SACW | 27 June 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | 27 June,  2005

[INTERRUPTION NOTICE: Please note there will be 
no SACW dispatches between the period 28 June - 
24/25 July 2005]

[1]  Sri Lanka: Peace Talks, Human Rights and the Joint Mechanism (SLDF)
[2]  [Building a constituancy for Peace in India 
- Pakistan] Get'em young (Beena Sarwar)
[3] Torture in South Asian Perspective and Few Words (Odhikar and Ubinig)
[4] The 'People's War' [Part II] (Pankaj Mishra)
[5]  India: Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP)
  - Programme of action to create awareness on the persisting danger n-weapons
  - Hiroshima, Nagasaki victims to be remembered on Aug 6, 9
[6]  India: 'Right to Work March' reaches Shankargarh
[7]  India: Christians face Hindu right-wing wrath

______


[1]

26 June 2005

For Immediate Release

SLDF CALLS FOR THE IMMEDIATE RESUMPTION OF PEACE TALKS AND PROVISIONS FOR
THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE JOINT
MECHANISM

The Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF) extends guarded support for the
implementation of the Joint Mechanism for tsunami reconstruction (also
known as Post-Tsunami Operations Management Structure), urges increased
transparency in its operations and calls for an immediate resumption of
peace talks with provisions for the protection of human rights.

The post-tsunami political environment offered unique political
opportunities for peace building and reconciliation.  These opportunities
have been squandered by the LTTE’s campaign of political killings and the
Government’s failure to address the diverse needs and aspirations of all
communities, particularly those of the Muslim community and Eastern
Tamils.  Nearly half the victims of the tsunami were Muslims yet they were
not party to the negotiations of the Joint Mechanism.  The Tamils cannot
be regarded as synonymous with the LTTE and consulting the LTTE does not
equate to consulting the Tamils of the North and East.  This is a crucial
error in light of reported complaints by tsunami-affected Tamils in the
North that they have not been receiving aid collected on their behalf by
the LTTE.

The LTTE’s intransigence is particularly illustrated by its ceasefire
violations, which have included grave human rights abuses, the unilateral
withdrawal from the peace talks, and the constant threat of resuming war.
If the LTTE violates the Joint Mechanism (including by extra-legal means
such as continued killings and intimidation of those working on tsunami
reconstruction) the government and the Norwegian facilitators have no
means to monitor or prevent them.  The LTTE has taken advantage of a CFA
that disarmed alternate Tamil parties in order to gain access to
government controlled areas and carry out hundreds of political killings.
Despite this, the Government has acquiesced to the LTTE’s refusal to
include any human rights agreement as part of the Joint Mechanism.

Furthermore, the last few months have witnessed the rise of Sinhala
Buddhist nationalism under the guise of opposition to the legitimization
of the LTTE.  In some quarters, progress on the Joint Mechanism has become
synonymous with resisting the resurgence of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism
and with a commitment to a negotiated solution to the ethnic conflict.

The efforts of the government and the Norwegian facilitators are therefore
all the more disappointing.  The mistakes of the Wickramasinghe Government
in drafting the ceasefire agreement, in not ensuring transparency or
securing the independent participation of a Muslim delegation in the peace
talks have been repeated in the current government’s handling of the Joint
Mechanism, which was also drafted in secrecy and excluded the Muslim
community from negotiations.  The Joint Mechanism was not even shown to
the members of parliament of the ruling party.

Vigilance on the part of the international community is therefore
essential, as is a willingness to back up expressions of concern over
continued violence with concrete measures aimed at stopping abuse.  The
international community has a responsibility to ensure the rights of all
of Sri Lanka’s citizens, particularly given the pressure it exerted for
progress on the Joint Mechanism.

The Joint Mechanism points to certain protections for the Muslim community
and its interests through a process by which decisions can be challenged.
But the interests of the Eastern Tamils are not similarly protected.
Tamils in the East have increasingly taken an independent stand against
the northern LTTE, at great risks to their lives; there are no guarantees
that the Joint Mechanism will not become another vehicle for their
repression and exploitation.

SLDF has consistently called for a negotiated political solution to the
ethnic conflict that addresses minority aspirations through the devolution
of power and guarantees for the human rights of all of Sri Lanka’s
citizens.  SLDF demands:

§	a moratorium be declared on the war by both parties for the duration of
the reconstruction process and the LTTE eschew the threat of war as a
negotiating tactic;

§	the parties involved to declare their commitment to protect the civil
and political rights of all individuals and political organizations,
respect dissent, free expression and free association;

§	that the Government engage the Karuna 
faction on humanitarian issues and
agree not to be complicit with its violent actions and the LTTE leadership
deal with the Karuna faction politically and peacefully rather than
through violence;

§	resumption of peace talks with full transparency, and space for
meaningful participation by all political parties and communities;

§	that resumption of talks prioritize a human rights agreement;

§	that an independent international human rights monitoring mission
oversees the  immediate cessation of child recruitment, political
killings, abductions and disappearances;

§	that talks resume with a commitment to 
exploring a federal solution with
the participation of all political parties and communities, making human
rights fundamental, as declared in Oslo 2002, and Tokyo 2003.

