SACW | 10 Dec. 2003

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Tue Dec 9 16:31:18 CST 2003


======================================
South Asia Citizens Wire  |  10 December,  2003
via:  www.sacw.net
======================================


[Interruption Notice:
Please note there will be no SACW dispatches between 11 -15 December 2003]

[1] Invitation to the Pakistan Social Forum  (Jan 12 -13, 2004, Lahore)
[2] Welcome Ceasefire In Kashmir - Don't  miss 
the bigger chance! (Praful Bidwai)
[3] Separatists target Muslim sect in Bangladesh (Sharier Khan )
[4] The Hidden Apartheid:: An Exhibition on Dalit 
Human Rights (Dec 6-13, Delhi)
[5] 'judiciary In A Democracy'  - 8th Champa 
Foundation Lectures (Dec.12, 2003 / New Delhi)
[6] India; No berth for Greenpeace in Mumbai

--------------

[1]

pakistan social forum
world social forum | Pakistan Social Forum, (Sindh Chapter)
ST-001, Sector X, Sub-Sector V,
Gulshan-e-Maymar, Karachi - Pakistan
Ph: (92 21) 6351145, 46, 47 Fax: (92 21) 6350354
Email: <piler at cyber.net.pk>
Date: S I N D H C H A P T E R

INVITATION
PAKISTAN SOCIAL FORUM
JANUARY 12-13, 2004, AL AL-HAMRA/AIWAN AIWAN-E-IQBAL
LAHORE - PAKISTAN

Dear Friends,
The Organizing Committee of Pakistan Social Forum (PSF) Invites the
European Delegates to join its 1st. national level forum. The forum will be a
lead-up event to World Social Forum (WSF) to be held from January 16-21,
2004 Mumbai India.
Pakistan Forum invites a large number of representatives of peasants
movements, social struggles, trade-union workers, women rights groups,
journalists associations, lawyers groups, political workers, representatives of
livelihood movements, fisher-folk groups. The forum from other issues will
focus on "Peace, Human Security and Regional Cooperation in South Asia"
All those delegates attending 4th World Social Forum Mumbai January 16-21,
2004 Lahore is only 2 hours flight from the city of Mumbai.
We will be delighted to answer your questions regarding logistic
arrangements, program details and other queries about the event.
For further information please contact:
Irfan Mufti
Info at sappk.org
+92-42-5426470
Karamat Ali / Aijaz Ahmed
piler at cyber.net.pk
+92-21-6351145-47

_____


[2]

December 8, 2003

Welcome Ceasefire In Kashmir
Don't  miss the bigger chance!

By Praful Bidwai

They say nothing succeeds like success! Alas, 
this adage only rarely applies to India-Pakistan 
relations, with their sordid history of failure, 
followed by crisis, succeeded by hostility. So it 
is very good news indeed that Prime Minister Mir 
Zafarullah Khan Jamali's unilateral ceasefire 
offer in Kashmir beginning with Eid-ul-Fitr was 
quickly followed by Pakistan's announcement 
lifting its two year-old ban on Indian civil 
aviation flights through its airspace. New Delhi 
has welcomed both initiatives and agreed to 
reciprocate.

We citizens should actually celebrate this thaw. 
The resumption of point-to-point air services as 
well as overflights between the two countries is 
scheduled to begin on New Year's Day. This should 
pave the way for the more important restoration 
of rail links across the border--and hence for 
more trade and economic cooperation, on which 
India is very keen, but on which Pakistan has 
been dragging its feet. Greater 
citizen-to-citizen contacts and closer commercial 
relations are worthy in themselves.

