SACW - Jan 11, 2011 | Pakistan: Flight of reason / Bangladesh War Crimes / Sri Lanka: Extremism Road / India: Investigate Hindutva Terror

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire -  Dispatch No. 2693 - January 10, 2011
From: sacw.net

[1]  Pakistan: 
   (i) People Turning Against Taliban (Ashfaq Yusufzai)
   (ii)  Blasphemy laws and their serious implications (Madanjeet Singh)
   (iii) Salman Taseer's children on father's killing in Pakistan (BBC Interview)
    (iv) Flight of reason  (Aamer Khan)
   (v)  Justice for Aasia Bibi; Speedy Trial of Salman Taseer’s Killers (Statement by New Socialist Initiative - India)
[2]  Bangladesh War Crimes Trials: Seeking justice that Bangladesh can take pride in (David Bergman)
[3]  Sri Lanka: Unleashing Demons of Extremism (Tisaranee Gunasekara) 
[4]  India: Investigate the Hindutva Terror Network! Online Petition
[5]  Ethnic Tensions - North East India : Marginal People (Editorial, The Telegraph)

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[1] Pakistan:

(i)  

Inter Press Service

PEOPLE TURNING AGAINST TALIBAN

by Ashfaq Yusufzai

SOUTH WAZIRISTAN AGENCY, Jan 10, 2011 (IPS) - The Taliban once regarded as true jihadists here are rapidly losing popularity in response to their ongoing targeting of mosques, schools and innocent people.

"It is not surprising that the Taliban’s popularity graph is dwindling. They no longer enjoy the quantum of public support they had at the time of the attack on Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces," said Jamilur Rehman, a resident of South Waziristan and a student at the University of Peshawar.

Rehman hopes that the Taliban will soon vanish because they are rapidly losing local support. Quite apart from the horror of the atrocities themselves, killing women and children has also weakened the Taliban, he says.

Led by religious sentiments, thousands of people donated generously - and thousands of youths from Pakistan travelled to Afghanistan - to fight alongside the Taliban against U.S. forces in Sep. 2001. Millions of rupees were collected by religious parties in the name of supporting the Taliban.

Thousands of the youths still languish in Afghan jails, while hundreds have gone missing.

The word ‘taliban’ literally means ‘student of religious school’ but the now the word is synonymous with militancy, violence and terrorism.

The Taliban came to the forefront in 1994, and within a couple of years they took control of 95 percent of Afghanistan. They ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Most of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) population of 5 million in Pakistan welcomed the Taliban and provided them sanctuaries from where they later launched attacks against the Pakistan army.

They enjoyed unprecedented support which became evident when the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) - an alliance of pro-Taliban religious political parties - swept the election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal religious alliance won an absolute majority in the Oct. 2001 regional elections, after which it ruled the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces for five years.

The MMA leaders were staunchly opposed to the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign in neighbouring Afghanistan that had ousted the Taliban from power. The group believed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had become a tool of U.S. foreign policy and campaigned on promises to enforce Islamic law and for a withdrawal of U.S. forces based in Pakistan.

At that time the people were also on the side of the Taliban, and the MMA received 11 per cent of the total vote in 2002 - with 3,349,436 ballots cast in favour. In contrast, during the election in 2008 the religious parties alliance won only six seats in the National Assembly with a total of 772,798 votes.

"Killing of respected religious scholars such as Dr. Muhammad Farooq Khan, Maulana Hasan Jan and Mufti Farooq Naeemi further eroded the Taliban’s public outlook," Majeed Shah, a teacher in the political science department of the Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan told IPS. "The people who held them in high esteem are now cursing them because of their follies."

Dera Ismail Khan, one of the 24 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is home to about 80,000 persons displaced from adjacent South Waziristan and North Waziristan Agency where the Taliban have brought residents’ lives to a standstill.

"Our children cannot go out of our homes due to curfew and the continuous battles. Taliban don’t allow children to play and go to schools. How can we support them," said Jamal Akbar, once a strong supporter of the Taliban. Akbar, a shopkeeper in South Waziristan, said people were becoming poorer due to the Taliban’s activities.

"Attacking mosques and schools has deeply hurt the people’s sentiments and the Taliban are attacking both," said Wajid Ali, 25, a teacher at a religious school in Khyber Agency - one of the seven tribal agencies in FATA.

The Taliban have so far executed 54 persons who were convicted by Islamic courts, he said. Even women were not spared - the body of a female dancer was recently hanged from an electricity pole after she was slaughtered.

