SACW | Sri Lanka: Trapped Civilians / Pakistan: Protect Minorities / India: secular space shrinks

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | September 12-13, 2008 | Dispatch No. 2566  
- Year 11 running

[1] Sri Lanka: Blocking aid workers in Sri Lanka endangers trapped  
civilians (Amnesty International)
[2] Pakistan: Protect Minorities, end hate-preaching & killing (HRCP  
Press Release)
[3] India: Ethnic and linguistic chauvinism in Maharashtra damaging  
cultural freedom (SAHMAT - Press statement)
[4] Now the state is spying on SAHMAT India's leading secular  
platform of artists (report in The Telegraph)
[5] India: Truth Has Two Faces - SIMI’s radicalism is of deep concern  
for Indian Muslims (Javed Anand)
[6] India: Murder and mayhem in Orissa -The Sangh Parivar's Reach for  
a Hindu State (Angana Chatterji)
[7] India: Secular credentials under fire (Patricia Mukhim)
[8] India: All Sides Using Children in Chhattisgarh Conflict (Human  
Rights Watch)
[9] Announcements:
(i) Public Forum: Crisis for Minorities in India: Kashmir and Orissa  
(Vancouver, September 14, 2008)
(ii) New Publication: "India's North-Eastern Region: Insurgency,  
Economic Development and Linkages with South East Asia" (Nishchal  
Nath Pandey)
(iii) Call for entries Himalayan Film Festival 2009

______


[1]

Amnesty International

BLOCKING AID WORKERS IN SRI LANKA ENDANGERS TRAPPED CIVILIANS

Temporary shelter for displaced people in Sri Lanka

10 September 2008

The Sri Lankan government’s order for United Nations (UN) and non- 
governmental aid workers to leave the war-torn northern Wanni region  
could further endanger tens of thousands of displaced persons trapped  
between the two parties to the conflict, Amnesty International warned.

National staff of international aid agencies now left behind in the  
Wanni fear that the withdrawal of international staff will make them  
more vulnerable to abuses by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam  
(LTTE). Amnesty International has received credible reports that the  
LTTE has prevented civilians from moving to safer places in  
government controlled areas. The LTTE is also actively recruiting  
minors in camps for the newly displaced.

"Aid agencies provided a lifeline to tens of thousands of trapped  
civilians. If aid workers are pulled out of the region, food, shelter  
and sanitation supplies have even less chance of reaching civilians  
most in need," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia Pacific  
Director.

Aid workers in the Wanni told Amnesty International that they feared  
the government lacks the capacity to provide basic essentials and  
safety for those who have had to flee their homes as fighting has  
intensified between Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE. Seven  
international aid agencies, including the World Food Program, were  
providing emergency food assistance in the Wanni.

“The Sri Lankan government has now assumed total responsibility for  
ensuring the needs of the civilian population affected by the  
hostilities are met. If the government is telling aid workers to pull  
back, then it must show it has the capacity to feed and protect its  
own citizens left behind,” said Sam Zarifi.

Amnesty International called on the Sri Lankan government to allow  
independent international monitors into the Wanni to oversee and  
ensure that convoys with food, medical and other essential supplies  
enter into the area, as well oversee the distribution of such supplies.

“Independent monitors are essential to help ensure that basic  
necessities are reaching those in need, without discrimination.  
Without independent monitors in the region, there will be a complete  
void of information about any casualties or the state of shelters,"  
said Sam Zarifi.

Despite government claims about setting up humanitarian corridors  
allowing for the safe passage of civilians out of the Wanni, Amnesty  
International has only received reports of unrestricted passage  
through the Omanthai checkpoint. Under international law, the  
government should ensure that people know where these corridors are  
and how they can reach them.

Background

The government announced on Monday 8 September, that it could no  
longer ensure the safety of aid workers in the area and requested  
that United Nations and humanitarian agencies staff move out to  
government-controlled territory.

Under international humanitarian law, both the Sri Lankan government  
and the LTTE are obliged to treat those not taking active part in the  
hostilities humanely at all times, and without discrimination. In  
addition to prohibiting directing attacks at such people or carrying  
out indiscriminate attacks, this provision includes the obligation to  
ensure that humanitarian supplies reach all of those who need it.

The United Nations has begun shifting international workers from  
Kilinochchi to government-controlled Vavuniya. The International  
Committee of the Red Cross has issued a statement that it plans to  
continue assisting those in need, regardless of location.

The Sri Lankan military has launched a major offensive to reclaim  
areas of the north and east previously controlled by the LTTE.  
Families have been displaced several times while fleeing from aerial  
bombardment by government forces.

______


[2]

HRCP FOR END TO HATE-PREACHING & KILLING

Press Release, 10 September

Lahore: Taking a serious view of the killing of two Ahmedis in Sindh  
and instigation to murder in a TV programme, the Human Rights  
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called for urgent action to protect  
the minorities' lives and to ensure stoppage of hate-preaching  
through the media. In a statement issued here today HRCP said:

On Monday an eminent Ahmedi physician and cardiologist was shot dead  
in Mirpurkhas. The next day, another prominent Ahmedi was killed in  
Nawabshah. The Ahmediya community believes there is a link between  
these brutal killings and a programme telecast by a private TV  
channel in which a cleric called for death to Ahmedis and the compere  
concurred. Even if there is no direct link between incitement to  
violence on TV and the two murders neither of the offences can be  
tolerated. The Ahmedi community is within its legal rights to demand  
protection against instigators of violence against them. The  
government must ensure that the killers of the Ahmedi citizens are  
brought to justice and that nobody is allowed to use the media,  
especially the electronic one, to preach communal hatred and  
fratricide. The TV channel also has a duty to reign in irresponsible  
comperes. Failure to do so will confirm its complicity in a heinous  
crime.

Iqbal Haider
Co-chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)

______


[3]

SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg
New Delhi-110001
Telephone-23711276/ 23351424
e-mail-sahmat at vsnl.com

12.9.2008

PRESS STATEMENT

We are alarmed at the damage to cultural freedom and the larger  
repercussions -- in terms of intolerance and lawlessness -- arising  
from the unseemly competition between different elements of the  
Thackeray clan for the mantle of Mumbai’s most extreme exponent of  
ethnic and linguistic chauvinism.

The traditions of cultural creativity and freedom that Mumbai is  
rightly proud of, are gravely threatened in this cynical game of  
competitive extremism.

We condemn the witch-hunt and the crass campaign of social ostracism  
launched by Raj Thackeray and his party, the Maharashtra Navanirman  
Sena, against the actor Amitabh Bachchan for statements made by his  
wife, Jaya Bachchan.

If mob fury can be unleashed (though admittedly only symbolically)  
against a celebrity couple just because one among them insists on  
speaking in the language of the state she represents in politics, one  
wonders what fate Raj Thackeray and his followers have reserved for  
the millions of migrants from the Hindi-speaking area, who contribute  
richly to the daily life of India’s greatest metropolis.

