[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> from india: save mallika

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha@sarai.net>]

Dear all at Nettime,
(apologies for cross posting to those also on Undercurrents)

You have already read the posting forwarded by Drazen. The situation in 
Gujrat continues to be alarming. I quote from a news report on NDTV - "After 
weeks of calm there have been incidents of violence in the Saurashtra region 
of Gujarat. 

An indefinite curfew has been placed in Bhavnagar following clashes, and the 
army has been deployed in parts of the city.

Meanwhile in Ahmedabad 6 people have been injured when the police opened fire 
to disperse two groups in the curfew bound Vejalpur area of Ahmedabad last 
night. Two people badly hurt in last weekend's violence have now died. 

Group clashes and incidents of arson have also been reported in the Amdupura 
area of Ahmedabad which has also been under curfew since last night. "

Here is a more detailed  news report on Ahmedabad, Gujrat's most important 
city which belies the impression that "calm" and normalcy have returned to 
Gujrat.
_______________________________________________

Ahmedabad on the edge
Nalin Mehta and Sanjeev Singh
from www.ndtv.com

In the last few weeks, the nature of the violence in Gujarat seems to have 
changed. Although there has been no large-scale rioting, there is an 
atmosphere of deep and persistent mistrust in which even the slightest 
provocation can trigger off trouble.
 
The local residents immediately surrounded the NDTV correspondents as they 
entered a small mohalla in Dariapur in Ahmedabad's walled area. No strangers 
venture here and all newcomers are looked at with suspicion.

In such an atmosphere, it doesn't take much for a crowd to materialise and 
even a small incident can ignite passions and convert the crowd into a mob. 

For instance, in Ramol on the outskirts of Ahmedabad where three people were 
recently killed, the violence started with mattresses being burnt by one 
community on one side of what is now called the border.

Barricades have now been set up across the city to demarcate the Hindu and 
Muslim areas in colonies where both communities have lived side by side for 
years. Access is strictly controlled.

The border signifies the deep divisions in this city and the rules of 
engagement are very clear. There is constant provocation from both sides, but 
the boundary is considered sacrosanct. 

Near this locality in Juhapura, an area with a large Muslim population, a 
permanent fence has been put up to signify the border. 

"We are very worried. The border is nearby. They call it the Pakistan border 
and the government doesn't do anything," said a local.

The violence often starts with stones or Molotov cocktails being thrown 
across the dividing line. Unlike the first phase of rioting which was mainly 
one-sided, both communities have been involved in this latest cycle of 
violence. 

277 people were killed in Ahmedabad city in the first two days of large-scale 
rioting on February 28 and March 1. (the total toll of dead in all of Gujrat 
state has crossed 800, by conservative estimates)

Since March 5, although large-scale rioting has subsided, 63 people have been 
killed. Twenty-six of them have been killed in the last four days alone.

"This happens because of rumours, because of mistrust. People come out and 
there is intolerance. It's not possible to prevent all of them," said P C 
Pandey, Police Commissioner.

With nearly half the city once again under night curfew almost two months 
after the violence began, Ahmedabad's nightmare is still far from over.
_________________________________________

Meanwhile, efforts are on to build a case against Narendra Modi, chief 
minister of Gujrat in the International Court of Justice. It may be recalled, 
that the largest party (Bharatiya Janata Party) of the National Democratic 
Alliance which is in power in India, cleared Narendra Modi of all 
responsibility for the violence in Gujrat, and even commended him for 
bringing  'Normalcy' back to the state.

Read below a news report detailing the efforts to build a case against Modi 
in Britain, which appeared recently in the Times of India
________________________________________________
Modi to be sued for genocide in London 
RASHMEE Z AHMED

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2002 8:27:32 PM ] 
 
LONDON: Britain-based Gujaratis are working alongside the British government 
to bring three cases in three separate courts across Europe against Gujarat 
Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The cases, which are to be filed separately in the British High Court, the 
Belgian courts and, possibly, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The 
Hague, are expected to compliment two other proposed cases against Modi and 
his administration in India and the US. 

