SACW | 13 June 2004 [Sri Lanka / Pakistan /Bangladesh / India]
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Sat Jun 12 22:14:55 CDT 2004
South Asia Citizens Wire | 13 June, 2004
via: www.sacw.net
[1] The Sri Lankan Peace Process (Asoka Bandarage)
[2] Pakistan: Remembering Zamir Niazi (Beena Sarwar)
[3] Pakistan: The challenge is real; the danger
clear and present (edit., The Daily Times)
[4] Pakistan: Seen obscene (Sarwat Ali)
[5] Sri Lanka: Buddha Bar music seized in Sri Lanka (BBC)
[6] Bangladesh: In Bangla Bhai's Emirate Of Terror (Hena Khan)
[7] India - Gujarat: CID questions Gujarat human rights activist (news Report)
+ Text of Press Statement by activists on
police harassment of human rights defenders
[8] India: SAHMAT convention to withdraw Saffronised NCERT Textbooks
+ Reverse `Joshi legacy,' say academics (News Report)
[9] India: Press Release - Coalition for Nuclear
Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India, considers
the latest UN Resolution 1546 (June 8, 2004) a
shameful capitulation to the US.
--------------
[1]
[SACW Special, June 13, 2004]
THE SRI LANKAN PEACE PROCESS
by Prof. Asoka Bandarage
(Text of a Talk given at the Conference of the
National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs,
The Cosmos Club, Washington D.C. in May 2004)
Mass discontent with the handling of the peace
process led to the defeat of the UNP (United
National Party) led government in Sri Lanka at
the snap elections held on April 2 this year.
Appeasement of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam), the partiality of the Norwegian
facilitators towards the LTTE and the threats to
the country's sovereignty were some of the
reasons for the opposition to the UNP. The
current SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) led
government came into power promising to make
substantial changes in the peace negotiations. It
promised to make the peace process inclusive and
transparent and to fine-tune the role of the
facilitator.
Since the elections, however, the Sri Lankan
political situation seems to be even more chaotic
and fragile than it was previously. The SLFP led
coalition does not have a clear majority of votes
in the parliament. Like its predecessor, the UNP
led coalition, the current government may become
dependent on the votes of the TNA (Tamil National
Alliance) for its political survival. As the TNA
is a proxy of the LTTE, it allows the latter to
exercise undue pressure on the ruling coalition.
The new government has accepted the LTTE as 'the
sole representative of Tamils'. It has also
allowed the Norwegian facilitators to return and
be involved in the affairs of the country,
seemingly without new conditions and guidelines.
The LTTE has warned that the war could resume if
its conditions are not met. An LTTE spokesman has
told Japan, the biggest donor, that all
international aid to Sri Lanka must be stopped if
the LTTE proposal for an Interim Self Governing
Authority (ISGA) in the North and the East of the
island is not accepted. The LTTE has also made
overtures to India asking for 'better
understanding' from Congress Party leader, Sonia
Gandhi. The ISGA proposal presented last year is
a blue print for a separate state. It does not
come within the framework of the cease fire which
began in December 2001 and the MOU signed between
the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE in
February 2002.
During the course of the cease fire, the LTTE has
been politically and militarily strengthened
while the government of Sri Lanka has been
weakened. The LTTE is said to have killed 44
intelligence operatives of the Sri Lankan
government during this period. The LTTE has
brought in illegal ship loads of weapons and
built up its arms base, continued forcible
recruitment of child soldiers, engaged in
extortion, abductions, silencing and killing of
political dissidents. Relatives of Tamil victims
have attributed 38 political killings to the LTTE
during the cease fire up to September 2003. These
are documented, for example, in the recently
published Report of the Human Rights Commission
which is represented by legal experts from the
Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities.
The April 2004 elections in Sri Lanka were
exceptionally peaceful, but, the elections in the
Northern and Eastern Provinces dominated by the
LTTE were ridden with violence and fraud. It is
reported that even the head of the TULF (Tamil
United Liberation Front) did not cast his vote
due to threats on his life. There are several
pending court cases calling for the annulment of
the elections in the north and the east. Despite
widespread intimidation, killings and rigging,
the TNA got only 41.4% of the votes in the
Eastern Province.
Not all Tamil political parties and organizations
accept the LTTE as the 'sole representative of
Tamils'. The emergence of a break-away LTTE
organization in the Eastern Province, under the
renegade leader Karuna, further challenges the
LTTE's claim to sole representation. Apparently,
a pamphlet being distributed in the
Batticola-Ampara region in the East blames the
'autocratic and dictatorial tendencies' of the
LTTE leader in the North for the killing of LTTE
cadres in the East in the on-going battle between
the two factions. The pamphlet warns the public
to refrain from upholding the LTTE leader
Prabahkaran as the 'Tamil national
leader'.
The discontent is not limited to dissident
Tamils. Muslims, especially those in the East who
have suffered human rights violations under the
LTTE may get drawn into violence and may
intensify demand for a separate administrative
unit of their own in the East. The Sinhalese who
hold 50% of the land in the East have also
experienced massive human rights violations and
ethnic cleansing. Neither the Muslims nor the
Sinhalese, who, together constitute over two
thirds of the population in the contentious
Eastern Province, have representation in the
peace process, as it is currently conceived.
There is a growing concern among the majority
population that successive Sri Lankan
governments' dependence on minority electoral
blocs has led to the neglect of Sinhala Buddhist
rights throughout the country. This concern was
reflected in the loss of votes by both the UNP
and the SLFP at the last elections and the
massive expansion of the electoral strength of
the leftist JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) and
the emergence of the JHU (Jathika Hela Urumaya).
The JVP, a member of the ruling coalition
government, opposed the MOU, the ISGA proposal of
the LTTE and Norwegian facilitation of the peace
process. Perhaps, even more importantly, the JVP
promised to attend to the much neglected economic
concerns of the masses. The JHU came into being
just one week prior to the April elections as the
first-ever party of Buddhist monks and it brought
nine saffron-robed monks into the Parliament. The
JHU represents a desperate move on the part of
Buddhists who have felt marginalized by the peace
process, the international NGOs and widespread
Christian evangelical conversions to bring
attention to their survival.
