SACW | 13 Oct. 2005
sacw
aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Oct 12 21:54:32 CDT 2005
South Asia Citizens Wire | 13 October, 2005
[1] Pakistan Will Never Forget This Horror (Tariq Ali)
[2] The Tragedy in our Kashmirs - Needed - Voice
of Conscience - not of Official Spokespersons
(Lalitha Ramdas)
[3] Pakistan: Tarbela, Mangla and the quake (Fahim Zaman)
[4] Kashmir: India Inc rushed to Gujarat, where
are they now: Mirwaiz (Bashaarat Masood & Muzamil
Jaleel)
[5] South Asia Foundation aid to victims on both parts of divided Kashmir
[6] Nepal: Cry Freedom - The muzzling of the press (C.K. Lal)
[7] Human Rights of Tsunami Survivors in Tamil
Nadu and Sri Lanka Being Violated
[8] India: "Commute death sentence of Afzal'' (PUDR)
[9] Director Ali Kazimi weaves multilayered story
about the 'myth' of equality of the British Empire
______
[1]
counterpunch.org
October 11, 2005
Things are Bad and Getting Worse
PAKISTAN WILL NEVER FORGET THIS HORROR
by Tariq Ali
in Lahore
The scale of the disaster has traumatized the
entire country or perhaps not quite. Here in
Lahore a group of people collecting funds for
earthquake relief were apprehended and charged.
They were amassing money for themselves. Even in
the midst of disaster, life goes on. Like a giant
vulture flock, the global media has descended on
the country. The same images repeated every few
minutes over three days. The same banal comments.
Soon they will get tired and move on. When they
are really needed, to monitor relief efforts and
reconstruction, to maintain a watch on the funds
and alert viewers to the inevitable corruption
(in the past blankets and tinned food designed
for victims of the floods earlier this year were
being openly sold in the black-market) they will
not be there. The South is only worth a disaster.
Emote and disappear. And as the media circus
moves on the citizens of the West--they with the
short memory spans--also forget. Pakistan will
never forget this horror.
The picture in the North-West of the country is
much worse than has been reported. The Prime
Minister, Shaukat Aziz, a World Bank favourite,
lost his cool at local journalists for reporting
the destruction of schools and the deaths of
hundreds of children. "Why are you being
sensationalist? Be optimistic!" The defensiveness
was unnecessary. Nobody blames the regime for the
earthquake and even the normally loquacious
Frontier province and Afghan mullahs, eager to
pronounce Katrina as God's punishment for US
wars, have fallen silent. Why would Allah punish
the Islamist strongholds in Pakistan?
The death toll has been underestimated. Balakot,
a small city which is the gateway to the
beautiful Kaghan valley and heavily dependent on
seasonal tourism, has been destroyed. Corpses
litter the streets. According to today's
estimates, at least half of the city's population
of 100,000 is now dead. A whole generation has
been wiped out. Survivors were, till yesterday,
without food or water because the roads had been
wrecked and helicopters were in short supply.
It is the same story in Muzaffarabad, in
Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Everything is
wrecked. Here there have been anti-Government
manifestations and citizens have looted shops in
search of food, just like in New Orleans. Further
up on the Indo-Pak border where a state of
permanent tension is deliberately kept alive by
both sides, there was another tragedy. 400
Pakistani soldiers, sitting in their trenches
were crushed to death as the mountain wall
protecting them crashed and buried them alive.
What of the relief effort? The government is
doing its best, but it is not enough. The lack of
a proper infrastructure, no serious reserve funds
in the budget to deal with unexpected tragedies
and a total lack of preparedness despite annual
disasters on a lesser scale, has cost innumerable
lives. To watch General Musharraf on state
television bemoaning the shortage of helicopters
was instructive. A few miles to the north of the
disaster zone there is a large fleet of
helicopters belonging to the Western armies
occupying parts of Afghanistan. Why could the US,
German and British commanders not dispatch these
to save lives? Is the war so fierce that these
were needed every single day? Five days after the
earthquake, the US released 8 helicopters from
war duty to help transport food and water to
isolated villages. Too little, too late.
