[Reader-list] Dutch social democrats demand end to help for gujarat
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Fri Mar 14 18:31:55 IST 2003
Some back ground material to what Paul just posted:
#1.
The following questions have been asked in the Dutch parliament
March 10, 2003, The Hague, The Netherlands
Questions of the members Dijksma, Eijsink and Koenders (Labour Party)
to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Development
Co-operation on 'Gujarat'
1. Could you provide the Parliament with an overview of the events
since mid-2002 that are connected to the persecution of and massacre
on Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat, focussing in particular on
:
- the criminal prosecution of the guilty;
- the relief to the victims;
- the position of the Muslim minority in the state in a more general sense;
- reports of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Indian
National Human Rights Commission, including the way in which their
recommendations have been implemented
- the efforts of the Dutch government, NGO's and the European
Commission and its results;
- the involvement of the Indian federal government.
2. What is, in this context, the opinion of the [Dutch] government
about the quality of 'governance' in the state of Gujarat and its
consequences for the development co-operation relations?
3. Are you prepared to suspend the [Dutch] bilateral development
co-operation (totally or partially) until the marginalization of the
Muslim minority is being stopped and the recommendations of the
National Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch are implemented?
4. Are you prepared to work on a similar approach of the European Union?
o o o
#2.
India Committee of the Netherlands Utrecht,
March 11th 2003
PRESS RELEASE
'European Union and Netherlands should suspend official aid to Gujarat'
Both the European Union (EU) and The Netherlands have thus far
continued their official development co-operation with the state
government of Gujarat (India), also after Chief Minister Modi of the
ruling BJP won the elections in December 2002 after a hate campaign
against the Muslim minority. Since June 2002 the EU and The
Netherlands have not publicly raised their voice again about the
massacre supported by the Modi-government on more than 2000 Muslims
in Gujarat, even though it is becoming clear that surviving victims
have no access to justice and are hardly being rehabilitated and
compensated.
The position of The Netherlands and the EU calls for an explanation
in the light of 'good governance' criteria, including respect for
human rights, that especially The Netherlands considers to be thé
cornerstone for government to government development co-operation.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have end of February
2003 send out press releases making statements that those guilty of
the violence in Gujarat still go unpunished and that there has hardly
been any relief and rehabilitation for the victims. According to
Amnesty International 'the right to equality before the law is also
routinely violated in Gujarat' and the recommendations of the
official National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have so far been
ignored. The NHRC has published some very critical reports on the
issue in the first half of 2002 but had to stop its activities after
the election victory of Narendra Modi. Modi is the new hero of the
Hindu nationalist BJP party (which is in power in Gujarat and also
leading a national coalition government - and in Gujarat), but also a
number of strongly related mass organisations of Hindu
fundamentalists that are working to create a 'Hindu Nation'.
Both The Netherlands and the EU financially support programmes of the
government of Gujarat in the areas of primary education, health care,
drinking water and rehabilitation of the victims of the earthquake
that hit Gujarat in 2001. In 2002 The Netherlands supported the
government of Gujarat with ¤12,5 million. Through non-governmental
organisations the Dutch also supported a programme for victims of the
massacre.
The EU supports the government of Gujarat in 2002 and 2003 with ¤40
million for a health sector reform programme and post earthquake
re-development. In addition the EU supports non-governmental
organisations in Gujarat with an amount of ¤55 million. However,
neither the European Union nor The Netherlands have taken a public
position on the question if official development co-operation with
the government of Gujarat is still justified, and if so why, in a
situation which can certainly not be characterised by 'good
governance'.
Two questions seem to be crucial here:
- is the continued co-operation with the government of Gujarat not a
justification of a government that is co-responsible for mass murder,
does not punish those that are responsible, ignores the victims and
discriminates the Muslim minority?
- are the programmes supported by The Netherlands and the EU being
negatively effected by a government that discriminates Muslims?
The India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) is of the opinion that
the official development co-operation with the government of Gujarat
should be suspended until these questions are answered and until the
recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission, Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch are satisfactorily implemented.
The statements of both Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights
Watch are supported by the conclusions of a recent visit (27-29
January) of a team consisting of, among others, the directors of
Action Aid (New Delhi) and the Confederation of Voluntary Agencies
(COVA) from Hyderabad. According a report from the COVA director Ali
Asghar about this visit, the police is pressurising victims to
withdraw cases and complaints they have filed and several of them are
still living in makeshift camps and rented rooms in small towns
because they cannot return to their village. The reason is 'the
economic boycott imposed by the Hindu right wing parties'. Asghar
also writes: 'There are a number of welfare schemes of the government
that could benefit the victims. Bu they have not been able to access
these because of non-cooperation from the officials and also because
of rampant corruption'.
