SACW | 05 March 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 05 March,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Nepali Congress Leaders in Jhapa severely Tortured by Royal Nepal 
Army personnel
[2]  Pakistan: Tragedy of Mukhtar Mai continues (Editorial)
[3]  Pakistan- India: Discordant notes amidst amity symphony (Praful Bidwai)
+ March for India-Pakistan peace this month
[4] India: Modi-Fied Gujarat Where Might is Still Right (M Hasan Jowher)
[5] USA : Protest The Visit of Modi, the Chief Architect of Gujarat Pogroms
[6] India: Press release - Campaign against Plunder of Resources
[7]  Announcements:
(i)  Pakistan: International Womens Week - 'Zikr e Nashunida' a play 
from Tehrik e Niswan
(ii) India: Radiation Monitoring Around Madras Atomic Power Station' 
(VT Padmanabhan and NP Nakul)
(iii) India: The Independent Publishers' Group announces 'U Special' 
- a new bookshop


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

[1]

Nepali Congress Leaders in Jhapa severely Tortured by Royal Nepal 
Army personnel

[This preliminary report is based on telephone conversation with 
Sudheer Kuamar Shivakoti by a Nepal Democracy Alliance team member in 
Delhi on 2 March 2005.  We request international community to conduct 
a fact-finding mission immediately and pressure for strong action to 
be taken against the In-Charge of the Chaar Aaali Royal Nepal Army, 
RNA, Barrack in Jhapa.]


Summary

Sudheer Kumar Shivakoti, Presdient of Nepali Congress, Jhapa District 
Committee, Uddhav Thapa, Secretary of Nepali Congress Jhapa District 
Committee, and Deepak Tamang, President of Nepal Trade Union Congress 
Jhapa District Committee, were severely tortured by the Royal Nepal 
army Personnel during the night of 18 February 2005 inside the Chaar 
Aali  RNA barrack in Jhapa district, east Nepal.

Background

Nepali Congress Party activists organized demonstrations at four 
places in Jhapa District on the occasion of the Democracy Day, 18 
February 2005. The demonstrations were peaceful. The demonstrators 
were opposing the military coup by king Gyanendra on 1 February 2001, 
and demanding the restoration of democracy. Sudeer Kumar Sharma, the 
president of the NC district committee in Jhapa was active in 
organizing these demonstrations. He returned home, located at 
Anarmani Village Development Committee of Jhapa, after the 
demonstrations in the afternoon.

Details of unlawful, arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention and torture 
by the army

At about 7:00 pm, a group of armed RNA personnel in civil clothes 
went to his house, arrested him, blind-folded him and put him inside 
an army vehicle. The group of army personnel then went to the house 
of Deepak Tamang in Sanischare Village Development Committee. They 
surrounded his house, blank-fired twice, while some army personnel 
entered his house and arrested him. Incidentally, Uddhav Thapa was 
also in the same house. He was also arrested. The two were 
blindfolded and taken to the army vehicle waiting outside the house.

All the three were put in the same vehicle. They were driven around 
for half an hour. Then they were made to walk for extra two hours. 
They were not told where they were being taken.

Their blind-fold was removed when they reached the Chaar Aali RNA 
barrack in Jhapa. There, they were all made to strip naked and pushed 
inside a "trench". The army personnel poured cold water while they 
were inside the trench. Then the army personnel beat them with the 
butts of rifle and kicked them with boots, and hit them with fists 
for several hours. They were forced to sleep inside the cold and wet 
"trench" for the whole night. During the night, the army personnel 
threatened several times that they will all the three of them inside 
the trench.

According to Sudheer Shivakoti, the RNA personnel kept on repeating 
the question, "Why are you supporting this bastard Girija Koirala?" 
They also asked the whereabouts of other Nepali Congress leaders, 
especially Krishna Sitoula, the Spokesperson of Nepali Congress and 
resident of Jhapa District. Shivakoti said, the RNA personnel kept on 
repeating, "We will instantly shoot dead anybody we find opposing the 
king!"