The Pakistan Army has been put into action, but
armies here and elsewhere, are not suited to
relief effort. They are not trained to save lives
and reports today that aid convoys are being
attacked and seized by angry crowds long before
they reach their destination is an indication of
the chaos. Even in normal times the poor have
limited access to doctors and nurses. The
state-of-the-art hospitals in the big cities are
exclusively for the wealthy. The shortage of
medical staff has been a curse for the last fifty
years. No regime, military or civilian, has
succeeded in creating a proper social
infrastructure, a safety net for its less
privileged citizens who compose a large majority
of the population. At times like this the entire
country feels the need, but it will soon be
forgotten, till the next disaster. In a
privatized world, the state is not encouraged to
buck the system. Things are bad here this week,
but they will get worse when rescue teams arrive
in areas still out of reach.
Tariq Ali is author of the recently released
Street Fighting Years (new edition) and, with
David Barsamian, Speaking of Empires & Resistance.
______
[2]
Date: Oct 11, 2005 12:03 AM
THE TRAGEDY IN OUR KASHMIRS - NEEDED - VOICE OF
CONSCIENCE - NOT OF OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSONS.
Dear Friends,
Like many of you, my inbox is full up with
information about the scale and extent of the
tragedy post earthquake, as also with appeals
from groups across both countries, who are
collecting and will be sending truck loads of
blankets, clothes and supplies. A friend from
Islamabad writes :" The rescue efforts are
pathetic - people trying to get into the
collapsed mountain of concrete using picks and
shovels. It shows how unprepared the society is
for any kind of disaster. And yet the fools talk
of surviving nuclear war."
From whatever I can deduce from the flood of
traffic on the net about the earthquake - there
is no dearth of willingness to donate and to help
those who have suffered the most unimaginable
loss to life and property. Those groups who have
the wherewithal and the experience to organise
collection and despatch of basic supplies for
those most affected, must clearly continue with
their good and desparately needed efforts.
Says another friend from Lahore:
"however the current situation is that most of
the effected areas are still inaccessible by
vehicles and what's more, the govenment/army have
still
not gotten their act together and coordination of
relief efforts is inefficient to say the least.
so there's a huge question mark over whether the
goodwill of those who want to help will ever reach those who need it in time ?"
What is coming through clearly is that our
entrenched suspicions about each other have once
again got in the way of reaching prompt,
immediate help to the places where it is most
needed. One look at the map tells us that with
other roads being blocked or severaly damaaged,
one of the logical approaches into Pak
administered Kashmir - esp Muzaffarabad - is from
the `Indian' side of Kashmir - across the line of
Control.
And yet, in replays of the interviews with
Foreign Minister Kasuri in Islamabad and a press
conference featuring Indian Foreign Secretary -
Shyam Saran - all that we saw and heard was the
palpable `officialese '- the suave, careful words
- politically correct and devoid of any iota of
feeling. "Ofcourse we will take help - and yes
they have appreciated the offer" - "But sir, are
you planning to work together - access your part
of KAshmir from the Indian side?" - well not
really, I dont know the topography and the High
Commissioners and Foreign secretaries will meet
and work it out. "
Surely this is a moment when these charades must
stop - when sheer humanity demands that all
protocol be put aside and the most effective, the
most practical, and the fastest possible means be
used to reach to people - fly/helicopter in
equipment, supplies and teams who are qualified
to do the job efficiently in the shortest time
possible. And if that expertise lies with the
army - then let the relevant generals and
Brigadiers in the DMOs be authorised to go ahead
- deal with it as a joint operation - and get to
work. Alright - they get to see our bunkers and
establishments and we theirs! They are all alike
- and many of them have probably been destroyed
anyway.
This is truly a moment for all of us who are
engaged in the larger movement for Peace in the
region, to use every means at our disposal, to
place this as highest priority, to put the
pressure on our governments jointly and
powerfully - to stop playing games and to
seriously come to grips with doing what is
needed. This might mean - teams of us who are in
the capitals of both countries, to immediately
seek appointments with the top people - with a
common message and request - based as far as
possible on accurate information from the ground
- where there are enough and more to provide the
inputs.
Nature has ignored borders as she has dealt her
hand - teaching us lessons which we refuse to
heed. If nature has not heeded the irrelevant
lines created by us mortals - surely it is time
for us to do likewise?
It is almost as if the Forces of Nature are
providing us a rare opportunity to make this a
new Peace initiative with immense potential to
bring both peoples and countries together in one
vast humanitarian effort.
