SACW | 9 Feb 2005
sacw
aiindex at mnet.fr
Tue Feb 8 19:21:34 CST 2005
South Asia Citizens Wire | 9 Feb., 2005
via: www.sacw.net
[1] Urgent Public Appeal from the Nepalese Human Rights Community
[2] Nepalis in Vancouver Rally for Democracy
[3] Sri Lanka: Emergency Regulations Violate Human Rights (Brian Tissera)
[4] Pakistan:
(i) HRCP concerned about segregation at Khyber Medical College (KMC)
(ii) Women Feel Shortchanged As Local Elections Near (Muddassir Rizvi)
[5] India: Assassination attempt on S.A.R. Geelani; In Critical Condition
+ Open Letter To India's Prime Minister Re:
The Dec 13, 2001 Attack On Parliament And Its
Implications
[6] India: The Official Secrets Act as it stands
is an instrument to gag and to intimidate (Edit,
Indian Express)
[7] India: Children of a Pogrom (Sudhanva Deshpande)
[8] Announcements: events / publications:
(i) A meeting on women's issues in post-Tsunami
rehabilitation (Nagapattinam, 9 February 2005)
(ii) India Pakistan Arms Race and Militarisation
Watch Compilation # 149 (9 Feb, 2005)
--------------
[1]
sacw.net | February 8, 2005
Nepal Under Military Rule
Urgent Public Appeal from the Nepalese Human Rights Community
February 5, 2005
To:
President, Asian Development Bank
Prime Minister, Australia
Prime Minister, Canada
Prime Minister, Denmark
President, European Commission
President, France
Prime Minister, Germany
Prime Minister, Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Prime Minister, Japan
Prime Minister, Netherlands
Prime Minister, Norway
Prime Minister, Republic of India
President, Republic of China
Prime Minister, Sweden
Prime Minister, Switzerland
Prime Minister, United Kingdom
President, United States of America
Secretary-General, United Nations
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
President, World Bank
CC:
Asian Human Rights Commission
Diplomatic Missions in Nepal
Hague Appeal for Peace
International NGOs
Secretary General, SAARC
Secretary General, South Asia Forum for Human Rights
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killing
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defender
Special Rapporteur on Torture
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression
United Nations Offices operating in Nepal
Jimmy Carter, Former President, USA
Patrick Leahy, Senator, USA
Working Group on Involuntary Disappearance
We, the members of the Nepalese human rights
community, express our serious concern regarding
the King's February 1, 2005 announcement of
forming government under his chairmanship and the
declaration of "state of emergency" and virtually
handing over the country's governance to the
Royal Nepal Army. The King's invocation of
Article 27 - C to usurp all state power is a
fraud on the Constitution of the Kingdom of
Nepal, 1990. We, the Nepalese people now live
under an illegal military rule headed by the King.
As you are aware almost all the rights guaranteed
by the Nepalese Constitution and those enshrined
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and other international instruments that
Nepal is a party to have been suspended.
Complete press censorship has been imposed. All
means of communication including telephones,
internet, and cable tv access to international
news media have been severed. All this has been
done to create complete terror and panic among
the ordinary people.
The King's actions violate international
practices and legal standards for human rights
even under the conditions of a legitimate "state
of emergency." We are deeply concerned by the
growing number of political prisoners and the
increasing insecurity of human rights defenders,
journalists, and lawyers. The current
surveillance, monitoring, and harassment of human
rights organizations and activists, including
obstacles set in place to interrupt the work of
the National Human Rights Commission, as well as
the harassment of journalists, is unacceptable.
During this critical time, we, the Nepalese human
rights defenders, urge the international
community to take the following immediate
measures to ensure the protection of the
fundamental human rights of the citizens and
safety of political activists, human rights
defenders, journalists, and lawyers, and stop
ongoing atrocities by the security forces.
1. The continuing illegal detention of the
leaders of the political parties and students'
organizations violates the basic norms of human
rights and the exercise of political rights. We
urge the international community to put adequate
pressure on the new regime to disclose the
whereabouts of the illegally detained leaders, to
refrain from torture, and initiate measures for
their unconditional release.
2. The growing insecurity of human rights
defenders, journalists, and lawyers creates
further fear and terror among the common people.
It also creates obstacles to conduct
investigations of human rights abuses. We urge
the international community to undertake
immediate measures to get guarantees for their
safety so they may carry out their legitimate
activities without any form of interruption.
3. The King's direct rule is the establishment of
a military regime in Nepal. We request all
foreign governments to stop all forms of military
support, including supplying arms and ammunition
to the Nepalese government, which are being used
to brutally suppress the rights of the common
people.
4. We urge the international community to put
pressure on Nepalese authorities to reinstate all
fundamental human rights of the citizen that are
indispensable, inalienable and indivisible, which
are currently suspended.
5. The restriction of free flow of information
and media censorship violates the people rights
to freedom of information. So, we request the
international community to take diplomatic
actions to convince the King to lift all forms of
media censorship immediately.
