SACW | March 15-16, 2007

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | March 15-16, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2378 - Year 9

[1] Pakistan:
  - Illegal removal of the Chief Justice of 
Pakistan  (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan)
  - Sacking of The Chief Judge (M.B Naqvi)
  - All too familiar a scene (Shamshad Ahmad)
  - Pakistan's 'isolated' president (Ahmed Rashid)
[2]  Sri Lanka: Armed groups infiltrating refugee 
camps  (Amnesty International)
[3]  India-Pakistan: For signs of peace, look out for vultures (Jawed Naqvi)
[4]  Bush's Democracy Project in Bangladesh and Nepal (J. Sri Raman)
[5]  India's Unity in Diversity as a Question of 
Historical Perspective (Michael Gottlob)
[6]  Events:
(i) meeting to commemorate the life and memory of 
Kethesh Loganathan (London, 31 March 2007)
(ii) talk by Christophe Jaffrelot on Hindu 
Nationalism: Past and Present (New Delhi, April 
3, 2007)


____


[1]

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

Press Release
Lahore, 9 March 2007 :

ILLEGAL REMOVAL OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF PAKISTAN

The removal of the Chief Justice of Pakistan is a 
bitter blow to the independence of the judiciary. 
Rumours were already circulating that the 
government was plotting to get rid of him. HRCP 
doubts that his removal was prompted because of 
any misuse of authority as such judicial 
practices are fully tolerated if not encouraged 
by the Executive. The process adopted is also 
illegal and irregular. A reference by itself 
cannot grant the Executive the powers to dismiss 
a judge of the superior courts. Such dismissal 
can only be acted upon after the Supreme Judicial 
Council decides on merit against the accused 
judge. The speed with which the Chief Justice of 
Pakistan has been removed shows that the 
Executive is nervous even of a very tame 
judiciary. It is significant that the Chief 
Justice of the Sindh High Court was flown to the 
capital in haste and in a chartered plane to 
secure a prompt decision from the Supreme 
Judicial Council.

HRCP also denounces the government's decision to 
bypass Justice Bhagwandas on the basis of his 
religion. It may be pointed out that Justice 
Cornelius was a well respected Chief Justice of 
Pakistan and not left out in the cold because of 
his religion. HRCP warns that the institution of 
justice will decline rapidly and that the people 
will have no faith in the institutions of the 
country.


