Awaaz - South Asia Watch News
News and information provided in conjunction with South Asia Citizens Wire and other sources
Posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Awaaz
Friday, August 22, 2003
Posted by: Awaaz / 8/22/2003 11:36:46 AMThe following e-mail has been received from the CRE media office, following allegations by Anil Pota (an organiser of the Modi visit) that the Commission for Racial Equality endorsed it.
"Our position is as Trevor (Phillips, Chair of the CRE) set out and what we have been saying to callers is quite simply: The CRE was not approached to support this visit, nor would we have done so anyway, as it is not a matter for us. The allegation made by visit organiser Anil Pota is untrue.
Hope that's helpful.
Kind regards
Lisa Mackenzie
Senior Media and Public Affairs Officer
Commission for Racial Equality
St Dunstan's House
201-211 Borough High Street
London SE1 1GZ
tel: (020) 7939 0113
fax: (020) 7939 0004
mobile: 07979 594128
email: lmackenzie@cre.gov.uk
web: www.cre.gov.uk
Posted by: Awaaz / 8/22/2003 02:12:22 AM
Move for fresh case against Modi put off
By Hasan Suroor
The Hindu 21 August 2003
LONDON AUG. 21. After a controversial four-day visit, the Gujarat
Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, left Britain today, even as plans by
human rights activists to file a fresh case against him in
connection with last year's communal violence in his State did not
materialise.
However, Suresh Grover, a party to the case which collapsed in a
London magistrate's court on Wednesday for lack of evidence, claimed
that the move had not been abandoned but simply ``put on hold'' to
gain time to get the requisite evidence.
``We hope to return to the court in about a fortnight to seek a EU-
wide arrest warrant against him.'' While he insisted that it was still
worth pursuing the case, there was a view that with Mr. Modi
gone, it was now only an academic exercise. One activist said it was
``a mistake to have left it to the last-minute'', and that the case
should have been filed immediately after Mr. Modi arrived here.
The original appeal was jointly filed by Mr. Grover, Gautam Appa of
the London School of Economics and activist Jagdish Patel under the
U.K. Criminal Justice Act and the International Convention on
Torture, to which India is a signatory. Legal sources said it was a
``close call'' for Mr. Modi who, it was confirmed, did not enjoy
either diplomatic or state immunity during his U.K. visit.
They claimed that had there been more time to adduce the sort of
evidence the court wanted, the outcome would have been different.
``I believe that the judge was too cautious,'' said one legal expert
who attended Wednesday's hearing.
The case against Mr. Modi is based on a complaint by Bilal Dawood, a
British citizen, whose brother, Fareed, and cousin, Shakil, were by
killed by a mob while on a holiday in Gujarat when the violence
erupted.
ENDS.
PRESS RELEASE
Date: 21 August 2003, 17.30PM
From: Awaaz - South Asia Watch (www.awaazsaw.org)
LEGAL ACTION TO ARREST NARENDRA MODI FOR TORTURE
Lawyers pursing a warrant for the arrest of Chief Minister of
Gujarat, Narenda Modi under Article 1 of the International
Convention Against Torture and Section 134 of the UK Criminal
Justice Act of 1988 have been allowed a period of two weeks to
collect relevant information and evidence that relates to direct
complicity between Modi and the killings of Muslim citizens of India
which took place after February 27 2002.
Yesterday, the complainant in the case was informed that Narendra
Modi would be represented by lawyers appointed by the Government of
India, though the latter is not party to the action. Representatives
of the Indian High Commission in the UK also attended the hearings
yesterday.
Awaaz is supporting an action in which the complainant is Suresh
Grover, represented by civil rights lawyer Imran Khan.
The process of laying down criminal charges against Narendra Modi
has begun. It is intended to show that the Chief Minister, members
of his cabinet, and those under his authority by act or omission
were instrumental in the pogroms that engulfed the state of Gujarat
and in which 2,000 Muslims were killed and 200,000 displaced.
This is the start of an important attempt outside India to bring to
justice the perpetrators of the Gujarat pogroms in 2002. Similar
opportunities will arise if Narendra Modi is travelling in other
European cities, the US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. The action
started by supporters of Awaaz will not prevent others to take, nor
will it affect, similar or related actions in other parts of the
world. Awaaz strongly encourages others to begin to collect
information and evidence in preparation for the possibility that
Modi comes to their part of the world.
Awaaz will continue supporting this legal action and strongly
encourages other organisations to take action regarding the
complicity of the State of Gujarat in the 2002 pogroms. If you have
any directly relevant information or evidence, please send, in
strictest confidence, to:
contact@awaazsaw.org
or
imrank@imrankhanandpartners.co.uk
tel: +44 (0)207 636 6314
fax: +44 (0)207 636 6315
Updates will be posted regularly at www.awaazsaw.org.
ENDS.