Violence and threats to peace are on the increase
in Sri Lanka. Fighting between the LTTE northern
and eastern wings and skirmishes between Tamils
and Muslims continue in the Eastern Province. In
addition, there have been disturbances in the
plantation areas in the Central Province
recently. If opportunistic Tamil and Sinhala
politicians are allowed to mobilize discontent
along ethnic lines, there could be massive
upheavals in that region in the future. Large
caches of arms have been found in the capital,
Colombo, and the Norwegian ambassador's residence
was stone-pelted during the Norwegian
independence celebrations recently. Unless, the
underlying grievances of all communities are
addressed, new forms of political extremism are
likely to emerge aggravating the already unstable
political situation.
Practically everyone in Sri Lanka desires peace
and wants the cease fire to hold. There is a
consensus that the solution does not lie in a
return to armed conflict. There is also a common
understanding that it is necessary to work with
the LTTE in order to avert war. Yet, at the same
time, the vast majority of people in the country,
Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims do not want
appeasement of terrorism in the name of peace.
They want a sustainable peace, a peace that
upholds human rights, political pluralism and
democracy.
The United States has maintained a consistent
policy condemning LTTE human rights violations
and upholding the ban on the LTTE as an
international terrorist organization. Recently,
the United States also called the LTTE to give up
arms. The new government in India has also taken
a firm stand to continue the proscription of the
LTTE. Pressure must also be put on the LTTE by
other members of the international donor
community, Japan, Europe and Australia, to
respect democratic norms, human rights and
political and cultural pluralism. Sri Lanka
stands to lose not only her sovereignty but her
heritage of ethnic pluralism and democracy. If a
mono-ethnic, totalitarian regime is installed in
the north and the east and if Sri Lanka descends
into anarchy and becomes another 'failed state',
the loss will not be hers alone. It will have
significant regional and international
repercussions.
(Asoka Bandarage, (Yale, Ph.D.) is a professor of
Asian Studies at Mount Holyoke College and
Visiting Scholar at the Elliott School for
International Affairs at George Washington
University. She is the author of Colonialism in
Sri Lanka (Mouton) and many other publication on
Sri Lanka and global peace and development. She
is currently writing a book on the conflict and
the peace process in Sri Lanka.)
_____
[2]
The News International [Pakistan]
June 13, 2004
Our 'Zamir'
Beena Sarwar
'Zamir' in Urdu means 'conscience', and that is
what Zamir Niazi, that great chronicler of media
freedoms and censorships was to so many of us -
our conscience. His death on June 11, 2004 is a
huge blow to those struggling for freedom and
justice in Pakistan.
His frail, white-clad figure belied the steel
within, and the formidable will power that kept
him going long past his doctors' predictions.
Till the last, he was working, perched at the
edge of his bed, over-sized glasses dominating
his thin, broad-browed face framed by long hair,
surrounded by books, papers and other references,
a telephone set handy by his side.
Uncharacteristically for a man of his generation,
he had no hesitation in picking up that telephone
to call a younger colleague in appreciation of a
recently published article, to share outrage at,
yet, another violation of media freedom and ask
what the journalists' community was doing about
it. Each successive blow to media freedom in
Pakistan saddened him, but you could almost see
the gleam in his eyes as he rose to the
challenges these restrictions posed, even as you
strained to hear his soft voice over the phone.
Or he would call to seek information - usually,
references for something he had read or heard
about. A meticulous indexer, he sought the
original source. He never took such help for
granted, often ringing again later to voice his
thanks.
Zamir Niazi was a symbol of the fight for a free
media and freedom of expression. A voracious
reader, he was totally un-acquisitive in the
material sense - except when it came to his
passion, books and journals. His trailblazing
first book, 'Press in Chains', 1986, published by
the Karachi Press Club, ran to several editions.
The Zia regime still enforced press censorship in
a crude and heavy-handed way - very different
from the subtler, hidden constraints and
pressures of the present day dominated, by what
Zamir Sahib deridingly called 'presstitutes',
controlled by the corporate sector and
self-censorship.
'Press under Siege' (1992) and 'The Web of
Censorship' (1994) firmly established him as a
one-man institution on media rights and
responsibilities. He was awarded the HRCP's Nisar
Osmani Award for Courage in Journalism, 1997,
named after another outstanding and courageous
journalist, who like him was a not just a man of
words, but deeds.
When the government banned six newspapers at one
go in 1995, Zamir Niazi demonstrated the moral
fibre that few possess, by returning his
prestigious Pride of Performance award, along
with its accompanying Rs50,000, to President
Farooq Leghari. His letter to Leghari was
unrelenting in its condemnation in a letter to
the President: "Never in the bleak history of
Pakistan, not even under the tyrants who have
ruled over us, have six newspapers been banned by
the stroke of a single pen, using the cover of
the draconian Maintenance of Public Order
Ordinance 1960. This was done by the government
of the State you head, without it having assigned
any justifiable specific reason. An appeal
against an order passed under the MPO Ordinance
lies only (with) the government. This is
tantamount to appealing to Nero for relief
against a death sentence handed down by Nero."
When Nawaz Sharif's government persecuted the
Jang group in 1998, ostensibly over tax returns
but actually because of plans to launch a
television news channel, Zamir Niazi, was at the
demonstrations despite ill health.
The nuclear explosions of 1998 pushed him into
editing 'Zameen ka Nauha' (Elegy for the Earth),
an Urdu anthology of anti-nuclear poems and
essays, published on the second anniversary of
Pakistan's tests (Scherezade, Karachi, 2000).
Even when ill health made him almost house bound,
he never complained. "We must meet," he
good-humouredly told my father, "but we old
people now have to be carried around everywhere!"
Always happy to receive visitors, he was an
entertaining host, with his incisive analyses of
the present political situation, laced with
gentle humour. "Aray, how could you go to my city
alone, you should have taken me along in your
suitcase," he joked when I returned from Bombay
after attending the World Social Forum there. It
turned out that his mother had just passed away
there - typically, he conveyed the information
without sentimentality.
Young at heart and forward-looking, he lived in
the present and for the future, taking on in his
last years a project that a younger person would
have quailed at - censorship worldwide, through
the ages. His anger at the destruction of
precious records in Iraq catalysed him into even
more feverish activity towards completing the
book, to be titled, 'Books in Chains, Libraries
in Flames' - a culmination of his life's works
that he knew was a race against time.
