SACW Feb 7-8 2011 | Bangladesh: Milosevic's lawyer for Muslim Right / Pakistan’s nukes: How many are enough? / India CNDP on Jaitapur / Hindutva Terror / Dorothy Thompson / Nawal El-Saadawi / Gita Sahgal vs Amnesty Int. - Lessons

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire -  Dispatch No. 2707 - February 7-8, 2011
From: sacw.net

[1] Bangladesh War Crimes Trial: US lawyer 'denied entry to Bangladesh' (David Bergman)
     - Charge framing against Jamaat leaders Mar 14 
     - Milosevic's lawyer to defend Bangladesh 1971 war crime suspects
[2] Pakistan’s nukes: How many are enough? (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
    - The blocked elite (Nadeem F. Paracha)
[3] Pakistan - India: All talk, no play (edit, Daily Times)
[4] India: Courting Nuclear Disaster in Maharashtra: Why the Jaitapur Project Must Be Scrapped (CNDP)
[5] India - Human rights: From Commonwealth Games, Torture Law to Dr Binayak Sen:
   - Planned Dispossession: Forced Evictions and the 2010 Commonwealth Games (HLRN report)
   - Dealing With Issues of Impunity (Tarunabh Khaitan)
    - The Sound of Silence (Najeeb Jung)
    - Outcry over 'saintly' doctor jailed for aiding Maoist rebels (Andrew Buncombe)
[6] India: Communal Terrorism - Majority Minority Brands
  - Paradigm Shifts by the RSS? Lessons from Aseemanand’s Confession
  - Rising Muslim Right in Kerala 
[7] Miscellanea:
- Dorothy Thompson (1923-2011) : A Tribute by Sheila Rowbotham 
- Egyptian Feminist Writer Nawal El-Saadawi: "50 Pounds and a Chicken to Beat Us"
- Assange in Decisive Fight Over Swedish Rape Law (Andreas Lönnqvist)
- The Paradox of Partnership: Amnesty International, Responsible Advocacy, and NGO Accountability (Diana Hortsch)
[8] Announcements:
 (i) Public Seminar: Gendered Pasts, Masculinist Frames (New Delhi, 8-9 February 2011)
 (ii) Celebrating Faiz (Karachi, 13th February 2011)

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[1] Bangladesh:

New Age, 7 February 2011

SQ CHY'S US LAWYER 'DENIED ENTRY TO BANGLADESH'

by David Bergman

The Bangladesh consulate in New York has refused to give a visa to the US lawyer instructed to represent Salauddin Quader Chowdhury at the International Crimes Tribunal.

Salauddin is accused of committing international crimes during the 1971 war of independence and the ICT on January 17 ordered his detention in prison.

The delay in allowing entry to Salauddin's lawyer comes as the Jamaat-e-Islami is about to instruct a team of British lawyers from the barristers' chambers, 9 Bedford Row, to defend five of its leaders who are also currently in detention.

One senior member of this team, Toby Cadman, who has already visited Dhaka twice in four months, is currently in New York holding various meetings on behalf of the Jamaat including meeting with Stephen Rapp, the US War Crimes Ambassador-at-large.

Rapp, who recently came to Dhaka, is shortly due to send a note to the Bangladesh government on what changes he considers the government should make to ensure that the tribunal reaches minimum international standards.

The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, told New Age that despite the activity of local defence lawyers in instructing foreign lawyers, the government had no intention of doing the same to assist in the prosecution. 'The government is not considering the appointment of foreign lawyers. Our lawyers have enough experience,' he said.

Joe Cyr, a partner at the New York office of the international law firm Hogan Lovells, told New Age that on January 5, he first applied at the US consulate for a visa to visit Chowdhury.

'My application made it clear that I wanted to travel to Bangladesh to serve as Mr  Chowdhury's counsel with respect to the charges that are expected to be brought against him before the ICT,' he stated in an e-mail to New Age.

'The Bangladesh consulate in New York denied the application that same day. Later, they said that they had forwarded it to the foreign ministry for further consideration but, despite my repeated inquiries, I have heard nothing in response.'

New Age has tried to contact the foreign ministry to get a response but numerous calls went unreturned. However, it is understood that ministry officials have told the US embassy that the visa application is still 'under process.'

Joe Cyr told New Age that he considered, 'The failure of the Bangladeshi government to allow me to enter Bangladesh and to meet with Mr Chowdhury and others in Bangladesh in an attempt to provide him with an adequate defence is a flagrant violation of Article 14 of the [International] Covenant on [civil and political rights] and international norms relating to the provision of a fair trial.' 

Cyr's law firm Hogan Lovells has offices in more than 20 countries worldwide and employs more than 2,500 lawyers with revenues of about $1.8 billion.

Salauddin's daughter-in-law Daniah Khandker, a lawyer based in Dhaka, told New Age that although Cyr has no experience in international criminal law, 'he has very good litigation experience.'

She said that the family had made no decision about whether it would put together a team of international lawyers.

The difficulty faced by Cyr in gaining entry to Bangladesh contrasts with the situation of the Jamaat's international lawyers.

Toby Cadman has already visited Bangladesh twice, on each occasion meeting Jamaat lawyers. He first came in October along with his more senior colleague Steven Kay QC on the invitation of the Supreme Court Bar Association. In January, Cadman came to Dhaka alone when he met Steven Rapp.

New Age understands that the only obstacle standing in the way of the Jamaat formally instructing the British chambers is the level of legal fees that the lawyers will charge, but that this matter will be resolved soon.

'Instructing foreign lawyers is expensive. It has to be affordable for the Jamaat,' Abdur Razzaq, Jamaat's main lawyer, said.

When he was last in Dhaka, Cadman told New Age, 'Assuming that we are formally instructed, I and Steven Kay will in effect be representing those currently accused of war crimes full-time.

'It will not just be us. There will be a team of lawyers involved.'