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Posted by: Awaaz / 8/21/2003 08:38:10 AMThe Times of India, August 20, 2003
Modi faces protests in London PTI[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2003 06:40:32 PM ]
LONDON: A group of people, including women, held a demonstration against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as he visited the office of Gujarat Samachar, a bilingual weekly, to inaugurate its Shakti hall on Wednesday.
The demonstrators shouted anti-Modi slogans holding him responsible for the deaths of large number of Muslims in the state during the post-Godhra riots.
Numbering over a dozen, the protesters represented various voluntary organisations -- the South Asia Solidarity Group, Council of Indian Muslims, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Awaaz, and Asian Women Unite.
They also raised slogans against C B Patel, editor of the weekly, for inviting Modi and urged its followers to boycott Gujarat Samachar and its sister weekly Asian Voice.
At the end of his four-day visit, Modi will leave for Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday.
ENDS.
Hindustan Times, August 20, 2003
Court refuses to admit plea against Modi
Nabanita Sircar London, August 20
Chief magistrate at the Bow Street Magistrate's court, Timothy Workman, refused the petition for the arrest of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, currently in London. The petition was refused on the ground of lack of evidence. But Workman told the solicitor for the petitioners Imran Khan that if he wanted to renew his petition he could do so. Khan had argued that under Section 134 a public person, of whatever nationality, could be arrested for an offence of torture anywhere so long as the person was in the UK. This, he argued, could be applied to Modi, who was in London at present. Khan depended on various published reports in the media and the findings of Justice Suresh who had held an inquiry about the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat and its victims. He also copiously quoted from an Indian magazine to beef up his case.
The petition which was signed by Suresh Grover, Jagdish Patel and Gautam Appa, of London School of Economics, had relied on Article 1 of the International Convention Against Torture and Section 134 of Criminal Justice Act of 1998.
To support his argument, Khan cited the instance of a minister in Modi's cabinet who had told Justice Suresh of a meeting over presided by Modi where he said that there is always a reaction to an action, referring to the Godhra incident.
The court also raised the question of diplomatic immunity which could be applied to Modi. Khan told the court that the Foreign Office confirmed that Modi was on a private visit. He also said that Modi did not represent India nor was he the Prime Minister.
But the court remained firm on its insistance of direct evidence against Modi upon which Khan asked for a recess. When the court reconvened after half an hour, Khan agreed that he did not have the evidence with him and it would take time to get it.
He told the media later on that it was difficult to get evidence because of the fear of repercussion if someone spoke against Modi. The courts in Britain cannot guarentee protection. Khan's argument was that the court could issue a warrant of arrest on suspicion but would be justified to charge Modi only after evidence. But Workman did not agree, and refused to admit the petition.
With Modi leaving for Geneva the case seems to have come to a natural close.
ENDS.
Hindustan Times, August 19, 2003
Rumours about plea against Modi unconfirmed
Vijay Dutt London, August 19
Human-rights activists claimed on Tuesday that they had submitted an application at the Bow Street Magistrates' Court for the detention of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi who is currently in London to promote the Gujarat Vibrant Initiative for attracting investments to the state.
The Indian High Commission, however, denied any knowledge of such a petition against Modi. The listing section in the Bow Street Magistrates' Court, too, had nothing listed for Tuesday.
According to the campaigners, a Bow Street magistrate is expected to hear on Wednesday the application submitted by them charging that Modi and other BJP officials could be linked to last year's communal violence in which, it is alleged, an estimated 3,000 people lost their lives.
As per procedures, the court would fix time to hear the petitioners before deciding whether there was enough ground to serve notice to the other side.
Suresh Grover, one of the three campaigners, has said that according to his understanding a connection had to be established between a public official and incidents of pain and suffering that might be known to have taken place. "We think we can show a connection between BJP officials, including cabinet ministers, to the incidents that took place in Gujarat," he said.
Grover claimed that his submission to the magistrate court had been co-signed by London School of Economics Professor Dr Gautam Appa and fellow human and civil rights activist Jagdish Patel.
"I think we have prima facie evidence that Modi was present when certain actions were decided and he subsequently failed to fulfil his obligations to safeguard the public," Grover added.
Modi is to leave London for Switzerland on Thursday.
ENDS.
Hindustan Times, August 20, 2003
Plea against Modi likely to be heard today
Vijay Dutt London, August 20
The Listing office of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court said that an application from solicitors relating to Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, who is currently on a business promotion tour in London, has been listed for consideration today.
Earlier, Suresh Grover, one of the three petitioners, also told the HindustanTimes.com's UK Bureau that he had submitted the petition on Tuesday and it would be taken up in the afternoon on Wednesday. He said that the petition was based on Art 1 of the International Convention Against Torture and Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act of 1988.
Asked that no action could be taken against Modi, even if the Court decided that there were sufficient grounds to give notice, without the express permission of the Attorney General, Grover said that there was a proviso that courts in emergency cases could make an order pending the decision of the Attorney General.
Grover informed that he had collected over 30 documents and a large number of FIRs filed following the riots in the state in support of his petition. His stand is that torture could be mental and need not be physical to attract the proviso against inflicting torture.