Asma Jahangir
Chairperson

o o o

Kashmir Times
15 March 2007

SACKING OF THE CHIEF JUDGE
by M.B Naqvi

The country's President called the country's 
Chief Justice to his palace for an explanation 
and the latter returned under escort and was 
confined to his residence incommunicado. What 
went on between the two is not be known. The 
President will make a reference to the Supreme 
Judicial Council and to investigate the alleged 
CJP's misconduct. In what did this misconduct lay 
has not been divulged, though planted stories 
tell the tale.
The President does not like disorderly or 
disobedient persons; he has not made the formal 
inaugural speech of a new Parliament for three 
years running because he finds the deputies of 
the parliament disorderly. They shout; hoot, and 
refuse to listen to the august person in silence. 
On the other side was Iftikhar Chaudhry whose 
record is one of judicial activism. He did tread 
on many sensitive toes. He was given to taking 
suo motto notice of various happenings. Some of 
his judgements embarrassed the government. He was 
the person who ensured Mukhtaran Mai case was 
taken up, heard and in some way decided. Later 
she was enabled to travel abroad against the 
wishes of Gen. Musharraf who said she would 
defame Pakistan abroad and sully country's image.
The suspended CJP had caused serious 
embarrassments to the government. He frustrated 
the sale of Pakistan Steel Mills, the largest 
industrial undertaking. He found this 
privatization to be non-transparent and public 
exchequer stood to suffer the loss of many 
billions of rupees. Then he became a pain in the 
neck for Authority in the cases of hundreds of 
Pakistan's citizens having disappeared, leaving 
no trail.
It is widely known that they were picked up by 
intelligence agencies and have not been heard of 
again. Their families have been running from 
pillar to post without knowing whether their dear 
ones are either alive and where they might be. 
The CJP upbraded the government several times 
about why can't they find out where such people 
have disappeared. In one case, he even fined a 
Federal Secretary to the government. On the 
downside, it is said he loved protocol; he was 
abrasive; he treated lawyers sometimes not very 
politely; he liked to show off his power; and he 
had tried to place his policeman son into a 
better posting. There is no charge of any 
bribe-taking or other conduct unbecoming of a 
judge.
The legal fraternity is of course in a state of 
shock. This is a direct assault on what remains 
of the independence of judiciary. Justice 
Iftikhar Chaudhry thought nothing of embarrassing 
the government too many times for the sake of 
providing relief to unimportant people. He has 
been punished before the SJC has investigated and 
found him guilty. This is a disgrace to all 
citizens, not merely to the legal fraternity but 
also to all aware citizens. Now, most thinking 
Pakistanis can't raise their heads with pride. 
The image of the country is mud. Sacking and 
arresting a Chief Justice after a personal 
encounter is the most unexpected and ungracious 
thing to have happened. Most other dictators 
round the world have not done anything so 
blatantly. Pakistan is well provided for with 
evil geniuses to suggest some legal stratagem to 
get rid of this or that difficult person in a 
graceful manner.
People ask what was the hurry. Naeem Bokhari, a 
lawyer from Lahore and a TV personality, wrote an 
open letter detailing various misdeeds of Justice 
Iftikhar Chaudhry. Although he later denied 
having written this letter, but the letter did go 
round the world under his name and is said to 
contain much of the charge sheet the government 
has sent to the SJC. That the Chief Justice was 
not toeing the government line and was careless 
about saying and giving judgements that the 
government did not like is the real reason why he 
was sacked. But even then the people would ask 
why now and why not a fortnight earlier or a 
month later. There is a telltale 
quasi-explanation.
A particular writ has been filed with the Supreme 
Court, challenging the constitutional vires of 
what the government is openly planning to do: it 
wants the President to be re-elected by the 
existing Assemblies a second time just before 
they are to die (completion of their tenure). The 
petition also mentions that the government is 
likely to postpone the election due this year. 
That too is undesirable. Also included in the 
impugned government intentions is that the 
President wishes to continue to remain Chief of 
the Army Staff indefinitely after being 
re-elected. How would the CJP have reacted to 
this petition? What would have been his 
judgement? This is a matter of great political 
importance for Musharraf and the system from he 
has devised. Could it be that Justice Iftikhar 
Chaudhry was not likely to take a line that would 
have satisfied President's desire?
Now every citizen today feels diminished. The two 
highest officers of state are behaving in a 
manner that puts all of us in a bad light. This 
government is extra-sensitive about the image of 
the regime. Now, this particular action, so 
spectacular, should have been foreseen as 
something that would bring disrepute not only to 
this government and its shabby political system 
but also to Pakistan.
This is of course not the first assault on the 
independence of higher judiciary. This has 
happened many times. Everyone knows of major 
constitutional cases in Pakistan's top court. It 
began with GG Ghulam Muhammad in 1953-54. In the 
latter year he sacked a sovereign Constituent 
Assembly on a charge of failing to perform its 
primary duty of writing a constitution for seven 
years although the man who did this was himself a 
creature of that Assembly. Sovereignty over 
Pakistan had been transferred to this Assembly as 
the representative of the Pakistani people.
Ayub Khan tore up the first constitution, 
hurriedly written on the non-democratic principle 
of parity between the two unequal wings, barely 
two and a half years after it came into force. 
Then the former military chief and the 
self-appointed Field Marshal wrote a constitution 
for his own needs. Some people went to the top 
court and complained. The Chief Judge then, 
Justice Muhammad Muneer, gave a judgement that 
still resounds in the great halls of justice as 
the most disgraceful judgement ever delivered in 
Pakistan. A legal fiction was invented: state 
necessity required extra constitutional measures 
in extraordinary situation. It has served all 
dictators.
That principle has provided a fig leaf behind 
which naked aggressions against the people of 
Pakistan by successive military chiefs. CJPs had 
been either cowardly or in cahoots with 
dictators. The top courts, to their shame, always 
upheld a military coup d'etat. It puts the higher 
judiciary to shame; in the area of darkness there 
shine a few exceptions who did not 'obey' the 
tyrants. Justice Chaudhry was the first CJP; 
earlier some individual judges said 'no' to 
arbitrary oaths. Most senior judges have failed. 
Some legal experts disgraced themselves by 
justifying extra-constitutional actions of 
freebooters.
What view common citizens should take is a 
question that faces all thinking types. They 
cannot support it. What are the means available 
to oppose it: very few. The government of the day 
is not greatly bothered about the opinion of 
those who are not with it. They are being ignored 
and a few of them have disappeared. Many have 
been killed, some mysteriously, some openly. The 
systems downside is now in full display - what 
with the so many disappearances and other actions 
that are plainly non-democratic. There is nothing 
that an ordinary citizen can do because there are 
no strong political parties that would mobilize 
them and channelise the people's voice to some 
effect.

o o o

Dawn
14 March 2007

ALL TOO FAMILIAR A SCENE

by Shamshad Ahmad

'FURY said to a mouse that he met in the house, 
"Let us both go to law. I will prosecute you - 
Come, I'll take no denial. We must have a trial; 
for really this morning, I've nothing to do." 
Said the mouse to the cur: "Such a trial, dear 
sir, with no jury or judge, would be wasting our 
breath." "I'll be judge, I'll be jury," Said 
cunning old Fury; I'll try the whole cause and 
condemn you to death.'

-Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland

Another gauntlet has been thrown in the political 
minefield of our country. It is so déjà vu, and 
all too familiar a scene. But this time it is 
Pakistan's judiciary, which for half a century 
was used to legitimise the infamous "doctrine of 
necessity" to keep the generals in power, and 
which now itself faces the "music" with its chief 
adjudicator "abruptly" sent home in an 
unceremonious and precipitous manner.

A television "whiz" kid from Lahore in an 
advocate's "cloak" was apparently chosen to be 
the Trojan horse in this agonising drama. 
Remember the myth of a wooden horse devised by 
the Greeks after their abortive 10-year siege of 
Troy as a ruse and a ploy to enter the city and 
overpower the unsuspecting and celebrating 
Trojans? The gates of the wooden horse have since 
opened and the Greeks have landed. . The 
Constitution Avenue in Islamabad is filled with 
fresh smog. Alas, Pakistan is once again in the 
throes of a new crisis.

The man at the helm of the country's apex court 
had allegedly been "in the line of fire" for some 
time, and now stands in the mouth of the cannon. 
The media says he is under house arrest and 
incommunicado to the outside world. Pakistan's 
judiciary has been turned upside down strictly 
"in accordance with the Constitution."

