SACW | Sept. 29-30, 2007 | Human Rights
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Sat Sep 29 19:45:17 CDT 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | September 29-30, 2007
| Dispatch No. 2455 - Year 10 running
[1] Nepal:
(i) Kapilbastu Postmortem: Who killed Moid? (JB Pun)
(ii) Kapilbastu diary: Senseless violence in
the land of Buddha's birth (Aruna Uprety)
(iii) Carnage in the Land of Buddha (Preeti Koirala)
[2] Sri Lanka: The Draft Bill for the Assistance
and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses
- Critique (Rosalind Sipos)
[3] Bangladesh's Epicenter of Political Tumult (Emily Wax)
[4] Pakistan: Riots in Islamabad Over Musharraf (Aryn Baker)
[5] India: Rights activists: persecution and resistance (Mukul Sharma)
[6] India: Losing the fight against extremism (Praful Bidwai)
[7] India's NHRC Fails to Use Its Meagre Powers (Human rights Features)
[8] India: Big Brother (Shruti Rajagopalan)
[9] Recent Publication: 'To Make The Deaf Hear
Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and His
Comrades by S. Irfan Habib
[9] Announcements:
(i) Demo In Solidarity With The People's Uprising
In Burma (New Delhi, 29 September)
(ii) A course on "Violence against women and role
of health care providers" (No Location or Date
Provided)
(iii) Celebrate MF Husain at 92, with a street mela (New Delhi, 2 October 2007)
(iv) Film South Asia '07 (Kathmandu, 11-14 October 2007 )
(v) 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive
and Sexual Health and Rights (Hyderabad,October
29-31, 2007)
(vi) Mike Squires lecture: Saklatvala and Racism (London, 2 Nov 2007)
______
[1]
Nepali Times
28 September 07 - 04 October 07
KAPILBASTU POSTMORTEM: WHO KILLED MOID?
by JB Pun In Uttar Pradesh, India
FAR FROM HOME: Over 2,000 Nepali madhesi have
fled to Duduniya village of Uttar Pradesh, 3 km
from Krishnanagar, uncertain whether they can
ever return home
Naved Khan tries hard to calm himself but the
assassination of his father, Abdul Moid, has
shocked him so much he says he cannot rest till
he finds the killers.
Khan is now in India, and says he isn't sure who
killed his father. He is only half convinced the
Maoists had a hand in it even though the killing
has worked to their advantage. The Maoists have
strongly denied a role in the murder.
Moid Khan had been their most hated enemy since
2003, when he switched from being an ally to
become the leader of the anti-Maoist Loktantrik
Madhesi Morcha in Kapilbastu, where he was so
well protected the PLA couldn't touch him.
Khan's political U-turn in 2003 led to a spate of
killings by both sides. The Maoists blamed him
for the death of more than 36 cadres, and they in
turn killed his brothers and nephew.
A month ago however, the two sides buried the
hatchet with a pact mediated by local NC leader
Deep Kumar Upadhyaya. Khan shook hands with the
senior Maoist in Kapilbastu. The war was
apparently over.
"For the first time he looked happy and travelled
alone, and stopped slating the Maoists as
enemies," his son told us in the village of
Budhuniya in Uttar Pradesh, 3km from Nepal's
border, "but in the last few days, he said his
life was at risk." The Maoists say they were
planning to work together with Khan's group.
The suspicion for Khan's murder is on groups
seeking to provoke war between madhesis and
pahadis. Historically, Kapilbastu has seen
friction between hill settlers and Muslim
landlords. But the Hallanagar area, the epicentre
of past tension, was untouched in the recent
violence. ('We will flush them out', #240).
Did a madhesi group have a hand in Khan's
assassination? Some, notably the JTMM-Goit
faction, were angered by his refusal to help them
disrupt the Constituent Assembly elections.
JTMM-G cadres have also travelled to Budhuniya,
where Khan's relatives and more than 2,000
displaced madhesi have taken refuge. While his
family are in a mood to forgive and forget, the
JTMM-G cadres seem to be working actively to
incite them to take revenge against pahadis.
The Goit faction is also accused of misleading
local Indian reporters with stories, now picked
up by national and regional Hindi-language
newspapers, that pahadis are to blame for Khan's
death. Fearing more violence, the Kapilbastu
administration has banned Indian papers.
The Maoists and madhesis are stepping into the
political vacuum left by the absence of
government. Large squads of uniformed YCL cadres
patrol madhesi villages, assuring pahadis the
Maoists will protect them. Things are quieter,
but the fear is still so great that neither
pahadis nor madhesis want to return to their
villages.
"Whoever killed him and whatever happened after
that is very regrettable but we should be able to
go back, and pahadis should too," says Moid
Khan's younger brother Parvej. But he adds that
until the YCL stops mobilising its cadres and
removes them from the villages, no madhesi will
feel safe to return.
There is no sign of the new three-member
commission headed by Rajbiraj Appellate Court
judge Lokendra Mallik, set up to investigate the
incidents and recommend compensation. Many
madhesis believe relief aid is mainly going to
pahadi victims. Some feel the government, rather
than trying to restore calm, is keeping tensions
high by imposing curfews and making their return
difficult.
So far, only madhesi rioters, four of them
Indians, have been jailed in Kapilbastu. No
action has been taken against pahadis who set
fire to a mosque and attacked madhesi villagers.
The aftermath
A group of women had gathered in Shovaram Sunar's
house in Bisanpur to celebrate Tij. At 9AM, a mob
suddenly forced its way in and started beating
them up. Everyone fled.
Sunar helped female guests hide in the nearby
sugarcane field. But he and his younger brother,
Dil Bahadur, could not escape the rampaging
crowd, who murdered them with spears and homemade
weapons. Bahadur had been married a month ago.
"We didn't know Mohid Khan had been killed until
the madhesi attacked us, shouting 'You are
celebrating while he is dead,'" Sunar's
neighbour, Aruna BK, said.
Dhan Bahadur Basnet was killed mercilessly.
Hemraj Basnet and his family were hiding behind
their house. His wife Sumitra begged the
attackers to spare her husband but they ignored
her pleas.
Another victim was Mohit Bahadur Sunar who had
travelled with his neighbour, Bimal Kunwar, from
his village, Shivagari, to Bisanpur to buy a cow.
If he had not had to delay his departure from
Bisanpur, he would probably have lived. But he
had to find change for his Rs 1,000 note to pay
Bhiku Musalman. When he returned with the change,
a mob armed with spears and knives attacked him.
"Mohit fell down and I was severely wounded, but
I managed to run while my friend was dying,"
Kunwar said.
The attackers selectively killed those who were
leaders or were educated. Sunar was a local
leader, popular among both madhesi and pahadi
residents.
"What had my husband done?" cried Sunar's wife,
Dilsari. "He had not harmed any madhesi."
There are at least 1,500 displaced families in
Kapilbastu alone, many have fled to the hills of
Argakhanchi. Hundreds of people, both madhesis
and pahadis are still missing. In Bisanpur alone,
more than 61 families out of 126 are missing,
according to local Muslim leader Ahmed Abdul.
Almost every house has been burnt.
Many who survived are spending their third week
in schools in Chandrauta and Sundari Dara.
Madhesis have fled across the border to Gonda and
Barni in Uttar Pradesh. Most families have
decided to never return to Kapilbastu, preferring
to move back to their ancestral villages in the
hills.
Mukesh Pokhrel in Kapilbastu
o o o
(ii)
Nepali Times
28 September 07 - 04 October 07
KAPILBASTU DIARY: SENSELESS VIOLENCE IN THE LAND OF BUDDHA'S BIRTH
by Aruna Uprety In Kapilbastu
It is difficult to believe that this is the
district where Lord Buddha was born. The people
of Shivapur village look dazed as they walk in
the ashes of their burnt-out buildings. Two weeks
after the arson and pogroms, they are still too
shocked to speak. They are Muslim and Hindu
families, they are madhesi and pahadi women all
walking around like they're in a dream.
"They came in buses with knives," recalled one
woman, "they just went house to house selecting
what to burn. Our sons sent us money from Saudi
Arabia, and we'd bought trucks, they burnt all of
them. Nearly 50 houses were burnt in this village
alone."
"Since this happened, not a single person from
the VDC or the CDO has come to see," said one
elderly man who is living in a shelter and being
taken care of by neighbours.
When a group of human rights activists drove into
the village, they were the first outsiders there
in ten days. The villagers surrounded the
visitors hoping they'd brought food and other
help. Because it is Ramadan, most villagers here
were fasting, but there is not much to eat in the
evenings when they break their fasts.
"As soon as we heard that Moid Khan had been
killed, we expected looting and we sent word to
the CDO, but no one came to help," said a
villager from another community. "Just look
around, you see the result."