Lalita Ramdas
_____
[3]
Dawn
October 12, 2005
Tarbela, Mangla and the quake
By Fahim Zaman
KARACHI: Among the many repercussions of
Saturday's fateful earthquake that read 7.6 on
the Richter scale, engineers, hydrologists and
sociologists are worried over the possible
immediate and long-term effects on the Tarbela
and Mangla dams, both located in the devastated
area.
Wapda has said no damage has been noticed to the
two dams. However, some points need to be
considered.
The Tarbela Dam was constructed during the
mid-1970s as part of the Indus Basin Project
including the Margla Dam and associated
infrastructure.
The Richter scale is logarithmic in nature; an
increase of one magnitude unit represents a
factor of ten times in amplitude. The seismic
waves of a magnitude six earthquake are 10 times
greater in amplitude than those of a magnitude
five earthquake. However, in terms of energy
release, a magnitude six earthquake is about 31
times greater than a magnitude five. It is also
true that the intensity of an earthquake varies
greatly according to distance from the
earthquake. A 7.6 magnitude on the Richter scale
can cause major devastation up to distances of
150-200 kilometres.
The magnitude of an earthquake is a measure of
the amount of energy released. Each earthquake
has a unique magnitude assigned to it. This is
based on the amplitude of seismic waves measured
at a number of seismograph sites, after being
corrected for distance from the earthquake.
Magnitude estimates often change by up to 0.2
units, as additional data are included in the
estimate. It is calculated that a 7.6 magnitude
on the Richter scale equals 160 megatons of a TNT
explosion - the atomic bomb dropped over
Hiroshima had a force of just 13 kilotons of TNT
and killed 80,000 people.
The aerial distance of Abbottabad or Mansehra is
less than 30 km from Tarbela Dam and only 45 kms
from its tunnels. At less than 45 km southeast of
Islamabad, Mangla Dam is also very close to the
area that has suffered massive destruction caused
by the earthquake. It is being considered as
having occurred at a very shallow depth of less
than eight km, resulting in over 150 aftershocks,
many with a magnitude of over six on the Richter
scale. In view of these facts, it must be seen
whether any damage has been caused to the by now
fairly old structures of the two dams.
Scientists and environmentalists opposed to the
construction of big dams have repeatedly pointed
out the danger of such seismic activity,
especially in our case due to the continuous
ploughing of the Indian plate into the Eurasian
plate. Many scientists are worried that Wapda and
the other federal authorities who are more than
ever before trying to advocate a case for
Kalabagh Dam may try to downplay any negative
fallout about the earthquake's possible effect on
the two dams.
_____
[4]
The Indian Express
October 12, 2005
INDIA INC RUSHED TO GUJARAT, WHERE ARE THEY NOW: MIRWAIZ
Bashaarat Masood & Muzamil Jaleel
SRINAGAR, ISHAM (LOC), OCTOBER 11: As thousands
wept while they prayed for the quake victims,
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who led special prayers at
Srinagar's Jamia Masjid today, sent the rest of
India a wake-up call: ''It is sad that people
have not responded to this great tragedy. This
was not expected. When Latur and Bhuj were
ravaged, big industrialists stepped forward to
help. But no one seems to be coming to our aid.''
''This is a national tragedy, a tragedy for
Kashmiris on this side of the LoC and on the
other side. This tragedy has not recognised the
LoC. For the first time, we have been witness to
such destruction, put to such a test. Thousands
have died in Uri, Tangdhar, Muzaffarabad and
Rawlakote,'' he said.
As the Mirwaiz recalled scenes of devastation and
demanded immediate restoration of communication
links between J&K and PoK, tears rolled down
cheeks of those assembled there. Outside the
Grand Mosque, people offered funeral-in-absentia
for those killed in Uri, Tangdhar, Muzaffarabad
and elsewhere.
The Mirwaiz called for a complete shutdown on
Friday as a mark of respect for those who died.
''The coming Friday will be observed as a day of
mourning. All shops and offices will remain
closed and Hurriyat will start a door-to-door
campaign to collect relief for victims,'' he
announced.
What the Mirwaiz said about India Inc and NGOs
not doing enough in Kashmir's hour of need is
being repeated by people everywhere, be it
Srinagar or Uri or Tangdhar.
With the government still missing in villages
along the LoC, people are also beginning to
notice the absence of voluntary groups. Other
than the Army, which has moved at great speed to
rush relief, it has been left to hundreds of
young men from across the Valley to come to the
aid of the affected.