It is, however, the same constitution which has 
been trampled umpteen times in the past and is no 
more the same document as was adopted by an 
elected parliament of the country in 1973. Our 
constitution today is a magic basket with recipes 
for all tastes. Every one can use it as he likes.

The government now cites Article 209 to justify 
its action against the ousted Chief Justice which 
it claims it took according to the law for 
"misuse of authority." The legal fraternity and 
political opponents of the government also cite 
the same article in support of their contention 
that the government acted "illegally and 
unconstitutionally."

The said article of the Constitution is clear. If 
"on information received from the Supreme 
Judicial Council or from any other source, the 
President is of the opinion that a Judge of the 
Supreme Court or of a High Court, is incapable of 
properly performing the duties of his or her 
office by reason of physical or mental 
incapacity; or may have been guilty of 
misconduct, the President shall direct the 
council to inquire into the matter."

Any action against a judge including his or her 
removal from office can be taken only in 
accordance with the findings of the Supreme 
Judicial Council. It is unequivocally stated in 
this article that a judge of a superior court 
"shall not be removed from office except as 
provided by this Article." The reference by the 
president to the Supreme Judicial Council is 
therefore within his prerogative, which he seems 
to have exercised on the advice of the prime 
minister. But there are serious questions being 
raised by the lawyers' community on the procedure 
followed in this case including on composition of 
the council.

Things have been moving at an electronic pace as 
if someone was in haste. The announced Supreme 
Judicial Council has since held its first meeting 
within hours of the swearing-in of the new 
(acting) Chief Justice and after hearing the 
Attorney-general, scheduled the first hearing of 
the case yesterday (March 13).

Meanwhile, conflicting views are being expressed 
by government ministers on the one hand and 
independent legal experts including some of the 
former chief justices and judges on the other. 
While the government maintains it acted according 
to the law, most legal experts insist the 
president does not have the powers for suspension 
or making a judge "non-functional".

Constitutional experts in their print and 
electronic media commentaries have been stressing 
that no action except filing of a reference in 
the Supreme Judicial Council could be taken by 
the president until the report of the council was 
presented. The matter which also involves the 
question of "constitutional trichotomy" obviously 
now rests with the Supreme Judicial Council, and 
hopefully the judicial process as envisaged in 
the Constitution will take its course rightfully.

The exact charges against the ousted Chief 
Justice have not been made public though 
speculations abound on whether these charges 
pertained primarily to the highly "controversial" 
letter written by a Lahore advocate or involved 
other more "serious" matters worthy of notice by 
the Supreme Judicial Council. The only other 
complaint so far made public was the statement by 
the Sindh chief minister expressing his 
"displeasure" with the Chief Justice in "certain" 
matters about which he claimed to have sent a 
complaint to the federal government.

The common feeling out there on the street today 
is that the present action against the Chief 
Justice was "politically motivated" rather than 
taken on the basis of any real "acts" of 
"commission or omission." Nevertheless, since the 
matter is now sub judice before the highest legal 
and constitutional forum of the country, it would 
be premature and improper for any one to make any 
comment or judgement on this highly sensitive 
issue at this stage.

Whatever the nature of the alleged charges of 
"misconduct" or "misuse of authority" against the 
Chief Justice, it would perhaps be best to leave 
them to be probed and judged by the 
constitutional body in accordance with its 
constitutional mandate. Perhaps, this is also a 
godsend opportunity for the government to do some 
in-depth "soul-searching" and some "stock-taking" 
of its own patterns of governance in which 
"misuse of authority" is galore.

Gross abuse of power, frequent and protracted 
spells of military rule and poor and corrupt 
governance have not only cost us our entire 
independent statehood, but also left us with a 
dismal record of our "omissions and commissions" 
as a nation. Unsure of our future, we are still 
struggling through an identity crisis and 
personality "schizophrenia" tearing the nation 
apart with no common sense of purpose or unity.

It is time we as a nation did some soul-searching 
to restore Pakistan's "raison d'etre" and to 
improve our image and standing in the comity of 
nations through a "civilianised" polity in which 
the "rule of law" reigns supreme. We must return 
to an authentic democratic order rooted in the 
will of the people, constitutional supremacy and 
institutional integrity.

For a country, domestically as unstable and 
unpredictable as ours, there can be not many 
choices. In today's world, our options are 
limited. In the ultimate analysis, our problems 
are not external. Our problems are domestic. 
Putting our house in order is our topmost 
priority need. We need to overcome our domestic 
weaknesses through political reconciliation and 
national confidence-building.

It is also time to rethink our combative approach 
and to wind down baneful domestic hostilities and 
inter-institutional clashes. Force or coercion 
will solve no problems. Grievances must be 
addressed through constitutional, political and 
economic means. We cannot afford any more 
tragedies and national debacles. These are 
exceptional times warranting exceptional 
responses to our problems. We must avoid reaching 
points of no return.

Military operations in Balochistan and Waziristan 
are undermining the constitutional structure of 
our federation. Use of military power within a 
state and against its own people has never been 
an acceptable norm. It has often been proven as a 
recipe for intra-state implosions, a familiar 
scene in Africa. In our own country, we have had 
very bitter and tragic experiences in the past 
and must not repeat the same mistakes.

In the context of the issues that now seem to 
have cropped up in the current "constitutional" 
crisis, it would be highly desirable for the 
government to establish a high-powered judicial 
or statutory body to review the cases of 
"commission and omission" on the part of all 
"constitutional office-holders" and political and 
public officials in every branch of the 
government, executive, judiciary, legislature.