Zamir Niazi lost that race, but someone should
pick up the material he so painstakingly
collected, and complete it. That would be a
fitting tribute to our Zamir.
_____
[3]
The Daily Times
11 June 2004
EDITORIAL:
The challenge is real; the danger clear and present
The deadly morning ambush in Karachi on the
motorcade of the Karachi corps commander
Lieutenant-General Ahsan Saleem Hayat which left
six soldiers, three policemen and a civilian dead
shows some facts clearly: the terrorists are
alive and well, they have the means, resources
and the motivation to mount attacks on high-value
targets, and from now onwards top commanders of
the army will be on their hit list. But the
attack itself is important only in the larger
context in which the state has operated and
continues to do so on the one hand and the
terrorists have responded to state actions on the
other hand. What does this mean?
We have repeatedly said in this space that the
state is responsible for putting itself in the
belly of the beast. Today’s events can be traced
back to a concerted effort at multiple levels by
the state to pursue certain policies and, in
doing so, create a certain kind of ‘Pakistani’.
That ‘Pakistani’, now come of age, denotes not
just a fanatic but also a mindset. Now that the
state purportedly is trying to reform itself, the
‘Pakistani’ it has created wants to have none of
that. He is striking back. And of course he is
allied with international terrorism, much of
which is emanating from Pakistan for much the
same reasons of state policy in the past.
The irony should not be lost on anyone. The
hotbed of Muslim extremism was the Middle East,
primarily Egypt and Algeria. Syria tackled the
problem of Muslim Brotherhood in February 1982
when Hafiz Asad crushed the uprising in Hama and
razed the city to the ground. Egypt and Algeria
too had to take stringent measures to put down
the Gama’, Al-Jihad, the FIS and the GIA. But
Pakistan did not have such an ‘extremist’
problem. For all its political uncertainties, it
allowed the religious parties to play a role. And
despite their social conservatism and
retrogressive attitude towards women and
minorities, their cadres were not radicalised
into terrorism. But all this began to change
after the Afghan war when we ‘handled’ the jihad
in Afghanistan. Later, we meddled in Afghanistan
and created an unholy linkage between our
Afghanistan and Kashmir policies.
For many years independent observers continued to
point to the fallout of these flawed policies.
But the state had its own calculus to determine
costs and benefits. Laws were Islamised on the
basis of a literalist exegesis, syllabi were
tempered with and distorted, the official media
were used to project a certain kind of worldview,
the ‘independent’ newspapers were either coerced
or co-opted to do the same...in short, an
environment was created in which free thinking,
inquiry and rationalism was put to the sword. The
point is that the state not only supported
certain groups to push its policies outside but
created an environment inside which could get
willing recruits for these groups to keep
operating.
The events of September 11, 2001, have forced the
state to change its orientation. But the
‘Pakistani’ it has created does not want to
change. He considers it a great betrayal to
change as required after 9/11. So the state is
not only up against society, it also has within
itself cliques of people who do not accept
General Pervez Musharraf’s policy turnarounds.
But even as General Musharraf has effected his
volte-face externally, he remains unconvinced of
the requirement to pursue that policy internally.
This has created major contradictions; worse it
has stirred a hornet’s nest and not prepared
itself to face the consequences. The army still
thinks it can run with the hare and hunt with the
hounds. Well, it can’t.
General Musharraf had an opportunity to get this
country out of the morass into which his
predecessor General Zia-ul Haq had pushed it. He
could have used his unfettered power to that end.
Instead, he chose to pursue the unholy alliance
with the religious elements and jihadi-sectarian
groups for purely opportunistic and personal
reasons. The sad part is that even after the
bloodshed and after General Musharraf himself has
been attacked and faced the threat of
elimination, there does not appear to be any
understanding among his advisors of the
contradictions built into the system he has put
in place. The biggest indication of internal
threat to a country comes when its army is
attacked. We have seen that happen in South
Waziristan; we have now seen it happen in Karachi.
It is no coincidence that the two states that
today face the gravest danger from extremist
terrorism are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Both
have been allies in the cloak-and-dagger stuff
that started with the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. The House of Saud thought it could
bribe its way out of its troubles; the Pakistan
army always thought it could not be threatened by
its own creation. Both were clearly wrong. Both,
therefore, need to change their own orientation.
If General Musharraf wants things to improve, he
will have to get out of his one-step forward,
two-steps backwards approach. For starters, he
will have to abandon his political alliance with
the mullahs. Then he will have to broaden his
domestic political support base by co-opting
those political forces that can identify with his
secular agenda. The threat to Pakistan is clear
and present. Now that he has taken the plunge, he
cannot cross the chasm in two leaps. He needs to
review his operational as well as political
strategy to tackle elements who are very clear
about what they want to do. They want to remove
him and turn Pakistan into a state that can
challenge the world on the basis of its nuclear
weapons. This he must prevent at all costs. At
the very least, it demands of him to look at the
national interest rather than the perceived
corporate interests of the military or his own
personal ones.
_____
[4]
The News on Sunday [Pakistan]
June 13, 2004
Seen obscene
What are the limits of official interference in
the functioning of a society? Why do we need new
laws in the presence of the old ones? It is
question time as the Punjab Assembly threatens to
make immorality in art a more punishable offence
than before
By Sarwat Ali
It appears that the Punjab government is finally
being influenced enough by its counterpart in the
North-West-Frontier-Province. It has referred a
bill, which calls for 'making the indulgence in
eroticism, indecency, immorality and obscenity in
the name of art and culture' a punishable
offence, to a standing committee. The proposed
law prescribes a jail term of three months or a
fine of Rs 100,000 or both for the violators.
A work of art considered to be obscene is already
covered by law and is an offence. The existing
law disallows indecency in art and culture, but
does not provide a penalty for the violators. It
seems that the penalizing clauses present in the
country's code of laws are not being considered
harsh enough and so the need has arisen for the
tabling of this new bill by Punjab Assembly
members belonging to the Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal
(MMA) which, if anything, will only end up
stifling the freedom of expression.