All the three were kept inside the barrack premises for two days. 
Nobody was allowed to meet them. Then all the three were moved to the 
District Police Office at Chandragadhi, Jhapa, where they were 
detained till 1 March 2005. They were then released.

Over telephone, Mr. Shivakoti said, he has bruises all over the body. 
He has difficulty getting out of the bed.

How can YOU support?

Nepal Democracy Alliance requests international human rights 
organizations to conduct a fact-finding mission as soon as possible 
before these leaders possibly get re-arrested or tortured, or even 
"disappeared" again.

We request the diplomatic community within Nepal to facilitate the 
fact-finding mission immediately.

We request the friends of Nepal from around the world to contact 
their governments and diplomatic missions in Nepal requesting them to 
put direct pressure on the Nepal government and the Chairperson of 
the Council of Ministers to either take strong action  against the 
perpetrators of torture and In-Charge of the Chaar Aali RNA barrack 
in Jhapa, or else take the full responsibility for this unacceptable 
crime against peaceful democracy activists.

We request the international media to investigate and publicize this 
case widely.

We appeal all the pro-democracy activists from around the world to 
follow-up on this case until it reaches its logical conclusion.


______


[2]

Daily Times
March 05, 2005

EDITORIAL: TRAGEDY OF MUKHTAR MAI CONTINUES

A division bench of the Lahore High Court has acquitted five of six 
men sentenced to death in the Mukhtar Mai gang-rape case. The LHC 
decision quashes the judgement of an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in 
Dera Ghazi Khan. The accused were let off for lack of evidence. 
Mukhtar Mai, who was in court, began to cry after the decision. "I 
will appeal. I will go anywhere, wherever is necessary ... to get my 
right," she was reported as saying.
This is a sad day for Pakistan. Mukhtar Mai caught world headlines 
because the case was one of gang rape in full public view. It was 
thus an open and shut case. There were about 150 witnesses. The rape 
happened at a time when General Musharraf was exhorting people to be 
moderate and enlightened. In due course, the ATC sentenced six and 
acquitted the rest. It seemed that justice had been done.
But it seems not, at least that is the public perception about the 
High Court judgement. The judgment is based on the fact that there is 
not enough "evidence" to prosecute the alleged culprits. That is 
probably true legally. The High Court has gone by the book. But two 
questions arise. Was this the right time to go strictly by the book 
when the courts are not exactly renowned for going by the book in 
cases with political overtones? Why was the police unable to put 
together the evidence to clinch a decision in its favour when the 
rape happened publicly? The government has to answer this, not the 
High Court.
Mukhtar Mai has challenged the decision and the case will now proceed 
to the Supreme Court. This is not a case in which a woman has been 
raped. This is a case in which a nation has been raped. That is how 
we should feel about it. This is not a case in which technicalities 
and police incompetence can be allowed to override national security. 
The issue of this country's image is one of national security as 
General Musharraf has said time and again. It's a question of how we 
treat one half of Pakistan. For any court to ignore this aspect is to 
tackle the issue very narrowly. That needs to change.

______


[3]

The News International
March 05, 2005

DISCORDANT NOTES AMIDST AMITY SYMPHONY

Praful Bidwai

First, the good news. The India-Pakistani thaw is growing. The two 
governments seem to be bending over backwards to facilitate 
people-to-people contacts in unprecedented ways. The seventh 
convention of the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and 
Democracy, which ended this week in Delhi, met with a warm welcome, 
not just from NGOs and citizens, but even the government. The Foreign 
Minister hosted a high-tea reception for its delegates at Hyderabad 
House, the opulent venue where visiting heads of state are treated to 
lavish banquets.

Student exchanges are increasing. Lahore's Kinnaird College has 
entered into a joint programme for journalism students with Delhi's 
Lady Sri Ram College. Indians and Pakistanis are visiting and 
discovering their countries as never before. Some 10,000 visas are 
being issued for the first India-Pakistan cricket Test.

The Pakistan visit of Communist leaders Harkishan Singh Surjeet and 
A. B. Bardhan -- two of India's most remarkable and respected 
politicians -- has created a surge of goodwill and brought about the 
dramatic release of 200 Indian prisoners in the course of one single 
meeting with General Pervez Musharraf.