6. The shut down of communication services
creates severe difficulties for the common people
to carry out even daily tasks, as well as
restricting democratic practices and civil
society activities. We request the international
community to put immediate pressure on the King
to resume all communication services with
immediate effect.
We strongly urge your immediate intervention in
order to restore democracy and protect the rights
of all Nepalese citizens. We believe that this
is a legitimate obligation of the international
community under the charter of the United Nations
to uphold fundamental human rights and democracy
among all member states of UN.
This appeal has been submitted on behalf of 25
leading Human Rights Organizations. Due to the
current threat to human rights defenders, the
names of the organizations have been kept
confidential.
______
[2] News Release: Nepalis Demonstration in Vancouver, BC
February 7, 2005
NEPALIS IN VANCOUVER RALLY FOR DEMOCRACY
Despite cold and rain, about sixty people from the
small Nepali community in Vancouver, British Columbia
gathered at the Art Gallery in downtown Vancouver on
February 6 to protest King Gyanendra's assumption of
executive power in Nepal. Standing on the steps which
Vancouverites have long used as a forum to express
their dissatisfaction, the demonstrators carried
banners demanding "Participatory Democracy",
"Unconditional release of all political
prisoners," and an end to the "Autocratic Regime
in Nepal."
The demonstration, organized by members of the Nepali
community in Vancouver concerned with the democracy in
Nepal, was in response to King Gyanendraís
February 1 declaration of a state of Emergency. The
King has dismissed the Prime Minister and Government,
and put the PM, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and all leaders of
the political parties under either house arrest or
military detention in unknown locations. The King
suspended fundamental freedoms of speech, expression,
and assembly and imposed restrictions on the movement
of people within Nepal and from outside. In a royal
proclamation the King denounced the political parties
while claiming to champion democracy. He has promised
to give more power to the army despite ample evidence
of its widespread violation of human rights in Nepal.
For over fifty years the people of Nepal have aspired
to a democratic polity. In 1959 they succeeded in
promulgating a constitution based on a multi-party
system, only to have it abrogated in 1960 by King
Mahendra. In 1990, after intense and prolonged
struggle they again achieved a democratic constitution
but have since had little opportunity to enjoy its
benefits. Soon after becoming King in 2001, Gyanendra
declared a state of emergency and suspended
parliament. These measures were justified as necessary
to counter the increasing strength of the Maoist
insurgency that had been building since 1996. In 2004
the King was compelled by widespread agitation to
reappoint Prime Minister Sher BahadurDeuba, whom he
had dismissed in 2002. Deuba's task was to initiate
talks with the insurgents and to hold elections by
March 2005. Meanwhile, the Royal Nepal Army, with the
military and financial support of India, Britain, and
the US, has been engaged in a brutal
counter-insurgency that has not only failed to contain
the insurgency but has escalated the violence and the
violation of human rights.
The King's arbitrary and autocratic move is a serious
blow to the democratic aspirations of the Nepali
people. This cannot be masked by the King's rhetoric
that he is saving the people of Nepal from both the
Maoists and the parliamentary parties.
We join our voice with that of all democratic people
in Nepal in demanding an immediate end of "Emergency."
The only viable solution to the conflict lies in
political institutions consistent with the democratic
aspirations of the people of Nepal.
______
[3]
The Island, February 3, 2005
EMERGENCY REGULATIONS VIOLATE HUMAN RIGHTS - HRC HEAD
by Brian Tissera
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has highlighted a number of
possible violations of human rights due to the Emergency
(Miscellaneous Provisions and Powers) Regulations No. 1 of 2005. The
chairperson of HRC Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy has informed President
Chandrika Kumaratunga of the concerns of the HRC regarding possible
violations of human rights in a letter dated February 1.
While noting the good faith intention of the government due to the
need to respond to an unprecedented natural disaster, the HRC
requests that careful consideration be given to the justification of
the measures taken and their legitimacy.
The HRC is of the view that certain provisions are beyond the
exigencies of the situation and create a situation where large scale
violations of human rights may occur.
The provisions which the HRC has expressed concern about are that
immediately after the proclamation of emergency, no proclamation was
issued for a meeting of Parliament within ten days of the emergency
proclamation.
The regulations though dated January 6 was made available to the
public on January 25. The Supreme Court has noted that access to the
content of the emergency regulation is an important part of human
rights protection, an HRC spokesman said.
Several of the regulations purport to apply to the whole country
though the proclamation was in respect of fourteen districts only.
Although the HRC supports reasonable emergency regulations that are
directed towards maintenance of supplies and services essential to
the life of the community, they have expressed opposition to part II
of the regulations which permit automatic forfeiture of property as a
consequence of a conviction in respect of a number of offences and
providing that certain property transactions will be null and void as
from the date of the regulations thus prejudicing the rights of
innocent third parties.
Enormous powers have also been vested in the hands of the police and
other security personnel which may be easily abused. Parts iv, v, vi
and vii of the regulations are not strictly required by the
exigencies of the situation and violate human rights safeguards
contained in both domestic and international law.
The provisions referred to are vesting powers in any police officer
or any member of the Sri Lankan Army, Navy or Air Force, regardless
of rank, to search, detain, arrest persons and the power, to search,
seize, remove or detain any vehicle, vessel, article or substance.
