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UPDATE (India): Witness protection required for Gujarat victims and witnesses

November 15, 2004

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Update

15 November 2004

[FA-3-2002: Desperate situation in the aftermath of savage violence in Gujarat on 6 March 2004]
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UP-70-2004: INDIA: Witness protection required for Gujarat victims and witnesses

INDIA: Threats against witnesses; witness statement variation; need for witness protection
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Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you the need for the Indian Government to provide witness protection in all trials related to the Gujarat pogrom. 

Over 2,000 Indian citizens were killed in Gujarat in the weeks and months following 28 February 2002.  It is not known how many women and girls were raped before being killed.  To determine or even estimate the economic losses suffered during that time will be a most difficult endeavor: although the Gujarat Government's solution has been to dole out an absurdly small pittance in the name of compensation.  (For further details on the mass violence of Gujarat, please see our previous forward appeal in 2002: FA-3-2002 and press release in 2003: ALRC-PL-04-2003).

After so many deaths, so many rapes, so much destruction of property, so much looting, so much human suffering of all varieties, there should have been countless more trials than the very few which are in progress or are awaiting.  No trial can be conducted without witnesses, and witnesses cannot testify freely in an atmosphere of fear and insecurity, when they live in terror of those institutions and individuals that should protect them and ensure that they get justice.

At this point in time, there appears a declining chance that Gujarat's Muslims will get justice, or that they will be able to speak freely about what happened during the post-Godhra violence, while the Gujarat Government and the Gujarat Police can manipulate and terrorise them.

A recent case provides proof of this situation.  The Best Bakery of Hanuman Tekri, Vododara, was attacked by a mob of several hundred people late in the evening on 1 March 2002.  By morning, the bakery had been burnt down and over a dozen people had been killed.  Zahira Habibullah Sheikh, many members of whose family were among the dead or injured, described in detail what had happened.  She said, among other things, that the Police Control Room and the Panigate Police Station had been asked for help, and that a police vehicle had stopped briefly by the bakery but had driven on.  Despite this testimony, Zhira has since stated they she knew nothing of the attack on the bakery and that the accused had actually been their saviours.  As a consequence, all 21 accused were acquitted.  In an even more remarkable claim, Zahira also accused NGO personnel of taking her to Mumbai "at knife point" and holding her captive there.  She has, however, since withdrawn this claim.

Where was Zahira when she decided to tell the trial court that she had lied earlier and no attack had taken place?  Where was Zahira when she decided to ask to be protected from NGO personnel?  On both occasions, she was in Vododara; and on the second, it was only the Gujarat Police that could be asked to protect her.  Who controlled the Gujarat Police, the force whose duty it was to have prevented the crimes of which the Supreme Court had spoken? The Gujarat Government, of course, which so many have held responsible for having planned and instigated those very crimes.

In light of this, we ask you to intervene in this matter, and request you to appeal to the President of Republic of India, to the Prime Minister, to the Minister for Home, and to the National Human Rights Commission to make arrangements for the protection of all witnesses in all trials related to the Gujarat pogrom.  We further request that you ask these authorities to extend this protection to the families of the witnesses. 

It goes without saying that the Gujarat Government and the Gujarat Police should not be involved in the planning or execution of this program of protection, and that witnesses should face no threat of pressure from NGOs either.

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission
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SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send a letter, fax or an email to the following authorities and request that protection be provided to all witnesses and their families.

Sample letter:

Dear __________,

RE: Witness protection required for Gujarat victims and witnesses

I write to you to express my concern regarding the absence of witness protection for the victims, witnesses and their families, involved in the Gujarat violence.  No trial can be conducted without witnesses, and witnesses cannot testify freely in an atmosphere of fear and insecurity, when they live in terror of those very institutions and individuals who should protect them and ensure that they get justice.

The case of the Best Bakery of Hanuman Tekri, Vododara, which I have come to know, is an example of such fear and the intimidation witnesses are exposed to.

I ask you, therefore, to make arrangements for the protection of all witnesses in all trials related to the Gujarat violence.  I further request that you extend this protection to the families of the witnesses. 

Yours truly,


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SEND A LETTER TO:

1. Shri. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Azad
President of India
Rashtrapathi Bhavan
New Delhi -110001
INIDA
Tel: +91 11 2301-4930; ext 4211/4400/4260 (for secretary) / +91 11 2301-3488; ext 4218 (for personal secretary)
Fax: + 91 11 23017290 / 23017824
E-mail: presidentofindia@rb.nic.in

2. Mr. Manmohan
Prime Minister of India
Singh7,

Race Course Road
New Delhi
110 001
INDIA
Tel: +91 11 2301-8668/2312/8939 (Office)/ +91 11 2301-8939 (for personal secretary)
Fax: +91 11 2301-6857/9545
Email: manmohan@sansad.nic.in or pmosb@pmo.nic.in

3. Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi
Chief Minister

Government of Gujarat

Chief Minister's Office
Block No 1, 5th Floor, New Sachivalaya,
Gandhinagar 382 010
INDIA
Tel: 23232611 to 18 (O)
Fax:+91-079-23222101
E-mail: cm@gujaratindia.com

4. Justice A. S. Anand
Chairman
National Human Rights Commission
Sardar Patel Bhaven, Sansad Marg
New Delhi 110 001
INDIA
Tel: + 91 11 23346244
Fax: + 91 11 23366537
E-mail: ionhrc@hub.nic.in or chairnhrc@nic.in

5. Mr. Leandro Despouy
Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers
Att: Sonia Cronin
Room: 3-060
C/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9160
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
E-mail: scronin@ohchr.org

6. Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Att: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016
c/o OHCHR-UNOG, 1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (general)
E-mail: lventre@ohchr.org


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
UP-70-2004
Countries :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.