The bane of "misconduct" and "misuse of 
authority" is endemic to our entire system and 
must be addressed in a non-discriminatory manner. 
Corruption is most prevalent in our elitist and 
feudalised political class and civil-military 
establishment.

One hopes the conduct and practices of our public 
dignitaries holding constitutional offices 
including the prime minister and the president 
will also be reviewed to ensure that there is no 
more "misuse of authority" and actions 
prejudicial to the dignity of their high offices. 
These include use of official planes and 
transport as well as the whole security and 
protocol paraphernalia for attending private 
wedding ceremonies, spring festivals, golf 
championships and political party meetings.

The question of excessive protocol and security 
for VIP office-holders which is one of the stated 
"allegations" against the ousted Chief Justice 
needs to be rationalised and applied equally to 
the heads of executive, legislative and judiciary 
branches. If a prime minister or a chief minister 
can use a special plane and if an IG of a 
province can have a long motorcade, and if a 
corps commander can use a BMW, what is the fuss 
about the head of the judiciary?The "Marco Polo" 
culture at state expense needs to be given up. 
Pakistan's problems are in Pakistan, not in 
Washington or New York or in London, Brussels or 
Davos. No heads of state or government anywhere 
in the world, not even of the most affluent G-8 
countries are seen travelling around the globe 
with such frequency and flair.

Not a single penny of foreign investment, not an 
ounce of foreign goodwill and not an iota of 
Allah's blessings seem to have come to our 
beleaguered country from countless state and 
official visits and umrah junkets undertaken with 
large entourages of political "spongers" and 
morally bankrupt state-paid "pilgrims." Even 
their umrah robes to be worn in the House of 
Allah are provided at state expense. This is not 
only a blatant "abuse of authority" but also an 
abuse of the "faith" to which they all 
professedly claim to belong.

Amazing things happen in Pakistan. Federal 
secretaries and provincial chief secretaries have 
been rewarded for their "services" with the same 
facilities and benefits including residential 
plots at state expense as admissible to the 
army's two and three-star generals. There could 
not be a worse case of abuse of power. This must 
be undone.

The writer is a former foreign secretary.

o o o

PAKISTAN'S 'ISOLATED' PRESIDENT
by Ahmed Rashid
BBC: March 14, 2007

To many Pakistanis it seems that President Pervez 
Musharraf is becoming increasingly isolated.

The latest headache comes in the shape of who 
have been staging rallies across the country in 
protest of what they see as his 
politically-motivated suspension of the chief 
justice of the Supreme Court.

The sight of black-jacketed lawyers smattered in 
blood after clashes in Lahore with police does 
little for the image of Pakistan.

But before this, there have been signs of Islamic 
extremism gaining strength. Ordinary citizens are 
complaining of worsening law and order.

And Pakistan's relations with the United States, 
Europe and neighbouring countries are becoming 
more strained.

Kalashnikov-wielding women

This is an election year for President Musharraf. 
But two issues are threatening him.

Pakistan is now the most fenced in nation in the world

The first is the military's failure to assert the 
government's writ over large areas of the country 
and its refusal to tackle Islamic extremists 
head-on.

The second development is the assertion of some 
extremists that they no longer recognise the 
legitimacy of the state and will only do so when 
an Islamic revolution takes place.

Judges, soldiers, policemen, lawyers and ordinary 
women and children were the victims of a dozen 
suicide bombings by extremists in February. The 
authorities have made few arrests.

In Islamabad, foreign diplomats were shocked when 
the government gave in to some 3,000 
Kalashnikov-wielding militant women, who refused 
to evacuate a religious school that had been set 
for demolition because it had been built 
illegally.

In the heart of the nation's capital the women 
refused to recognise any orders from the state.

The cabinet was divided with some ministers, 
including the pro-Islamist right-wing Minister of 
Religious Affairs Ijaz ul Haq openly siding with 
the militant women.

Meanwhile extremists are threatening female politicians.

Law and order is breaking down in the major cities.

Up to 200 crimes and robberies are being 
committed every a day in major cities - in 
Karachi the figures are double that.

Much of the prevalent crime is committed by 
unemployed youth, who form gangs to steal cars, 
motor bikes and mobile phones.

Public criticism

Another blow to Pakistan's self-image came when 
most of the planes of the state-owned Pakistan 
International Airlines (PIA) were banned from 
landing in European Union capitals because of 
safety concerns. PIA officials and government 
ministers denied there was any problem.

On the international front, Gen Musharraf's 
credibility is at stake as his commitment to deal 
with terrorism is being questioned by the US and 
leading Nato countries.

On a five-hour visit to Islamabad on 26 February, 
US Vice President Dick Cheney warned the 
president about Pakistan's lack of action against 
Taleban and al-Qaeda leaders operating from its 
soil.

In several packed hearings in the US Congress, 
retired US military officers and other American 
experts testified that Pakistan was deliberately 
harbouring the Taleban to use as a political card 
in Afghanistan.

Nato countries not normally known for their 
public criticism of allies have been openly 
questioning Pakistan's continued commitment to 
the "war on terrorism".

Meanwhile, Iran has become the latest country, 
after India and Afghanistan, to accuse it of 
interference in its internal affairs.

In early March, Iranian leaders accused Pakistan 
of becoming a sanctuary for terrorists, after 
several Iranians were killed by militants who 
then fled across the border to Pakistan.

