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[6] J & K : MOTHERS OF MISSING YOUTHS FIND SOLACE IN MEMORIAL TO BE RAISED Kashmir Times, April 22, 2005, Friday Mothers of missing youth find solace in memorial to be raised SRINAGAR, Apr 21 : The foundation stone of the memorial for the persons missing since their arrest by the security forces, was laid at Lawaypora here today. Prominent human rights activists and members of civil societies from across the country and the family members of the disappeared persons were present. The foundation stone was laid by four small children, whose fathers are untraced after their arrest. With tears rolling down their cheeks, mothers remembered their missing sons. They could not control their emotions. Like, Parvina Ahangar of Batamaloo, the women are waiting for their sons. But there is no end to their wait. "Nothing can compensate our grief, agnoy and mental torture. But memorial is a kind of solace for us", said the mothers. The laying of the foundation stone of the memorial became more important since it was dismantled by the previous government near the Martyr's Graveyard at Eidgah, they added. Parvez Imroz, Gautum Navlakha,Ved Bhasin Varvara Rao, Navikiran Singh, Prof N Babiah and Padma Kumari were among others present when the foundation stone was laid. Later, addressing a press conference Parvez Imroz, patron of association of parents of disappeared persons (APDP) said names of disappeared persons will be engraved on the memorial. He wished to have such memorials raised at Gowkadal and Bijbehera as well. Other human rights activists and members of civil societies also addressed the press conference. They demanded recalling of security forces to barracks, repealing of Public Safety Act (PSA) and withdrawal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act and other related laws. The peace activists observed that the withdrawal of security forces and acts was the need of the hour and can create conducive atmosphere for the solution of Kashmir. They also made a plea for the release of all detainess and lifting of 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Parvez Imroz stated that it was for the first time that such position was taken- up by actors of civil society across India on Kashmir stand. Varvara Rao of Revolutionary Writers Association, Andhra Pradesh condemned the deployment of security forces in Kashmir. He said, " Since we represent civil societies of India, we take a liberty to ask Indian government to withdraw forces from Kashmir. We recognise their (Kashmiris) right to self - determination to cessation." He further asked the people of Kashmir to choose their form of struggle. Organising seminars and mobilising public opinion , Sampant Prakash, president All J & K Trade Union Center, exhorted people to move ahead. In his words, " Kashmir is a dispute and a common consensus has to be arrived at. We are looking to organise peaceful seminars in all the 14 districts of the state to mobilise public -opinion and then to move further with the thought." Navkiran Singh, General Secretary Lawyers for Human Rights International ( Punjab) called for a coordination in monitoring the disappeared cases. " Two aspects are to be looked into: to avail of the opportunity available in the judicial system so that they come out of the agony they are facing with and to take care of the families having no bread earner left behind." Prof. N. Babaiah, Peace Initiative Committee, Karnataka wished to live and die in Kashmir. "Kashmir at a distance appears a beautiful place but people outside valley are not aware that one lakh people have already laid down their lives and security expenditure per day touches six crore," he pointed out. He also said, " There should be greater communication between people of Kashmir and people of India." He was of the opinion that country is not a piece of land but a collection of people and what is happening in Kashmir is a crime against humanity, he added. Gautam Navlakha said that it is a good omen that people are coming together and sharing their thoughts at a common platform. Padhamma Kumari from Karnataka endorsed the aspirations of the people of the valley and opined "Any loss can be recovered but loss to life can not." http://www.kashmirtimes.com/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [7] Need For Forest Rights Bill Apparent Once Again chro2003 Campaign for Survival and Dignity, April 19, 2005 Need for Forest Rights Bill Apparent Once Again: Incidents in Madhya Pradesh Demonstrate Why Forest Rights Must Be Recognized The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has been mounting a press campaign against the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005, the first legislation in India??™s history to recognize the forest rights of tribal communities. The Ministry has been spreading blatant falsehoods, claiming that the bill will result in the loss of 16% of India??™s forest cover and that it will amount to ???distributing the country??™s natural resource base.??? But the reality is that, for several decades now, it is the forest authorities ??“ not the local communities ??“ who have been ???distributing??? India??