Now, the bad news. Many participants in the proposed India-Pakistan 
Peace March from Delhi to Multan have not received their visas. Some 
had applied for one as early as in November. Apparently, their names 
haven't been cleared by Home Ministry bureaucrats.

More important, General Musharraf has revived the rather unpleasant 
memory of the Kargil conflict with "our arch-enemy" India. He claims 
that Kargil "proved a lesson to the Indians and a rude awakening to 
the world of the reality of Kashmir." (See his website: 
www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk). It is hard to say if this is 
deliberate and boastful taunting, or just regression into old 
familiar phraseology. But it certainly doesn't mark progress.

Most important, just two weeks ago, India's Foreign Secretary Shyam 
Saran laid out his government's emerging thinking about and policy 
towards India's neighbours. His speech (Feb. 14, available at 
www.meaindia.gov.in) is a strong assertion of India's pre-eminence in 
South Asia, which is unlikely to go down well in the neighbourhood. 
(Surprisingly, there hasn't been much public debate on it in any 
SAARC country.)

Saran was blunt: "India is today one of the most dynamic and 
fastest-growing economies of the world ... a vast and growing market, 
[and] a competitive source of technologies and knowledge-based 
services. Countries across the globe are beginning to see India as an 
indispensable economic partner." SAARC countries should also "seek to 
share" in India's "economic destiny" and the "prospect of 
prosperity." Or else, they will lose out, making SAARC a "limping 
shadow" of its true potential.

According to Saran, India accepts it has "greater responsibility to 
encourage the SAARC process ... it has already accepted the principle 
of non-reciprocity. We are prepared to do more." But in return, 
India's neighbours must demonstrate that they are sensitive to its 
vital concerns, which "relate to allowing the use of their 
territories for cross-border terrorism and hostile activity ... [W]e 
need to create a positive and constructive environment by avoiding 
hostile propaganda and intemperate statements. India cannot, and will 
not, ignore such conduct and will take whatever steps are necessary 
to safeguard its interests."

Saran also warned against using SAARC primarily to "countervail India 
or to seek to limit its room for manoeuvre." Saran railed against the 
"display of narrow nationalism based on hostility towards India that 
often becomes a cover for failure to deliver on promises made to 
their own peoples..."

This is remarkable for minimising the great asymmetry in size and 
power between India and other SAARC countries and apprehensions 
caused by India's past muscle-flexing in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and 
Nepal. This won't be seen as stating an obvious truth (that India is 
bigger than any of its neighbours), but rather as an aggressive 
assertion of India's ambitions.

Saran tried to soothe fears that India would try to impose its 
agendas upon the neighbours. He said: "India wishes to reassure its 
neighbours that it respects their independence and sovereignty." He 
also said, "as a flourishing democracy, India would certainly welcome 
more democracy in our neighbourhood, but that too is something that 
we may encourage and promise; it is not something that we can impose 
upon others."

Saran was emphatic that economic issues must be at the core of 
SAARC's rationale. Unlike, say, the European Union or the Association 
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), "the countries of South Asia, 
while occupying the same geographical space, do not have a shared 
security perception and, hence, a common security doctrine."

India thus set aside "our differing political and security 
perceptions for the time being, and focus attention on economic 
cooperation." But India is not inspired by SAARC's record. "The fact 
is that SAARC is still largely a consultative body, which has shied 
away from undertaking even a single collaborative project in its 20 
years of existence. In fact, there is deep resistance to doing 
anything...collaborative."

It is true that SAARC has not taken up many collaborative projects, 
nor registered rapid progress towards a regional free-trade zone. But 
one reason for this is the apprehension among India's neighbours of 
being overwhelmed by a giant. Bangladesh and Nepal have openly 
expressed reservations about accepting a free-trade regime and 
demanded special treatment as "least-developed" countries. Pakistan 
too has been cautious in moving towards a South Asian Free Trade Area.