Sri Lanka Democracy Forum
www.lankademocracy.org

______


[2]

The News on Sunday
June 26, 2005

GET'EM YOUNG
by Beena Sarwar

The phone lines between Hyderabad, Pakistan, and Lucknow, India
crackled with a unique electricity on June 17, 5 pm India time, 4.30
pm Pakistan: a conference call between about a dozen children and
youth each from either city. This was no elite, upper class gathering
of 'English medium' school children. Many belonged to working class
and low income families. Two of the boys from Pakistan are former
bonded labourers, who had participated in the Cricket for Peace
tournament of street children that the Saumya Sen (also known as
actress Nandita Das' husband) organised last year.

However, most of the children had no exposure to 'the other'. Aslam
Khwaja, a journalist and peace activist who is also involved in the
Asia Social Forum, was present at the teleconference in Hyderabad. He
was 'delighted' at how the children interacted. "They didn't just
spout 'peace stuff' that you or I might say," he explains, although
there were some orientation sessions on either side that involved
discussions, singing songs, and watching film clips about hostilities
between India and Pakistan.

Some of the children's parents had cautioned them to be 'very
cautious' while talking to Pakistanis. However, all restraints
disappeared as the children talked. One of them said she
couldn't "say all she wanted to" and would follow up by writing to
her friends in Pakistan.

There were other apprehensions, like wondering whether they would be
able to understand each other's language. Shantanu, a class X
student, was surprised that spoken Hindi and spoken Urdu were so
similar. He ended up leaving "overwhelmed with the 'huge'
experience," saying that this was the best evening he had had this
summer vacation and that he had wanted to talk much more.

Says Aslam: "In the beginning, there was awkwardness and some
hesitancy, but the children very quickly found their linkages,
starting out with the weather, sports, Shahrukh Khan's latest film,
and school issues. The actual talk of 'peace' was just a small part
of the conversation. More important were their human connections."

The participants told jokes and quoted poetry from Allama Iqbal.
Areeba Javed from Hyderabad read out a poem on peace, and when the
Lucknow children learnt that their Pakistani friends knew the songs
from their popular films, they all joined in singing from hits like
Veer Zaara and Kal ho na ho.

And, adds Aslam, they were having so much fun that when it was time
to end the call, after 65 minutes, one of the Hyderabad children
turned round and complained, "Why did you call us for then?"

The idea for this tele-conference grew during the peace march that
began in Delhi on March 23 from the dargah of the great Sufi saint
Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia and ended on May 11 in Multan at the tomb of
another great Sufi, Bahauddin Zakaria.

Among the peace marchers was Sanat Mohanty, a scientist in a research
lab in Minneapolis who co-organised the conference call. "Sanat made
the communication possible and helped us all believe in the sheer
possibility of having such an interaction," says another organiser,
Bobby Ramkant, a health worker based in Thailand. "I never thought
that it would generate so much of passion or how powerful this small
initiative would be in bringing together these children and youth
from India and Pakistan."

"Despite technical difficulties with unstable internet and video-
networking through a web-cam as well as disturbance over the phone
line that was finally used to teleconference the children in, the
enthusiasm and sheer joy of speaking to each other was perceptible,"
wrote Sanat Mohanty in a comment for www.thesouthasian.org that he
runs along with another activist.

He added in his comment, later carried by newspapers around the
region, that some Lucknow children had tickets for a film later but
decided to forego it to find out about their counterparts in
Hyderabad. "Yahan jyada maza aa raha tha. We were having more fun
here. We can see the movie anytime, but this was a beautiful
experience," said Shalabh.

"What picture do you see when you think about India," a Lucknow
participant asked.

"We see a place with friends," came the reply from Hyderabad.

"Can we be friends?" another voice from Lucknow queries.

"Of course," came the confident reply.

Another call with the same participants is planned within the next
month. "The organisers view this as follow up action from the march,
using available technology to increase people to people interaction.
Based on feedback and learning from these calls, the organisers plan
to start similar interactions between other groups," says Sanat.

Other organisers in India include the leading social activist and
Magsaysay Awardee (2002) for emergent leadership Dr Sandeep Pandey
who headed the Indian delegation for the peace march, noted Narmada
Bachao Andolan activist and NAPM (National Alliance of People's
Movements) leader Arundhati Dhuru, activist filmmaker Monika Wahi and
NAPM/Asha activist Mahesh Kumar Pandey.

From Pakistan, besides Aslam Khwaja, the organisers include Ghulam
Hussain Malokani, who heads Green Rural Development Organisation, the
journalist A. G. Chandio, Aijaz Ali, chairperson of Indus Valley
Theatre Network (a street theatre group which operates in the rural
area of Sindh) and Kaleem Shaikh, who runs the Hyderabad Business
Forum is an active member of PIPFPD and the Pakistan Social Forum.

Here's hoping that their small but significant personal initiative
blooms into something more, feeding the peace stream that appears to
be gathering momentum despite the occasional hiccups.

The writer is a staff member.

______


[3]

sacw.net | June 26, 2005

TORTURE IN SOUTH ASIAN PERSPECTIVE AND FEW WORDS
by Odhikar and Ubinig*

Since the adoption of the Convention against 
Torture by the UN General Assembly in 1984, the 
26th of June is commemorated as the International 
Day against Torture.

