[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 21 July 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

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

#1. In conflict, voice of Kashmiris unheard
#2. India: VHP Arms training
#3. India: Bajrang Dal activists harass public during jagran
#4. India: Hindu Religious Leaders oppose UP's Watchdog Law
#5. Stir over abuse of Indian seafood workers
#6. Panel [Discussion] on Honor Crimes (August 2, Arlington, VA)

_____________________

#1.

Boston Globe
20 July 2000

IN CONFLICT, VOICE OF KASHMIRIS UNHEARD

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Globe Staff, 7/20/2000

ARAMULLA, India - At the entrance to a breathtaking green vale that has
been the backdrop for countless Indian romance films, a handpainted sign
extends a grandiose welcome: ''From here begins the Happy Valley, where the
World ends and Paradise begins.''

With miles of stately poplars, rolling fields of saffron, and acres of
apple orchards, this does look like a paradise. But for the past 11 years,
India's Jammu and Kashmir state has been anything but happy.

A violent uprising has killed tens of thousands of Kashmir's people and
claims more lives almost daily. It is a conflict that the world has seen
almost exclusively through the eyes of India and Pakistan, two
nuclear-armed enemies fighting over a strategic swath of land that
straddles their border.

Silenced in the slaughter have been the voice and aspirations of the
Kashmiri people.

=46or 40 years, many in India's only Muslim-majority state have longed for
union with the neighboring Islamic state of Pakistan. But a decade of death
and destruction, wrought by a Pakistan-supported insurgency, and by Indian
forces' harsh efforts to suppress it, has changed all that. Most Kashmiris
are now alienated from both masters in New Delhi and self-proclaimed
saviors in Islamabad.

Ask people in the valley how they want to resolve the 53-year tug-of-war
over their status - a struggle that has intensified since 1989 - and the
answer is almost always the same: to go it alone. But the central tragedy
of the oldest continuous battle in South Asia is that despite two wars,
decades of daily cross-border gunfire, and even the specter of nuclear
armageddon, there is scant chance that either power will grant the
independence that the majority of Muslim Kashmiris want.

''Kashmir is very beautiful, but we have bad luck. All this killing and no
tourism since 1989,'' said Nisar Ahmad Wani, 43, who used to drive tourists
for a living back in the days when they came. ''We neither want India nor
Pakistan as our rulers, only a free Kashmir. Everybody here thinks this
way, but nobody's listening to us.''

The latest example was this month, when India rejected an autonomy proposal
passed by Kashmir's parliament. True, few Kashmiris were enthusiastic
about the plan, which would have restored to Kashmir its own flag, prime
minister, and fiscal powers, but which would have kept it a part of India.
Even so, the lightning-fast dismissal of the plan reinforced the view that
New Delhi is not serious about resolving a crisis that has made life
miserable for 8.3 million residents of this state.

The rejection of autonomy proves that India's leaders are ''not sincere
about solving the Kashmir issue,'' said S.M. Afzal Qadri, associate
professor of law at Kashmir University. ''Nobody is asking what we want!''

Unlike Pakistan, which was founded as a religious state, modern India took
form as a secular nation espousing coexistence among its various religious
traditions. So it is not surprising that India is determined to hold onto
its only Muslim-majority state, in part to show that Muslims can live
peacefully in a predominantly Hindu nation. Moreover, granting autonomy to
Kashmir would lend ammunition to secessionists in the northeast and
disgruntled minorities who want more power in other regions.

Kashmir's plight has parallels elsewhere, of course. For centuries,
European empires took turns conquering and dividing up strategically
located Poland, with no regard for the Poles' wishes. But Kashmiris feel
they are not only victims of greedy powers, but also the stage on which
those rivals are fighting an ideological battle between theocracy and
secular democracy.

''The government of New Delhi only cares about Kashmir, not about
Kashmiris,'' said Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, Kashmir's top Muslim cleric and
former chairman of the leading organization of separatists. ''We know that
militarily we cannot win against India. But why hasn't India been able to
win over Kashmiris in the last 52 years?''

When the Indian subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 as colonial Britain
departed, Kashmir's Hindu ruler chose at first to remain independent in
deference to his Muslim majority population. Then Pakistan invaded, and he
hastily joined India for protection. India promised to hold a plebiscite to
let Kashmiris decide their future - but only after Pakistan withdrew its
troops. It has never happened.