"On Monday last week, the hands of an innocent person who had a family spat with a Taliban commander were chopped off in Orakzai Agency in FATA," Wajid Ali said.

Before 2004, there used to be protest demonstrations whenever the U.S., NATO and Pakistan army killed a Taliban fighter, but after 2005 there is are no protests despite the fact that every week the U.S. unmanned drones kill about 50 militants.

"Militants have been burning mosques and holy books in the attacks," said Juma Gul, a former Afghan intelligence officer. On Nov. 19, al-Qaeda-linked militants burned a mosque in the Gerai area of the Gizab District of Afghanistan, where dozens of holy books caught fire.

"Last year 1,224 innocent people died and 2,100 were injured in 52 suicide attacks carried out by Taliban militants. This is enough to create an element of disdain in people’s mind against Taliban," said Sajjad Shah, a police officer in Dera Ismail Khan.

Islamic law doesn’t allow anyone to kill, injure or amputate the limbs of anyone without fair trial. (END) 

o o o

(ii)

The Hindu, 11 January 2011

BLASPHEMY LAWS AND THEIR SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS

by Madanjeet Singh

The proposed U.N. resolution, “On Combating Defamation of Religions,” is but a bid by certain countries to enforce Sharia law.

The 57 states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, led by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt, have proposed a United Nations resolution, “On Combating Defamation of Religions.” It is but a Trojan horse to promote a fundamentalist agenda and enforce blasphemy laws and other discriminatory pieces of legislation. It is intended to legalise threats and violence against minorities and other vulnerable groups, as Human Rights Watch of Pakistan has pointed out.

A euphemistic corollary to the proposed U.N. resolution is the enforcement of Sharia law. The resolution encourages Al-Qaeda terrorists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri who urges Muslim women to be “holy warriors” like the students of the two Jamia Hafsa madrassas that Abdul Aziz Ghazi had established at the Lal Masjid in Islamabad. Clad in shuttlecock burqas and armed with sticks, they shouted “ Al-jihad, Al-jihad” and went on the rampage. They threw out from libraries non-Islamic books, burned and destroyed music and CD shops, and dabbed ink on the faces of male and female actors on billboards. Schoolgirls were threatened that if they did not conform to the Islamic ways of dressing, their faces would be smeared with acid.

The trend is clear from the death sentence imposed on November 8, 2010 on Aasia Bibi, an unlettered farmhand from Sheikhupura district in Punjab province, and the shocking assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer on January 4, 2011. He had wanted to repeal the blasphemy law under which she had been accused and convicted. Her “crime” was to enter into an altercation with fellow-farm workers who had refused to drink water she had touched, contending that it was unclean because she was a Christian. She has been on death row for over a year, pending appeal to a higher court. Salman Taseer condemned the blasphemy law that bigoted dictator, Zia-ul Haq had promulgated in 1980, as the “black law”.

The dastardly murder of a secular and progressive Salman Taseer by his security guard represents the tip of the iceberg of terrorism in Pakistan. The assassin was showered with rose petals and garlands by hundreds of his supporters as he appeared before a magistrate in Islamabad and declared that he was “proud to have killed a blasphemer”. More than 500 religious clerics of Jammat-e-Ahle-Sunnat, a leading Barelvi religious party, forbade its followers to pray for or attend the funeral of the “blasphemer.” The “moderate” sections of the society did not condemn the assassination.

Salman Taseer personifies the halal of Pakistan's democracy that is painfully bleeding to death and paving the way for another military takeover, supported by Islamist bigotry. Salman bravely stood against the military dictator Zia-ul Haq during the Movement for Restoration of Democracy in 1983, and was subjected to horrendous torture in the notorious Lahore Fort where his uncle, the renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, was incarcerated in 1958. Salman Taseer opposed the imposition of Shariah law by the Nawaz Sharif government and was beaten black and blue by his goons, suffering multiple fractures.

Since the Pakistani military government of Zia-ul Haq unleashed a wave of persecution in the 1980s, violence against religious minorities has increased. Attackers kill and wound Christians and Ahmadis, in particular, and burn down their homes and businesses. The authorities arrest, jail, and charge members of minority communities, heterodox Muslims and others with blasphemy and related offences because of their religious beliefs. In several instances, the police have been complicit in harassing, and framing false charges against, members of these groups, or have stood by as they were attacked.

Balochistan's Home Minister shamelessly justifies the hair-raising horror of “Karo-Kari” as “mere customary punishment.” Several cases have been reported from the tribal region where screaming young girls were buried alive and stoned to death in conformity with Sharia law.

