[sacw] SACW Dispatch #1 | 16 Aug. 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #1
16 August 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

#1. Political Islam's diabolical expression in Bangladesh: A case study
#2. Bangladesh: August 2000 issue of Meghbarta
#3. India: Gas Victims Declare 5-Day E-Mail `War' On Carbide

_____________________

#1.

News from Bangladesh
14 August 2000

TAINTED ISLAM'S DIABOLICAL EXPRESSION IN BANGLADESH: A CASE STUDY

By Jamal Hasan

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived. But if faced
with courage need not be lived again." - Maya Angelou

This goes back to the time when seventy-five million people of the
erstwhile province of East Pakistan were engaged in a life and death
struggle against an army bent on genocide to preserve the power and
privileges of ruling elite hailing from the opposite end of the
subcontinent. Mr. Enayet Karim, a career diplomat in the Pakistani
Foreign Ministry, had just defected from the service in protest against
the genocidal military campaign in East Pakistan. Mr. Karim unveiled his
future plans to a group of students and newsmen in the campus of an east
coast university in America. A Bengali activist in America has written
an eyewitness account of that tumultuous meeting. A West Pakistani
member of the audience demanded angrily of Mr. Karim, "Is Islam dead?
Can it no longer keep Pakistan united?" Enayet Karim replied with his
legendary eloquence, "The Islam that was born in 1947 is dead. But the
Islam that was born 14 centuries ago is very much alive and will
continue to live and thrive a lot better in an independent, secular and
democratic Bangladesh than in a Pakistan groaning under the heels of
military dictatorship."

Sad to say, Mr. Enayet Karim's optimism has failed the test of time.
Today's Bangladesh would have sorely disappointed the veteran diplomat
if he were still alive. The Pakistani brand of Islam has not only gained
a foothold in Bangladesh, but has even experienced a mushroom growth
during the last quarter of a century. Thanks to two military dictators
and a chain of events that took place in this impoverished land since
mid August 1975. More on that later.

It is a matter of great regret that the traditional Sufi Islam of our
land is being supplanted with a harsh and intolerant brand of Islam that
overran Pakistan a long time ago. Bangladesh had traditionally been home
to an eclectic and gentle brand of Islam. However, the trauma of 1971
caused a profound change among the orthodox Islamists. Pakistan had been
the fruit of their aspirations. Not even the genocide of 1971 could
shake their faith in Pakistan. They remained convinced that a united
Pakistan was necessary to make the subcontinent safe for Islam. Even in
the darkest hours of 1971, they continued to believe that turning their
back on Pakistan was tantamount to betraying Islam - a Gunah of some
sort.

Bengali Muslims have historically been loyal to pan-Islamic causes.
Their contribution to major movements as Khilafat Andolon was by no
means insignificant. The response was more emotional than rational. For
example, it mattered little to the Bengalis that the Arabs were a
subject people within the Ottoman Turkish Empire. All that mattered was
the fact that the rulers of the Empire were co-religionists. The Kashmir
movement is another glaring example of this mindset. It would have
mattered little to the Bengalis under Pakistani Raj if the majority of
the Kashmiris had not been Muslims. We cannot ignore this emotional
aspect in any discussion of the Pakistani brand of Islam. Islamic
brotherhood has always meant a great deal to Bengali Muslims. They have
traditionally been very generous in extending support to any crusade
fought under the banner of Islam. The Bengali Muslims could thus be
duped very easily into supporting a cause if its upholders could claim
rightly or even wrongly that it was an Islamic one. They were even
prepared to forgive a "Muslim" rapist or a murderer because "all Muslims
are brothers," an erroneous concept, which is a byproduct of the myth
Islamic Ummah. During the 1971 pogrom in Bangladesh, such people were
willing to turn a blind eye to Pak army's record of rape and torture
because the crimes were deemed to have been committed to make the
subcontinent safe for Islam. To them, the end seemed just and wor
thwhile. From this, it took only a minor leap in faith to conclude that
the end justified the means.

