SACW | 13 May 2004

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  13 May,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan: Gov't, Tribesmen Back to Square One (M B Naqvi)
[2] [Kashmir, India and Pakistan] Not a healthy concoction (Kuldip Nayar)
[3] India: [Nuclear Tests] Of Pokharan and polls (J Sri Raman)
[4] India: web site of the Election Commission of India
[5] India: Full text of the Supreme Court Best 
Bakery judgement (Zahira Sheikh & Anr.Vs State of 
Gujarat) dated May 07 2004 is online
[6] India: Press Note by Narmada Bachao Andolan, May 12, 2004
[7] India: Tales of Police Violence: villagers, 
Veerappan and the STF (Bhaswati Chakravorty)
[8] Book Review: Nepal's Conflict Economy: Costs, Consequences and Alternatives
Bishwamber Pyakuryal (Shyamal Krishna Shrestha)


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

[1]

Inter Press Service
May 11, 2004

Pakistan: Gov't, Tribesmen Back to Square One
By M B Naqvi


ISLAMABAD, May 11 (IPS) - The Pakistani 
government and the country's hardy tribesmen, the 
two sides in the saga of military operations 
against Taliban members suspected to be in 
Pakistan, are again back to square one.

This is after the expiration of the May 7 
extended deadline given to the rebellious 
tribesmen in Southern Waziristan who are said to 
be sheltering them.
The expected registration of all foreign Islamic 
fanatics under the tribe's protection was a 
condition to get the Pakistan government's 
amnesty and obtain permission to go on living in 
their tribal hideouts in this South Asian country.
The only other condition was their promise - to 
be guaranteed by tribal leaders -- of not using 
Pakistani soil to attack another country (read 
Afghanistan).
That was a long time ago: Apr. 25, when the 
modalities of availing of Pakistan's offer of 
clemency were agreed between the two sides after 
military operations to go after Taliban fighters 
began in March.
This offer of clemency was undertaken through 
local members of parliament, with the alliance of 
six religious parties -- Muttaheda Majlis-i-Amal 
(MMA) -- that controls over a third of Pakistan's 
Parliament.
A deadline was fixed for when the non-Pakistanis 
hiding in the tribal areas were to register. That 
date was Apr. 30 -- but the date duly came and 
went.
The outstanding leader of the 'other side', an 
Afghan warlord still professing loyalty to the 
Taliban supremo Mullah Umar, Nek Mohammad, came 
with the mediators, negotiated some more with the 
Pakistan Army and got another deadline by which 
time registration would take place.
That was May 7, which also came and passed. Yet 
another deadline has been set: May 14.
The deadlock persists. The pro-Taliban foreign 
fighters, some of whom are said to be al-Qaeda 
operatives, dread giving their details, 
especially their photographs. They are said to be 
Uzbeks, Chechens, Uighurs from China's Xinjiang 
region, and from other Central Asian or Middle 
East countries.
They fear that Pakistan will hand over this 
information to the U.S. government, which will 
then share this information with the authorities 
of their mother countries.
It is a grave situation. These fugitives do have 
a point. But this is not likely to wash with the 
U.S. government or their proconsuls in 
Afghanistan. Islamabad, needless to say, is under 
intense pressure from those who now control 
Afghanistan.
Kabul authorities, from President Hamid Karzai 
and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzade to the 
local U.S. army commander, insist that Pakistan 
should take larger-scale military action against 
all those who use Pakistan's tribal areas as a 
base to attack targets in Afghanistan.
There are thinly veiled threats that if Islamabad 
fails to act decisively, the U.S. army will have 
to come in and do that. Words from the top in 
Washington imply the hope that Pakistan "will do 
more".
On Pakistan's side, things are fearfully complex. 
The scarcely hidden authoritarian regime of 
President Gen Pervez Musharraf and his civilian 
subordinates are committed to the U.S. cause 
since Sep. 11.
He is also committed to build 'real' democracy 
home. He credibly preaches a modernist and 
moderate Islam at home and abroad, and that is 
sweet music to the U.S. government. He is on the 
hit list of al-Qaeda, having survived three 
failed attempts on his life.
But, all said and done, it is an army-created 
government and its real sanction is the army 
underpinning it through its undercover agents.
For 30 years this army, supreme in politics, has 
been sponsoring and favouring hardline 
Islamicists. Its motto is '(Islamic) Faith, Piety 
and Jihad (in God's way)'. Earlier, thanks to the 
1980s Afghan war, this emphasis on hardline Islam 
ran the risk of infecting its officers and men, 
who had until 1970s been trained on the British 
Army model.
Now, no one knows how many of its officers and 
personnel actually sympathise with Islamic 
zealots: Taliban, al-Qaeda and other nondescript 
fanatics.
That is factor X of Pakistan politics, though 
everyone goes on emphasising that this army is a 
fine and highly disciplined force.
For 30 years the politics it has favoured, before 
Sep. 11, was that of the religious parties', 
especially Jamaat-i-Islami's. The successive 
regimes, all underpinned by the army since 1977, 
have pursued a policy in Kashmir that it called 
'jihad'.
Religious parties, especially Jamaat-I-Islami, 
have been of great help to the army in sustaining 
the over 10-year long insurgency in 
Indian-controlled Kashmir. A close relationship 
has subsisted between the army and religious 
parties, which were a team.
Some think they still are - even when, since 
January this year, there is so much ballyhoo 
about Pakistan-India friendship, which was 
largely grandstanding to please the U.S. 
government. Pakistan is actually known as the 
most anti-U.S. country. Some of it is largely a 
reaction to the vicissitudes of its 50-year-old 
friendship with the U.S. government.
It used to be the most Allied Ally of America, 
though Henry Kissinger himself is known to have 
diagnosed its troubles as 'Pactitis' (with the 
U.S.) government. Ordinary Pakistanis were 
largely influenced by the marginalised left that 
worked insidiously, making U.S. nationals the 
most hated foreigners.
The latest 'war on terror' and Iraq have only 
made the U.S. government more unpopular.
Meantime, the Pakistan military's campaign 
against the Taliban can only be regarded as a 
failure. Why? First, because the government 
suffered too many casualties -- 60 dead -- 
against rebels' 40. It felt it had to stop the 
operation. Otherwise, there was the risk of 
fuelling a general uprising of all tribes that 
would be all but impossible to quell.
Second, the rebels could not be forced to do what 
the U.S. government wanted. Indeed, the 
government got only the verbal promise from the 
tribesmen that the Taliban, al-Qaeda and others 
would not attack inside Afghanistan by using 
Pakistani territory.
Today, two deadlines later, those recalcitrants 
still have not implemented any condition under 
which Islamabad had granted them amnesty. 
(END/2004)