Providing the death penalty as a possible form of punishment for
crimes along with other excessive punishments, such as excessive
powers of investigation, including search without warrant, taking
possession of movable items, taking persons into custody from place
to place, the removal of evidentiary protection by criminal law
including the protection against the admissibility of confessions of
the restriction of the right of a citizen to initiate legal action in
respect of action under the provisions of an emergency regulation and
excessive and stringent restrictions with regard to bail have been
highlighted as excessive, the spokesman added.
The HRC has stated that an emergency resulting from a natural
disaster is different from an emergency relating to national or
public security.
Emergency regulations should be drafted to meet the exigencies
created by the natural disaster. We urge you to promulgate new
regulations that are more in keeping with the realities of the
current situation and do not infringe on the fundamental rights of
our citizens, Ms. Commaraswamy said in a letter addressed to
President Kumaratunga.
______
[4] [PAKISTAN]
(i)
Daily Times, February 08, 2005
HRCP CONCERNED ABOUT SEGREGATION AT KMC
Staff Report
PESHAWAR: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP) has expressed grave concerns about the
pressure being put on first-year women MBBS
students of Khyber Medical College (KMC) to
accept segregation of the campus on gender basis.
"We have been consistently opposed to the very
idea of the aforementioned segregation, which was
originally supposed to take place on a voluntary
basis," said Sher Muhammad Khan, vice
chairperson, NWFP, HRCP. "But what is more
disturbing is the coercion being exercised to
force the female students into accepting campus
segregation," he said.
Mr Khan said HRCP understood the concerns of the
female students about their academic career in
terms of being relegated to a low-standard
teaching environment at an un-established and
ill-equipped KMC girl's campus.
"We support the demands of the female students
for continuing their education on the main campus
of the KMC," Mr Khan said. The stubborn and
unreasonable stand adopted by the KMC
administration under the instruction of the MMA
government was totally undesirable and uncalled
for," he said. "If female students were forced
into segregation on the campus, the next step
will be segregation in hospitals," he said. Such
retrogressive policies, apart from violating
international human rights standards and the
fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution
of the country, also had the potential of
throwing the entire health care system into
crisis, he said.
"The resistance of the female students of Khyber
Medical College deserves support and solidarity
of all individuals and groups who stand for the
enforcement of established norms of human rights
and constitutional provisions guaranteeing
fundamental rights," Mr Khan said.
o o o o
(ii)
Inter Press Service
February 7, 2005
PAKISTAN: WOMEN FEEL SHORTCHANGED AS LOCAL ELECTIONS NEAR
Muddassir Rizvi
ISLAMABAD, Feb 7 (IPS) - Recent moves by the
military-controlled government in Pakistan to
reduce the number of reserved seats for
marginalised communities in local government
institutions has angered women, who are
threatening street protests of what they call
''squeezing of their political space''.
Announced before the local elections that are due
sometime after April this year, the proposed
amendments has created uncertainty among people
about the future role of local governments, which
have enjoyed tremendous powers under the
decentralisation scheme announced by the military
regime in 2001.
''The women of this country will not allow
anybody to usurp their rights anymore. We now
have the ability to mobilise people to the
streets and we will do that if the government
does not listen to our demands,'' said Sumera
Gul, an office-bearer of the Women Councillors
Network (WCN), the first elected body of women
councillors in the country.
The women are demanding that the government
should withdraw its proposal to cut the number of
seats in the Village Council from the exiting 21
to 13, which would translate into slashing of
women's reserved seats by half.
They are also demanding that the representation
of women must be increased to 50 percent from the
existing 33 percent. ''We make up for 50 percent
of the population and therefore out
representation should be in that proportion,''
said Qaisera Ismail, who is a councillor from
central Punjab district of Sargodha.
The Village or Union Council is the smallest unit
in the three-tier district government system,
which was introduced by the military government
in 2001 as part of its revolutionary devolution
of power plan.
Following a military takeover on Oct. 12, 1999,
Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen. Pervez Musharraf
suspended Pakistan's constitution and assumed the
additional title of Chief Executive on May 12,
2000. Pakistan's Supreme Court unanimously
validated the October 1999 coup and in June 2001
granted Musharraf executive and legislative
authority for three years from the coup date.
Musharraf then named himself as president and was sworn in.
Under the military government's decentralisation
scheme, women were given 33 percent reserved
seats in village, sub-district and district level
elected institutions. Seats were also reserved
for peasants, workers and minorities, but women
had taken the largest share. Subsequently, as
many as 200,000 councillors were elected in 96
districts (union, sub-district and district
assemblies) of the country, including around
40,000 women.
In addition to reducing the number of seats,
according to press reports, the government is
also contemplating expanding the size of the
union councils, merging the two into one. If that
happens, it will reduce the number of Union
Councils from 6,022 to 3,011 and so will the
number of representatives from their existing
total of 114,418 to only 33,121 -- an almost four
times slash.
