Harsh Kapoor
Sun, 17 Dec 2006 18:54:00 -0800
South Asia Citizens Wire | December 16-18, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2334 - Year 8 [1] Roots of Conflict in Sri Lanka - Kasim Tirmizey interviews Jonathan Spencer [2] Stop the Taliban takeover of Pakistan (Khalid Hasan) [3] Bangladesh: Elite Force Tortures, Kills Detainees (Human Rights Watch) [4] India - Victims of Meerut's Hashimpura Killings: Brutalised, but not broken (Harsh Mander) [5] India: Furore Over Rajasthan's 'saffron' syllabus (ndtv) [6] India: Re-investigate Malegaon Bomb Blasts (Subhash Gatade) [7] Pakistan: 'Moral police' going out of their way to harass those going out (Hina Farooq) [8] Returning Indian painter to face fury of Hindus (Jo Johnson) [9] Upcoming Events: (i) March For A Free And Secular Goa (Panjim, December 19, 2006) (ii) Public Hearing - Human Rights And the Rule of Law: Mob Terror, state terror and Bomb Terror (New Delhi, December 21-22, 2006) ____ [1] ZNet - December 12, 2006 ROOTS OF CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA Kasim Tirmizey interviews Jonathan Spencer In 2006, Sri Lanka was witness to the worst violence between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam since a ceasefire was signed between the two groups in 2002. Jonathan Spencer is the Professor of the Anthropology of South Asia at the University of Edinburgh. He has written A Sinhala Village in a Time of Trouble: Politics and Change in Rural Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka: History and the Roots of Conflict. I spoke with him in September of 2006 about the roots of the conflict in Sri Lanka. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=32&ItemID=11623 ______ [2] Kashmir Times COLUMN STOP THE TALIBAN TAKEOVER OF PAKISTAN By Khalid Hasan The passage of the Hisbah bill in the NWFP Assembly for the second time is a slap in the face of not only the Musharraf government and the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which had declared the first bill ultra vires of the constitution, but the vast majority of the people of Pakistan who abhor the Mullah's Islam which is a travesty of Islam's inner spirit of rationalism, decency and tolerance. Iqbal, who himself was the victim of a fatwa of apostasy by no less a divine than the Khateeb of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, said it best: Deen-e-mullah fi-sabeel Allah fasad (The mullah's religion is to cause trouble in the name of God). Ghalib, whose sense of humour always flowered with such subjects, wrote in a Persian couplet that it was just as well the Shari'a had forbidden drink, otherwise one would have had to drink in the company of mullahs. The Hisbah bill, which will create a parallel system of justice to the one prevailing in the rest of Pakistan, will also bring into being a competing administration. After what the Taliban did to the world, first by their own harsh and primitive rule and then by harbouring Osama bin Laden and letting him plan and execute terrorist attacks around the world, how can anyone in his right mind even think of replicating their rule and practices, which is what the Hisbah bill will do. Hopefully, it will be killed as the first one was. Those who brought the MMA's political power did a great disservice to both Pakistan and Islam. They must be made to answer for what they did. What they have sown are the seeds of the country's destruction and, for that reason, the mullahs, both armed and political, have to be expelled from the body politic. Everyone must be reminded of what the Taliban and their rule were like. One way of doing that is to look through a 1998 report - The Taliban's War on Women - issued by Physicians for Human Rights, a much respected group that shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign to ban landmines. In a foreword, Abdullahi A An-Naim, a Sudanese professor of law, wrote, 'Muslims everywhere must vehemently challenge and rebut any alleged Islamic justification for any violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Muslims and their governments must strongly condemn human rights violations wherever they occur and whoever commits them, and not only when speaking out is convenient or politically expedient. Most of the policies or practices of the Taliban government documented in this report have no Islamic justification whatsoever.' But while all Muslim governments remained silent while the Taliban ravaged the country and committed atrocities on fellow Afghans, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia remained their two support basis. The report said, 'In particular, those governments that support the Taliban, notably Pakistan, should be publicly called upon to end their