The ceasefire marks, at minimum, a welcome end to 
the India-Pakistan practice of wantonly, 
randomly, casually, callously shelling each 
other's territory and border posts. Both states 
indulge in this routinely--not so much for 
strategic gains, as for mere effect, just to 
appear macho and ready to strike. Artillery 
shelling, which occurs thousands of times every 
year, takes a massive toll of life and property. 
The ceasefire will give a major respite to the 
200,000 Indians who have had to flee their homes 
and fields as a result of mortar fire and 
heavy-calibre artillery fusillades. More 
optimistically, the ceasefire could lead to other 
substantive confidence-building measures and even 
conflict diffusion--especially in Siachen.

The overflight ban, imposed in January 2002, 
entailed a costly diversion of West-bound flights 
of both Air India and Indian Airlines, and hence 
a loss of 75 minutes' flight-time and over Rs. 
100 crores in money. India was much the greater 
loser because, prior to the ban, it operated 10 
times more flights through Pakistan's airspace 
than the other way around. The restoration of 
overflights and point-to-point services, with 
relaxed restrictions on aircraft size, removes a 
significant irritant and source of suspicion in 
India-Pakistan relations. It was long believed 
that Pakistan wanted to continue the overflight 
ban in order to continue to deny India aviation 
access to Afghanistan. This is part of the two 
South Asian rivals' hot-cold war, spilling over 
into Afghanistan.

Overflight resumption is welcome. Even more 
positive is what appears to be a more basic 
change in Islamabad's attitude. In effect; it now 
recognises that it's ludicrous to inflict a loss 
upon itself only to hurt India--cutting off your 
nose to spite your face, so to speak. This 
establishes a simple principle: don't act just to 
needle your adversary even though you know it 
will hurt you. It's irrelevant whether your 
adversary's loss is greater than yours--so long 
as you foolishly bleed yourself. This principle 
does not assume friendship between adversaries: 
it only eliminates the more grossly irrational 
forms of rivalry between them.

If this principle is applied to the Siachen 
conflict, it will produce an instant solution. 
Siachen is the world's highest-altitude conflict, 
and perhaps its most strategically irrational 
one. India and Pakistan, two of the world's 
poorest countries, are each spending something 
like Rs.3-to-5 crores a day to sustain 
hostilities at unbelievable heights such as 
20,000 feet, where the wind velocity can reach 
150 kmph and temperatures minus 50 Celsius.

India and Pakistan both show utter contempt for 
their own soldiers's lives, hundreds of whom die 
from frostbite--a much higher number than those 
killed by gunshots. Siachen leaves even its 
survivors scarred: with snow-blindness, 
high-altitude sickness and depression from being 
lonely for long periods in a desolate place. 
Indian and Pakistan have both squandered away 
precious opportunities to settle the issue. They 
fight each other not because there is a military 
advantage in doing so, but only to deny each 
other a possible future chance to demarcate the 
Line of Control beyond the ground reference-point 
NJ 9842 in ways favourable to them. Holding on to 
their positions in Siachen gives them no military 
leverage. Siachen doesn't overlook any strategic 
area, nor does it lead to one. It's a dead-end. 
The Siachen conflict must be terminated.

Even on a minimalist and cynical view, the 
ceasefire could lead to a Siachen solution--if 
the right moves are made. But one need not take a 
dismal view of things. Mr Jamali's ceasefire 
offer was unilateral and unconditional. It made a 
clean break with the action-reaction pattern of 
Pakistan's responses to India's overtures 
prevalent since Prime Minister Vajpayee held out 
the "hand of friendship" from Srinagar in April. 
With this, Pakistan took the first real step to 
establish its ownership of the peace process. One 
possible reason for this is growing, if subtle, 
Western pressure, arising from the view that 
Pakistan is dragging its feet on fighting Al 
Qaeda and other extremists. Islamabad is acutely 
aware of this perception.

On November 20, Gen Pervez Musharraf told senior 
Pakistani journalists that the world has started 
doubting Pakistan's sincerity in conducting the 
"war on terrorism"; it expects Islamabad to "do 
more". Failure to act decisively could even bring 
punishment from the US, including bombing of the 
"tribal agency" areas on the Afghanistan border. 
But compulsion isn't the only factor at work 
behind Pakistan's apparent change of stance. 
There seems to be a growing recognition within 
its establishment, or its moderate elements, that 
the covert military option in Kashmir is turning 
counterproductive. Pakistan cannot bleed India to 
an unbearable extent. It should explore the 
cooperative approach.

This holds especially true of economic 
cooperation. Pakistan's policy-makers know that 
the coming South Asian Association for Regional 
Cooperation summit is make-or-break. Pakistan can 
no longer hold out on a South Asian Free Trade 
Agreement.  If SAFTA doesn't come about, India 
will turn its back upon SAARC and instead reach 
FTAs with Southeast and East Asian countries, and 
bilateral agreements with close neighbours, as 
with Sri Lanka.

Mr Jamali's Eid initiative must be seen in this 
positive context--as largely sincere. India must 
respond to it generously. India has nothing to 
lose by reciprocating goodwill gestures and a lot 
to gain by expanding and speeding up the peace 
process. In fact, New Delhi should look beyond 
the ceasefire, while ensuring is extension into 
the summer--after the snows melt and cross-border 
activity, including infiltration, increases. We 
must recognise that in the Indian subcontinent, 
the processes of normalisation (or restoration) 
of relations and of transforming them can go on 
simultaneously; indeed, they can reinforce each 
other. India should explore both reconciliation 
and transformation.

This may not result, as Gen Musharraf hopes and 
frequently demands, in an immediate full-scale 
dialogue. His formula, spelled out to the Indian 
business delegation which heard his overflight 
announcement, involves four steps: start talking; 
accept the centrality of resolution of the 
Kashmir issue; eliminate whatever is unacceptable 
to Pakistan, India and the Kashmiris; and 
finally, reach a settlement acceptable to all. 
This is not unreasonable. But Pakistan too must 
show some indications that it has stopped 
supporting the secessionist jehadis in Kashmir. 
The ceasefire is a step in that direction.

If the ceasefire holds, and if the SAARC summit 
is successful, India should make unilateral 
gestures beyond the 12 proposals of October 22. 
These could include relaxation of the visa regime 
and doing away for, say, six months, with (the 
absurd and counter-productive) requirement of 
police reporting for visitors. Similarly, India 
should unilaterally release all visa-violating 
Pakistani detainees as soon as they have served 
their prison terms. India should unilaterally 
announce more tariff concessions, especially 
those it's offering to Sri Lanka and Thailand. 
India could organise a goodwill delegation from 
Jammu and Kashmir to visit Pakistan-occupied 
Kashmir. An even bolder measure would be a 
one-year moratorium on missile test-flights, 
which could be extended if Pakistan reciprocates.

Doing this will necessitate a mindset change. 
Essentially, the choice is between India 
remaining a prisoner to its hostility with 
Pakistan, and liberating itself to develop its 
true potential and give its citizens a fair deal. 
The first option is not just negative; it's 
thoroughly debilitating. It unrealistically 
assumes that Pakistan and India are destined to 
remain enemies forever. Pakistan will always 
create  "mischief" in Kashmir. Its proponents 
piously wish that Pakistan would either 
disintegrate because of internal dissensions in 
Baluchistan, Sindh and NWFP, or that its economy 
would collapse, as happened in the former Soviet 
Union.

This is the favourite fantasy of Jammu and 
Kashmir Governor Lt-Gen S.K. Sinha, no less. But 
nothing of the sort is going to happen to 
Pakistan. Its economy is recovering, with 
industrial growth clocking 18 percent. There are 
growing ethnic tensions, but they are not 
unmanageable. On a sober, realistic view, 
Pakistan and India will just have to learn to 
live with each other--separately, but sanely and 
responsibly. Peaceful co-existence alone can 
create the ground for the eventual resolution of 
outstanding problems between them. India must 
contribute to that process in the same spirit in 
which it made the October 22 proposals. Conflict 
offers no solution. Cooperation is the only 
option.-end---.

_____


[3]

OneWorld South Asia
Monday, December 8, 2003

Separatists target Muslim sect in Bangladesh

Sharier Khan (OneWorld.net)
Dhaka, December 8

A 150,000 strong Muslim minority sect in Bangladesh called the Ahmadiyyas is
under attack from a separatist group in the country, which warns they will
face dire consequences if the government does not declare them non-Muslims
before Friday.

In the last two months, attacks on the Ahmadiyyas by Sunni Muslim separatist
groups have intensified, especially in the southwestern district of Kustia
and the northern districts of Rangpur and Jamalpur.

One member of the sect was killed in the southwestern district of Jessore.
Ninety percent of Bangladesh's 130 million population comprises Sunni
Muslims.

Hailing from the central Bangladesh region of Brahmanbaria from 1912, the
Ahmadiyyas follow the same rituals as the Sunnis, apart from their belief
that Imam Mehdi, the last messenger of Prophet Muhammad has already arrived
to uphold Islam as it was preached 1400 years ago.

The Sunnis, on the other hand, believe Mehdi has not yet arrived.

Says Ahmadiyya spokesman Tarek Mobassher, "Although we follow all other
aspects of Islam they believe in, the militants refuse to accept our
beliefs. Instead, they incite simple followers, terming our practices
blasphemous, and alleging we do not follow the Prophet Mohammed."

In one of the largest anti-Ahmadiyya protests last Friday, more than 30,000
separatists under the banner of the Khatme Nabuat Movement Coordination
Committee (KNMCC) laid siege to an Ahmadiyya mosque in Dhaka.

The attack was foiled by a deployment of 1000 policemen, but the separatists
have sworn to storm the mosque again this Friday. The KNMC has said they
will stage demonstrations against the sect in the city every Friday
throughout December.

Threatens KNMCC President and cleric, Mohammad Mahmudul Hasan Mamtaji, "If
the government ignores our demand, the anti-Ahmadiyya group would not be
responsible for their fate."  Mamtaji, who led a group to attack the
Nakhalpara Ahmadiyya Mosque on November 21 -- injuring about 100 people
including 12 policemen, warns that, "The Prime Minister's Office will be
besieged if the government does not fulfil our demands. We don't want to
take the law into our own hands, but we don't know what will happen to
them."

The cleric stresses that if the Ahmadiyyas wish to continue offering prayers
in the mosque, they should run it in line with the committee's instructions.
"They cannot claim to be Muslims as they do not believe in Prophet
Mohammad," thunders demonstrator Khaled Hossain while comrade Salam chants
slogans of jihad (holy war), asserting that, "Nobody will stop us from
eliminating the Ahmadiyyas."

The frightened Ahmadiyyas offered their Friday prayers under heavy police
protection, vowing to save their mosque from attackers.

"We have been offering prayers in this mosque since 1946. But no-one
disturbed us before," cries Abdul Alim, the mosque's custodian who figures
on the hit list of the separatists. But Alim has dug his heels in, asserting
that, "We will not bow to their pressure and leave the mosque."

Another separatist group has issued a similar ultimatum to Ahmadiyya's
living in Sarishabari in Bangladesh's northern Jamalpur district.
Mobassher believes the current aggressive stance has spilled over from
anti-Ahmadiyya clerics in Pakistan. Significantly, most of the
anti-Ahmadiyya publications in Bangladesh are written by Pakistani clerics
who are more militant than their Bangladeshi counterparts.

In the past, one of the worst attacks on the Ahmadiyyas occurred in the
southwestern port town of Khulna in October 1999, when a time bomb explosion
in a mosque during Friday prayers killed seven Ahmadiyyas and injured 27
others.

