[Reader-list] India: Nine years after Jalil Andrabi's death perpetrators still free

[gowhar fazli]

Please circulate widely and address to those who matter and can help the case.

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Mentors,
 
I am writing on behalf of the Kashmir Solidarity Network to seek your urgent advice and help.  "On 27 March 1996, the dead body of human rights lawyer Jalil Andrabi was found in the river Jhelum [Kashmir], 19 days after he was seen being taken away by [Indian] military personnel. Those responsible for his death remain free despite continuing efforts by members of his family and the members of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association to obtain legal redress for the death of their relative and former colleague" (AI statement from 2005, pasted below).  Please also find the UNHCR report on Andrabi's murder pasted below.
 
The retired military officer, Major Avtar Singh, accused of the brutal torture and murder of Andrabi, has been arrested recently in a case of domestic violence somewhere in California, in a classic case of the violence perpetrated outside being brought inside the home -- as reported by today's newspapers in both Kashmir and India (please click on the links for the respective stories).  In fact, it was Major Avtar Singh's wife who gave the California police some details about Singh's involvement in the murder trial in India!  In spite of vigorous attempts made by Andrabi's family, the accused was not only never arrested by the Indian Army (which finally, very reluctantly agreed to court martial him), but Major Singh was also quickly given an Indian passport.  This enabled him to flee India, settling first in Canada, and then making his way to California, according to both news reports.
 
According to the Times of India report, a "liaison officer of Interpol in Jammu and Kashmir said that the accused was in the preventive custody of the US police in California and would [be] shifted to Srinagar in fifteen days."  Given the absolutely abysmal track record of legal redress in Indian administered Kashmir, where the Indian security apparatus has the cover of the draconian and oppressive Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) for such cases, Kashmiri activists seek some urgent way to stop the extradition of Major Singh to India, where they have no expectation of justice, and seek to have him tried here in the USA under the Alien Tort Statute, or any other suitable avenue of redress that you all might suggest!  AFSPA has been called akin to a "holy book" for their military by the Indian Army’s Northern Command Chief Lt. General BS Jaswal, and remains strictly enforced in spite of recurrent and massive non-violent protests for its repeal
 (here's an example of a 10-year-long hunger-striker Irom Sharmila).  Here is more on AFSPA by HRW:
 
 
Human Rights Watch’s 16-page report, “Getting Away With Murder: 50 years of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act,” describes how the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, or AFSPA, has become a tool of state abuse, oppression, and discrimination. The law grants the military wide powers to arrest without warrant, shoot-to-kill, and destroy property in so-called “disturbed areas.” It also protects military personnel responsible for serious crimes from prosecution, creating a pervasive culture of impunity. (HRW appeal to repeal AFSPA; emphasis added)
 
Many thousands await justice, just as thousands of mass graves await excavation in Kashmir. Time is of essence, to ensure that at least one murderer of one human rights lawyer/activist in Kashmir is brought to justice.  On behalf of Kashmir Solidarity Network, I would be so grateful for any idea, suggestion, help, or guidance!  Thanks so much for your patience in reading this email!
 
With all best wishes,
Huma Dar
University of California at Berkeley
 
 
1) http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/015/2005/en/d423d182-d506-11dd-8a23-d58a49c0d652/asa200152005en.html
Document - India: Nine years after Jalil Andrabi's death perpetrators still free
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: ASA 20/015/2005 (Public)
News Service No: 072
24 March 2005
India: Nine years after Jalil Andrabi's death perpetrators still free
 