Youths have been carrying sacks of rice and
flour, milk powder packets, clothes, pots, water
bottles and blankets for the quake survivors.
Hours after the quake, young men formed village
and mohalla committees to collect relief and then
despatched hundreds of volunteers to the
worst-hit areas. Despite torrential rains in the
entire Uri region today, young men brought food
and respite to the people who say they have been
''abandoned'' by the civil administration. ''We
are shocked. Our own government is lying to the
world that they are helping us,'' says Ali
Hussain Abbassi of Isham.
''We went to Uri today to complain. We heard that
the Prime Minister was visiting. He would have
heard us but the police didn't let us speak to
our own ministers and chased us away,'' he said.
In Dardkote, Mohammad Akbar Mir is angry with the
state government. ''Do you think they don't know
that nothing has reached us? There are 100
villages in Uri, almost 90 are hit. They could
have sent five-six police battalions with
rations. If these young volunteers can reach us,
why can't the government? There wouldn't have
been a single hungry person here,'' he says.
School teacher Firouz Din Shah is shocked that
voluntary groups still haven't shown up: ''Forget
the Central government, we can't believe that no
NGO has come. Where are the people who set up
community langars when a similar tragedy hit
Gujarat? Only the Nehru Yuva Kendra is in Uri. We
heard that a Sikh group from Punjab has reached
Srinagar. Where are the others?''
_____
[5]
The Hindu
Oct 13, 2005
SOUTH ASIA FOUNDATION AID
Special Correspondent
CHENNAI: : The South Asia Foundation (SAF) has
allocated Rs. 1.50 crore to rehabilitate
earthquake victims on both sides of the LoC in
Jammu and Kashmir, its founder and UNESCO
goodwill ambassador Madanjeet Singh has announced.
Of this, Rs. 1 crore had been offered to Pakistan
in response to an appeal for assistance by
President Paevez Musharaff. Rs. 50 lakhs will be
given to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti
Mohammad Sayeed, according to a press communique
issued by SAF Trustee N. Ram.
Last month, SAF contributed Rs. 4.5 crore to
build an SOS Children's Village at Ganderbal,
near Srinagar, in cooperation with
SOS-Kinderdorf, with a view to jointly designing
educational curricula for social orphans in all
the four SOS Children's Villages in Srinagar,
Jammu, Leh and Muzzafarabad.
______
[6]
The Telegraph
October 12, 2005
CRY FREEDOM
The muzzling of the press only confirms that King
Gyanendra has no intention of returning to
democratic governance, writes C.K. Lal
Crown of thorns
On the eve of the long festive season - Dussehra,
Diwali, Chhath and Id will be celebrated in quick
succession within a month - King Gyanendra has
promulgated an ordinance to muzzle the media in
Nepal. This is an act of desperation aimed at
controlling criticism. But the royal regime's
dictatorial methods will distance it even further
from the international community. The recent
ordinance confirms the suspicion that the king
has no intention of returning to democratic
governance and his recent announcement of
municipal polls is a sham to mislead donors.
After three years of the royal takeover on
October 4, 2002, King Gyanendra had begun to feel
the heat of increasing criticism. Even though
domestic opposition too had been mounting, it was
the censure of the international community that
had begun to worry palace strategists. The king
was forced to cancel his planned visit to the
United Nations in September, when lobbyists in
New York advised him to refrain from publicizing
his "constructive" role.
Even the Americans, long-time supporters of royal
activism, have objected to King Gyanendra's
autocratic ambitions in no uncertain terms. In
early August, the United States of America's
ambassador to Nepal, James Moriarty, declared in
a policy statement before the Nepal Council of
World Affairs, "Unless the principles of freedom,
civil rights, and democracy once again take root
through a process of true reconciliation among
the legitimate political forces, I fear that your
country will inexorably slide toward
confrontation, confusion, and chaos." The strong
advice was unmistakably directed at the king.
Soon after, the European parliament went a step
further and urged King Gyanendra to return to
constitutional rule. A delegation of Indian
politicos, led by Sitaram Yechury, made a similar
argument at the end of its stormy visit -
royalists had waved black flags and pelted stones
at their cars - and pledged its support for
democratic struggle in Nepal. The International
Council of Jurists and Reporters without Borders
have been consistently critical of the king's
role in the cases of state excesses in Nepal.
