May 7^th, 2002

 

            Headlines:

 

·       US  Panel  Concerned about Gujarat riots (Times Of India)

·       The Mobs Knew No Mercy (The Telegraph)

·       Gujarat order targeted Muslims (Deccan Chronicle)

·       11 killed in Gujarat violence (Deccan Chronicle)

·       Gujarat curricula teaches violence (Deccan Chronicle)

·       Army called out in Ahmedabad (www.rediff.com)

·       US commission expresses concern over Gujarat riots                 (Deccan Chronicle)

·       HR chief halts adverse UN report (Deccan Chronicle)

·       Gill meets Advani; Punjab offers special forces to Gujarat (www.rediff.com)

 

NEWS HEADLINES

 

US  Panel  Concerned about Gujarat riots
PTI [ TUESDAY, MAY 07, 2002 9:56:54 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=9141857

WASHINGTON: The United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom, a statutory body which advises the Congress and the American
president, has expressed "great concern" over the riots in Gujarat in
which the victims, it notes, were "primarily Muslims."


The Commission, headed by Michael Young, dean of George Washington
University Law School and comprising eight others including a person
of Indian origin Shirin Tahir-Kheli of the Johns Hopkins University,
said in its report that it has observed with great concern the
communal rioting between Muslims and Hindus in India since February
2002 that has claimed more than 800 lives, "primarily Muslims."


The Commission, the report said, "continues to urge the US government
to press Indian authorities to exercise their power to halt the
atrocities and violence, bring perpetrators to justice, and do more
to root out the causes of religious intolerance, especially by
resolving the impasse over the Babri mosque in Ayodhya detroyed in
1992 by Hindu nationalists who are vowing to construct a Hindu temple
on the site."


The commission said it "has focused on India in light of the increase
in recent years in severe violence against religious minorities in
that country -- Muslims, Christians and Sikhs nationwide, and Hindus
in Tripura State."

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.

THE MOBS KNEW NO MERCY

The Telegraph,

May 07, 2002.

http://www.telegraphindia.co
 
Yashodaben Koshti, whom we met at the Shah Alam camp,
told us that she had read leaflets distributed by the
VHP that said that Hindus should not have any kind of
relations with Muslims. If they did, they were not
Hindus at all. She said, “I am a Hindu but I am
ashamed at what they have done in my name and that is
why I am here in the camp to help in whatever way I
can.”

In the camps, areas and hospitals that we visited,
there were groups of people from the same
neighbourhood, mohalla or village. From their
accounts, it was possible to piece together pictures
of what transpired in these areas between the night of
February 27 and March 5.

...The Times of India of March 13 says that, according
to the police, 107 people were burnt to death in
Naroda Patia and the adjacent area. The Shah Alam
Relief Committee presented a memorandum to the
all-party delegation that visited their camp on March
8.

In this they have said, “Another gruesome tragedy took
place at Naroda Patia and Naroda village in the
northern labour/industrial area of Ahmedabad. A Hindu
gentleman called Tiwari, who is a resident of Naroda
Patia, sheltered 30 people in his house. He contacted
the Shah Alam committee. The DCP of the area was
contacted for help to shift these stranded people. It
took three hours for the police to arrive and by that
time 27 Muslim women, men and children were done to
death. Only three escaped...and are now in Shah Alam
refugee camp.”

The delegation met the victims from this area of
Ahmedabad in both the Shah Alam and Juhapura Sankalit
Nagar camps. Amina, an educated woman who worked in a
printing press and lived near the Noorani Masjid in
this area, said that tension started growing in the
area from the 27th night. On the 28th morning (the day
on which the VHP had declared a Gujarat bandh),
between 9 and 10 am, her neighbours started shouting,
“They are coming.” The entire area was cordoned off by
mobs on all sides. She said that on the pretext of
saving them, the rioters separated the women and
children from the men, but after this happened the
women were also attacked brutally.