''The fact that a huge number of women had taken
active political role itself triggered social
change, creating waves in the country's barnyards
where traditional power structures still dominate
the social and political lives of people,'' said
Farzana Bari, who heads the Women's Study Centre
at Islamabad's premier Quaid-i-Azam University.
''Whether these councillors were able to perform
or not is irrelevant at this point, what is
important is the fact that they were for the
first time given a political role, which is now
being curtailed, Bari told IPS.
The government, on the other hand, maintains that
the proposed amendments are necessary to
fine-tune and smarten a district government
system, which had not been functioning as
contemplated in the 2001 decentralisation scheme.
''There have been problems of an effective
interface between the provincial and district
government systems. Provincial governments that
came into being after the October 2002 general
elections have had expressed serious reservations
about devolution, which had to be addressed,"
said an official of the National Reconstruction
Bureau (NRB), the government's think tank that
formulates policy and strategy options for social
and political reforms.
However, some civil society organisations, which
are opposing the recent amendments, call the
proposed amendments as ''reversal of devolution''
that is being done under pressure from the
feudal, tribal and clerical elite.
''The dispersion of power at the local level
among the masses clearly has the potential of
pulling the rug under the traditional power
brokers. It was these interest groups that had
been opposing devolution from day one,'' said
Ghulam Sarwar Bari, who heads Islamabad-based
Pattan Development Organisation, which is working
in the areas of good governance and
democratisation.
''Somebody must ask the NRB who are the people
that form the provincial governments -- the same
feudal lords, tribal chiefs and mullahs who were
against the local government system,'' he said.
''It is unfortunate that the government has to
consult the very same lobbies that the devolution
plan sought to neutralise.''
''A recipe for elite capture'' is what was the
title of a leaflet in Pattan distributed at a
rally of women's councillors in Islamabad last
week, which was attended by more than 300 members
of WCN from all over Punjab. The rally in fact
marked the beginning of the campaign against the
proposed amendments.
''The government has yet to give any good reason
for its decision to slash our representation.
This is so deceitful of the military regime that
it first sold the women's card to the
international community to win their
acknowledgement, and now it is succumbing to
political pressures to protect its institutional
interests,'' said an angry councilor who had come
from Lahore.
''We are not footballs that anybody can hit whenever he pleases,'' she added.
However, the government has yet to respond to the
demands and is keeping an ambiguous position on
the issue.
''We are not slashing the percentage of seats for
women. It will continue to be 33 percent,'' said
Nilofer Bakhtiar, who is and advisor to the
government on women's development.
''Whatever the government decides will be in the
best interests of the women of this country,''
Bakhtiar told IPS. (END/2005)
______
[5] [Prof. SAR Geelani was at the door steps of
Nandita Haksar, the Delhi based human rights
activist and one of his advocates when he was
shot at on 8 February 2005. It is a shame that
Indian state cannot provide protection to one of
its most high profile 'victims'. Prof Geelani who
has been supported by well known human rights
activists in India, has been acquitted by the
Delhi High Court for his alleged role on the Dec
13 (2001) attack on India's Parliament and has
since been actively raising his voice on
conditions in prisons . . . ]
o o o
sify.com/
GEELANI SHOT AT; IN CRITICAL CONDITION
Wednesday, 09 February , 2005, 05:08
New Delhi: The condition of S A R Geelani, who
was attacked by unidentified persons in a posh
South Delhi locality, was critical as doctors
operated upon him.
"The operation, which lasted for more than two
hours, is over but he is still critical. I cannot
give you a medical report, he is in the recovery
room now," Geelani's lawyer and noted human
rights activist Nandita Haksar told reporters.
Geelani was rushed to AIIMS after he was shot
outside Haksars residence in Vasant Enclave
locality at around 2100 hours last night.
Asked about the number of gunshots Geelani
sustained, Haksar said "I am not very clear but
at least two. One in the stomach and another went
through his shoulder."
Regarding the allegations by Geelani's colleagues
accusing Delhi police of masterminding the
attack, she said, "We do not know, we can keep on
speculating but one thing is sure that he was
under constant surveillance by the police. When
he came to Goa, there was literally a police
picket outside my house."
Meanwhile, angry scenes were witnessed outside
AIIMS as Geelani's supporters demanded a CBI
inquiry into the incident.
Geelani, who was acquitted in the Parliament
attack case by Delhi High Court, was shot at five
times by the assailants but three bullets hit
him, two of them on his stomach and one on the
shoulder, police sources said.
Geelani was one of the four accused--the other
three were Afzal, Shaukat Hussain and his wife
Navjot Sandhu alias Afsan Guru--who were
convicted and sentenced to death by a trial court
on December 16, 2002, more than a year after the
terror attack on Parliament on December 13 the
previous year.
o o o o
[See also related material:
OPEN LETTER TO INDIA'S PRIME MINISTER RE: THE DEC
13, 2001 ATTACK ON PARLIAMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
URL: www.sacw.net/hrights/openletter_reDec13.html ]
______
[6]
Indian Express, February 07, 2005
Editorial
OPEN SECRETS
THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT AS IT STANDS IS AN INSTRUMENT TO GAG AND TO INTIMIDATE
In March 2003, 50 MPs, from parties cutting
across the political spectrum, addressed an
urgent letter to the then Deputy PM L.K. Advani.