[ . . . ]
New Measures Adopted
Since the incident commonly remembered as '9/11', 
a trend has developed towards derogation from the 
rule of law in the Asian region, particularly in 
South Asia. The increased call of the governments 
in the name of speedy and secretive trials on 
suspects, especially with the precedent led by 
the U.S., has led to use of tactics similar to 
those used by the US. The counter-terrorism 
measures in the South Asian region have started 
to include the introduction of new procedures for 
the purpose of detention of suspected terrorist 
and the use of military tribunals.
New measures have also included detention based 
on information, including non-evidentiary 
information, withheld from the accused, limits on 
habeas corpus and similar remedies, limits on 
access to counsel and indefinite detention 
without trial. Such discrimination based on the 
communities on the grounds of religious, 
political and social backgrounds can also be seen 
in the Asian region in particular in India, 
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia 
and Indonesia.
[ . . . ] .

{URL : http://www.sacw.net/hrights/odhikar_ubinig26062005.html  }

______



[4]

[Concluding part of the article ; continues from SACW | 24 June 2005 ]

o o o

London Review of Books
Vol. 27 No. 12 dated 23 June 2005 | Pankaj Mishra

THE 'PEOPLE'S WAR' [Part II]

Pankaj Mishra

[. . .]
The Maoists under Prachanda resolved as early as 
1986 to follow Mao's strategy of capturing state 
power through a 'people's war'. They did not 
start the war until the mid-1990s, however, when 
disillusionment with parliamentary democracy 
created for them a potentially wide popular base 
in the countryside. Still, hardly anyone noticed 
when on 4 February 1996 the Maoists presented the 
government with a list of 40 demands, which 
included abrogating existing treaties with India, 
stripping the monarchy of all power and 
privileges, drafting a new constitution by means 
of a constituent assembly, nationalising private 
property, declaring Nepal a secular nation and 
ending all foreign aid. These demands were not 
likely to be met; and as though aware of this, 
the Maoists began their 'people's war' by 
attacking police stations in six districts four 
days before the deadline.

For the next five years, the Maoists forced their 
way into the national consciousness with their 
increasingly bold tactics. They financed 
themselves by collecting 'taxes' from farmers, 
and they exacted 'donations' from many 
businessmen in the Kathmandu Valley. They 
indoctrinated schoolchildren; they formed 
people's governments in the areas they controlled 
and dispensed rough justice to criminals and 
'class enemies'. But much of the new power and 
charisma of the Maoists came from their ability 
to launch audacious attacks on the police and the 
army.

The military wing of the Maoists initially 
consisted of a few ill-trained men armed with 
antique rifles and homemade weapons. But they 
chose their first target cannily: the police, 
almost the only representatives of the central 
government in much of Nepal. Poorly armed, often 
with little more than sticks and .303 Lee Enfield 
rifles, the police retreated swiftly before the 
Maoists, who also attacked roads, bridges, dams, 
administrative offices, bridges, power plants - 
anything they felt might aid the 
counter-insurgency efforts of the government.

In recent years, the Maoists have grown 
militarily strong, mostly through conscription in 
the countryside, and regular training - allegedly 
provided by Indian Naxalites. They have acquired 
better weapons by looting police stations and 
buying from the arms bazaars of India; they have 
also learned how to make roadside explosives, 
pipe and 'pressure cooker' bombs. In November 
2001, the Maoists launched 48 attacks on the army 
and the police in a single day, forcing the 
Nepalese government to impose a state of 
emergency. More than 5000 people died in the next 
15 months, the bloodiest period in Nepal's modern 
history.

But violence is only a part of the Maoists' 
overall strategy. In an interview in 2000, 
Prachanda criticised Indian Communist groups for 
their lack of vision and spoke of the importance 
of developing 'base areas'. Since 1996, the 
Maoists have spread out from their traditional 
home in the midwestern hills of Rolpa and Rukum 
districts. Their cadres - estimated to number as 
many as 100,000 - travel to deprived areas, 
addressing, and often recruiting from, the large 
and growing mass of people deeply unhappy with 
Nepal's new democratic dispensation.

Some measure of democracy was inevitable in Nepal 
by the 1980s. In previous decades, the state's 
half-hearted efforts at development had produced 
many low-level bureaucrats, small businessmen, 
teachers, students and unemployed graduates. This 
new class resented the continuing dominance of 
upper-caste clans and families. The conflict 
between the old elite and its challengers was 
aggravated by a series of economic crises in the 
late 1980s. In 1985-86, Nepal had negotiated a 
loan with the IMF and World Bank. The bank's 
euphemistically named (and free-market oriented) 
'structural adjustment programme', which was then 
causing havoc in Latin American economies, forced 
the Nepalese government to cut farm subsidies and 
jobs in the public sector. GDP grew as a result 
but the gains were cancelled out by inflation of 
up to 10 per cent and a trade and transit embargo 
imposed by India in 1989, which caused severe 
fuel shortages and price rises.