Iran is also suspicious that Pakistan is 
supporting the US agenda of trying to create a 
Sunni alliance of Arab countries aimed at Shia 
Iran. Pakistan counters that Iran is helping the 
insurgency by rebels in Pakistani Balochistan.

Pakistan is now the most fenced in nation in the 
world. Iran is now following India's example and 
erecting a fence on its border with Pakistan, 
while Islamabad wants to erect a fence on its 
border with Afghanistan.
All these problems come ahead of polls in which 
Gen Musharraf wants to be re-elected for another 
five years by the current parliament, while 
continuing to remain army chief.

Expectations of a free and fair elections are 
lowered daily as Gen Musharraf insists in public 
statements that people vote for his nominees, 
while newspapers report that the ubiquitous 
intelligence services are already interviewing 
prospective parliamentary candidates to ascertain 
their loyalty to the president.

Pakistanis are used to military rulers prolonging 
their innings indefinitely and also to rigged 
elections.

But what they are not used to is the growing rise 
of extremism around the country from the rugged 
mountains of Waziristan to the pristine avenues 
of Islamabad.

For a country armed with nuclear weapons, 
ordinary people are getting scared of the future.


_____


[2]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE

AI Index: ASA 37/007/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 049
14 March 2007

SRI LANKA: ARMED GROUPS INFILTRATING REFUGEE CAMPS

Armed groups, some identified as part of a 
breakaway group of Tamil Tigers known as the 
Karuna faction, are infiltrating camps for newly 
displaced people and abducting residents, 
according to sources known to Amnesty 
International.

Tens of thousands of people have been fleeing 
their homes after intense fighting in the eastern 
region of Batticaloa over the weekend, pushing 
the number of displaced people to well over 
120,000.

"We are hearing reports of armed men, wearing the 
uniforms of the Karuna faction, roaming the camps 
and even distributing relief goods," said Purna 
Sen, Asia Pacific Direct at Amnesty 
International. "The Karuna faction appears to 
operate throughout Batticaloa town with the 
complicity of the Sri Lankan authorities."

The military action of the Karuna faction in the 
east has increased violence and displacement. 
Analysts observe that the Sri Lankan Army 
tolerates its military camps as the Karuna 
faction has assisted in the Sri Lankan military 
campaign against the Tamil Tigers.

"The people who have been forced to flee the 
fighting are in an extremely vulnerable position: 
they have left behind their livelihoods and their 
homes, they may not know the area and they are 
likely to be very scared. The government has a 
responsibility to ensure that camps are safe and 
civilian in nature -- it is unacceptable for men 
with guns to be wandering around as if they're in 
control."

There have also been reports of armed men 
abducting young people from internally displaced 
people (IDP) camps. In one previously unreported 
incident on 9 March, a 15-year-old boy was 
approached by a white van as he waited for a bus 
at a temple near an IDP camp. Armed men tried to 
pull him into the van, but his struggling and 
screams attracted a crowd and the abductors fled. 
A witness said members of the Sri Lankan army 
watched the incident but did not step in to help 
the boy.

Food shortages and overcrowding in the camps for 
displaced people are another concern and Amnesty 
International is calling on the government to 
ensure it provides food, water, housing and 
medical care to all those who have been displaced 
by the fighting.

"As the fighting continues, we fear even more 
people will be forced to seek protection in the 
camps -- and basic necessities like food and 
water will be stretched even further," said Purna 
Sen. "The government must act now to ensure 
supplies can meet the increasing demand."

Amnesty International is also concerned at 
reports of people who have been displaced being 
forced to resettle in the north of the country. 
Over the weekend displaced people were asked to 
leave Batticaloa to go to the north-eastern town 
of Muthur. Around 40 buses transported them away; 
some of the people apparently did not wish to go.

In a welcome move, the Sri Lankan government 
invited the UN Secretary General's Representative 
on internally displaced people to visit at the 
opening of the UN Human Rights Council earlier 
this week. Given the humanitarian crisis, Amnesty 
International urges the government to allow the 
visit to take place as soon as possible.

Background
Recent fighting in Batticaloa has resulted in a 
significant increase in internally displaced 
people. Large numbers of people are seeking 
shelter and protection in areas controlled by the 
Sri Lankan Army (SLA) as the SLA continues to 
shell Tamil Tiger or 'uncleared' areas. 
Batticaloa already had 80,000 IDPs and 40,000 
more are now seeking shelter.

More than 250, 000 civilians have been displaced 
by the conflict since April 2006.

In 2004, former Tamil Tiger commander Colonel 
Karuna broke away from the Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to form his own splinter 
group, Tamileel Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, or 
People's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (TMVP). 
A prominent TMVP sign welcoming people to 
Batticaloa stands opposite an Sri Lankan Army 
checkpoint on the lagoon. The TMVP is not a 
political party. Its military wing appears to be 
operating with the support of the Sri Lankan Army 
to challenge the LTTE.

In the past year there have been increasing 
numbers of abductions of children for use as 
soldiers. Both the Tamil Tigers and the Karuna 
faction have been implicated.

Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty 
International's press office in London, UK, on 
+44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 
0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org


______


[3]


Dawn
March 12, 2007  

FOR SIGNS OF PEACE, LOOK OUT FOR VULTURES

by Jawed Naqvi

The opening line of the scarcely noticed press 
release issued after a second meeting of the 
India-Pakistan Joint Commission in New Delhi on 
February 21 said: "The working group on 
environment has discussed the decline in vulture 
population."

Thus we got to know that one of six or eight 
working groups set up to take forward the tasks 
of the joint commission would look into the 
recent disappearance of the scavenger birds in 
India, Pakistan and possibly also in Nepal.

