I. Release Binayak Sen before India starts looking like a tin-pot dictatorship http://www.binayaksen.net/2008/05/release-binayak-sen-before-india-starts-looking-like-a-tin-pot-dictatorship/ Editorial, Hindustan Times, May 13, 2008 Who's afraid of Binayak Sen? It's 365 days since public health specialist and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen has been behind bars. A critic of the Chhattisgarh government's Salwa Judum policy, which is now being investigated for excesses by the National Human Rights Commission after a Supreme Court order, Dr Sen was arrested on May 14, 2007, for allegedly passing letters from a Naxalite leader -- who he had been treating -- to another inside the Raipur jail. On April 30, almost a year after his arrest, six witnesses were examined. Considering that there are 83 witnesses and the pace at which our judicial system works, it looks doubtful that Dr Sen will be judged in a court of law in a hurry. Days before he was arrested, Dr Sen had said that "the people who have been protesting against [the Salwa Judum] and trying to bring before the world the reality of these campaigns.... human rights workers like myself.... have also been targeted through State action". When he appeared in court on May 18, 2007 and asked for the FIR, the police 'failed' to produce anything. Interestingly a day after, the police searched his house without finding any incriminating evidence. And yet he is still languishing in jail. There seems little doubt that there has been a deliberate effort on the part of the authorities to crack down on dissent or, in this case, violently silence a strongly variant point of view on the Salwa Judum policy of arming villagers in Naxal strongholds. It is for speaking out against this 'official' policy from the ground level in Chhattisgarh -- as opposed to speaking out against the Salwa Judum as many other observers have while visiting the area -- that has got Dr Sen in jail for what seems like an indefinite period. That the Supreme Court had also recently made pretty much the same observation that he had makes Dr Sen's incarceration even more unjust and bizarre. In the course of his work as a renowned public health specialist in the areas of Chhattisgarh under Naxal control, it is only but natural that Dr Sen would have come in contact with what the State would deem 'Naxal sympathisers'. Does that make him a collaborator -- especially in an area where the angelic State has been afraid to tread for decades? We definitely think not. But the State seems hell-bent on making him an example so that others don't go against its grain. What is even more appalling is the stand of the central government that seems to be playing Pontius Pilate to the whole affair. Quietly, it has decided to put the ball in the state of Chhattisgarh's court. Answer us this: what are the real charges against Dr Sen? If you don't have a good answer to that -- and only a court of law can vouch for that -- we strongly suggest that he be released before India starts looking like a tin-pot dictatorship. ------------ II. Dr Binayak Sen: Tribal doctor :BBC Report http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7397734.stm One of India's best-known public health specialists and human rights activists, Dr Binayak Sen, has now spent a year in an Indian prison. He is accused of links with Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh, one of India's poorest states where the rebels have a strong presence. The doctor denies the charge. During a court appearance earlier this year, Dr Sen said he did not support the Maoists. "If they arrest people like me, human rights workers will have no locus standi. I have never condoned Maoist violence. It is an invalid and unsustainable movement," he told Tehelka magazine. 'Real grievances' At the same time, Dr Sen has maintained the Maoists have tapped into a groundswell of legitimate grievances. "The grievances [of the people] are real. There is an ongoing famine in the region. Forty per cent of the country lives with malnutrition," he said. The Maoists say they are fighting their long-running insurgency for the rights of landless farmers and tribes. Dr Sen, a trained paediatrician, was working with poor tribal people in Chhattisgarh, when he was detained last year. He was also a senior member of the local unit of a leading Indian human rights group, the People's Union for Civil Liberties. He ran a weekly clinic for the local tribals and was piloting a community-based health programme in the state. Rights groups, intellectuals and more than 2,000 doctors from all over the world have signed petitions demanding Dr Sen's release. They include prominent American writer Noam Chomsky. The clamour for his release increased this week when 22 Nobel laureates joined the campaign and urged the Indian government to release the jailed activist. Last month, Dr Sen was awarded the prestigious Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights for his services to poor and tribal communities and his unwavering commitment to civil liberties and human rights. Dr Sen, 56, trained in medicine and paediatrics at India's prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore and picked up a gold medal for his efforts. Later specialising in social medicine and community health, he moved to Chhattisgarh in 1981, and began working with the leading mine workers' trade union leader, Shankar Guha Niyogi. Pioneering hospital The two set up a hospital for mine workers after raising money from the community - the Shaheed Hospital in Dallirajhara is still cited as an example of a pioneering health initiative in India for the poor. The doctor received a paltry salary of 600 rupees ($15) a month, and helped the facility grow from a small clinic to a 60-bed hospital in four years. In the early 1990s, Dr Sen and his wife, Ilina, set up Rupantar, a non-governmental organisation training rural health workers, running mobile clinics and campaigns against alcohol abuse and violence against women. Dr Sen's efforts in public health programmes, say local doctors, helped bringing down the infant mortality rate in the state and deaths caused by diarrhoea and dehydration. Dr Sen has been outspoken about the ways the government is trying to tackle the Maoists in Chhattisgarh by backing a controversial civil militia of local tribals called Salwa Judum. "The Salwa Judum," he said recently, "has created a dangerous split in the tribal community." He has also expressed his deep concern over rising inequality in India despite the economic boom. "We have to strive for more inclusive growth. You cannot create two categories of people," he told a journalist. "There is a Malthusian process of exclusion going on in the country. Everybody must wake up to this, otherwise soon it will be too late." His wife, Ilina, says the fight to release her husband goes beyond the man himself. "I realise this goes beyond Binayak and my family. We are part of a much larger fight. We are struggling for the right to dissent peacefully. Our commitment to that gives me strength." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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