support for the regime, and an effective arms embargo should be established.' The report said that the manner in which the human rights of women had been violated by the Taliban regime was 'unparalleled in recent history.' What they had done was 'an affront to the dignity and worth of Afghan women and humanity as a whole.' The Taliban were rustic youths recruited by the ISI from Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and madassas. On assuming control of most of Afghanistan, they 'targeted women for extreme repression and punished them brutally for infractions.' According to the report, 'No other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of punishment from showing their faces, seeking medical care without a male escort or attending school.' The Taliban took control of Kabul on 26 September, 1996 and issued edicts forbidding women to work outside the home, attend school, or to leave their homes unless accompanied by a husband, father, brother or son. In public, they were to be covered in a head to toe burqa with only a mesh opening to see and breathe through. Women were not permitted to wear white - the colour of the Taliban flag - socks or white shoes or shoes that made noise while they were walking. Houses and buildings in public view were ordered to have their windows painted over if females were present in them. Men and women were segregated in different hospitals. In 1997, all Kabul hospitals were ordered to suspend medical services to the city's half million women at all but one poorly equipped hospital for women. Female hospital staff, including doctors and nurses, were banned from working in the city's 22 hospitals. The one place where women could seek treatment had only 35 beds and no clean water, electricity, surgical equipment, X-ray machines, suction or oxygen. One of the first Taliban edicts was prohibiting girls and women from attending school. In 1998, they ordered the closing down of more than 100 privately-funded schools. New rules were issued that limited education to girls up to the ages of eight and restricted it to the Quran. Kabul became a city of women beggars. These beggars had once been teachers and nurses who, said the report, were now 'moving in the streets like ghosts under their all enveloping burqas, selling every possession and begging so as to feed their children.' The report said, 'It is difficult to find another government or would-be government in the world that has deliberately created such poverty by arbitrarily depriving half the population under its control of jobs, schooling, mobility and healthcare.' Those in Pakistan who claim to this day that the Taliban brought peace to Afghanistan should read just this one, single line. 'The 'peace' imposed on that portion of the country under Taliban rule is the peace of the burqa, the quiet of women and girls cowering in their homes, and the silence of the citizenry terrorised by the Taliban's violent and arbitrary application of their version of the Shari'a law.' Executions, including those of women, were done in the football stadium and people were forced to come, watch and raise slogans of Allah-au-Akbar. The burqa which some women are now insisting upon wearing in Europe, is a health hazard, the report said. A female pediatrician told the authors of the report, "My activities are restricted. Walking with the burqa is difficult; it has so many health hazards. You can't see well and there is a risk of falling or getting hit by a car. Also for women with asthma or hypertension, wearing a burqa is very unhealthy." One doctor said that the burqa may cause eye problems and poor vision, poor hearing, skin rash, headaches, increased cardiac problems and asthma, itching of the scalp, hair loss and depression. Other Taliban edicts make horrifying reading. Music was entirely banned. Music shops were closed down. Growing a beard became compulsory, as did its length, which was that of a clenched fist. Five prayers became compulsory. Keeping of pigeons and other birds was forbidden. While the Taliban were heavily into the narco trade, the use of drugs and opiates was prohibited. Kite flying was banned. Pictures of the human form or face were banned from public display and even in hotels. People with long hair were to be arrested and shaved. Perhaps the Taliban had a sense of humour because this provision of the law added, 'The criminal has to pay the barber.' Women were disallowed from washing clothes in water streams. Music and dancing was forbidden at wedding parties. Tailors were disallowed from taking measurements of women customers. Sorcery was prohibited. Homosexuals were buried alive with walls built around them. But back to Pakistan. Gen Musharraf and the PPP deserve