We appreciate the fact that Raj Thackeray has since seen the wisdom  
of toning down his rhetoric and scaling back his campaign. But this  
we fear, has less to do with doing what is right and reasonable, than  
with doing what is opportune.

That the game of ethnic chauvinism, once launched with such  
virulence, admits little scope for moderation, is borne out by the  
manner in which the Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray – whose baneful  
though politically profitable legacy is what the whole fight today  
seems to be about -- has chosen to enter the fray.

Asserting his presumptive rule that anybody who comes to Mumbai for a  
career should leave behind all other loyalties and partake of what he  
deems the unique and indivisible Marathi culture of the city, the  
elder Thackeray recently castigated the Hindi film star, Shahrukh  
Khan, for referring to his antecedents in Delhi.

Celebrities may by virtue of their status, enjoy immunity from these  
periodic outbursts of hate and intolerance, but the ensuing climate  
embodies a very real threat to the millions of Mumbaikars who,  
despite their cultural differences, contribute to the vitality of  
India’s greatest metropolis.

We deplore the reaction of several members of Mumbai’s film community  
to the statement by actor Shabana Azmi, that Muslims suffer from a  
degree of institutional discrimination in India. Surely there is  
little in what she said that would seem exceptionable to people in an  
industry that believes in chronicling life in this vast country in  
all its complexities.

That extremism is not the exclusive preserve of any one party is  
proven by the recent edict by a member of the Muslim clergy against  
actor Salman Khan, for his participation in the Ganesh Chaturthi  
festivities.

We call upon the authorities and in particular, civil society in  
Mumbai, to call an immediate halt to this cynical game. Stoking  
imagined grievances may be a convenient way for politicians and  
celebrities to keep themselves in the media spotlight, but the  
climate of intolerance this creates will have severe consequences for  
those without the armour of wealth and status, who alas, all too  
often lack the protection of the law too.

Ram Rahman, Vivan Sundaram, M.K.Raina, Madan Gopal Singh, Sohail  
Hashmi and Indira Chandrasekhar


_____


[4]

http://communalism.blogspot.com/2008/09/spys-comes-to-sahmat.html

The Telegraph
September 13, 2008

SPY’ WHO GOT CAUGHT - INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL IN SAHMAT NET
by Ananya Sengupta

New Delhi, Sept. 12: A “spy” sat staring at his polished shoes locked  
up in the small office of cultural group Sahmat for almost an hour  
today, after hamhanded snooping blew his cover and gave a telling  
insight into the working of the Intelligence Bureau.

“I am an FCRA (foreign contribution regulation) official and am here  
on official duty,” Praveen Sharma (name changed) insisted, fidgeting  
with his phone.

But Rajendra Prasad, the Sahmat member he had first approached with  
the introduction and a long list of queries, was not buying this any  
more. He had called police.

Sahmat, set up in January 1989 after actor, poet and political and  
street theatre activist Safdar Hashmi was killed performing a play  
20km from Delhi, brings together a cross-section of people to defend  
democracy and freedom of expression.

In white T-shirt and grey pants, the bespectacled Sharma had walked  
into its office posing as an FCRA official under the home ministry.

“He wanted to know every detail of the organisation, and I gave it to  
him. I didn’t even ask for his identity card. He initially started  
with who the members of the organisation were and also details of the  
kind of work we do. He asked me if Sahmat took foreign funds for  
their work, and when I said no, he said if I was offered, would I  
take it? I had no problems answering those questions,” Prasad said.

Then he named two people, who he said were connected with the  
Maharashtra blasts, and asked me if I knew them. I realised he was  
asking me if our group had connections with terrorists. That’s what  
made me suspicious. I asked for his identity card and he just flashed  
some card at me. I asked him which blasts he was talking about, and  
he couldn’t even answer that,” the Sahmat member said.

Soon, Sharma had been locked up and the police called.

“It’s the recent blasts in Maharashtra,” Sharma said in answer to  
this correspondent’s question as he tried to contact his bosses.

So where was his office? Sharma didn’t remember.

When the police arrived, the mystery was solved. “He is with the  
Intelligence Bureau and it was his mistake that he barged into  
Sahmat’s office and intimidated them. Sahmat can officially register  
a case if they want,” the Parliament Street SHO, Vijay Chandel, said  
before the police took him away.

It is not uncommon for officials of the Intelligence Bureau, the  
country’s internal spy agency, to make discreet enquiries about  
organisations. But to go about it as Sharma did provides a clue  
perhaps to the intelligence failures blamed for blast after blast.

“What’s completely unacceptable is that at the time of the incident,  
there were two artistes in the room — young women, one from Pakistan  
and the other a Bangladeshi, who are in the country for an  
international art workshop. He made such a fuss about their  
nationalities that they ran away from the spot,” said photographer  
Ram Rahman.


_____


[5]

 From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 37, Dated Sept 20, 2008


TRUTH HAS TWO FACES

SIMI’s radicalism is of deep concern for Indian Muslims

by Javed Anand
Co-editor, Communalism Combat

FILM-MAKER, OUTSPOKEN citizen with a conscience, and friend, Mahesh  
Bhatt has a way with words. This is what I learnt from him two years  
ago when we found ourselves holding two ends of a common problem:  
“You know, I have learnt from experience that it is not always the  
case that opposite a truth stands an untruth. Sometimes it can be one  
truth face-to-face with another.”

TEHELKA’s exposé of our intelligence agencies vis-à-vis SIMI hit the  
newsstands on August 16. As luck would have it, my article on SIMI  
too appeared in The Indian Express the same morning. Later the same  
day, the Gujarat police claimed to have made a major “breakthrough”  
in the Ahmedabad blasts case in July. It not only claimed to have  
uncovered clinching evidence against SIMI activists in the Ahmedabad  
case, but also indicated that the same outfit was also involved in  
the earlier blasts in Bangalore and Jaipur.

This conjunction of coincidences lent extra charge and meaning to  
both TEHELKA’s exposé and my article. A war of positions — so, whose  
side are you on? — is now raging in cyber space, a plethora of e-mail  
networks and sections of the Urdu media. While the TEHELKA report is  
being gleefully reproduced, to some of my detractors I am now a “so- 
called secularist”. The unkindest so far is the ‘Editor’s Cut’ by  
Shoma Chaudhury in TEHELKA of September 6.

But first things first: My huge compliments and a hundred salaams to  
Ajit Sahi and TEHELKA for holding a mirror before the mainstream  
media, offering yet another outstanding example of courageous  
journalism. Sahi’s detailed report, case-by-case, is a highly  
credible, damning account of the questionable conduct — shocking  
inefficiency, callousness or rank anti-Muslim prejudice? — of our  
intelligence agencies. Evidently, Judge Gita Mittal of the Delhi High  
Court who headed the special tribunal was of the same opinion. Why  
else would she slam the ban order in such transparent disgust?