The chamber has particular expertise at international criminal law. Steven Kay QC has defended those accused of war crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia in the international war crimes tribunals while Toby Cadman has been head of both the defence and prosecution wings of the Bosnia and Herzegovina war crimes tribunals.

"We will provide a full service. Our preference is to be given rights of audience so that we can present our arguments in court. If this is not allowed we will provide assistance to the local defence team,' Cadman said.

"We will also undertake defence investigations.'

Rule 42 of the ICT rules of procedure state, 'The tribunal may allow appearance of any foreign counsel for either party provided that the Bangladesh Bar Council permits such counsel to appear.'

The defence lawyers have not yet applied to the bar council for it consents.

Basset Majumder, vice-chair of the bar council, has previously told New Age that the bar council rules do not allow it to provide consent..

It is likely that any decision made by the bar council will be subject to High court litigation.

o o o

CHARGE FRAMING AGAINST JAMAAT LEADERS MAR 14
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=28318

MILOSEVIC'S LAWYER TO DEFEND BANGLADESH 1971 WAR CRIME SUSPECTS
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/135274/milosevics-lawyer-defend-bdesh-1971.html

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[2] Pakistan:


http://www.sacw.net/article1919.html

PAKISTAN’S NUKES: HOW MANY ARE ENOUGH?

by Pervez Hoodbhoy 

The latest news from America must have thrilled many: Pakistan probably has more nuclear weapons than India. A recent Washington Post article, quoting various nuclear experts, suggests that Pakistan is primed to “surge ahead in the production of nuclear-weapons material, putting it on a path to overtake Britain as the world’s fifth largest nuclear weapons power”.

Some may shrug off this report as alarmist anti-Pakistan propaganda, while others will question the accuracy of such claims. Indeed, given the highly secret nature of nuclear programmes everywhere, at best one can only make educated guesses on weapons and their materials. For Pakistan, it is well known that the Kahuta complex has been producing highly enriched uranium for a quarter century, and that there are two operational un-safeguarded plutonium-producing reactors at Khushab (with a third one under construction). Still, the exact amounts of bomb-grade material and weapons are closely held secrets.

But for argument’s sake, let’s assume that the claims made are correct. Indeed, let us suppose that Pakistan surpasses India in numbers – say by 50 per cent or even 100 per cent. Will that really make Pakistan more secure? Make it more capable of facing current existential challenges?

The answer is, no. Pakistan’s basic security problems lie within its borders: growing internal discord and militancy, a collapsing economy, and a belief among most citizens that the state cannot govern effectively. These are deep and serious problems that cannot be solved by more or better weapons. Therefore the way forward lies in building a sustainable and active democracy, an economy for peace rather than war, a federation in which provincial grievances can be effectively resolved, elimination of the feudal order and creating a tolerant society that respects the rule of law.

Pakistanis have long imagined the Bomb as a panacea for all ills. It became axiomatic that, in addition to providing total security, the Bomb would give help us liberate Kashmir, give Pakistan international visibility, create national pride and elevate the country’s technological status. But these promises proved empty.

The Bomb did nothing to bring Kashmiri liberation closer. India’s grip on Kashmir is tighter today than it has been for a long time and is challenged only by the courageous uprising of Kashmiris. Pakistan’s strategy for confronting India — secret jihad by Islamic fighters protected by Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella — backfired terribly after Kargil and nearly turned Pakistan into an international pariah. More importantly, today’s hydra-headed militancy owes to the Kashmiri and Afghan mujahideen who avenged their betrayal by Pakistan’s army and politicians by turning their guns against their former sponsors and trainers.

What became of the claim that pride in the bomb would miraculously weld together the disparate peoples who constitute Pakistan? While many in Punjab still want the bomb, angry Sindhis want water and jobs — and they blame Punjab for taking these away. Karachi staggers along with multiple ethnically motivated killings; Muhajirs and Pakhtuns are locked in a deadly battle. As for the Baloch, they are in open revolt. They resent that the two nuclear test sites — now radioactive and out of bounds — are on their soil. Angry at being governed from Islamabad, some have taken up arms and demand that army cantonments be dismantled. The Bomb was no glue.

Some might ask, didn’t the Bomb stop India from swallowing up Pakistan? The answer is, no. First, an upward-mobile India has no reason to want an additional 180 million Muslims. Second, even if India wanted to, territorial conquest is impossible. Conventional weapons, used by Pakistan in a defensive mode, are sufficient protection. If the mighty American python could not digest Iraq or Afghanistan, there is zero chance for a middling power like India to occupy Pakistan, a country four times larger than Iraq.

It is, of course, true that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons deterred India from launching punitive attacks at least thrice since the 1998 tests. India could do nothing after Pakistan’s secret incursion in Kargil during 1999, the Dec 13 attack on the Indian parliament the same year (initially claimed by Jaish-i-Muhammad), or the Mumbai attack in 2008 by Lashkar-i-Taiba. So should we keep the Bomb to protect militant groups? Surely it is time to realise that conducting foreign policy in this manner will buy us nothing but disaster after disaster.

It was a lie that the Bomb could protect Pakistan, its people or its armed forces. Rather, it has helped bring us to this grievously troubled situation and offers no way out. It is time for Pakistan to drop its illogical opposition to the Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty which, incidentally, would impact India far more than Pakistan. We need fewer bombs on both sides, not more.

The author teaches nuclear and particle physics in Islamabad and Lahore


o o o

Dawn, 6 February 2011

THE BLOCKED ELITE

by Nadeem F. Paracha

The problem with most middle-class political movements is that they know whom they don’t want, but rarely do they know what they want. This is the case as well in what is going on in Egypt and in other Arab countries currently in the grip of uprisings. Rest assured all these are largely middle-class driven uprisings, emerging from what is called the ‘blocked elite’ — i.e. an educated middle-class that feels it has what it takes to become a power-elite but its path is being blocked by a corrupt, unfair and autocratic regime.