Her sister, Saeeda, a dress-maker, was killed in the
melee that ensued. A pregnant woman, Qausar, was
slashed through her stomach with a sword and killed.
The nearby Roadways Depot was used to supply fuel
which was used for burning homes and people.

Rashida Bano, whose husband had a tube-light supply
business and who is Qausar’s sister-in-law, said that
her home, in which there was a large consignment of
tube-lights, was completely burnt down. Sabira Bibi
and Chand Bibi confirmed the story about Qausar. In
fact, the latter said that she was an eye-witness.
Fatima said that her sister, Qudrat Bibi, lost 11
members of her extended family, of which only three
members have survived. Lal Bibi’s son Muskan and
daughter Safiya were both killed. She said that when
she cried out to SRP personnel for help, they said,
“You people burnt Hindus in the train, now you have to
pay the price.”

 

Copyright 2002 The Telegraph. All rights reserved.

Gujarat order targeted Muslims
Deccan Chronicle.

http://www.deccan.com/headlines/lead3.shtml

New Delhi, May 6: A secret circular issued by the
Director of Police Intelligence, Gujarat, to local
police chiefs reveals the government’s continuing
attempt to target Muslims.

It directs them to “intimate details of persons
(Muslims) involved in communal riots which occurred in
their city/district during the last five years viz (1)
offence No (2) Section (3) Place (4) What judgement by
court? (5) How many times the person is booked under
CrPc section 107, 151, 110, or PASA, NASA?”

According to the circular D 2/2,
Com/Muslim/Activity/84/99 of 1/2-2-99 which is
published in a report released on Monday, the district
police officials and others were asked to “intimate
how many Darul Ulmas (madrassas) are functioning in
their districts/ cities and where they are located.”

Gujarat Carnage 2002 A Report To the Nation has been
drafted by an independent fact-finding mission
comprising JNU professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy, former
finance secretary S P Shukla, ex-director-general of
police of Tripura K S Subramanian and visiting
professor in Jamia Millia Islamia Achin Vaniak.

The circular on page 34 signed by P B Upadhyaya
directs the police to “intimate the details of
existing Muslim organisations with their address and
the leaders working for the organisations”.

 

Copyright 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights reserved.

11 killed in Gujarat violence
Deccan Chronicle.

http://www.deccan.com/headlines/lead4.shtml

Ahmedabad, May 7: Eleven people, including a college
teacher, were killed on Tuesday and 32 people, among
them a 8-year-old girl, injured in stabbing incidents.

Tension has gripped the city and, despite the curfew,
mobs of fanatics are out on Ahmedabad’s streets
burning and assaulting innocent people and destroying
property.

A mob in Sarkhej targeted the girl travelling on a
rickshaw and stabbed her.

In another attack, the victim was bitten badly. An ITI
teacher was burnt alive and a fruit vendor was stoned
to death in Ahmedabad.

Five others were stabbed to death. Two persons died in
police firing.

A mob of about 500 people attacked an ambulance at the
V.S. Hospital and assaulted a 20-year-old boy who had
come to hospital in an ambulance with a relative
injured in police firing.

Copyright 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Gujarat curricula teaches violence
Deccan Chronicle.

http://www.deccan.com/headlines/top5.shtml
 
New Delhi, May 7: The school curriculum in Gujarat has
played a role in promoting hatred amongst various
communities. Some of the textbooks published and
prescribed by the Gujarat State Board of School
Textbooks do substantial damage to the basic values of
fraternity enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

The recent report of the Editors’ Guild fact-finding
team, while referring to the Social Studies book for
Class IX, points out, “Chapter 9 is on the ‘Problems
of the Country and Their Solution.’ The very first
section (problem?) is ‘minority community’ (page 93).
Children are told that ‘apart from the Muslims, even
the Christians, Parsees and other foreigners are also
recognised as the minority communities.