The news was extremely comforting for at least 
two reasons. First, it was deeply reassuring that 
the two countries that had on several occasions 
threatened to annihilate each other's human 
population were expressing a shared concern for 
the survival of a raptor bird.

Secondly, it was good to know that the two sides 
were beginning to look at life beyond their 
hatred of each other, a hatred that has taken 
them to the brink of nuclear war.

The case of the disappearing vultures is pretty interesting.

Scientists believe the phenomenon is due to toxic 
residues from a veterinary drug. Vultures which 
feed on the carcasses of livestock given 
diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory widely used on 
the subcontinent, build up such levels of the 
drug that they suffer kidney failure. This is 
what the French scientists, who have followed the 
problem, say.

Ornithologists have for long been baffled by the 
steep decline (more than 95 per cent) of the 
numbers of the Oriental white-backed vulture

(Gyps bengalensis), a bird that plays a vital 
link in the food chain, over the past decade. 
Once one of the commonest raptors on the Indian 
continent, the creature is now listed as 
critically endangered. The question is: If the 
bird is a critical part of nature's food chain, 
should the mystery surrounding its disappearance 
be allowed to elude us till the Kashmir issue is 
resolved? The simple answer is that one does not 
preclude the other.The veil of mutual mistrust 
still hangs heavily over the neighbours despite 
the shared concern for vultures. In fact, 
Pakistani officials say privately that the idea 
of the joint commission itself is an Indian ploy 
to focus on what they both believe are soft 
issues compared to the largely political matters 
that are discussed within the composite dialogue 
framework, a fourth round of which is due to be 
kicked off in Islamabad this week.

A cursory look at the bouquet of issues broached 
at the joint commission's meeting in Delhi 
resembles subjects that are more appropriate for 
countries in the European Union or APEC. What is 
on the table are issues like environmental 
concerns and education and not the tired problems 
of territorial disputes and basic freedoms that 
are the typical concerns of South Asia, issues 
that should have been resolved years ago but have 
lingered for decades.

Therefore, the question arises whether the 
problem areas outlined under the joint 
commission's mandate have an urgency of their 
own, or would they be taken up earnestly only 
after the core issues enshrined in the composite 
dialogue are first resolved. The question is 
tricky but the solutions are not intractable.

What does the joint commission mandate the two countries to do?

Unfortunately, in the hurly burly of 
headline-grabbing stories that followed the joint 
declaration on nuclear risk reduction, which came 
in tandem with the press release on the joint 
commission, it was natural that the so-called 
softer issues got buried. So what were the issues 
apart from the shared concern about missing 
vultures? The list is really impressive and 
should enthuse a lot of people. If the leaders of 
the two countries are true to their salt they 
should facilitate and not impede the agenda that 
they have themselves agreed to pursue.

There is room for ornithologists from both 
countries to get involved in joint research on 
migratory water birds, for example. There is a 
proposal to jointly establish botanical gardens 
in Pakistan, sharing of experience in desert 
afforestation, general environment protection, 
including conservation and efficient use of 
energy resources. Would anyone at all object to 
such concerns?

Similarly, there is a working group on Science 
and Technology. Its officials have discussed the 
subjects of medicinal plants, herbal medicines, 
biotechnology, renewable sources of energy and 
popularisation of science itself. Who could 
quarrel with the ideals of this group? Its 
interlocutors have suggested some probable ways 
of cooperation. These include joint workshops, 
seminars, exploratory visits, training and 
collaborative research.

Tourism has been taken up as a separate issue in the joint commission.

Possible areas for cooperation in this field were 
identified as human resource development, 
exchange of statistics/promotional material, 
familiarisation tours by travel agents and tour 
operators and the role of public-private 
partnership. Scribes get ready for your free 
jaunts.

Or am I jumping the gun?

The working group on agriculture is looking at 
production of quality seeds, agricultural 
research and the question of quarantining 
livestock that is traded across the border. This 
could be a serious area for any number of 
rights-based groups to get involved with. After 
all agriculture is a globally sensitive issue and 
genetically modified seeds, if that is where this 
proposed bilateral cooperation heading, is an 
extremely volatile subject to be left to the care 
of the two governments.

For the medical fraternity there is room for 
cooperation on practically everything: from 
control of polio to management of avian 
influenza, public-private partnership in 
healthcare and family welfare. The two countries 
have also agreed to explore cooperation in 
health-related intellectual property rights, 
capacity building in health sector, 
administrative structures relating to drugs and 
pharmaceuticals in the two countries and 
traditional systems of medicine. So there you go. 
How about joint research in Unaani, Tibbi, 
Ayurvedic medicines?

The officially stated prospect of cooperation in 
information technology can be converted by the 
people to give us a chance to jointly shift the 
focus away from software to something more 
durable, like hardware production of computers, 
which is totally missing from the scene in both 
countries.

Education. Yes, there is a joint working group on 
education too. Come on historians, sociologists, 
philosophers. Face each other and come to terms 
with yourselves. It's time we gave up the 
pretence of teaching partial half-baked history 
to our captive audiences. Of course, the proposed 
working group on education is typically 
bureaucratic and deals tentatively with 
cooperation between institutions like University 
Grants Commission in India and HEC in Pakistan. 
However, there is provision also for exchange of 
printed material relating to educational 
development, sharing of experiences by the 
education research institutes, as well as 
National Book Trust of India and National Book 
Foundation of Pakistan. There is provision for 
exchange of expertise in the field of elementary, 
secondary and adult education. There's room for 
people's involvement here.