“Pakistan once had a violent, rabidly religious lunatic fringe. This fringe has morphed into a majority. It's the liberals that are now the fringe...Europe's Dark Ages have descended upon us,” wrote Pervez Hoodbhoy, Chairman, Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University.

(Madanjeet Singh is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. These are excerpts from his forthcoming book, Cultures and Vultures .)

(iii)

SALMAN TASEER'S CHILDREN ON FATHER'S KILLING IN PAKISTAN
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12157338

o o o

(iv)   

The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2011

FLIGHT OF REASON

by Aamer Khan

The writer is head of BBC Urdu Service

We published two photo galleries on BBC’s Urdu website last Friday. One on the Jamaat-e-Islami’s youth wing Shabab-e-Milli’s tribute to Mumtaz Qadri’s father in Rawalpindi and the other on the candlelit vigil in Lahore in memory of the slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.

As expected, comments started to pour in almost instantly. The most telling among them simply said: “Please compare the crowd in the two, for every Taseer mourner, there are at least 50 Qadri supporters.” If nothing else, it says a lot about the state of siege in which liberal opinion finds itself, as more and more people flock behind Mr Qadri, a cold-blooded killer who had been painstakingly planning Taseer’s murder for weeks before he struck.

Irrespective of the number of people who gathered for the vigil in Lahore, I am stunned at their courage in standing up to a crazed mob that neither understands its religion nor the man who brought it to them. It is a mob of moral cheats that has become religiously, politically, intellectually and morally so bankrupt that it seems to have convinced itself that its only salvation lies in baying for innocent blood.

Let us give ourselves some idea of how courageous the dozens who flocked to the vigil in Lahore really are. Since the glowing tribute paid to Qadri by lawyers at his first court appearance, we have been trying to contact the lawyer leadership that spearheaded the civil society movement only three years ago to bring down General Musharraf’s dictatorship. In that movement, millions around the world saw the seeds of a politics that Pakistan has desperately been waiting for all its life — a politics that flows from the combined intellect of the mobile middle class instead of dynastic politics, hereditary constituencies and endemic corruption.

Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed, Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Justice (retd) Tariq Mahmood became household names as tens of thousands of people rallied behind them wherever they went. For weeks, no political talk show in the country was considered complete without at least one of them in the chair. Since Taseer’s murder, they simply seemed to have vanished into thin air.

We finally managed to get through to two of them: one simply said that we are free to call him a coward if we want to but he doesn’t want to comment on the issue at all. The other one went even further: he said he would not even allow us to report that he was contacted for his opinion on the issue.

Predictably, Asma Jahangir was the honourable exception who not only spoke in detail about the atrocity against Taseer but was candid and unambiguous in her criticism of the legal fraternity’s sudden gush for a killer. But then, one has always known her to be one of the bravest women in the country.

Which brings to mind another brave woman who dared to bring a bill to the National Assembly aimed at amending some of the more draconian provisions of a law that has spawned nothing but injustice in the quarter century of its existence. Our crazed mob has distributed pamphlets advocating that she must meet the same fate as Mr Taseer. I am proud to have worked for her at Herald for six years. She was one of the bravest editors I know. Today, she has been forced into abandoning her public life by the tyranny of bloodthirsty criminals masquerading as religious zealots.

President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration has already surrendered to these criminals. It is pointless to expect him to fight this battle. However unfortunate as it may be for the liberals, they do not have the luxury to follow suit. They have to go on fighting even if their battle is far more dangerous than the one Pakistan has been fighting in its tribal areas for the last 10 years.

o o o

(v)  Statement from New Socialist Initiative (NSI), Delhi:

JUSTICE FOR AASIA BIBI; SPEEDY TRIAL OF SALMAN TASEER’S KILLERS

History is said to be made when humanity has tried to break asunder forces of unreason, irrationality, bigotry, intolerance and reaction which keep reappearing in newer forms in its onward journey. But what can one say when it tries to do the exact opposite, or prefer to go back on the path undertaken.

Pakistan, a country of 170 millions, stands at a similar juncture today.

A woman has been sentenced to death, for the first time in Pakistan’s sixty year old history, for an alleged act of blasphemy against Islam, an act which itself abhors modern sensibilities. All attempts by justice loving persons in Pakistan to stop the impending execution of this agricultural labourer, Aasia Bibi, who is a mother of five children and belongs to Christian minority community, seems to have reached a dead end. Whether she would ever be able to get glimpses of the outside world, free from the shackles which bind her today, remains uncertain. The story of her conviction under the infamous blasphemy law has been told umpteen times. We know how her troubles started when she had a fight with her fellow workers on some petty issue which culminated in their charging her under this law. She has been languishing in jail for around one and a half year now.