The immediate provocation was the case against
Iftikar Geelani under the Official Secrets Act
that had just turned out to be no case at all.
The signatories to the letter were concerned at
the ordeal of Geelani, chief of bureau of Kashmir
Times, incarcerated for seven months, all bail
pleas turned down, on charges of possessing
documents very much in the public domain. But
their concern encompassed all those other cases
as well, in which citizens, less famous than
Geelani had become, are deprived of their rights
and their freedoms by the state through an
''outdated'' and ''draconian'' piece of
legislation enacted in 1923. That concern has
lost none of its urgency two years later. As the
Right to Information Act is honed and extended in
public debate, the OSA seems even more a bizarre
relic. It looks worse than that.
The cases filed against this paper and two
Gujarati papers by the Gujarat police are proof,
if more was needed, that the OSA remains the pet
instrument of the paranoid state. A state that
seeks to gag and intimidate the press because it
has dirty secrets to hide. Why should the
conversation between a ganglord and a former
Porbandar SP - the Express ran a report alongwith
transcripts of the exchange - be treated as an
official secret? Who decides that it is one? On
what criteria? For many years now, these
questions have been gathering around cases that
have ranged from the grotesque to the absurd. As
this paper reported, the number of OSA cases in
which the evidence just refuses to stand up in
court is swelling. We need to urgently debate
whether in a climate in which we cannot depend
upon the wisdom of the state to use the Act
sparingly, or only in matters that relate to
highly sensitive information, as defined by some
rigorous criteria, do we need an OSA at all?
The argument has been made that what the OSA
needs is a major amendment, especially of the
loose and sweeping Section 5. Well, let it be
amended soon. Else, the OSA will continue to be
used by governments, such as the one in Gujarat,
to suppress information, and worse, to do damage
to the spirit of a free press.
______
[5]
The Times of India, February 2, 2005
Home Truths: Providing Shelter to Millions on the Street
by Bharat Dogra
No one remembers them during grand occasions like
Republic Day. They are the homeless - people
stretched on footpaths under torn blankets or
less, on remorselessly cold and foggy nights.
Discussions on improving urban infrastructure
altogether negate their existence. Perhaps, their
only consolation under this framework is to eke
out a space below the flyovers littering the city
landscape. They are taken note of only as
undesirable elements that need to be weeded out
of the city in order to improve its 'social
infrastructure'. The Emergency happened only 30
years back, but today a Turkman Gate happens
virtually each day all over the country without a
murmur of disapproval. Have we really evolved as
a strong, proud Republic?
Ironically, the callous neglect is visible in the
very city that hosts the Republic Day parade.
Despite the recent emphasis on poverty
alleviation schemes, the existing night shelters
in Delhi accommodate less than 5% of the city's
1,00,000 homeless, or 3,000 people. If the
homeless go through hell in winter in Delhi, they
face high water in the monsoon in Mumbai. The
situation in smaller towns, away from public and
policy focus, can well be imagined. It is an
indication of the extent to which the urban
homeless have been ignored that reliable
estimates of their number are just not available.
Census estimates have left out a big chunk of the
homeless as they can only be contacted at night
and not very easily.
Sporadic estimates suggest that the number of
homeless is not less than three million, or about
1% of the urban population. The figures will rise
if we include those who are precariously housed,
or on the margin of homelessness. Some people are
'resettled' so far away from their place of work
that they prefer to sleep in the open near the
worksite despite the existence of a house or hut
miles away. Shouldn't we consider them homeless?
Several studies have shown that it makes sense
for the government to provide housing sites and
basic services close to the place of livelihood.
If only a few dwellings pose a problem - for
example, to make way for a road or a drain -
organisations of slum dwellers can help to find
an alternative site nearby for these few. This
was demons-trated by the Asha Abhiyan project in
Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh).
Notwithstanding these facts, nearly three lakh
people have been rendered homeless by a slum
demolition drive in Mumbai in recent weeks. Chief
minister Vilasrao Deshmukh stands committed to
changing the face of Mumbai, no matter what the
human cost.
A two-pronged approach is needed to provide
shelter on a large scale. The programme of
creating night shelters should be stepped up
significantly. Appeals should be made to make
available buildings that are unused at night, so
that these can provide shelter to the homeless,
particularly in extremely cold weather. Such
buildings can include religious and philanthropic
places, schools and colleges. A means would have
to be devised to link the organisations and
people willing to donate space to those who
actually need it. Voluntary organisations and
citizens' groups can play an important role in
establishing this link and ensuring that the
homeless enter and leave buildings in an orderly
way so that their day-use is not disturbed.
Ordinary citizens can play a more positive role.
Their concerns at present only find limited
expression - such as donation of an occasional
blanket - due to lack of avenues to reach out to
the homeless. However, if organisations dedicated
to meeting many-faceted needs of the homeless
emerge, these can facilitate a much more
broad-based participation of citizens.
The Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan in Delhi has made an
effort in this direction. It engages people in
the needs of the homeless and provides spaces for
them to link up with welfare activities. Many
students have offered their voluntary services;
some educational institutions have allowed their
premises to be used as shelters at night; and
commercial establishments as well as individuals
have come up with job and training offers.
A move is afoot in Delhi and Chennai to provide
the homeless with a voters' identity card. This
would empower the unfortunate lakhs in their
interactions with hafta -hungry policemen and
hospital staff, while also bringing them into the
reckoning when the government announces welfare
measures.
The Tenth Plan document refers to according
voluntary organisations a greater role in
managing night shelters. The document emphasises
building night shelters for women and children,
who have suffered glaring neglect in the past.
Night shelter programmes should learn from
earlier mistakes. The low occupancy at night
shelters is explained not only by the unhygienic
conditions, but also by the fact that the needs
of special occupational groups are often
overlooked. Rickshaw and cart-pullers need a
place to keep their cycles and carts - their
means of livelihood - securely before they can
sleep peacefully in a shelter. Hence, a close
interaction with the target group is needed so
that the funds are well spent. Along with an
increase in the budget for night shelters,
greater transparency in funds use will go a long
way in ensuring the best results. In sum, it
makes more sense to provide for the homeless than
to pursue policies which increase their number in
the name of beautification and infrastructure
creation. Only then can we say Saare jahan se
achcha .
_______
[6] [BOOK and FILM REVIEWS]
ZNet Commentary
February 08, 2005
CHILDREN OF A POGROM
By Sudhanva Deshpande
Retaliation is spelt in blood.
When Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her two Sikh bodyguards, thousands of
Sikhs had to pay with their lives and property in the pogrom that followed
over the next few days in Delhi. That was in November 1984. When 58 kar
sevaks were burnt alive in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, thousands of
Muslims had to pay with their lives and property in the pogrom that followed
over the next several weeks. Eighteen years had passed, but little had
changed.
For twenty years after the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, there has been a
near-total silence in the field of arts around the events of that horrific
November. To be sure, the artists Vivan Sundaram and Arpana Cour had done
paintings in response to 1984, but those were exceptions - in poetry, in
fiction, in drama, in cinema, and even in the plastic arts, there has hardly
been any representation of 1984.
Indeed, there is very little visual documentation of the riots in terms of
photographs and documentaries. The absence of documentaries is explained by
the fact that video technology was still quite expensive and cumbersome
then, unlike today. The relative absence of photographs is more striking.
1984 seemed to erupt suddenly, as if out of nowhere.
On the other hand, the pogrom of Gujarat in 2002 has been extensively
documented in documentaries (FINAL SOLUTION, GODHRA TAK, PASSENGERS, etc.)
and photographs, and the artist community has also responded to the pogrom
vigorously.
In Hindi, for instance, I have myself read over one hundred poems written
directly in response to the carnage, some of them superb and enduring works,
and no doubt there is writing to match in other Indian languages. In
theatre, I know of more than half a dozen important plays mounted across the
country responding to Gujarat 2002. In street theatre, literally scores of
plays have been evolved around the events of Gujarat 2002. Even Bombay
cinema responded in its own oblique way to the horror of Gujarat with Govind
Nihalani's film DEV.
The coincidence, therefore, could not have been more striking. After a
silence of two decades, suddenly, there are two films about 1984 - Sashi
Kumar's KAYA TARAN and Shonali Bose's AMU.
There is more that is common about the two films, besides the subject matter
and the timing. Both are debut films for their directors. Both directors
come from professions that normally deal with facts, rather than fiction:
Sashi Kumar is one of India's pioneering television journalists, while
Shonali Bose is a documentary filmmaker. Both directors are from communities
which were not the victims of 1984: one is a Malayali and the other is a
Bengali. Both were based in Delhi when the killings took place, but have
subsequently relocated, one to Chennai and the other to the US.
What is most striking, however, is that both films are about the children of
1984, who, in 2002, as Gujarat erupts, break the silence in their own lives
about the trauma of eighteen years before.
Based on Madhavan's Malayalam short story, 'When Big Trees Fall', KAYA TARAN
begins with Gujarat. We are shown a press conference addressed by survivors
of Gujarat. Among those present is a young reporter who is then sent to do a
story on conversions. This takes him to Meerut, to a convent for aged nuns.
Bit by bit, the film shows us what happened here in 1984, when a Sikh woman
and her eight year old son sought refuge as they ran from a violent mob. We
learn, as the film goes on, that this child has grown up to become the young
reporter.
As one minority is under attack, it is given refuge by another. What makes
the situation moving is that those who give refuge are themselves 'weak',
vulnerable - old nuns, eight of them, one blind, another wheelchair-bound,
another surviving on pills, and so on. These sequences, in the convent, are
the soul of the film, excellently shot, tender and moving.
The nuns are vulnerable, but resourceful. They manage to smuggle out the boy
and his mother by using a simple trick. The boy is smuggled out in a coffin,
but not before his hair is cut. This is the reason the young reporter is not
turbaned.