Even more heavy-handed was Shyam Saran's accusation that some SAARC 
member-states actively seek "association with countries outside the 
region or with regional or international organisations, in a barely 
disguised effort to counterbalance India." He added: "If there 
continues to be a resistance to [cross-border] linkages within the 
region, even while seeking to promote linkages outside the region, if 
the thrust of the initiatives of some of the members is seen to be 
patently hostile to India or motivated by a desire to contain India 
in some way, SAARC would continue to lack substance and energy."

This sits ill with the fact that India now itself tends to accord 
greater importance to Southeast Asia than to SAARC. It is also 
developing a "strategic partnership" with the US at least partly to 
secure recognition as America's prime and most trusted ally in South 
Asia.

Saran forgets a plain truth. India's neighbours don't experience it 
solely through gross measures like GDP growth. They also see it - 
despite its 6 or 8 percent growth in recent years - as a country of 
poor people, indeed, as home to the largest number of absolutely 
destitute and disabled people anywhere, and as a society that is 
potentially at least as troubled and strife-torn as their own.

The vision Saran outlined is steeped in hubris and blind faith in 
India's exceptional "destiny." Musharraf's autobiographical account 
on his website is rooted in a nationalism bordering on chauvinism and 
Indophobia.

SAARC leaders cannot achieve sustainable peace if they remain mired 
in such views. Their vision needs to be tempered with compassion, 
modesty and a spirit of solidarity with the peoples of the entire 
region. The time has surely come to effect this correction

o o o o

[Related material]

MARCH FOR INDIA-PAKISTAN PEACE THIS MONTH

[India News]: New Delhi, March 3 : Peace activist Nirmala Deshpande 
and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt will be among 50 people from India and 
Pakistan who come together here March 23 to undertake a march to 
Multan and spread the message of peace.
The month-and-half long "Peace March", mooted by a forum for 
India-Pakistan friendship last year, commemorates an initiative of 
the governments of the two countries to start the composite dialogue 
process.
It would commence from the dargah of Khwaja Nizamuddin here and 
conclude at the tomb of Bahauddin Zakaria in Multan May 11, a 
statement from the organisers said here Thursday.
The activists have written to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 
and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, commending their role in 
facilitating a dialogue and creating space for social and economic 
cooperation between the people of the region.
However, the activists felt there was a need to sensitise the people 
about tolerance, peace and love that was preached by the Sufis of the 
subcontinent.
They have also requested the two governments to support their march, 
which would demand a ban on missile tests and de-militarisation and 
de-nuclearisation of the sub-continent.
They would also seek measures for poverty alleviation and a friendly 
visa policy.
--Indo-Asian News Service



______


[4]

On the eve of the Third Anniversary of the Godhra carnage

MODI-FIED GUJARAT
Where Might is Still Right

M Hasan Jowher

Bludgeoning forex reserves, growing FDI, rising GDP accompanied, 
increasing political stock of India, growing number of NRI 
millionaires.. makes great news for most of us. But the victims of 
post-Godhra riots await more mundane news: justice done, security 
strengthened and compensation awarded. For three years to this week 
they have waited for truth to prevail.

To recap: As the political stock of the ruling right-wing BJP started 
dwindling through 1999-2001 it replaced Keshubhai Patel with the RSS 
pracharak Narendra Modi as Gujarat CM to face ensuing elections. 
Then, following the burning of Sabarmati Express on 27th February, 
2002, claiming 59, mostly innocent Hindu lives, nearly 2,500 innocent 
Muslims were brutally killed, many more permanently handicapped, 
hundreds gang-raped in their homes, farms, factories and on the 
roadside. Several thousand homes were gutted; lakhs of people lost 
livelihood, tenancy and heritage. Some could never return to their 
villages and societies. Chamanpura in Ahmedabad, for instance, where 
former MP Ehsan Jaffary was burnt alive along with several others, 
remain deserted.

In the following months Gaurav Yatras were taken out unmistakably 
celebrating these heinous acts. The CEO of Gujarat that presided over 
this mayhem was re-elected with a thumping majority and is now 
arguably an icon of macho Hinduism. The star criminals roam free and 
some also deface its legislature. None of the killer outfits: VHP, 
Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena were banned. Instead, nearly three hundred 
Muslims languish under the long-dead, dreaded POTA despite Forensic 
Laboratory, Justice Bannerjee, Hazard Centre and numerous 
nationalists' probes ruling out Godhra Muslim conspiracy behind the 
train burning.