The protesters who filled the streets of 
Kathmandu in the spring of 1990 were convinced 
that the decaying Panchayat system could not deal 
with the shocks of the new world and needed to be 
reformed. In acceding to demands for multi-party 
democracy, the king appeared to acknowledge the 
strength of the new educated class and to 
recognise that the old political system needed a 
degree of popular legitimacy if it was to 
survive. It's clear now that what happened in 
1990 was less a revolution than a reconfiguration 
of power, sanctified by elections, among the old 
royalist oligarchy and an emerging urban middle 
class. Many courtiers and sycophants of the king 
managed to reinvent themselves as parliamentary 
politicians, often joining the Nepali Congress, 
the political party that ruled Nepal for all but 
one of the next 13 years. There were few 
ideological differences between the Nepali 
Congress and the main opposition party, the 
radical-sounding Communist Party of Nepal (United 
Marxist-Leninist), both of which continued to be 
led by upper-caste men motivated largely by a 
desire for money and power. Elections were held 
frequently, and a procession of governments - 13 
in as many years - made Nepalese democracy appear 
vibrant. But the majority of the population, 
especially its ethnic communities, went largely 
unrepresented.

In 1992, when democracy still promised much, and 
Maoism was no more than another rumour in the 
streets of Kathmandu, Andrew Nickson, a British 
expert on Latin America, wrote prophetically:

The future prospects of Maoism in Nepal will 
. . . depend largely on the extent to which the 
newly elected Nepali Congress government 
addresses the historic neglect and discrimination 
of the small rural communities which still make 
up the overwhelming bulk of the population of the 
country. As in the case of Peru, this would 
require a radical reallocation of government 
expenditures towards rural areas in the form of 
agricultural extension services and primary 
healthcare provision.

Needless to say, this didn't happen. In 2002, 
Dalits, low-caste Hindus, had an annual per 
capita income of only $40, compared to a national 
average of $210; fewer than 10 per cent of Dalits 
were literate. The upper-caste men who dominated 
the new democratic regime were competing among 
themselves to siphon off the money pouring into 
Nepal from foreign donors. A fresh convert to the 
ideology of the free market, the Nepalese 
government dedicated itself to creating wealth in 
urban areas. Trying to boost private investment 
in Kathmandu, it neglected agriculture, on which 
more than 80 per cent of the population depend 
for a living. Not surprisingly, absolute poverty 
continued to increase in the late 1990s, even as 
Kathmandu Valley benefited from the growth in the 
tourist, garment and carpet industries, and 
filled up with new hotels, resorts and villas.

In such circumstances, many people are likely to 
be attracted to violent, extra-parliamentary 
groups. The Maoists in Nepal had their first 
ready constituency among rural youths, more than 
100,000 of whom fail their high school 
examination every year. Unemployed and adrift, 
many of these young men worked for other 
political parties in the countryside before 
becoming disillusioned and joining the Maoists.

Mohan was one of the young men who joined a newly 
legitimate political party after 1990 and then 
found himself remote from the spoils of power. He 
then worked with the Maoists for almost five 
years, living in jungles, once travelling to the 
easternmost corner of Nepal, before deciding to 
leave them. He couldn't return to his village, 
which lay in the Maoist-dominated region of 
Rolpa, and had gone to India for a while. He was 
now trying to lie low in Kathmandu, and although 
he didn't say so, he seemed to be 'passing his 
days' and making a living through odd jobs, like 
so many other people in the city.

We had arranged to meet in Boudhanath, 
Kathmandu's major Buddhist site. Sitting in the 
square around the white stupa, among monks in 
swirling crimson robes and often with white 
faces, Mohan spoke of 'feudal forces' and the 
'bourgeoisie': their corruption had paved the way 
for the Maoists, whom he described as 
'anarchists'. He used the foreign words with a 
Nepalese inflection. He said that he had picked 
them up while accompanying a Maoist propagandist 
on tour; and it occurred to me, as he described 
his background, that he still used them despite 
having left the Maoists because he had no other 
vocabulary with which to describe his experience 
of deprivation and disappointment.

He was born and brought up in a family of Magar 
shepherds in a corner of Rolpa district that had 
no proper roads, schools or hospitals. Educated 
at a school in Palpa, a walk of several miles 
from his village, he had joined the Nepali 
Congress in 1992, when still in his late teens, 
and become a personal aide to a prominent local 
politician. There were many such young men. They 
received no money for their services, but slept 
in the politician's house, ate the food prepared 
for his family, and travelled with him to 
Kathmandu. Mohan said that it was a good time, 
the early years of democracy. He liked being in 
Kathmandu, especially with someone who had a bit 
of power. But he couldn't fail to notice that the 
politician returned less and less often to his 
constituency in the hills and often refused to 
meet people who came to his door asking for jobs, 
money and medical help. He was surprised to hear 
that the politician was building a new house for 
himself in Kathmandu. Soon, he felt he was not 
needed, and one day the politician's wife told 
him to eat elsewhere.

Clashes between Nepali Congress activists and the 
Maoists were common in his area; he felt that he 
could be useful to the Maoists with his knowledge 
of politics. He was also attracted to the idea of 
ethnic autonomy that the Maoists espoused. He had 
seen in his time with the politician how the 
upper-caste-dominated government in Kathmandu 
possessed an unjust share of the country's wealth 
and resources. Many people he knew had already 
joined the Maoists, and in 1995, one of his 
friends introduced him to the Maoist 'squad 
commander' in the region.