Thus whenever this blocked elite does manage to stir up a movement, it is almost always focused on a single personality, and not necessarily the system as such. The rallying cry in the troubled Arab nations is against despotic individuals, but nobody has a clue what is to follow. The protesters, largely coming from middle and lower-middle-class strata of society have so far failed to produce their own organisations that can systematically suggest a political and economic plan and an alternative to what the hated individual symbolises.

Though such movements might be able to topple these individuals, they end up creating a vacuum that is often filled by political entities that may also be against the toppled individual, but their ways are not necessarily in tune with the ideals of politics and society of the middle-class. But the question arises, what exactly are middle-class ideals? In the classical sense they should be democracy, economic stability, good governance and the maintenance of law and order. But in the post-modern world such ideals have become blurred, especially in Muslim countries where the middle-class has largely begun to perceive democracy as something akin to populist chaos or a way for the West to impose its own political agenda and values.

The irony is that only a handful of Muslim countries have a democratic system in place, and the most organised opposition to autocratic regimes there is coming from the religious right. But in the last two decades or so, though the religious right has made a lot of headway in penetrating the psyche of the Muslim middle-class, people are still not quite sure whether to support the religious groups on political basis as well. The same is the case in Pakistan, in spite the fact that it is one of the few Muslim countries that has seen a number of democratic set-ups. Nevertheless, even here, though religious groups have made deep inroads into the middle-class psyche and this class usually airs these groups’ thoughts and anti-West rhetoric, it usually ends up supporting the so-called moderate conservative parties like PML-N, while the ‘masses’ (at least as voters) have always kept religious parties at bay by voting for various democratic and quasi-secular political parties.

But the vacuum created by even the most positive action by the middle-class in most Muslim countries remains. Two examples in this context can further strengthen this theory.

The first is the 1977 protest movement in Pakistan against the Z A Bhutto regime and the other is the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The movement against Bhutto was born out of the frustration the industrial and middle class faced due to the (democratically elected) Bhutto regime’s widespread nationalisation policies and its perceived favouring of Sindhis.

The frustrated middle-class which, till then was largely liberal and also had progressives in its midst, was not politically organised. For the better part of Bhutto’s regime a significant section of the young, urban middle-class aligned itself with the Jamat-i-Islami’s student wing, the IJT, on campuses and then squarely fell for the religious parties’ movement against Bhutto in 1977.

Though this movement raised Islamic slogans, it was really entirely aimed against an individual, Bhutto. Bhutto’s gradual weakening in the face of this middle-class uprising generated a vacuum that was conveniently filled by the military, that took over using the same abstract slogans used by the movement, and preying upon middle-class fears of political chaos. In Iran, the groundwork for what erupted into a full blown revolution against the Shah was undertaken by various secular-liberal and leftist groups, so much so that influential Iranian Islamic activist-scholar, Ali Shariati, borrowed heavily from leftist philosopher J P. Sartre and Marxism to attract middle-class attention against the Shah.

The result was desperate groups of middle-class Iranians squarely aiming against an autocratic individual, without any alternative plan as such — until the vacuum was filled by the organised political clergy who replaced an autocratic and corrupt monarchy with a faith-based and reactionary regime.

Today, urban middle-classes in Muslim countries have begun to shape themselves into vital economic and political entities. But as seen in Egypt and also in Pakistan, this class has failed to elaborate exactly what it wants as a political and economic system. In Pakistan it is somewhat repulsed by populist democracy, fearing that a popularly elected government too may end up blocking their upwardly mobile ambitions as does an autocratic one.

In the process this class continues to linger as a fragmented set of malcontents, willingly alienated from mainstream political entities, and thus, always susceptible in the end for settling for either the desired rule of an unelected technocrat, or worse, being hijacked by right-wing aspirations that promise them a check on populist masses-driven ‘chaos’.


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[3] Pakistan - India: 

Daily Times
08, 2011 	

EDITORIAL: ALL TALK, NO PLAY

The foreign secretaries of both India and Pakistan, Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir, whilst meeting on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference in Thimpu, Bhutan have, this time round, ventured something old, something borrowed, and something slightly new. Borrowing from rhetoric that has been around in the past, both foreign secretaries agreed that India and Pakistan need to resume constructive dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues between these decades-long rivals. This is something we have all heard before, and have also seen no real headway being made in any constructive talks between the two countries. Therefore, it comes as little surprise that no date has been set for the resumption of the dialogue. This reiteration of continuing communication should be recognised for being just what it is: a small step forward.

This is the first time both countries have once again raised the possibility of a dialogue resumption after the meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in Islamabad in July last year. However, it cannot be overstated just how important this dialogue is. When two nuclear-armed neighbours co-exist uneasily under an umbrella of suspicion and mistrust, it is indeed dangerous to stay away from talks. That was the situation that existed after the Mumbai attacks in 2008. India and Pakistan developed a stone cold silence, which was not breached till they met again in Sharm el-Sheikh in July 2009. Dialogue was once again given key importance in Thimpu last year on the sidelines of the SAARC summit, in the same vein as seen on Sunday. However, history and evidence suggest that both countries are merely fulfilling procedural requirements when they speak of speaking.

Nevertheless, there is something new in the equation now. The fact remains that both countries face the unrelenting threat of terrorism, one that is afflicting both from within. Not only that, there is a real threat of cross-border terrorism. Pakistan has the Taliban militants that it must contain and India has its own garden variety of Hindu extremists. The Samjhauta Express bombing, which killed some 68 people, including 42 Pakistani nationals, was initially being pinned on extremists from Pakistan. However, it has now come to light that the bombing was the work of Hindu extremist Swami Aseemanand, a leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who confessed to this and other terror activities. This revelation has put Pakistan and India on a somewhat even keel morally, with both suffering the same problems and looking for the same solutions. Cross-border terrorism cannot be ruled out, as extremists do not care about borders. It is probably this realisation, amongst other factors, that has brought India back to the negotiation table.