Of course, the rationalist could point out that there is no such thing
as an "Islamic Rape." And it was indeed quite shocking to some of the
devout to witness the extent of brutality that the Pakistanis were
indulging in to make the subcontinent safe for Islam. It was like coming
face to face with a father molesting his own children and expecting the
relatives to stand by him for the sake of family solidarity and honor.
Neither the Pak army, nor the defenders of Islam in distant Islamabad
showed the slightest remorse for the systematic rape and murder that was
being carried out incessantly in every nook and corner of the erstwhile
province of East Pakistan. For many a non-political devout Muslim, this
was an extraordinary trauma, to say the least.

Bengali Muslims had flocked to the Pakistan Movement with the hope of
social and economic emancipation. Theological considerations either had
taken the backseat for many or else had played no significant role
whatsoever. In fact, a great majority of the conservative Islamists
including some notable Deobandis was against partitioning the
subcontinent based on the two-nation theory. Ironical as it might sound,
many a party of these Islamists like the Jamaat-i-Islami and
Nezam-I-Islami, turned overnight into fervent defenders of Pakistan
after 1947. I am hardly surprised that many a member of these parties
chose to misplace their moral compass and suppress their conscience in
1971. They thought it was imperative for them to stand solidly behind
the ruling elite in Islamabad, regardless of the cost for such a show of
blind support.

With the high brow Bhadroloks of the Calcutta elite entrenched in power
in pre-Pakistan Bengal, it was but natural that the rising Muslim middle
class would be forced into a confrontation to get a fair share of the
pie. The Muslim underclass in rural Bengal had firsthand experience of
humiliations at the hands of the rich and arrogant upper caste Brahmins.
Class conflicts are the norm rather than exception in many a society. In
Bengal, they were exacerbated by the fact that class division was
roughly along the religious line. Therefore, situation was just ripe for
Jinnah to become the pied piper of Hamelin as he led the Bengalis on the
path to Pakistan with the purpose of turning a part of the subcontinent
into a safe haven for the aristocrats of Uttar Pradesh and the
mercantile class of the Malabar Coast of Indian peninsula.

Inevitably, the ruling class in nascent Pakistan turned to Jinnah's
pan-Islamism to advance its own interests. Thus, it hardly took long for
it to project Urdu, the language of a tiny minority, as Pakistan's
national language. Rulers of Pakistan were determined to stamp the
supremacy of their ways on the nation. It was a none too subtle way to
force the citizenry into kowtowing to the new rulers of the land. It
didn't take long for Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan to decide to cleanse
Karachi of its indigenous culture. The landmarks of the city, that
reminded the new rulers of non-Muslim Sindhis, were overnight renamed
with proper "Islamic" names. Under the circumstances, it was hardly
surprising that Jinnah would declare arrogantly and unabashedly in Dhaka
in front of a predominantly Bengali audience that Urdu, and Urdu alone,
was fit to be Pakistan's national language!

The power brokers of the western wing of Pakistan had traditionally held
a rather low opinion of the Bengalis. This coterie, serving mainly
Punjabi and Muhajir interests, considered Bengalis racially inferior to
them. They had both the arrogance and audacity to regard the Bengalis to
be practitioner of a brand of Islam that was less than pure! Anthony
Mascarenhas, a Dawn correspondent from Karachi, wrote in 1971 of the
racist bigotry in the predominantly Punjabi army. At the height of the
genocide in 1971, he was shocked beyond words to discover that
Pakistan's military officers would nonchalantly joke in the army mess
about the wholesale rapes in East Pakistan as the army's contribution to
improve the genes of East Pakistanis! I find it mind-boggling that Beng
ali members of Jamaat-i-Islami or the Muslim League not only condoned
but even supported the predominantly Punjabi Pak army in its demonic
campaign of rape and murder in East Pakistan to make Pakistan safe for
Islam! The memory of the Hindu Brahmin's arrogance of pre-1947 Bengal
provided enough justification for these Islamists to turn a blind eye to
the atrocities of the Pak army in 1971. It mattered little then that
Punjabi masters were holding secret meetings at the General Head
Quarters in Rawalpindi to heap contempt and indignities that were far
worse than anything the arrogant Brahmins had ever inflicted in pre-1947
Bengal on fellow Muslim Bengalis.