to be complimented on the women's rights bill. One hopes the General realises that if allowed to have its way, the Hisbah bill will push Pakistan into a hell hole we may not come out from. The time to act is now. General, dump the MMA. *(Khalid Hasan is a senior Pakistani journalist-columnist hailing from Jammu and Kashmir based in Washington). -(Courtesy: The Friday Times) _____ [3] Human Rights Watch - Press Release BANGLADESH: ELITE FORCE TORTURES, KILLS DETAINEES Ex-Ruling Party May Use Rapid Action Battalion for Elections (New York, December 14, 2006) - Bangladesh's elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism security force is responsible for widespread torture and killing more than 350 suspects in custody, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch warned that the former ruling party could use the abusive force for political purposes prior to elections slated for January 23, 2007. " Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion has become a government death squad. " Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. The 79-page report, "Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Torture and Extrajudicial Killings by Bangladesh's Elite Security Force," describes how the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), established in 2004 to stop spiraling crime, has made a practice of killing criminal suspects in detention. [. . .] The report urged Bangladesh's international donors not to provide material or financial support to RAB so long as it persists in using torture and extrajudicial killings. The United Nations should thoroughly review the participation in peacekeeping operations of all Bangladeshi soldiers and police who have worked in RAB to ensure that they have not been responsible for ordering or tolerating serious violations of human rights. [The report is available at: http://hrw.org/reports/2006/bangladesh1206/ ] _____ [4] HindustanTimes.com December 17, 2006 BRUTALISED, BUT NOT BROKEN by Harsh Mander The police bullet pierced through his shoulder, stunning him with pain. If it had entered his body just a few inches lower, he would have died, like the forty other young men that the constables had bundled into the truck with him. They took him for dead, throwing him into the canal. Zulfikar was then 17 years old. A few hours earlier, constables of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) had surrounded Hashimpura, a working class and predominantly Muslim colony of factory workers and weavers in Meerut. It was the evening of May 22, 1987, and the city was still smouldering with the fires of more than a month of embittered and brutal rioting, that had left many slain by police bullets and burning alive, hundreds of homes, factories, shops and vehicles gutted, and people of both communities convulsed with sullen hate and anger. The PAC forced all the residents of Hashimpura out of their homes onto the road, and searched their homes, randomly smashing their furniture and valuables. It was the sacred month of Ramzan, and most were still observing the ritual fasting as they tensely cowered for hours outside their homes. Almost all the able-bodied men, totalling 324 according to official records, all Muslim, were arrested and crowded into police trucks. They were first driven to police lock-ups, where they were beaten with police batons. They were then shifted to jails, where they were attacked by prisoners, leaving five dead. In Hashimpura, after the strong able-bodied men were arrested and driven away, nearly 50 among the teenaged and old men who remained behind were then rounded up by the PAC constables into a yellow truck. Many of their loved ones wailed as they were driven away. Yet, none dreamed that this would be the last time that they would see most of them alive. Zulfikar and others thought that they too would be driven to the police station. They panicked when the truck instead began to drive them out of the city; they shouted hopelessly but there were none to heed their cries in the shrouds of curfew. The truck rumbled to a halt more than an hour later near the banks of the Upper Ganga Canal in Muradnagar, Ghaziabad. By then, the sun had set. The terrified men packed in the truck still did not know what the men in khaki planned for them. The man nearest the edge was first pulled down, and the sound of rifle-fire echoed through the uneasy silence; he fell, and his body was dragged to the canal and thrown in. A second man was then pulled down, and met the same fate. Zulfikar was the third. The bullet passed through his shoulder; he too collapsed, but was alive. He held his breath, and the constables took him for dead, and flung him also into the canal. He floated briefly, but