The continuing failure of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir to bring to justice those responsible for the death of human rights lawyer Jalil Andrabi nine years ago reinforces the sense that human rights defenders in the state cannot count on the state’s protection, Amnesty International said today.
On 27 March 1996, the dead body of human rights lawyer Jalil Andrabi was found in the river Jhelum, 19 days after he was seen being taken away by military personnel. Those responsible for his death remain free despite continuing efforts by members of his family and the members of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association to obtain legal redress for the death of their relative and former colleague. The Jammu and Kashmir High Court noted in late 1996 that 'the functionaries of the Union of India have not been cooperating with the Investigation Team in a proper manner'. The family of Jalil Andrabi has expressed its feeling of frustration and loss of faith in the institution of the judiciary which has failed to provide legal redress for nine years.
Amnesty International believes that justice must be done to ensure that human rights violations end. Undue delays will produce the impression that perpetrators can get away with abuses and that the state shields its agents from being brought to justice. The organization reiterates its repeated earlier appeals to the Government of Jammu and Kashmir to break the cycle of impunity by ensuring that perpetrators of all human rights violations in the state are brought to justice without delay and in a transparent manner in order to restore people's confidence in the rule of law.
Background
The Special Investigation Team set up on High Court orders in 1996 in the following year identified an army major posted in the Rawalpora Camp of the 103 Territorial Army as prima facie responsible for the death but army representatives told the High Court that the major was not employed by the army any longer and that he had not committed the offence in his official capacity.
In October 2000, the case gained momentum when the Special Investigation Team submitted a report of its findings to the High Court which asked the army to present the accused in the court of competent jurisdiction, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Budgam. Despite repeated requests, the army did not comply. In December 2001, the Special Investigation Team submitted a charge sheet (the final police inquiry report) before the Budgam CJM, who admitted the charge sheet without insisting on the presence of the accused as is required by law. The army then made known its decision to try the accused by court martial. Members of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association representing Jalil Andrabi's family challenged the trial by court martial before the High Court. This petition was sent back to the CJM without clarifying the point if a charge sheet could be entertained without the accused being brought before the court. Hearings of this petition have
 continued since then. The CJM has ordered the Special Investigation Team to arrest the accused and bring him to court on 30 April 2005.
Army representatives have asserted in court that the accused is absconding and that they have not been able to locate him. The Special Investigation Team while filing its final report is on record as having stated that the accused major was working with the Railway Regiment of the Territorial Army located at Ludhiana, Punjab.
 
2) http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,HRW,,PAK,,3ae6a8558,0.html
The Murder of Jalil Andrabi
"The body of Jalil Andrabi, a prominent human rights lawyer and pro-independence political activist associated with the JKLF, was found in the Kursuraj Bagh area of Srinagar on the banks of the Jhelum river on the morning of March 27, 1996. According to press reports, the body was in a burlap bag. Andrabi, who was forty-two, had been shot in the head and his eyes had been gouged out. He had apparently been dead for at least one week. According to eye-witnesses, Andrabi was detained at about 6:00 pm on March 8 by a Rashtriya Rifles unit of the army which intercepted his car a few hundred yards from his home in Srinagar. On March 9, the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association filed a habeas corpus petition in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, and the court ordered the army to produce Andrabi. However, the army denied that Andrabi was in custody. Over the next two weeks, the court continued to grant the government extensions for replying to the petition.
The murder sparked widespread protests in Kashmir and condemnation from civil liberties groups in India and abroad. In Srinagar, a protest march led by JKLF leader Yasin Malik was broken up by police who beat up members of the crowd, smashed a number of reporters’ cameras and seized the body.[47] The police also fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd. In a statement released on March 29, the United States condemned the murder and called for a “full and transparent investigation.” On April 2, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso called on the government of India to “undertake a thorough investigation ... with a view to establishing the facts and imposing sanctions on those found guilty of the crime.” On April 3, India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) announced that it would send a team to Kashmir to investigate the killing.
Andrabi had previously received death threats from government-sponsored so-called “renegade” forces. At about 9:30am on January 29, 1996, two men arrived at Andrabi’s house in Srinagar, claiming that they wished to discuss a human rights case with him. After confirming that Andrabi was at home, one of the men left, saying that he was going to bring his mother and sister who were waiting outside in a taxi.[48] He returned instead with a third man. At that moment, a number of other persons gathered at the house, including Andrabi’s brother, who began questioning the men. The three men abruptly left, stating that they would see Andrabi at his office. After they left, witnesses in the vicinity of the outside gate of the neighborhood reported that the three men had returned to two waiting taxis in which eight more men were sitting, some openly carrying weapons.
The next day, at 9:20am, the first two men returned to Andrabi’s house. After confirming that Andrabi was at home, they left and returned along with at least two other men in a taxi with license number Reg. JKT-1988. Andrabi told Human Rights Watch/Asia that one of the other men appeared to be wearing a uniform and carrying a weapon under his pheran (a long woolen cape). From an upstairs window, Andrabi took photographs of the men and the taxi. When the men saw him, they abruptly returned to the taxi and left. Local residents reported that on the way to Andrabi’s house, the taxi had been escorted by a Border Security Force vehicle until it was within one hundred yards of the outside gate of the neighborhood.
The incident followed several other attacks on human rights activists in Kashmir, and about a week before the incident, Andrabi had told Human Rights Watch/Asia that he had received warnings that he “would be next.” Since 1984, Andrabi had filed petitions in the High Court on behalf of detainees and had publicized the fact that the security forces routinely ignored High Court orders to produce detainees in court. At the time he was abducted, he was preparing for a trip to Geneva to attend the meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission where he hoped to raise concern about the human rights situation in Kashmir."