Under this law, which was introduced under the Zia Ul Haque regime in mid-eighties, anyone can be charged claiming that s/he showed disrespect towards founder of Islam or Quranic scriptures. Although nobody has faced judicial execution under this law till date, many have been killed by reactionary forces after their acquittal by the court. The act has been freely used to terrorise minorities or used to settle personal scores. Recently one Doctor Naushad had to spend few days behind bars as he had an argument with a medical representative and had thrown the said persons visiting card on the ground. The representative, whose first name happened to be Mohammad, went to the police and got the innocent man arrested under this law.

It is to the credit of the vibrancy of the civil society and presence of liberal voices in Pakistan that they not only opposed the judicial verdict in Aasia Bibi's case but also demanded that the infamous law is either repealed or amended. Sherry Rehman, a former minister in the Cabinet has even moved a bill in the senate to that effect.  Apart from sporadic protests and demonstrations there was a large meeting of civil society groups and political formations in December where they had planned joint actions in this month for its repeal / revision. As things stand today, these efforts to save Aasia Bibi’s life and seek repeal/revisions in the controversial law have received a tremendous setback with the assassination of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab Province, Pakistan, scion of the progressive intellectual/activist Dr M.O. Taseer and nephew of one of the legendary voices in this part of South Asia, Faiz Ahmad Faiz.                                                                             

Salman Taseer, had felt perturbed over the judicial verdict in Aasia Bibi's case and had even demanded that she be immediately freed. To show his solidarity with the hapless woman, he even personally went to meet her in jail with his wife and daughter and even demanded repeal of the law.

There is no denying the fact with growing belligerence of the fundamentalist forces in Pakistan, with few of the Mullahs even declaring Salman Taseer Wajib Ul Katl (worth to be killed) over his stand on the blasphemy law, few from the ruling dispensation gathered courage to support him. Despite his growing isolation within the party he refused to budge from his voice of conscience.

As already mentioned Pakistan stands at very crucial juncture in its journey. The manner in which his killer Malik Qadri was declared a 'Gazi of Islam' (warrior for Islam) by some fundoos or the jubilation which awaited him when he was presented in the Islamabad court, with someone from the crowd even showering rose petals on him, just goes to show growing hold of extremism in the society.

The only silver lining to the otherwise grim scenario in Pakistan is that voices of sanity, voices of tolerance, voices of reason and protest have not given up their fight; they have held candlelight marches, organised rallies in different parts of Pakistan in memory of Salman Taseer, and declared their solidarity towards the cause celibre for which he faced martyrdom.

The developments in Pakistan have been witnessed with glee by Talibans of a different kind, namely the Hindutva Supremacists in India, which have similarly tried to pursue their very own agenda of majoritarianism. As the maxim goes, reactionaries / bigots grow together, any turn towards further Talibanisation of Pakistan would further augment the strength of these fanatics here in India. We should not forget that the ascendance of these forces in India at the fag end of 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century was also the period when for the first time in Pakistan's history fundamentalist forces gained dominant position even at electoral level in two of its states.

Question naturally arises what needs to be done in this case?

It is of utmost importance at this juncture to declare our unconditional, unflinching support to voices of sanity, voices of tolerance in Pakistan. We should not forget that after Salman Taseer's assassination, Sherry Rehman is on their target and her life is in imminent danger.

We, at the New Socialist Initiative, sincerely feel that it may well be a very symbolic move but:

It is time to raise our voice for justice to Aasia Bibi.

It is time to demand that the infamous blasphemy law be repealed.

It is time to ask for speedy trial in the assassination of Salman Taseer and also bring to justice all those people who helped the killer Qadri.

Perhaps Martin Luther King' exhortation to the ordinary populace in one of his famous speeches is worth quoting here :

There comes a time comes when silence is betrayal… History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

In Solidarity with progressive voices of freedom, justice and equality of Pakistan,

New Socialist Initiative, Delhi Chapter.


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[2] Bangladesh:

New Age, 10 January 2011

War Crimes Trials
SEEKING JUSTICE THAT BANGLADESH CAN TAKE PRIDE IN

While it is true that there are people who want to undermine and de-legitimise the tribunal, many of those who think the process can be improved are deeply committed to accountability for crimes committed in 1971. They want to see a process that stands up to both national and international scrutiny and of which Bangladesh, and in particular the hundreds of thousands of families of those who died in the war, can be proud, writes David Bergman

 
THE visit to Dhaka this week of the US war crimes ambassador-at-large, Stephen Rapp, provides an important opportunity for the Bangladesh government to step back and consider the adequacy of the steps it has so far taken to bring to account those accused of war crimes in Bangladesh during the 1971 war of independence.

