[Reader-list] Amnesty International statement on the arrest of Ajay TG

[Anivar Aravind]

http://www.binayaksen.net/2008/05/amnesty-international-statement-on-the-arrest-of-ajay-tg/

India: Concern over the arrest of filmmaker and human rights defender 
T.G. Ajay in Chhattisgarh

Amnesty International, ASA 20/010/2008

Amnesty International is concerned over the apparently arbitrary arrest 
of T. G. Ajay, a film-maker and human rights defender who has been 
documenting problems faced by adivasi (indigenous) communities in 
protecting their rights, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

Ajay is the second human rights defender to be arrested under the 
Chhattisgarh State Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA), in the state. He 
is a member of the state executive committee of the People’s Union of 
Civil Liberties (PUCL).

Ajay is being held in Raipur jail, where Dr. Binayak Sen, general 
secretary of the state PUCL and a physician working on access to health 
for adivasis, today completed one year of imprisonment. Dr. Sen now 
faces a trial on charges of aiding a banned Maoist organisation, the 
Communist Party of India (Maoist). 1

On 5 May, Ajay was arrested at his residence at Superla in Bhilai and 
charged at the Bilaspur High Court under Section 124A of the Indian 
Penal Code (sedition) and Sections 3, 4 and 8 of the CSPSA.

Amnesty International has reason to believe that the charges against 
Ajay are politically motivated. Ajay has been actively engaged, since 
2004, in documentation of human rights violations as part of the PUCL’s 
ongoing efforts to protect the rights of adivasi communitiesin the face 
of escalating violence in the Bastar-Dantewada area of Chattisgarh 
between banned Maoists and Salwa Judum, an armed anti-Maoist militia 
campaign widely regarded as supported by the state government. The PUCL 
has been instrumental in bringing to light unlawful killings of 
adivasis, sexual assault of adivasi women, abductions and forced 
displacement.

On 22 January 2008, following the arrest of a woman Maoist in 
Bastar-Dantewada, the Chhattisgarh police searched Ajay’s residence and 
seized his computer hard disk. On 26 March, Ajay filed a petition in the 
High Court seeking its return.

Amnesty International calls on the Union and Chattisgarh governments

     * to ensure Ajay’s prompt and fair trial in accordance with 
international standards of fairness.
     * to take concrete measures to ensure that human rights defenders 
in Chhattisgarh are not subject to harassment or intimidation and enjoy 
all the rights enshrined in international law.

Background

Since 2005, Chhattisgarh, especially the Bastar-Dantewada forest area, 
has experienced an escalation of violence between the Maoists and the 
Salwa Judum. Civilians have been routinely targeted on both sides, 
resulting in at least 300 deaths. Also, 30,000 adivasis displaced from 
their homes continue to live in special camps where they face increased 
risk of violence. The Chhattisgarh state government claimed that it 
enacted the CSPSA to take action against the Maoists.

The CSPSA allows for arbitrary detention of persons suspected of 
belonging to an unlawful organization or participating in its activities 
or giving protection to any member of such an organization.

Human rights organizations in India have demanded the repeal of CSPSA as 
it contains several provisions which violate international human rights law:

     * Vague and sweeping definitions of “unlawful activities” for which 
organizations may be rendered “unlawful”, such as “uttering words… which 
propounds the disobedience” of “established law and its institutions”. 
Such definitions enable the government to arrest and detain individuals, 
as well as seek their punishment, on grounds that may not be clear to 
them, in violation of the principle of certainty in criminal law, 
reflected in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights, to which India is a state party;
     * Threats, as a result, to other key human rights including freedom 
of expression and association, provided in Articles 19 and 22 of the 
ICCPR, respectively;
     * All offences under the CSPSA are “cognizant and non-bailable”; 
hence all those charged under the Act are detained, often for months, 
before being tried. In Dr. Sen’s case, he was detained on 14 May 2007, 
his trial commenced on 30 April 2008 and is currently adjourned till 23 
June 2008.

Public Document

****************************************

International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London 
WC1X 0DW, UK

www.amnesty.org

1 Amnesty International, India: Chattisgarh government detains human 
rights defender, refuses to arrest police officials suspected of 
involvement in unlawful killings of adivasis, AI Index: ASA 20/013/2007, 
24 May 2007. See 
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/013/2007/en/dom-ASA200132007en.html