™s natural resources. Huge areas of forest have been degraded or lost to land grabbers, the timber mafia, private corporations and corrupt officials. At the same time, the communities who have been protecting these forests since time immemorial have been facing brutality, repression and violence. Indeed, even as this policy debate continues in the pages of the press, tragedies have been happening on the ground. On April 8th and 9th, more than 180 houses in the villages of Singrod, Ambakhera, and Kharkedi in Khandwa District, Madhya Pradesh, were burnt to the ground by forest officials. Residents of the villages were beaten and their belongings, including their documents, vessels and clothing, were destroyed. A pregnant woman named Shanta Bai, a resident of Ambakhera village, was dragged out of her house despite being near term and delivered her baby in the outdoors. A day later, on April 10th, an adivasi of Jamniya village was killed; a murder case has been registered against six forest workers. All the villagers who were evicted had been living in the area for more than three decades. This kind of brutality is not unusual in Madhya Pradesh, or indeed elsewhere in India. In that State alone the police have opened fire against tribal protesters many times over the last year, killing several adivasis. The pretext for all this violence against the legitimate inhabitants of the forest is a supposed Supreme Court order of 2002 requiring the government to evict ???encroachers.??™ Aside from the fact that tribals are hardly the ???encroachers??™ damaging the forest, the reality is that there is no such Supreme Court order. The Court has in fact never ordered a general eviction, but had only requested a report on the status of encroachments. The reality is that the forest authorities have simply been inventing pretexts to justify their drive to evict and displace the forest peoples ofthis country. Moreover, it is these same authorities who now sagely inform us that there is no need for a law to recognize forest rights, as the existing framework of guidelines is sufficient. Neither the Ministry nor the guidelines has done anything to stop the kind of incidents that Khandwa District witnessed last week. How exactly does the Ministry expect the people of this country to trust a department whose record is one of corruption, brutality and forest destruction? Are tribal communities to be second class citizens, forced to spend their lives in fear of harassment, eviction and death at the hands of the forest authorities? Or are their rights to be respected, as required by the National Forest Policy and the Constitution of our nation? ------------------------------------------------------------ Campaign for Survival and Dignity, April 18, 2005 Tribal People Condemn MoEF??™s Malicious Misinformation Campaign The Tribal People condemn the misinformation campaign launched by Ministry of Environment & Forests against the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill 2005 that the Government intends to table before Parliament. It is unfortunate that MoEF is creating a false alarm in the minds of all nature lovers that 16% of the forest cover of the nation will be lost if the Bill is passed. Infact the objective of the Bill is the exact opposite. It is unfortunate that MoEF denies today what it told the Supreme Court nine months ago. On 21st. July 2004, MoEF claimed in its Affidavit that historical injustice was done to the tribal people due to the failure of the forest bureaucracy to recognize and record their rights during the consolidation of forests both during the colonial and post independence period. MoEF also claimed that the State and UT Governments had misunderstood its directions to recognize the rights of the tribals and failed to comply with them. It also swore that various Standing and Consultative Committees of Parliament attached to different Ministries and various State Governments, had requested that the rights of the tribals, who have been living in harmony with the forests since time immemorial should be recognized. MoEF asserted that no forests will be cut as lands occupied by the tribals in forest areas do not have any forest vegetation, and in the absence of legal recognition of tribal traditional rights, the adjoining forests have become ??? open access??? resource for the dispossessed tribals, leading to forest degradation in a classic manifestation of the tragedy of commons. MoEF beseeched the Court permission to recognize ageold rights, many going back more than a century and thereby fulfill commitments enshrined in the National Forest Policy 1988, redress historical injustice and restore natural justice. MoEF unequivocally stated that recognition of tribal rights would significantly lead to better forest conservation. Did MoEF deliberately swear blatant falsehoods in the Supreme Court or is it spreading falsehoods through the press, now that the Government has decided to ensure through a legislation what MoEF sought permission for is a question we ask the nation. Why do they suppress the truth that no-one can encroach on or damage the forest without MoEF??™s knowledge and tacit agreement, that 60% of the forests have been reduced to wastelands when MoEF??™s charge and 60% of the best forests can be found only in tribal areas. The tribal people of the country ask for the truth. Pradip Prabhu National Convenor CAMPAIGN FOR SURVIVAL AND DIGNITY Pradip Prabhu, National Convenor, Malyan, Dahanu Road, Thane Dt. 401602. Tel-02528-222760 / 225176 E-Mail: kasht@... Delhi Contact Address: SRUTI, Q 1 Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110016. Tel. 26569023/26560558 -------------------------------------------- [8] ORISSA: Security Up As Animal-Hunting Ritual Nears Deccan Herald, April 12, 2005, Tuesday Security up in Orissa park as animal-hunting ritual nears Security has been beefed up in and around the Similipal Tiger Reserve and national park in Orissa's tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district in view of the forthcoming 'Akhanda Sikar', a tribal ritual which will be observed in the district from April 14. During the month-long annual ritual which begins