That the bill has been tabled by the MMA should
come as no surprise. The alliance's agenda is
driven by the clear demarcation of black and
white. That what is not good is evil and the grey
areas need to be eliminated. Since all art is
constantly preoccupied with the challenges
embedded in these grey areas, this activity has
always been viewed with suspicion and fear.
History is full of instances where artists were
held responsible for exceeding the prescribed
limits set by society, both in their imagination
and lifestyle. The MMA, true to its agenda, is
striving to re-set the limit. What is worrisome,
though, is that the other members belonging to
various political parties have not expressed
their reservation on the effects that such
legislation will trigger.
The legislators perhaps want to appear to be
doing their work seriously when they pass laws
which are more stringent than the laws that
already exist. At times one gets the impression
that making the laws more stringent is an act
that is seen to exonerate the lawmakers from all
blame, including their lack of purposeful
activity as members of an elected assembly.
Perhaps it is also an effort to hit at soft
targets. The people against whom these laws have
been passed can do little to hit back. They are
not as powerful and influential as to demand a
tooth for a tooth and eye for an eye. It is far
easier to pass bills against people who cannot
retaliate in any substantial way -- to offset the
fine balancing act that goes into the formation
and running of a government.
It betrays, though, the thinking of the
government and its approach towards the society
that it wants to create. By passing punishable
clauses, signals are sent that the government
wants to rule by stringent legislation rather
than by creating a society where the state is not
required to breathe down the necks of its
citizens.
The moot point is whether the rulers are
confident enough to offer to society greater
freedoms in the sense of not passing such
stringent laws that make the freedom of
expression only possible through a loophole. Or
to pass one legislation after another that
creates an atmosphere of terror and fortifies the
need for self censorship to the extent that it
becomes impossible to think and express freely. A
government can function within the framework of
good governance by offering incentives, building
platforms and sponsoring artistic activity that
encourages creative expression rather than taking
steps to limit and curtail it.
This is also a replay of an endemic problem. Laws
about everything and anything are present in the
country, yet more laws are passed on the same
subject to cover up for the lack of
implementation of the existing laws. The real
problem that the existing laws are not
implemented is sidetracked.
Where art is concerned, it is well neigh
impossible to set the limits of decency. Some of
the great writers of the world -- Manto being one
of them, have not only been accused of obscenity,
but also sentenced for their writings. The
earlier works of Zola were considered to be too
obscene to be seen in the homes of the
respectable in Paris and not sold in shops
openly. They had to be bought under the counter.
D. H Lawrence, too, was seen to be very vulgar
and in the times that he lived, had to keep
moving around the continent to avoid persecution.
And the films were also very harshly judged by
the then prevalent ethical code. When Clarke
Gable uttered the word 'damn' in 'Gone with the
Wind' all hell broke loose for it was considered
to be too vulgar by the moral standards of those
times. Compared to the language that is used and
the exposure of the human flesh in films these
days, all that was extremely tame and not even
worthy of being mentioned was objectionable in
those times.
In Pakistan when the first pop music programme,
Music 89, was to be televised by the state run
Pakistan Television Corporation, the stations
were picketed by zealots to stop the programme
from being aired in the name of upholding the
eastern moral values.
Now what we see on all the channels is nothing
but music videos and so much more daring than
Music 89 that it seems as tame as the utterance
of the word damn and not even worthy of being
mentioned.
The world is changing very fast and what was held
reprehensible in the past is commonplace now. The
change is manifest here as well. In the desire to
retain purity of values the society can be both
isolated from the international community and
subjected to harsh penalizing set of legislation
at home. The example of the Taliban is too close
and vivid for us to realise that such policies
can lead a society to a dead end. There are other
countries in the world where stringent do's and
don'ts have left no space for artistic activity.
Some of these countries consider art and culture
to be frivolous and some import art and culture
for entertainment on specific occasions.
Another basic problem with such legislation is
that it is most likely to be used selectively.
The state keeps churning out laws which in any
case are contrary to the spirit of the times. The
emphasis now is on making the role of the
government circumscribed. The smaller governments
compared to the bigger and larger governments of
the past is the catchphrase these days and what
all that goes with, is not only limited to
privatisation, disinvestment and pulling the
government out of economic activity, but of
genuinely reducing the role of the government in
all spheres including that of the arts.
The government once had a major role to play in
the promotion of culture and education. In the
communist and socialistic societies the
responsibility fully fell on the shoulders of the
government and was enshrined in the constitution
while in the social democratic states the main
burden was shifted on to the shoulders of the
state funded institutions. But the accusation
that it hampered the freedom so very essential
for the creation of art could not be escaped. The
governments were accused and at times rightly so
for promoting writers, poets and artists who
favoured the point of view advanced by the
government in power.
The move to limit the role of the government
becomes a very sensitive subject when it grates
on areas like freedom of expression and
censorship. It is so very tempting to sound self
righteous and frame policies that are more in the
crusading sense of cleansing societies of evil
and faithlessness. In this zeal, the government
always encroaches upon the rights of its
citizens. It should not remain the only standard
of right and wrong, the only arbiter of what is
good intellectually and morally -- this has to
evolve from pluralism reflective of the diversity
of the people's views.
Art police
Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has been involved
in several similar drives earlier, especially in
the Frontier where it has a government of its
own. A brief mention of the few moves made in the
recent times explains what goes on in the minds
of those who assigned themselves the task of
'purging the society of its ills.'
Soon after coming into power in the province, the
Majlis passed a resolution for the enforcement of
'shariah'. It was also at the same time that the
federal information ministry issued a circular
declaring a 'crusade against obscenity in print
and electronic advertisements'. The circular
aimed at ensuring that advertisements were
"reflective of our values, culture and religion".
It was, in fact, issued to enforce an earlier
recommendation by the Council of Islamic Ideology
(CII) -- a constitutional body that advises the
government on Islamisation of laws, rules and
regulations.
After passing the 'shariah' resolution, MMA
government embarked on a crackdown against
cinemas screening what the religious alliance
thought were vulgar movies and 'immoral'
billboards. In another MMA-inspired drive,
thousands of videocassettes and compact discs
(CDs) were collected from almost 400 shops in
Peshawar and destroyed. Then came the campaign to
smear billboards with paint because they showed
women models. Even the image of a well-covered
Pakistani woman promoting a brand of soap,
washing powder or soft drink was considered
enough to provoke 'negative' feelings and hence
the wrath against it.