The Supreme Court was quick to stay the ban on SIMI presumably on the  
basis of fresh evidence produced before it. What the apex court  
decides in due course remains to be seen. But for now, the  
investigating agencies must answer TEHELKA’s charge that scores of  
Muslims and their family members from across the country were  
subjected to midnight knocks, illegal detention, humiliating  
beatings, torture and jail: all on false charges and without a shred  
of evidence.

To this, I would add the charge I made in my article. Secular India  
practices discriminatory justice for which only one explanation is  
possible: anti-Muslim bias. Why else are the Bajrang Dal and other  
Hindu extremist outfits not under the antiterrorism scanner? In the  
last two years activists of these outfits have literally been caught  
red-handed, holding or accidentally blown up by “Hindu bombs” in  
several towns of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and MP. After the recent  
Kanpur blasts, add UP to the list. Why also the deafening silence of  
the state in response to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s call for  
Hindu fidayeen (suicide bombers)? If this is not shameful double  
standard, what else is?

Having said that, I also have something else to say. Had I written my  
piece after reading TEHELKA’s expose, I would have started my piece  
with huge compliments to Sahi and TEHELKA as I do now. But I would  
have proceeded to say all that I did in my article of August 16. And  
ended with deep regret that Sahi’s otherwise excellent investigation  
was sadly, and particularly from the Indian Muslims’ point of view,  
dangerously incomplete.

To begin with, both keep collapsing two separate issues into one. In  
the process I am accused of something that, if anything, they are  
guilty of. Are we talking of a court of law, whether a tribunal  
examining the legitimacy of a ban, or a trial in a court? If yes, it  
goes without saying that due process and the rule of law must be the  
only criteria for arriving at a judgment. No one, neither SIMI nor  
Bajrang Dal, neither Narendra Modi nor Bal Thackeray, can or should  
be banned or pronounced guilty without a fair trial.

FOR WHATEVER it is worth, the prime concern of the journal that I  
have been co-editing for the last 15 years — Communalism Combat — and  
the organisation that has been fighting for justice since the  
genocide in Gujarat in 2002 and of which I happen to be one of the  
founding trustees — Citizens for Justice and Peace — can be summed up  
in the words: equality before law, equal protection of law, rule of  
law, due process, justice for all. Again, for what it is worth, I  
have seen myself as a human rights defender for threedozen years. In  
all humility then, while one lives and learns, I don’t really need  
lessons in basics. But as far as I am concerned, what I have said  
above is no different in substance from what I wrote in The Indian  
Express: you can’t ban or pronounce SIMI guilty of terrorism without  
proper evidence and due process. It is not for nothing that I am so  
full of praise for Sahi and TEHELKA.

That takes us to the second issue. We are talking now ofthe ‘court’  
of public opinion where you and I pass ‘judgments’ of a different  
kind all the time. Surely, it does not need extraordinary imagination  
or intellect to appreciate that the rules of the game here are  
different? Have we not ‘judged’ the Congress Party and the Delhi  
police ‘guilty’ of the carnage of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and rightly  
so? Have we not pronounced Bal Thackeray guilty of the pogrom against  
Muslims in Mumbai in 1992-93? And do we not hold Narendra Modi  
responsible for state-sponsoring the genocidal killing of Muslims in  
Gujarat in 2002?

Why, then, does TEHELKA continue to fight shy, constantly prevaricate  
when it comes to ‘judging’ SIMI in the ‘court’ of public opinion? Why  
is Sahi molly-coddling the “SIMI bravehearts” in his piece, Terror  
has two faces? Why Chaudhury’s helpless lament: “It is impossible to  
entirely know what SIMI’s ideology was or has evolved into….”?

“It may perhaps never be known for sure what SIMI’s character and  
activities before the ban was — or what it has been since, for that  
matter,” writes Sahi. Really? An hour’s Google search, a little walk  
outside the halls where the tribunal sat in different cities, could  
have taken Sahi to the conclusion that enough about SIMI is already  
known. There is SIMI and there are the investigating agencies in  
Sahi’s account. Because, a third party, the Indian Muslim is missing,  
the story effectively ends up making SIMI synonymous with Muslims.  
The very thought horrifies me.

“Scholarly Internet sites holding forth on the organisation do  
nothing more than parrot the charge of the intelligence agencies,”  
says Sahi. He surely couldn’t be talking of Irfan Ahmed, an  
anthropologist from the University of Amsterdam, who, beginning in  
October 2001 spent a lot of time in India talking to people from the  
Jamaat-e-Islami and SIMI as part of his PhD research? Or of Yoginder  
Sikand, who lives in India and who has spent long years researching  
and writing highquality books, papers and numerous articles on Indian  
Muslims, their institutions and organisations? Both are easily  
accessible, in cyber space.

In a significant paper titled, Erosion of Secularism, Explosion of  
Jihad: Explaining Islamist Radicalisation in India, available on the  
Internet, Ahmed wrote: “SIMI’s radicalisation unfolded in direct  
response to the rise of virulent Hindu nationalism or ‘Hindutva’… As  
the assault on secularism by Hindutva — culminating in the demolition  
of the Babri mosque and accompanied with large-scale violence against  
Muslims — grew fiercer, so did SIMI’s call for jihad.”

And here are a few quotes from his article, The SIMI story, written  
in 2006: “As Hindu militancy increased in stridency, taking an  
everincreasing toll of Muslim lives, the SIMI adopted an even more  
hardline position, calling for Muslims to avenge the death of their  
co-religionists by following in the footsteps of the 11th century  
Mahmud Ghaznavi, who led several attacks into India and is said to  
have destroyed many Hindu temples. SIMI activists put up posters in  
several towns appealing to God to send down another Mahmud to take  
revenge for attacks on Muslims and their places of worship...” What  
is obvious is that the radicalism of groups like SIMI, on the one  
hand, and Hindu fascist groups, on the other, feed on each other,  
both speaking the language of hatred.

At a poignant moment, Sahi writes: “As I interviewed countless  
Muslims so weathered, I couldn’t but ask myself, ‘What if this was  
me? What if it was my brother, my father in jail?’” My deepest  
respect for the sentiment embedded in this statement. My great fear  
however, is that in today’s India, while Sahi, his father and brother  
are reasonably safe, someone with a Muslim tag is not. The latter,  
therefore, had better beware of the SIMI label. It’s a label that  
claims to speak for him, its a label that can unfairly damn him, his  
brother or father.

Chaudhury worries over the fact that my article would reinforce the  
already existing “general Englishspeaking middle-class consensus on  
such issues”. I would urge both Choudhury and Sahi to ponder a moment  
over the fears of Indian Muslims. To quote Sikand again, “Muslim  
organisations… realised, as never before, that the aggressive  
confrontationist stance of groups like the SIMI could hardly serve  
the community. Rather, it had only made their situation as a  
beleaguered minority even more precarious.”