every year on the day of 'Pana Sankranti' - a major festival in the state - tribals go mass hunting animals. Sources in the forest department said all entry points into the national park covering an area of 2,750 square kilometres had already been sealed since last Friday. Five sections of armed police have also been deployed in and around the sanctuary.Besides, for the first time this year, assistance of ex-servicemen has been sought to check poaching during the event. Nearly 50 armed ex-servicemen will help the security personnel guard the tiger reserve. Thirty-three anti-poaching camps have also been set up in and around the national park to create awareness among the tribals about the impacts of animal killing. The animal rights activists in the state were always against the government, particularly against the Mayurbhanj district administration, for not taking adequate steps to protect the animals in the national park during the annual tribal event. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [9] From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in Date: Fri Apr 22, 2005 Subject: UN on Caste (fwd) sshankar@cmi.ac.in Apr 22, 2005 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GD22Df03.html UN wakes up to caste discrimination By Gustavo Capdevila GENEVA - The discrimination faced by over 260 million dalits in South Asia and other "lower caste" communities elsewhere in the world has finally been acknowledged by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. A resolution adopted by consensus at the commission's 61st session, currently in its last week in Geneva, appointed Yozo Yokota of Japan and Chin-Sung Chung of South Korea as special rapporteurs with the task of preparing a comprehensive study on discrimination based on occupation and descent, the criteria on which caste status is based. This is the first time that a UN forum has explicitly addressed this problem that affects communities in close to 20 countries in South Asia, East Asia and Africa. Up until now, according to Dr Umakant of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights in India, there has been a conspiracy of silence regarding this issue among international organizations. The participants in this "conspiracy" include UN groups like the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, he told IPS. For many years, the issue of caste-based discrimination has been denied consideration at international meetings. During the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa, an initiative to include a paragraph recognizing discrimination on the basis of caste was unsuccessful. The inclusion of this reference to caste discrimination was blocked by the government of India, where the dalit community accounts for 170 million of the country's 1.1 billion inhabitants. The participants in the Durban conference accepted the Indian government's position that "caste and race are two different identities", noted Vincent Manoharan, general secretary of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. The reason that New Delhi has now allowed the Commission on Human Rights to adopt a resolution addressing the issue, he told IPS, is because the text refers to discrimination based on "work and descent", as opposed to "caste". India's acceptance of this wording allowed the sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to prepare the draft resolution that was finally adopted Tuesday by the Commission on Human Rights. The sub-commission is the main subsidiary body to the UN Commission on Human Rights. It is composed of 26 experts who are elected by the member states of the commission, with due regard to equitable geographical distribution. The commission itself is made up of 53 members at a time, with rotating participation by all of the UN member states. Manoharan noted that dalits - formerly referred to as "untouchables" - are totally segregated from the rest of Indian society, in terms of housing, education and employment opportunities. "Dalits cannot live alongside non-dalits in our country," he said. "Even in schools, the discrimination is rampant." Dalits are also denied access to public resources, such as drinking water, he added. "We are forced to undertake all the filthy jobs. Even today, human excreta is being carried by our people all over in India. No other community will take this job." Although India has developed affirmative action policies and adopted constitutional safeguards and legislation addressing this issue, "when it comes to implementation, it is very, very minimal", Manoharan maintained. Moreover, discrimination based on work and descent is not limited to India, stressed Rikke Nohrlind, coordinator of the International Dalit Solidarity Network. Other countries where similar discrimination is practiced include Algeria, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea, Japan, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Yemen. "Given the enormous number of people facing such an egregious and systematic denial of their basic rights, it is surprising that the United Nations has taken so long to recognize the problem," said Nohrlind. In Nepal, a country besieged by armed conflict between the forces of the monarchist regime and Maoist guerrillas, the most vulnerable sector of the population is the dalit community, he noted. The resolution adopted by the Commission on Human Rights calls for a comprehensive study of the issue and a search for solutions to eradicate this form of discrimination. The special rapporteurs appointed for this task are to present a final report to the sub-commission in three years. (Inter Press Service) |
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