India’s stonewalling was also giving it a bad image, at home and abroad. By not moving forward with talks, India was beginning to look like an intransigent neighbour — not willing to solve the problem of terrorism with Pakistan — a stance that was giving it increasingly diminishing returns.

All in all, this reiteration of resuming dialogue is, once again, an encouraging step. India wants an all out strategy from Pakistan to curb the terror threat that haunts the entire region and Pakistan is looking for an end to the Kashmir quagmire. Kashmir is a stalemate issue and with militancy so far spread out, it is also not an easily solvable problem. It looks like both countries have once again met each other halfway. We wait to see if they can go the distance.

____


[4]  India: 

COURTING NUCLEAR DISASTER IN MAHARASHTRA: WHY THE JAITAPUR PROJECT MUST BE SCRAPPED

A report published by Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP)

(authors: Praful Bidwai, Bhasha Singh, S P Shukla, Vaishali Patil, Rafeeq Ellias)

42 Pages (PDF) January 2011

Report sections:
    * The Jaitapur Project
    * Displacement and Livelihood Destruction
    * Threat to a Unique Ecosystem
    * EPRs: Untested Reactors
    * Nuclear is Unsafe
    * Adverse Economics of the Project
    * People’s Resistance and the Political Context
    * The Bleak Future of Nuclear Power
    * False Promise of Energy Security

http://www.cndpindia.org/download.php?view.66
also at:
http://www.sacw.net/article1914.html

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[5] India: Human Rights


PLANNED DISPOSSESSION: FORCED EVICTIONS AND THE 2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
A report by HLRN released on February 7, 2011, at the India International Centre, New Delhi

Housing and Land Rights Network undertook a detailed fact-finding mission across 19 sites in Delhi from where the government forcibly evicted families because of the Commonwealth Games, for reasons ranging from construction of infrastructure to ‘security’ and ‘city beautification.’ Based on field work and research, HLRN estimates that since 2004, at least 200,000 people in Delhi have been forcibly evicted as a result of the CWG. The city, however, witnessed many more demolitions and evictions in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games. Thr HLRN report uses national and international law and guidelines, in particular the United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement, to analyse the forced evictions in Delhi.

see full text of the Press Release
http://bit.ly/el0kzR

o o o

DEALING WITH ISSUES OF IMPUNITY
by Tarunabh Khaitan
http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/08/stories/2011020854861100.htm

o o o

The Times of India
Feb 1, 2011

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

by Najeeb Jung

The incarceration of Binayak Sen reminded me of the sophist philosopher Thrasymachus’s definition of justice in Plato’s Republic.  Challenged by Socrates to define justice he says: “I proclaim that might is right, and justice is in the interest of the stronger…The different forms of government make laws, democratic, aristocratic, or autocratic, with a view to their respective interests; and these laws, so made by them to serve their interests, they deliver to their subjects as ‘justice’, and punish as ‘unjust’ anyone who transgresses them.”
This is the nature of justice meted out to Sen who has spent a lifetime working among the adivasis of Chhattisgarh. Sen is the national vice-president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties and general secretary of its Chhattisgarh unit. As an activist, he has time and again spoken against state imperialism in the context of the people living in the forests of Chhattisgarh.
Not many in the cities are fully aware of the harsh life in these areas. The truth is that the adivasis who are the original inhabitants of these forests are steadily being ousted from their habitat. With their beliefs and culture repeatedly challenged, they are left with three stark choices. One, to fall in line, grab some peripheral reservations in jobs offered by the state, learn to tolerate the perpetual harassment and exploitation of their women and watch their culture destroyed in the name of development. Two, seek shelter deeper into the forests, and wait for the forest guards and rangers, aided by insensitive revenue officials, to slowly catch up and destroy their huts, crops and drive them away again. Or, three, stand up and protest against state oppression.
Over the past century, the adivasis of India living in a wide arc spreading across the northeast, 24 Parganas, parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have sacrificed in the cause of development. Each time a steel city sprang up, starting from Jamshedpur to Durgapur to Rourkela and Bhilai, local residents lost a great deal. Every time a new plant came up, lands belonging to the local residents were acquired at a pittance. While some of the able-bodied became factory workers, the majority of men and women lost out. Adivasis who lived in the forests and protected the flora and fauna for centuries were told that the land and forest belonged to the state. Resistance has been ruthlessly crushed, a perpetual reminder of their social backwardness, feeble political voice and inability to be heard.
Local government officials and petty contractors seeped in corruption and insensitive to local cultural traditions have presided over the interior hinterlands and deprived these areas of even basic infrastructure like roads, drinking water, schools, small irrigation facilities or markets where local products can sell at a profit.
Is it not strange that a state – which allows a Phoolan Devi to be a member of the Lok Sabha; negotiates truces and offers amnesty to dacoits and terrorists to buy peace; fails to try the accused in communal riots; is unable to prevent gender or caste atrocities; is inept at combating corruption within politics, industry, civil service and indeed the judiciary – endeavours to shut out voices that speak in favour of preserving local culture, protecting the rights of the tiller, protest against exploitation, corruption and lack of basic infrastructure? How is it that this land of the Buddha, Mahavira and Gandhi now turns a blind eye and deaf ear to the thousands of farmers who commit suicide in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh?  Is it then surprising that so many youth, not just the adivasis of Chhattisgarh, are losing faith in the nature of the present state?
Sen has, on several occasions, said that he does not support violence.  At the same time, he has strongly spoken against the harsh and illegal activities of the salwa judum that he believes is splitting adivasi society. The salwa judum is an illegal body of thugs that has been formed at the behest of government to “handle” the adivasis who speak against it. Sen has been in touch with Narayan Sanyal, a jailed Marxist ideologue, but this has always been with the formal permission, and in the presence, of the jail authorities. Does this warrant a charge of sedition and life imprisonment? It is reported that he carried letters to the Maoists from Sanyal. These letters need to be published to expose the crudity of the trumped up charges.
Add to this the statement of the director-general of Chhattisgarh police who said his belief is that “dalit movements, women’s empowerment movements, human rights movements, environmental protection movements” are all suspect because Naxalites want to penetrate and hijack “movements not linked with CPI(Maoist)”. Are these statements acceptable coming from the senior-most echelons of civil administration?
Iqbal once said: “Jis khet se dehkan ko mayyassar nahi roti, Us khet ke har gosha-e-gandum ko jalaa do” (burn every stalk of grain from the fields that cannot provide food to the tiller). Naxalism is a shrill alarm of what the future holds and indeed a hint that India Inc travel beyond the glamour of rapid GDP growth towards a state where people are able to participate more and get a greater share of the fruits of its growth.