His visit represents the first-high level international intervention in Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal process, and reflects international support for the principle of accountability for 1971 crimes but also concern that the current process needs improvement.

For too long the government has behaved as though anyone who has questioned aspects of the current process, and suggested changes, are their political enemies or are against accountability of those who committed war crimes in 1971.

This is not the case. While it is true that there are people who want to undermine and de-legitimise the tribunal, many of those who think the process can be improved are deeply committed to accountability for crimes committed in 1971.

They want to see a process that stands up to both national and international scrutiny and of which Bangladesh, and in particular the hundreds of thousands of families of those who died in the war, can be proud.

They also realise that the closer the tribunal reaches international norms the greater will be its credibility.

According to the US embassy press release, the ambassador, who was formerly chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and at the Special Court in Sierra Leone, has come to Bangladesh to ‘share his experiences and perspectives on war crimes issues.’

However, state department officials have previously stated that he is likely to do much more than that and, as part of his intervention, will undertake a review of the law and procedures and the extent to which they meet international norms.

The ambassador’s visit was initiated by the Bangladesh government and this may well suggest that this time ministers are willing to take advice for change seriously.

It is significant that Rapp has a background as a prosecutor. Much of his recent professional life has involved holding to account those accused of serious war crimes; so, the government really has to take seriously what he has to say.

In the past, whenever the government received advice or criticism about the process, including from the United Nations, it has effectively turned away, and casually asserted that ‘the trials will reach international standards,’ without taking any of the relevant steps to ensure that this will actually happen.

However, if this time ministers do not make relevant changes, with the trials looming and with the defence convening experienced international legal teams, the tribunal—under-staffed and with limited technical expertise in this area of law—could come under a real battering.

It is important to recognise, though, that the foundations for a fair trial that will gain widespread international acceptance are present.

For all the International Bar Association’s critique of the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973, it did clearly state that the act ‘provides a system that is broadly compatible with current international standards.’

What has to happen now is for this base to be built upon, taking into account some of the key changes in international criminal legal standards and practice developed over the last 40 years since the law was enacted.

While some of these changes are about ensuring that the defendants have the relevant rights to a fair trial, they are also about strengthening the prosecution and providing rights to victims.

The ambassador-at-large will no doubt suggest to the government a number of amendments to legislation and rules of procedure but here are just two specific changes, which he may well put to ministers, relevant to the current status of the proceedings.

First is the introduction of ‘interlocutory appeals’, that is to say appeals against certain pre-trial decisions made by the tribunal. Under the 1973 act, an accused person can only appeal against his or her conviction.

The need for a system of interlocutory appeals has, for example, become apparent to anyone following the tribunal’s rulings on its detention powers.

The 1973 act gives the tribunal members the power to issue a warrant of arrest or to order a person to be further detained once that person has been ‘charged with any crime’ under the act. Not before.

However, the tribunal in July 2010 issued ‘rules of procedure’ that allowed the tribunal to order a person’s detention, without the person needing to be charged, if it thought this was ‘necessary for an effective and proper investigation.’

Following a challenge by the lawyers, the tribunal ruled that there was no contradiction between the arrest powers in the 1973 act and the subsequent rules, and ordered the accused men to be detained.

For important decisions like this—including decisions about bail, admissibility of particular kinds of evidence, etc—the lawyers should have a right to appeal. Ordinary Bangladesh law provides these rights for defendants accused of other offences, and these are standard rights in other international tribunals. But under the current 1973 act this is not possible.

Another legal change that might be on Rapp’s list relates to the right of an accused person to have a lawyer present during questioning. So far the prosecution has not sought permission to question any of the six men detained in custody. However, at a recent bail hearing, the prosecution argued that one of the reasons why bail should not be given was so that the person could be ‘questioned in the future’.

Under the 1973 act, when such a request is made, the accused will not have the right for a lawyer to be present. Yet, this is a standard right in international tribunals.

Since the right is not part of ordinary Bangladesh law, this may mean that those accused of war crimes will have a legal right not available generally to defendants accused of other crimes.

However, the upside to this would be that it will result in pressure for a change in the general law providing the right to all defendants. Improving rights in the tribunal could be an important legacy for the rest of the criminal justice system in Bangladesh.

Rapp should, of course, provide advice on not just improvements to the legislation and rules but also the day-to-day practice of the tribunal itself.