As he spoke, I wondered if this was the whole 
truth, if he hadn't joined the Maoists for the 
same reason he had joined the Nepali Congress, 
the reason many young men like him in India 
joined political parties: for food and shelter. 
In any case, he joined the Maoists at a bad time: 
it was in 1995 that the Nepalese government 
launched Operation Romeo.

This scorched-earth campaign is described as an 
instance of 'state terror' in a report by INSEC 
(Informal Sector Service Centre), Nepal's most 
reliable human rights group. The police, 
according to the report, invaded villages in the 
Rolpa and Rukum districts, killing and torturing 
young men and raping women. When I mentioned this 
to Mohan, he said that things weren't as bad as 
they were made out to be by the 'bourgeois' 
intelligentsia in Kathmandu, who, he thought, 
were soft on the Maoists. He said the Maoists 
were simply another opportunistic political 
group; this was why he had left them. They were 
interested in mobilising ethnic communities only 
to the extent that this would help them capture 
'state power'; they weren't really interested in 
giving them autonomy. He had also been repelled 
by their cruelty. He had heard about - if not 
actually seen - instances of Maoists punishing 
people who refused to pay taxes, defied their 
alcohol ban or were suspected of being police 
informers. Using rocks and hammers, they often 
broke all the bones in their victims' bodies 
before skinning them alive and cutting off their 
tongues, ears, lips and noses.

Many of these stories appear in reports by 
Nepalese and international human rights groups. 
The Maoist leaders were, I often heard in 
Kathmandu, riding a tiger, unable to prevent 
their angry and frustrated cadres from committing 
torture and murder. Criminals had infiltrated 
their movement, and some Maoists now made a 
living from extortion and kidnapping. When 
confronted with these excesses, Maoist leaders 
deny or deplore them. They probably realise that 
that they are losing many of their original 
supporters, who are as tired of the 
organisation's growing extremism as of the years 
of indecisive fighting. Nevertheless, these 
leaders can often seem constrained in their 
political thinking by revolutionary methods and 
rhetoric created in another time and place. 
Prachanda, for instance, is convinced that 'a new 
wave of revolution, world revolution is 
beginning, because imperialism is facing a great 
crisis.'

When the subject is not world revolution but the 
specific situation of Nepal, he can be shrewdly 
perceptive. A police officer in India told me 
that many of the Indian Communists he interviewed 
confessed to learning much from the Maoists in 
Nepal, who were not as rigidly doctrinal as 
Communists in India and Afghanistan. As Prachanda 
put it:

The situation in Nepal is not classical, not 
traditional. In the Terai region we find 
landlords with some lands, and we have to seize 
the lands and distribute them among the poor 
peasants. But in the whole mountainous regions, 
that is not the case. There are smallholdings, 
and no big landlords . . . How to develop 
production, how to raise production is the main 
problem here. The small pieces of land mean the 
peasants have low productivity. With collective 
farming it will be more scientific and things can 
be done to raise production.

It is not clear how much collective farming 
exists, or what non-military use the Maoists make 
of the taxes they collect. In fact, there is 
little reliable information about what goes on in 
the countryside. Few journalists venture out of 
their urban bases, and the Maoists aren't the 
only obstacle. Most of the very few roads outside 
Kathmandu are a series of large potholes, and 
then there are the nervous soldiers at 
checkpoints. And once you move away from the 
highway, no soldiers or policemen appear for 
miles on end. In Shakti Khor, a village in the 
Tarai region populated by one of the poorest 
communities in Nepal, a few men quietly informed 
us that Maoist guerrillas were hiding in the 
nearby forest, where no security forces ever 
ventured and from where the Maoists often escaped 
to India. At a small co-operative shop selling 
honey, mustard oil, turmeric and herbal 
medicines, two men in their mid-twenties appeared 
very keen to put in a good word for the Maoists - 
who the previous night had painted red 
anti-monarchy slogans on the clean walls.

In the other Maoist-dominated regions I visited, 
people seemed too afraid to talk. At Deurali 
Bazaar, a village at the end of a long and 
treacherous drive in the hills near Pokhara, a 
newly constructed bamboo gate was wrapped with a 
red cloth painted with a hammer and sickle and 
the names of Maoists either dead or in prison. 
The scene in the square appeared normal at first 
- women scrubbing children at a municipal tap, 
young men drinking tea, an old tailor hunched 
over an antique sewing-machine, his walking stick 
leaning against his chair - but the presence of 
the Maoists, if unacknowledged, was unmistakable. 
When I tried to talk to the men at the teashop, 
they walked away fast, one of them knocking over 
the tailor's stick. The shopkeeper said that he 
knew nothing about Maoists. He didn't know who 
had built the bamboo gate; it had simply appeared 
one morning.

When I got back to Pokhara that evening, the news 
was of three teenage students killed as they 
tried to stop an army car on the highway. The 
previous day I had seen newspaper reports in 
which the army described the students as 
'terrorists' and claimed to have found documents 
linking them to the Maoists. But it now seemed 
clear that they were just collecting donations 
for Holi, the Hindu festival of colours. There 
were eyewitnesses to the shooting. The parents of 
the victims had exhumed their corpses from the 
shallow graves in which the army had quickly 
buried them and discovered that two of them had 
been wearing their school uniforms. Like much 
else in Nepal, this would not appear in the 
newspapers.