The writer is vice-chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia.

o o o

The Independent, 7 February 2011

OUTCRY OVER 'SAINTLY' DOCTOR JAILED FOR AIDING MAOIST REBELS

Binayak Sen was given life with hard labour, but his supporters say the evidence against him was fabricated. Andrew Buncombe reports

To the tribal people of this part of central India, Dr Binayak Sen is little less than a deity, a qualified doctor who turned his back on a life of ease and devoted his years to helping those with nothing. He set up a clinic deep in the jungle, distributed food and worked tirelessly as a defender of human rights.

Yet the authorities in Chhattisgarh believe the doctor is a public enemy with few equals. He is someone, they say, who conspired with leftist rebels who sought to undermine the very foundations of the Indian state. In late December, after a trial that lasted more than two years, the doctor was found guilty of sedition, a draconian charge dating to the days of British colonial rule, and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.

The conviction of the 61-year-old reverberated sharply and received widespread condemnation from people who said the case highlighted the limitations of dissent in a country where free speech is celebrated and supposedly protected by the constitution. His supporters say the evidence against him was fabricated and that he was made an example of because he had highlighted atrocities carried out against tribal people who were deemed to be standing in the way of development.

Now, a group led by Sen's wife, Ilina, is trying to overturn the conviction and have the doctor released from his maximum-security cell. The first test will come on Wednesday, when his legal team, which includes one of the country's most high-profile lawyers, will ask a court to grant him bail. Across India, activists, the legal community as well as the authorities, will be watching what has become a landmark case. "It was such a vicious and vengeful sentence. Gandhi was only sentenced to three years [when he was convicted of sedition]," said his wife, herself a physician who worked beside her husband. "It was a sad day for me, my family and for the state of India's constitution."

Ganga Nand and his family have no doubts about Binayak Sen. Today, the 18-year-old is a healthy young man who works beside his father in the fields surrounding Bagrumnala. But as a child, he was constantly getting ill, had no energy and failed to keep up with his friends when they ran and played. It was Sen who suspected the boy might have a faulty heart and who accompanied the family to Delhi where he had arranged for the boy to undergo surgery. It was he who paid for the operation and counselled Ganga's anxious parents, reassuring them that everything would work out.

"I was always coughing and getting a fever. Last year I left school and now I am working," he said, unbuttoning a pale blue shirt to reveal the ridged scars left by his surgery. "Dr Sen is an extraordinary man, maybe like a god. I hope he gets bail. I feel so bad. What they have done is wrong."

Ganga's mother, Prem Bai, was among a number of villagers who protested when the doctor was first charged. "We don't know why he was arrested but we do know he was a good man – Dr Ilina too. Now the clinic feels lonely."

There are many similar testimonials in this village, set amid quiet forest three hours south of Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, stories of people whom the Sens helped treat for diabetes and fevers in the simple clinic with whitewashed walls and a red-tiled roof they established in 1995. Villagers recall how the doctors and an NGO they ran distributed free food, built a school and gave health advice to villagers from more than 30 miles around.

They are unsure precisely why a top-ranking graduate of the celebrated Christian Medical College in Vellore would wish to bring his wife to work in a jungle where malnutrition and malaria were rife and where there was not even electricity. But they are glad that he did. "After he was sent to jail, many villagers were crying," said another farmer, Bisau Ram, as chickens pecked in the dirt and the school bell clanged.

During his time in the jungle, Binayak Sen did more than work as a doctor. As a senior member of the state chapter of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a respected organisation founded during the dark months of Indira Gandhi's state of emergency, he was outspoken in his defence of the rights of tribal people. In particular, he highlighted atrocities committed by police and paramilitaries involved in operations against Maoist rebels, or Naxalites, who had established strongholds in the south of the state.

One of the PUCL's most damning reports concerned the so-called Salwa Judum, an anti-Naxal militia that the authorities claimed was a grass-roots response to the rebels but which the campaigners said was in truth funded and organised by the state. The report on the PUCL was entitled "Where the state makes war on its own people". Highlighting the poverty, repression and hardship endured by the tribal people in southern Chhattisgarh, it concluded: "There is the conspicuous absence of any attempt by the government to understand the context of what are the genuine problems of the people of the region, and why and how Maoists took roots here."

Yet the state authorities claim Sen did more than simply campaign for the rights of tribal people in "Naxal-infested" areas; they allege he assisted the rebels. In particular, they said that while visiting a senior Naxal leader in jail for the PUCL, Sen passed on messages to his followers. In 2007, the doctor was arrested and charged with sedition under section 124A of the Indian penal code, which prohibits any action that may cause "hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection", towards the government.