“Bigdi hai bahut baat, banaye nahi banti/Ab ghar ko baghair aag  
lagaye nahi banti” (The situation is so bad; no solution is in sight/ 
What else can one do, except set one’s own house on fire). Words from  
the inimitable Mirza Ghalib, penned in a different time, a different  
age. So apt, when we talk of SIMI today.

Notwithstanding how Chaudhury quotes me, for me, too, the credentials  
of the investigating agencies are highly suspect. So pending a  
verdict from the courts, we have no means of knowing whether SIMI is  
already walking its talk: armed jihad and martyrdom. But… let the  
English-speaking middle-class make what it will of my article. My  
prime concern is the Indian Muslim, whose already-tortured existence  
is rendered even more precarious by SIMI’s self-destructive, pan- 
Islamic hallucination. My concern is the conspiracy of silence vis-à- 
vis SIMI of Muslim religious leaders and the Urdu press. It’s a  
concern I share with millions of Muslims across the country. What a  
pity that even TEHELKA, a journal I hold in high esteem, does not  
know they exist.

(Anand is General Secretary, Muslims for Secular Democracy)
	

_____


[6]

MURDER AND MAYHEM/ORISSA: THE SANGH PARIVAR'S REACH FOR A HINDU STATE

by Angana Chatterji

Special Report, Communalism Combat, September 2008, Year 15, No.134
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2008/sep08/report1.html


'We are waiting for the next riot. We know that Kandhamal was a  
warning, not the end' (Christian labour organiser, Kandhamal, January  
2008)

'Orissa to Kashmir, we are one'. (Dalit RSS worker, Bhubaneswar, June  
2008)


August 2008
Following the murder of Orissa's Hindu nationalist icon,  
Lakshmanananda Saraswati, together with four disciples, in Jalespeta  
in Kandhamal district on 23 August 2008, Gouri Prasad Rath, General  
Secretary, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, VHP-Orissa, rallied: 'Christians  
have killed Swamiji. We will give a befitting reply', continuing, 'We  
would be forced to opt for violent protests if action is not taken  
against the killers'.

Reportedly, the shooting was carried out by a group of armed men.  
Immediately, without investigation, state authorities alleged the  
attackers to be Maoists. Condemning the spiral of violence, the All  
India Christian Council stated that 'The Christian community in India  
abhors violence, condemns all acts of terrorism, and opposes groups  
of people taking the law into their own hands'. The Sangh Parviar,  
group of Hindu nationalist organisations, held the Christian  
community responsible even as there is no evidence or history to  
suggest the armed mobilisation of Christian groups in Kandhamal or  
any other region in Orissa.

The Sangh Parivar called for a 12-hour bandh (strike) on 24 August.  
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as a member of the governing  
coalition, supported the Sangh Parivar's call to strike, and the  
Government of Orissa ordered that educational institutions across  
Orissa remain closed. Praveen Togadia, International General  
Secretary of the VHP, returned yet again to Orissa to attend  
Saraswati's funeral, and charged Orissa Chief Minister Naveen  
Patnaik's government with responsibility for Sarawasti's death.  
Subash Chouhan, recently rewarded through his appointment as National  
Convener of the Bajrang Dal, returned to Orissa as well, stating  
'Christian militants' were responsible for Saraswati's death.  
Hindutva affiliates asked the BJP to sever its alliance with Biju  
Janata Dal (BJD), and contest the forthcoming elections from an  
immoderate Hindutva platform.

As in the Kandhamal riots of December 2007, yet again, the Sangh  
Parivar and its allies prioritised extra-legal intervention in August  
2008, authorising its militias to mob violence in Kandhamal. On 24  
August 2008, Hindutva workers staged demonstrations across Kandhamal  
-- at Baliguda, G-Udayagiri, and Nuagaon, and elsewhere across  
Orissa, including Bhubaneswar, Balangir, Cuttack, Gajapati,  
Kalahandi, Kendrapada, Koraput, Sonepur, and Talcher. Churches,  
homes, businesses, and Christian organisations, as Janavikash, were  
attacked in Kandhamal, including in Baliguda, Chakapad, Dangsoroda,  
Kalingia, Muniguda, Narayanipatara, Padampur, Sambalpur, Talsera,  
Tangrapada, Tummiibandh, Srasanranda, Kanjamandi Nuagaon, Padangiri,  
Tiangia, Tikabali, and Phulbani. They targeted the Christian  
community, and churches, businesses, and organisations across 200  
villages, torching 4,000 homes. A Catholic nun from Nuagaon was  
reportedly raped. A 19 year-old Hindu woman cook was burnt alive at a  
Church-operated orphanage in Bargarh district. More than 12,539  
sought shelter in ten relief camps. Despite 'shoot-at-sight' orders,  
the deployment of 12 paramilitary units, 24 platoons of armed police,  
and other units, including the Special Operations Group, state forces  
were inefficient in curbing Hindutva's sadism. Following the death of  
Saraswati and his associates, officials record the death toll at 13,  
local leaders at 20, while the Asian Centre for Human Rights noted  
50. On 27 August, Christian organisations filed a Writ Petition in  
the Orissa High Court asking for a Central Bureau of Investigation  
(CBI) inquiry.

Reportedly, a Maoist group claimed responsibility for the killing of  
Saraswati and his associates. The Communist Party of India (Maoist)  
disclaimed liability. While this might be proven the work of a Maoist  
group, Maoists are largely not operational in the area, while Hindu  
communalist groups have witnessed an upsurge in recent years in this  
area. Hindu activists charged Maoists with the December violence as  
well. Ideologically, Maoist groups do not have reason to target  
Christians. While deplorable gendered, violent tactics are used by  
some Maoist cadre, disproportionate state/majoritarian repression, as  
Salwa Judum, fosters insurgent violence producing cycles of  
repression. State response to instances of group militancy lacks self- 
reflection on the ferocity of structural injustices fostered by state  
institutions. In June 2006, the Government of Orissa banned the  
Communist Party of India (Maoist) and seven affiliated groups, naming  
their activities as facilitative of terrorism, inciting Adivasis and  
'weaker sections' into 'violence' and 'disobedience'. The Government  
identified a wide variety of peoples and groups as 'Maoist', and  
Maoism as uniform and violent, omitting to make distinctions based on  
politics, ideology, and practises.