And finally, there's a new forum that should 
interest the media in both countries. The press 
release of the joint commission says that its 
working group on information "discussed issues 
concerning participation in seminars by 
journalists, media coverage of historical and 
religious events in the two countries, combating 
piracy of films, music and channel contents and 
exchange of radio, television programmes and 
films". This is inane, boring stuff. The media's 
job is not to describe events in mosques and 
gurudwaras; that should be left to the saints. 
Journalists on both sides need the freedom to 
move and report freely in each other's country. 
That's the important point. Why should we grant 
these privileges (that's what they are at present 
as opposed to core media rights) only to the 
western media and not to each other's scribes? 
Here's an opportunity to turn our back on that 
lingering slavery to the West.

To sum up, remember the song the Beatles 
look-alike vultures sang in the famous film based 
on Kipling's Jungle Book? "We are friends," the 
lovely vultures sang in unison. It is reasonable 
to conclude, therefore, that where men are seen 
as frail and failing, the quest for missing 
vultures may be the right way to go if we are 
serious about becoming friends.


______


[4]

truthout.org
13 March 2007

BUSH'S DEMOCRACY PROJECT IN BANGLADESH AND NEPAL

by J. Sri Raman

     Who says that President George Bush and his 
men and women promote democracy only by 
destructive wars? They do so also through 
creative, unconventional diplomacy. Look at their 
latest achievements in Bangladesh and Nepal.

     In both these countries bordering India, 
whose ruling establishment has enlisted in the 
Bush crusade to save democracy (especially 
"emerging" democracies), the cause has hit a 
major roadblock. And it is representatives of 
Washington who have placed a mega-sized boulder 
on the path to much-awaited elections in both 
cases.

     In the case of Nepal, Bush's mouthpieces have 
not really bothered to conceal this. In the case 
of Bangladesh, Washington and its Western allies 
have only declared a more devious war on 
democracy.

     In talking of Nepal, these columns have 
repeatedly noted striking instances of the 
distinguished style of US Ambassador James 
Francis Moriarty's diplomacy, through the entire 
period since the people of the Himalayan state 
overthrew a hated monarchy and opened the door to 
democracy. A higher official of the US 
administration has now outdone him.

     Moriarty has tried many tricks barred by the 
book of diplomacy in a bid to prevent the return 
of Maoists to the political mainstream, and to 
break the historic accord between them and the 
Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) that ended King 
Gyanendra's despotic rule last April. Moriarty 
has played a role in keeping Washington's "terror 
tag" on the Maoists. While insisting on their 
electoral insignificance, he has tried to stall 
their inclusion in the interim government by 
warning of US assistance only to departments 
under non-Maoist ministers.

     He has also made a very un-diplomat-like 
visit to a center of ethnic unrest and voiced 
support for the demands of the Madhesi minority, 
which the Maoists and the SPA do not oppose 
anyway.

     Notwithstanding Moriarty, Nepal was to move 
ahead to the next stage of its democratic 
transition on March 14th, when the Maoists were 
to join the interim government under Prime 
Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. US Under 
Secretary of State for Management Henrietta H. 
Fore, on a visit to Kathmandu last week, ensured 
that progress in the process was put off.

     On March 10th, she proclaimed Washington's 
displeasure with "two trends that, if unresolved, 
threaten Nepal's democratic progress." The first 
- surprise, surprise - was "the continuing 
failure of the Maoists to renounce violence". The 
second, equally predictably, was ethnic unrest. 
This, she said showed the need for 
"inclusiveness" in Nepal, though the Maoists were 
to be excluded.

     She followed up that critique with a call on 
the aging and ailing prime minister. The outcome 
was, again, predictable. Koirala announced that 
the Maoists could not enter the interim 
government until they "return all the people's 
property they had seized and account for all 
their weapons." The moment Fore left Nepal, 
Koirala hastened to assure the offended Maoists 
that they would be inducted into the government 
"shortly."

     The damage, however, was not totally undone. 
Maoist leader Prachanda has now threatened street 
protests if the interim government is not 
expanded by the end of March. More scarily, he 
has alleged a "conspiracy" by the "pro-palace" 
camp to assassinate Americans in Nepal, blame it 
on the Maoists, and seek a ban on them.

     It is significant that some knowledgeable 
observers in Kathmandu think that the Nepal 
situation may lead to a "Bangladesh-type" 
solution. What they mean is not a declared 
military rule, but a military-backed dispensation 
that will keep out the Maoists and parties ready 
to make up with them. This will be a "democracy" 
that Moriarty and Fore will not disapprove of.

     This is also the kind of "democracy" in 
Bangladesh of which Washington and its Western 
allies do not disapprove. This has become evident 
in the two months of rapid events since the 
general election originally scheduled for January 
22 was scrapped.

     The opposition led by the Awami League of 
former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, of 
course, wanted the elections scrapped; it feared 
massive poll-rigging under the caretaker regime 
of President Iajuddin Ahmad, who is known to be 
close to the right-wing Bangladesh Nationalist 
Party (BNP) of Hasina's rival and former Prime 
Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Both parties extended 
support to the caretaker government of Fakhruddin 
Ahmed, sworn in on January 13th.