On the other hand, fast track courts have routinely acquitted 
criminals accused of brutalizing Muslims, in most cases, thanks to a 
pro-accused prosecution by pro-VHP public prosecutors. Even in the 
cases reopened with Supreme Court intervention justice is suffering, 
thanks to a heady mixture of opportunism, enticement, hopelessness - 
as in Zahira's case - or sheer intimidation, as in Viramgam, Godhra, 
Panchmahals et al. Where the accused are hounded by a chastened 
police, their sympathizers make the complainants' lives miserable.

Compensation has by and large been a farce. Take Sikander's case for 
instance. He drove a Hindu professor of IIMA for fifteen years. At 50 
he lost his wife, brother, bhabi, two nephews, domestic goods worth 
over two lakh, plus all the jahez [dowry] they had readied for their 
daughter. She and her brother being away, escaped the killing. The 
dead mother's cash compensation of ninety thousand rupees went to 
finance her daughter's wedding a year later. Meanwhile Sikander lost 
his three thousand rupee job as he became risky for his good boss who 
at times took grave risks to save him. To sell his burnt house, 
obviously at a throw-away price, he needs sixty thousand rupees on 
basic repairs.

Lamenting his loss he asks God, through mortals like us, why this 
happened to him, why his wife who offered "all the five prayers 
daily" suffered this fate? Our impotence, if not indifference, 
provides no answer. And God clearly doesn't seem too interested in 
the meek. As for Muslim leadership, the less said the better.

So who is really guilty in Gujarat? Sadly, virtually everyone. Half 
of Gujarat, at any rate, for that was the voting percentage of BJP in 
the elections that followed the killings. No senior cop, not one IAS 
officer quit protesting the killings. Not one religious guru of some 
stature condemned the killing publicly. Instead all kind of crafty 
justifications and consolations have been systematically planted in 
popular perception. Consider some: "reaction" to Godhra killing; 
"conspiracy" of anti-nationals, pseudo-secularists to "defame" 
Gujarat; look ahead, not behind.

Few Gujaratis ponder: if Gujarat's reaction to Godhra was justified, 
wasn't Godhra itself then a justified reaction to the kar sevak's 
mischiefs and Babri demolition? That a whole decade before the 
Sabarmati burning virtual ethnic cleansing has been carried out in 
Ahmedabad is forgotten. Does Gujarat's honour [asmita, as Modi calls 
it] lie in booking or bailing out the murderers and rapists? In one 
sweep Supreme Court, NHRC, Citizens' Tribunal, numerous fact finding 
commissions, NGOs and eminent nationalists are held guilty of 
Gujarat-bashing.

What then is the future of Gujarat? Frankly pretty bleak in the long 
run. No wonder the FDI has vanished; even Gujaratis avoid investing 
here, despite all the chest-beating, festivals and bravado put up by 
Modi. No sane person would want to risk good money on bad politics.

Equally, the integration of the nation has been badly affected. The 
Muslim psyche, not just within Gujarat but throughout India, is 
deeply hurt. Nothing in recent times, not even Babri Masjid 
demolition, has shaken their faith in the Indian state as much as the 
Gujarat killings. Not until the state acts decisively to punish the 
guilty and compensate the losses fully, not until the Hindu clergy 
and society condemn the guilty, not until Moditva is extinguished and 
Modi tried, can true justice be perceived. With a ruined Sikander in 
every mohalla, a gang-raped Bilkis in every town, crying for justice 
in wilderness, pray, how can there be peace and harmony?

Partly encashing the revulsion the nation felt at the Gujarat 
carnage, the UPA ousted NDA at the centre with Sonia replacing 
Vajpayee as the nation's darling. However, little has changed for 
Gujarat's riot victims. But alas! There is no alternative to justice. 
Even if delayed, let it not be denied for brazen injustice cannot 
pave the way for peace and a fractured society cannot be harmonious.