Hindutva's Entrenchment
Hindutva's violence continues to target Christians, Muslims, Dalits,  
and Adivasis in Orissa. Lakshmanananda Saraswati pioneered the  
Hinduisation of Kandhamal since 1969. Kandhamal first witnessed  
Hindutva violence in 1986. Kandhamal remains socio-economically  
vulnerable, a large percentage of its population living in poverty.  
The Christian community too is economically disenfranchised in  
Kandhamal. Hindutva ideologues say Dalits have acquired economic  
benefits, augmented by Christianisation. This is not borne out in  
reality. A majority of the Christian population, local Christian  
leaders state, is landless or marginal landholders, with an average  
holding of half an acre per family. Christian leaders said that the  
church does not convert under duress or offer money in lieu of  
conversions. In the 1960s and 70s, when there was a thrust in  
conversions, Adivasis benefited through accessing health care,  
education and employment offered by Christian missionaries. The  
politicization of Adivasis and Dalits leads them to claim that  
Hinduism is distant to them, 'outside' to them. This is dangerous to  
the Sangh Parivar's ideology which uses the notion of 'Adivasis as  
Hindus' to connect Hinduism across time and space and 'Dalits as  
Hindus' to maintain its numeric dominance. Politicized Adivasis and  
Dalits are named 'terrorist', 'Maoist', 'militant'. Hindutva rumours  
that Dalits are exploiting Adivasis and that land is a major  
contention between them. Dalits are posed as 'dangerous', as the  
claiming of the identity of 'Dalit' is a politicization debilitating  
to the Sangh Parivar.  Hindutva rumours that Dalits have acquired  
economic benefits, augmented by their Christianization. This is not  
borne out in reality, as Dalits remain landless - in Kandhamal,  
approximately 90 per cent of Dalits are landless. Hindutva rumours  
that the 'success' of the Dalit community is causing economic rift in  
the area and the success of Christian Dalits is causing  
communalization. In reality, it is the Hindu casted business  
community that maintains economic privilege/dominance in the area.  
Their economic power is however justified in the interest of  
maintaining and growing the ('shining' Hindu/Indian) nation. In  
Hinduizing Adivasis and polarizing relations between them and Dalits  
in the area, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashrams (VKAs), instated in 1987,  
reportedly engineered rivalries between Kondh and Kui Adivasis and  
Pana Dalit Christians in Kandhamal, instigating against the latter's  
campaign for scheduled tribe status. Dalit Christians, under current  
law, forfeit their right to affirmative action.

After Kandhamal 2008, Hindutva's discourse labelled Christians as  
'conversion terrorists'. Conversions to Christianity are inflated by  
the Hindu Right, circulating in retaliatory capacity even within  
progressive communities. Hindutva leaders rumour: 'Phulbani-Kandhamal  
is a most important Christian area in Orissa with rampant and forced  
conversions'. The Christian population in Kandhamal is 1,17,950 while  
Hindus number 5,27,757. Orissa Christians numbered 8,97,861 in the  
2001 census, only 2.4 percent of the state's population. Christian  
conversions are storied as debilitating to the majority status of  
Hindus while Muslims are seen as 'infiltrating' from Bangladesh,  
dislocating the 'Oriya (and Indian) nation'.

The right of individuals to undergo religious conversion is  
constitutionally authorised, unless under duress. Historically,  
conversions from Hinduism to Christianity or Islam have occurred for  
multiple reasons, such as being a form of resistance among the elite  
and as a way to escape caste oppression and social stigma for  
Adivasis and Dalits. Societal or Hindu 'feelings' about conversions  
to Christianity or Islam does not render these conversions  
inappropriate, invalid, or illegal. It is only in circumstances where  
conversions occur coercively or are undertaken with the intent of  
mobilising a culture of hate, as, for example, undertaken by Hindutva  
activists, that conversions must be disallowed.

Conversion strategies of the Sangh appear to be shifting in Orissa.  
The Sangh assumes all Dalits and Adivasis to be 'originally' Hindu,  
and forcible conversion is understood to be a 'patriotic'  
'return'/'reconversion' to Hinduism. Hindutva activists reportedly  
determined to 'reconvert' 10,000 Christians in 2007. But fewer public  
conversion ceremonies were held in 2007 than in 2004-2006. Converting  
politicised Adivasi and Dalit Christians to Hinduism is proving  
difficult. The Sangh has instead increased its emphasis on the  
Hinduisation of Adivasis through their participation in Hindu  
rituals, which, in effect, 'convert' Adivasis by assuming that they  
are Hindu. Such 'conversion' tactics are diffused and need not  
negotiate certain legalities, which public and stated conversion  
ceremonies must.

Accountability?

The BJD-BJP government has repeatedly failed to adhere to the  
constitutional mandate of a secular state. Hindutva organisations  
remain entrenched in twenty-five of Orissa's thirty districts, with a  
cadre of a few million. Lead by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh  
(RSS), the VHP, and the Bajrang Dal, there are over 25 Hindutva- 
affiliated organisations operational in the state. The Sangh  
Parivar's formidable presence in Orissa is aided by the BJP in  
coalition government with the BJD since 2000. Following the Gujarat  
genocide of March 2002, 300-500 VHP and Bajrang Dal activists burst  
into the State Assembly, ransacked the complex, demanding  
construction of the Ayodhya temple, with no legal and political  
consequences.

In 2005-2006, Advocate Mihir Desai and I convened the Indian People's  
Tribunal on Communalism in Orissa, organised by the Indian People's  
Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights, and led by Justice K. K.  
Usha, Retired Chief Justice, Kerala. The Tribunal's findings strongly  
warned about the formidable extent of mobilisation by the  
majoritarian communalist group of organisations in Orissa, including  
in Kandhamal district. This did not invoke any reflection or  
determination on part of the Government of Orissa or the Central  
Government.

The CBI must expeditiously investigate the activities of the Bajrang  
Dal, VHP, RSS, and VKA and apply, as appropriate, relevant provisions  
of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The status,  
actions, and finances of communal groups and their affiliates and  
cadre, and the actions of their membership must be identified and  
investigated. These groups must be investigated and monitored, and,  
as appropriate, requisite action must be taken and sanctions be  
imposed on their activities, and reparations be made retroactively to  
the affected communities and individuals.

The draconian Orissa Freedom of Religion Act (OFRA), 1967, must be  
repealed. There are enough provisions under the Indian Penal Code to  
prevent and prohibit conversions under duress. But consenting  
converts to Christianity are repeatedly charged under OFRA, while  
Hindutva perpetrators of forcible conversions are not. The Sangh  
contends that 'reconversion' to Hinduism through its 'Ghar  
Vapasi' (homecoming) campaign is not conversion but return to  
Hinduism, the 'original' faith. This allows Hindutva activists to  
dispense with the procedures for conversion under OFRA.

In 2003, Subash Chouhan, then Bajrang Dal state convener, had stated:  
'In the country, Orissa is the second Hindu Rajya. We in the VHP  
believe that this country belongs to the Hindus. It is not a  
dharamsala [guesthouse] and people cannot just come here and settle  
down and do whatever they want. That is not going to happen. We will  
not let that happen. Whatever happens here will happen with the  
consent of the Hindus. Whatever happens here, say politics happens,  
it will have to be Hindutva politics, with Hindutva's consent. India  
is a world power, what is in India is nowhere else, and we want to  
create India nicely in the image of Ram Rajya.'