_____



[2]

Deccan Herald
May 12, 2004

NOT A HEALTHY CONCOCTION
BY Kuldip Nayar

IF Pakistan voted in our election, Prime Minister 
Atal Behari Vajpayee would have swept the polls. 
He is extremely popular in that country. I recall 
the Pakistanis present at Lahore did not want 
Nawaz Sharif, then the Prime Minister, to speak 
because they thought it would be an anti-climax. 
Sharif merely proposed a vote of thanks.

The Pakistanis have convinced themselves that 
Vajpayee alone can normalise relations with 
India. Their argument rests on two counts: first, 
he is the one who has persistently tried to bury 
the hatchet with Pakistan and, two, he heads the 
BJP which will never accept a solution from any 
other quarter in India.

There is a lot of truth in both the points. Not 
that any political party is opposed to good 
equation with Pakistan but the fact remains that 
the BJP's concurrence is necessary since it has 
come to represent what is known as the Hindu 
viewpoint. It may sound like resurrecting the 
two-nation theory. But the BJP's stamp is 
necessary.

However, Pakistan is mistaken if it believes that 
the two-nation theory can be extended to Jammu 
and Kashmir. India, even if the BJP is willing to 
trifurcate the state, will never agree to the 
state's division on the basis of religion. Such a 
solution can deliver a fatal blow to its 
pluralistic society.

This is what I said at Brussels where a discourse 
on Kashmir was held under the aegis of European 
Parliament. Sardar Abdul Qayyam Khan from the 
'Azad' Kashmir and Gohar Ayub Khan, former 
Pakistan foreign minister, were present. They 
raised no objection when I said that India would 
never accept any solution of Kashmir which was 
founded on religion. "We can't go back to 
partition when one million people were killed and 
20 million uprooted from their homes," I said.

I could not understand why the representatives of 
European Parliament were insistent on associating 
themselves with the talks between India and 
Pakistan. They wanted a resolution to be adopted 
for that purpose. Europe is part of the West 
which has lost its credibility after what has 
happened to Iraq at the hands of America.

What swung the opinion at the Brussels Discourse 
against European Parliament's intervention was 
the intense hatred that the fate of Iraq had 
evoked in the Islamic world. The Kashmir 
expatriates and the Pakistanis present at the 
discourse were conscious of what would happen to 
Kashmir if Europe were to be involved. It was 
satisfying to see that the offer of "good 
offices" by European Parliament was rejected.

But that does not, solve the Kashmir problem. We, 
in India, may honestly believe that Kashmir is 
the symptom and not the disease and that the 
disease is the mistrust between India and 
Pakistan. Still that mistrust will need to be 
removed. Isn't the lack of solution on Kashmir 
sustaining that mistrust?