The decision to charge Sen with sedition was authorised by Chhattisgarh's police chief, Vishwa Ranjan, a man with a talent for poetry, a passion for history and a professed commitment to the constitution, despite his habit of chain-smoking in his office in defiance of a ban on smoking in public places. Mr Ranjan is also the author of Project Green Hunt, a controversial anti-Naxal operation in Chhattisgarh that he claims has been successful in countering the rebels, despite setbacks such as last year's ambush of paramilitaries in which 75 troops lost their lives. He said the Naxals deserved their description by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's largest internal security threat because they alone sought the destruction of the state.

Asked if he believed Sen was a Naxal, he said: "If a person is a supporter of a politburo member of the Maoists.... People say Binayak Sen cannot be a Naxal because he is a social worker, but people are multi-faceted. I would not be surprised if a person who is a very good social worker can also be a Naxal. Man is very complex. I would not have charge-sheeted him [if there was not the evidence]. I have to be satisfied there is prima facie evidence. That is where my job stops."

Campaigners were appalled at the doctor's conviction. His legal team questioned the prosecution evidence, which depended a lot on uncorroborated testimony from police officers. They also said even if the evidence had been genuine, it did not warrant a charge of sedition; in 1962, the country's Supreme Court ruled that for someone to be found guilty of sedition they had to have incited violence, something Sen is not accused of. "The accusation [of sedition] is so absurd," said Ram Jethmalani, a veteran lawyer and member of the upper chamber of India's parliament who is spearheading the appeal. "The judge did not know the meaning of the word sedition. Ultimately I have no doubt this conviction will be set aside."

The case against the 2008 winner of the Jonathan Mann Award for health rights, has re-sparked heated debate in India about the way in which tribal land is being seized for development by private corporations, sometimes in apparently illegal circumstances. It has also led some to question the country's commitment to defending free speech on the most sensitive of issues, such as Kashmir and Naxalism. Police in Delhi investigated possible sedition charges against the writer Arundhati Roy and others last year after she questioned whether Kashmir had historically been an "integral" part of India. The inquiry was eventually dropped. Other intellectuals have been arrested and harassed. "Peacefully speaking out against human rights violations is at the heart of free speech, not sedition," said Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch. "The repeated misuse of the sedition law should be brought to a stop."

Activists in Chhattisgarh, where officials dismiss international condemnation of Sen's conviction as complaints by people who "do not even know how to spell Chhattisgarh", say his arrest and prosecution follows a pattern. Campaigners have recently compiled a list for the UN Special Rapporteur of many activists there who have been harassed or arrested. Journalists have suffered harassment, intimidation and even death threats.

Some have been forced to flee for their lives. Himanshu Kumar, a rights activist who ran a project helping tribal people in southern Chhattisgarh, left last summer after his premises were demolished. "The authorities are not following any rules or laws and they don't want anyone from outside to highlight it," he recently said, opening the door to his apartment in a tower block on the fringes of Delhi that is now home to him and family. "Dr Sen was never a Naxal."

As the doctor's legal team prepares its case for this week, Sen's wife is anxious. During almost 30 years working together for human rights, first with trade unionists and later with the tribal people, she said they never felt they had made the wrong choice. It was, she said, "a rich experience".

Now she is bitterly worried about her husband, and how he will manage if the appeal process is dragged out. "At the moment, he is managing [to keep busy] with his books and by working on the case. But if this settles into a long haul then it will be much more difficult. It will be hard to keep his morale up," she said. Dr Sen said her husband was confined to a small cell, and was allowed out for just a couple of hours a day. News of his case was blacked out of any newspaper he received and he was allowed one visitor every 15 days. "It's very hard to survive in those conditions."

The Maoist threat

India's Maoist insurgency dates back four decades, has cost thousands of lives and is active in a third of the country's 600 districts. And yet the rebels that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as the nation's biggest internal security threat receive minimal international attention.

The rebels, also known as the Naxalites because of their involvement in an armed uprising in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari in 1967, make clear their desire to overthrow the Indian state. Across a swathe of central and eastern India, the rebels are active in a so-called "Red Corridor" that stretches from Orissa to Andhra Pradesh.

The Maoists' hardcore members are often urban intellectuals, from several cities in the south. Yet they draw support and membership – sometimes forcibly so – from tribal communities, who have long been neglected by the central authorities. Development has seen increasing confrontations as tribal land is acquired for industrial or mining projects, the Naxals have presented themselves as defenders of tribal rights.

While some efforts have been made to negotiate with the Maoists, the authorities have increasingly responded with force and brutality.

There have been many allegations of so-called fake encounters, with innocent tribal people being killed. These operations have also seen a crack-down on human rights defenders and activists, who are often labelled Maoist "sympathisers" in an apparent attempt to stifle dissent.

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[6] India: Terrorism - Majority Minority Brands

The Economic and Political Weekly, February 05 - February 11, 2011

PARADIGM SHIFTS BY THE RSS? LESSONS FROM ASEEMANAND’S CONFESSION
by Christophe Jaffrelot, Malvika Maheshwari

In the long run, the ongoing developments on the involvement of Hindu fundamentalists in terrorist acts are disastrous not only for India but possibly for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as well. India, whose democratic image is still a key element of its soft power, will have to restore the credibility of its rule of law and of its agencies which were initially quick to identify the wrong men as guilty because of deep-rooted prejudice and the growing ideology of majoritarianism.

http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/15683.pdf

RISING MUSLIM RIGHT IN KERALA 
http://bit.ly/dKA6gz

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[7] MISCELLANEA:

The Guardian
February 7 2011

INNOVATIVE HISTORIAN WHO FOCUSED ON THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT

by Sheila Rowbotham

The historian Dorothy Thompson, who has died aged 87, was best known for her writing on the social and cultural aspects of the 19th-century Chartist movement. Her interest in the struggle of workers and women for rights had been awakened during her school days in suburban Bromley, Kent, when she was active in a communist youth group, and was deepened by her long engagement in radical politics. As a result she brought a complex understanding of the process of organising to her historical work.