He also claimed that the state did not follow the directives of the National Human Rights Commission and therefore, was guilty of non-compliance.
ENDS.
Posted by: Awaaz / 8/21/2003 08:15:19 AM
London court gives Modi a breather
PTI[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2003 11:42:13 PM ] LONDON: A London court on Wednesday rejected a petition moved by a voluntary organisation seeking the arrest of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on alleged charge of being responsible for the deaths of thousands of Muslims in the post Godhra riots.
Judge Walkman of the Bow Street magistrate’s court said he was rejecting the petition on the ground of lack of evidence against Modi. He, however, remarked that the petitioner could come back with a renewed application and he would be available.
The petition was filed by Suresh Grover on behalf of Awaaz, a voluntary organisation.
Awaaz, Southasia Solidarity Group, Council of Indian Muslims and several other organisations had held a demonstration in front of the Wembley Conference Centre on Sunday when Modi was addressing an audience inside the air-conditioned centre.
ENDS.
London judge turns down arrest warrant against Modi
Shyam Bhatia in London | August 20, 2003 22:09 IST
A London magistrate has turned down an application from human and civil rights activists to issue an arrest warrant for visiting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to proceed.
District Judge Timothy Workman sitting at Bow Street magistrates' court had earlier heard arguments on behalf of human rights activists led by London-based Suresh Grover that Modi should be arrested because he was directly or indirectly involved in causing 'pain, suffering and torture' to citizens of Gujarat while he was the chief minister.
International solicitor Imran Khan representing Grover and co-petitioners London School of Economics Professor Guatam Appa and activist Jagdish Patel argued that under the International Convention Against Torture and Section 134 of the UK Criminal Justice Act of 1998 any public person could be arrested so long as they were in the UK.
Judge Workman agreed the case could be heard, but said Khan's evidence, based on published reports in the media and Justice Hosbet Suresh's inquiry into Gujarat's communal riots, needed more substance.
Justice Suresh, a retired Mumbai high court judge, had conducted an independent inquiry for some rights body into the riots
His ruling means there is nothing to prevent Modi from leaving London on Thursday as planned for Geneva.
But the petitioners say they intend to take up the judge's offer to return to the court later this week if they can come up with sworn statements from riot victims.
"He has given us permission to come back to court tomorrow or Friday if we are able to produce that evidence," Grover told rediff.com "We are at the moment trying to get statements from people, or people who attended the citizens tribunal hearing (in Gujarat) to see if they would sign a statement by themselves on what they heard from a minister close to Modi."
ENDS.
Violence won't matter to Gujarat: Modi
RASHMEE Z AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2003 07:38:30 PM ] LONDON: A determinedly upbeat Narendra Modi has dismissed last year's Gujarat violence as an irrelevance and said it would matter as little to the state as 9/11 did to the USA.
Asked by this paper if his ongoing overseas Gujarat hardsell and dreams for the state's future conflicted with international criticism of his past activities, Modi defiantly said: "Yet, no one has asked this question to the USA after 9/11. Delhi is developing fast -- no one has asked this question to Delhi after 1984. If it does not matter to Delhi and USA, why should it matter to Gujarat?"
Modi's public bravado came after he reportedly acknowledged in conversation with several British Gujarati Muslims that the state's "public image had suffered internatinally by the violence".
In an interesting pointer to Modi's attempts to build bridges with vocal Gujarati Muslims overseas, Ismail Lorgat, a prominent community leader belonging to Blackburn, the parliamentary constituency of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, revealed that he had pleaded for justice from Modi.
Lorgat said Modi had promised to look into the cases of "15 Muslim scholars in custody in Gujarat and he promised no injustice would be done".
But Modi's decision to link Gujarat's ferocious communal violence with the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US drew criticism from some observers, who contrasted it with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's abject apology for Gujarat in London last year.
Modi's comments came just hours before members of Awaaz, a South Asian human rights organisation refused to confirm whether or not their scheduled application for his arrest had been accepted by a Bow Street magistrate on Tuesday. The affidavit is now reportedly due to be heard here on Wednesday forenoon.
Awaaz's Suresh Grover, whose name is on the affidavit, told TNN: "I have read your story and I can make no comment to you".
And in a sign of continuing tensions on every front, Modi offered a sarcastic response to the corrosive criticism in Monday's Guardian newspaper, comparing him to Hitler, Pol Pot and Slobodan Milosovic. "I have not read and I would not like to read. But thank you for people spending time on me," he snapped.
Imran Khan, the lawyer who prepared the London affidavit against Modi, said he was too busy to talk.
Meanwhile, Modi told journalists he could offer angry Gujarati Muslims everywhere the following reassurance: "I always speak of five crore Gujaratis, I never used the term minority, majority, this religion, that religion... I said Abhayam (do not fear)."
ENDS.