It is possible that while tackling Kashmir we may 
stumble upon some ways to have confidence in each 
other. Beating the same old path or debating the 
discussed and re-discussed solutions may not do. 
This is not the job that can be left to the 
foreign offices or the bureaucracies in the two 
countries. They carry too much baggage of the 
past. The Pakistan Foreign Office repeated the 
other day "the right of self-determination." But 
President General Pervez Musharraf has 
realistically stated that the demand for 
implementing the UN resolutions on Kashmir was 
outmoded.

Some "innovative" solutions, as Vajpayee had 
suggested, should be found. This would require a 
non-official effort like the one on the lines of 
people-to-people contact. Such individuals from 
India and Pakistan who have no political, 
religious or other agenda of their own or of 
their governments, should meet and re-meet to 
discuss Kashmir. They may be able to draw the 
contours of a proposal which has the consensus 
behind it. Leaders from Kashmir should be 
associated at some stage so that what is worked 
out is acceptable to all the three. No time limit 
can be fixed. The beginning of the process is 
important, not the deadline.

The Indians, however, must accept the blame for 
messing up Kashmir. We have held no fair 
elections, except the one in 1977. The Election 
Commission has asserted itself in the last two 
polls, as it is doing now. The polls have been 
fairly honest despite violence and the pressure 
of boycott. The story has not been any different 
this time. Still, 40 per cent of voters in the 
state exercised their franchise. This is not a 
bad scenario.

But New Delhi should realise that Kashmir is a 
political problem, not something that the 
security forces can sort out. Many army chiefs 
have gone on record as saying that Kashmir cannot 
be solved militarily. What we have to do is to 
devise ways to stop human rights violations. The 
security forces, although curbed, continue to 
indulge in excesses. Despite strict instructions 
to the armed forces, instances of brutality have 
been quite a few. Interrogation centres have 
lessened in number but they are still there. It 
is a pity that the gun culture has got ingrained 
in the psyche of the Kashmiris and those who are 
helping or fighting them. Too much time has been 
wasted and too many people have been alienated.

Why didn't the government hold talks with the 
Hurriyat leaders in the 1990s when human rights 
activists repeatedly told it to do so? I wonder 
if posterity would ever forgive the successive 
governments at Delhi for all the harm they have 
done to Kashmir. Terrorists have, no doubt, 
disfigured what was once an honest movement for 
autonomy. But New Delhi's hands have not been 
clean. It is time for retrospection.

On the other hand, Islamabad has not allowed the 
state to settle down from day one. It has been 
driven partly by its own ambition and partly by 
its policy to keep the problem alive for home 
consumption. Pakistan has looked at Kashmir from 
the religious point of view, not from the 
Kashmiris' point view. In the process, it has 
lost the pull it once had.

The lesson both India and Pakistan have to learn 
- if the rulers can ever learn - is to keep 
religion separate from the state. New Delhi has 
been making efforts off and on without much 
success. Islamabad has had no compunction in 
mixing religion with the state, although it has 
realised belatedly, the dangers of the nexus.

Take the attempt to reform education in Pakistan. 
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute, an 
independent body, has said in a report that books 
used in schools contribute to the growth of bias 
based on religious belief and encourage 
"discrimination against minorities." The 
government has shelved the report because it 
could not even put the Quranic verse from one 
section to another of the "sacred curriculum.''

As far as India is concerned, education minister 
Murli Manohar Joshi is in the midst of changing 
books and re-writing history. If the BJP-led 
coalition returns to power, he will be like a 
bull in the China shop. Religion will be 
introduced with a vengeance in the name of 
culture or tradition.

After elections, I hope, India will go back to 
its ethos of secularism and Pakistan to its 
founder's exhortation of not mixing religion with 
the state. Unless the two countries rise above 
parochialism, they have little future.


_____


[3]