The film has a restrained quality to it, it looks inward, and poses
questions about identities. Particularly, it underlines the fragility of
religious identities, both in times of stress as well as 'normality'.
While KAYA TARAN begins with Gujarat, AMU ends with it. And while KAYA TARAN
approaches its theme from the side, as it were, and holds itself back
emotionally, AMU confronts 1984 frontally. It tells the story of Kaju, a
non-resident Indian (NRI) girl of about 21, who has been told that her
mother, Keya, adopted her after her biological parents died in a malaria
epidemic in a village in western UP. Kaju is back in Delhi, and in the
company of boyfriend Kabir she discovers Delhi's teeming slums, and Keya's
lie about her past.
What AMU does is to focus on our collective amnesia about the events of
November 1984. This is achievement enough, of course. But what the film does
brilliantly is to bring out how the amnesia, though collective, is
differentiated. All the characters in the film want to forget 1984, but for
different reasons - the rich because they don't care, about 1984 or anything
else; ruling politicians, because they led the mobs; officials of the state,
because of their own complicity in the riots; the middle class, because it
is neither killer nor victim; and the poor, because they are both killers
and victims.
Everyone holds a secret, a dark, terrible secret, and everyone prefers that
it remain a secret.
Even, it seems, the Censor Board. For the film has been cleared with an
'Adults' certificate, and that too after some audio cuts. These cuts come in
the scene where Kaju and Kabir meet a group of 1984 widows, who recount how
ministers led rioters, while the police and the administration looked on
benignly. Rather than edit the scene out of the film, the director has
chosen to retain it with the audio cuts. The result is that the now silenced
widows condemn the perpetrators of the killing with even more power and
poignancy.
AMU has some outstanding performances. Konkona Sensharma as Kaju confirms
her status as the best young actor in Indian cinema today. She is completely
believable as the NRI girl in search of her roots. You would think she has
spent a lifetime in the US. She is also quite clearly a master at picking up
accents, as we saw in her award-winning performance in MR AND MRS IYER.
However, the truly outstanding performance in AMU is that by Communist Party
of India (Marxist) activist Brinda Karat as Keya. Television viewers in
India know her as a person who is not only photogenic, but also strong,
clear-headed, and articulate. In AMU, she brings all these qualities into
her performance, and more. She is totally natural, passionate, sensitive
and, as in the brief scene with her former lover Neel, subtle and nuanced.
She gets a vulnerability in her portrayal of Keya that is actually quite
rare, at any rate in Indian cinema: the vulnerability of an independent,
strong woman. The relationship between Keya and Kaju is superbly etched, and
both actors complement each other perfectly.
The early part of the film appears to meander a bit as it sets the context
for what is to follow, but with Keya's return to India, it grips you
totally. Director Shonali Bose builds up the suspense well, and then, as
Kaju unravels one thread of the mystery after another, the film moves
towards its denouement almost like a thriller. Bose has shot Delhi as few
others have; the slum sequences, in particular, are absolutely authentic.
She also shoots the riots very well - the violence is real without being
voyeuristic, and the fear palpable.
AMU is an important film, perhaps the most important Indian film of recent
years. It is that rare film which combines a strong political statement with
a powerful and moving story. It is also not without humour, something one
normally does not expect in a film of this kind.
For a long time, Indian cinema - Hindi cinema at any rate - stayed away from
our contemporary history. Now, with films like AMU, KAYA TARAN and Anurag
Kashyap's BLACK FRIDAY, a staged documentary account of the Bombay blasts of
1993 (due for release soon), there is a serious effort to engage with our
times, in our times. Hopefully, these films will lead the way for many more
to follow.
As a postscript let me make one final point about the resolution of the two
films. In KAYA TARAN, in the end, the reporter reconciles himself to his
past, regrows his hair, and puts on a turban. Since the film is really about
identities, their fragility, and their visible markers, I suppose it had to
end with the boy facing up to his identity and accepting it.
It is the way this is shown that makes me uncomfortable: in the Press Club,
everything is treated with cynicism, the most weighty matters can become
trivial. And that is exactly what happens with the born-again Sikh - his
embracing his identity, with all its visual difference, seems facile rather
than profound.
The question with AMU's resolution is somewhat different. As Kaju starts
unraveling the mystery about her past, she is faced with a terrible
possibility, which she eventually discovers is not true. In an otherwise
deeply disturbing film, this resolution of Kaju's own search is strangely,
irrationally, comforting, even though what she discovers is heartrendingly
tragic. Because the possibility it opens up is almost unimaginably
terrifying to face up to - that her parent is a killer.
What makes AMU truly frightening is the realization that this could so
easily be true.
Sudhanva Deshpande is an actor, director, and playwright with Jana Natya
Manch, Delhi. He is the director, along with Sanjay Maharishi, of a
documentary on Habib Tanvir, Gaon ke naon Theatre, Mor naon Habib.