The Kandhamal riots of December 2007 and August 2008 drew upon  
tactics used in Gujarat, including the utilisation of Hindutvaised  
Adivasis -- against Dalit Christians -- in December. Crowds carried  
rods, trishuls, swords, kerosene, and crude bombs. They used guns, a  
first in Orissa, weapons available in the market and makeshift local  
fabrications. Predominantly middle class caste Hindus participated in  
looting, destroying and torching property. They threw bombs to start  
fires. The breakage was systematic, thorough. Police action was  
delayed, permitting the Sangh Parivar to continue rioting.

The State Government of Orissa has been unconcerned with and  
incapable of dealing with these issues and the serious concerns they  
pose to democratic governance in the state, and of ensuring the  
security and sanctity of peoples and groups made vulnerable through  
majoritarian communalism. Political parties, focused on politicking  
the issue, are ill equipped to respond to immediate and long-term  
needs of people. The communal situation in the state remains at par  
with an emergency. The Kandhamal riots raise fundamental questions  
about state accountability in preventing violence and administering  
justice in instances of majoritarian attacks. The delay in enacting  
the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control, and Rehabilitation of  
Victims) Bill, 2005, attests to this. The Bill, advocated by citizen  
motivated efforts for the prevention of genocide and crimes against  
humanity, as introduced by the Congress Government, remains deficient  
in defining procedures for state answerability. How might we hold the  
state accountable for acts of omission that enable or continue  
communal violence, and incorporate adequate measures for bringing  
justice and accountability with regard to gender and sex-based crimes  
in the event of communal violence? How might we impose checks and  
balances on the state and its police and security forces, whose  
inertia and majoritarianist complicity in communal collisions have  
been consistent?

Unchecked cruelty instigated by Hindu supremacists enables Hindutva's  
brutalisation of minority and marginalised peoples in securing a  
Hindu state. Systematic disregard for the rights of minority and  
disenfranchised peoples by the Government of Orissa and the Central  
Government have gratuitously escalated people's experience of  
dispossession and disenfranchisement.

Angana Chatterji, associate professor of anthropology at California  
Institute of Integral Studies, is author of forthcoming 'Violent  
Gods: Hindu Nationalism in India's Present, Narratives from Orissa'.  
A segment of this article appeared in Tehelka newsmagazine.


____


[7]

The Statesman
11 September 2008

SECULAR CREDENTIALS UNDER FIRE

by Patricia Mukhim

THESE are trying times for India. The country is grappling with three  
emergencies having just got over the one in Jammu and Kashmir. The  
nuclear deal or non-disclosure about some of its tricky points has  
become an embarrassment for the UPA which now has to go into damage  
control mode. The floods in Bihar have resulted in total anarchy with  
epidemics adding to the already very grim situation. Orissa is in the  
grip of a communal riot that is fast spreading to other BJP-ruled  
states like Gujarat and elsewhere. In this critical scenario, which  
issue the government should tackle first and which to leave to simmer  
on the backburner seems to be the conundrum. It comes across that the  
events in Orissa are the least important.
Although Godhra today is only a sad memory for many and has become  
the stuff that cinema has drawn its inspiration from, it continues to  
rankle. Similar incidents are repeated with frequency in different  
parts of India. Jammu and Kashmir has seen a deep polarisation  
between two religious communities and the intransigence of both which  
revived with ferocity the slogan “Azad Kashmir”. That killings should  
take place in the name of any religion is itself a slur on that  
faith. Today the secular ethos of the Constitution stands seriously  
threatened even as the state is seen as either as a willing  
accomplice or a pathetic bystander, unable to control the  
conflagration as is happening in Orissa now. It took chief minister  
Naveen Patnaik a week before he visited riot-torn Kandhamal. Our  
perpetually befuddled Union home minister, Shivraj Patil responded  
only after some well-meaning citizens took a memorandum to President  
Pratibha Patil seeking her intervention.

In a country of India’s size and diversity, protests over various  
issues are inevitable. The murder of Swami Lakshmananada Saraswati,  
leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Kandhamal district of Orissa  
first sparked off a protest from Hindu fundamentalist groups. But  
before the law could step in to establish the facts of the case,  
religious vigilantism had taken over and is spiralling out of  
control. The Christian community was accused of killing the Swami and  
activists of the Sangh Parivar went on a rampage. The list of  
atrocities against Christians, have been documented and those are  
being widely circulated in an effort to build mass awareness about  
the chain of events in Orissa. It is also a serious attempt by a  
religious minority to draw the attention of the government at the  
Centre and the state to their failure to protect the lives and  
property of minorities not just in Orissa but across the country.

Religious vigilantism by any group is dangerous in a country which is  
so inherently heterogeneous in terms of its racial composition and  
religious persuasions. Religion they say, is the domain of the  
spiritual but when it is used to blatantly drum up support for one  
political party or the other it becomes poison. Once this poison  
spreads in the body politic containing it becomes almost impossible  
since politics decide the course of action that the government of the  
day takes. But incidents such as those occurring in Orissa and fast  
spreading to other BJP-ruled states should make that section of India  
which is largely secular and reverential of all faiths, speak up and  
make their point.

It does not speak too well of India if people of only one religious  
sect have to speak up against atrocities on their members. Where is  
the voice of sanity that transcends all religions? There are millions  
in this country who subscribe to the notion of peaceful coexistence  
and not merely by tolerating one another. This constituency of people  
who believe in justice, equity and fair play, ought to be built up so  
that in times of communal conflicts they rise to the fore and take  
collective, corrective action such as coercing the state to act in  
the right way. Why should Christians alone have to defend their faith  
and protest against atrocities committed on them? And why should all  
Muslims be considered potential terrorists without anyone coming to  
their defence? What about the large majority of law-abiding Muslims  
who, while they practice their faith, do not wear it on their  
sleeves? Surely there is a strong case for building an alliance of  
rational voices of this country. But such alliances cannot but  
collapse when communalism raises its ugly head. I am saying this  
because Gujarat has some of the best collectives manned by people of  
the highest credentials, but they could not find their voices when  
Godhra happened.

There are lessons that needed to be learnt post-Godhra but I am  
afraid this has not happened. Or perhaps it has in some ways,  
otherwise the spate of blasts that occurred recently in Ahmedabad and  
other places would have led to another bout of vengeance. Perhaps  
citizens are wiser and have developed greater equanimity and the zeal  
to not allow the economic bubble to burst yet again. Whatever it is  
that enabled people to rally round a cause, trying to resolve matters  
instead of playing the blame game deserves commendation.

Three of the eight North-eastern states of India have large Christian  
populations. Nearly 99 per cent of the people of Nagaland and Mizoram  
are Christians. In Meghalaya there are roughly about 60 per cent  
Christians while the rest belong to other faiths, including the  
indigenous Khasi religion (not Hindiusm). The Orissa unrest has  
created quite a stir in these states. Statements from the government  
of Nagaland and Mizoram have expressed concern over the inability of  
the Indian state to provide security to Christians as a minority group.