The author runs a voluntary agency, SPRAT, and is accessible at 
info at mysprat.org


_______


[5]

[ http://www.coalitionagainstgenocide.org/petition/modi.protest.php ]

PROTEST THE VISIT OF MODI, THE CHIEF ARCHITECT OF GUJARAT POGROMS

We are appalled that the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association has 
invited Mr. Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state of 
Gujarat, India, as the chief guest to its 2005 Annual Convention. 
AAHOA's adulation of Mr. Modi as the "Man for the 21st century for 
Gujarat" and as "a master political strategist, a firebrand agitator, 
an able administrator, an extraordinary orator" is deeply troubling 
and makes us wonder if this is an attempt to whitewash his role in 
the Gujarat pogroms.

Mr.Modi and his state apparatus have been indicted by reputable 
Indian and International human rights organizations for their 
sponsorship of and complicity in the ethnic cleansing and pogroms 
against the Muslim community in Gujarat during February - March 2002 
where thousands of people were killed and made refugees, hundreds of 
women and young girls were brutally raped and tortured, and religious 
places of worship were defiled and destroyed.

By honoring Mr. Modi, AAHOA dishonors the victims of the Gujarat 
pogrom, and insult the moral dignity of us all. Furthermore it raises 
questions about the current AAHOA leadership's commitment to 
secularism and pluralism.

Mr. Modi's government has systematically prevented victims and 
survivors of the genocide from attaining redress from the state 
judiciary. Its blatantly discriminatory handling of more than 2000 
cases stemming from the Gujarat carnage has impelled the Supreme 
Court of India to transfer some of the cases out of Gujrat. He is a 
long-standing member of the RSS, an organization modelled on the 
Nazis and the Italian fascists. Mr. Modi's tenure has had a chilling 
effect on the Christian and Muslim communities of Gujarat. Mr. Modi's 
visit to the US is in violation of Section 604 of the US 
International Religious Freedom Act which makes any foreign official 
who has engaged in "particularly severe violations of religious 
freedom" inadmissible to the United States.

We demand that:
The Indian government take immediate steps to punish the perpetrators 
of pogroms and to rehabilitate the victims.

AAHOA rescind their invitation to Mr. Modi and appeal to the 
cosponsors of the AAHOA convention to withdraw their support.

The State department stop issuing visas to those associated with 
violence or preaching of violence.

The Indian and the US governments work together to curtail the 
fundraising and other activities in the US of hate groups such as the 
one Mr.Modi belongs to.

Signed

______


[6]

PRESS RELEASE       PRESS RELEASE      PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi, 4th March 2005:

A press conference was held today as part of the two day dharna 
[sit-in] in New Delhi  to protest against the plundering of people's 
resources. It was addressed by Debaranjan Sarangi (PSSP), Anurag Modi 
(Jan Sangharsha Morcha), Sukhram Sahu (CMM) and Madhumita Dutta 
(Kashipur Solidarity-Delhi).

More than 150 people (adivasis, dalits, small farmers and rural 
workers) from struggle groups in Orissa, Chattisgarh and Madhya 
Pradesh are sitting on a peaceful dharna at Jantar Mantar from 4th- 
5th of March 2005 to demand-cancellation of MOUs with multinational 
mining companies in these three states, stop state-sponsored 
repression of dalits and adivasis, and end eviction of adivasis from 
forests in the name of "forest protection". Specifically, they are 
demanding that the 20 activists arrested in Kashipur since December 
2004 be immediately and unconditionally released; that the 
industrialists responsible for the murder of Shankar Guha Niyogi in 
1991 but acquitted by the Supreme Court in January 2005 be punished; 
and that 17 Korku adivasi families forcibly evicted in July 2004 from 
their Bhandarpani village in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district be 
immediately resettled close to their original home.

Since independence, millions of adivasis have been displaced from 
their traditional homelands by development projects such as dams and 
mining. According to conservative official records, adivasis and 
dalits account for 40 per cent of all the people displaced so far in 
the name of development. It is also well known that in the absence of 
a humane resettlement and rehabilitation policy most of them have 
been reduced to paupers and labourers, their social and cultural 
fabric torn asunder irreparably.