The behavior of the Bengali apologists for the military is all the more
incomprehensible because the top brass never made any secret of its
racist views. The strongman Ayub Khan could barely hide his contempt for
Bengalis in his infamous ghost-written autobiography, "Friends, Not
Masters." Similarly, Yahya Khan also vaunted his racist outrage in
presence of the journalist Mushahid Hussain Shah when it became apparent
that the Awami League had won the 1970 elections by a landslide.
Mushahid Hussain Shah (who was later a Minister under Nawaz Sharif)
reports how Yahya Khan had screamed in anger, "Those black Bengalis have
won!"

The Pindi High Command had openly pursued it racist and colonial agenda
since the days of Ayub Khan. Yet, many an Islam-Pasand (lover) Bengali
politician was giving them benefits of the doubt. For them, licking the
boots of the Punjabi master seemed preferable to doing anything that
might seem as forgiving the now banished snobbish Bhadroloks that had
lorded over them in pre-1947 Bengal. In their scheme of things, East
Pakistan would be better off with civil servants and businessmen who
hailed from the western edge of the subcontinent thousands of miles
away. The raison d'=EAtre for the unquestioned acceptance of a new ruling
class that was no less snobbish was the consideration that "they are
Muslims like us, after all." These people forgot that the ruling class
of yore may have been snobbish and arrogant, but at least they were sons
of the soil who had some love for the land. The new rulers, on the other
hand, had little or no love for the land; they saw East Pakistan as
nothing more than a colony from which they can suck the blood a la
leaches.

This writer wonders how many of the readers have thought Islam to be a
very political religion. It can be likened to nuclear energy that, in
the right hands, serves mankind through peaceful applications like power
generation but -- in the wrong hands -- could wreak a Hiroshima or
Nagasaki style destruction on "enemy" people. Consequently, we can ill
afford not to keep a watchful eye on those that invoke religion in
public life for whatever purposes. Bangalee diplomat Enayet Karim had
indicted the Pakistani brand of Islam that had entrenched itself in our
public life in the early days of Pakistan. This brand of Islam had
served rather well the colonial aspirations of the Urdu-speaking
elite-class from West Pakistan. It didn't take long for this class to
discover the advantages of forging an opportunistic alliance with the
feudal lords and the army officers from Punjab and the Muhajir
mercantile class that had settled down in Karachi after 1947. With the
derailment of democracy, this opportunistic alliance managed to
marginalize not just the Bengalis of East Pakistan but also even the
Sindhis, the Baluchs and the Pathans of West Pakistan. Predictably, this
unholy alliance managed to hijack Islam as well to provide a religious
cover for their hegemonic and nefarious deeds. History of the last fifty
years of Pakistan is a testament to this line of thinking.

Ayub Khan took over as the commander-in-chief in 1951. From then on,
covertly till the "October Revolution of 1958," and overtly thereafter,
the army became the real source of power in Pakistan. The recently
revealed Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report also points out this fact
quite blaringly (read the report in India Today Group On Line, August
11, 2000). This development gave teeth to the feudal lords of Punjab and
the Muhajir bureaucrats and businessmen all of who thrived and
flourished under the aegis defense establishment. It also served to
institutionalize the hegemony of a particular province by turning Punjab
into the "bastion of power." Not surprisingly, this new Punjab-based
oligarchy took to invoking Islam at every opportunity to make their
monopoly on power more palatable for the ordinary citizenry.