The tribunal has so far given around a dozen rulings but none of these are reasoned. As is usual in proceedings in other courts in Bangladesh, the tribunal’s rulings just set out basic summaries of the arguments made by prosecutors and the defence and then state the decision. There is no reasoning about why the tribunal has made a particular decision, why a particular argument is weak or strong, or more persuasive than another.

Another practice that could be improved is the manner of passing orders.  This may not seem important, but it relates to how the tribunal is perceived. Currently, within a matter of seconds of the legal arguments being completed, the tribunal chair dictates the order. The tribunal members do not have any time for reflection on what they have heard in court and there is no discussion between them. An impression is given that the tribunal has not fully engaged with the oral arguments and has already made up its mind.

There are a number of other aspects of the tribunal’s composition and functions that should also be reviewed. The government needs to augment its current prosecution agency. While it comprises senior trial lawyers, they do not have international criminal law experience or knowledge of comparative developments on war crimes. Adding to them some senior Bangladesh—and indeed even foreign—lawyers with knowledge and expertise of international law and proceedings could be critical at this point.

The manner of investigation could also be strengthened. To date, investigators often take statements in the full view of the media and give press conferences about the evidence which has been collected. This could result in the gathering of evidence that lacks credibility as well as leaving at risk vulnerable witnesses. Moreover, it would help for the investigation agency to have documents setting out the elements of the crimes that need to be proved. At the moment, they are operating in the dark.

The tribunal is at a crucial juncture. It is operating in a very partisan political environment in Bangladesh. Moreover, the six currently accused all belong to opposition political parties—five of them from Jamaat-e-Islami. While there are legitimate reasons why these six are amongst the first accused, it is easy for observers to conclude this is just another case of a government using the courts to bow down the opposition.

To ensure that this accusation does not stick, these trials must be above reproach.  The government—and the tribunal itself—must therefore take every step possible to ensure that these trials gain both national and international legitimacy. They must take heed of advice given, make the legal and procedural changes, and gain assistance from senior lawyers inside and outside the country.

There will be no second chance.


_____


[3] Sri Lanka:

Sunday Leader, 9 January 2011

UNLEASHING DEMONS OF EXTREMISM

“We must be horrified.” — Stephane Hessel, French resistance hero (The Alternative Information Centre)

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Development is the new Rajapaksa mantra but their development vision is one dimensional...”

Last week the Rajapaksa regime sold 10 acres of land located opposite the Galle Face Green, to Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, for US$125 million. Little wonder the brothers are rearing to evict 65,000-75,000 low-income families from Colombo. Quite apart from the overwhelming need to deprive the UNP of its last electoral bastion (ideally before the next CMC election), the lands occupied by these families are ‘gold mines’ which can be ‘developed’ and sold to foreigners, satiating, albeit temporarily, the voracious appetite of a cash-famished regime.
Normally state land is not sold (especially to foreigners) but given on 99 year leases. But under the ultra-nationalist Rajapaksas, prime land will be sold, so that the Ruling Family can make a fast-buck to sustain its money-guzzling habits (including the stratospheric defence bill). Far from being limited to Colombo, this ‘Sell Baby, Sell’ policy will be implemented island-wide, often to the detriment of local communities, including the Sinhalese. According to media reports, Shangri-La Hotels are interested in 100 acres of land in Hambantota while bidding is on-going for several islets off the North-Western coast. Soon it may be the turn of arable farming lands.

Behold the future

Development is the new Rajapaksa mantra. But their ‘development vision’ is as one-dimensional as their perspective on the North-Eastern issue. In the Rajapaksa worldview there is no ethnic problem, just Tiger terrorism; winning the war has solved all issues and Tamils no longer have grievances or fears requiring a political resolution (meanwhile in Jaffna, the disempowered inhabitants are being terrorised by a flash-flood of killings and abductions). The same flat-earthism characterises the Rajapaksa development-vision. It begins and ends with economic growth and regards growth rates and per-capita incomes as sufficient indicators of economic wellbeing of the people.
Social justice is thus rendered a non-issue, like ethnic-justice. Special measures to ameliorate the adverse effects of lop-sided economic growth are perceived as unnecessary, even damaging, as devolution. Perorations about agricultural self-sufficiency and knowledge-hubs notwithstanding, the Rajapaksas’ really existing plan is to turn Sri Lanka into an R and R land (rest and recreation) for wealthy foreigners (thus, for instance, the Casino Bill, the low priority accorded to social infrastructure and the obsession with physical infrastructure).
There is a hitch though; this strategy cannot but have a devastating effect on the living standards of the masses. This is why the President, in his New Year Message, exhorted the people to make sacrifices for development. But Rajapaksa, an astute politician, would know that his Sinhala base will not consent to make endless sacrifices for an elusive future, especially with the political elite enjoying the good life at public expense and in plain sight. So issues and events must be machinated, to divert and to unify the Sinhala base of the Ruling Family. Fudged statistics and events such as the Cricket World Cup, though helpful, would not suffice. The Rajapaksas would need more potent rallying cries and more enduring facades to cover-up the unpalatable realities of a ruthless and a jobless growth and keep the Sinhala masses ranged on their side. Thus the resonating calls to primordial identities and abrasive appeals to primordial fears.