Despite constitutional guarantees and landmark SC judgments against 
official or corporate usurpation of adivasi lands, the liberalisation 
of the extractive industries in recent years has further jeopardised 
the existence of the adivasis. As part of this liberation process the 
present government has opened up the mining sector further as was 
evident from the budget speech of the finance minister this week. The 
ongoing state persecution of adivasi groups in Orissa resisting the 
acquisition of their bauxite-rich lands by various mining companies 
exemplifies this trend.

In the villages around Kashipur, where people are resisting the 
takeover of their lands by the bauxite-mining consortium Utkal 
Alumina International Ltd (UAIL), the state has gone on a major 
offensive to quell the struggle. Since December 2004, 18 members of a 
group called Prakrutik Sampada Surakshya Parishad (PSSP) fighting the 
corporation have been illegally arrested. 

The mines and refinery are slated to come up in adivasi-dominated 
areas that are protected by the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, 
which guarantees the right of land to adivasis, and prohibits the 
transfer of these lands to non-tribals for any purpose. Playing into 
the hands of the mining companies, on November 25, 2004, Orissa Chief 
Minister Naveen Patnaik was quoted as saying that anti-mining 
struggles will be firmly dealt with. Since last November, villages 
protesting the Utkal Alumina project have been under siege by the 
police.

The situation in rest of Orissa is not very different. As many as 
five bauxite mining and alumina projects are in the pipeline, 
covering 5 blocks of 3 districts-Kashipur (Rayagada district), 
Luxmipur and Dasamantpur (Koraput), Lanjigada and Thuamulrampur 
(Kalahandi)-and all of them threaten to uproot large number of 
adivasis from their moorings.

The adivasis are victims of a cruel paradox. While on the one hand 
they are involuntarily and inhumanely displaced by development 
projects such as mining, which actually despoil the environment, on 
the other they are being ousted from their forest habitats in the 
name of protecting forests!

In July of 2004, the Korku adivasis of Bhandarpani village in the 
Betul district of Madhya Pradesh were forcibly evicted by the 
district adminstration as part of the forest eviction drive. Despite 
Jabalpur H[igh] C[ourt]'s order to resettle them with dignity at a 
proper place, they are still living wretched lives in makeshift 
plastic sheds by the banks of a river without food or clothes. 
Reportedly, two kids have died of starvation during their forced 
exile.

Popular struggles against the state-corporate nexus are often quelled 
by desperate measures. The murder in 1991 of Shankar Guha Niyogi, 
trade unionist and founder of Chhatisgarh Mukti Morcha, is a reminder 
of the state's sinister ways. On 20th January 2005, the SC sentenced 
the contract killer Paltan Mallah to life imprisonment but it 
acquitted the industrialists-Moolchand Shah owner of Simplex 
industries, Chandrakant Shah, Gyan Prakash Mishra, Abhay Singh and 
Awadesh Rai owners of Oswal Iron and Steel Private Limited-who 
actually masterminded the assassination.

The three groups-Prakrutik Sampad Surakshaya Parishad (PSSP), 
Kashipur, Orissa; Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM), Chattisgarh; Jan 
Sangharsh Morcha, Madhya Pradesh, under the banner "Campaign against 
Plunder of Resources" are gathering in the capital precisely to 
register their protests against this very state-corporate nexus that 
continues to oppress, exploit and pauperise adivasis in the name of 
economic development.

Prakrutik Sampad Surakshaya Parishad;Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha; Jan
Sangharsh Morcha

Contact:
Rabi Shankar (PSSP)/Ranjana Padhi (Kashipur Solidarity Group)
72, Deshbandhu Apts, 15, Patparganj
Delhi 110092; Phone: 9811150884
Email: kashipursolidarityindelhi at yahoo.com


______


[7]   [Announcements]


(i)

To mark the International Women's week and celebrate 25 years of its existence
Tehrik e Niswan presents its 25th theatre production.