The Daily Times [Pakistan]
May 13, 2004 

OF POKHARAN AND POLLS
by J Sri Raman

Long before the official declaration of the 
election results, the claim has been belied by 
exit polls, which have provided more accurate 
pointers than the pre-election opinion polls
As I write this on May 11, there is no sign of 
India remembering the sixth anniversary of the 
Pokharan II nuclear-weapon tests. The entire 
country seems to be engrossed in the daylong 
declaration of State Assembly election results 
from Andhra Pradesh (AP), as a prelude to the 
outcome of the polls to India's Parliament. As 
this column appears in print, the new Lok Sabha 
(the Lower House of India's Parliament) will have 
begun to take shape.
On May 11, 1998, India ended what has since been 
described as an era of 'nuclear ambiguity'. Six 
eventful years later, it can be said to be 
entering a period of political ambiguity that can 
end in an equally explosive manner.
The tests came within two months of a minority 
coalition government, under Atal Behari Vajpayee, 
taking over in New Delhi. It was with much 
fanfare that the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata 
Party (BJP) announced that they had implemented 
one of the first and fundamental tasks on the 
pristine agenda of the party. In less than a year 
from then, the BJP came back to more stable power 
at the head of a stronger coalition under a more 
sainted Vajpayee.
Until the other day, the gospel, according to the 
mainstream media, was that the BJP, with its 
parliamentary-political camp of the National 
Democratic Alliance (NDA) and its 
extra-parliamentary extension of the 'parivar' 
('the family'), has been going from strength to 
strength and its leader growing into loftier and 
loftier sainthood. When the Prime Minister 
decided to dissolve the Lok Sabha months ahead of 
the due time and go for a mid-term general 
election, the media chorus was that the decision 
was only the latest in a long series of political 
masterstrokes. Pundits saw the election leading 
to an enlarged majority for the NDA and even the 
promise of single-party power for the BJP over 
the coming period.
Long before the official declaration of the 
election results, the claim has been belied by 
exit polls, which have provided more accurate 
pointers than the pre-election opinion polls. The 
pollsters might prove wrong about the precise 
figures, but it is already clear that the BJP has 
reason to rue its decision. The reason is 
reinforced by the results from AP that spell a 
decisive rout for the party's most important 
regional ally so far.
It is the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of AP chief 
minister Chandrababu Naidu, with its strong 
parliamentary presence, that has helped Vajpayee 
and the NDA survive in power whenever they needed 
such support in the games of numbers the 
politicians play. Naidu was quick to follow in 
Vajpayee's footsteps by opting to dissolve the 
State Assembly (where he enjoyed more than a 
comfortable majority) a full year ahead of 
schedule, and face simultaneous elections to the 
Assembly and the Lok Sabha. The BJP-TDP electoral 
alliance was a logical sequel, all the more so 
for the similarity of the 'developmental' planks 
adopted by the two parties.
The BJP kicked off its election campaign with the 
'India Shining' commercial and a ''feel-good' 
claim, as discussed before in these columns. The 
theme of a new economic and developmental élan 
that India was supposed to have acquired over the 
past few years was harped upon. Naidu, for his 
part, has continued to be hailed as the 'CEO of 
AP Inc'.
The Assembly election results show that the AP 
voter is not convinced that Naidu deserves such a 
title for the policies and performance 
responsible for, among other things, the mass 
peasant suicides in the State. And, if the exit 
polls are any evidence, the common Lok Sabha 
voter in many parts of the country has not 
exactly lapped up the 'India Shining' hype, 
either.
The BJP and the TDP, searching for a renewed 
political mandate, have thus ended up with 
popular verdicts against their economic policies 
and performance. The results, however, are 
unlikely to produce either a clear or stable 
political alternative. This is not only because 
of the numbers, though these may produce several 
party permutations and combinations at the cost 
of professed principles in the coming period, but 
even more so because of the nature of the 
campaign with which the Congress-led opposition 
has countered the BJP-headed alliance.
The attempt of the Congress would indeed appear 
to have been to avoid frontal opposition to the 
fascist and militarist fundamentals of the 
ideology and outlook that the BJP represents and 
Vajpayee has made respectable. Many analysts have 
commented on the manner in which the Congress has 
sought to play down its opposition to 
majoritarian communalism. Very few, however, have 
pointed to the party's conspicuous concern not to 
appear as an opponent of the perilous process of 
nuclear weaponisation initiated by the BJP rulers.
Anxious to associate itself with the process and 
even claim credit for paving the way for it with 
the 'peaceful' nuclear programmes of the past 
Congress governments, the main opposition party 
has pointedly omitted to tell the people that 
nuclear militarism is incompatible with either 
the avowed moves for South Asian peace or 
amelioration of the lot of the poor. Which is 
what makes the prospect of the post-election 
political uncertainty as dangerous as India's 
past policy of nuclear ambiguity.
The writer is a journalist and peace activist based in Chennai, India


_____


[4]


The final results of India's 2004 National 
elections will be known later today [May 13]. The 
counting of votes begins at 8 AM (Indian Standard 
Time); Results are to be progressively available 
online at the web site of the Election Commission 
of India.  (see URL below)

www.eci.gov.in



______


[5]


Full text of the Supreme Court Best Bakery 
judgement (Zahira Sheikh & Anr.Vs State of 
Gujarat) dated May 07 2004 is now available 
online at the URL below

www.sabrang.com/news/2004/2ndjudgement.pdf


______



[6]

Press Note/ May 12, 2004

FOURTH DAY OF NARMADA LAND-RIGHT SATYAGRAHA: TRIBALS PREPARE FOR NEW LIFE

"We Will Plant Tree on Degraded Forest Land. Forest is Better Protected by
Tribals"

Hundreds of displaced tribals in the Narmada valley continued the Bhoomi
Hakk Satyagraha (Land-right Satyagraha) on fourth day on Monday (May 11).
They are demanding the immediate implementation of the decisions by the
Maharashtra government for the resettlement with land before the monsoon
and subsequent submergence threatening their lives due to the raising of
the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam up to 110 meters. They made it clear
that, the Government must come forward with some piece of land where the
more than 1500 families could be resettled before the onset of monsoon, in
a fixed time frame. If this was not done, they declared that, " There will
be no option left for us but to occupy this piece of degraded forest land,
as our villages are bound to be submerged once the dam work reaches 110
meters."