Dangerous Trends

In the mid-1950’s the Sinhala Only impacted on Lankan politics with the devastating suddenness of a tornado — not because a Sinhala majority clamoured for it but because S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike needed an election-winning slogan. ‘Sinhala Only’ was confined to a sliver of Sinhala extremists, leading a precarious existence on the margins of the polity, until Bandaranaike’s endorsement brought it – and its vocal supporters – into the political mainstream. Bandaranaike had expected his SLFP to win the 1952 election but was handily defeated by Dudley Senanayake (the UNP’s share of vote increased by 4% between 1947 and 1952, despite the Bandaranaike-Challenge).
An astute politician, Bandaranaike realised that without a politico-ideological tectonic shift, he was doomed to lose the next election too. The left had a near-monopoly on economic-class issues; Sinhala Only was the fastest way out. Though Bandaranaike was intelligent enough to comprehend the dangers inherent in strengthening extremism, power-hunger prevailed. With his adoption of Sinhala Only, not only did he create a new and a deadly polarisation; he also partially de-economised class by giving it an ethnic (and a religious) veneer. He tied ethnicity (via language) and class together, creating a make-believe world in which the class struggle was between poor Sinhalese (and Sinhalese, excepting those supporting the UNP, were ‘poor’ according to this rendition) and rich minorities. The Pancha Maha Balavegaya symbolised this politico-ideological Chintanaya which became the new commonsense and created conceptual myths which still endure.
With the definitive defeat of the Tigers, the objective conditions which created and sustained ethnic overdetermination are evaporating. Post-war, economic-class issues are likely to come to the fore. This would sunder the Ruling Family’s Sinhala base and reduce its capacity to hegemonise the South. The Rajapaksas need to keep ethnic overdetermination alive, and if the natural conditions for its perpetuation have eroded, it must be saved via artificial respiration. Various ruses will thus be used to make the Sinhalese feel that their country, nation, religion, culture, values and way of life are at grave risk.
The resultant heightening of the ‘Sinhalaness’ of the Sinhalese will sharpen the Tamilness of the Tamils and the Muslimness of the Muslims, but this would leave the Rajapaksas unfazed. A genuine Lankan nation is not their aim and the heightened ethno-religious consciousness of the minorities can be used to exacerbate Sinhala fears to a fever-pitch. The purpose would be to burnish the Sinhala-Buddhist credentials of the Rajapaksas and to divert Southern attention from worsening economic woes and anti-democratic practices.
Last week Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistani Province Punjab was assassinated by one of his bodyguards. The reason was Taseer’s courageous opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. These blasphemy laws were introduced by the very pro-US military dictator Zia ul-Haq who used Islam to buttress his anti-democratic rule. He introduced a series of religious-fundamentalist measures (which would have shocked Pakistan’s cosmopolitan founder Mr. Jinna) with the blessings of his American masters, who regarded fundamentalist Islam as a key ally in their battle against the Soviets, especially in Afghanistan. The current plight of Pakistan is the direct outcome of this politically motivated embracing of religious extremism.
This is a lesson Sri Lanka cannot ignore. We have already lost our way once, and brought a 30 year war upon ourselves. Unleashing the demons of extremism again will retransform Sri Lanka into a hub of violence. Our collective self-interest alone should compel us to oppose the ongoing Rajapaksa attempts to ignite the fires of ethnic and religio-cultural fundamentalism to buttress Familial Rule. The unnecessarily divisive, seemingly illogical reversion to a Sinhala-only National Anthem is a signal of things to come as is the inane proposal to ban miniskirts and introduce a public dress-code; soon the anti-conversion cry too will return.
Let us remember that the Rajapaksas have a proven capacity to normalise the preposterous. Just one year ago, Presidential term-limit removal was dismissed by serious-minded people as a figment of overwrought anti-Rajapaksa imaginations. 