_______
[7] [ANNOUNCEMENTS: Events / Publications]
o o o
(i)
Meeting on women's issues in RRR
WOMEN ISSUES IN RELIEF, REHABILITATION AND RECONSTRUCTION
A meeting on women's issues in post-Tsunami
rehabilitation is being organised by NGO
Co-ordination cell (NCC) on 9th February 2005 at
4:00 PM. The venue is NCC, Collectorate Office,
Nagapattinam. The Moderator for the meeting will
be Ms. Jesurathanam, Director of Social Needs
Education and Human Awareness (SNEHA).
Mr. Antony, Co-ordinator (NCC), will be
organising the meeting with the help of Mr. Kumar
Anshul (9842902687). The phone number for NCC
front desk is 04365-252800. All Civil society
organizations involved in the relief and
rehabilitation process at Nagapattinam and
surrounding areas [in Tamil Nadu, India] are
invited to attend.
o o o
(ii)
INDIA PAKISTAN ARMS RACE AND MILITARISATION WATCH COMPILATION # 149
( 9 February, 2005)
URL: http:// groups.yahoo.com/group/IPARMW/message/160
Contents:
1 India - 'shells fired in Kashmir (BBC)
1.1 India accused of Kashmir firing (BBC)
1.2 Pakistan denies new Kashmir raid (BBC)
2 Pakistan denies US artillery aid (BBC)
3 Defence group to discuss security (Qudssia Akhlaque)
4 Musharraf urges US to sell arms to Pakistan
5 Schools, health unit buildings in Rangers and police occupation
6 After Punjab Lands, Army Grabs Fishing Business
of Coastal Sindh ( M A Siddiqui)
7 Balochistan on the boil: Military crackdown is widely feared (M.B. Naqvi)
8 Karachi opens door to US forces (Syed Saleem Shahzad and Masood Anwar)
9 Pakistan Sets Up New Military Base to Protect
Gas Field Against Terror Attacks (Ayaz Gul)
10 The Mercant of Menace - The Man Who Sold the
Bomb (TIME magazine Cover story)
11 Pakistan denies it sold N-tech to Arab states
12 Strategic system preferred over balance in arsenal (Anwar Iqbal)
13 France to help Pak. further upgrade fleet of its Mirage aircraft
14 How to find the elusive Taliban: pop down to
the shops in Quetta (Declan Walsh)
15 Secrets of state (Kamila Hyat)
16 US and Pakistan hold F-16 talks (BBC)
17 New weapons and equipment for Creeks Battalion
18 Netherlands Lift Ban on Sale of Arms To Pak, India
19 US has a 'plan' for Pak nukes
20 An absurd choice of catastrophes (Jawed Naqvi)
21 Military Solution: Interaction Between India,
Pak Armies Key To Peace (Ranjit Bhushan)
22 US Congressmen favour defence trade with India
23 India, Israel to further strengthen military ties: report
24 Farewell to Arms - Don't equate national
strength with military might (Editorial, Times of
India)
25 Arrogance in uniform (editorial, Indian Express)
26 Trishul test-fired
27 India mobilises new command on western borders
28 Nuclear buildup continues apace (Ranjit Devraj)
29 Hai Jawan (Editorial, Times of India)
30 India, Russia close to signing $450 mn arms deal: Report
31 [Tsunami and Militarised Aid] Aid as Imperial Strategy (Anuradha M. Chenoy)
32 India to buy 126 new warplanes
33 [India] Joint Statement by Women's Groups
Against Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958
34 Intelligence agencies in the dock- An insider
takes the lid off (Inder Malhotra)
35 Indian defence ministry seeks 40% more to regain 'edge over Pakistan'
36 Talking peace, making war (Zia Mian, A H Nayyar, M V Ramana)
37 Weapons Grade uranium found with small time drug dealers in India
(i) 2 held with weapons-grade uranium (Lalit Kumar)
(ii) Drug dealers' uranium alarms India
38 Make intelligence agencies 'accountable' to Parliament (Rajeev Sharma)
39 Press Release - Protesting against the
state-sponsored violence against indigenous and
dalit peoples in Orissa
40 Citizens Appeal to Orissa Government to put an
end to human rights abuse of Indigenous People
41 Plan for new force to protect Parliament
42 India to encourage joint participation in defence production
43 Asia's tsunami builds global military ties (Mark Bendeich)
44 The Official Secrets Act as it stands is an
instrument to gag and to intimidate (Edit, Indian
Express)
[Bangladesh / Nepal / Sri Lanka ]
45 Bangladesh:
(i) Jatra attacks instil new fears in rural life (Shariful Islam)
(ii) Rab to tap telephones? (Editorial, Daily Star)
(iii) We, the Citizens of Bangladesh Demand
Security (a statement by 72 women activists)
46 Nepal:
(i) Big rise in Nepal defence budget
(ii) Nepal army asks India to continue military aid
47 Sri Lanka
(i) Sri Lanka: Child Tsunami Victims Recruited by
Tamil Tigers (Human Rights Watch)
(ii) Sri Lanka to sign USD 150 million arms deal with Iran
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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/
SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
Sister initiatives :
South Asia Counter Information Project : snipurl.com/sacip
South Asians Against Nukes: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
Communalism Watch: communalism.blogspot.com/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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