Ever alert, Dorothy probed beneath the outer surface of evidence. The results were innovatory. The documents she edited in The Early Chartists (1971) brought to life the intense and dangerous interior world of working-class meetings, conventions and newspapers, while The Chartists (1984) revealed greatly neglected areas such as middle-class involvement, women's role and schemes for land settlements. Her collection Outsiders: Class, Gender and Nation (1993) demonstrated a mix of exacting scholarship and conceptual clarity which led to her being admired by specialists and grateful A-level history students alike.

She was born Dorothy Towers in Greenwich, south-east London. From 1942 she studied history at Girton College, Cambridge, where she was active in the Communist party and attended meetings of the Communist party historians' group. In 1945 she began a lifelong love affair with a fellow historian, Edward Palmer (EP) Thompson. After helping to build the railroad in Tito's Yugoslavia, they married and settled in Halifax, West Yorkshire, where they taught in extramural adult education. Dorothy's first organisational endeavour was a campaign to keep wartime nurseries open in the late 1940s.

In 1956 she was part of the dissenting group in the Communist party which set up the socialist humanist journal the New Reasoner. Characteristically, her competence meant she was designated "business manager", though she also read through submitted manuscripts. The break with the Communist party was painful, but it also brought hope in the creation of a new left. Dorothy worked with the writers, artists, historians and trade unionists who were forming the new left clubs in many towns. Among those she admired were the Scottish miners' champion Lawrence Daly [http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/30/obituary-lawrence-daly" title="Lawrence Daly] and the clothing worker Gertie Roche.

I met Dorothy in the early 1960s. Discussing history and ideas with her influenced me profoundly and I was intrigued to meet a woman who was a mother as well as an activist and intellectual. She had put aside her historical writing because she had three children, but she continued to teach in adult education and was active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Refusing to give up on the possibility of a new left network, she helped to draft the May Day Manifesto, which was published by Penguin in 1968. Later, in 1980, she helped to organise yet another attempt to bring the left together, the Leeds conference of grassroots movements which gathered after the publication of Beyond the Fragments, to which I contributed.

In 1982 she edited the collection Over Our Dead Bodies: Women Against the Bomb, which grew out of her activism in the movement for European nuclear disarmament. Her essay in the book Defend Us Against Our Defenders echoed Juvenal. It was an urgent plea for democracy and toleration, and she insisted: "Every one of us is involved."

From 1968 Dorothy worked in the history department at Birmingham University; a popular, conscientious and demanding teacher, she inspired an impressive cohort of graduates. Some would contribute to a collection of essays in her honour, The Duty of Discontent, in 1995. The title was taken from a lecture by the Chartist poet Thomas Cooper. He, too, was writing after seeing his earlier hopes for radical change thwarted and it epitomised not only Dorothy's approach to history but her critical political engagement.

Accustomed to resistance against the odds, as she grew older she continued doggedly to look for ways of encouraging democracy, equality and free inquiry in every aspect of political and cultural life. Indomitable, intellectually tough, sharp in opposition, if Dorothy could be fierce, she was in equal measure inordinately kind. She was ever open to new people and unstinting in giving her time to others. Many guests from around the world were welcomed by her, first at the Thompsons' home in Halifax, and then in Leamington and Worcester. Her wit and mischief made conversing with her fascinating and fun.

For Dorothy, the duty of discontent was always sustained by her zest for life and communion with others. In her 80s she was still writing and giving lectures, keeping in touch with a vast network of friends, conferring about politics and being an active grandmother.

Edward died in 1993. She is survived by her three children, Ben, Mark and Kate, and by five grandchildren.

 Dorothy Katharine Gane Thompson, historian, born 30 October 1923; died 29 January 2011

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NAWAL EL-SAADAWI: "50 POUNDS AND A CHICKEN TO BEAT US" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM1scxpmbWQ

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Inter Press Service

ASSANGE IN DECISIVE FIGHT OVER SWEDISH RAPE LAW

by Andreas Lönnqvist

STOCKHOLM, Feb 6, 2011 (IPS) - The attempt to extradite the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for questioning over allegations of sexual crimes has caused a big debate about the Swedish justice system abroad. The case has also brought the comparatively broad definitions of what constitutes rape in this country into the limelight.

The 39-year-old Australian citizen, who currently is out on bail in the UK, is wanted in Sweden over allegations of one rape, two cases of sexual molestation and one case of unlawful coercion. The allegations have been made by two women who met Assange in Sweden during a period of ten days last august, just as Wikileaks was releasing classified U.S. documents.

Assange denies the allegations and has not formally been charged with any offence, but is wanted by the Swedish police for questioning. Assange will face a full extradition hearing on February 7-8 when a judge in London will examine the demand to extradite him to Sweden.

According to leaked police documents published by the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang and the British daily The Guardian, the two women admit to having initiated consensual sexual relations with Assange. But according to them he would not listen to them when they insisted that a condom be used.

"Assange was violent and rough. All I wanted was him to stop," says one of the women in a police interview, published by Verdens Gang.

The two women behind the charges have been accused by some of Assange’s supporters of making malicious complaints or acting as "honeytraps" in a wider conspiracy to discredit him and Wikileaks.

The journalist John Pilger dismissed the case as a "political stunt" in an interview with ABC news, and the Academy-award winning filmmaker and writer Michael Moore has published an open letter on his website where he claims that rapists usually enjoy impunity in Sweden.

According to Moore, the "message to rapists" is "Sweden loves you!". "So imagine our surprise when all of a sudden you decided to go after one Julian Assange on sexual assault charges," writes Moore, who also claims that "Sweden has the highest per capita number of reported rapes in Europe."

Klara Hradilova-Selin, research analyst at The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ), says it is true that the number of reported rapes in Sweden have increased considerably in recent years. But she says that Michael Moore’s letter is full of "sheer folly".

