not we will not find our
way out of the woods, we must bring to the task a measure of humility.
Arrogance or a sense of infallibility sits well on none of us.
Tailpiece: Many readers have written to ask where they could send money
for the relief effort in Thar and Balochistan. To any convincing charity
they would like to donate but not, if they can help it, to the
government which (I wonder why) they do not trust. Someone - Muhammad
Iqbal Noorani from Toronto, Canada - has even been foolish enough to
send me a draft for Rs 50,000 which I am keeping in trust till I know
where to send it. Cannot Imran Khan at least for this summer give up his
dreams of becoming prime minister (he can return to them in autumn) and
spearhead public relief efforts for the affected areas? Who else is
there? Edhi. Who else? Hard to say.

_________

#3.

Mumbai / INDIA

PRESS STATEMENT

May 12, 2000

We strongly condemn the attack and assault on Christians at the Ashramshala
girl's hostel run by missionaries at Abhona village in Nashik district on
May 10. The recent attack by over 100 miscreants belonging to Vishwa Hindu
Parishad and Bajrang Dal in north Maharashtra follows a spate of incidents
in communally surcharged Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh where innocent Christian
religious persons have been targetted.
While it is indeed heartening that the Maharashtra police, unlike their
counterparts elsewhere, have acted promptly and arrested 32 persons in
connection with the late night assault and remanded them to police custody,
justice will not be done, if the criminal investigations are not initiated
and completed promptly. This is vital if the confidence of the minorities,
shaken by pre-planned and increasingly vicious attacks by goon squads of
the above organisations is to be restored.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, P.K.Jain is on record telling the media
that the guilty are activists belonging to Vishwa Hindu Parishad, it is
imperative that this gets unequivocally established because it is these
organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal who have so far, in recurring
incidents, escaped the long arm of the law.
Prompt criminal prosecution of the guilty and the indictment of the key
persons in such episodes is vital if the violators of the law are to be
sent a message that law breakers will not receive lenient treatment.

Medha Patkar, Sanjay M.G. - National Alliance of People's Movements
Teesta Setalvad - Editor, Communalism Combat
Pushpa Bhave, educationist
Gajanan Khatu - Samajwadi Jan Parishad
Ulka Mahajan - Sarva Hara Jan AndolanAt
Datta Ishwalkar, Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti
Dolphy D'souza, Voice Of The Exploited
_________

#4.

13 May 2000

Exctract from a message by Subhasini Ali [ well known progressive and
former member of Indian Parliament] from Kanpur, India

" I am writing to you about the goings on at the Pepsico plant in Kanpur
Dehat a
zero-industry district where they get all kinds of incentives like tax holid=
ay,
electricity at concessional rates, rebate on excise; also they have hired
mostly SC/ST workers which gives them a State subsidy (something that Mayava=
ti
brought in). It is Pepsi's largest bottling plant in India that is owned
by the
company. They have just 101 permanent workers, very highly educated. Other
work is done by contract labour on less than Govt rates. In Feb, the
entire l0l
decided to affiliate their union to CITU. Their BMS [BJP affiliated union]
union had been cozying up
to the management and doing little else for 5 years. Within days, the 2 mai=
n
office-bearers were charged with 'sabotage' and suspended (one of them was n=
ot
even on duty when the incident took place). The management then signed an
agreement with the Union in the Lab Dept saying that it would give a final
decision on this by mid-March. Nothing happened so the Union, after giving
notice, went in for a one-day token strike on 30th-31st March. The next day=
,
the management refused to take the workers back on work saying that they wou=
ld
not do so until each worker signed an individual undertaking giving up
unionization and affirming that they would not commit any more illegal acts =
in
the future! Obviously not a single worker has signed and pepsi is trying to
browbeat and starve them into submission. They have not paid the earned wag=
es
for March. On the 8th May, the CITU office was raided by the cops on a peps=
i
complaint that the workers were being held captive there. So we have asked
for a
Boycott of Pepsi. Please help. All other kinds of help are welcome - we ar=
e
running a common kitchen in the CITU office. "

_________

#5.

ANDOLAN
Organizing South Asian Worker
718 / 390-7264

=46or Immediate Release
For More Information, Contact:
Thursday, May 11, 2000 Nahar
Alam 718/390-7264 or 718/728-1768
Afroza 718/267-2996

ON MOTHERS DAY, SOUTH ASIAN DOMESTIC
WORKERS DEMAND JUSTICE

Three Bangladeshi domestic workers filed a Federal Court complaint for
inhumane working conditions while under the employment of Shamimul Islam and
Alina Islam. All three workers, having worked for the Islams at different
times, frequently worked over 100 hours per week. The cared for the
children, cooked, did laundry, and cleaned, while earning, on average, under
$1.00 per hour.

Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers will hold a demonstration to bring
attention to this case and raise awareness about inhumane working conditions
workers often face. Andolan, meaning movement, works to address abuses
against South Asia low-wage workers in New York City. Andolan's goal is to
organize exploited workers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri
Lanka situated in industries such as domestic work, restaurant and retail
store.

"I filed this case because I want to make it better for other workers, so
the employers can learn that they cannot treat workers like slaves," said
one of the abused domestic workers. "Anytime they wanted to hire me they
hired me, anytime they wanted to fire me, they just fired me, and they never
gave me my salary without me asking for it. I let this happen because I did
not know my rights in this country. Now I know, through the help of Andolan,
how to fight for my rights."

What: Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers will hold a
demonstration to bring attention to domestic worker abuse case and to raise
awareness about inhumane working conditions workers often face.

Where: 23-49 129th Street, Colleze Point, Flushing, NY
By train, take 7 train to Main Street, Flushing, then take Q25 bus to 130th
Street
By car, from Vanwick Expressway, take exit 14 (Linden Place)

When: Sunday, May 14, 2000 Mother's Day
10am to 11am
__________________________________________
SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH (SACW) is an informal, independent &
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