Today, India controls 45 percent of the original territory, Pakistan
one-third, and China the rest, and the volatile cease-fire line has been
the fault line for countless land grabs.

Kashmiris who live on the Pakistan side of the line proclaim solidarity
with those on the Indian side fighting for a unified, free Kashmir. When
Pakistani officials are within earshot, Kashmiris on that side of the
border define freedom as union with Pakistan. Privately, it is often
another story.

''I'm ready to sacrifice all my children for the freedom of Kashmir. We
want it to be free from India,'' said Answar Bibi, 25, who fled a village
at the Pakistani border to a refugee camp far from cross-border shelling.
''But,'' she confided, ''if Kashmir became an independent state, we'd be
more happy.''

When outsiders say an independent Kashmir is economically or politically
untenable, Farooq, the separatist leader, counters that if the whole of
Jammu and Kashmir gained independence, it would be larger than 80 states in
the United Nations.

=46or the moment, the debate is academic. And the bloody uprising rages on,
tearing apart the Himalayan region glorified by generations of writers.

As they have for over 100 years on the lake at the center of Kashmir's
summer capital of Srinagar, gondoliers peddling rides and handicrafts glide
past graceful wooden houseboats, hoping to spot a customer ripe for a sale.
But today, the waters of Dal Lake are eerily still, houseboats sit empty,
and visitors are scarce. With them has fled the money that was the
lifeblood of the local economy.

There is an unofficial dusk-till-dawn curfew, and men, women, and children
are wise to abide by it. After a few stunning suicide attacks on Indian
Army posts this year, hyper-alert, unsmiling soldiers comb any stray
vehicle after dark, and a misplaced glance can land a driver in custody.

A decade of death and detentions has touched almost every family. Nearly
everyone has lost a relative or an acquaintance.

''You won't find any Kashmiri who will frankly praise India or Pakistan,
because both of them have made us suffer so much for their vested
interests,'' said Bilal Ahmad Bhat, a 25-year-old professional. ''We had
achieved a lot economically in the 10 years before, but it's gone.
Everywhere it's just destruction,'' he said, pointing to a government
mulberry orchard and silk factory that the Indian army destroyed to chase
out militants.

An Indian Army spokesman, Colonel R.E. Williams, said 29,000 civilians have
lost their lives in the past 11 years. Kashmir's chief minister, Farooq
Abdullah, along with human rights and separatist groups, say 70,000 have
died.

''They are both the same - the military and the militants. They don't spare
anyone,'' said Mohammad Ashraf, who is 23 and jobless, like so many youth
affected by the economic paralysis. ''In the beginning, everyone favored
the militancy. Then they started killing innocent people, and we got fed
up.''

Some trace the insurgency to New Delhi's history of imposing puppet
governments and rigging elections. ''If India had given democracy a chance
in Kashmir, Kashmiris would never have thought of Pakistan, would never
have supported the militancy,'' said Fayez Bukhari, deputy editor of the
Kashmir Monitor.

In 1987, campaign workers for the Muslim United Front, an opposition party,
were arrested and tortured. Many of those youths crossed to Pakistan and
were trained for the uprising.

Within a few years, the first generation of Kashmiri idealists was killed.
Their shoes were filled by mercenaries from Afghanistan and Pakistan, who
transformed the struggle into a transnational jihad, or holy war,
alienating locals in the process.

Rampant allegations of human rights abuses by the Indian military have fed
widespread hatred of India, but the uprising also has fueled anger at
Pakistan for supporting the rebellion.

''People once thought Pakistan was their savior, but now people have seen
the true face of Pakistan,'' said a community leader who spoke on condition
of anonymity. ''Pakistan trained militants who then harassed local people.''

''People say they'll fight till last drop of blood, but whose blood? Our
blood! We are the ones who are dying,'' Bukhari said. ''Pakistanis use the
militants as a tool, India uses the state government as a tool, and it is
Kashmiris who are suffering.''

''Most people just want peace,'' said Nazir Ahmad, 32, a former guide. ''We
are businessmen and we want business. We want good sleep, good food, good
house, a good job. That is freedom.''

This story ran on page A12 of the Boston Globe on 7/20/2000.
=A9 Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.

______

#2.