The bloody stalemate in Nepal may last for a long 
time. The army is too small and poorly equipped 
at present decisively to defeat the Maoists. In 
some areas it has recently tried arming 
upper-caste villagers and inciting them to take 
action against the Maoists. In the southern 
district of Kapilavastu, vigilante groups 
organised by a local landlord and armed by the 
government claim to have killed more than fifty 
Maoists in February. Such tactics are not only 
likely to lead to a civil war but also to 
increase support for the Maoists in areas where 
the government is either absent or disliked.

Though unlikely at present, talks may offer a way 
forward. The Maoists have shown themselves 
willing to negotiate and even to compromise: in 
July 2001 they dropped their demand that Nepal 
cease to be a monarchy. More recently, Prachanda 
hinted at a flexible stance when he called for a 
united front of mainstream political parties 
against the monarch. He probably fears that the 
guerrilla force might self-destruct if its 
leaders fail to lead their more extreme cadres in 
the direction of moderate politics. But any 
Maoist concessions to bourgeois democracy are 
unlikely to please Gyanendra, who clearly wants 
to use the current chaos to help him hold on to 
his power.

If he periodically evokes the prospect of 
terrorists taking over Nepal, Gyanendra can count 
on the support of India, the US and the UK. In 
late 2001, the US ambassador to Nepal, Michael 
Malinowski, a veteran of the CIA-sponsored 
anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, said that 
'these terrorists, under the guise of Maoism or 
the so-called "people's war", are fundamentally 
the same as terrorists elsewhere - be they 
members of the Shining Path, Abu Sayaf, the Khmer 
Rouge or al-Qaida.' The then Hindu nationalist 
government in Delhi, just as eager to name new 
enemies, also described the Maoists as 
'terrorists'.

The present Indian government has a more nuanced 
view of Nepal. But it is worried about India's 
own Communist rebels and their links with the 
Nepalese Maoists, and it believes that, as 
Malinowski put it, 'all kinds of bad guys could 
use Nepal as a base, like in Afghanistan.' 
Responding to fears that the army in Nepal was 
running out of ammunition, India resumed its arms 
supply this year, partly hoping to contain the 
Maoists and wanting too to maintain its influence 
over Nepal in the face of growing competition 
from the US.

There is no evidence that bad guys, as defined by 
the Bush administration, have flocked to Nepal; 
the Maoists are far from achieving a military 
victory; and the Communists in India are unlikely 
to extend their influence beyond the 
poverty-stricken districts they presently 
control. The rise of an armed Communist movement 
in a strategically important country nevertheless 
disturbs many political elites, who believe that 
Communism died in 1989 and that history has 
arrived at the terminus of liberal-capitalist 
democracy.

A European diplomat in Kathmandu told me that 
although Western countries hoped the political 
parties and the king would put up a joint front 
against the Maoists, they knew they might at some 
point have to support the king and his army if he 
alone was left to protect the country from the 
Maoists and keep alive the prospects for 
democracy. I did not feel that I could ask him 
about the nature of a democracy that is protected 
by an autocrat. Perhaps he meant nothing more by 
the word 'democracy' than regular elections: the 
kind of democracy whose failure to contain 
violence or to limit systemic poverty and 
inequality does not matter so long as elections 
are held, even if, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, 
under a form of martial law, and in which the 
turnout of voters does nothing but empower and 
legitimise a native elite willing to push the 
priorities of its Western patrons.

Such a form of democracy, which is slowly coming 
into being in Pakistan, could be revived again in 
Nepal, as the king repairs his relationship with 
the mainstream political parties. It is possible, 
too, that the excesses of the Maoists will cause 
them to self-destruct. Certainly the 
international revolution Prachanda speaks of will 
prove a fantasy. Yet it's hard to wish away the 
rage and despair of people who, arriving late in 
the modern world, have known its primary 
ideology, democracy, only as another delusion - 
the disenchanted millions who will increasingly 
seek, through other means than elections, the 
dignity and justice that they feel is owed to 
them.

Footnotes

* For an accessible account of the beginnings of 
modern Nepal, see John Whelpton's A History of 
Nepal, Cambridge, 2005. Some recent scholarship 
on the Maoists is collected in Himalayan 
'People's War': Nepal's Maoist Rebellion, ed. 
Michael Hutt, Hurst and Co, 2004. The Nepalese 
novelist Manjushree Thapa provides an engaging 
personal account of Nepal's recent turbulent 
years in Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for 
Democracy, Penguin India, Delhi, 2005'

Pankaj Mishra's books include India in Mind, and 
An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World.


______


[5]

The Hindu
June 27, 2005

'IDENTIFY HORRORS OF N-ARMS RACE'

R. Gopalakrishnan

Programme of action to create awareness on the persisting danger n-weapons pose
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*	Nation-wide observance of one-minute silence on August 6 and 9
*	Right to Information Act excluded the DAE from the provisions of law
*	Nuclear danger "is not far out there [in 
history] but here on our doorsteps"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PANAJI: The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and 
Peace (CNDP), an umbrella organisation of more 
than 200 civil society organisations, on Sunday 
issued a call for a nation-wide observance of 
one-minute silence on August 6 and 9 to 
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the dropping 
of nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which 
resulted in the immediate death of more than two 
lakh people.