On Tuesday (May 12), the forest department slammed a notice on Narmada
Bachao Andolan (NBA), against entering in the forest land. Medha Patkar in
turn alleged that the forest department had been violating the law and had
allowed over 6800 hectates of forest to be drowned in the dam.

The Satyagraha by over 200 families from the first villages from
Maharashtra, threatened with the Sardar Sarovar dam and its imminent
submergence due to the raising of dam height up to 110 m. during this
monsoon, along with the activists and supporters of Narmada Bachao Andolan
was launched on May 8, near the forest land between Somaval-Alivihir
(Dist. Nandurbar). Despite heavy downpour for two consecutive nights and
the tension created by vested political interests, the Satyagrahis
continued with their non-violent agitation and they have also started
preparing for constuctive work (nav-nirman).

The Maharashtra villagers were compelled to undertake this step as the
state government and administration again and again failed to provide
land-based resettlement, despite repeated assurances, committees and
written declarations preceded by number of dharnas (sit-in), fasts, and
negotiations. And the heavy downpour on 7,8 and 9th May confirmed the fear
- if at all needed - about the tragedy that awaits them during the
monsoon. That is why, they are now resolute to get the land-based
rehabilitation before the monsoon. That is why they have made clear that
they would be compelled to start farming on the degraded forest land, if
the government did not come with suitable chunk of land - which was
assured n-th time.

To allay fear of some of the environmentalists, the NBA made it clear
that, "there is hardly a tree on this piece of land, which officially
belongs to the Forest Department. " The trees have been chopped down long
ago. The NBA has always maintained that instead of felling trees, we will
plant and rejuvenate new forest, and that is why for this camp we have
brought kerosene and bamboo so that we do not disturb the local ecology.
The forest is best preserved, not by the Forest Department, but by the
Adivasis", it asserted.

The Maharashtra police and administration paraded the some tribals from
adjoining areas to oppose the Narmada tribals. These tribals, instigated
by the local politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party and encouraged by
the police and administration to portray the Satyagraha merely as tribal
versus tribal feud. The NBA has made it clear that the Narmada tribals do
not wish to fight with their tribal brethren and together they should
fight with the government for the land rights and titles. The state
government, if it wishes, should other suitable and large chunk of land,
for a community based resettlement of all affected villagers according to
the provisions of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT).

Nav-Nirman

The displaced tribals are determined to get the land ñbased resettlement
at least at this juncture and establish the Narmada Jeevan Gaon (Narmada
Village for Life). Veteran social worker and former bureaucrat R.V.
Bhuskute started his training in land mapping, surveying and demarcation.
The team of the Masum, a peopleís health organization, held the camp for
womenís health and other ailments. Activities are going on regarding the
education and house-construction. The Andolan has been trying to develop
all these constructive activities on the lines of alternative view of
development. Number of supporters from other parts of Maharashtra and
India are joining them to help them to re-start the life. A team of
activists from anti-Coca-Cola struggle in Plachimada (Kerala) and comrades
from Delhi, Madhya Praedsh, Delhi and other parts of Maharashtra are with
them. The villagers of Somaval resettlement site, the earlier re-settlers
from the Narmada valley, have been providing all solidarity
   and support for their brethren from their own villages and are part of
their struggle for gaining their rights.

Background

Over 1,500 from Maharashtra and 10,000 families from Madhya Pradesh are
in the submergence zone of 110 m. Despite the repeated attempts by the
Andolan like like dharna and indefinite fast in Nashik in May 2003 or in
January 2004 at Mumbai, and inspite of recommendations by state government
appointed committees like Justice Daud committee, Task Force Committee,
there is practically no progress on resettlement count. Maharashtra
government has avoided implementation of the Cabinetís own decisions taken
on January 21 and 28, whereby the state was to update its records
including the left out families and not to allow the dam height to go
beyond 100m unless rehabilitation work was completed. When adequate land
is not yet identified, records not updated, and roads not built, there is
no way the governments could save the affected familiesí houses, villages,
from drowning and devastation in this very monsoon.