Dr. Ausaf Ali was once a professor of business administration at the
University of Karachi. Back in 1953, he had the chance to meet a few
Punjabi civil servants. Most of them unabashedly expressed their
contempt for the inhabitants of the eastern wing of Pakistan. So steeped
were these bureaucrats in their racist outlook that they made no secret
of their belief that East Pakistan didn't deserve to be anything more
than a colonial holding. With Kiplinesque arrogance, these bureaucrats
had insisted that East Pakistanis were serving Islam by serving West
Pakistan! Quite an axiom!!

Now let me turn my focus closer to home. The bigoted Brahmins of
pre-Pakistan Bengal were often our next-door neighbors. Their acts of
omission and commission were too close to home to be ignored by the
Muslim underclass. In stark contrast, our new masters in far off Karachi
and Pindi enjoyed a certain shielding from direct public scrutiny,
especially in the immediate aftermath of partition. It wasn't readily
apparent to the common people in East Pakistan how few Bengalis were in
positions of influence and power in the central government offices in
Karachi and Islamabad. Nor did they get a direct exposure to the short
shrift meted out to East Pakistan's representatives in the Constituent
Assembly. Furthermore, the Pakistani brand of Islam often proved to be a
good cover, at least in the short run. Thus, when Dhirendra Nath Datta
demanded recognition of Bengali as Pakistan's national language, Prime
Minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan and all his cohorts on the floor of
the Assembly promptly denounced him as an enemy of Islam and of
Pakistan. "Pious" Bengalis like Nazimuddin promptly joined in the
denunciation to "save" Islam from the evil demands on behalf of Bengali.

Inevitably, tokenism played its part. Some East Pakistanis like
Nazimuddin and Mohammad Ali of Bogura were allowed proximity to those
that wielded real power in Karachi and Pindi. But East Pakistanis that
benefited from such tokenism were always those that were most willing to
play second fiddle to the ruling elite without a murmur. And anytime
such East Pakistanis had the temerity to overstep their "privileges,"
they were promptly kicked out into oblivion. Such was the travesty of
life for Bengalis.

We all know too well that Awami League's six-point program has been
criticized as a solution that tore at the integrity of Pakistan. But
with the opportunistic alliance of Punjabi generals and feudal lords on
one hand and the Muhajir bureaucrats and businessmen on the other, so
firmly entrenched in power, nothing short of the six-point program could
have allowed the diffusion of power and prosperity into the east wing.
It was quite symptomatic of the situation that a newcomer politician
such as Bhutto would thunder, "Punjab is the bastion of power," even as
he worked hand in glove with the army generals to prevent the convening
of the National Assembly in which his party held only half as many seats
as the Awami League. By March 7 of 1971, the Bengalis concluded, "Enough
is enough." If they hadn't, it is a safe bet that we would have
continued to be ruled by the same oligarchy to this day. It would have
been a case of d=E9j=E0 vu when General Pervez Musharraf's boot would have
trodden on us after the "October Revolution" of 1999 in the same way
General Ayub Khan's boots had trodden on us after the "October
Revolution" of 1958.

Let me now turn to the tumultuous events of post general election of
1970 as I dive into the role Islam played in eastern shore of the
Gangetic alluvium. In 1971, not a single Islamist political party in the
erstwhile East Pakistan had supported the cause of an independent
Bangladesh. Hardly a Madrassah (Muslim parochial school) instructor or
an Imam of a local mosque had openly, or even clandestinely, supported
our fight for freedom against the barbaric army of occupation. The pirs,
from Maghbazar to Sharshina, were all full-fledged supporters of the
brutal military regime. A student of history has every reason to wonder
how the flag-bearers of Islam could stoop to support an army engaged in
wanton rape and murder. Historians can provide the answer to that
troubling question. Vicious politics has often been the bane of Islam
since the earliest days when grandchildren of the Prophet and their
family were slaughtered on the sands of Karbala. The saga continues
until this day. Political Islam continues to be a convenient tool to
oppress and subjugate the faithful.