In November 2003, activists of Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam (Fazal) seized posters and greeting
cards with women's pictures on them, particularly
those of Indian actresses, from shopkeepers in
Peshawar. They tore apart posters displayed at
several music centres in gross violation of the
orders passed by the provincial government which
clearly prohibited them from taking the law into
their hands.
The last but not the least is MMA's drive to put
a ban on the activities of the artistes working
in Peshawar's Dabgari Bazaar. Though the
government had to relent later in the face of
intense criticism by national and international
media, it still imposed some restrictions on the
musicians before allowing them to resume their
work. But the damage had been done, encouraged by
the government action, some residents of Peshawar
organised into a group Tehrik Nijat-e-Fahashi
(Anti-obscenity Movement) with the support of
local politicians. The members of the group
accuse the artistes of promoting immorality.
But the march against 'obscenity' does not stop
on the western side of the Indus. It was Lahore's
turn next. A crackdown was launched by the
district government against dances in theatrical
performances. Many stage artistes, playwrights
and producers under the leadership of actor
Sohail Ahmed also supported the government drive.
-- TNS report
_____
[5]
BBC News
10 June, 2004, 17:40 GMT 18:40 UK
Sri Lanka bans offensive images
Buddha is revered by most of the Sri Lankan population
Customs officials and police and customs in Sri
Lanka have been told to seize Buddha Bar music
and bikinis with Buddha images, officials say.
The music - which originates from a nightclub in
Paris - and the swimwear have been deemed by the
authorities as potentially offensive to Buddhists.
Some Buddhists have called for a strict
enforcement of laws that stop the commercial use
of religious symbols.
Buddhists comprise nearly 70% of the island's population of 19m people.
Commercial exploitation
The attorney-general ordered the seizures after
Buddhist monk Daranaagama Kusaladhamma petitioned
the Supreme Court to ban bikinis with Buddha
images.
The monk argued that prohibitions should also be
placed on candles in the shape of the Buddha and
Buddha Bar albums which carry pictures of the
Buddha.
Buddha Bar music is mostly instrumental lounge
music which originates from a Paris night club
that has become so popular that similar
establishments have opened up all over the world.
Mr Kusaladhamma argued in court that the
commercial exploitation of the Buddha's image
hurt the sentiments of most of Sri Lanka's
population.
The court on Tuesday said no new ban was needed.
But it accepted the attorney-general's arguments
that police and customs should strictly enforce
existing laws which prevent the exploitation of
religious symbols.
Pirated CDs of the Paris Buddha Bar are sold in
Sri Lanka for just over a dollar.
_____
[6]
Outlook
June 21, 2004
BANGLADESH
In Bangla Bhai's Emirate Of Terror
A rabid Mullah Omar clone wreaks havoc on the
country's 'moderate Islamic' image
HENA KHAN
REAL NAME: SIDDIQUL ISLAM Guilty of torturing,
killing eight Left activists ; Member of the
Jamaat-e-Islami till '98; quit courtesy its
decision to accept women leaders; Joined Jagroto
Muslim Janata Bangladesh, which wants to
establish a Taliban-type state ; He is its
operations chief and member of its highest
policymaking body
He is Bangladesh's Mullah Omar, intolerant,
fanatical and, yes, charismatic. Like the
erstwhile Taliban supremo, his avowed goal is to
establish a society based on the Islamic model
laid out in the Quran and the Hadith (tradition)
of Prophet Mohammad. Quite worryingly, he isn't
averse to killing his opponents in cold blood.
That's Siddiqul Islam aka Bangla Bhai, leader of
the Jagroto Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), who
thrust himself into the country's popular
consciousness-and in media headlines-through the
grisly torture and killing of eight members of
the banned Leftist group, Sarbahara (Have-Nots)
Party, over the past few months.
The emergence of Bangla Bhai underlines the
concerted challenge a clutch of Islamic militant
groups pose to Bangladesh's reputation as a
"moderate Muslim country". Prime Minister Khaleda
Zia was alarmed enough to issue orders of arrest
against the Mullah Omar clone. But the nation's
woes have continued to mount. A bomb explosion at
the holy shrine of Hazrat Shah Jalai in Sylhet in
May killed four people and injured
Bangladesh-born British high commissioner Anwar
Choudhury and 80 others. In April, a huge cache
of sophisticated arms was seized in raids on two
militant hideouts at Satikthhari village,
Chittagong district. Add to these the
intermittent threats the militant outfits have
been issuing against the minority Ahmadiya sect
countrywide and the picture you have is of
impoverished Bangladesh struggling to keep at bay
the radical Islamism nibbling at its soul.
No wonder, Christina Rocca, the US assistant
secretary of state for South Asia, flew into
Dhaka last month, much to the chagrin of the Zia
government. Rocca met the leaders of the
beleaguered 1,00,000-strong Ahmadiya community
and told reporters, "This country (Bangladesh)
has a long tradition as a moderate and tolerant
place.... The problems faced by the Ahmadiya sect
have made us concerned because it looks like if
things might be getting off tract a little."
About her visit, a western diplomat said,
"Rocca's visit was different from her earlier
visits, as things are changing in Bangladesh. It
is the first alert buzz of that fact." Dhaka,
however, reiterated that these were stray
incidents, and that it would tackle such militant
groups with a tough hand. But Rocca's statement
did embarrass the four-party alliance government,
which includes religious parties like the
Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikkya Jote.
And now it is the turn of the Indian government
to ring alarm bells. Opposition leader Sheikh
Hasina raised the issue of Islamic militancy with
Veena Sikri, the Indian high commissioner in
Dhaka. Sikri did not express her own views but a
source in the Indian high commission told
Outlook, "Obviously, security matters in
Bangladesh concern India as a neighbouring
country." Especially the cache of sophisticated
weapons found in Chittagong. Says the source, "We
have asked during border talks and at other
levels about the origins of weapons and their
destination. Such cache of weapons could land in
the hands of separatist elements in India. We are
constantly monitoring these developments."
The growing strength of militant groups and their
attempts to push Bangladesh to rightwing
extremism is a worry for India because of its
recent history. Islamic radicals and their
slogans of jehad have created havoc on India's
northern borders.