Hundreds of refugees were spending their second
week in a local shelter. Many were sick with
infections. A pregnant woman was going into
labour. As a doctor, I was asked to help, but
after examining her I could tell that the baby
was dead. It was now important to save the mother
and she needed immediate medical evacuation. With
help from the ICRC and UNFPA we got her out to
Butwal. But there are hundreds more who also need
medical attention and food.
Because the people in Kathmandu and the district
capital have been so slow to react, local civil
society and activists from all communities have
united to provide food and take care of the
displaced with the little they have.
At Chandrauta, the epicentre of the organised
arson and looting, there was no one on the road
because of the curfew. Some policemen were
walking around aimlessly. Although the media for
the most part had restrained coverage, there were
some reports of irresponsible reporting by local
FM stations of mosques being burnt which was not
actually the case.
From everyone we heard the same lament: "this
wouldn't have happened if the government had
acted on time." "We were the first to be hit,"
said one trader. "They just looted everything
from our shops and set them on fire. The police
were nearby but they did nothing." They
recognized some local hooligans among the crowds,
but most were new faces.
A local health worker had a small pharmacy, it
was looted and the house set on fire. "I don't
know why they did it," said the 26-year-old
owner, who like many we spoke to did not want to
be identified. Many of the 18,000 refugees are
now living on the Indian side of the border
waiting for the situation to stabilize. The
people there were mostly Muslim and their pain
was the same as the displaced people on the Nepal
side.
"We had to leave Nepal in a hurry, our trucks
were burnt, our shops were looted and we know the
people who did it," said one refugee, who has
taken shelter with his family in a local college.
He added: "This is done deliberately to destroy
harmony in Nepali society. The government should
find the culprits and punish them."
Local Indian politicians have visited the
refugees, who are seething with anger that the
administration in Nepal stood by as the riots
spread. "We will go back only after we get
assurances of security from the government," said
one Nepali.
Sad and shocking as the violence was, what gives
us hope is that Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists,
pahadis and madhesis are working together to help
each other. They all blame motivated forces who
tried to use the violence for political ends.
Identifying these forces clearly and punishing
them will be very important not to allow a
repetition of the riots.
o o o
(iii)
People's Review
Sep. 27, 2007
CARNAGE IN THE LAND OF BUDDHA
by Preeti Koirala
Kapilvastu, the area which contains the
birthplace of Lord Gautam Buddha after clashes
mainly between Hindus and Muslims and between
people from the Madhes and Hills has witnessed an
appalling toll of human life. According to latest
information, 33 people have died, about 60 buses
have been scorched and dozens of houses of locals
have been destroyed rendering the people
homeless, hungry and without security. People
have died even inside police cordon when they
were taking out a rally calling for communal
harmony. This is only the latest in a series of
rioting, bomb blasts, abduction and mayhem in the
terai that started in the name of "federalism"
with the initial demand of "additional seats to
the terai districts." But it has gone much beyond
the issues of federalism, power sharing, seat
reservations, citizenship and constituent
assembly elections. The conflict has now
transformed into a virtual civil-war like
situation involving cross-border mafia gangs,
direct support from the Indian police,
mishandling by the state security and a total
lack of concern by the government and the 8 main
political parties. Like before, the shameless
government at the center has done nothing but to
announce another probe commission to "investigate
into the atrocities committed and evaluate the
extent of damage to life and property." Just on
Sep. 2, a similar commission was formed to find
the culprits of the triple blasts that rocked
Kathmandu, the police arrested about 6 people and
only God knows what happened after that. After
the Gaur carnage too, the government had formed a
high-level commission to "recommend ways to
ensure that such incidents are not repeated", but
it fell on deaf ears as the ministers relish in
the cocktail of power, privilege, revenge and
absolutism. Surrounded by coterie of dwarfs,
almost every minister is behaving as a giant.
While altogether 22 people died in the entire
people's movement of 2006, more than a hundred
innocents have already been killed during the
regime of this motley crowd of failed
politicians. But history will take note of
Koirala, Sitaula and Prachanda as they keep on
making a mess of whatever little Loktantra has
meant for the commonman on the street. It is
evidently clear from the last 17 months of
lawlessness that democracy has been hijacked to
serve petty interests of a few.
But the scene of Kathmandu is not very different
to that of Kapilvastu. The government is in
political and Constitutional shatters after the
Maoists resigned from the cabinet and vowed to
disrupt the CA polls. Those that were the main
reasons behind the merciless killing of 13
thousand blameless Nepalese from 1996-2006 are
now advancing the same old Maoist modus operandi
of setting up kangaroo courts an example of which
will be seen on September 30 when they have
promised to penalize culprits identified in the
Rayamajhi Commission report. It is therefore a
foregone conclusion that the elections cannot be
held on time for the same reasons why Deuba could
not hold it in 2002 and 2004 and why there was a
low-turn out in the municipal elections held
during the royal government. But by pressuring to
conduct a mock election by hook or by crook, the
UN and much of the international community are
essentially desiring more bloodbath and chaos
inside Nepal. Well-knowing that the security
situation is in total shambles, grave shortage of
petroleum that has reached to the level of
consumers pelting stones at the gas stations and
the voters little understanding about what
proportional and mixed form of election is;
pressing for it in the hope of erecting an all
new "inclusive" Nepal is actually pushing the
country to the brink. One thing the EC has
successfully done however is to hire two famous
comedians to advertise about the up-coming polls
in the electronic media. Capable jokers that they
are: they have reduced the CA elections into a
hilarious prank that everyone finds entertaining.
While everyone has realized that the present
government has lost the legitimacy and Koirala
his relevance, one can only be alarmed at the
prospects for the future if the course of
national politics keeps on moving in the same
direction as it is now. This government has
effectively dismantled every institution capable
of safeguarding national interest and legal,
constitutional, administrative and security
apparatus deliberately torn apart so as to suit a
total Maoist takeover. Whether it is in the
foreign policy, economic or in the social
development front it has failed almost on every
aspect coupled with a demoralized security force.
A Finance Minister that issued a white paper on
the expenses made by the Foreign Minister of the
royal government for embarking on "unimportant"
visits to China, Russia, Qatar, the U.N. and
Pakistan has recently opened the state coffers
for the largest delegation in the country's
history to the UN General Assembly which includes
quite astonishingly the chief secretary of the
government. On the economic side, donors have
done little but to issue series of statements
supporting political developments since April
2006. But government's own data indicate that
"bilateral aid actually declined in the first
eight months of fiscal year 2006/07." According
to Binod Bhattarai writing for Nepali Times,
"donors have forked out about Rs1.3 billion for
the Nepal Peace Trust Fund (where the government
put Rs.1 billion) but "they have spent several
billion rupees on weapon stores, vehicles, tents,
ballot boxes and computers, as well as funding
peace seminars and organizing 'get to meet a real
Maoist' visits to European capitals." But just
how secure are these weapon stores? Just last
week, the Maoists came out of the camps to
demonstrate in full combat uniform yet the UNMIN
could do little to stop them. It seems that the
OHCHR can only issue press releases that records
innumerable Maoist violations of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement. On the part of
governance, one just needs to look at the pitiful
condition of the national flag carrier. It is
operating by sacrificing goats to the airplanes
purchased by the Panchayat government in 1987. No
government since has been able to add fleet to
this ailing airliner.
With the situation out of hand and pace of
political development at an astounding speed,
there are couple of likely scenarios that may
take shape in the foreseeable future for all of
us to take stock of:
1) If the leftist parties unite and table a
vote of no-confidence against the Prime Minister
as mentioned by Maoist spokesman Mahara and
knowing the endless hunger for power that PM
Koirala has, he may even go to the extreme of
declaring a state of emergency. But will the
Nepal Army be constitutionally obliged to obey
orders of a supreme commander in-chief who is
himself facing a vote of no-confidence? If the
leftists do succeed eventually in ousting
Koirala, the longest serving Prime Minister in
waiting Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal will obviously be
desiring to take the coveted seat himself. But
will Comrade Prachanda allow him? Who will
administer the oath to the new Prime Minister?
The Chief Justice of the country has himself been
denied consent by the special hearing committee
of the parliament.
2) If the NC through its Mahasamiti opts for
a republic in order to lure the Maoists, decide
on seat-reservations for top leaders of 8 major
political parties will it not take the sheen out
of the NC which is a centrist political party and
make the voters choice-less in the CA elections
whenever it is held? What kind of an election
will it be where every seat has been pre-decided?
More importantly, how will elections resolve the
problems of the terai?
3) Almost all anti-Indian demonstrations
have taken place while there has been a
"democratic" multi-party government in Kathmandu
mostly in the post 1990 era. PM Koirala has
himself felt that "the sovereignty of the country
is in danger." Going by the recent statements of
Maoist leaders, there is a semblance of
anti-Indianism yet again becoming the rallying
point of nationalism in Nepal. Minister of Land
Reforms and Management Jagat Bahadur Bogati at a
program held on Sep. 20th has said that through
the collective action of the people, we must now
take back the "rightful territory which we lost
in the past" while President of the Nepal Workers
and Peasants Party says that "India is
desperately searching for a Kazi Lendup Dorji to
do something similar to what it did in Sikkim."
Before the nation jockeys from instability,
illegitimacy, anarchy into a nationalist
battle-cry what can be the workable solution of
the current political impasse? Foremost, there
must be an "all-inclusive", democratic government
comprising of the leftist, rightist and centrist
sections of the Nepali polity. It is useless
trying to resolve the unspeakable troubles before
the Nepali people without having all sides of the
conflict in a single platform. Only then perhaps
can we stop this relentless blame game. The
Maoist demand of a round table conference can
then be organized including also of His Majesty
the King. Solutions to the problems before the
state can be worked out in that meeting itself.
Senior political leaders such as K.P. Bhattarai,
G.P. Koirala, Madhav Nepal and Prachanda can
visit the terai districts and call upon the
people for restraint. The King can then visit the
violence torn areas and calm an agitating
populace angered by government lack of concern.
With full backing of all national forces the
Nepal Army then needs to be mobilized first to
seal the open border and then clear and clean the
terai of criminal elements so that the people can
live in peace and harmony once again. Carrying
the spirit of soldiering from its past and
reliving it in the present, the Nepal Army should
not detract from its glory of having maintained
uninterrupted independence of Nepal.
Ms. Koirala is an insurance executive based in
Minnesota, USA and can be reached at her e-mail
<preeti72koirala at hotmail.com>
______
[2]
Centre for Policy Alternatives
September 28, 2007
THE DRAFT BILL FOR THE ASSISTANCE AND PROTECTION
OF VICTIMS OF CRIME AND WITNESSES:
Critique and Recommendations
by Rosalind Sipos
The provision of victim and witness protection is
fundamental to the credibility of any justice
system
and to the battle against impunity. Asking
victims and witnesses to come forward without the
provision of protection may indeed be
irresponsible in cases where they face the
possibility of
being re-victimised or becoming victims in their
own right by reason of living up to their duty to
provide their evidence. For this reason, the
drafting of the Draft Bill for the Assistance and
Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses (the
"Draft Bill")2 by the Law Commission of Sri
Lanka is a welcome development in the sphere of
rule of law in Sri Lanka. With the widespread
impunity in Sri Lanka, Parliament must be urged
to adopt the Draft Bill as expeditiously as
possible.
However, as the Draft Bill reads at the moment,
there are serious concerns as whether it would
indeed provide the protection required not only
to encourage victims and witnesses to come
forward, but also to ensure their safety should they choose to do so.
FULL TEXT AT:
http://www.cpalanka.org/research_papers/Victim_and_Witness_Protection_Bill.pdf
______
[3]
Washington Post
September 23, 2007; Page A18
BANGLADESH'S EPICENTER OF POLITICAL TUMULT
Students and Teachers at Dhaka University Fulfill
a Tradition of Protest, and Pay the Price
by Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Nearly every political
milestone in Bangladesh has its roots in the
stately, tree-lined campus of the University of
Dhaka, where student-led protests have repeatedly
given rise to sweeping changes in government. So
it came as little surprise to many students last
month when the anti-government rallies they
started mushroomed into violent street
demonstrations in other cities.
According to the common axiom here: So goes the campus, so goes the nation.
[Photo] A riot policeman in Dhaka chases a
protester during an August demonstration against
Bangladesh's military-backed interim government,
which came to power in January.
"The DU campus is a barometer for the country's
political mood. Because of our long history of
poverty and bad government, it's been in the
students' interest to be politically active,"
said Aninda Rahman, a 24-year-old English student
at the university. "It's the students' duty
within the framework of Bangladesh to give a
voice to the people."
Today, however, several weeks after the most
dramatic protests yet against the military-backed
interim government, it's become clear that the
university and its students have paid a price for
their activism. Some students and teachers
thought to be behind the protests have been
jailed. The government has shut down the campus,
putting padlocks on the lecture halls and
emptying out the dorms. Officials said the campus
may open after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan
ends in mid-October.
Such disruptions are not unusual in this South
Asian country, where there have been 22 coups --
some successful -- since its independence from
Pakistan in 1971. Some students say it takes up
to six years to complete a degree because the
university is often shut down during political
tumult.
"Sometimes the students think, there just has to
be a better way," said Mahinur Rahamar, 23, a
business student. "It's frustrating when school
keeps getting shut down. Our families are working
class, and they suffer when we can't finish our
degrees. But that has always been our tradition.
I'm not sure it can change."
The current political controversy centers on
opposition to an interim government that came to
power in January. Diplomats say the government,
led by respected banker Fakhruddin Ahmed, quickly
won international respect for protecting the
judiciary's independence, ending partisanship in
the election commission, requiring voter
registration cards in elections, and helping to
clean up a political system that is perennially
ranked by Transparency International as one of
the world's most corrupt.
But now many of those same diplomats who praised
the government fear that the crackdown on
corruption, and on students and professors, has
gone too far. Rights groups point to mass arrests
and the brutal suppression of student protests.
Human Rights Watch, based in New York, says as
many as 20,000 people have been jailed on
corruption charges in the past seven months.
While the University of Dhaka has been leading
the protests, it has also become the front line
for what is being called the "Battle of the
Begums," or women of high rank, a reference in
this case to the two women who have dominated
Bangladesh's politics for the past 16 years.
Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, the leaders of the
two main political parties, have been jailed on
corruption charges. But their supporters are
widely seen as polluting the school's tradition
of independent political activism by bribing
student leaders and encouraging professors to
back their causes.
Bangladesh's interim government insists that much
of the recent student activism stems less from
political conviction than from aggressive
recruiting tactics by political parties. The
parties have agents as old as 40 living on campus
as "student leaders," working to influence
student votes, critics and diplomats say.
"Our Socratic tradition has always been one of
our greatest strengths," said Iftekhar Ahmed
Chowdhury, a government adviser and a former
ambassador to the United Nations. "But now, I
think the students and even some of the
professors are taken over by professional
politicians."
According to local reports, the August protests
began innocently enough. In what has become known
as the "Umbrella Incident," a university student
haplessly opened his wet umbrella, splashing a
soldier. That set off a tiny scuffle. But the
scuffle was enough to provoke students to vent
outrage over the presence of troops on their
campus.
The day after the Umbrella Incident, M. Anwar
Hossain, a respected biochemistry professor,
helped organize a demonstration to address a
growing list of grievances with the government,
not the least of which was the banning of
protests -- part of a martial law imposed seven
months ago to squelch public outcry against the
military-backed interim government's delay in
holding elections.
Soon after, Hossain was arrested at his home for
inciting an uprising. He is still in jail,
awaiting trial.
Amnesty International, along with foreign
diplomats, has asked for Hossain's release.
Hossain's son, Sanjeeb, a 22-year-old law
student, has said his father is not politically
involved with the jailed protest leaders and was
only trying be a guardian for the students,
helping them demonstrate against a repressive
regime.
"It's scary when professors and students are in
jail, since it's like the soul of the country is
behind bars," Sanjeeb Hossain said in an
interview. "This is terrible for our family and
terrible for Bangladesh. It's not as simple as
just to blame all of this on politics. He was
trying to protect student rights, that was it."
Some of the country's most famous sons graduated
from this school, including dozens of elected
officials and internationally recognized leaders,
such as Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace
Prize winner, and Fazlur Rahman Khan, considered
the greatest architectural engineer of the second
half of the 20th century for his design of the
Sears Tower and John Hancock Center in Chicago.
Today, most students at the University of Dhaka
are from working-class and middle-class
backgrounds. They see themselves as the voice of
a largely poor and illiterate nation.
Their position as protectors is perhaps best
illustrated by a photo that surfaced here
recently. The image, which has been widely
circulated on the Internet, shows an unarmed
student kicking an army soldier. It has become
such a stirring emblem of the students' power
that the photojournalist who took the picture has
gone into hiding, fearing for his life.
"That photograph said it all," said Shahidul
Alam, a renowned photo gallery director in Dhaka.
"That image is such a powerful symbol of our
times. It shows the power of unarmed students
against the ego of the military."