Modi blows the Gujarat trumpet in Britain
PTI[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2003 11:48:09 PM ] LONDON: Stating that Gujarat will be the gateway of prosperity of India in the 21st century, Chief Minister Narendra Modi has said those investing in the state in infrastructure, energy and technology projects would greatly benefit because of the state's corporate and professional ethos.
India would be a leading industrial power in the 21st century and Gujarat would be the number one industrial state in the country, said Modi. He was addressing prominent members of the British business and industrial community at a dinner hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) at St James Court on Tuesday.
Modi claimed the government has created such a positive environment in the state that it would force investors to come to the state. Once they come, they would be reluctant to leave, he added. He claimed he had brought about a sea change in the work culture and converted red tape into red carpet for investors.
Modi, who had spent more than two years in the Himalayas before becoming the chief minister, claimed that he was not a "professional politician" but one who has "adopted politics as the dharma... For me the five crore people of the state are my god and I am their karamchari."
Modi said he would not like to shout from the pulpit that he would remove corruption, but whenever such cases came to his notice, he had taken stringent action.
"For example, 203 contractors, politicians and others who had resorted to corrupt practices while carrying out earthquake relief works were booked and put behind the bars. Similarly, 15 to 17 officials of the cooperative banks who had swindled poor depositors to the tune of Rs 300 crores were punished," he said.
ENDS.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Posted by: Awaaz / 8/20/2003 07:46:41 AMTo: Editor (Letters) DAWN, Karachi
19 August, 2003.
Dear Sir/Madam,
London Demonstration Against Narendra Modi.
I am a bit perturbed over your APP-based report: "Muslims protest Modi's UK Visit" (DAWN 19 August). Being part of this significant event, I can safely claim that other than hundreds of Muslims --understandably most of them from Gujarat -- protesting outside the Wembley Centre on Sunday, 17 August, there were several other participants as well, representing different regions, religions/ideologies and nationalities.
Understandably, the Dauds of Gujarat who lost two UK-born sons while on a visit to the state last year, were demanding proper investigation and had quite a few sympathisers with them flagging banners and raising slogans.
However, the protest was jointly sponsored by several Muslim/non-Muslim groups in Britain including the Indian Workers Association, AWAAZ, South Asian Solidarity Group, Council of Indian Muslims, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Oxford South Asia Forum, South Asia Watch, Indian Muslim Federation, Cambridge South Asia Forum, Asian Women Unite and many others. Importantly, not all of them are Muslim per se, neither would some of them like to be put under any specific communal category.
The purpose behind this protest was not only to highlight the brutalities committed under the BJP-led state government of Narendra Modi now on a visit to the UK, but also to espouse a common cause and solidarity among South Asians from various walks of life. Thus, to report such an event merely as a MUSLIM protest against the Hindtuva regime is, in fact, dangerously substantiating the BJP-VHP-BNP campaign here in the UK nefariously aimed at projecting Muslims as the international culprits and sole trouble makers.
Besides, it is a cruel joke with those courageous and well meaning South Asian individuals and groups who resist both the state-led and societal fascism while taking all kinds of risks solely in the larger interests of entire South Asia. Thus, I am afraid, your APP correspondent, whom I certainly did not see at all the entire Sunday afternoon outside Wembley Centre, has unwittingly become an instrument of a vicious communalist campaign. During the protest, when a woman reporter from The Independent (London) raised a similar point of this being a Muslim protest, a gentleman standing next to me observed right away: "Look, I am a Sikh from India and am here with twenty others from the Indian Workers Association; it is not an entirely Muslim event". He brought a few more protesters of Sikh and Christian background. My colleague and friend, Dr. Amrit Wilson, a British Indian academic from SOAS, was there with her family and friends representing South Asian Solidarity group. While talking to TV crews she made laudable efforts to show that other than Muslims, the protest had the full support and participation of a wide variety of South Asians and other human rights groups. A couple of bob-South Asian protesters at the rally also vocally volunteered to affirm that there were Hindus, Christians, Dalits, Sikhs and several other communities at the demonstration though majority of them were, of course, Muslim Gujaratis. For God's sake, request your reporter either to be present at such meetings or not to carelessly rehash something that may not only be incorrect but could also have serious repercussions for communal relationship in Diaspora. It is a known fact that the above-mentioned fundamentalist organisations are trying to their hilt to create Hindu-Muslim, Muslim-Sikh and Muslim-Christian feuds in the United Kingdom and by misreporting a major event like the Wembley Demonstration I am afraid the APP has fallen into the same trap. With my very best regards, Sincerely, Dr. Iftikhar H. Malik
ENDS.
UK rights activists want Modi arrested
Shyam Bhatia in London
Rediff News, August 19, 2003, Tuesday
August 19, 2003 20:18 IST
Human rights campaigners say they have submitted an application before a London magistrate asking for the arrest of visiting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
A Bow Street magistrate is expected to respond on Wednesday to claims submitted by three campaigners that Modi and other BJP officials can be linked to last year's communal violence in the state in which an estimated 3,000 people lost their lives.
Suresh Grover, one of the three campaigners who will be represented at Wednesday's hearing, told rediff.com: "We think we can show a connection between BJP officials, including Cabinet ministers, to the incidents that took place in Gujarat."
Grover's said his submission to the magistrate has been co-signed by London School of Economics professor Dr Gautam Appa and fellow human and civil rights activist Jagdish Patel.
"I think we have prima facie evidence that Modi was present when certain actions were decided and he subsequently failed to fulfil his obligations to safeguard the public," Grover added.
The supplicants are pinning their hopes on the precedent that was created when the visiting former Chile dictator General Augustus Pinochet was detained in London for five months, pending his extradition to Spain to face charges of torture filed by relatives of those who suffered under his regime.
The issue became a political hot potato for the British government and Pinochet was eventually released and allowed to return home on grounds of ill health.
Legal experts in London say the magistrate will be within his rights to issue a warrant for Modi's arrest, but a decision on whether to execute the warrant rests with the UK's Attorney General.
Experts said Modi can be questioned by the police, but will not be charged without the explicit authorisation of the Attorney General.
Modi is due to leave London for Switzerland on Thursday. On Tuesday evening he is due to address a meeting of business leaders, including NRIs, who have been invited to participate in next month's Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit.
ENDS.
Case to be filed against Modi in London
By Hasan Suroor
The Hindu August 20, 2003 http://www.thehindu.com/2003/08/20/stories/2003082010981100.htm
LONDON AUG. 19. A case seeking prosecution of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, for alleged torture is expected to be filed in a London magistrate's court tomorrow on behalf of the relatives of two British citizens who were killed by a mob in last year's communal violence in the State.
Human rights activist Suresh Grover, who is behind the legal campaign, said the case would be filed under the Criminal Justice Act U.K., which gives the British courts jurisdiction over cases of torture irrespective of where the act was committed or who actually committed it. The former Chilean President, Augusto Pinochet, was tried under the same Act in Britain a few years ago.
The case would be built around the complaint of Bilal Dawood, a British citizen, whose brother Fareed and cousin Shakil were attacked by a mob and killed while they were visiting Gujarat. The car in which they were travelling was stopped and set on fire while they were inside. "All we want is a proper investigation to get justice for what happened to them," Mr. Dawood said.
Legal sources said the "challenge" for the petitioner would be to establish that the mob that killed the two was working with the consent or acquiescence of Mr. Modi or his officials. Though they would not be required to prove that Mr. Modi personally took part in the torture, the chain of command leading back to him would have to be established. "It could be a long shot trying to establish that," one legal expert on international law said.
Even if the case is admitted, the consent of the Attorney-General would be needed to proceed with it.
There was much confusion today after it was claimed that a case had already been filed in the morning. But Mr. Grover told The Hindu: "We will be filing it tomorrow before the Bow Street Magistrate's court."
ENDS.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Posted by: Awaaz / 8/19/2003 01:48:32 AMFAO Editors and Planning
Press Release 16 August 2003
Human Rights Group to pursue legal action against the Chief Minister of Gujarat (India), Narendra Modi, whilst on visit to the UK.
Indian Fascist and religiously intolerant leader may be arrested.
Awaaz South Asia Watch is planning to take legal action against the visiting Chief Minister of Gujarat (India), Mr Narendera Modi, for crimes against humanity and have him arrested. The human rights secular group has already instructed a leading civil rights lawyer, Mr Imran Khan (the solicitor for the Lawrence family), to attempt and obtain an arrest warrant against the politician. If the legal action succeeds, Mr Modi may either be arrested or summoned to court during the duration of his visit to the UK.
Narendra Modi, a member of the ruling Hindu extremist party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was responsible for inciting hatred and violence against Gujarat's Muslim population that resulted in the slaughter of at least 2500 Muslims (including three British Muslims) in February and March 2002, and the raping of hundreds of Muslim women, who were then burnt to death. Over two hundred thousand Muslims were made homeless in the mass riots that accompanied the pogrom. To date, not a single person has been convicted for the genocide in Gujarat.
Awaaz is also mobilizing for the mass picket against Mr Modi, who is expected to address his supporters at a meeting this Sunday 17th August 2003 at Wembley Conference Centre, London. The protest is likely to be the biggest for any visiting politician from India as Mr Modi is detested for his views by all sections, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christains, Buddhists, Jains and those of no faith, of the Indian population in the UK.
AWAAZ SOUTH ASIA WATCH
Awaaz is a UK-based secular network of individuals and organisations committed to monitoring and combating religious hatred in South Asia and in the UK.
Awaaz monitors and combats the promotion of religious hatred and fascism in the UK and South Asia.
Awaaz was established following the violence and killings of Indian citizens, mainly Muslims, in the state of Gujarat after February 2002. The Gujarat carnage was a turning point in the recent history of India and showed how genocidal Hindutva forces have established a firm hold on many aspects of Indian society.
Awaaz campaigns against religious fundamentalist control of the state, civil society, political life and personal freedoms. Awaaz campaigns for secular democratic state institutions and civil life where all citizens have the right to live in peace and security and fully participate in the political and civil process and decision making.
Awaaz stands for peaceful resolution of problems between South Asian countries, opposes violation of human rights, and opposes discrimination based on caste, gender, religion, region, ethnicity or race. Awaaz unreservedly condemns the political use of religion to attack individuals and minorities including Muslims in India, Christians and dalits across South Asia, Hindus in Bangladesh and Shias and Ahmaddis in Pakistan.
Awaaz has secured support from leading civil rights and community organisations in the UK and abroad. Active members include Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and people of no faith.
Picket Details: 3pm...6pm, Wembley Conference Centre, Empire Way, Wembley, Middlesex Underground: Wembley Park (Metropolitan Line, Jubilee Line, Bakerloo Line ). British Rail: Wembley Central Station; Buses: 79, 83, 92,182 and 224
For further information contact Suresh Grover on 07958 174451 or visit our website on www.awaazsaw.org
ENDS.
The Guardian Monday August 18, 2003 Mark Oliver, and Luke Harding in New Delhi
He is blamed for the death of 2,000 Muslims in India. So why is Narendra Modi in Wembley?
There was to be no Pinochet-style arrest for Narendra Modi. Instead, a man either responsible for mass-genocide or the saviour of India's Hindus - depending on your point of view - rolled into Wembley conference centre last night besieged by hundreds of Muslim protesters from as far afield as Bolton, Birmingham and Leicester. "Three thousand people dead! Modi murderer!" they chanted.
The Hindu chief minister of India's Gujarat state is blamed for the sectarian murder of at least 2,000 Muslims last year. Now he is thought to be using his profile in Britain to push for bigger electoral rewards at home. It's a policy his opponents say is tinged in blood.
The wave of communal violence began in February 2002 when a group of Muslims set fire to a train in the western town of Godhra. Some 59 Hindu pilgrims, many of them women and children, perished. The incident led to gangs of Hindus in Gujarat, one of India's most prosperous states, taking revenge on their Muslim neighbours.
In the inferno that followed more than 2,000 Muslims were killed, as Hindu mobs went on a spree of raping, burning and murdering. The dead included three Britons visiting India on holiday.
Instead of trying to prevent the slaughter, Mr Modi - a member of India's right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) - instructed his administration to do nothing.
The keynote of Mr Modi's speech last night to about 2,500 Hindu guests was prosaic; he talked of business and attracting investment to Gujarat. But outside the centre the Muslim protesters were claiming he had blood on his hands over the "organised pogrom".
Many also criticised the Home Office for granting Mr Modi a visa.The demonstrators holding placards from a variety of groups put on a noisy but predominantly peaceful demonstration. Later their noise level escalated when one Muslim demonstrator running towards the venue was dragged away by police.
Burnt alive
Among the protesters was Bilal Dawood, 34, whose family lost two members in last year's violence. His brother Faeed, 41, and his cousin Shakil, 38, were on holiday in Gujarat when a mob stopped their car and they were set ablaze with petrol. A 17-year-old cousin of Mr Dawood escaped but has been left severely traumatised by the attack. Mr Dawood, of Batley, West Yorkshire, said: "All we want is a proper investigation to get justice for what happened to them."
Asked if he would like to see Mr Modi arrested in London, Mr Dawood said: "I would like to see the possibility of him being arrested... but what we are after is the specific people who did this. There have been six people arrested but then released and no one has been charged."
Indeed the absence of any arrests following the 2,000-plus killings is one of the main reasons for the anger of Muslim groups.
The British government yesterday indicated that it did not want anything to do with Mr Modi's visit. The Home Office said in a statement: "We are aware he's visiting the UK. He is not visiting at her majesty's government's invitation nor does the government plan to have any contact with him when he's here.
"We do understand the concerns expressed but there were no appropriate grounds to refuse Mr Modi a visa."
The Foreign Office echoed the Home Office line and a spokeswoman said: "We are concerned by a report that the state government of Gujarat did not do as much as it could to prompt an end to the violence."
Mr Modi arrived at Heathrow yesterday morning and is scheduled to stay in the UK until Thursday on his private visit, meeting political, social and business groups. Hasmukh Shah, a spokesman for the Friends of Gujarat, which helped organise his trip with more than a dozen other Hindu groups, said that Mr Modi had been badly misrepresented.
"The allegations they are making are wholly false. In fact Mr Modi and the authority did much to help all communities during the violence." He said international agencies which had investigated last year's attacks had exonerated Mr Modi of blame.
"No fear or favour, that is what Mr Modi is about and he is responsible for great economic progress for all people in Gujarat."
A statement by the organisers of his London trip, during which he will also make a speech at a hotel near St James's park in central London tomorrow, said: "He is here for a visit to promote the state, attract investments and invite potential participants at the Vibrant Gujarat global investor summit to be held in Gujarat next month."