soon found himself tangled in some weeds, which he grabbed and silently waited with intense foreboding, blood flowing from his bullet wound into the water. By then, the men in the truck comprehended the terrible truth of what was happening, and they raised a great uproar. The constables panicked, and changed track. They mounted the truck and opened fire blindly, killing at least half the men there. They dragged out the bodies and threw them into the canal. The remaining men fell silent in cold terror, recalling their God and those they loved, certain now that they would not escape alive. Zulfikar listened as the truck finally drove away. He came to know later that they then drove to the Hindon Canal, and completed the massacre of the remaining men. Of the nearly 50 men who the PAC picked up, only six survived. A policeman later testified to seeing the blood-stained PAC truck enter the premises of the camp of the PAC. Zulkifar finally pulled himself out of the canal an hour later, and hid in a urinal. He had to continue his fast amid the stench of urine and his throbbing shoulder the next 24 hours, until he felt it was safe to slink to the home of a relative the next night. Days later, he took a bus to the home of Syed Shahabuddin, MP, in Delhi, and together they broke the story of the massacre in a press conference to a (briefly) outraged world. Meanwhile, many bodies were found floating in the canal. The Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad, VN Rai, insisted on filing police complaints, even though the top political and police leadership reportedly wanted to suppress the story for fear of a rebellion in the forces. In 1988, the state government directed the Crime Branch Central Investigation Department (CBCID) to investigate, but its report, submitted six years later in 1994, was never made public, and no charges were initially framed. However, the survivors and members of the families of those killed moved the Supreme Court in 1995 to make the report public and to prosecute those indicted in it. The court refused to intervene, and instead asked the petitioners to approach the High Court. The case remains unresolved in the High Court, but the state government finally bowed to pressure in 1996 by filing criminal chargesheets against 19 PAC personnel. Not a single senior official is included in the chargesheet. Even the 19 of the accused from the lower ranks of the PAC were not arrested, despite 23 non-bailable arrest warrants. They were in active service, but the government pleaded that they were 'absconding' throughout! Ultimately, rights activist Iqbal Ansari and relatives of those slaughtered applied to the Supreme Court to transfer the case, in the interests of justice, from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi, which it ordered in September 2002. More years were allowed to pass over the wrangle of which government should appoint the special public prosecutor. The case continued to be adjourned on technical grounds, enabled by a reluctant public prosecutor appointed by the Uttar Pradesh government. Human rights lawyers Vrinda Grover and Rebecca John took up the reins as their advocates. It was finally in May 2006, 19 years almost to the day after the massacre, that charges were finally framed against the accused. Three of the accused have died, the remaining 16 appear in every hearing in the cramped untidy Tis Hazari courtroom and listen tensely to the statements of the survivors - but continue in active service. A large number of residents of Hashimpura crowd the courtroom. All working class people, many widowed and aged, unsupported by any organisation, gather money from their own savings for travel for every court hearing, only to give wordless strength to each other as they speak out their harrowing truths in court. Zulfikar, now 36, knows that the battle in the courts will be arduous. Yet, he still longs above all for justice. "Those who did this zulm must be punished. We do not want our children to see such a day again. It is for this that we fight." Some fear that they may still lose the case, but their lawyer Vrinda Grover counters, "The survivors and their families have already won. By their brave resolute epic fight. By bringing 16 PAC men to court every hearing. If the case is dismissed, it is the country that will lose. But not them. They have already won." Harsh Mander is the convenor of Aman Biradari, a people's campaign for secularism, peace and justice. _____ [5] ndtv.com http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?category=National&slug=Furore+over+Rajasthan's+'saffron'+syllabus&id=97824 FURORE OVER RAJASTHAN'S 'SAFFRON' SYLLABUS NDTV Correspondent Tuesday, December 12, 2006 (Jaipur): Politics