In most of the States, the Hindus are in a minority
and Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are a majority in
these respective States.’ So the Class IX child is
told that Muslims and Christians are foreigners and
that Hindus are in a minority in most States.”

The report says reform measures are suggested for the
minority community alongside their economic progress.
“But things can go wrong and lead to communal
violence. Therefore a special riot police force should
be raised to tackle such explosive situations’” and
“Victims of communal violence also should be properly
compensated” it quotes the text book as saying.

“Here, children are being suggestively told of the
perils of communal violence almost as part of everyday
life,” the Editors’ Guild report says.

There is reportedly another section in the Class IX
text book on “Problems of Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (page 94).” The text book says, “They
have not been suitably placed in our social order,
therefore, even after Independence they are still
backward and poor. Of course, their ignorance,
illiteracy and blind faith are to be blamed for lack
of progress because they still fail to realise the
importance of education in life.”

The report says here, “The message: Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes have only themselves to blame for
their sorry plight.”

The sections on Women and Anti-Social Activities are
no more inspiring.

Copyright 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Army called out in Ahmedabad
rediff.com,
May 07, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/07train7.htm

Army was called out in Ahmedabad on Tuesday after a
fresh outbreak of communal violence left twelve
persons dead.

Indefinite curfew has been imposed in several
sensitive areas of the city.

The trouble started when a teacher belonging to a
minority community was burnt alive by a mob near
Sarkhej railway station.

In a retaliatory attack, another mob stabbed to death
a pedestrian and set ablaze a truck on the national
highway.

Police burst several teargas shells and opened fire to
disperse the violent mob on the highway, killing four
persons and injuring one.

A camel cart owner was kidnapped from Juhupura near
Vejalpur and taken to a farm where he was burnt alive
and his charred body thrown into a well, police said.

Three persons were stabbed fatally in Kalupur, while
two more were killed in Kadiya Kui.

Police sources said army companies moved in trucks in
the three violence-hit areas. BSF and CISF personnel
were also seen patrolling the streets.

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

US commission expresses concern
over Gujarat riots
Deccan Chronicle

http://www.deccan.com/headlines/lead7.shtml

Washington, May 7: The United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom, a statutory body
which advises Congress and the American president, has
expressed “great concern” over the riots in Gujarat in
which the victims, it notes, were “primarily Muslims.”

The commission, headed by Michael Young, Dean of
George Washington University Law School and comprising
eight others including a person of Indian origin,
Shirin Tahir-Kheli of the Johns Hopkins University,
said in its report, that it has observed with great
concern the communal rioting between Muslims and
Hindus that has taken more than 800 lives, “primarily
Muslims.”

The commission, the report said, “Continues to urge
the US government to press Indian authorities to
exercise their power to halt the atrocities and
violence, bring perpetrators to justice, and do more
to root out the causes of religious intolerance,
especially by resolving the impasse over the Babri
mosque.”

Copyright 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights reserved.

HR chief halts adverse UN report
Deccan Chronicle

http://www.deccan.com/headlines/lead1.shtml
 
New Delhi May 7: The Indian government, cornered by
world governments on the continuing violence in
Gujarat, sent troubleshooter Solicitor-General Soli
Sorabjee and National Human Rights Commissioner
Justice J S Verma to Geneva to persuade the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary
Robinson not to issue a strong statement on the
violence in Gujarat.

Robinson was inclined to use the forum of the UN Human
Rights meeting to indict the Indian government for the
continuing violence in Gujarat.

The Vajpayee government immediately despatched Justice
Verma and Sorabjee to prevent this “disaster”. Both
reportedly met Robinson to convince her that there was
no need for a statement by the United Nations and that
the NHRC, along with other institutions in India, was
well equipped to intervene and handle the situation
internally.

Sources pointed out that Justice Verma while sparing
no words to indict the state government for the
carnage was a “true nationalist” and did not believe
in making common cause with international bodies on
what were essentially Indian issues.