Narmada valley people are determined to assert and gain their rights and
to usher in the new life, alternative development. The people in the
Narmada valley call unto all the people and organizations, who have faith
in humanity, equality and democracy, to support them from various parts
and join the new endeavour of Jeevan Gaon in the various facets of life.

Prominent Support

Meanwhile, prominent citizens including former high court judges Rajinder
Sachar, S.M. Daud, litterateur U.R. Ananthmurthy,K.N. Panikkar, M.P.
Parameswaran (Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad), political scientist
Yogesndra Yadav, former navy chief Admiral Ram Das, renowned secular
activist and scholar Asgar Ali Engineer, film maker Anand Patwardhan,
veteran political ideologue Surendra Mohan and others expressed full
support to the Land Right Satyagraha. In a statement they urged the
Maharashtra government not to see this as a law and order problem, but
deal with care and sensitivity to ensure the livelihood of Adivasis. " We
appeal to the governments to legally transfer this land to the Adivasis
who have made a claim to the land and extend government services to create
a model rehabilitation site by involving Narmada Bachao Andolan and other
civil society groups" they said.  They also urged the governments not to
permit any further construction of the dam, without completing first the
rehabilitation of all affected adivasis satisfactorily.

Suniti S.R.
Shyam Patil
Sanjay Sangvai

NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
B-13, Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda-390007 (Ph. 0265-2282232
baroda at narmada.org) 58, Gandhi Marg, Badwani, M.P.(Ph. 07290-222464
badwani at narmada.org)


______



[7]

The Telegraph [India]
May 13, 2004

SHOCK ON THE BODY
- The Sadashiva commission report on police violence should be published

Bhaswati Chakravorty

Making inquiries
"The parents being given electric shocks,/ The 
children cry 'amma' 'apa', /So they are given 
electric shocks,/ They can't cry 'amma' 'apa'./ 
Tana-nee-na nee-na ta-na/ Nee-na tana tana 
nee-na," sings the composer of this Tamil song, a 
startlingly thin 24-year-old, the only male 
survivor of a family in Oornatham village in 
Lakkampatty panchayat, some miles away from 
Mettur town in Tamil Nadu. The catchy folk-ballad 
describes the events that usually follow when 
Special Task Force [STF] men, engaged by the 
governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to catch 
Veerappan, descend on any of the villages close 
to the hilly forests that are his domain, to 
arrest "informers" or "helpers" of the now 
legendary criminal.

In the universe of inhumanities, the condition of 
the prisoners in Abu Ghraib is slightly different 
from the villagers picked up by the STF in the 
name of Veerappan. Many of them "died" in 
custody, others were released after a few days or 
months and still others were incarcerated under 
the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities 
(Prevention) Act for years without trial. There 
has been no digital camera to tell their story to 
the world.

Murugeshan, the singer, was picked up as a 
youngster and released after a few days. He 
watched his father and uncle being beaten, being 
subjected to electric shocks, hung upside down 
and beaten on the soles, and being rolled flat by 
an iron roller. He had to watch, there was no 
escape from that if your closest kin were being 
"interrogated". The two men were then shot, he 
did not see that. Murugeshan is reticent; the 
details come from his parents' friend, who had 
been with them. Rama Naicker can only limp along 
on his stick, his hands and feet useless, his 
eyes blinded by sunlight, his voice barely 
audible. Murugeshan's mother was released too, 
after going through the same routine. She is now 
"mental", like many of her fellow survivors. She 
stood by as one woman narrated how, when the STF 
came, this woman's husband said, "I cannot bear 
torture," and killed himself. Murugeshan's 
mother's eyes look and don't look, they don't 
really connect, and it seems a further violation 
to expect her to speak.

The STF picked up the biggest haul of villagers 
in 1993, after Veerappan blew up 22 people, 
including policemen and forest officials. Since 
he cannot be caught - even though the Tamil Nadu 
government claimed that the task force had 
reduced his followers to three or four and 
policemen said they had been in "viewing 
distance" of him many times - the STF must show 
something for the more than Rs 100 crore that the 
two states have spent for his capture. The 
villagers need not always be picked up. They can 
be sent into the forest, allegedly to lead STF 
men to Veerappan, and then shot in the back in an 
"encounter". Or they can be just beaten up, if 
they are buying more than two days' provisions at 
a time, because the extra must be for Veerappan. 
Mani's little brother was sleeping when the STF 
burst into the house. They beat him up. He is 
over 20 now, shuffles quietly along with his 
hands held stiffly in front and looks as though 
he might flee. He has grown up running 
frienziedly at the sight of a jeep or a uniform, 
or at the sound of a horn.

The usual pick-ups are the tribal people, who 
collect forest produce, and Veerappan's kin and 
castemen. The Vanniyars are therefore most 
vulnerable, and among them, those of the 
sub-caste Arasupadachi, to which Veerappan 
belongs. Between 1993-94, many were released from 
custody, most maimed for life and many of the 
women without their men. Mathy's husband had been 
taken. Those released seven months later told her 
that he had been set on fire. Since he refused to 
die, the STF had to poison him, they said. 
Sivagammy, of Naickerthanda village, heard after 
seven months of hopeful waiting that her husband 
had been shot nine days after being taken, that 
is, exactly nineteen days after their wedding.

But the stories stayed with the tellers for 
years, the terror was too great. It was not 
before 1995-97 that the tellers surfaced, helped 
by social work organizations that counselled them 
and gave them the courage to speak. In June, 
1999, the National Human Rights Commission, in 
response to allegations of torture and harassment 
by STF personnel, constituted a panel headed by 
A.J. Sadashiva, a former judge of the Karnataka 
high court, to look into the complaints. The 
Sadashiva commission has submitted its report 
sometime back. It is mystifying that in a land 
where the press is free, the commission is so 
little heard of, and that its report remains 
unrevealed to the public.

There have been fewer arrests in recent times, 
although a fortyish man described his month-long 
custody as late as in 2000. They all talk about 
the electric shocks, pointing first of all to the 
earlobes and then to other parts of the body - 
the inside of the mouth, for example. This man, 
like other men, was blindfolded with his hands 
tied behind his back before the electric charge 
was released. He lost all sense of time. Most of 
the released men cannot work at all: it is not 
just pain, it is that their systems do not 
function any more.

But the STF are very much around. A stranger can 
go in only for social work. In every village, the 
quietness of the glowing sky, green fields and 
rows of coconut palms on the forested slopes is 
shattered within minutes by the sputtering of the 
inevitable motorbike, as STF men cruise past to 
find out who has come. The news reaches them in a 
flash, through informants among the villagers.

In one village, two of them came up to inquire. 
The questioner looked like a well-built young 
god, and he stood astride the threshold of 
another man's house as if the place were his to 
kick aside. It was not enough for him to be told 
that the usual NGOs had come to check on the 
progress of self-help groups, a common programme 
in all the villages. Are you working only with 
torture victims? he asked. With everyone who is 
poor, was the answer. The self-help groups, which 
have become an important activity for the women, 
are deliberately composed of victims and 
non-victims, as one of the ways in which to 
reduce the victims' sense of isolation.

The men and the older women talk about their 
experiences in some detail. In Periyathanda 
village, Thippy cannot begin her day without her 
ten tablets, the pain is terrible. She cannot see 
in the sun, cannot wet her hair or feet because 
that is agony, her "internal machinery", like 
that of many others, has been shattered. Her 
husband has left her. Social workers took her to 
a specialist hospital which has prescribed 
another dose of controlled shocks. Thippy, who 
earlier tried to commit suicide, is now willing 
to go for the neurological treatment.

It is the returning spirit of the victims that 
makes them broadcast their experiences as the STF 
keeps touring the village. Thangamma insists on 
repeating at every public forum how many times a 
senior police officer had raped her during her 
three-and-a-half years in jail. No bribe will 
shut her up.

But the younger women are less open. Multiple 
rape, much of it in front of husbands, brothers 
and in-laws, and electric shocks in the vagina, 
do not encourage conversation. The adults in a 
large number of the 600 affected families are 
solely women, who can work only if they rest 
every other day.

In Mettupalaiyur village in Karungullur 
panchayat, old Chinapallai, her hands twisted out 
of shape by electric shocks and beatings, and her 
scarred legs barely managing to carry her, has 
lost her husband, four children, among them two 
sons, and a son-in-law. They have nothing, they 
say, they live because they have to. Her 
daughter, her body and mouth held together like a 
silent shrug, works in a field. Nor does Lakshmi 
feel like talking, as she settles her gaunt, 
thirty-plus body among the others gathered before 
her house in Chettipatty village in Kaveripuram 
panchayat. She and her husband were TADA 
detainees for nine years: when she came out, her 
husband and brother-in-law were dead. Perumai and 
her daughter were arrested under TADA. Perumai's 
husband, her five sons-in-law and one grandson 
are all dead. Their smiles are polite and 
humourless, their eyes brilliant and blank. 
Muthulaxmi, whose husband has left her because 
she was raped so many times, turns away angrily 
to wipe the tears that will come in spite of 
herself.

"Even our memories don't work right after the 
electric shocks, there are spells of blankness," 
says Lakshmi. There are spells of blankness for 
an observer too. At certain moments the senses 
try to shut down completely, to stop registering 
faces and eyes, the stiffly held bodies, the 
hands. The mind wants to cower and hide.