We have to admit that Christians in the North-east live in very  
comfortable environs when it comes to the practice of their faiths.  
They would not be able to fathom the pain of religious oppression.  
But they also have reason to fear the worst should a radical  
political party come to power at the Centre and deprive them of their  
minority status which allows the running of educational institutions,  
health care centres and other institutions of higher learning. The  
BJP member of Parliament from Karnataka, Sangliana, came to Shillong  
to campaign for the party in the run-up to the assembly election in  
February this year. He stated that the BJP was not a communal party  
as the tribals of the North-east and Christians were wont to believe.  
What he did not underscore is the undisguised and inextricable links  
that the BJP has with its extreme right-wing offshoots — the Bajrang  
Dal,the VHP and the RSS. The tribes are well aware that the BJP has  
its moderate faces but its agenda is determined by the Sangh Parivar.  
This is both a problem and a threat to minorities in this country.

But the Orissa incident also brings to the fore other issues in the  
North-east which tend to get diffused because of the silence that  
surround them. The tribal states of the North-east need to introspect  
how they treat the minorities in their backyards. It is no secret  
that Meghalaya has seen some of the worst communal clashes from the  
latter part of 1970 until the early 1990s. People of a particular  
community had to bear the brunt of these clashes. Many sold their  
homes at throw-away prices and left only with their lives. These are  
incidents that are no least horrific than the Orissa clashes. While  
North-easterners are a majority community within their confines, they  
are minorities outside the region. But they expect to be treated with  
respect and dignity wherever they are. How many times have we heard  
of protests against attempts at racial profiling of North-eastern  
students in Delhi! Similarly, non-tribals are a minority in the North- 
east. They deserve to be treated with equal respect as a citizen of  
this country and not as a Hindu or Muslim or Christian.

This is the only way to infuse sanity into a world that has gone  
horribly awry. It is also important to delink religion from politics.  
If we despise the BJP for its communal overtones, we would also have  
to exercise caution in the way we drum up political support by using  
religion or a religious denomination. This is not so uncommon in the  
North-east where directives to voters come from church pulpits.



______


[8]

Human Rights Watch Press Release

INDIA: ALL SIDES USING CHILDREN IN CHHATTISGARH CONFLICT
Rehabilitate Children in Armed Groups

(New York, September 5, 2008) – Indian security forces and Naxalite  
rebels should immediately end the use of children in the conflict in  
Chhattisgarh state in central India, Human Rights Watch said today.  
Using children under age 18 in armed operations places them at risk  
of injury and death and violates international law.
	
All parties to the Chhattisgarh conflict have used children in armed  
operations. The Naxalites, a Maoist armed group, admit that it is  
their official practice to recruit children above age 16 in their  
forces, and have used children as young as 12 in armed operations.  
Government-backed Salwa Judum vigilantes have used children in  
violent attacks against villages as part of their anti-Naxalite  
campaign. The Chhattisgarh state police admit that they had recruited  
children under age 18 as special police officers (SPOs) due to the  
absence of age documentation, but claim that all children have been  
removed from the ranks. However, Human Rights Watch investigators in  
Chhattisgarh found that underage SPOs continue to serve with the  
police and are used in counter-Naxalite combing operations.

“A particular horror of the Chhattisgarh conflict is that children  
are participating in the violence,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights  
advocate for Human Rights Watch and member of the research team.  
“It’s shameful that both India’s government and the Naxalites are  
exploiting children in such a dangerous fashion.”

Human Rights Watch urged the Indian central and Chhattisgarh state  
governments to develop a scheme to identify, demobilize, and  
rehabilitate both underage SPOs and children among Naxalite ranks.

The 58-page Human Rights Watch report, “Dangerous Duty: Children and  
the Chhattisgarh Conflict,” updates information on the use of  
children by all parties to the conflict, the harm they have suffered,  
and the adverse impact of the conflict on children’s education. The  
report is based on information gathered from more than 160 interviews  
with villagers, Salwa Judum camp residents, police, SPOs, and former  
child Naxalites in Chhattisgarh state.

Human Rights Watch found that since mid-2005 the Chhattisgarh police  
have recruited and used an unknown number of children among the more  
than 3,500 in Dantewada and Bijapur districts of southern  
Chhattisgarh. Most SPOs are recruited from indigenous tribal  
communities that have been displaced to Salwa Judum camps. They  
assist government security forces in counter-Naxalite paramilitary  
operations in the region. Many eyewitnesses of joint raids by  
government security forces and Salwa Judum members described seeing  
dozens of children dressed in police uniforms armed with rifles.  
Several camp residents recounted how police and Salwa Judum members  
urged them and other children to enroll as SPOs, and they recounted  
recognizing children who were school dropouts serving as SPOs.

In late 2007, the Chhattisgarh police admitted to Human Rights Watch  
that they had accidentally recruited underage SPOs, but claimed that  
they had since removed around 150 officers from the ranks, including  
children. While there is no evidence of new SPO recruitment since  
March 2006, both SPOs and community members confirmed that SPOs under  
age 18 continue to serve with the police. Several SPOs interviewed by  
Human Rights Watch said that the police had recruited them when they  
were underage, and boasted that they continue to serve at the  
forefront of dangerous armed operations. They were also unaware of  
any initiative of the Chhattisgarh police to identify and  
rehabilitate SPOs that were underage. None of them reported being  
asked to produce age-related documentation or having undergone age  
verification tests in the recent past.

In July 2008, the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs denied as  
“absolutely false” Human Rights Watch’s finding that underage SPOs  
were recruited by the Chhattisgarh police. This denial contradicts  
the Chhattisgarh police’s admissions both to Human Rights Watch and  
to government bodies such as the National Commission for Protection  
of Child Rights, that they had recruited underage SPOs.

“Police recruitment of children as SPOs has made these children prime  
targets for Naxalite reprisals,” said Becker. “Instead of vacillating  
between admissions and denial regarding their use of children, India  
should act to immediately conduct age verification tests for all  
SPOs, remove those under age 18, and provide them with education and  
alternative employment.”

Even after three years of their initial recruitment, the Indian  
central and Chhattisgarh state governments have yet to develop a  
rehabilitation scheme for those underage SPOs they have allegedly  
removed.

Naxalites in this region have recruited and used children for more  
than a decade. They deploy children to gather intelligence, for  
sentry duty, to make and plant landmines and bombs, and to engage in  
hostilities against government forces. They organize children between  
ages 6 and 12 into bal sangams (children’s associations),  
indoctrinating, training, and using them as informers. Typically,  
children above the age of 12 are recruited into other Naxalite ranks  
and trained in the use of rifles, landmines, and improvised explosive  
devices. Children in Naxalite dalams (armed guerrilla squads) are  
involved in armed exchanges with government security forces. Even  
those children who are not part of dalams are at high risk, as  
evidenced by an SPO who said he was instructed to open fire on a  
group of children, believing them to be a Naxalite street theater  
troupe.