______
[4]
Time.com
September 29, 2007
RIOTS IN ISLAMABAD OVER MUSHARRAF
by Aryn Baker/Islamabad
Less than 24 hours after Pakistan's Supreme Court
ruled in favor of President General Pervez
Musharraf's eligibility to run for a second term
in office, government forces laid siege to the
Supreme Court grounds, where several hundred
lawyers had taken refuge after a vicious attack
on a peaceful protest in the capital, Islamabad.
More than 10,000 riot police and plainclothes
officers were stationed around the court and the
nearby Electoral Commission offices, where the
nomination papers for 43 presidential hopefuls,
including Musharraf, were being scrutinized for
eligibility. Some 1,000 lawyers and political
workers brandishing banners and shouting "Go,
Musharraf go!" were forcibly prevented from
entering the Electoral Commission grounds. Within
minutes of reaching the gate, baton-wielding
police charged the protesters. Yasser Raja, a
33-year-old lawyer from nearby Rawalpindi was
beaten repeatedly on the head; when he attempted
to protect himself the police continued to
attack, causing extensive damage to his upraised
arm. His lawyer's uniform of white shirt and
black suit was soaked in blood, but he continued
to shout anti-Musharraf slogans. "These things
cannot stop us," he said. "We are ready to
sacrifice more and more. Our blood will not be
taken in vain."
It seemed as if the police were ready to take up
the challenge. Someone threw a stone - though
it's not clear who - and the police returned the
volley with rocks of their own. Some witnesses
say they saw police passing around bags of rocks,
others say they simply picked them up from nearby
piles of rubble. Within minutes the fighting
escalated. Security forces fired tear gas shells
directly into the crowd, causing a panicked
stampede. The police, protected by helmets, body
armor and shields, kept up the barrage of stones
and gas until they forced the protesters across
the street to the grounds of the Supreme Court.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a leading Supreme Court lawyer and
former Interior Minister, who had served as an
advisor to the court on the hearing for
Musharraf's candidacy, was directly targeted by
the police, as were several other leaders of the
protest. Ahsan was hit by a brick in the kidneys
at point blank range, then beaten on the head
with batons, which shattered his glasses. A
colleague, who had thrown him to the ground in an
attempt to protect him, was beaten so badly that
the force of blows broke his arm. Several hundred
protesters were dragged off in waiting police
wagons, the rest took refuge in the cool halls of
the Supreme Court, where the blood of the wounded
pooled on the white marble steps of the main
entrance. "There is blood on the steps of
Pakistan's Supreme Court," said Ahsan. "The
people of Pakistan have a right to protest, yet
they have been brutally attacked. This whole
situation is as noxious as the tear gas itself."
The crackdown on the protest came just two days
after the Supreme Court, lead by Chief Justice
Iftikhar Chaudhry, ruled that the government had
no right to blockade streets leading into the
capital, nor could it prevent protests or stop
the free-flow of traffic past government
buildings. Nevertheless, both Constitution
Avenue, which leads past the Supreme Court
building, and intersecting street
Sharah-e-Jamhuriyat, which roughly translates as
Democracy Avenue, were completely blockaded.
"This is a massive violation of not just human
rights, but of the Supreme Court ruling," said
Anila Ateeq, a high court lawyer, as she dabbed
her face with a water-soaked headscarf to ease
the sting of the tear gas. "Our cause is the
restoration of democracy, that is why we are
protesting. The government has no cause, it has
no mandate, it only has force."
Ambulances screamed through the gates of the
Supreme Court to collect the wounded. Over the
course of the day some 45 protesters were rushed
to hospitals throughout the capital, the
overwhelmed staff of the Supreme Court first aid
clinic attended to the rest. The protesters,
refreshed by dousings of water, repeatedly rushed
out of the Supreme Court gates to shout a few
slogans before they were forced back inside by
another volley of gas and stones. Each rush,
successively diminished by incapacitated
colleagues, was met by increasing levels of
violence, until police fired four tear gas shells
directly onto the Supreme Court grounds. A few
lawyers, faces wrapped in water-soaked
handkerchiefs, immediately lobbed the still
smoking shells back at the police before
retreating to the court's entryway. But even the
entrance provided no refuge; clouds of gas
drifted through the open doors. "We are looking
at an obscene and unnecessary show of excessive
force," said Ali Dayan Hasan, South Asia
Researcher for Human Rights Watch, who had come
to observe the protests. "This has been wanton
brutality against a professional group that is
struggling to uphold the rule of law."
The excessive display of violence by government
forces just a day after an unmitigated victory
for Musharraf was met with incredulity by many
observers. "The Day of The General" led the
headlines of the local English language newspaper
of record, Dawn, this morning, a line that took
on a new meaning as the day progressed. "In what
should have been his finest moment, General
Musharraf has lost his head," said Ahsan,
recovering from his wounds in an alcove of the
court entranceway. For two weeks the Supreme
Court debated the constitutionality of
Musharraf's nomination for a second term as
president, despite his ongoing tenure as Army
Chief. The holding of dual offices is normally
prohibited by Pakistan's constitution, but in
2002 Musharraf was able to obtain a one-term
waiver. Elections, which are undertaken by an
electoral college made up of national and
provincial parliaments, are to be held on October
6, just three months before general elections for
a new parliament are due. Many hold that the
current assembly, which has been in power nearly
five years and whose majority is pro-Musharraf,
does not have the right to give Musharraf a new
term. "Musharraf should have obtained a fresh
mandate from the new assembly," said Ahsan.
"Obtaining a mandate for another five years by an
assembly whose shelf life is over is a fraud on
democratic principals and the whole concept of
representative governance. The only people
General Musharraf has been able to fool and
beguile are the governments of the United States
and Great Britain."
By mid-afternoon the lawyers trickled slowly away
from the Supreme Court grounds, bloodied,
exhausted and still coughing from the effects of
the tear gas. A few managed to raise a defiant
slogan, but most chatted quietly among
themselves. "It's just a shade short of Burma,"
said one bedraggled lawyer, echoing an earlier
statement by Ahsan. "Yeah," said his companion.
"But here they are attacking lawyers in suits
instead of monks in saffron."
______
[5]
The Hindu
September 29, 2007
RIGHTS ACTIVISTS: PERSECUTION AND RESISTANCE
by Mukul Sharma
Harassment of human rights activists is so often
part of their daily life that it goes unreported.
Detention or abduction, disappearances and
politically motivated imprisonment are used to
intimidate them.
A well-known activist of the People's Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL) and a medical doctor,
Binayak Sen, was arrested in May 2007 in
Chhattisgarh, under the provisions of the
controversial black laws, the Chhattisgarh
Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA) and the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967,
amended in 2004 and made more stringent after the
collapse of POTA. In August 2007, Roma, a woman
activist working among the women, tribals and
Dalits of Mirz apur, Uttar Pradesh, under the
aegis of the Kaimur Kshetra Mahila Majdoor Kisan
Sangharsh Samiti and the National Forum of Forest
People and Forest Workers, was arrested and
charged under the National Security Act. A young
Oriya poet and literary editor, Saroj Mohanty,
who is also an activist of the Prakrutik Suraksha
Sampada Parishad, an organisation supporting the
struggles of the people of Kashipur, who for the
past 13 years have successfully opposed the entry
of large bauxite mining companies in the region,
was picked up by the police in July 2007 at
Rayagada, Orissa, on charges of dacoity, house
trespass and attempt to murder. Two activists -
Shamim and Anurag - of the Shramik Adivasi
Sanghathana and the Samajwadi Jan Parishad,
working amongst the tribals in the Betul, Harda
and Khandwa districts of Madhya Pradesh, were
served externment notices in June by the Harda
District Magistrate under the State Security Act.
Dr. Binayak, Roma, Saroj, Shamim, Anurag and many
like them are crucial actors of our present
times. They are individuals, groups of people or
organisations who promote and protect human
rights in many different ways and in different
capacities, through peaceful and non-violent
means. They uncover violations, subject them to
public scrutiny and press for those responsible
to be accountable. They empower individuals and
communities to claim their basic entitlements as
human beings. They represent some of the most
marginalised civil society groups - from the
tribal people to the landless rural workers and
women's groups. However, because of their work
they face a range of challenges. They are
subjected to death threats and torture,
persecuted through the use of the judicial system
and silenced through the introduction of security
laws. Unfounded investigations and prosecutions,
surveillance of offices and homes, and the theft
of important human rights information and
documents are some of the tactics used to
intimidate them and prevent them from continuing
their work. Many even disappear or are murdered.
The pursuit of neo-liberal economic policies,
with its emphasis on special economic zones, land
acquisitions and appropriation of natural
resources, is intensifying the attacks on human
rights defenders.