India Abroad
21 July 2000

ARMS TRAINING TO RESIST MILITANT ISLAM: VHP

by Sharat Pradhan, indiaabroad.com
July 21, 2000 01:30 Hrs (IST)

Lucknow: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) and
Bajrang Dal, which are giving arms training to its cadres and have opened
schools along the border with Nepal, say their moves are to the meet the
"challenge of militant Islamic outfits".

The two right-wing organizations have set up around 80 schools in the
border areas of Uttar Pradesh as part of their "surveillance" against
suspected Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) activity in the area while
imparting gun-firing lessons in Ayodhya and Lucknow.

"We are creating centers of learning to correct the distorted notions of
the masses, who also need to be equipped to face the dangerous situation
that lies in store for them," Ved Prakash Sachan, Bajrang Dal's Uttar
Pradesh chief, said.

Sachan, who supervised the arms training camps and the setting up of Ekal
Schools, said, "We need to prepare Hindus to meet the challenge posed by
militant Islamic outfits, some of which are operating under the garb of
madrasas (Islamic religious schools) along the Nepal border."

The schools, created on the concept of one teacher-one school, will impart
education up to Class V and if there were more than 50 students in one
school, another one would be opened.

Sachan does not hesitate to spell out the real purpose behind setting up
of these schools. "You see these institutions will function as guardians
of the porous frontiers through which there is ISI infiltration. Our
teachers will maintain round- the-clock vigil on the movement of people in
their respective areas," he added.

Making no bones about organizing the arms training camps, Sachan said,
"These camps were meant to build self-confidence among our youth and they
have shown keen interest." Of the 135 men who attended last month's
week-long training camp at VHP's Karsewakpuram in Ayodhya, 50 were picked
for an advanced shooting camp in Lucknow on Sunday. "These men will
ultimately come forward to thwart the moves of the enemy, who is
constantly building its strength," he claimed.

Unlike their cagey attitude during the Ayodhya camp, VHP and Bajrang Dal
leaders were candid about the repeat performance in Lucknow. "Well, we
held a day's camp on our own land, recently allotted to us by the
government, on the banks of the river Gomti," Sachan said.

That they have the sanction of their ruling cousins, the BJP, was visible
in the recent statements of top home department and police officials about
"the unabated ISI build-up along the UP-Nepal border".

The much-debated Uttar Pradesh Religious Places Bill that made it
mandatory for all religious places to seek permission of district
authorities before embarking upon any construction or renovation, was also
repeatedly justified by the BJP government as a necessary tool to check
the increasing ISI activity in the state.

The VHP and Bajrang Dal have been gathering periodical reports from these
new school teachers. "The action to be taken on these reports will be
decided by our national headquarters in Delhi," Sachan said.

The Hindu organizations are also irked over what they term "highly twisted
and distorted Indian history". "What had gone wrong with the teaching of
history was the glorification of rulers like Akbar, while those like
Maharana Pratap and Shivaji were relegated to the background. Their heroic
feats did not receive the appreciation they deserved in our history
books," Sachan said.

"We would like to revise such versions," he added.

______

#3.

Times of India
21 July 2000

AHMEDABAD
DAL ACTIVISTS HARASS PUBLIC DURING JAGRAN

The Times of India News Service

RAJKOT: While the young girls of Rajkot were busy celebrating the Jaya
Parvati jagran, some Bajrang Dal activists tried to establish a
'filmi-style' scheme to impress the fair sex.

According to information, the Bajrang Dal activists started voluntary
patrolling the streets. They took law in their hands and hurled abuses at
passers-by and passed obscene remarks about girls.

Police commissioner Sudhir Sinha said if any complaint was lodged he would
take stern action against Bajrang Dal workers. In fact Sinha went a step
further and said that if any organisation came forward and volunteered to
maintain peace in the city, they could not be stopped but if it lead to
problems it would not be tolerated.

The Dal workers virtually roamed the city armed with knives, trishul and
other small weapons.

The workers also entered into an argument with some of the volunteers of
the National Students' Union of India.

The police had set up a special squad to prevent eve-teasing. But the
squad were helpless watchers as the Dal workers took law in their hands.

They stopped vehicles at will and ask disturbing questions. Some even used
filthy language. The Bajrang Dal workers recently attacked a musical troupe
from Vadodara when they performed at the Hemu Gadhvi Auditorium.

However, the people were not ready to come out and lodge a complaint for
fear of retribution. Some parents when contacted said they were not ready
to go to the police as the next day they had to sent their daughters to
schools and colleges and feared a backlash.

______

#4.

Tehelka.com
21 July 2000

UP SEERS STALL WATCHDOG ACT

Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta has cancelled an order making the Hindu
Public Religious Institution (Dissipation of Misuse of Properties) Act
effective in the state, reports Prerna

Lucknow, July 20

Hindu religious leaders have made it clear to the Uttar Pradesh government
that they do not want to be covered under the UP Hindu Public Religious
Institution (Dissipation of Misuse of Properties) Act, 1962. The Act was
passed during the chief ministership of Govind Ballabh Pant. They want the
Act scrapped. Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta, to keep Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) leaders like Ashok Singhal and others in good humour, has
rescinded the order making the Act effective in the state. He also
publicly denounced a Cabinet colleague for the order. "It was done
without my knowledge," he said. Six months ago, Cultural and Religious
Affairs Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal thought he was taking a correct step
by issuing a government order under the Act to survey property, income,
expenditure and developmental work of Hindu institutions like trusts, mutts
and temples in the state. Similarly, Muslim properties were covered
under the Wakf Board Act.

Cancelling the order, Gupta announced that a committee would be constituted
to suggest amendments to the Act. If the amendments suggested did not
satisfy the Hindu leaders, the Act could even be annulled, said Gupta.
Although the Act was passed by the Assembly in 1962, it became effective
only in 1976. Its provisions were opposed on several occasions in the

BJP leader Govindacharya visited Ayodhya and assured the sants and
mahants he would speak to the CM. The cancellation of the order came
soon after past on the ground that it went against the sovereignty of
the institutions. In 1994, a committee was announced to suggest
amendments to the Act but the proposal was shelved with the fall of the
Mulayam Singh Yadav government. Surprisingly, the Samajwadi Party
leader sent a letter to priests in Hardwar, supporting their campaign
against the Act's enforcement by the current government. The Act covers
all Hindu public institutions whose annual income is more than Rs 1,200 or
property worth more than Rs 50,000. The state has never bothered to
intervene in the affairs of such places although the Act provides for the
appointment of commissioners, assistant commissioners and for probes. Any
such move by the government would reveal the income of the institutions
and even bring them within the income tax net. Some of these religious
leaders are known for their affluent lifestyles. The offerings to the
deities in cash and kind at many places are also very large. These leaders
do not want to be assessed by the government on the ground that it amounts
to intrusion by the government. Influential BJP General Secretary
Govindacharya visited Ayodhya last week to assuage the feelings of the
sants and mahants. They perceived it as a BJP-VHP move to control Hindu
temples in Uttar Pradesh. He held closed-door meetings with influential
mahants, including the chief priest of the Hanumangarhi temple, which has
been a centre of the anti-VHP lobby of religious leaders in Ayodhya.
Although Govindacharya had a tough time in Ayodhya explaining the
government's position and convincing the mahants, he assured them he
would discuss the matter with the chief minister. The announcement of
cancellation of the order was made soon after at Hardwar by the chief
minister. Significantly, Singhal was present when Gupta made the
announcement.
______

#5.

Asia Times
July 21, 2000 =20
India/Pakistan

STIR OVER ABUSE OF INDIAN SEAFOOD WORKERS

By Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI - Diners in some of Japan's finest restaurants would have little
idea that the seafood on their plates was made possible by thousands of
Indian women working long hours in unhealthy conditions for a pittance.

India's billion-dollar marine food export industry is under fire from
labor and women's rights groups who allege gross violation of legally
guaranteed minimum working norms by the thousands of seafood processing
units strung out along India's over 7,000 kilometer coastline.

The groups have launched a nationwide campaign to secure the rights of
these women workers. The drive is being organized by the National Campaign
on Labor Rights (NCLR) and it has appealed to Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee to ensure implementation of basic labor laws in privately owned
seafood processing units.

''The need is daily more urgent in India to put an end once and for all to
forced labor,'' said Mary Johnson, director of the International Labor
Organization (ILO)'s area office for India and Bhutan, which is backing the
campaign.