Asghar further describes a recent case of setting on fire 31 houses
of Muslims in the city of Dahod 'with the police as a bystander all
the time'. The main accused, including a BJP leader, are still
roaming free. Instead the police arrested 40 young Muslim men, part
of whom are still in police custody. Around 600 people are now living
in a relief camp and they have not received any assistance from the
administration so far.
Previous history
On February 27th a train coach with mainly Hindu pilgrims was set on
fire and 59 person were burned to death. It is still not clear who
the perpetrators of this horrible act are. Right after this
'violence of unprecedented brutality targeting the Muslim community
spread in the state and continued in the next three months, leaving
more than 2000 people killed. The state government, administration
and police took insufficient action to protect civilians and in many
cases may have colluded with the attackers and actively participated
in the violence'. (Amnesty International in press release on 26
February 2003).
In a systematic manner, pre-planned according to a large number of
independent reports, properties of Muslims - houses, shops, mosques
etc. worth roughly ¤700 million - were looted and burned. Many women
were raped on a large scale by mobs and often killed thereafter.
According to the same independent investigations, the government of
Gujarat - especially in the first few days after the attack on the
train in Godhra - did not interfere in the orchestrated violence
while ample evidence has been provided that the police, other
officials and politicians have in fact actively participated in the
violence and protected the guilty.
On 23rd of April the Indian Ambassador in Madrid was officially
summoned by the Spanish chairmanship of the European Union on the
issue of Gujarat. Furthermore on the 2nd of May the European Union,
during a official meeting high-level meeting between India and the EU
in New Delhi, expressed its deep concern about the situation in
Gujarat to the Indian authorities.
During the same period an internal EU-report was leaked mentioning
'the clear evidence of complicity by state ministers [of the Modi
government] in the Gujarat killings' (The Week, May 12 2002). Another
leaked Netherlands report also referred to the targeting of Muslims
and indicted Gujarat Chief Minister Modi for his failure to protect
the minorities (The Week). The government of India, 'loosing its
diplomatic cool .. responding in a tone of unseemly anger'
(tehelka.com, 24 April 2002), accused the EU of playing 'a partisan
role which could affect the friendly relations between India and the
European Union, as well as with the European countries (The Hindu,
April 26 2002). This didn't stop the European Parliament to adopt a
resolution on May 16th 2002 asking the government of India and
Gujarat to 'continue their investigations independently and
impartially and to bring those responsible to justice, irrespective
of their positions, religion, identity of political belief'. The
resolution also stated that 'numerous independent inquiries by human
rights organisations confirm that state officials and police of
Gujarat were involved in the clashes'.
At the end of June 2002 the Dutch Minister of Development
Co-operation, Mrs. Eveline Herfkens, wrote in a letter to ICCO, the
India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) and six other NGO's that
'the governance situation has come under considerable pressure
because of what happened'. Furthermore she wrote: 'I assure you that
I will continue to follow up on the developments in Gujarat. It is of
great importance to follow up to what extent the Indian central and
Gujarati state government will match deeds with words, will take
preventive measures to stop repetition of violence, will undertake
action to bring the perpetrators of violence to court, take care of
an adequate rehabilitation of the victims and implement measures to
counter discrimination of religious minorities (in particular in
programmes that are financed with Dutch funds). I have requested Her
Majesty's Ambassador in New Delhi to continue to report about this to
me.'
-------------------------------------------------------------------
For the press reports of both Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch about Gujarat see:
- www.indianet.nl/pb030226.html
- www.indianet.nl/pb030227.html
For six recent stories by Navaz Kotwal of Commonwealth Human Rights
Initiative (CHRI) about individual victims of the violence and
impunity in Gujarat see:
www.indianet.nl/gujarat.html
Further information mail to Gerard Oonk, co-ordinator India Committee
of The Netherlands
Website: www.indianet.nl
At 12:47 PM +0100 14/3/03, Paul Keller wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>Just found an article in today's issue of the Dutch newspaper 'Trouw' that I
>thought might interest you. Apparently the PvdA (Dutch social democratic
>party) members of parliament have demanded that the government stops its
>development aid to Gujarat. The Dutch ministry of development cooperation
>spend 12,5 million euros in Gujarat last year mainly for the
>(re)construction of schools, drinking water facilities and hospitals. In
>Holland awarding development cooperation money is made conditional on a
>number of criteria, on of them being the 'quality of governance'. The events
>of last year and the juridical aftermath have raised questions within the
>PvdA fraction if the quality of governance in Gujarat still justifies the
>millions spend there...
>
>Unfortunately the article is not available online. But if someone is really
>interested I can scan and mail it.
>
>/paul
>
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