The charges, ranging from complicity with murder to genocide, could, 
theoretically, lead to a formal request for Modi's extradition, as seemed 
likely when Belgian court officials recently held preliminary hearings in a 
genocide case against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Belgian law, unique and controversially, allows its courts to hear cases of 
war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity no matter where they are 
carried out or by whom.

Sulaiman Qazi, solicitor and cousin of British national Mohammed Aswat who 
was killed near Ahmedabad, says that the British government is cooperating 
fully in the preparation of the case, which could be filed in as little as 
"four or five weeks."

Describing the Gujarat violence as "a crime against humanity and not against 
one community," Qazi said he felt the British Foreign Office (FCO) would 
support them to the hilt.

"The FCO has said that high-ranking officials were responsible for the 
massacre of innocents and we know that is a statement of support if it comes 
to extradition," Qazi told The Sunday Times of India as he worked on a "a 
database consisting of hundreds of eyewitness accounts, with verifiable 
names, addresses and contact numbers."

Sources acknowledged that the FCO's alleged help sits oddly with a government 
pronouncement on Gujarat in the House of Lords in early March, when junior 
foreign office minister Baronness Amos "appreciated the efforts which have 
been made by the Indian Government to restore calm" and said "the Indian 
authorities are seen to be doing all that they can."

The minister had been replying to concerned queries about Aswat's two 
still-missing companions, Shakil and Saeed Dawood.

Qazi admitted that extradition is only one possibility. More likely, he said, 
"is a Henry Kissinger-like situation, in which the former American secretary 
of state's arrival in the UK will be attended by Spanish investigators 
seeking to interview him on Cambodia." In other words, if Modi or others 
named were ever to set foot in the UK or European Union, they will almost 
certainly be "interviewed" by investigators.

Qazi's search for "admissible and irrefragible evidence against Modi, which 
would prove he had a direct hand in the killing of my cousin," will hinge on 
the testimony of a fourth British Muslim who was travelling with Aswat and 
saw his companions "lynched, set on fire and brutally murdered."

The man, who along with the other three, belongs to a West Yorkshire region 
made up of 15,000 Indian Gujarati Muslims, returned to the UK on Thursday 
after being nursed back to health by the British authorities in India.

His testimony was also recorded by the British political secretary in Mumbai.

The British case, to be filed by all four British families will not only 
charge the VHP, the RSS and the BJP, but also "name specific names." 

Qazi confirmed that British data-gathering, which took the form of a 
now-controversial and leaked report, has helped human rights organisations on 
the ground. London was, apparently, deeply involved in crucial data-gathering 
and, according to sources, two or three FCO officials flew out from here to 
join the British fact-finding team in India.

Zafar Sareshwala, rich expatriate member of a prominent Ahmedabadi family, 
lived near the dead British men, knew them well, and is helping to organise 
the legal challenge. 

He says the British authorities, particularly the local MP, have been stung 
into strong support because the Yorkshire Gujarati and Muslim population 
complained that Indian officials were not helping even to reach the site of 
Aswat's murder.

"There are more non-Muslims in the UK, US and India helping in the search for 
justice against Modi," said Sareshwala, who lectured at Harvard last week and 
was approached there by a senior professor, Balakrishnan Rajgopal, to help 
take Modi to the ICJ at The Hague.
_____________________________________

In the face of this, and a discreetly growing tide of international opinion, 
the ministry of external affairs of the government of India has issued 
communiques declaring that all is well in Gujrat, and condemning any comments 
expressed by people who are not Indian citizens as 'interference in the 
internal affairs of India'.

I would like to urge the readers of this list to consider whether expressing 
concern at a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in India 
constitutes undue interference in our lives, or whether a statement of 
solidarity with communities that are living in fear, while those who killed 
and looted, and those who orchestrated the violence go unpunished, is not the 
least that one could expect from people outside India. 

Please use every means at your disposal to re-iterate that you know that 
things are not "Normal" in India, and that they have not been for quite some 
time. It would help if you communicated these feelings to representatives of 
the state in India, wherever they may be in the world.

If this is "Normal", then I would shudder to think what a real crisis could 
mean for us here.

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