One group, the Federation of Student Islamic Society (Fosis), criticised Wembley conference centre for hosting Mr Modi's speech. A spokesman for Fosis said: "How can a reputable conference venue play host to a man like Mr Modi?"
Wembley conference centre insisted it accepted bookings from "organisations legitimate under the laws of England". It added: "The BJP is the governing party in India and Narendra Modi is a high-ranking official who has been granted a visa."
Shailesh Parekh, 39, a Solihull businessman, was among Mr Modi's admirers in the Wembley audience. "I am interested in what he has to say," he said. "You will not see Hindu people demonstrating like the Muslims here today - Hindus are tolerant."
But with demonstrators still chanting outside as Mr Modi drew his stage act to a close last night, tolerance seemed to be conspicuous only by its absence.
ENDS.
The Guardian Monday August 18, 2003 Luke Harding
Profile: Narendra Modi
The single vegetarian likened by some to Hitler and Pol Pot
He is the most controversial figure in modern Indian politics - likened by his many enemies to Adolf Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic and Pol Pot.
Narendra Modi, 52, the chief minister of India's western state of Gujarat, was catapulted to infamy last year after presiding over India's worst communal riots for a decade.
The main charge: that his police force merely watched as Hindu mobs in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's historic main city, and in surrounding towns and villages, burned out entire Muslim communities and desecrated mosques. The riots left 100,000 people homeless, severely damaged India's credentials as a secular democracy, and were described - correctly - as genocide.
They also led to a major diplomatic rift between Britain and India after a report by the British high commission in New Delhi blamed India's BJP-led coalition government.
Writing in the Guardian, a group of south Asian scholars said Mr Modi should be indicted for his "culpable" role in the killings, and called on the British government to declare him persona non grata. Lawyers for the three dead Britons explored ways of prosecuting him.
The chief minister, however, was unrepentant. The strategy worked. In state elections last December Mr Modi won an astonishing majority - and praise from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India's elderly BJP prime minister, who had briefly considered sacking his troublesome protege.
Many now believe that Mr Modi's brand of chauvinist anti-Muslim politics, known in India as Modi-tva, will see the BJP win a historic second term in India's general elections next year.
But the riots appear to have done permanent damage to Hindu-Muslim relations in India, a country with 140 million Muslims. None of the Hindu rioters who took part in last year's killings have been brought to justice, largely because Mr Modi's government has consistently frustrated attempts to prosecute the guilty.
Earlier this summer India's high court threw out a case against 21 people accused of burning 14 Muslims to death at a bakery in Vadodra. India's national human rights commission has appealed against the ruling after it emerged that all of the witnesses for the prosecution had been terrorised into silence. Mr Modi is contesting the appeal.
An MA graduate who can speak fluent English but who prefers to declaim in Gujarati or Hindi as he did in London last night, Mr Modi is technically savvy, and usually answers his own email. He is single, and a vegetarian.
His decision to fly to Britain suggests he is preparing to launch himself on the national Indian stage, with some pundits tipping him as a future Indian prime minister.
If he ever makes it, then India's tradition of secular democracy, which has been under threat for some time, will have been replaced by something much darker.
ENDS.
UK rights group seeks Modi's arrest RASHMEE Z AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2003 10:51:55 PM ]
LONDON: Narendra Modi began on Sunday a whistle-stop tour through Europe to re-brand Gujarat internationally, but the chief minister may have to shout to make himself heard above the massed protestors pleading for justice. In particular, Modi's lawyers may have to prove to a British magistrate that he is not Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean military leader who was uniquely arrested in the UK in 1998 and detained for 17 months on charges of crimes against humanity. Just hours before Modi began his first visit to the UK since the Gujarat violence, members of a South Asian human rights organisation claimed they would seek Modi's arrest on Tuesday through the court of a Bow Street magistrate, where public interest cases are heard. It was at a Bow Street magistrate's court that the whole headline-grabbing saga of the Pinochet arrest began but observers said the Modi affidavit may turn out to be no more than a 'gimmick'. But, Modi's London visit began with an altogether sunnier 'community event' near Wembley stadium, attended by 2,400 Gujaratis. The chief minister's main message, said organiser Anil Pota, general secretary of the Overseas Friends of the BJP, is to seek the help of Gujaratis everywhere for his '—Vibrant Gujarat' initiative. Modi is to meet representatives of oil company Shell in the UK and several leading business groups during his next stop in Zurich and Geneva. The European tour will culminate in a 'global investors meeting' late next month in Ahmedabad, where Fortune 500 companies will be invited to invest in a state that is peaceful and prosperous.
Prominent Gujarati poet Praful Amin in Birmingham, said non-resident Gujaratis 'are backing Modi' and it was time for reconciliation even with some of the angrier groups of British Gujarati Muslims calling Modi a 'fascist'.