over the school curriculum is once again creating a huge controversy in Rajasthan. The recently revised social studies and political science textbooks for class 10 and 12 students in the Rajasthan board read more like the manifesto of the RSS and the BJP. A chapter on terrorism states: * The Jammu and Kashmir government works under the pressure of terrorists, many of the political leaders in the state are hand and glove with terrorists * Article 370 should be abolished to prevent terrorism and the armed forces be given sweeping powers to wipe out terrorism On Rajasthan, the textbook says that certain minority groups living in the border districts of Barmer and Jaislamer, who have relatives in Pakistan are engaged in anti national activities, should be monitored carefully. On Mahatma Gandhi, the political science textbook says that at first he was a supporter of the British. It was only later that he turned against the empire. Educationists, quite clearly, are not amused by the controversial syllabus. "It ignores the complexity of an average Rajasthani classroom, it does not address Muslim and Christian children," said Apoorva Nand, Reader, Delhi University. Caught on the backfoot, the BJP government has now promised to look into the matter. _____ [6] Alternative India Index 15 December 2006 RE-INVESTIGATE MALEGAON BOMB BLASTS by Subhash Gatade New Delhi : In the face of Maharashtra police's attempts to implicate Muslim youths in last September's Malegaon blasts in a mosque and a Muslim graveyard which claimed 38 lives, Muslims of Malegaon staged an unusual protest on 10 November, Friday, in the Muslim majority town known for its powerloom industry. Protesters donned same kind of hoods which police places on the heads of arrested criminals. Protesters also wore black bands around their arms in a show of protest against official attempts to portray the victims as terrorists. The protest was organised after the Friday prayers. The protesters staged a sit-in outside the Bara Qabristan and Hamidia mosque, the sites of the blasts on 8 September. They also formed a long human chain near the mosque. ( The Milli Gazette, 1-15 December 2006) I. It was rather an unusual type of protest on the streets of Malegaon.But hardly anyone outside the town could even know about it.Neither any of those 'breaking news channels' nor any of those citizen journos, deemed it necessary to at least report the incident. The venue for the sit-ins were those very spots which had witnessed bomb blasts on 8 th September - namely Bara Kabristan and Hamidia mosque- where around fourty innocent people breathed their last and hundreds of people got injured.It was the local populace's own way of expressing anger over official attemts to portray victims as terrorists. Ofcourse, the unique sit-in was part of the ongoing protest campaign by the townspeople. In fact, the city observed a complete bandh on the 14 th November as part of its protest against the attitude of the police and authorities. It was a day when Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, came to visit the town to lay the foundation stone of a hospital. People very well knew that if the hospital would have come up as scheduled, many innocent lives could have been saved on that fateful day. If the aftermath of the bomb blasts on Shab-e-Barat the town had witnessed many communal harmony rallies, today one notices perceptible change in the ambience.If earlier the anger of the Muslim community was directed against the unknown terrorists who had conspired to kill innocents, today the communalised police machinery has also become an important target of the people's ire. Any neutral observer can see that Malegaon - a predominantly a Muslim populated town - which had once carved out a niche for itself because of its powerloom industry, is today seething with anger. A town and its people which had decisively defeated the gameplan of the fanatics - who had planned that bomb blasts on the day of the Shab-e-Barat would definitely provoke a communal conflagaration - are today finding that they have been cheated by the ruling elite. People are posing a question which is not easy to answer. What happened to the promise of an impartial enquiry into the bomb blasts which saw deaths of around 40 innocents and injuries to hundreds ? People narrate instances where one finds that the partisan police machinery in connivance with a section of the bureaucracy is engaged in making 'dreaded terrorists' out of 'innocents' and going soft on the communal organisations from the majority Hindu community. [. . .] [FULL TEXT AT: http://membres.lycos.fr/sacw/article.php3?id_article=40 ] _____ [7] Daily Times November 29, 2006 'MORAL POLICE' GOING OUT