[Reader-list] India: Gujarat Massacre Cases Sabotaged

[Harsh Kapoor]

India: Gujarat Massacre Cases Sabotaged

(New York, July 1, 2003) - The ringleaders of massacres committed in 2002
are still roaming free in Gujarat, Human Rights Watch charged in a new
report released today.

The 70-page report, Compounding Injustice: The Government's Failure to
Redress Massacres in Gujarat, examines the record of state authorities in
holding perpetrators accountable and providing humanitarian relief to
victims of state-supported massacres of Muslims in February and March
2002.

Human Rights Watch urged the federal government to take over cases of
large-scale massacres where the state government has sabotaged
investigations. On June 27, a Gujarat state court acquitted twenty-one
people accused of burning alive twelve Muslims in a bakery in Vadodara.
Thirty-five of the seventy-three witnesses reportedly retracted in court
the statements they had given to the police identifying the attackers.

"The government's record on the massacres is appalling," said Smita
Narula, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch and author of the
report. "Sixteen months after the beginning of the violence, not a single
person has been convicted."

More than one hundred Muslims have been charged under India's much-
criticized Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) for their alleged
involvement in the train massacre in Godhra. No Hindus have been charged
under POTA in connection with the violence against Muslims, which the
government continues to dismiss as spontaneous and unorganized.

Although the Indian government initially boasted of thousands of arrests
following the attacks, most of those arrested have since been acquitted,
released on bail with no further action taken, or simply let go. Police
regularly downgrade serious charges to lesser crimes - from murder or
rape to rioting, for example - and alter victims' statements to delete
the names of the accused.

Even when cases reach trial, Muslim victims face biased prosecutors and
judges. Hindu and Muslim lawyers representing Muslim victims, and doctors
providing medical relief to them, have also faced harassment and threats.

Hundreds of women and girls were brutally raped, mutilated, and burnt
to death in Gujarat. The police have refused to pursue these cases.

In numerous instances, and in an effort to cover up their own
participation in the violence, the police have instituted false cases
against men and women injured in police shootings.

Living conditions for more than 100,000 people displaced by the
violence continue to be grossly inadequate. For months they resided in
makeshift relief camps with little support from the state.  By the end
of October 2002, the government had closed most of the camps, forcing
some families back into neighborhoods where their attackers still live
and where their security is continuously threatened. Most people
interviewed by Human Rights Watch received negligible amounts to
compensate for the destruction of their homes, ranging from a few
hundred to a few thousand rupees, or less than one hundred dollars.

Hindus in Gujarat have suffered as well, Human Rights Watch said.
Thousands of small businesses owned by Hindus closed down during the
violence. The relatives of the Hindus killed in Godhra have been
denied redress and some face economic destitution. The Human Rights
Watch report also documents and strongly condemns the September 2002
massacre of Hindus at Akshardham in Gandhinagar, Gujarat's capital.

Hindu nationalist groups continue to arm civilians in Gujarat and many
other Indian states.  Instead of cracking down on these groups, the
Gujarat state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has included the
distribution of arms as part of its election manifesto.

In December 2002, the BJP won by a landslide in Gujarat state
elections. Using posters and videotapes of the Godhra massacre, and
rhetoric that depicted Muslims as terrorists intent on destroying the
Hindu community, the party gained the most seats in areas affected by
the communal violence.

In states that go to the polls later this year, such as Rajasthan and
Madhya Pradesh, potentially explosive campaigns are already in full
swing. Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP)
are distributing weapons similar to those used in Gujarat, as well as
literature depicting Muslims as sexual deviants and terrorists.
Members of both communities live in fear that a simple altercation
could become the pretext for large-scale violence.

The Human Rights Watch report also examines the recruitment of Dalits
(so-called untouchables) and tribals (indigenous peoples) in the
violence against Muslims in Gujarat, and the subsequent scapegoating
of these communities in police arrests. Since the events of last year,
Christians in the state have also come under renewed administrative,
legislative, and physical attack.

The Human Rights Watch report includes forty detailed recommendations
to Indian authorities and the international community. Human Rights
Watch called on the Indian government to act immediately to prevent
further attacks, end impunity, and deliver meaningful assistance to
those displaced and dispossessed by the violence.

For Human Rights Watch's original report on the 2002 massacres of
Muslims and Hindus in Gujarat, "We Have No Orders to Save You," please
see http://hrw.org/reports/2002/india/.

The new report is available at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003//india0703/.

To read more on human rights issues in India, please see:
http://www.hrw.org/asia/india.php

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Smita Narula: (English, Hindi/Urdu, French): + 1 917 209
6902 (c), +1 212 216 1253 (w)
In New York, Joe Saunders: +1 212 216 1216
In London, Urmi Shah: +44 207 713 2788