On Sunday, relatives of two British Gujaratis from Yorkshire, who lost their lives in the Gujarat violence, publicly endorsed the mass protests and calls for justice for their loved ones. Bilal Dawood, whose brothers Saeed and Shakil Dawood were killed while on holiday in Gujarat, went public on BBC domestic radio with what he called a message to Modi. "We just want a proper investigation or a reinvestigation to happen... We just want to know what's happened, who's done it, and why it's happened, and the right justice process to be followed. Modi is in charge of Gujurat state, so... he is ultimately liable for (these deaths)..."
ENDS.
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 18:19:10 +0000
I.K.Shukla
COZYING UP TO A FASCIST?
It is dismaying that some Muslim organisations/individuals in England are extending a welcome/reception to the Butcher of Gujarat Muslims. [SEE: Hindustan Times - Muslim leaders welcome Narendra Modi in London - http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_341696,000900040003.htm ] Nothing can be more ignoble and abject than this appeasement of a RSS Hitler. Like Hitler, appeased by the West in general, and Chamberlain in particular, he will carry on more massacres, more pogroms in consonance with the Hindutva project of extermination of the minorities, endorsed and encouraged, alas, by such Muslims.
He is being propitiated in Chamberlain's UK! Apt. He is being hailed in the England of Diana Mosley, the fascist who recently died. Apposite.
Whose spokesmen these Muslims are? Certainly, not of those massacred, robbed, raped, dishonored, and destroyed in Gujarat.
Expecting in Modi a "Change of heart"? It is a Gandhian concept. Modi is an enemy of Gandhi and all Gandhian values.
This ignominious perfidy of a Welcome for a mass murderer, a genocidal brute, a subhuman beast, now on his triumphalist tour and fundraising for his murder machine in Gujarat, amounts to giving him a Certificate of Merit and Medal of Honor for having Muslims burnt alive, Muslim children toasted, Muslim women dishonored, Muslim properties razed and robbed in Gujarat, and thousands of Muslims rendered homeless refugees overnight. Rewarding the planner of a pogrom! Celebrating the slaughter of 2000!
It would be an additional insult to Muslims flayed alive, to Muslim infants speared, to Muslim women gangraped and torn into shreds, to Muslim men hacked into pieces. All because they were Muslims. Because they were no vote bank for the Hindu Terrorists. Because, as voters, as "foreigners" they were expendable. Because they were competitors in the job market and more acutely, more intolerably, in the economic sphere, even as street vendors, humble hawkers and journeymen.
Any such Welcome amounts to validating Modi's crimes against humanity. He has as yet not been punished, nor ostracised.
He has not apologised, made no restitution to those affected, expressed no interest in having the hired rapists and Hindu assassins and arsonists brought to justice, he has obstructed all efforts at seeking justice, he has suborned the machinery of law and order, and subverted all canons of morality and statecraft, sedulously, seditiously.
He and his cohort deserve a hangman's noose, not a garland of flowers.
He disgraced India, he shamed democracy, he soiled Gujarat with the blood of innocents. He should be avoided in any civilised society, he should be barred from any civilised nation as a criminal, he should be tried as a demon in human garb. He should be exorcised as evil, not embraced as a feral freak.
Those honoring him are dishonoring and desecrating India, Gandhi, civilisation, and millions upon millions of human beings who are votaries of peace and amity, of democracy and pluralism, of secularsim and egalitarianism.
It is they now who are on trial too, besides the Monster.
ENDS.
The Hindu. August 18, 2003
By Hasan Suroor
Slogans raised against Modi in London
LONDON AUG. 17. The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, who arrived here this morning on a four-day private visit, was booed by protesters as they picketed the venue of his first public engagement, a meeting with "friends of Gujarat" in Wembley, west London.
As he addressed a large gathering of BJP supporters inside the Wembley Conference Centre, outside civil rights campaigners and Muslim activists waved banners and raised slogans denouncing his alleged role in what they described as "genocide'' in Gujarat in which several British Muslims were killed.
There was also talk of filing a case against him in British courts on charges of alleged "crimes against humanity", but some Muslims called for "reconciliation" saying that "confrontation" was not the answer.
This is his first visit to the United Kingdom after the Gujarat killings which were condemned by the British Government.
The Foreign Office made it clear that Mr. Modi was not here at the invitation of the British Government and repeated its concern that the Indian Government did not do enough to prevent or stop the violence.
Today's protests followed calls for a ban on the plea that his presence posed a "danger to race relations" in Britain.
Demonstrators, representing Muslim as well as cross-community groups, came from as far as Leicester, Birmingham and Bolton.
The Indian Muslim Federation and the Council of Indian Muslims urged the British Government to revoke his visa saying that such action had been taken in the past against people who were seen as posing a threat to communal harmony in the country.
A spokesperson for the South Asia Solidarity Group said Mr. Modi's election victory was a "victory for fascism'' and said that the victims of the Gujarat violence still lived in "fear".
"Ostensibly his visit is aimed at attracting investment in Gujarat but we fear that he will also be raising funds which might be used to fuel communal passions," she said.
Mr. Modi's programme is crammed with meetings with BJP supporters and visits to temples.
ENDS.
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