Strange it may sound, the genocide in Bangladesh evoked little or no
denunciation in the Islamic world. Pakistan's rulers managed to convince
most Muslim majority nations that the pogrom was a necessary evil to
protect and uphold Islam in a subcontinent where Hindu India was bent on
destroying it. The gullible Muslims around the world were told
repeatedly that Bengali women needed to be raped mercilessly to bring to
a naught the evil designs of Kafirs, in general, and of Hindus, in
particular. Ordinary soldiers of the Pakistani army were brainwashed
into believing that it was their religious obligation to force Bengali
males to expose their genitals so that those that are not circumcised
can be selectively murdered.

All these go to show that the brutal army junta in Pakistan had very
little feeling for the Bengali people. It would have meant very little
to them if the Bengalis had again become the underclass of Calcutta
centered Bhadroloks. Lt. General Tikka Khan was very implicit about this
mindset when he openly declared in Dhaka that the army cared only for
the land in East Pakistan but not a hoot for its people. Eyewitness
accounts on the night of March 25 paint horrifying pictures of the
Pakistani army. Pakistani soldiers left the fourth class staff quarters
littered with bayoneted bodies. Not even children had been spared.
Eyewitness accounts of rapes in the Razarbagh Police Line in Dhaka had
let us numb with utter disbelief and disgust. And all that in the name
of serving Islam!

Some analysts opine that such savagery was inevitable in view of the
incessant indoctrination of the Pakistani soldiers with the belief that
Bengalis were racially inferior and that Bengalis were not proper
Muslims. Therefore, it was an inevitable fall out of the Political Islam
behind which Pakistan's ruling class had taken refuge. The soldiers had
come to believe that Pakistan was a synonym for Islam. To these soldiers
of religion, any crime committed for upholding the integrity of Pakistan
was a glorious service to the cause of Islam. One Bengali intellectual
collaborator had the audacity to justify the rapes on Bengali women in
the name of religion. He claimed on record that Mu'tah marriage is
permitted in Islam - hence, in case of a war against the enemies of
Islam as was taking place in East Pakistan in 1971 rapes are sanctified
by our religious tradition!

This has to be a clear case of subterfuge when Pakistani power broker
had brainwashed our own folks to safeguard Islam in erstwhile East
Pakistan. Therefore, the Jamaati activists could always bank on full
support from the higher echelons of Pakistan's army. Conscience had not
a chance against theirs unbridled fanaticism. Perhaps many a Jamaati
activist did not even realize that they had turned themselves into foot
soldiers of the ruling clique in Punjab. These fanatics had come to
believe that every crime in the book is worth it if it is committed in
the name of religion. For all their theological learning, they were more
than willing to condone the rapes and murders that were taking place to
make Pakistan safe for Islam! Perhaps this is a twisted Jihadi logic, I
daresay!

It would startle students of history to learn how Political Islam had
provoked genocide in East Pakistan. To this day, Political Islam retains
its ability to not just condone but even to justify the genocide. It is
a sad reality that many a fanatic willingly chose rape and plunders to
be their path to God! Many innocent God-fearing Bengalis were astounded
to learn that they could count on no Muslim nation to be on their side
in 1971. The Saudi royal family, with its enormous clout in the Islamic
world, chose to lead the way by coming out one hundred percent in
support of Pakistan's army regime even though they knew fully well how
many Muslims were butchered in occupied Bangladesh. Not one country
among the myriad Islamic nations around the world bothered to express
support for Bangladesh that boasted of more Muslims than practically all
of them.