OF THEIR WAY TO HARASS THOSE GOING OUT By Hina Farooq LAHORE: Police harassment of couples sitting in parks and public places has become routine and administrative and parking staff have joined 'law enforcers' in making money in the name of morality. Not only are unmarried couples threatened with arrest for bribes, married couples are also harassed by policemen misusing authority. Parks in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) are also the hub of such incidents. Although policemen say they do not bother couples sitting in public places unless involved in what they call "immoral activities", several couples told Daily Times that park officials misbehaved with them and asked for bribes lest they be arrested for immorality - especially if they sat in secluded areas. Talking to Daily Times, Areeba and Fawad said they were sitting in a park in Defence one evening when two people took them to a police station by force and asked them to pay Rs 3,000 or call their parents for bail. The couple said they were sitting on a bench and had done nothing wrong. Times were changing and societies were becoming freer, they said, but Pakistanis' way of thinking was the same no matter how educated they were. Lahore was a city of peace and tranquillity and Sufi saints had promoted love and harmony, Fawad said, "and this has been highlighted in so many conferences and seminars". "But they do not leave young people alone for a few moments of peace." He said young people did not meet each other for immoral reasons, but interacted to discuss life and society. "Everybody should be free to enjoy Lahore's greenery, flowers, songbirds and the fresh lovely colours of nature," he said. In another incident, Saad and his cousin were having a chat in the parking area of a public park when a police vehicle arrived. Policemen asked the couple to get out of the car and slapped the girl asking how much she charged for a night, according to Saad. "They took us to the police station and asked us to call our parents," Saad said, adding that he had to pay Rs 4,000 to be allowed to leave. Huma and Asad, a newly wed couple travelling in a rickshaw, were stopped near the National Hospital in the DHA by a police vehicle. Huma was ill and had put her head in Asad's lap. Policemen refused to allow them to go until they proved their identity and showed proof of their marriage, or paid for their tea. The couple paid them Rs 6,000 to be allowed to go home, where they showed the police their marriage certificate. ASP Liaqat of Defence police station said the government had directed the police not to charge young couples sitting or roaming together. More than four cases were registered under section 294 of the PPC every day earlier, he said. Provincial legislator Uzma Bukhari denounced harassment of couples, saying it was not possible for couples to keep marriage certificates with them all the time. She said the passage of Women's Protection Bill (WPB) could bring about a change in society. _____ [8] The Financial Times December 12 2006 18:38 | Last updated: December 12 2006 18:38 RETURNING INDIAN PAINTER TO FACE FURY OF HINDUS By Jo Johnson in New Delhi India's most celebrated living artist - and bete noire of Hindu nationalists - will next month return from voluntary exile to face obscenity charges in a case that has divided the country. Much of liberal India is appalled at the prospect of the criminal prosecution of M.F. Husain, a frail 91-year-old. But Hindu fundamentalist groups are adamant that the Muslim painter must answer for "insulting" depictions of deities. "Husain is a perfect example of a gentle man of love and creativity becoming a target for religious football," said Neville Tuli, chairman of Osian's, a Mumbai auction house that has sold some of his massive works. The persecution of one of the most visible symbols of secular India has embarrassed the coalition government led by the Congress party, which sees itself as the traditional defender of religious minorities against discrimination at the hands of the Hindu majority. The white-haired painter left India in March to live what he has described as the life of an "international gypsy". Interviewed recently in Dubai by an Indian newspaper, Mr Husain confessed to being "extremely homesick" for Mumbai. "I long to walk through the streets of Grant Road and Byculla where I have spent some of the best years of my life," said Mr Husain, who has been moving between London, Dubai, Melbourne and New York. Works by the star of the Progressive Artists' Group have been commanding seven-figure sums. A Husain sold last year for $2m (£1.02m) in a private sale in London, trumping the $1.58m fetched weeks earlier by his Mumbai contemporary, Tyeb