     Not many, however, foresaw two developments 
that followed. Fakhruddin Ahmed's regime soon 
turned out to be only the front of the Bangladesh 
army with a history of frequent political 
interventions. The public can only speculate 
about the identity of the faceless, 
string-pulling military rulers. But, like several 
other "benevolent" military regimes in the past, 
this one too has started off with a series of 
measures aimed at the heart of the middle class. 
An alleged crusade against corruption and for a 
new "political culture" has followed, with the 
prospect of polls receding rapidly in the process.

     The process gathered momentum with the arrest 
of Begum Zia's unpopular son Tarique Rahman and 
raids on Hasina's residence on March 8th. The 
very next day, all political activity (including 
indoor meetings) was banned.

     The second development is the entry into 
politics of eminent economist Mohammad Yunus. He 
has turned out to be a typical candidate of the 
same political camp and constituency that the 
behind-the-scene military rulers represent and 
back. Even more significant is the 
extra-Bangladesh dimension of his electoral 
appeal and that of his hastily assembled party 
called Nagorik Shakti (Citizen Power).

     Moriarty and Fore have played politics in 
Nepal, but their counterparts in Bangladesh would 
seem to have gone a step further by fielding 
their own candidate and a party in the 
forthcoming election, if and when it is held.

     The US ambassador in Bangladesh, Patricia 
Butien, has been more circumspect than Moriarty. 
But a former US ambassador in Bangladesh (and 
Pakistan ) and currently an academic at the 
Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, William 
B. Milam, has nearly given the game away.

     Milam's proximity to the power centre in 
Washington is seen in the fact that he was to be 
a US observer of the scrapped election of January 
22nd. On January 9th, almost two weeks before 
that, he wrote in a newspaper column, "My trip to 
Bangladesh ... is off." He said "the US and EU 
have ruled out sending teams (of observers)" 
because, among other reasons, it "would convey an 
unofficial sanction to an election that will be 
clearly wanting in legitimacy."

     The US and the Western governments, however, 
have not only supported the "clean-up" drive of 
the Fakhruddin Ahmed regime. They have also kept 
mum, not mysteriously so perhaps, about the 
eloquent silence of the caretaker regime about 
the election plans.

     Milam goes further. In a subsequent column, 
he derides the united demand of Hasina and Zia 
for an announcement of the election date and asks 
why they call for early polls. "Could it be that 
they suspect that the longer an election is 
delayed, and the more time given to a new third 
party to develop a platform and make itself 
known, the weaker are their prospects in that 
election? Do their interests converge again on a 
single point: the need to forestall the growth 
and development of a new party that might take 
the centre of politics away from them?"

     He also notes, approvingly, that "the 
announcement the other day by the chief of the 
caretaker government that it could not yet set an 
election date gives Yunus and his organizers more 
time to pull it all together." Of what his 
candidate can do, if elected, he says: "(That) 
depends on how well the caretaker government does 
its job in cleaning up the political culture so 
that reformers like Yunus will have a chance to 
make a difference."

     All this, however, can only produce a system 
that is very different from democracy as the 
people in Bangladesh or elsewhere understand it.


______


[5] 

Economic and Political Weekly
March 3, 2007

INDIA'S UNITY IN DIVERSITY AS A QUESTION OF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

In the debate about political unity and cultural 
diversity in India, the representation of the
past often was (and is) the main battlefield. 
While secularists invoke the Indian tradition of
toleration thus pleading for a multicultural 
India, communalists point to the long experience 
of
religious strife and conclude the necessity of 
territorial demarcation. Some post-colonial 
critics
even view the very reliance on history as the 
basic problem. The frequent instances of
violence against minorities in connection with 
disputes over the past give cause to
reconsider the role of history in the emergence 
of the nation state in India. Those
obsessed with origin in their idea of the nation 
assume no perspective of change that would
allow heterogeneous elements to merge. 
Secularists often bring into play only a singular,
particular perspective, in which other possible perspectives are neglected. By
inserting both the unifying model of the nation 
state and the diversity of cultural and social
forms of life into an overarching perspective of 
temporal change, a modern form of unity
canbe accomplished that may be called unity in diversity.

by Michael Gottlob
http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2007&leaf=03&filename=11139&filetype=pdf

______


[6]  EVENTS:


PERMANENT BLACK

in collaboration with the

INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE

invites you to a talk by

CHRISTOPHE JAFFRELOT
whose most recent work (as editor) is
HINDU NATIONALISM: A READER
(Permanent Black and Princeton University Press, 2007)

on
HINDU NATIONALISM:
PAST AND PRESENT

chaired by
SUMIT SARKAR
who will discuss the subject and moderate questions

venue
IIC, Conference Room 1

date
3 April 2007, 6 p.m. (tea followed by the talk)

do
come


o o

Sri Lanka Democracy Forum

invites you to a MEETING TO COMMEMORATE THE LIFE 
AND MEMORY OF KETHESH LOGANATHAN,

who was brutally gunned down at his residence in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 12
August 2006,

on

Saturday, 31 March 2007 from 6.30 to 9.30 pm at the

Conway Hall
25 Red Lion Square, London WC1
(nearest tube: Holborn)

Keynote Speaker:  Hon. Bob Rae (former Prime Minister of Ontario, Canada),
and speakers from Sri Lanka and the Diaspora

"A former militant,  academic, journalist, and tireless advocate of human
rights and a return to democratic values in Tamil politics, Kethesh was
one of the leading activists of the dissenting Tamil community who firmly
believed in a negotiated democratic political solution to the ethnic
conflict as opposed to the bleakness of a maudlin Tamil nationalism"

-  Sri Lanka Democracy Forum


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.