This situation reminds us of the times when
cultural and trade union activists such as Safdar
Hashmi and Shankar Guha Niyogi were killed. The
bankruptcy and increasing isolation of the ruling
class provoke its local counterpart and they
launch a new offensive against the rights
activists. Yesterday, it was Safdar Hashmi and
Shankar Guha Niyogi, today it is Binayak Sen, and
tomorrow it will be Medha Patkar or Sunilam.
In fact, in spite of Indian democracy and India's
membership of the Human Rights Council for the
second consecutive term, the situation in the
country is no different from global trends. In
her 2007 report, the Special Representative of
the U.N. Secretary General on the situation of
human rights defenders, noted that defenders
working on land rights, natural resources or
environmental issues seem to be particularly at
risk of attacks and violations of their rights:
"Defenders working [in the field of economic,
social and cultural rights] face violations of
their rights by the State and/or face violence
and threats from non-state actors because of
their work. Violations of their rights seem to
take all the forms that violations of the rights
of defenders working in the field of civil and
political rights take. There are some differences
though, perhaps the most important being that
defenders working in the field of ESCR often have
a harder time having their work accepted as human
rights work. This might have several effects,
including difficulties attracting funding, a lack
of coverage from the media to violations of these
defenders' rights, and a lack of attention paid
to these violations and a hesitation in seeking
remedial measures at the domestic or
international levels." (Hina Jilani, Report
Submitted by the Special Representative, 24
January 2007)
Peoples' rights agenda in India has always been a
dynamic and constantly evolving one, with
activists applying the principles and tools of
human rights to different contexts and struggles.
At different points in history, courageous and
visionary people have sought to extend the
boundaries of human rights to those outside, be
it those living amidst caste oppression, workers
unprotected against social insecurity, or women
denied any rights against violence. Thus we see
the emergence of new rights on information, food,
domestic violence, and tribal lands. People
forging new frontiers for rights are often the
ones most exposed to risk, ridicule and
resistance. The contours of human rights shift as
patterns of oppression change. Their scope and
content will therefore always be a matter of
contestation. Indeed, the human rights agenda has
always been built by its own critique. Those
excluded from the way rights are traditionally
understood or interpreted - for example, Dalits,
tribals, women, labour, homosexuals or the
disabled - are fighting for inclusion and
enriching and transforming the understanding of
human rights as a result.
There have always been challenges for human
rights and political activists in our country.
Harassment of activists is so often part of their
daily life that it goes unreported. Detention or
abduction, disappearances and politically
motivated imprisonment are used to stop
activists. In the recent past, smear campaigns
and defamatory tactics have also been used to
de-legitimise the works of defenders, with the
media often colluding in the dissemination of
slanderous accusations and attacks on their
personal integrity and political independence.
However, we are also now living in a new hostile
environment. As countless examples show, a large
area in the country is witnessing armed
conflicts, often on a massive scale, in which
civilian lives and livelihoods are increasingly
the principal casualty. It is in such an
environment that the work of human rights
activists is most needed, yet often least
respected. In an atmosphere of tense
polarisation, their impartiality is called into
question.
Further, new security measures introduced have
also had a chilling effect on the environment in
which rights activists operate. We have to
contend with the governmental discourse that
prioritises 'security' (understood as prevention
of terrorism) over human rights, and that sees
the two as conflicting rather than mutually
supporting policy goals. In such circumstances,
human rights have come to be equated with 'being
soft on terrorism' or concerned only with the
rights of suspected terrorists, rather than with
the victims of terrorism. The work of rights
activists has itself been equated with terrorism
or subversion in the eyes of some governments.
However, in the present phase of Indian polity,
human rights defenders, social justice movements
and development practitioners are more at the
receiving end when they take the language and
tools of rights into the sphere of economic and
social policy. On issues of land, water, forests
and mining, our government is hostile to the very
concept of economic and social rights as
enforceable entitlements. The experiences
involved in identifying violations, attributing
responsibility and proposing measures for redress
and prevention in these arenas lead us to also
view these rights as less enforceable through
legal means ('justiciable').
In all the cases of attacks on human rights
defenders, there is a broader people's resistance
and activists also fight their cases. However,
the main point is that the governments have the
obligation to protect human rights defenders as a
special category. In 1998, the U.N. adopted the
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which,
although not legally binding, draws together
provisions from other legally binding conventions
and covenants most relevant. The Declaration sets
out the prime responsibility of states to take
all necessary steps to ensure the protection of
all those who exercise their right to defend
human rights.
Among other things, the Declaration affirms the
rights: to defend human rights, to freedom of
association, to document human rights abuses, to
seek resources for human rights work, to
criticise the functioning of government bodies
and agencies and to access international
protection bodies. A Special Representative on
Human Rights Defenders was also appointed in
2000. Our national human rights institutions such
as the National Human Rights Commission should
take note of this fact for the protection of
human rights defenders. True, our rights
activists have many skills and years of honed
experience; there is no mystery or mystique to
defending human rights. We all hold the potential
of becoming human rights defenders.
(Mukul Sharma is Director, Amnesty International India.)
______
[6]
The News International
September 29, 2007
LOSING THE FIGHT AGAINST EXTREMISM
by Praful Bidwai
Is India losing the fight against extremism,
specifically Naxalism, which Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh recently described as "the
greatest internal security threat"? Despite
spending a huge Rs 30,000 million on
anti-Naxalite operations, this seems to be the
case. Since 2005, more people have been killed in
Naxal-related violence than in Kashmir or the
northeast.
Naxalism has spread to more than 150 of India's
600 districts. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have
replaced Andhra Pradesh and Bihar as the states
most affected by it. Between January 2006 and
June 2007, Chhattisgarh recorded 529 deaths in
Naxal-related violence. Yet, Chhattisgarh
provides terrifying lessons on how Naxalism
should not be fought by unleashing repression
against unarmed civilians, by instigating bandits
to target Naxalites, and by violating the
citizen's civil liberties, even while
perpetuating gruesome injustices, especially
against the disadvantaged Adivasis (tribals) who
form a majority of the population of the
worst-affected districts.
This conclusion -- drawn by social scientists,
jurists and civil liberties activists -- was
reinforced during a visit I made to Chhattisgarh
last fortnight with Mukul Sharma, director of
Amnesty International-India. We went there to
express solidarity with Dr Binayak Sen, a noted
health activist, and general secretary of the
People's Union for Civil Liberties-Chhattisgarh,
detained since May 14 under the draconian
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2004, and
Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005
(PSA). We also wanted to investigate whether
Sen's work warrants such harsh measures.
Besides capital Raipur, we toured parts of the
Dhamtari district, where Sen's organisation,
Rupantar, has run a clinic for 10 years. Upon
talking to more than 20 people in villages, we
failed to find any evidence of Sen's culpability
in inciting the public to extremism. Sen has been
doing exemplary voluntary work in the Gandhian
mould in providing primary and preventive
healthcare for people long deprived of access to
health facilities. There are no medical personnel
in the area, often not even a chemist within a
30-kilometre distance. The public is forced to
depend on quacks and corrupt, apathetic,
incompetent and usually missing government
employees.
Rupantar's clinic in Bagrumnala village offers an
extraordinary range of services at nominal cost,
including rapid testing for the deadly falciparum
strain of the malaria parasite, which has saved
scores of lives. The clinic largely depends on
"barefoot doctors", who give the public
invaluable advice on nutrition and preventive
medicine too. The clinic caters to villages in a
40 square kilometres radius. Its work is
irreplaceable. Its closure is bound to cause
preventable loss of life among some of the
poorest tribals of Chhattisgarh.
Everyone we talked to expressed gratitude towards
Sen for his role in empowering disadvantaged
people and his efforts to make them aware of
their rights -- for instance, to water, housing
and healthcare. All of them see Sen as noble and
selfless. No one spoke of even the remotest sign
of his instigating people to extremism. However,
it's not an aberration that Sen was detained
under the nasty PSA, which criminalises even
peaceful activity by declaring it "a danger or
menace to public order Š and tranquillity",
because it might interfere with or "tends to
interfere with the maintenance of public orderŠ"
and encourages "disobedience to established law
and its institutions."
This extremely harsh preventive detention law
makes nonsense even of civil disobedience, a
cornerstone of India's Freedom Struggle. It
should have no place in a democracy. Yet, the
state government has filed a 750-page
charge-sheet against Sen, liberally including
offences like sedition and "waging war against
the state". There's a clear purpose behind this
monstrosity -- to intimidate all civil rights
defenders through a horrible example. This isn't
the first time in India that trumped-up charges
have been brought against innocents. But it's
probably the first occasion when a civil
liberties defender has been explicitly targeted,
and that too, from a broad-church, inclusive and
politically unaffiliated organisation like the
PUCL, which has defended people of all
persuasions against state excesses.
Sen was victimised precisely because he formed a
bridge between the human rights movement and
other civil society organisations, and tried to
empower disadvantaged people. The state
government, whose very existence is premised upon
the rapacious exploitation of Adivasis and the
staggering natural wealth of Chhattisgarh --
whose primary function is to subserve the 'big
business', forest contractors and traders --
cannot tolerate such individuals. If this sounds
like an exaggeration, consider this:
* One of India's most creative trade unionists,
Shankar Guha Niyogi, who ignited a mass awakening
on social, cultural and economic issues in
Chhattisgarh, was brutally assassinated at the
behest of powerful and politically well-connected
industrialists in 1991. Those who planned and
financed the murder roam scot-free.
* Chhattisgarh has among India's worst indices of
wealth misdistribution and income inequality.
Many of its cities, including Raipur, are booming
with ostentatious affluence, spanking new hotels
and glittering shopping malls.
* At the other extreme are predominantly tribal
districts like Dantewada, which are marked by
malnutrition, starvation deaths, and severe
scarcity of health facilities and of safe
drinking water. The tribal literacy rate here is
less than one-third the national average -- 30
per cent for men and 13 per cent for women. Of
its 1,220 villages, 214 lack a primary school.
* Worse, 1,161 villages have no medical facility.
Primary health centres exist in only 34 villages.
At the worst is Bijapur, the district's most
violent tehsil, where Naxalites gunned down 55
policemen in March.
* The difference in life-expectancy between
Kerala and tribal Chhattisgarh is a shocking 18
years. The two regions could well belong to
different continents.
* Chhattisgarh is extraordinarily rich in mineral
wealth, including iron ore, bauxite, dolomite,
quartzite, granite, precious stones, gold and tin
ore, besides limestone and coal. Its iron ore is
among the best in the world. This wealth has been
voraciously extracted. But it has produced no
gains for local people. The only railway line in
the state's tribal south runs straight to
Visakhapatnam and carries ore for export to
Japan. Less than one-hundredth of the value of
the mineral returns to the state.
Naxalism has thrived in Chhattisgarh as a
response, albeit an irrational one, to this
system of exploitation, dispossession and
outright loot, along with the complete collapse
of the state as a provider of public services and
a relatively impartial guardian of the law. Yet,
to defend the system of exploitation, the state
is waging war against its own people through the
sponsorship of Salwa Judum (Peace Campaign), a
militia trained to kill and incite violence
against the Naxals. This is an extraordinarily
predatory organisation. Its violence has rendered
homeless almost 100,000 people, who now live in
appalling conditions in temporary camps. Salwa
Judum represents an unholy nexus between the
Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party,
buttressed by powerful entrenched economic
interests. Its atrocities only ensure that the
Naxalite problem will never be settled.
Chhattisgarh is getting polarised between "Red"
(Naxals) and "Saffron" (BJP). It's also divided
between what Niyogi called mankhe gotiyar (the
human species) and baghwa gotiyar (the
bloodsucking clan), or the forces of human
compassion, and the forces of destruction. If the
Chhattisgarh government has proved bankrupt in
dealing with Naxalism, the centre fares no
better. By relying solely on brute force to fight
Naxalism, it is inviting disaster.
______
[7]
Human rights Features - 174/07
6 September 2007
INDIA'S NHRC FAILS TO USE ITS MEAGRE POWERS
India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
is charged with holding the Government of India
accountable for its record on human rights.
Unfortunately, all too often in recent years, it
has failed to do so. Although much criticism of
the NHRC's structural shortcomings should be
directed at the Indian government for
deliberately designing a weak institution, the
NHRC is not powerless. Its tendency to respond to
criticism either by pointing to its lack of
formal authority or by reciting a laundry list of
formal (but often unused) powers reveals a
poverty of imagination and initiative that has
only grown more acute over time.
Are NHRC annual reports de facto state secrets?
None of the NHRC's annual reports after the April
2004-March 2005 report have been brought before
Parliament. These unreleased reports have already
lost much of their purpose as a means of holding
the government accountable and as an advocacy
tool of the Commission. The message communicated
by such delays was clearly and succinctly stated
by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajindar
Sachar in the Times of India: "[T]he attitude of
all governments, including the present one, is to
ignore human rights issues and undermine the
NHRC."
We share the NHRC's understandable frustration
with this state of affairs, and applaud its
repeated insistence in past annual reports that
the Government consider its reports more
expeditiously. However, the NHRC has taken little
public action in the last several years to
continue to press this issue, and whatever
lobbying it may have done behind the scenes
appears to have been ineffective.
After so much government stonewalling, it is time
for the NHRC to begin publishing its reports
within a reasonable time of their preparation
even if they have not yet been officially tabled
by Parliament. Nothing in the Protection of Human
Rights Act (PHRA) explicitly prohibits the NHRC
from submitting reports to the Government and
also simultaneously releasing them to Parliament
and to the public. In fact, the NHRC already
publishes some of the sort of information that
would go into an annual report in its monthly
newsletter and discloses it in public speeches.
The NHRC's other underused powers
Aside from neglecting its human rights reporting
powers, the NHRC has recommended compensation for
victims of human rights abuses and prosecution of
perpetrators far too sparingly for far too long.
It has done so only in an exceedingly small
proportion of the cases it has considered-some
600 cases out of hundreds of thousands of
individual complaints submitted as of its last
available annual report. In a speech in October
2006 (as reported in PUCL Bulletin, January
2007), acting Chairperson Justice Shivraj V.
Patil claimed that compensation had been paid in
716 cases and that 637,009 cases had been filed
with the Commission until the end of September
2006. The Commission's record on recommendations
for prosecution is even worse.
Further, the awards recommended have been modest
at best. In its last publicly available annual
report (2004-2005), the Commission noted that
[s]ince its establishment in October 1993, the
Commission has directed that interim relief to
the extent of Rs. 10,07,12,634/- to be paid in
617 cases. During the year 2004-05, the
Commission recommended that interim relief
amounting to Rs. 23,27,000/- be paid in 46 cases,
including 12 cases of deaths in police/judicial
custody.
These compensation statistics amount to an
average compensation recommendation of just over
Rs. 160,000 per case over the life of the
Commission, and an average compensation
recommendation of some Rs. 50,600 per case during
2004-2005. Although these averages do obscure
some variability in award amounts, even the more
sizable awards recommended for families of those
killed by security forces only amounted to Rs.
200,000 per family during the 2004-2005 period.
In contrast, a 17-year-old girl gang raped by
police officers received a recommendation for an
award just under the average size of awards in
2004-2005-Rs. 50,000.
What is the metric by which the Commission
decides on the amount of compensation to be
awarded? In the rape case mentioned above, the
State of Tripura had already compensated the
victim with a payment of Rs. 15,000, but the
Commission rejected this payment as too low
because "the offence of rape not only amounts to
violation of the human rights of the victim, but
it also tends to violate the mind and scar the
psyche of a person permanently. Besides, it
carries a social stigma for the victim and her
family." But if the Commission is correct in its
analysis of the permanent psychological and
social effects of rape-as we believe it is-then
why limit compensation to only Rs. 50,000?
There is a punitive component to these awards,
not just a compensatory one. Awards should be
fashioned to make it prohibitively expensive for
agents of the state to commit serious human
rights abuses-not so low that there is
essentially a human rights abuse market where
death sells for Rs. 200,000 and rape for Rs.
50,000.
Moreover, with the possible exception of a number
of cases of child and bonded labour, the
Commission in its 2004-2005 annual report does
not recount recommendations of criminal
prosecutions or efforts to follow up on
prosecutions already initiated by State and
Central Government authorities without the
Commission's prodding.
In his October 2006 speech, Justice Patil
reportedly claimed that, during its 13 years, the
NHRC had "recommended disciplinary action in 223
cases and prosecution in 74 cases against" state
actors who were suspected of committing human
rights violations. In comparison, the Commission
stated in its 2002-2003 annual report that it had
recommended disciplinary action or prosecution in
a total of 295 cases. The implication is that,
between the end of March 2003 and the end of
September 2006, the Commission recommended
prosecution or disciplinary action in only two
instances.
That 'vision' thing: A media-driven Commission?
The NHRC is charged under the PHRA with
investigating individual human rights complaints
as well as initiating suo motu investigations.
But the current proliferation of notices being
sent by the NHRC is worrisome. It bespeaks a
potentially superficial approach to human rights
protection issues that is more responsive to the
mass media than to the underlying needs of human
rights victims in India. To be clear, we are
sympathetic to the Commission's desire to
increase its public profile and to improve its
institutional legitimacy. However, the NHRC must
be more strategic in launching and framing its
suo motu investigations.
