India: Serious concerns over fair trial : Amnesty International Australia
Amnesty International Australia
Published on 27/06/2008
Delay in the trial process of jailed and award-winning human rights defender Dr. Binayak Sen followed by arrest of T.G. Ajay, also a human rights defender who attended his trial heightens serious doubts about Dr. Sen getting a fair trial at a Raipur district court in India, Amnesty International said on 25 June 2008.
Detained since 14 May 2007 Dr. Sen is facing numerous charges including under the Chhattisgarh State Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA), which criminalises “unlawful activities” and being a member of banned “terrorist organizations”. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dr. Sen is a pioneer in providing accessible health care for adivasis (indigenous communities) and mine workers in remote villages of Chhattisgarh. He is recipient of several awards in recognition of his work for more than two decades. As vice-president of India’s leading human rights organisation, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Dr. Sen had highlighted unlawful killings and other human rights abuses in the armed confrontations in Chhattisgarh between the security forces and the Salwa Judum, a private militia widely held to be supported by the state authorities, on the one hand, and armed guerrillas of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) on the other.
Amnesty International called for Dr. Sen’s release soon after his arrest unless he was charged with a recognisably criminal offence - India: Chattisgarh government detains human rights defender, refuses to arrest police officials suspected of involvement in unlawful killings of adivasis. There are sufficient reasons to believe that the charges against him appear to be politically motivated. There has been no investigation so far into the allegations of unlawful killings of adivasis by Salwa Judum and the state police in Santoshpur which he had highlighted prior to his arrest. The authorities held him for seven months without proper filing of charges; in the meantime, he was denied bail; and was kept in solitary confinement for three weeks in March-April 2008; many of the charges against him stem from laws that contravene international standards. His trial, which commenced on 30 April, is now adjourned to 1 July.
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Bullet can’t be tackled with bullet: Sandeep Pandey(Interview)
By Sujeet Kumar
Raipur, June 27 (IANS) Slamming the government-backed Salwa Judum civil militia movement against Maoists in Chhattisgarh, social activist and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey says “the bullet can never be tackled with the bullet”. “Violence is not the reply to violence. The Maoist problem was a product of the decades-old government neglect of the basic needs of forested people. The only way to overcome the insurgency is to ensure all-round development in trouble-torn areas,” Pandey told IANS in an interview here.
Pandey, who lives in Lucknow, observed a 10-day fast here along with three other social activists from June 16 against the detention of Binayak Sen, a physician-cum-rights activist since last year.
Pandey, known for his work in the education sector, said: “India’s Maoist movement is a product of poverty, backwardness and neglect of the forested masses by the government. Any socio-economic-political problem should be handled with care and development, this is the best way to get over the problem.
“But surprisingly, the Chhattisgarh government created the Salwa Judum in June 2005 which is largely handled by armed anti-social elements.”
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Karnataka: Groups seek release of Binayak Sen
The Hindu
Karnataka - Mysore
Special Correspondent
MYSORE: Activists of progressive organisations, including People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), staged a demonstration here on Wednesday seeking the release of Binayak Sen, paediatrician, who has been arrested by the Chhattisgarh Government on the charge of sedition.
The activists of Pragatipara Sanghatanegala Okkuta, Karnataka Rajya Cooliekara Sangha, Samata Vedike and other groups participated in the demonstration.
They said the arrest of Dr. Sen, who is the vice-president of PUCL, indicated that the democratic forces, which took up social causes, were being harassed.
The activists pointed out that Dr. Sen treated the poor adivasis and exposed the Government’s alleged role in the killing of the tribal people on the pretext of eliminating the Maoists. He also exposed other atrocities, which earned the wrath of the Government, and hence, was arrested. They sought his immediate release along with other PUCL activist T.G. Ajyay, who was arrested recently.
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Prof Gilani backs ‘political prisoners’
BHUBANESWAR, June 25: Mr S A R Gilani while addressing a convention organised to form a regional chapter of a platform to take up the cause of ‘political prisoners’ said that the growing tendency to crush resistance movements by arresting them needs to be checked.
“From Nandigram in West Bengal, Kalinga Nagar and Kashipur in Orissa to J&K and the North East, oppression seems to be the strategy to crush people who are demanding basic rights. Those who protest against land accusation and loss of livelihood are being labelled as ultras, he rued.” Gilani who was jailed for two years following the 2001 attack on Parliament, alleged that minorities were being targeted as a follow up to any blast that takes place anywhere in the country.
There should be a law categorising political prisoners, as India is a party and all such prisoners should be released unconditionally, he demanded. Explaining why he wanted all political prisoners to be released unconditionally, Mr Gilani said none of them would get a fair trial. There are innumerable instances including the one relating to Binayak Sen, he alleged. Political prisoners are treated in the most inhuman manner, charge sheets are not filed and all kinds of sections are made out against them, he remarked. Debunking the ‘internal security threat’ version often given by the police , he said there is absolutely no such threat. “What kind of a democracy is this, is it democratic to arrest people who struggle to protect their land and safeguard their livelihood,” he asked. The root cause of socio-economic unrest that leads people to take to arms is never addressed. Instead of resolving the socio-economic problems of people, the attitude is to arrest the people and overcome the immediate problem.
Gilani informed that a joint platform had been formed at the national level to take up cause of political prisoners and he was out here to set up regional chapters.
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Wife of imprisoned Dr. seeks support of world community
By JULIE MASIS
Indianewengland.com
The wife of doctor Binayak Sen, who has been held in an Indian prison for more than a year, told about 40 people at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that her husband still needs the support of the international community.
Ilina Sen spoke at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on June 3 explaining the situation in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India, and the circumstances leading to her husband’s arrest.
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