Since the beginning of the Muslim month of Ramadan in October-November, some
13 Ahmadiyya families of Bhabanipur in the southwestern Kushtia district
were confined without food and facilities. Similarly, separatists tortured
members of the sect in a central Bangladesh town.

The government has currently deployed heavy police forces around the
Ahmadiyya mosque in Dhaka's Nakhalpara.

Says State Minister for Religious Affairs, Mosharef Hossain Shajahan, "I am
trying to resolve this matter through discussion with the concerned leaders.
God has not given me any right to declare anyone non-Muslim. We cannot allow
the disturbance of religious harmony."

According to the Prime Minister's Office, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has
directed law-enforcing agencies to take measures to prevent a communal clash
from erupting.

For their part, the police emphasises that the issue requires a political
settlement.

"We know for certain who is violating communal harmony and instigating
others to attack. But first the tension should ease before we take any
action against them," says Inspector General of Police, Shahudul Haque.

He maintains that, "They (Ahmadiyyas) have the right to exercise their
rituals according to their faith and any obstruction violates the law of the
land. We will definitely ensure their safety."

But none of the attackers has so far been arrested.

Reportedly, the Islamic Oiyko Jote (Islamic Alliance) - which is an alliance
partner in the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party government - tacitly
supports the anti-Ahmadiyya movement.



_____


[4]

The Hidden Apartheid:
An Exhibition on Dalit Human Rights

Venue: Anhad, 4, Windsor Place, Opp Kanishka Hotel, Ashoka Road, New Delhi

Dates: December 6-13, 2003

Time: 11am- 7pm

About 'Hidden Apartheid'

'Hidden Apartheid', a traveling exhibition of 
posters, highlights the trials faced by the Dalit 
community and asserts their identity as a 
distinct people with their own culture and 
history. The joint effort of Anhad (Act Now for 
Harmony And Democracy) and NCHRD (National 
Campaign on Dalit Human Rights), the 50 posters 
on display at the traveling exhibition deal with 
a variety of issues central to the struggle for 
Dalit human rights.

  Over 160 million people in India remain 
segregated by a social structure that was 
abolished over 50 years ago. At every moment of 
their lives, these people - the Dalit community - 
are discriminated against. They are forced to 
live in colonies away from 'upper caste' 
dominions, made to drink out of tea cups that no 
one else touches, prohibited from drawing water 
from their village wells, deprived of land that 
is legally their, pushed into scavenging and 
increased sexual harassment by 'upper castes' and 
made unwilling recipients of the fall-outs of 
globalization.

  Untouchability is the theme of many of these 
exhibits. The posters tell a stark story - even 
in this century, for example, Dalit bridegrooms 
are prohibited from riding a horse during a 
marriage procession, Dalits are forced to render 
services thought to be too polluting for other 
castes.

  A section of the exhibits are devoted to State 
violence, perpetrated by police forces employed 
to protect and by private armies of upper castes. 
Also highlighted is the plight of Dalit women, 
who are subjected to sexual harassment, exploited 
as Devadasis and often the target of ire directed 
at their community.

  The statistics on display paint a bleak picture 
as far as employment for Dalits is concerned. 
Literacy rates are low, drop-out rates high. 
However, all this is not just part of a rural 
landscape. Even in High Courts and embassies, the 
number of Dalits employed is a fraction of upper 
caste employees. The posters tell us that even 
where rights to education and earning a 
livelihood are granted, they are snatched away 
under the flimsiest of excuses - a case in point 
being the rustication of 10 Dalit students of the 
Hyderabad Central University on charges of 
violence.

  The exhibition also outlines an action plan for 
the 21st century to ensure the socio-economic 
well-being of the Dalit community. Bearing 
testimony to the peaceful protest are the words 
of poet Sharankumar Limbale adorning one of the 
posters: You'll beat me, break me,/ Loot and burn 
my habitation/ But my friends! How will you tear 
down my words planted like a sun in the east?