Because the Commission's investigative resources
are already being stretched thin by the crush of
individual complaints, it should be wary of any
approach that encourages recipients of its
investigative notices to treat them as junk mail.
The Commission investigated 2,805 cases during
2004-2005, out of the 85,661 cases it dealt with
during that same time period-47,213 of which it
considered on substantive grounds and 38,448 it
dismissed "in limine", that is, on procedural
grounds. Thus, the Commission only had the
resources to investigate just over three percent
of all the cases it considered during 2004-2005,
a figure that only rises to six percent if one
excludes all of the procedurally-faulty cases
which may not have required investigation.
Furthermore, it is imperative that in its notices
and press releases the Commission connect an
individual instance of an alleged violation with
a broader trend in society or with a larger
programmatic goal. For example, in its press
release of 29 August 2007 regarding the police in
Bhagalpur in the state of Bihar who joined a
crowd in beating a suspected thief and dragged
him behind a motorcycle, the NHRC missed a golden
opportunity. The NHRC could have pointed out that
the abuse meted out to Mohammad Aurangzeb was
unusual only for the fact that it was captured on
film. A wide range of observers of civil rights
in India-from foreign governments to
international and Indian NGOs-all agree that
torture and abuse is routinely used by police and
security forces in India even against those
accused only of petty crimes. Even the
Commission's first Chairperson "[r]eferr[ed] to
the prevalence of third-degree methods as a
reason for custodial death". At the very least,
the NHRC should have used Mohammad Aurangzeb's
name in its press release if only to hint ever so
obliquely that perhaps his religious identity
had something to do with the police's outrageous
behaviour-an echo of the much deadlier sort of
discrimination demonstrated by the police force
in Gujarat in 2002.
Conclusion
Until it rediscovers a modicum of the
independence, initiative, and creativity it had
initially displayed, the NHRC will continue to be
an ineffective check upon human rights abuses
perpetrated by agents of the state. Despite its
dearth of formal powers, the early Commission and
its leadership did not accept the government's
conception of it as a tool to burnish India's
human rights record at home and abroad. It
thought of itself as a bona fide national human
rights institution and acted accordingly. It was
in this realm of perception and of moral
authority that the Commission's fragile power lay.
______
[8]
The Wall Street Journal
September 27, 2007
BIG BROTHER
by Shruti Rajagopalan
Ms. Rajagopalan is a lawyer based in New Delhi.
NEW DELHI -- When Richard Gere kissed Shilpa
Shetty, the star of Britain's "Big Brother"
program last year, India's moral police professed
shock, and many called for media censorship. What
they didn't say was that New Delhi's policy
makers were already well on their way to doing
just that.
This November, India's parliament will consider
the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, the
country's most sweeping attempt yet to infringe
on free speech. The proposed law is the result of
a Supreme Court decision that came down in 1995,
when the court mediated a dispute over
telecasting rights of a live cricket match. The
justices deemed India's airwaves a scarce
resource and "public property" which should not
be monopolized by the government or private
broadcasters but regulated for national interest.
It recommended that New Delhi create an
independent statutory body -- an oxymoron in
itself -- to act as the custodian of airwaves.
That bill ignores decades of evidence that
government control over the airwaves just doesn't
work in a democracy. Britain may have created the
British Broadcasting Service in 1922, ostensibly
an independent body to regulate media, but it was
later stripped of that role and the British media
market opened to competition. The United States
created the Federal Communications Act of 1934 to
monitor against private monopolies and also
regulate content and coverage in public interest.
This relic has also undergone dilution over the
years and given way to the somewhat less
restrictive Telecommunications Act of 1996.
No matter; the Indian Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting intends to replicate their peers'
mistakes decades later. The Broadcasting Services
Regulation Bill 2007 sets out a comprehensive
policy on broadcasting that is concerned with
both carriage and content. It proposes to set up
the Broadcasting Regulatory Authority of India
(BRAI) which will ostensibly be an independent
authority; establish an independent content code;
and develop the system for censorship and
certification.
If the bill passes -- which is likely under a
left-leaning Congress Party coalition -- the
government's powers will be greatly extended. The
legislation prohibits any person from
broadcasting any channel or program without a
license from an authority designated by the
government. The proposed agency isn't really an
independent authority and would be run by
bureaucrats handpicked by the government. Thus
the government would be able to arm-twist the
media through the BRAI medium of licensing and
registration, which allows it to mandate content
as well as impose severe penalties on unlicensed
broadcasters. The bill requires all shows to be
broadcast only if they are in the greatest
interest of the general public -- a judgment that
will be made in New Delhi.
Policy makers also propose to free ride off of
the profitable parts of the private sector. The
bill makes it mandatory for every cable or
satellite service to provide two government-owned
channels: "Doordarshan," the long-running
national government broadcaster, and one regional
channel for the respective state government. The
government also proposes to force private
broadcasters to share live telecasting rights of
any sporting event of national importance with
the state-owned channels.
Just in case anyone objects to these repressive
rules, the bill requires every channel to
register with the BRAI -- which may refuse
registration if it is of the considered opinion
that the content of the channel is likely to
"threaten the security and integrity of the
State," "threaten peace and harmony or public
order," or "threaten relations with foreign
countries." The central government has also
reserved the power to prevent a broadcast or
revoke the license of a broadcaster in case of
external threat or in "exceptional
circumstances." In a pluralistic democracy like
India, which has every conceivable kind of moral
and religious police, whose ideas of what's
proper would prevail?
The man best positioned to answer these questions
is the minister for information and broadcasting,
Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, who is responsible for
this legislation. After the Gere-Shetty kiss was
aired, Mr. Dasmunshi declared that he felt the
media had been "irresponsible" for showing the
image many times over, offending sensitivities
with "frivolous news"; thus making a case for
stringent regulation of news channels. So would
Mr. Gere's affectionate embrace of Ms. Shetty be
deemed an "exceptional circumstance"?
While the minister's views are cause for alarm,
they pale in comparison to the "content code"
drafted by the ministry. The code stipulates, for
example, that broadcasters shall not present the
figure of a woman as mere "sexual objects." Noble
as the idea may be, it's scarcely a good reason
for censoring the press, especially when
pornographic material is already banned in its
entirety. Similarly, the code prevents
broadcasters from distorting religious symbols or
practices in a derogatory manner.
The government has called the code a "roadmap for
self regulation" whereby the broadcasters will
follow the guidelines and manage their content
accordingly. But the government's track record in
regulating content doesn't inspire confidence.
This July the government banned an underwear
advertisement for being vulgar and suggestive;
oddly enough, no one was wearing underwear or
appearing nude and it only showed a woman doing
her husband's laundry. In January, the Ministry
banned AXN, a cable network, for two months for
airing a show called World's Sexiest Commercials.
In May, the same policy makers banned Fashion TV,
another cable channel, for a show called Midnight
Hot, on grounds that it violated public decency.
Both shows were aired after 11 p.m. and the
channels are considered mainstream everywhere
else in the free world. But Mr. Dasmunshi
responded to criticism of the bans by saying, "If
out of 75 complaints we banned only two channels,
why the hue and cry?"
The larger design of this government is to
control political free speech. This legislation,
if passed, will come down heavily on channels
conducting "sting operations" to expose corrupt
government officials or scams. This seems ominous
given the ban last week on Live India for
conducting a "fake" sting operation exposing an
alleged prostitution racket. The Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting banned the channel
for a month as it aired material which "incited
violence and contained content against
maintenance of law and order."
Media censorship was seen last during the 1970s,
when Indira Gandhi imposed emergency rule. The
suspension of all civil and political rights soon
followed, as well as political censorship. It was
the only dictatorship that modern India has ever
witnessed. While this legislation cannot be
compared with the Emergency, the agenda to
control free speech is alarmingly similar.
_____
[9]
New title from Three Essays Collective
(available from 27 September)
TO MAKE THE DEAF HEAR
Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and His Comrades
by S. Irfan Habib
This is a path-breaking work on the political
life and times of Bhagat Singh and his
associates, and the organizations of which they
were a part - the Hindustan Socialist Republican
Association (HSRA) and the Naujawan Bharat Sabha.
It highlights many hitherto neglected aspects of
the evolution of Bhagat Singh as a national hero,
including the definite shift towards socialism in
his outlook. This is also among the best works on
the revolutionary nationalists and their role in
India's freedom movement. Documents and short
writings crucial to understanding the essential
core of their ideology and programme are included
as appendices. This is that rare book of history
that scholars and the general reader alike could
enjoy and appreciate, and which no student of
modern south Asian history can do without. Above
all, it describes incredibly well those momentous
decades of the 1920s and early 30s when the
left-radical agenda came to occupy a huge space
on the Subcontinent.