"He paints a picture of Sweden as a country where rapists roam free on the streets, while Mr Assange is hunted for absolutely nothing. Which is completely incorrect," says Klara Hradilova-Selin.

Klara Hradilova-Selin thinks that the focus in the international debate in some cases has been built on the premise that Assange is innocent, and she says that even though the case has not yet been investigated many pundits act as if they already are certain about all the facts.

"It is only natural that there are speculations about a possible conspiracy considering the person involved is so controversial, but the fact is that no one knows anything about the case before it has been fully investigated," Klara Hradilova-Selin told IPS.

According to BRÅ the main factor behind the high number of reported rapes in Sweden is the fact that there is a comparatively broad definition of what constitutes rape. This definition means that more sexual crimes are registered as rape than in most other countries. Since the law was amended in 2005 the number of reported rapes has increased considerably, as many cases that used to be reported as sexual abuse are now registered as rape.

Klara Hradilova-Selin says that the crimes Julian Assange is suspected to have committed would likely be punishable in most other countries too, but might not be described as rape.

She also underscores that the local authorities are making a lot of effort to register all cases that can be suspected rape. This is done at a very early stage of the process, so cases that later turn out to be some other sex crime, or no crime at all, are also included. And in addition to this, all individual acts are registered – not just the latest crime.

"If a woman reports that she has been raped by her partner twice a week during the last year, this can result in hundreds of registrations of rape in the statistics, whereas the same case would only result in one registration of rape in other countries. It is impossible to compare statistics for reported crimes between different countries," says Klara Hradilova-Selin.

She also points out that Swedish women are more likely today to report abuses to the police than they were before. While many victims previously did not dare to believe the system would support them, more do so now because attitudes have changed, says Klara Hradilova-Selin.

"All in all there are many reasons why more rapes are reported to the police, but this does not mean that rape is more common in Sweden compared to other countries," she says.

According to Klara Hradilova-Selin comparisons between countries based on large surveys of the general public, so-called victim surveys, instead show that the number of sexual crimes in Sweden is around the average mark in Europe.

Mårten Schultz, associate professor at the faculty of law at Uppsala university, is critical of the way many media outlets have reported about the question of guilt – both whether Assange has actually committed any crimes, but also by questioning the credibility of the two women. These are all questions that no one can be certain about for the moment, says Schultz.

"Some of the accusations against the women has been distasteful," Schultz told IPS.

Schultz does not think that Swedish authorities have been particularly severe in the way they have treated Assange, as he was allowed to leave the country while waiting to be interviewed by the police.

"I think the alleged crimes, as they have been portrayed, would have been dealt with in the same way in most western countries. To have sex with someone who is unwilling and also asleep would probably be filed as rape or another kind of sexual offence in most western countries," says Schultz.

Schultz does not think there are political motives behind the case, but he also says that it is obvious that many people have used the case for political ends. "I do not know what happened. The women could be CIA agents, but I really don’t think so - in fact it is completely unlikely." (END)


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THE PARADOX OF PARTNERSHIP: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, RESPONSIBLE ADVOCACY, AND NGO ACCOUNTABILITY
    by Diana Hortsch
    September 22, 2010, 36 pages (PDF) 
http://www.human-rights-for-all.org/IMG/pdf/Hortsch.pdf

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[6] UPCOMING EVENTS:


(i) GENDERED PASTS, MASCULINIST FRAMES 
(2 day event organised by the History society of Indraprastha College at Delhi University)

see poster:
http://bit.ly/fNJe1a

Programme

8 February, Tuesday

9.30 - Introductory Remarks

10 - 1.30 : Session I

Chair: Uma Chakravarty

1. G. Arunima, Painting Women, Painting Nation?: Ravi Varma's canvas and the vision
of 'modern India'

2. Kumkum Sangari, The 1980s and Beyond: the academic/activist intersection

3. Urvashi Butalia. Feminist Publishing Today

1.30 - 2.30: LUNCH

2.30 - 5: Session II

Chair: Prem Chowdhry

4. Nivedita Menon, Death, Dishonour and the Law

5. Uma Chakravarty, A Quiet Little Entry, screening of the film followed by discussion.

9 February, Wednesday

9.30 – 1: Session III

Chair: Janaki Nair

1. Rashmi Pant, Contesting Patrilineal Right to Property: Widows in Colonial Garhwal

2. Flavia Agnes, Gender, Law, and the Discourse of Rights

3. Mary John, History, Culture and 'Recasting Women': a women's studies perspective

1.30 – 2.30: LUNCH

2.30 – 5: Session IV

Chair: Patricia Uberoi

4. Radhika Chopra, Dead Men Tell Tales: visualizing martyrdom in the central-Sikh

Museum, Amritsar

5. Rahul Roy, Majma, screening of the film followed by discussion.

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(ii)  CELEBRATING FAIZ

Sunday, 13th February 2011 | 6:00 pm
Faiz SahabIn a country where one authoritarian government has made way for another since its independence in 1947, Faiz Ahmed Faiz became a symbol of resistance and dissidence. His poetry, as much as his life, came to represent the longing of the people for the freedom which had come their way so briefly.

2011 marks Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s 100th birthday.

Join us at T2F for an evening of celebration through film, music, dance, and readings of Faiz Sahab’s works.

Faiz: Poet in Troubled Times
A documentary film by Faris Kermani tells the story of Pakistan’s people through the poetry and experiences of a revered radical poet

Tüm Yeh Yeh Kehtay Ho
A short film by Ali Kapadia, based on the poem, “Tum yeh kehtay ho ab koee chaarah naheeñ”

Aaj Baazaar Mayñ Paa Bajaulaañ Chalo
A Performance by Suhaee Abro (dance), Sara Haider (vocals), and Danish Jawed (guitar)

Bol
A Performance by Hareem Sumbul (vocals) and Omar Farooq (guitar)

http://www.t2f.biz/celebrating-faiz-2/


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Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
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www.sacw.net/


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