Mehta, at Christie's in New York. In a ruling on December 4, the Supreme Court described the cases against Mr Husain as "proper and just" and ordered four separate cases filed in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat states to be consolidated into a single trial in New Delhi. All four cases had been brought by individuals under public interest provisions and claimed that the artist's work was "obscene", breached the Indian penal code and created "enmity between different religious groups". They focused on one painting, "Bharat Mata", portraying Mother India as a naked woman. It is the latest of many Husain paintings over the years to have provoked anger by showing revered Hindu female deities in the nude. "This is a work of art; he's just expressed himself," said Bina Madhavan, an advocate representing Mr Husain. In May an exhibition of Mr Husain's work at London's Asia House closed after canvases were vandalised. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006 _____ [9] UPCOMING EVENTS (i) MUKTIDIN THOUGHTS: MARCH FOR A FREE AND SECULAR GOA December 19 -- a glorious day in the history of the Indian subcontinent, a day when colonialism finally came to an end and paved the path for democracy in the tiny land of Goa. The political independence of Goa was a culmination of the popular aspirations of the Goan people's long battle for freedom; it was a long-awaited dawn. But did the dawn break into a new day? Where the diverse peoples that make up Goa could see a ray of hope? Where people irrespective of sex, caste, creed, religion, sexual orientation, language, used script, community, would feel liberated from all the bonds that bind them? Where we would feel liberated enough to be involved in the process of building up a Goa of OUR dreams? We, the people in Goa, have been toiling long and hard even as we have also been singing and dancing. We have traditionally lived a peaceful and harmonious life sharing our small joys and sorrows. We have survived. But at times under pressures that are getting more and more acute. Pressures on our land, water, natural resources, pressures on our lifestyles, pressures of intolerance, pressures of power. Pressures of populist politics that only knows the language of vote-banks and of "divide and rule" that is not different from the politics of colonialism that we the people in Goa fought against. Today the colonialists have a different garb. Today it is powerful money-bags, many of them multi-national, with active local agents in the form of our own politicians, for whom again the politics of 'divide and rule' is a central theme. Communal forces are trying to break the unity of the Goan people, and divide them along lines of community and religion. If they do not divide and rule, they will not be able to loot and plunder. Because if we are united, we the people can stop them. And not only stop them, but also build the Goa of our dreams. We still have a long and hard battle to achieve the liberation that we aspired for. We are hard-working. We have the capacity for hard work. We have varied skills amongst us. We are each differently abled. All the natural resources have not been plundered yet, nor has our communal harmony been irreparably damaged. We can all be visionaries, and build on what we have to build a free and secular Goa. We can fight the forces that are dividing Goa, We can fight the obstacles that prevent us from building Goa as a land of peace and harmony. On this liberation day of 2006, we can pledge to take Goa into our hands collectively and strengthen the economic, social and political fabric of Goa in a just manner and celebrate its rich and diverse culture-to move towards a genuinely free and secular Goa. Since the past few years, concerned citizens and organizations in Goa have been coming together to celebrate December 19, the anniversary of Goa's liberation. Let us once again come together on this, the 45th anniversary of Goa's liberation and share our vision of justice, equality, freedom and secularism in a festival-towards a free and secular Goa. Join the rally through the streets of Panjim, starting from Azad Maidan at 9.30 am on December 19, 2006. Take an oath to build a Goa where everybody's dreams have space. And then partake of a cultural programme at Azad Maidan on December 19. See the art exhibition at Menezes Braganza Hall from December 17 afternoon to Dec 19, 2006. Organised by the Citizens' Initiative for Communal Harmony. Ramesh Gauns and Albertina Almeida, Co-Convenors. Contact persons: Albertina Almeida 9326137682 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ramesh Gauns 9270085105 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Vidyadhar Gadgil 2293766 