  'Hidden Apartheid' has been conceived and 
researched by Shabnam Hashmi and Parvez. It is 
designed by Parvez, a young graphic designer 
based in Baroda. A large number of photographs 
used in the exhibition are by Sahir Raza, a young 
12th standard student from Springdales School, 
Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi.

Various individuals and organizations who made 
the exhibition possible include Cognito 
Advertising -Vadodara, Dalit Research Institute - 
Madurai, Gauhar Raza, Harsh Mander, Harsh 
Purohit, Martin Macwan, Navsarjan, Paul Diwakar 
and Sakshi - Hyderabad.

The posters will be on display at Anhad, 4 
Windsor Place, till December 13, 2003. The 
exhibition is also accompanying the Dalit 
Swadhikar Rally, which started out from Jammu, 
Delhi, Kanyakumari and Kolkata, on December 6, 
2003, and would reach Mumbai by January 15, 2004, 
to participate in the IV World Social Forum.

  ----------

Hidden Apartheid Exhibition Set : 50 posters four 
colour/ size 18x23 inches, art paper -available 
for Rs. 2000 + courier charges ( for one set-Rs. 
250 within India)

A set of four peace posters: Rs. 150 /- + Rs. 50 courier charges

Send drafts to Anhad, 4 Windsor Place, New Delhi-110001

_____


[5]

CHAMPA - The Amiya & B.G. Rao Foundation
25, Nizamuddin East, New Delhi-110013 ( Ph. 24351359)

Dated : 2nd December, 2003

8th Champa Foundation Lectures - 12th December, 2003

'JUDICIARY IN A DEMOCRACY'

Dear  friend,

	Judiciary is the most prominent and outstanding wing
of the Indian constitutional system for fulfilling the
mandate of the Constitution, which is to secure to all
its citizens justice ñpolitical, social and economic.
Judiciary occupies an exalted position in the minds of
the people as saviour of democracy.  It is rightly
said that, ìdemocracy cannot exist without justice and
justice cannot exist without an independent and
fearless judiciaryî.  People look upon the judges as
protectors of their rights and liberties.  In the
present scenario of rising tide of communal and
fascist forces, and growing gross abuse of human
rights of the common people by the agencies of the
State, the role of judiciary has assumed added
importance.  However, behavior and conduct of a
section of judiciary and its pronouncements seem to
have shaken the peopleís confidence in the credibility
of the judiciary as an institution.

	The statement issued at the Beijing conference of the
Chief Justices of Asia and the Pacific in 1995 defined
the objectives and functioning of the judiciary to
include:

(a)	to ensure that all persons are able to live
securely under the Rule of Law;
(b)	to promote, within the proper limits of the
judicial function, the observance and attainment of
human rights; and
(c)	to administer law impartially among persons, and
between persons & State.
(d)
Is Indian judiciary fulfilling the role assigned to
it?
And if not, what should be the response of the people
who are the ultimate masters of the nationís destiny?

Such issues and problems will be discussed and
analysed by the eminent speakers in their lectures as
per programme below:-

Subject : JUDICIARY IN A DEMOCRACY

Speakers :  Shri Om Prakash Sharma, Senior advocate,
Supreme
Court;   Ms. Nandita Haksar, Advocate & Human Rights
activist;   Prof. K. John Sundar;   Ms. Vahida Nainar,
Advocate, Mumbai;	   Ms. Vrinda Grover, Advocate &
Human Rights activist

Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed will preside

Date & Time : 5 p.m., Friday, the 12th December, 2003

Venue : Dy. Speakerís Hall, Constitution Club, Rafi
Marg, New Delhi-110001.

		You are cordially invited to attend.