In spite of the STF's repeated efforts to stall 
gatherings, the NGOs managed to hold a large 
meeting in Martapalli on the border on March 18 
to argue against the death penalty of the four 
remaining TADA prisoners. The court has postponed 
the execution. Medical camps have been foiled by 
STF efforts at the last minute, although one held 
sometime ago shocked the doctors who came. But 
even now, local doctors refuse to give victims 
written prescriptions. Torture should not be 
recognized by law-abiding citizens of the state, 
which is trying so hard to protect them from one 
dangerous criminal.

But some of the victims' children are now being 
given aid to study. Many want to be lawyers: they 
want to fight human rights violations. The NGOs 
have trained a few victims as volunteers in the 
campaign, Murugeshan and Mani are volunteers. So 
is Murugan, lanky and fragile with childlike 
eyes, radiating a determination that makes 
Murugeshan say of the STF, "They are afraid of us 
now."

Murugan was arrested with his family when he was 
12. He and his father were in prison for eight 
years, where they drove nails into his feet. 
Reportedly the second youngest child in India to 
have been incarcerated, he shows where his feet 
still hurt to walk. His younger brother was 
released from custody, but not until electric 
shocks had been tried on the little boy to see 
what he could say about Veerappan.

It means a lot to them that they can now face the 
STF, that they can speak out to the world. They 
need legal, medical and psychological help, and 
livelihood options, all of which the NGOs are 
trying to address. But most of all, they are 
demanding that elusive and intractable thing 
called justice; monetary aid is not an answer.

They have all deposed before the Sadashiva 
commission, whatever it cost them, for one reason 
alone: what has happened to them should never 
happen to anyone else. If this means anything to 
the rest of the country, it is time to demand 
that the report of the commission be made public.

______


[8]


Nepali Times [Nepal]
7-13 May 2004

Development amidst war
"Wars are devastating wherever they occur." - 
UNDP Human Development Report, 1997

For Nepal, mired in poverty and ravaged by 
conflict, the ramifications of the nine-year 
Maoist insurgency is severe for the economy and 
development and leading Nepali economist, 
Bishwambar Pyakuryal,explores the link between 
conflict and the economy in his new book, Nepal's 
Conflict Economy: Costs, Consequences and 
Alternatives.

Pyakuryal's objective is to develop a methodology 
for calculating the economic cost from the Maoist 
insurgency, review the impact of the conflict on 
the economy, establish links between 
underdevelopment and conflict, and make policy 
recommendations for public policy in the current 
scenario. In its approach paper to the Tenth 
Plan, the government has stated that Nepal's 
negative growth rate of 0.6 percent during the 
last fiscal year 2001/02 of the Ninth Plan could 
be primarily attributed to escalation of the 
conflict. Another non-government study has 
estimated an average loss of 1.25 percent of GDP 
since 1997. Trends like declining production, 
falling exports, shift from tradable commodities 
to non-tradable commodities and increased aid 
dependency indicate economic stagnation.

Rural-to-urban migration is pressurising civic 
infrastructure and leaving whole villages without 
able-bodied labour. Both farms and firms are 
operating below capacity levels and cost overruns 
have become a normal feature of business. By 
identifying Nepal's poor performance in meeting 
human development goals as the primary cause of 
the insurgency, Pyakuryal ignores other issues 
like unequal production relations and the 
perpetuation of a growth process that has been 
neither rapid nor equitable until today.

Given the conflict has put a strain on scarce 
resources, how can growth be fostered? Unless a 
resolution to the conflict is found, the economy 
will continue to reel under the 'shock'. In the 
immediate future, Pyakuryal proposes that the 
state forge partnerships with non-state actors 
(both the 'revolutionaries' and the private 
sector). It is unlikely that the Maoists will 
suddenly have a change of heart.

Donors threaten to cut aid if the situation 
worsens. An expansionist fiscal policy is 
proposed so that investment, employment and, 
ultimately, growth are stimulated. It is doubtful 
that such a policy will suffice. State-owned 
banks are faced with mounting debts and 
non-performing assets, insurgents frequently rob 
public banks and everyone is subject to extortion.

The contributors echo the need to intervene 
meaningfully rather than be complacent with 
macroeconomic stability. Once peace is restored, 
the economy will rebound. Large-scale 
reconstruction and development strategies to 
address the roots of the conflict must be 
tackled. Therein lies Nepal's future prosperity.

NEPAL'S CONFLICT ECONOMY: COSTS, CONSEQUENCES AND ALTERNATIVES
BISHWAMBER PYAKURYAL
Nepal Economic Association, Kathmandu. 2004.

Shyamal Krishna Shrestha is a Research Associate 
at Institute for Integrated Development Studies 
(IIDS), Kathmandu.



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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South 
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
The complete SACW archive is available at: 
bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

South Asia Counter Information Project a sister 
initiative, provides a partial back -up and 
archive for SACW:  snipurl.com/sacip
See also associated site: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.

--