The CNDP is aimed at "sensitising governments and 
policy-makers" to the dangers of the nuclear arms 
race in the world as also in the Indian 
sub-continent. It concluded a two-day meeting of 
its National Coordination Committee (NCC) here on 
Sunday. It also chalked out a programme of action 
by its State chapters and member-organisations to 
create awareness among all sections of people, 
especially women and the youth, on the persisting 
danger that nuclear weapons posed to humanity and 
its environment and habitat.

Addressing a press conference, leaders of the 
CNDP noted the failure of the Nuclear 
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference 
held in May to make any progress on the 
implementation of the nuclear powers' obligation 
for time-bound global nuclear disarmament, as a 
result of the stance adopted by the United States.

Achin Vanaik, academician and activist, said the 
U.S. had demanded and obtained an apology from 
Japan for bombing Pearl Harbour (U.S. base in the 
Far East) which triggered U.S. participation in 
World War-II but the U.S. itself has refused to 
apologise for dropping nuclear bombs on Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki.

Neither Japan, whose foreign policy was dependent 
on the U.S., nor governments of countries such as 
India had cared to put pressure on the U.S. to 
apologise for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"Unless we recognise the horrors and wrongfulness 
of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the 
world cannot rid itself of nuclear weapons," Mr. 
Vanaik said.

No concern for victims

He said the erstwhile NDA (National Democratic 
Alliance) government had unilaterally called for 
mourning for the 2,500 victims of the terrorist 
attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001, but it 
had not shown a similar concern for victims of 
nuclear bombing which killed a hundred times more 
non-combatants, women and children, in the name 
of protecting American soldiers.

Mr. Vanaik said it was "extremely disturbing" 
that India's Right to Information Act had 
excluded the Department of Atomic Energy from the 
provisions of the law. Christopher Fonseca, head 
of the Goa Coalition for Peace and Nuclear 
Disarmament and General Secretary of the State 
unit of the All-India Trade Union Congress 
(AITUC), appealing to the media to support the 
awareness programmes related to August 6 and 9, 
said nuclear danger "is not far out there [in 
history] but here on our doorsteps," in the 
background of nuclearisation of India and 
Pakistan.

Sabsayachi Chatterjee, scientist, said this year 
was also the International Year of Physics, and 
nuclear bombing of Japan was the worst misuse of 
physics.

Ilina Sen, Admiral (Retd) L. Ramdas, Sukla Sen 
and Garimella Subramaniam also addressed the 
media conference.

o o o

The Navhind Times
June 27, 2005

HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI VICTIMS TO BE REMEMBERED ON AUG 6, 9

NT Staff Reporter

Panaji June 26: A two-day meet of the national 
co-ordination committee of the Coalition for 
Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) held in the 
city on June 25 and 26, decided to run a 
countrywide campaign for observing two-minute 
silence on August 6 and 9, at 11 a.m, as a mark 
of respect to those who lost their lives due to 
the nuclear holocaust at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 
on these respective days.

The Magsaysay award winner formal Naval chief, 
Admiral (retd) R Ramdas who attended the meet 
said that the perceptive radiation effect on the 
people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is still felt, 
especially in the genetic mutations.

Pointing out that the Indian subcontinent, 
including the marine life and marine environment 
along it, is in grave danger due to the Indo-Pak 
nuclear race, Adm Ramdas said that campaign 
against this race should be slowly built up 
through debates and other programmes.

Ms Ilina Sen from Chattisgarh said that the meet 
also decided about holding various other 
activities such as debates for/ against the 
N-bomb, poster and painting competition and 
related seminars.

Mr Sabyasachi Chatterji from the Institute of 
Astrophysics, Bangalore said that nuclear weapons 
are products of science that need to be 
eliminated, while Mr Shukla Sen, a former officer 
of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation observed that 
weapons of mass destruction are actually weapons 
of mass murder that kill innocent people.

"The heat effect and the blast effect of nuclear 
explosion do not last long but its radiation 
effect lasts long enough," Mr Sen added, pointing 
out that presently there are nearly 30,000 
nuclear warheads deployed and stockpiled.

Prof Achin Vanaik said that Goa has a long 
tradition of social awareness, education and 
ecological movements and would rightly respond to 
the anti-nuclear campaign.

He also mentioned that the US had demanded and 
obtained an apology from Japan for attacking the 
Pearl Harbour during the World war II, however it 
has not apologised for bombing of Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki. "Many governments around the globe 
don't recognise the need to pressurise US for 
this apology," he lamented.

The Goa convenor of Coalition for Peace and 
Nuclear Disarmament, Mr Christopher Fonseca said 
that the CPND - Goa would actively participate in 
the anti-nuclear movement.

The meet also expressed concern over the decision 
of the Indian government to go for Uranium mining 
in Meghalaya.

Dr Ghosh, the former professor of international 
relations, Kolkota and Dr G Subramaniam, a 
scientist were also present on the occasion.