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. We share quality Goa-related writing among the 8000-strong readership of the Goanet/Goanet-news network of mailing lists. If you appreciated the thoughts expressed above, please send in your feedback to the writer. Our writers write -- or share what they have written -- pro bono, and deserve hearing back from those who appreciate their work. GoanetReader welcomes your feedback at goanet@goanet.org Goanet Reader is edited by Frederick Noronha fredericknoronha at gmail.com Please visit Goanet's website at http://www.goanet.org --- (ii) http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/public-hearing-human-rights-and-law-mob.html INVITATION FOR MEETING Citizens for Justice and Peace are a Citizens group working with the victims of the Gujarat Genocide of 2002 and SAHMAT wish to invite you to be part of a Public Hearing on the plight of the victims five years after the State sponsored Genocide. Ghettoisation. The issue of women, stories of hope and despair, the plight of tribals in Gujarat needs especial focus given the aggression experienced there. So also the model of development and the plight of the agriculture sector and the informal sector. Social exclusion, ghettoisation and intimidation to those victims who have the courage to fight for justice is an every day story in the state of Gujarat . Members of not just the Minority Community but every right thinking, peace loving and justice loving citizen of the state has been intimidated into silence. The political opposition is weak and scattered. Gujarat State in 2006 December is an example of lived fascism. The day long Public Hearing is scheduled for Wednesday December 20 th in New Delhi from 11a.m to 4 p.m at the Indian Social Institute, 10, Institutional Area, Lodhi Road , New Delhi . You personally and your organisation/institution have mobilised significantly on the issue of the Gujarat genocide. I have had the privilege of interacting you all several times on the issue. May we therefore urge on behalf of our organisation that the you and your colleagues attends this public hearing in full strength and extends its support? December 21-22, 2006 HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW: MOB TERROR, STATE TERROR AND BOMB TERROR Friends, the CJP is also organising a two day convention following this meet on Mob Violence, State Violence-Bomb terror at which vibrant groups from Karnataka, Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Malegaon will participate. I enclose those details too hoping that you all could join us there, too. We would be happy to write a formal letter to any other persons at the Delhi University Rajendra Prasad, MK Raina [SAHMAT] Teesta Setalvad Secretary Vijay Tendulkar President I M Kadri Vice President Arvind Krishnaswamy, Treasurer Cyrus Guzder Javed Anand Alyque Padamsee Javed Akhtar Anil Dharkar Ghulam Pheshimam Nandan Maluste Rahul Bose Fr. Cedric Prakash Human Rights And the Rule of Law: Mob Terror, state terror and Bomb Terror december 21-22, 2006 Organised by citizens for justice and peace, mumbai COMMUNALISM COMBAT, MUMBAI venue: Indian Social Institute, 10, Institutional Area, Lodhi Road , New Delhi December 21, 2006 DAY 1 Registration 9.30-10 a.m. Plenary 10-11.15 a.m. introduction : javed akhtar 10 mins speakers: Maulana Azhari 10 Mins Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha 10 Mins Aparna Bhatt 10 Mins Vimal Thorat 10 Mins Adv Wahane 10 Mins Orissa/Karnataka 10 Mins Teesta Setalvad 10 Mins 11.15-11.45 COFFEE BREAK 12 noon - 2 p.m. Impunity of Mob Terror: Case Study of Mangalore Violence, Karnataka Four Speakers [20 minutes each] Interactions with Other participants [45 MINS] Duration: Two Hours 2-3.15 p.m. Lunch break 3.15 - 5.15 p.m. DISCRIMINATORY JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT malegaon case study three speakers from malegaon [15 mins each] THE NANDED INVESTIGATION [15 mins] DISCRIMINATORY JUSTICE - godhra/ /mumbra// malegaon / TEESTA SETALVAD [10 mins] concluding remarks-rahul bose 5.15-5.45 p.m. Tea and discussions December 22, 2006 DAY 2 9.30-11.30 a.m. state terror:INCIDENCE & IMPUNITY case study of chhatTisgarh FOUR Speakers [20 mins each] discussions with the participants [45 mins] 11.30-12 noon coffee break 12 noon - 1.30 p.m. Mob Terror & STATE TERROR: INCIDENCE & IMPUNITY CASE STUDY OF ORISSA Four Speakers [20 mins each] Interactions with Other Participants [45 mins] 1.30-3 p.m. lunch break 3.30 p.m.- 4.30 p.m. valedictory session conclusion Cedric Prakash media & Human Rights javed anand the way ahead: call for action Kamal Mitra Chinoy _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. 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