After the 1975 political changeover in Bangladesh, army dictators like
Ziaur Rahman and H.M. Ershad became the guardian angels of Pakistani
brand of Islam. Enayet Karim had not dreamt of the Bangladesh under
dictators Zia and Ershad even in his wildest dreams. The proponents of
this tainted brand of Islam were not only given reprieve but were even
rehabilitated under the regimes of the two dictators. Mosques had failed
to come out in support of an independent Bangladesh in 1971. The
situation hasn't changed much in the last three decades. Of course,
there is no dearth of crocodile tears for the plight of the Kashmiris,
Palestinians, or Chechens, but there isn't a drop of tear to be spared
for those that perished in the genocide of 1971. The freedom struggle is
a source of embarrassment to these Islamists. And they know it.
Judicious silence is the preferred choice when it comes to discussing
the tragedy of 1971. We have turned into a nation of ingrates where it
is a taboo even to whisper the names of our martyrs in the mosques and
Madrassahs of independent Bangladesh.

Petro dollars seem to have served militant Islam more often than it has
served the Muslims. The events of 1971 stands out as a watershed -- it
showed conclusively how hazardous to humanity is this tainted brand of
Islam that values politics over piety. The aftermath of Afghanistan war
is yet another example of the very same peril. Today, even the
superpowers (including Red China) are in deadly fear of the
proliferation of Wahhabite brand of Jihadi (militant) Islam. And
ironically, Saudi Arabia, which is fancied as an American ally,
continues to funnel millions of dollars into South Asia to spread its
deadly ideology.

The Zia and Ershad regimes did disservice to Bangladesh by
rehabilitating the fundamentalists who had betrayed Bangladesh in 1971.
Zia and Ershad merely served to gladden the hearts of those that have
been channeling petro dollars in their drive for holy wars on behalf of
unholy causes. These dispensers of petro dollars were perspicacious
enough to know that only a non-democratic Bangladesh will be willing to
sing to their tunes.

The ultra rightwing fanatic forces know just as much. Most of them had
stood behind those that were perpetrating crimes against humanity in
1971. They construed the break-up of Pakistan to be a blow against
Islam. The current unholy alliance between Bangladesh Nationalist Party,
the Jamaat-i-Islami, Jatiyo Party, and Islamic Oikkyo Jote (Solidarity
Alliance) is the outcome of the dangerous game of consolidating the
gains of Pakistani brand of Wahhabite Islam. This brutal brand of Jihadi
Islam could have been eliminated from Bangladesh in the immediate
aftermath of 1971. Bangladesh had failed to do the needful and the
nation continues to hemorrhage because of our leaders myopic views then.
The recent attempt to bomb the Bangladesh Prime Minister's meeting place
is yet another reminder how wrong Mr. Enayet Karim had been to predict
the death of this diabolical form of Islam in an independent Bangladesh.
We still have time to turn away from the Jihadi brand of Islam that is
being shoved down our throat by Wahhabi, Deobandis, Saudis, and Osama
bin Laden all at the same time. Instead, we should re-embrace the gentle
Sufi Islam, which had served our forefathers in thick and thin. What is
so wrong in it?

Jamal Hasan writes from Washington, DC.

______

#2.

Dear Friends,

Despite our troubles, the August 2000 issue of Meghbarta is now out,
albeit a bit late. We await your feedback.
----

Editors' diary of the month
In this new regular monthly column, Anu Muhammad comments on major
current issues.(English)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/diary.html#diary

The Case against the Rooppur Nuclear power project
In the wake of world wide atomic disasters, Sylvia Mortoza questions
the wisdom of setting up a costly nuclear plant in Bangladesh.
(English)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/techppl.html#case

Anandabazar Controversy
Barkatullah Maruf reports on controversies around the Indian media
giant's investment in Bangladesh. (Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/contemp.html#ananda

Jute: from field to factory
Barkatullah Maruf reports on the different phases of corruption,
resource drainage and plundering of some state-owned enterprises
(Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/econo.html#jute

GM: Savior or Destroyer?
Are the activities of multinational corporations around biotech
testing and GM food for corporate profit or for people? Reviewer
Renee Sams also shows alternative models for growth in food
production which preserve living space.(English)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/dvlp.html#gm