European diplomats, however, went beyond the
civility of muted criticism. Early this month,
they asked King Gyanendra, without mincing words,
to discard his authoritarian uniform immediately
and to learn to live as a ceremonial monarch.
This is perhaps the biggest blow to Gyanendra's
ambitions of reigning as a king and ruling as a
chief executive in the manner of his father, King
Mahendra.
Even though the king routinely swears by the
constitution before taking any major step, his
pious pronouncements are seldom taken seriously.
There are several reasons behind the widespread
scepticism about his rule. For one, the gap
between what King Gyanendra says and what he does
is so wide that his constant reference to Article
127 (the provision that has been "interpreted" to
transform a constitutional kingship into an
absolute monarchy) has become the butt of jokes
on the streets of Kathmandu.
Second, even though the king says that he
respects the constitution, he has methodically
dismantled each of its provisions. Following the
royal coup, no constitutional organ is in a
position to challenge his executive decisions.
Third, he has set up parallel institutions to
undermine the constitution and stuffed them with
loyalists to carry out his orders. The Royal
Commission against Corruption Control, empowered
by the king to play police, prosecutor, judge and
executor, all rolled into one, is a brilliant
example of how King Gyanendra intends to run his
country in the days to come. But most of all,
it's his choice of persons to execute his orders
that has enraged his critics. Royal nominees seem
to have been intentionally given plum posts to
show the world that the king gives two hoots
about what others think about his rule.
To start with, none of the royal appointees, in
the cabinet or outside, can pass the "clean and
competent" test of merit that the king had
himself set after the royal takeover. Second,
these political lightweights do not represent
anyone but themselves. Of the two vice-chairmen
in the council of ministers headed by King
Gyanendra, Tulsi Giri has never contested an
election, and Kirti Nidhi Bishta lost his
security deposit the last time he chose to face
the electorate.
Third, most royal nominees are known to be men
without scruples. When Kantipur Daily, the
leading newspaper in Nepali language, reported
last month that three important cabinet ministers
were involved in smuggling fertilizers from
India, no eyebrows were raised. Nepalis expect
nothing better from these men. During the decades
of the panchayat, "grab-what-you-can" was the
norm. It was alleged that ministers routinely
ripped away the curtains of their official
quarters once they were dismissed. Upon his
nomination, the vice-chairman, Bishta, saw
nothing wrong in awarding himself a fabulous
furnishing grant, and Giri has been happily
drawing a remuneration that is way above the
salary-scale of a constitutional premier.
A senior member of the cabinet, currently looking
after the all-important interior ministry, is
facing charges of corruption in a law court. An
influential junior minister, effectively running
the ministry that oversees multi-million dollar
roads, water-supply and urban-affairs development
projects, is a convicted criminal. Another senior
minister has been involved in various scandals of
uncivil behaviour for years. Even though these
worthies do little more than carry out the orders
of the royal palace secretariat, their mere
presence offends the sensibilities of the
powerful diplomatic corps in Kathmandu.
The political antennae of the royal palace has
begun to pick up these powerful signals. There
are rumours in Kathmandu that the king is
contemplating yet another major step to
consolidate his control. If it implies a mere
reshuffle of the council of ministers, nothing
will change but the pressure upon the king will
intensify. After all, it takes quite a while for
a normal person to rise to the level of his
incompetence. But when autocrats choose their
minions, incompetence is built into the very
system of selection.
Perhaps King Gyanendra has finally realized that
reality. He is said to have recently confided to
some hardcore monarchists that competent men
aren't loyal and loyalists aren't competent. For
the king, it is actually a Catch-22 situation. It
will not be easy for him to emerge out of it
without making some significant compromises. But
if the recent alterations in the press act are
any indication, the king lacks the conviction to
correct his course. The political face-off
between constitutional forces continues to hamper
the chances of peace. Uncertainty looms large
despite the temporary respite given by the
unilateral ceasefire of the Maoists. It seems
everyone is preparing for fresh confrontation
after the festive season. But no one knows what
surprises King Gyanendra has in store.
______
[7]
5th September 2005, New Delhi
HUMAN RIGHTS OF TSUNAMI SURVIVORS IN TAMIL NADU AND SRI LANKA BEING VIOLATED
Eight months after the tsunami, resettlement and
rehabilitation in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka are
far from satisfactory, and in many cases, show
little regard for the human rights of the tsunami
survivors, says a report published by the Housing
and Land Rights Network.
In response to reports on the inadequacy of
relief and rehabilitation measures, especially
housing for tsunami survivors, the Housing and
Land Rights Network (South Asia Regional
Programme) based in New Delhi, organised a
fact-finding mission to Tamil Nadu, India and Sri
Lanka in June and July 2005. The primary aim of
this mission was to evaluate whether human rights
standards were being enforced in developing
adequate housing for the survivors. The study
revealed glaring discrepancies between claims
made by the governments and implementing agencies
and the reality with regard to rehabilitation in
the tsunami-impacted areas.
According to the report entitled “Post-tsunami
Relief and Rehabilitation: A Violation of Human
Rights,” despite the huge outpouring of aid,
benefits have not always reached those who need
it the most and neither has relief assistance
been entirely based on a comprehensive needs
assessment. The report points out that relief and
rehabilitation policies have largely been
gender-neutral while ignoring the special needs
of vulnerable populations including children,
women, migrants, refugees, internally displaced
persons, minorities, and disabled people.
Livelihoods have still not been restored, and
hunger, health problems, insecurity and
depression are on the rise amongst survivors.
“Findings reveal grave human rights
contraventions, including the violation of the
survivors’ right to adequate housing. It is
imperative that the governments of India and Sri
Lanka and all other implementing agencies act
promptly to ensure that rehabilitation is
compliant with international human rights
standards,” said Miloon Kothari, UN Special
Rapporteur on Adequate Housing.
The report underlines the lack of coordination
between the various actors involved in
post-tsunami rehabilitation work in both India
and Sri Lanka. “At the core of the issue lies the
fact that relief and rehabilitation are still
viewed as charity by governments and
non-government agencies and not as a right of the
affected,” said Shivani Chaudhry, commenting on
the absence of effective and people-friendly
mechanisms to ensure timely implementation and
monitoring of relief assistance, and the lack of
mechanisms to ensure accountability of government
and non-government agencies.
Most temporary housing shelters for the tsunami
survivors have been constructed with poor and
inadequate materials, and with a lack of
consideration for space, location, size,
sanitation, security, and culture. “We were
appalled to see that seven months later, in some
areas in Sri Lanka people were still living in
tents while in other areas in both Tamil Nadu and
Sri Lanka the temporary shelters were
uninhabitable shoe-box like sheds” remarked
Malavika Vartak, while criticizing the arbitrary
extension of the timeframe for both emergency and
temporary housing by involved agencies. Plans for
land acquisition and permanent housing in most
parts of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka had still not
been initiated.
The fishing community not only bore the brunt of
the tsunami disaster, but is now threatened with
the loss of its customary rights over coastal
land. R. Sreedhar of Environics warned that,
“attempts were being made by governments to use
the disaster to evict fisher people along the
coast. It is imperative that all plans for
resettlement involve the active participation and
informed consent of fishing and other affected
communities.”
The authors made strong recommendations to
concerned agencies, stressing the need to
incorporate a human rights-based approach that
would help ensure that rehabilitation is holistic
and comprehensive and upholds the dignity of
affected individuals and communities.
“Application of a comprehensive human rights
framework through the process of human rights
education is a precondition for people-driven
rehabilitation processes ensuring transparency
and accountability,” stressed Minar Pimple,
Executive Director of the People’s Movement for
Human Rights Learning.
CONTACT: hic-sarp at hic-sarp.org
South Asia Regional Programme - Housing and Land Rights Network
B-28 Nizamuddin East, New Delhi - 110013.
Tel/Fax: (011) 2435-8492, 93139 00378,
www.hic-sarp.org
_______
[8]
The Hindu
Oct 11, 2005
"Commute death sentence of Afzal''
Staff Correspondent
The penalty is arbitrary, discriminatory and
fallible: PUDR The Supreme Court should have
taken into account the situation in Kashmir,
where the Government's attitude had made it
impossible for surrendered militants such as
Mohammad Afzal to return to ordinary lives.
NEW DELHI:
The People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
has appealed to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to
commute the death sentence of Mohammad Afzal, an
accused in the Parliament attack case. The
sentence was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
In a statement on the occasion of the World Day
Against Death Penalty, the PUDR urged the
President and governors of various states to
commute the death sentence of all those waiting
to be hanged, including Afzal, as a first step
towards abolishing the punishment.