                        Fr. T.K. John
                                                      
       Uma Chakravarti  Phone : 27667827
N.D. Pancholi  Phone : 9811099532 (M)


_____



[6]

Rediiff.com, Dec 8, 2003
www.rediff.com//news/2003/dec/08green.htm
No berth for Greenpeace in Mumbai

Salil Kumar in Mumbai | December 08, 2003 17:29 IST
Last Updated: December 08, 2003 22:17 IST


The crew of the Rainbow Warrior, the flagship of the environmental
watchdog, Greenpeace, has run into rough weather with Gujarat and
Mumbai authorities.

An initiative to highlight marine pollution in Alang, Gujarat, the site
of the world's largest ship breaking yard, resulted in the ship not
being allowed to dock in Mumbai for eight days. And when they were
allowed to dock, the crew was not allowed to disembark.

The watchdog launched a three-phase 'Corporate Accountability Tour of
India' in early November to bring to light the apathy of companies when
it comes to environmental responsibility.

The first phase was in Alang; the second phase was in Mumbai, where the
crew was to conduct programmes to commemorate the Bhopal gas tragedy;
and the last phase was in Kochi where, the watchdog says, the Hindustan
Insecticides Limited, which runs the only DDT factory in the world, is
poisoning the Periyar river.

On November 12 the ship arrived at Alang and found that the Genova
Bridge, owned by V Ships Commercials, London, had beached there. The
watchdog said the Genova Bridge was laden with toxic substances like
asbestos, waste oil, sludge, the carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyl
and tributyltin, and demanded that it be sent back to Britain.

"We are not against ship breaking, but we want it done in a clean
manner," Adarsh, an Indian volunteer onboard the vessel, told
rediff.com on Sunday.

"Following protests by Greenpeace, the Ministry of Environment and
Forests directed the Gujarat Pollution Control Board to inspect the
vessel," Namrata Chowdhury, the watchdog's media manager, said. "Later,
the GPCB acknowledged that the ship did contain toxins," she added.

She said earlier Greenpeace had exposed the Hesperus, a Norwegian ship
that was sent to Alang. But at that time the authorities cleared the
ship. "This time we were successful," Chowdhury said.

But in no time the tide was turning against the Rainbow Warrior again.
Out of the blue came a directive of the Gujarat Maritime Board
requesting the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard to seize the vessel and
arrest the crew. The request, however, was turned down.

"Bhavnagar customs officials took our original papers and did not
return them, and no agent was willing to represent us in Bhavnagar,"
said Chowdhury.

They sailed for Mumbai without the papers.

"When we came to Mumbai to carry out the second phase of the programme,
the customs authorities did not allow the ship to dock. We were stuck
off the coast of Mumbai for nearly eight days," she said.

Adarsh said, "Our water reserves were running out. We had just enough
water to drink and cook. Bathing was out of question."

After a lot of lobbying, the authorities did allow the ship to dock,
but then the immigration authorities created another hurdle. The crew
-- from the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany,
Lebanon, Ghana, India, New Zealand and Australia -- was told that it
could not disembark.

"Some of the members have to be relieved. They have to take flights to
their countries. Some new people have to take charge, but all that
cannot be done now," said Adarsh.

The organisation blames "vested interests and the mafia in Gujarat" for
their plight.

"They do not want these things to come to light, because it costs them
money to detoxify the ships," Adarsh said.

Shanti Patel, ex-member of Parliament and trustee of the Mumbai Port
Trust, is one of those helping the crew.

He told rediff.com: "Greenpeace is a worldwide movement and I think
they are doing a good job. I don't know why the authorities are
behaving in this manner. It doesn't portray a good picture of our
country. All they want is that ship breaking should not be injurious to
the environment and to the people who do it.

"In fact, there have been several explosions in Alang over the past few
years and some people have died there."

The Rainbow Warrior will sail for Kochi on December 9 and the crew
hopes that it will receive a warmer reception there.

"We are used to such things. No authorities like us because they think
we are against development. Wherever we go we are stonewalled, but that
does not stop us from carrying on our work," Adarsh said, handing a
deck of cards with the name of the "most polluted ships" in the world.


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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