Zikr e Nashunida
'Discussing the unheeded'
a play in Urdu
script, coreography and direction
Prasanna Ramaswamy
Urdu Translation Anwer Jafri

Created during workshops conducted by guest director Prasanna 
Ramaswamy from Chennai India.
The cast includes Sheema Kermani, along with Mahvish Faruqi, Asma 
Mundrawala, Saife Hasan, Mehmood Bhatti, Shazia Qamar, Atif Siddiqui, 
Salim Meraj, Shama Altaf and Shama Askari

The play deals with the aftermath of war, its effects on human lives, 
communities, and civilisations. A cohesive of words, movement and 
music drawn from classical and folk traditions create a discourse on 
the image and voice of the female strength.


PACC Auditorium Karachi,
March 10-14, 2005
8.00 p.m. (duration 100 Minutes)

Cards Rs 250/- available at Agha's supermarket
Tehrik e Niswan : Tel. 5822721 |  email: tehrik at hotmail.com

o o o o o


(ii)

Announcing release of  an independent citizens investigation report 
on 'Radiation Monitoring Around Madras Atomic Power Station'
by VT Padmanabhan and NP Nakul

on 05 March 2005 11:00 a.m. at the Press Club in Trivandrum,
Kerala, India (91-471-2331642)

[The report will be available later today via South Asians Against Nukes
www.s-asians-against-nukes.org/ ]


o o o o o


(iii)


*THE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS' GROUP*

Book Review Literary Trust,
The Daanish Books
LeftWord Books
Little Magazine,
The Rainbow Publishers
Samskriti
Seagull Books
Social Science Press
Three Essays Collective
Tulika Books
Women Unlimited/Kali for Women
Zubaan/Kali for Women

4 March 2005

Dear Friend

The Independent Publishers' Group is delighted to announce a new 
bookshop, U Special, at the University Students' Centre (opp. Arts 
Faculty, adjacent to the Central Reference Library), Delhi 
University, North Campus.

The bookshop was declared open by Prof. Deepak Nayyar on 3 March 
2005, 3 pm. Prof. Uma Chakravarty and Prof. Badri Raina also spoke on 
the occasion. Jan Natya Manch performed 'Bade Bhai Sahab', a play 
based on Premchand's short story, followed by KM College Dramatic 
Society's 'Hawalat', a play by Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena. An exhibition 
of Vivan Sundaram's work inspired by Pablo Neruda's 'Heights of 
Macchu Pichhu' was also put up on the occasion. This happens to be 
the 125^th birth centenary year of Munshi Premchand and centenary of 
Pablo Neruda)

Named after the buses that students from all over the city take to 
get to their various colleges in Delhi University, U Special will be 
not only a bookshop, but a place that will host discussions, book 
events, readings and meetings with authors. It will be the kind of 
happening book-place that Delhi University needs, offering books and 
periodicals, initially in English and Hindi, to students and faculty, 
as well as to residents and visitors in the University area.

--U Special will try to live up to its name: it will have textbooks 
that students and faculty will need to use to study and teach, books 
that people will want to read for pleasure, entertainment and 
learning.

--U Special will be open throughout the year, six days a week, eight 
hours a day, remaining closed on Sunday.

--U Special has been set up by the Independent Publishers' Group 
(IPG), a partnership project of twelve small and medium-sized 
publishers and distributors based in Delhi. U Special will, however, 
stock books from all publishers in Delhi and other parts of India, 
and will undertake to procure books both from within India and 
abroad, as quickly as possible.

--U Special offers to source and supply books to libraries within and 
outside Delhi University.

--U Special is the first books hop of this kind in Delhi, and the IPG 
looks forward to setting up similar stores in other university areas 
in the city.

--U Special is banking on your support.

Antara Dev Sen
Asad Zaidi
Chandra Chari & Uma Iyengar
Dhruva & Sunita Narain
Esha Beteille
Indira Chandrasekhar
Madhu Sengupta
Ritu Menon
Sonny Chopra & Tanmoy Roy Chowdhury
Sudhanva Deshpande
Urvashi Butalia
Vasanthi Raman

representing *The Independent Publishers' Group*

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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on matters of peace 
and democratisation in South Asia. SACW is an independent & 
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