Last year, Japan's imports from Indian seafood producers included US$0.5
billion worth of shrimps, cuttlefish, squid, octopuses, sea cucumbers and
sharks. European, American and Southeast Asian buyers accounted for US$200
million, US$130 million and US$250 million respectively. So promising is
the Japanese market that the Indian government's Marine Products Export
Development Agency (MPEDA) has opened offices in Tokyo.

The Japanese are particularly strict about the quality of their food, and
they regularly send inspection teams to Indian seafood factories, which
between them hire an estimated 100,000 girls and women. However, trade
unions and rights groups allege that in the rush to earn dollars, local
authorities ignore glaring violations of labor laws.

The women workers spend long hours peeling shrimps, filleting fish,
finning sharks, shelling molluscs, dressing octopuses and partially cooking
crabs. Moreover, many are held virtually captive by the factory owners,
made to sleep in cramped living quarters directly above the processing
units, inhaling the stench of fish and ammonia refrigerant, noted an
investigation of working conditions in the industry.

Even the federal Labor Ministry has admitted that all is not right with
the seafood units.

''Large numbers of workers in these establishments [processing units] are
migrant workers, generally women who are extremely vulnerable to
exploitation and have characteristics similar to unorganized workers,''
said an official ministry note.

''In the larger context of the labor force of the country [estimated at
314 million] they represent a small segment, often voiceless, often
neglected, but significant in terms of their contribution to the economy
and particularly in terms of their vulnerability to exploitation,'' the
note added.

The plight of these women is movingly portrayed in a booklet produced by
the NCLR as part of an ILO-backed awareness campaign on the issue. It tells
the real life story of Suja Abraham, a young woman worker who was crippled
trying to escape from forcible confinement in a processing unit at Thane,
near the western port city of Mumbai.

Abraham's case motivated other women workers in the industry to rally to
her help and successfully seek legal help. Two years ago, ruling on a
petition for damages, the Mumbai High Court ordered her employers to pay
Abraham US$60 every month for the rest of her life as compensation.

This is twice what workers like her are paid on average every month. But
half of the US$30 the women earn monthly in many of the processing units at
Thane is deducted as charges for their daily meal of thin rice gruel.
Working hours stretch from three in the morning to 10 at night.

According to rights groups, the women are not allowed to buy basic needs,
make or receive telephone calls or even write letters. There have also been
several complaints of sexual harassment and physical violence by unit
managers.

''Total control over the lives of the women workers is an important
characteristic of this industry,'' said a published letter addressed to the
Ministry of Labor by the campaigners. The letter describes the working
conditions as ''very harsh''. Handling ice-cold marine food for long hours
is said to cause arthritis and skin disorders, while cases of malaria,
chickenpox and jaundice have also been reported.

According to Shobhana Warrier, who studied working conditions in the
industry for the New Delhi-based Center for Education and Communication,
evidence of the women being sexually exploited could be seen in the fact
that a large number of them complained of urinary tract problems and
discharges.

''A large number of the women are prone to sexual overtures at the
workplace and often women are willing to trade sexual favors in return for
a secure advantageous status at the workplace,'' Warrier noted.

India, a founding member of the ILO, ratified the Forced Labor Convention
in 1954 and committed itself to eradicate ''forced or compulsory labour in
all its forms within the shortest possible period''. But ILO official
Johnson observed that ''this aim is one which has not been achieved with
either the speed or to the extent with which it was hoped 40 and more years
ago'.'

''(However) social forces which encourage change cannot win the battle in
a day,'' she added.

Rights and labor groups have been encouraged by the Mumbai High Court's
ruling in the Abraham case that gave access to processing units to women's
organizations. It was this that made it possible for the Bharatiya Mahila
(Indian Women's) Federation to document the circumstances in which these
women are forced to work.

(Inter Press Service)

_____

#6.

PANEL ON HONOR CRIMES

Panelist:
1. Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States.
2. Pamela Constable, Washington Post-South Asia Correspondent.
3. Dr. Riffat Hussan, Prof. of Religious studies, University of
Louisville, KY.
4. T.Kumar, Advocacy Director for Asia, Amnesty International USA.

When: August 2, 2000. Wednesday.

Where: Freedom Forum World Center, Rooftop Conference Center, 1101 Wilson
Blvd.
Arlington, VA.

Info: (703)281-2657 [email: twc@t...]
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