“Naxalite use of children in the name of a ‘people’s war’ is  
completely unacceptable,” said Becker. “Naxalite commanders should  
release all children from their ranks, and take strict measures to  
prevent further recruitment, training, and use of children in any  
capacity.”

Children who desert Naxalite ranks and surrender to the police  
seeking protection find themselves in a vicious cycle. Not only are  
they subject to brutal reprisals by Naxalites, but they may be re- 
recruited as informers or SPOs by the Chhattisgarh police, under the  
garb of “rehabilitation for surrendered Naxalites.”

Human Rights Watch also found that the Chhattisgarh police have  
arbitrarily detained and beaten suspected child Naxalites. Child  
Naxalites who are arrested by the police should be treated in  
accordance with established international and national juvenile  
justice standards, and a separate rehabilitation program should be  
devised for them, Human Rights Watch said.

India is party to the optional protocol to the Convention on the  
Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.  
The protocol sets 18 as the minimum age for participation in  
hostilities, for both government forces and non-state armed groups.  
It also obliges the Indian government to assist in the rehabilitation  
of children who have been recruited and used in violation of  
international law.

The conflict in Chhattisgarh has also severely impaired children’s  
access to education. Once Salwa Judum began its operations in  
mid-2005, many children stopped attending school for fear of  
abduction. The Naxalites have destroyed many schools, ostensibly to  
prevent their use for military or Salwa Judum operations. Schools  
have been relocated to camps, where displaced children study in  
crowded conditions, many of them separated from their families. Those  
camp residents who want to return to their home villages do not have  
access to schooling facilities. Children who fled across the state  
boundary to Andhra Pradesh state seeking refuge from the violence in  
Chhattisgarh have been forced to drop out of school due to the  
language barrier in the Telugu medium public schools. Despite  
repeated requests to initiate bridge courses or a Hindi medium school  
for such children, the Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh state  
governments have yet to take any action.

Extracts from accounts:

“I joined the military dalam when I was 13 or 14 years old. I was  
studying in an ashram school [government-run residential school] –  
eighth standard – when Naxalites came to my hostel. I didn’t want to  
go. They said I could study until the 10th [standard], but I should  
go with them. … We got weapons training, learnt about landmines, and  
a little karate. … [Finally] I had an opportunity to run away. … One  
year after I ran away, both my younger brothers (age 8 and 12) were  
killed [by the Naxalites in retaliation]. They beat my mother and  
broke her arm. They burned our house and took all our things.”
– Former child dalam (armed Naxalite guerrilla squad) member,  
December 2007.

“The police asked me also to become an SPO [special police officer]  
but I refused because I did not want to become an SPO and commit  
heinous crimes. I did not want to shoot and kill people. … They do  
not ask anyone how old they are. Even 14-year-olds can become SPOs if  
the police want them to become SPOs.”
– Poosam Kanya (pseudonym), former resident of Errabore camp,  
December 2007.

“In Bhairamgarh, about 15 to 20 children dropped out of high school  
[after class 8 in 2005] to become SPOs – both boys and girls. I live  
in Bhairamgarh and many of these children also stay there. Now they  
are all SPOs. Their entire schooling has been ruined – they can never  
go back to school because they have discontinued education for over  
two years.”
– Government teacher in Bijapur district, December 2007.

[The report mentioned above is available at:
http://hrw.org/reports/2008/naxalite0908/naxalite0908web.pdf ]


______


[9] ANNOUNCEMENTS:

(i)

From: SANSAD <sansad at sansad.org>
To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:27:17 -0700
Subject: Hindutava Terror Against Christians in Orissa

Dear friends:

As we mentioned in the Announcement for the September 14 Public  
Forum,  a brutal Hindutava assault has been going on for quite some  
time against the Christian community in the eastern province of  
Orissa in India. Hundreds of villages have been burnt down, thousands  
of houses destroyed, scores of churches, shops, convents and hostels  
have been destroyed. Nuns have been raped and murdered. Priests have  
been assaulted. About 50, 000 people were forced to flee and hide in  
forests.

These matters will be discussed at the Forum:

Crisis for Minorities in India: Kashmir and Orissa

Sunday, September 14, 2008
doors open at 2:30 p.m., Program starts at 3:00 p.m.

Langara College
100 West 49th Ave.,Vancouver
Lecture Theatre A136A (across from the Cafetaria)


o o o

(ii)

Book Title: "India's North-Eastern Region: Insurgency, Economic  
Development and Linkages with South East Asia"
Author: Nishchal Nath Pandey
ISBN no:- 81-7304-777-4
Published in : 2008
Publishers: Institute of South Asian Studies (Singapore) and Manohar  
Publishers (New Delhi)

Brief Note on the book:

The seven north-eastern staes of India during the last six decades of  
isolation have braved enormous difficulties. Beginning with the  
impact of partition, liberation of Bangladesh, influx of people from  
outside and continuing conflicts based on caste, tribe, language,  
race and religion, there is also a flip-side to the bad governance  
and economic woes of the people of this region. Their geographical  
and cultural proximity with South-East Asian countries make the area  
to be of enormous economic importance in the future. This book argues  
how the region's trade with various neighbouring countries if  
facilitated and encouraged, and if efforts are made for greater  
convenience in international trade through the simplification of  
economic activities such as movement of goods, people and services  
across borders, the region can blossom to its full potential. But for  
this, the Centre has first to realize the urgent need to 'open up'  
than to 'lock up' the area in order to provide 'security' to the  
people. One of the first studies of its kind, this volume highlights  
in detail the north-east's central position vis-a-vis Bangladesh,  
Myanmar, and the rest of South-East Asia.

Manohar Publishers & Distributors
4753/23 Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi - 110 002, India
sales at manoharbooks.com


o o o

(iii)

CALL FOR ENTRIES HIMALAYAN FILM FESTIVAL 2009

The annual Himalayan Film Festival calls for entries for the sixth  
edition.

Date: 14 & 15 February 2009
Deadline: 1 December 2008

The general aim of the Himalayan Film Festival is to promote  
documentary cinema and to give credit to documentaries and feature  
films dealing with the Himalayan region in a wide sense of the term.  
The festival is meant to be a chance for authors to exchange their  
views at the screenings and following discussions.

The website www.himalayafilmfestival.nl has become an important  
source of information for the more general film festival who seeks  
Himalayan and Tibetan oriented film material.

Film and documentary makers who wish to have their movie or  
documentary screened should get in contact with:

Himalaya Archief Nederland
P/A: Dr G.K. Mitrasing
Hortensialaan 162
1702 KJ Heerhugowaard
The Netherlands
Fax: 00 31 72 5740492
e-mail: himalaya at pagina.nl



_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.