New Delhi wouldn't want a new flank to open in
the east, already riven by secessionism.
The disquiet in foreign missions is also because
of the general perception, often articulated in
the media here, about the fundamentalist
Jamaat-e-Islami's links to the militants groups,
some of which are in turn purportedly linked to
Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda. Jamaat
secretary-general and social welfare minister Ali
Ahsan Mujaheed has a tame defence: "It is unfair
to implicate Jamaat in the activities of Bangla
Bhai, Mujahideen, Harkatul Jehad or other
groups.Our party preaches Islam to rear honest
people."
As foreign missions anxiously keep an eye on
bloody militant activities, the nation is in
thrall of Bangla Bhai. Who is he? What's his
organisation, JMJB, all about? In his mid-40s,
black-bearded and turbaned, he hails from the
northwestern Bogra district and was initially a
member of the Jamaat. "My actual name is Siddiqul
Islam, and I do not have any other names which
appear in the media. It's my journalist-friends
who created the confusion," he once said in
response to queries as to why he was called
Bangla Bhai. Siddiqul apparently earned that
sobriquet because he used to teach Bengali in a
Dhaka school. He also claims to have studied in
Dhaka University.
In 1998, Bangla Bhai quit the Jamaat in protest
against its decision to accept the woman
leadership of Bangladesh. "We don't believe in
the present political trend," he had then fumed.
"We want to build a society based on the Islamic
model laid out in the Holy Quran and the Hadith."
He then joined the JMJB, which could have been
operating under a different nomenclature till
then. Bangla Bhai worked underground for six
years and rose to become a member of its highest
policy-making body, the Majlis-e-Shura, as also
its operations chief.
JMJB's principal goal is to turn Bangladesh into
a Taliban-like state. But its spiritual leader
Maulana Abdur Rahman claims the JMJB is involved
in social welfare activities. Maulana Rahman,
like Bangla Bhai, was also a member of the Jamaat
and, incidentally, collaborated with the
Pakistani army during Bangladesh's 1971
India-backed liberation war.
The JMJB is believed to have 10,000 militants
operating in at least 17 Bangladeshi districts.
The organisation is well structured: its top tier
is called Ehsar which comprises full-time members
working on orders of the leadership; its second
tier is Gayeri Ehsar, which consists of 1,00,000
part-time activists; at the bottom are those who
work for the organisation indirectly. Its
principal sources of funding are disguised
business including cold storage and shrimp
cultivation.
Last month, Dhaka-based newspaper The Daily Star
claimed it had obtained video discs, including
one chillingly titled, The Solution, The
Preparation. These videos shown to JMJB recruits
contained visuals of training imparted at the
erstwhile al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan.
The newspaper quoted JMJB sources as saying that
20 of their comrades who had worked with bin
Laden were now assisting Bangla Bhai.
Bangla Bhai shot into notoriety because of
killings and tortures allegedly carried out at
his behest. The most grisly of these occurred in
Bamongram village, Naogaon district, last month.
JMJB activists nabbed three Sarbahara Party
activists and tortured them, their chilling
screams transmitted over the microphone across
the village. The following morning the villagers
woke up to find the body of a man, labelled as a
Sarbahara Party member, hanging upside down from
a tree. Another mutilated body was found at a
temporary camp of the JMJB.
JMJB men deny their role in the grisly killings,
claiming the villagers acted against the
Sarbahara Party because of its propensity to
extort money from people. But there are no takers
for these explanations.The police, in fact, claim
the victims were innocent villagers and not
associated with the banned Leftist outfits.
Wherever Bangla Bhai and his men go, the people
live in complete terror.Like in Vittigram village
in Naogaon, for instance. Here the JMJB members
would pick up pretty girls and confine them in
Siddiqia Fazil Madrassa, where they would be
allegedly raped. Normalcy returned to the village
only after JMJB moved out to other pastures to
preach their own version of Islamic society.
That Bangla Bhai earned his spurs in the Jamaat
has embarrassed the government deeply.But Jamaat
chief has his own spin, "There may be a move
nationally or internationally to rear some
adventurers or splinter groups to check Islamic
uprising." Or, the Jamaat cadres are deliberately
being groomed to give Islamic ideology a bad
name. Either way, as in Afghanistan and Pakistan,
Bangladesh too may have to pay a heavy price for
flirting with the fundamentalists.
_____
[7]
[CID questions Gujarat human rights activist:
An e-mail alleged his role in anti-national activities
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
Friday, June 11, 2004
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=48749 ]
o o o
[11 June 2004]
PRESS NOTE
A meeting of Human Rights Activists, concerned
citizens and representatives of various NGOs held
at PRASHANT today strongly condemned the
highhanded action of various departments of the
State like Police and Charity Commissioner
against Human Rights Activists and NGOs.
There have been several instances of this
intimidation and harassment all over the State.
Some of the instances are:
On 1st June, several Human Rights and Social
Activists ( many of who were deeply involved in
responding to the Gujarat Carnage) had a meeting
at "Prashant" office in Ahmedabad and made a
Charter of Demands to the newly elected UPA
Government in Delhi. The Charity Commissioner of
Ahmedabad ( through their inspectors) have been
visiting these NGOs and Human Rights Activists
and making all kinds of enquiries regarding their
works, objects, etc.
The way well-known dancer, artiste Mallika
Sarabhai has been harassed by the Modi government
is well known.
On April 11th, a group of Youth Activists who
were addressing a Press Conference in Vadodara
under the banner of Youth Aman Karwan lead by
Shabnam Hashmi, was physically attacked.
On April 12th, Teesta Setalvad a co-petitioner in
the Best Bakery Case was threatened with dire
consequences by accused in the Gulbarg Society
case here in Ahmedabad.
Well known Human Rights Activist and the Director
of "Prashant" , Father Cedric Prakash, has been
constantly harassed by the State authorities and
even on the basis of a mysterious email sent by
an RSS functionary. Enquiries are being
conducted to prove that he is anti-national and
to have his passport impounded.
The Police have been visiting several NGOs
including Christian and Muslim Institutions
across the State and making all kinds of
enquiries about the receipt of foreign funds,
activities of the organizations, etc. This, it
is understood, is under the direct supervision of
the State’s Home Ministry.
The participants in the meeting were of the
opinion that the action of the police against Fr.