_______



[6]

ROZGAR ADHIKAR YATRA AMONG THE KOLS OF SHANKARGARH
(from the Yatra's communication team)

Allahabad, 25 June [2005]: The "Rozgar Adhikar Yatra" launched from Delhi on
13 May, reached Allahabad today after a hectic journey of more than
4,000 kms through ten states. In a remarkable display of solidarity
for hte right to work, more than 100 organizations have already
participated in the series of events that have been organized on the
Yatra's route - public meetings, state conventions, street plays,
puppet shows, rallies and other activities.

The aim of the Yatra is to affirm the right to work as an aspect of
the fundamental right to live with dignity. In particular, the Yatra
demands the immediate adoption of a full-fledged, universal and
irreversible Employment Guarantee Act. The Yatris come from different
states, different walks of life and different organizations; students'
organizations, women's organizations, Dalit/Adivasi organizations and
workers' organizations, among others.

The Yatra reached Allahabad after an eventful journy through Mirzapur
and Allahabad districts. The Yatra's main vehicle, a 47-seater us
decorated with colourful slogans and photographs fell in a ditch near
Devri village (Koraon) early this morning and started sinking in a
pool of mud caused by torrential rains. A crane had to be called from
Allahabad to pull the bus out of the ditch. Fortunately the bus is
safe and sound and will be resuming its journey tomorrow morning.

Today (25 June), the Yatris reached Shankargarh Block by jeep soon
after this incident. In Shankargarh, two public meetings were held in
some of the most deprived villages in the area - Kapari and
Nimbi-Logara. In both places, the Yatris heard heart-rending
testimonies on the conditions in which Kol labourers live in that
area. In both villages, people bitterly complained about the lack of
basic amenities such as drinking water, primary schools and basic
health care. Many of them did not have ration cards, and even those
who did have been deprived of their grain rations for years on end.

Most of the labourers in these villages survive from breaking stones,
but the Forest Department has started interfering with this activity.
Many have been threatened and even beaten for daring to break stones
on "forest land" - even though the land is bare of any trees. "Patthar
todkar kaam chalate the ab to woh bhee naheen kar sakte hai - todte
hai to banduk chalate hai" (We used to live by breaking stones but now
even that is not possible - if we break stones they train their guns
at us), said Vimala Devi of Nimbi-Logara.

In Kapari, Sursati Devi complained that she had worked for 60 days on
a drought relief programme, but she had been paid only for one week.
Even for that week she had received as little as 35 kgs of wheat,
equivalent to Rs 30 per day or so. The minimun wage in Uttar Pradesh
is Rs 58 per day.

Earlier on, the Yatra heard many similar testimonies about the dismal
state of public employment programmes as it traveled through the
country's poorest districts. Some of the Yatris, students at Delhi
University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, have also been associated
with a survey of the Food-For-Work programme undertaken at the same
time as the Yatra. The survey has uncovered widespread irregularities
in the implementation of the programme. For instance, contractors are
routinely used, in violation of the official Guidelines. Labourers
never earn the statutory minimum, and many of them have worked for as
little as Rs 20 or 25 a day. The muster rolls, which are supposed to
be available for public scrutiny, are almost always withheld. And
basic worksite facilities such as drinking water, shade for children
and first-aid material are rarely available.

The Yatra will be in Allahabad on 26 June for a series of activities
including a "mazdoor Sabha" in Jasra Block (starting at 10.30 am) and
public meetings in the city. On 27 June the Yatra will resume its
journey towards Delhi via Rae Bareli (27 June), Lucknow (28 June),
Hardoi (29 June), Lakhimpur Kheri (30 June) and Moradabad (1 July).
The Yatra will conclude in Delhi on 2 July with a "Jan Manch"
(people's platform), where leaders of political parties and citizens'
organizations will be invited to hear reports from the Yatra. This
will also be an opportunity for them to present their views on the
Employment Guarantee Act in anticipation of the monsoon session of
Parliament.


______


[7]

The Times of India
June 26, 2005

CHRISTIANS FACE HINDU RIGHT-WING WRATH
Times News Network [ June 25, 2005 11:34:22 Pm ]

NEW DELHI: District administrations in two 
corners of the country, Jodhpur and Hyderabad, 
have woken up to staggered reports regarding 
persecution of Christians by some right-wing 
groups.

On Saturday, a group of Hindu activists attacked 
a Christian gathering at Parameshwari Palace, 
Sardarpura, in Jodhpur, and alleged that it was a 
"conversion" meet. The police are investigating 
the matter.

The incident took place at the St Andrew's hall, 
where a youth festival was on. More than 60 
persons had assembled "to find a path to peace 
and spirituality" under the guidance of Father 
Paul Matthew.

"I came from Bikaner to find the right path," 
said Mukesh Yadav, who added that there was no 
conversion going on.

More than five dozen activists belonging to VHP, 
RSS and Bajrang Dal thronged the arena and chased 
the participants away. "One person has received 
some injuries," said the police.

Jodhpur superintendent of police Ravi Meharda 
said, "We are investigating the matter and 
nothing much can be said before we reach a 
conclusion."

There was more disturbing news from Hyderabad. A 
hunt is on for two members of a gang, allegedly 
owing allegiance to a right-wing Hindu 
organisation, which kidnapped and killed two 
pastors in the city recently "for carrying on 
evangelical work."

The Cyberabad police have reportedly arrested one of the alleged killers.



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