The PUDR said there were doubts regarding the
legal representation Afzal had received. While
all the other accused had experienced and senior
lawyers, Afzal had to rely on a relatively
inexperienced person appointed by the trial court
since all others had refused to take up his case.
Lack of access to legal defence was a mitigating
factor and punishing someone with death in such
cases should be avoided, it said.
The Supreme Court should have taken into account
the situation in Kashmir, where the Government's
attitude had made it impossible for surrendered
militants such as Afzal to return to ordinary
lives.
It welcomed the Government's efforts to seek
commutation of the death sentence awarded to
Sarabjit Singh for allegedly causing bomb
explosions in Pakistan.
It urged the Government not to ignore those on the death row.
The imposition of death penalty was politically
and legally an anachronism in a democratic state,
the PUDR said.
Death penalty was a cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishment. It was arbitrary, discriminatory and
fallible.
____
CANADIAN DOCU TOPS FILM SOUTH ASIA '05
DIRECTOR ALI KAZIMI WEAVES MULTILAYERED STORY
ABOUT THE 'MYTH' OF EQUALITY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Bikash Sangraula (vikaspost)
Nepal's only international festival of any kind,
Film South Asia, concluded Oct. 2 after a
four-day marathon screening of 43 well-crafted
documentaries from around the region.
A documentary that brings to light a
little-known incident that took place in 1914
took the Best Film Award, along with the Ram
Bahadur Trophy.
A three-member jury comprising filmmakers
Tareque Masud from Bangladesh, Hasan Zaidi from
Pakistan and Sabeena Gadihoke from India adjudged
"Continuous Journey," an 87-minute documentary by
director Ali Kazimi, as the best film.
Reading out the award citation, Zaidi said, "For
proving that there is not a limit to human
imagination and for a multilayered story
constructed from scarce and raw resources."
"Continuous Journey" [*] is a reconstruction of
"the Komagata Maru incident" that took place nine
decades ago in Burrard Inlet off the coast of
Vancouver, where Canadian authorities stopped for
two months a vessel short of food supplies
carrying 376 immigrants from British India.
Relying entirely on raw resources such as
archival newsreels, home movies and government
documents, the film unravels the plight of the
immigrants and their spirited fight in a hopeless
situation.
This was the first instance when Indians were
barred from entering another country in the
British Empire. The event is believed to be a
turning point in the freedom struggle in India,
with its exposure of the British Empire's "myth"
of equality, fair play and justice. The first
prize carries a purse of US$2,000.
The second prize, with a purse of US$1,000, was
shared by Sandhya Suri's, "I for India" and
Yasmine Kabir's, "A Certain Liberation." The
former is a 70-minute documentary relating the
experiences of Indian immigrants living in
England. It explores the themes of alienation and
racism faced by immigrants in a foreign land. The
film is profound in its story-telling and is
replete with poignant family moments and memories.
The latter is a story about Gurdasi Mondol, a
woman who went mad in 1971 after witnessing the
murder of her entire family. The film is a moving
showcase of Mondol's strength of character and
her search for what she has lost. Mondol is now a
legendary name in Bangladesh, one of the last
reminders in the country of freedom's fighting
spirit.
Meanwhile, "My Brother, My Enemy," a film
revolving around the frenzy of India-Pakistan
cricket and its nationalistic underpinnings, by
young directors Masood Khan and Kamaljeet Negi,
bagged the Best Debut Film award that carries a
purse of US$1,000. The film beat four other films
in the category, including "Team Nepal," a debut
film by Nepali journalist, Girish Giri.
The jury announced the addition of two
commendation awards, in view of the
"unprecedented number of good films to choose
from." The Special Commendation award went to
Nishtha Jain's "City of Photos," a documentary
about photo studios in several Indian cities.
Similarly, the Special Jury award went to Rakesh
Sharma's "Final Solution," an anti-hate film
analyzing the politics of hatred.
Film South Asia is a biennial film festival
organized in Nepal by the Himal Association since
1997. A special screening of 15 conflict-related
documentaries from around the globe is taking
place Oct. 3 and Oct. 4 at Kumari cinema, the
festival venue. The section is billed "Barrel of
the Gun." It includes films about global conflict
hotspots like Kosovo, Rwanda, Nepal, Cambodia,
Argentina and the Balkans.
* for more info on the film -
http://www.continuousjourney.com
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