Cedric Prakash violated all the norms of
democracy and revealed the fascist character of
the State.
To protest against the onslaught of the State
against Human Rights Activists, the meeting
resolved to mobilize public by holding massive
Demonstration / Dharna on 25th June 2004, at
Ahmedabad. The meeting also resolved to send a
delegation to the Central Government and submit a
memorandum appraising the Government about the
State of affairs prevailing in the State of
Gujarat and demanding appropriate action on the
Charter of Demands.
The meeting decided to hold group meetings at
various places like Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, etc.
on 23rd and 24th June which will be attended by
eminent Human Rights Activists.
The meeting was attended by :
Amar Jyot [Action Aid]
Anwar Tirmizi, [Sanchetna]
Batuk Vora [JCF]
Bhavna Ramrakhiani [ACF]
Chunilal Vaidya [Guj. Lokh Samiti]
Digant Oza [Satyajit Trust]
Dwarikanath N. Rath [MSD]
Fr.Cedric Prakash [Prashant]
Gagan Sethi [Centre for Social Justice]
Girish Patel [Sr. Advocate]
Hanif Lakdawala
Harinesh [Janpath]
Harinesh [Janpath]
Harsh Mander [Anhad]
Hiren Gandhi [Samvedan]
I.S. Lal [WREU]
J. V. Momin
Justice (Retd.) A. P. Ravani
Jyotsna Macwan [BSC]
Mahadev Vidrohi
Mallika Sarabhai [Darpana Academy]
Meenakshi Ganguly [Human Rights Watch]
Mukul Sinha [Jan Sangarsh Manch]
P. K. Valera [AJCC]
Panki Jog [Janpath]
Parthiv Shah [CMAC]
Prasad Chacko [Behavioral Science Centre]
Prof. J. S. Bandukwala
Rafi Malek [CfD]
Rafi Mallik [Centre for Development]
Roopa Rathnam [Oxfam]
S. Amalraj [BSC]
S. H. Iyre, Advocate [JSM]
Sajid irmizi [Samvedan]
Salma [Oxfam]
Saumya Joshi [Fade-in Theatre]
Shabnam Hashmi [Anhad]
Sheba George [Sahr-Waru]
Sophia Khan
Stalin K. [Drishti Media Collective]
Swarup Dhruv [Samvedan]
Tanveer Jafri
Vandana Bhatt [Janhit]
Varghese Paul [CISS]
Wilfred D’Souza [INSAF]
Zakia Jowher [Aman Samuday]
_______
[8]
SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg,New
Delhi-110001
7.6.2004
Withdraw Saffronised NCERT Textbooks
A convention on Friday, 11th June 2004, at 3 pm. to
Withdraw Saffronised NCERT Textbooks
Dear Friend,
A month after the people of India gave an unambious
mandate in favour of a secular polity, government
and
educational system, the new government that is in
place at the centre is yet to take the decision to
withdraw the highly biased, communal and substandard
textbooks produced by the NCERT for use in our
schools. To demand immediate withdrawal of these
textbooks, especially those pertaining to the social
sciences, we are holding a convention on Friday,
11th June 2004, at 3 pm. at the Deputy Speaker's Hall,
Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi.
Speakers at the convention will include Professors
Irfan Habib, D.N.Jha, Aditya Mukherjee, Arjun Dev,
Prabhat Patnaik.
Please try your best to attend.
M.K.Raina
o o o
The Hindu
June 12, 2004
REVERSE `JOSHI LEGACY,' SAY ACADEMICS
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, JUNE 11. Unhappy with the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government for not
beginning the task of ``de-saffronising''
educational institutions and withdrawing the
controversial textbooks introduced by the
National Democratic Alliance (NDA), academics
today demanded early reversal of the ``Murli
Manohar Joshi legacy''.
The academics, in particular, demanded the
withdrawal of the history textbooks introduced by
the National Council of Educational Research &
Training (NCERT) at the earliest so that they are
not in circulation for another year.
With a view to mounting pressure in this regard
on the new Human Resource Development Minister,
Arjun Singh, academics, historians and lawyers
came together this afternoon under the SAHMAT
banner.
Prabhat Patnaik of Jawaharlal Nehru University
said what the academics were demanding was not
just a question of overturning the decision of a
Government they did not agree with.
``These books were not written professionally and
not based on the basic values of the
Constitution,'' he said, adding that there was a
need to free academic activity, including
textbook writing from political interference.
Historian Aditya Mukherjee said that while there
were many errors in the textbooks, a matter of
equal concern was the bias that had been brought
in the presentation. ``Communalism is not just
another bias. But it is like racism or
anti-Semitism. Removal of the communal bias is
the civilisational and Constitutional imperative
of the Government.''
`Misinformation campaign'
Arjun Dev, who has authored one of the textbooks
which were withdrawn under the NDA rule, said:
``A misinformation campaign had been unleashed to
make it appear that it was mandatory for the
Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE) to be
convened to withdraw the textbooks. Such
propaganda is aimed at delaying the withdrawal of
the textbooks. Why should CABE be called to
withdraw the textbooks when it was not consulted
in the first place? If these books are not
withdrawn in the coming days, there is every
danger that they will be in circulation for
another year.''
Eminent lawyer Rajeev Dhawan said: ``If the
Ministry takes a leisurely attitude to the
textbook issue, then the books will continue to
be used. This would be insulting to secular
democracy and the mandate that has put the UPA in
office.''
Later, in a statement, all present said: ``Not a
day should be lost in withdrawing the Curriculum
Framework of 2000 and recalling the textbooks,
especially those of history and social sciences.
The older National Curriculum Framework of 1988
should be restored and the earlier textbooks,
with necessary updating, should be reissued.
These changes ought to be given effect to from
the current academic session. `The Indian people
have surely not changed their Government to
merely continue the status quo. The Government
should not allow procedural or bureaucratic
delays to hamper action.''
o o o
[RELATED MATERIAL]
The Hindu
June 13, 2004
Authors `shocked' at BJP remarks
By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI, JUNE 12. Reacting strongly to the
remarks of the Delhi unit president of the
Bharatiya Janata Party, Harsh Vardhan, on the
recently released textbooks for government
schools in the Capital, the team of authors
involved in writing the books today urged
individuals to pick up the books and judge for
themselves.