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[4] INDIA: INVESTIGATE THE HINDUTVA TERROR NETWORK! ONLINE PETITION [Please sign]
 
To:  Home Minister, Government of India

The recent confessions of the ‘terror Guru’ Swami Aseemanand before the metropolitan magistrate in Tees Hazari court have officially confirmed the existence of a network of terror affiliated to the RSS and its sister organisations. 

Civil rights groups have long argued that the security agencies deliberately ignored leads that pointed to the hand of Hindutva groups in planning and executing acts of terror. The agencies, showing their abject bias, instead chose to pursue the beaten track of investigating Islamic terrorist organizations such as HUJI, Let and IM—despite clear evidence pointing in the opposite direction. 

All important leads and clues were ignored or frittered away till the late Hemant Karkare’s prejudice-free investigations conclusively brought into the public domain the nefarious designs of Abhinav Bharat and its motley group comprising former ABVP activist (Sadhvi) Pragya Singh, serving army officer Col. Purohit, and RSS activists Sunil Joshi, Indresh and Swami Aseemanand. On the one hand the Hindutva trail was covered up; on the other many innocent Muslims were rounded up, illegally detained, arrested, tortured and chargesheeted for crimes they had never committed. 

While we welcome finally the Indian government’s belated acknowledgement of the heinous terrorist acts of the Hindutva groups we feel that a genuine probe must also perforce encompass a thorough enquiry into the terror nexus straddling Abhinav Bharat, RSS, VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal leaders together with sections of the Indian intelligence and security agencies who deliberately subverted the probes as well as the due process of law. It must also be investigated whether the network of Hindutva terrorists have been provided not just political but also financial and logistical support by various governments run by the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Karnataka. 

We the undersigned demand an immediate White Paper from the Government of India on the phenomenon of ‘Hindutva Terror’ and the true extent to which it poses an internal security threat to the country. The government should also seriously investigate the openly expressed sympathies towards ‘Hindutva’ ideology of certain retired policemen and bureaucrats as this is an indication of such sympathy within serving officials of the police, army and bureaucracy. 

We further demand the immediate release of and compensation to dozens of Muslim youth who have been falsely implicated in the terror attacks done by the Hindutva groups. 

All police officers who have engaged in torture, illegal detentions and forced custodial confessions should be suspended, booked and tried under the law of the land. Any promotions or awards they may have received for their role in these investigations should be taken back. 

All those who were accused/ arrested/ tortured must be provided a compensation of at least Rs 20 Lakhs each. The Home Minister and the state governments must issue an apology for the grievous loss of dignity and livelihood that innocents have suffered on account of the false charges foisted upon them. 

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Sign the Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/megha00/petition.html

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[5] North East India:

The Telegraph, 11 January 2011

Editorial

MARGINAL PEOPLE

Ethnic tensions require governments in the Northeast to act fast and decisively in times of crisis. The challenge is greater when such tensions simmer on the border between two states. The carnage on the Assam-Meghalaya border clearly shows how the two governments failed to tackle the challenge. Such was the lack of preparedness on the part of the authorities that killings and arson continued even during a curfew. Yet, neither Dispur nor Shillong could have been unaware of the conflicts between sections of the Garo and the Rabha communities living close to each other. There had been examples in the past of conflicts leading to widespread violence. It was tragic, but not surprising, that a sluggish administration could not prevent the latest violence that left at least four people dead, scores injured, and thousands homeless. Politicians have now made their customary visits to burnt-down homes and to relief camps sheltering the homeless. Peace committees comprising members from both ethnic groups have been formed. The curious thing is that the two governments did not think of doing such things when the tension was simmering. Politicians, on both sides, probably find the violence-hit area too far away and the people there too poor to merit their attention.

The first task for both Assam and Meghalaya is to provide succour to the homeless. With the number of the people sheltered in the relief camps rising almost daily, it is absolutely crucial that road links be kept open in order to ensure the supply of essential items, drinking water and medicine. The Assam government must foil attempts to block the road linking Goalpara to Meghalaya. A major humanitarian crisis could explode if the government fails to do this. Involving the peace committees in the task will be a huge challenge for the local administration. But there are more important, long-term measures the governments in the region need to work on. There are several other flashpoints on interstate borders in the Northeast. Assam periodically faces tensions and even conflicts on its border with Nagaland as well. Some of these conflicts are territorial and their resolutions require the Centre’s intervention. But the violence involving the Garos and the Rabhas was triggered by isolated acts of crime. It may not be the last of such tragedies if governments and politicians in the region ignore the warnings.


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