Higher Education in Bangladesh
Mahmud Hanif's take on the crisis in public universities and
increasingly expensive private universities. (Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/edctn.html#edu

Takdoomadoom
Sayema Khatun interviews children activists of Tripura, an Indian
State with a difference. (Bangla).
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/tkdmdm.html

Photostory
Barkatullah Maruf looks at the lives of riverside people.
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/phtstr.html

Books and Journals
Nasrin Siraj Annie introduces some recently published books. (Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/publi.html#book

Stipend for girl students in secondary education
Sharmin Moumita examines the projects and the implementation hazards.
(Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/edctn.html#girl

Killing continues
Hasibur Reja Kollol reports on the killing of a leading journalist
Shamsur Rahman. (Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/contemp.html#hasib

Behind Jhatka fish killing
Arshad Siddique investigates the Hilsha fish disaster, an important
fish in Bangladesh. (Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/strggl.html#fish

Waste Management and Child Labour
Rafiqul Islam Montu writes on child labour that revolves around
waste. (Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/strggl.html#waste

Development theories in practice
Moti Rahman takes a satirical look western development theories.
(Bangla)
http://www.meghbarta.net/2000/august/dvlp.html#moti

Shahidul Alam
Drik Picture Library
www.drik.net, www.meghbarta.net

______

#3.

The Times of India
15 August 2000

GAS VICTIMS DECLARE 5-DAY E-MAIL `WAR' ON CARBIDE

By Sudhir K Singh

The Times of India News Service

BHOPAL: Survivors and sufferers of the cataclysmic 1984 Bhopal gas
tragedy on Monday virtually bombarded the offices of Union Carbide
International and Dow Chemicals with e-mail on their sad plight even 16
years after the event.

The over 2,000-message "attack'' went hurtling through cyberspace with a
click of the mouse from four-year-old Noor Jehan who was born with a
respiratory disorder inherited from mother Shamshad, a victim of the
tragedy.

A kiosk had been set up in the vicinity of the Carbide factory at Atal
Ayub Nagar where ``off-line'' petitions were collected from the victims.
These were later converted into online messages with the help of
especially designed software before being fired off.

Media coordinator of world environment watchdog Greenpeace, which
sponsored the cyber event, Shailendra Yashwant, told The Times of India
News Service that the e-mail shootout was intended to let Dow Chemicals
know the sizable ``liability'' it would be inheriting following
Carbide's merger with the latter. The 1989 monetary settlement with
Carbide had not contemplated the damage to lives caused by the co
ntamination at the site of the Carbide factory.

Toxic waste comprising over 4,000 chemicals, said Yashwant, was still
rotting inside the factory premesis. Which in turn had affected the
quality of ground water reserves in 10 to 14 localities around the area
-- a finding repeatedly confirmed by a clutch of reports, at least two
of which were commissioned by the state government.

Yashwant said the e-mail "pounding'' on Carbide territory would continue
for five days. And since the ``attack'' was being coordinated from 40
countries, the post-merger Dow management would come under unrelenting
pressure to cough out the expense of the clean-up. This had been
estimated at Rs seven crore.

Meanwhile, the convener of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Sangathan,
Abdul Jabbar, and member, Bhopal Group for Information and Action,
Satinath Sarangi, have complained to former chief justice of India A.M.
Ahmadi on the ``financial irregularities'' in the construction of the
260-bed Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust.

In a joint letter dated August 7, Jabbar and Sarangi said nine years had
elapsed since the apex court first ordered the construction of the
hospital. More than Rs 110 crore had already been spent against the
original budget of Rs 60 crore. ``Cases pertaining to use of child
labour and unauthorised withdrawal of funds lie pending against senior
office-bearers of the trust.'' Allegations of nepotism and bribery in
the appointment of staff had also been received, they said.

___________________________________
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