"The books would be available in shops across the
city within a week and interested individuals can
make up their minds whether they `falsify' facts
and `rubbish India's ancient glory'," said a
release signed by authors including Delhi
University professors Krishna Kumar, Amitabh
Mukherjee, Ramakant Agnihotri, Savitri Singh,
Mukul Priyadarshini and Jamia Milia Islamia
professor, Narayani Gupta.
Expressing shock at the "slanderous'' language
used in the BJP statement against Muslims, the
team of authors further stated that they see "all
people in India as equal and deplore attempts to
valorise one community above the others''.
Responding to an accusation by the BJP, the
statement asserted that attention had been paid
to facts and chronology. Because the
chronological sequence had been respected, the
"later Cholas'' had been added to the syllabus of
Class VII and not Class VI. The `importance' of a
person or movement or State is not measured in
lines or pages, it said.
"The books are not meant to be encyclopaedia
because our concern is to explain to the children
the methods of history-writing, not to overwhelm
them with details,'' added the statement.
It was also clarified that the material had not
been prepared by individual authors but through a
process of discussion at all stages and effort
had been made to establish links between
different subjects.
______
[9]
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 11:42:17 +0500
Press Release
The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India, considers
the latest UN Resolution 1546 (June 8, 2004) a shameful capitulation to
the US.
· It recognises as "sovereign" an interim government set up after June 30
that, like the Governing Council, is established effectively by the US and
not the UN.
· It legitimises an illegal, US-dominated
occupation force as a UN-mandated
"multinational" force.
· It endorses this occupation at least until December 31, 2005 when an
elected "transitional government" is to be established. Any removal of
troops before then by the interim Iraqi government is subject to Security
Council authorization where the US can exercise its veto to ensure its
continuing presence.
· It endorses ultimate US (not Iraqi or UN)
control over deployment/use of
the occupying "multinational" forces.
· Article 27 of this Resolution allows all US-organised contracts for oil
companies before June 30, 2004 to continue to have immunity afterwards.
Any endorsement of this Resolution by the Indian government, let alone
sending of troops, represents a betrayal of the Iraqi people, of elementary
principles of justice, and of an independent Indian foreign policy.
Achin Vanaik, Prabir Purukayastha
CNDP, India.
____
[10]
The Times of India
JUNE 12, 2004
Bonding without bigotry
TALKING TERMS/DILEEP PADGAONKAR
Port Louis : Nowhere do developments in India
affect people of Indian origin as dramatically as
they do here in Mauritius . Part of the reason is
demographic. Close to 70 per cent of the 1.2
million strong population of this divinely
endowed island-nation traces its roots to Bihar ,
Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat , Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu and Maharashtra . The languages, cultures
and religious practices prevalent in these states
are kept alive in homes and through a network of
caste and community-based associations.
Another reason for the strong presence of India
relates to the official and non-official ties
that link Mauritius with the mother country.
Governments may come and go in Port Louis and New
Delhi but the ties, especially in defence
matters, are left untouched. This is increasingly
true of economic relations too. Add to this the
many cultural and scientific undertakings of the
Indian government.
Outside the government sphere Mauritians are
exposed to India through films and television,
itinerant spiritual gurus and now more and more
thanks to Indian enterprises operating in the
country. The latest Bollywood films are screened
in cinema halls often before they are released in
India . Their DVDs are also on sale at every
other street corner. Many Indian TV channels can
be accessed on cable. The second channel of the
state-owned television network almost entirely
broadcasts Indian programmes.
This explains in large measure the very high
interest in Indian politics and indeed in any
issue of national significance in India . That
level of interest is also to be found in India 's
economic advances in recent years. The growing
stature of India in the world instils a sense of
pride and perhaps also enhances the community's
self-esteem in this multi-ethnic, religious and
cultural environment.
There is however another, less rosy side to this
picture. The elite in the Indo-Mauritian
community look to Britain , France and the United
States rather than to India to advance their
professional interests. French remains the
dominant language of education, culture and even
commerce. The tiny Franco-Mauritian community
controls a major chunk of the economy.
Sino-Mauritians and Muslim Mauritians of Indian
descent more or less monopolise retail trade.
Until not too long ago, the Hindus held the keys
to political and administrative power. But their
innate divisiveness, which non-Hindi Mauritians
are said to have exploited to the hilt, got the
better of them. Caste, religious and regional
identities were brought into full play.
The accumulating frustrations found expression in
the radicalisation of the Hindu community. The
ascendancy of Hindutva in the mother country
throughout the 1990s and in the early part of the
new century contributed to this trend. A static,
exclusivist idea of Indian culture with strong
authoritarian undertones began to strike roots.
This, in turn, accounts in part for the emergence
of fundamentalist tendencies in the Muslim
community too.
The fact remains however that an overwhelming
majority of Hindus and Muslims treat religious
extremism with the disdain it deserves. The
younger generation in particular is attached to
religion and culture. But it is in no mood to
allow that attachment to be harnessed to
political or ideological goals.
Here is an opportunity for India . For too long
New Delhi thought it fit to focus its attention
on Hindi-speaking, Hindu Mauritians. It must now
reach out to other sections of the population as
well. For, the appeal of a modernizing India
which celebrates diversity and tolerance cuts
across all these communities. Such an appeal
alone can help to tame the demons of divisiveness
which threaten to overwhelm this fascinating land
whose inhabitants are proud to call as chota
Bharat.
______
[11]
The Economic and Political Weekly
June 05, 2004
Viability of Islamic Science
Some Insights from 19th Century India
Science flowered in Islam during the liberal
Muslim Abbasid and later Ottoman kings. This was
possible because the Abbasids welcomed scientists
and translators from other cultures who willingly
became sincere participants in the project called
Islamic civilisation. The 19th century
interlocutors, a few of whom are discussed in
this paper, were aware of the
cross-civilisational character of science in
Islamic civilisation and modern science for them
was a culmination of the perpetually shifting
centres of science in history. This plurality of
vision and cross-cultural perspective is much in
contrast to what is being propounded today in the
name of Islamic science.
S Irfan Habib
[The full text of above article is available to
all interested and can be obtained by sending in
a request to <aiindex at mnet.fr> ]
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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