S. Irfan Habib works with the National Institute
of Science, Technology and Development Studies
(NISTADS). He has researched in the area of
history of science, and issues in science,
society and education.His books include
Domesticating Modern Science (co-authored with
Dhruv Raina). He has also co-edited with Dhruv
Raina Situating the History of Science: Dialogues
with Joseph Needham and A Social History of
Science in Colonial India.
Contents
Preface
Chapter One: Programme and Ideology of the Early Revolutionaries
Chapter Two: Towards a Revolutionary Programme and Socialist Outlook
Chapter Three: Trials, Congress and the Revolutionaries
Chapter Four: Ideology and Programme of the HSRA
Chapter Five: Conclusion
Appendices (A selection of important writings and documents):
A. The Reading list of Sardar Bhagat Singh
B. Some important Statements and Writings of Bhagat Singh
1. To Make the Deaf Hear: Notice of
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (Army)
2. Statement in the Sessions Court (Read out by Mr Asaf Ali)
3. Why I Am An Atheist
4. Introduction to The Dreamland
5. To the Young Political Workers
C. Some important documents
1. Manifesto of the Hindustan Republican Association
2. Manifesto of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha
3. Philosophy of the Bomb: Manifesto of the Hindustan Socialist
Republican Association
Bibliography and Index
xx, 232 pages
ISBN 81-88789-56-9 Hardcover Rs500
ISBN 81-88789-61-5 Paperback Rs250
Three Essays Collective
B-957 Palam Vihar
GURGAON (Haryana) 122 017
India
Tel.: (91-124) 2369023
Mobile: +91 98681 26587 and +91 98683 44843
www.threeessays.com
______
[9] Announcements:
(i)
IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE'S UPRISING IN BURMA
Dear Friends,
The Burmese military junta has been brutally
cracking down on the non-violent civil protesters
for last few weeks.
At least 10 people including monks, school
children and a Japanese journalist were killed in
military firing on peaceful demonstrators on
September 27. Hundreds of students and civilians
have been injured, arrested and tortured.
Civil rights groups/organizations and individuals
came together and held a meeting this evening at
the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi and
deliberated on the continuing humanitarian
political crisis in Burma.
The participants unanimously called for the
restoration of democracy in Burma and the
intervention of various civil and state actors
towards achieving this.
The people from Burma expressed their
disappointment over the silence of the Indian
public and also the insensitiveness of the Indian
State that struck yet another oil deal amidst the
current crisis and appealed for a more proactive
intervention of civil groups.
What began as a protest in Burma against hike in
fuel prices and worsening economic situation has
turned into a full-fledged campaign against the
military regime now.
The current crisis in Burma has once again
demonstrated the Burmese people's strong yearning
for democracy and resentment against the junta.
The Women's League of Burma (WLB) is organizing a
mass protest demonstration in solidarity with the
struggling people of Burma and against the brutal
military regime tomorrow 29-9-2007 (Saturday) at
11.00 am Jantar Mantar.
Soon after, at 13:00 pm the civil rights groups will discuss plan of action.
As a people who believe in the values of
democracy, human rights, peace we have the
responsibility of averting a major
state-crackdown and bloodshed in Burma and help
restoration of democracy in that beleaguered
country.
We appeal for your participation and solidarity in this process.
Achan Mungleng
Tungshang Ningreichon
M.V. Bijulal
Sundara Babu
Vijayan M J
Madhuresh Kumar
(On behalf of Delhi Solidarity Group)
---
(ii)
Dear Friends,
Greetings from CEHAT !
CEHAT, the research centre of Anusandhan Trust
has been addressing issue of right to health care
to all, as well as preventing violence and caring
for survivors (since 1991). We undertake socially
relevant and academically rigorous health
research, action service and advocacy.
We have been part of various investigations of
cases of sexual assaults, highlighted the need
for doctors to sensitively respond to such cases
and have been advocating for change in current
procedures and protocols and practice. We have
also had organised an international conference
"preventing Violence and caring for survivors:
Role of Health care professionals" in 1998,
emphasising the role of health care professionals
and care for survivors. One of our pioneering
efforts is to establish Dilaasa in collaboration
with Municipal Corporation to institutionalise
"Violence against Women" as a critical public
health concern and also to built capacity of
hospital staff to sensitively respond to women.
Violence results in physical and psychosocial
trauma that severely affects the health of the
victim. Treating injuries caused by violence,
collecting medical evidence in cases of sexual
assault/burns or conducting autopsy are the
services that the health professionals routinely
provide to the victims. Despite this the medical
and nursing education does not emphasise on
violence as a health issue.
Thus with our unique experience in Indian
context, we have announced a course on "Violence
against women and role of health care providers
(HCP)". The course is designed to provide
participants an understanding on Violence against
Women (VAW) as a health and human rights issue
and train them to respond to specific needs of
victims of violence.
Our target group composes of Doctors, Nurses,
Researchers, Health activists etc.
We will shortly upload registration forms as well
as brochures on our website too. We would be
obliged if you could refer this course to the
eligible candidates within your circle.
Interested participants are requested to fill the
application form and send it on
<mailto:pehel at vsnl.net>pehel at vsnl.net or
<mailto:pehelmumbai at gmail.com>pehelmumbai at gmail.com
Thanking you,
Warm Regards,
Shabana Ansari
PEHEL - CEHAT
---
(iii)
SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg
New Delhi-110001
Telephone-23711276/ 23351424
e-mail-sahmat at vsnl.com
28.9.2007
Please Join us
to celebrate MF Husain at 92, with a street mela
5 pm onwards, at VP House lawns, Rafi Marg
Tuesday, October 2, Gandhi Jayanti
Sahmat, 8 VP House, Rafi Marg, New Delhi 110001. Tel: 2371 1276, 2335 1424.
Street Bands, Balloons, Chat, Kulfi, Fireworks.
A special exhibition of photographs by Parthiv Shah.
Screening of films by Husain....Through the Eyes
of a Painter (Berlin Silver Bear Winner), Short
films from the 1960's, Gajagamini, Meenaxi- A
tale of three cities.
Also hoarding painters from Abbas Studios will paint a hoarding on site.
Come and Celebrate!
---
(iv)
Film South Asia '07
11-14 October 2007*
Kathmandu
We request the delegates to make air travel
reservations to Kathmandu right away, as October
is peak tourist season. Autumn is a great time to
be in Nepal, when the post-harvest traditional
festivals are on, besides our documentary fest.
But first you have to get here, so call your
travel agent right away!
As in the past festivals we will not be able to
pay for your travel, but the accommodation and
hospitality once you get here will be on us, at
Film South Asia. For delegates from India who
have the alternative of the land-route, please
note that there are several ways to get to
Kathmandu overland. Among other options, train to
Gorakhpur and flying from Bhairawa (in Nepal) is
a cheap and convenient alternative.
Past Film South Asia events have been energising
gathering of filmmakers from all over the region,
to share and to enjoy. The films and filmmakers
chosen for FSA '07 promise to make the upcoming
11-14 October memorable days for all of us --
full of camaraderie, discussion and not a little
bit of frolic...
Please also note that we have also planned a
two-day add-on Festival of South Asian Music
Videos (FSA-MV), which will take place 15-16
October, if you would like to stay behind.
In Kathmandu, we look forward to seeing you at FSA '07.
Upasana Shrestha
Mallika Aryal
Co-Directors, FSA '07
For further information contact:
Film South Asia Secretariat
Himal Association
P.O. Box 166, Patan Dhoka
Lalitpur, Nepal
email: fsa at filmsouthasia.org
---
(v)
Fourth Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive
and Sexual Health and Rights will be held on
October 29-31, 2007 in Hyderabad, India. The
theme of the conference is "Exploring New
Frontiers in Sexual and Reproductive Health and
Rights"
Family Planning Association of India (FPAI)
FPAI Bhawan,
Sector IV, R. K. Puram
New Delhi 110022 - INDIA
Telfax: 00-91-11-26162764
Email : 4thapcrsh at gmail.com
---
(vi)
Trades Union Congress: Events
An invitation to join Mike Squires lecture: Saklatvala and Racism
Date Fri, 2 Nov 2007
Time to from 17:30 to 20:00
Location Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS
Cost Free admission - please register with Darren Lewis (SERTUC) on
020 7467 1220 or dlewis at tuc.org.uk
Description
Mike Squires grew up in Battersea and spent the
first 25 years of his life there.
He became interested in Saklatvala after joining
the Young Communist League in Battersea in 1960.
Later, Mike studied for a PhD on the subject of
Saklatvala and he had a book published about the
MP in 1991 entitled 'Saklatvala - A Political
Biography'.
Mike became a teacher and then a licensed taxi
driver. He is a member of Unite TGWU.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
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