Robinson has reportedly a “high regard” for the NHRC
and has said so repeatedly. Justice Verma who met her
on April 16 succeeded in persuading her not to issue
any statement on Gujarat.

In fact, the UN Human Rights Commission steered clear
of the issue altogether although earlier Robinson had
expressed “concern about the killings in Gujarat.”

She had said during a visit to Pakistan after the
outbreak of violence in Gujarat, “I will take the
opportunity while I am in the region to closely see
how it is being dealt with by the authorities in
India.”

The Indian government was informed later that Robinson
had decided to issue a damaging statement upon which
Sorabjee and Justice Verma were sent to Geneva to
persuade her not to intervene.

They assured her that the best course at this stage
would be for the survivors of the carnage to approach
the Indian human rights body directly rather than for
any external agency to step in.

She was informed that apart from the NHRC, there were
other autonomous institutions that were playing a role
in alleviating the suffering of the people.

Robinson not only decided to withdraw her own
statement but ensured that Gujarat was kept off the
agenda at the Human Rights talk shop in Geneva for the
entire month.

Despite this victory, the Vajpayee government is still
facing tremendous pressure from the international
community. European Union member nations have made it
very clear to India that while there will be no
“leaks” to the press their missions in Delhi will
continue with the work of gathering full information
on the developments in Gujarat to enable the
respective governments to formulate their responses.

The Foreign Office has been clearly told, according to
sources here, that the respective governments will
continue making their internal assessments of the
situation through their missions in Delhi.

The sources said that the Indian Foreign Office had
communicated the government’s unhappiness with what it
called “interference in internal affairs” but was
informed in clear terms that the EU and other
countries were not going to sit back and allow
largescale human rights violations to continue
unchecked.

Repeated efforts by the Foreign Office to convince the
international community that the government is in
control in Gujarat have failed to elicit the expected
response with the diplomats here united in their
assessment that the violence in the state was a human
rights matter meriting international attention.

Visiting dignitaries have been raising the issue in
meetings with Indian leaders. Human rights bodies
including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
have come out with scathing reports on the Gujarat
carnage.

The United States, though more muted than the European
countries, has condemned the violence. Assistant
Secretary Christina Rocca, on a visit to India, said,
“the events in Gujarat were horrible, we were saddened
by it, and we really hope that there will be a way to
move forward to find some kind of communal peace and
stability and that this does not reoccur anywhere
else.”

A US State department spokesperson in Washington,
echoing her words, also referred to the “horrible
violence” in Gujarat adding, “I think you are aware
that India has long prided itself on being a
multiethnic secular nation, accepting of all
religions, and it is very important that parties seek
peaceful resolution to their differences, because this
type of violence doesn’t benefit anybody and it simply
results in the loss of innocent life.”

Copyright 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Gill meets Advani; Punjab
offers special forces to Gujarat
rediff.com,
May 07, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/07train6.htm

With violence showing no signs of abating in Gujarat,
K P S Gill, security advisor to Chief Minister
Narendra Modi, met Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand
Advani in New Delhi on Tuesday.

In a related development, Punjab offered its elite
forces, raised by Gill in the eighties, to assist the
authorities in Gujarat.

Though Gill refused to disclose what transpired at his
half-an-hour meeting with Advani, it is understood the
two discussed ways to contain the situation in
Ahmedabad and other disturbed areas.

Punjab has offered a unit of India Reserve Battalion,
which has expertise in carrying out operations in
disturbed areas, to the Gujarat government.

Sources said the offer came after Gill contacted
Punjab Home Secretary S K Sinha on Monday and
discussed with him the possibility of deploying the
state's special forces in Gujarat.

When contacted, Sinha said the Punjab police had
agreed to spare one battalion of IRB. However, he
added: "No decision has yet been taken to send the
battalion [to Gujarat] as a formal request is yet to
come from the Union Home Ministry."

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved