INDIA AND US WHO CENSORED SRI LANKA AT GENEVA ARE WORST VIOLATORS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND PERPETRATORS OF WAR CRIMES SAYS TIMES OF INDIA
(By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles)
An article written in response to what the paper said was India’s U turn in foreign policy by voting against a close ally, Sri Lanka at a United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHCR) in Geneva warned that the “Indian government might find itself in a very uncomfortable situation if the UNHRC turned the spotlight on India — on the mini Camp X-rays that exist in police lock-ups and the secret safe houses, where people are kept in illegal detention.”
The article also said the United States the main presenter of the resolution is one of the world’s well known perpetrators of war crimes in foreign countries.
The newspaper charged that Indian government’s track record of human rights is pathetic.
The article penned by Anahita Mukherji further said, “The real tragedy is that no effort is being made by the government to check the increasing cases of human rights violation across the country.”
Following is the full article: “By giving me electric shocks, by stripping me naked, or by brutally assaulting me and inserting stones in my rectum, will the problem of Naxalism end? When I was being stripped, I felt someone should come and save me and it did not happen. In Mahabharata , Draupadi’s honour was saved when she called upon Krishna. Whom should I have called? I was given to them (police) by the court,” writes Soni Sori, a Dantewada school teacher who is in the custody of the Chhattisgarh police for her alleged support to Maoist rebels in the state.
“Not only did she write to the Supreme Court begging that she not be kept in the custody of those who tortured her, but a medical report from a Kolkata hospital showed the presence of stones in her rectum and vagina. And yet, she was sent back to the men who tortured her,” says Sori’s mentor, Himanshu Kumar, a Chhatisgarh social activist.
“Sori’s story is not an aberration; a blip on an otherwise clean state. It’s just another case of custodial torture – a routine in the police station of India, which this week voted in favour of a USbacked resolution against the Sri Lankan government for its war crimes at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
“For a country that does not believe it is at war, India’s track record on human rights is rather pathetic . The government might find itself in a very uncomfortable situation if the UNHRC turned the spotlight on India — on the mini Camp X-rays that exist in police lock-ups and the secret safe houses, where people are kept in illegal detention.
“Custodial killings, police abuse and torture, and failure to implement policies protecting vulnerable communities marred India’s record in 2011, says a global report by Human Rights Watch released earlier this year. “And yet, as a country, we behave like ostriches with our head in the mud, choosing to ignore what is going on around us,” says sociologist Nandini Sardesai.
“Custodial violence is a norm in police stations, especially for those who are arrested for alleged anti-state activities. Arun Ferreira, a social activist and alumnus of Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College, was recently released from Nagpur Central Jail after more than four years in prison for his alleged support to Naxalites. Out of prison, Ferriera has now written a paper on how he was tortured. According to him, the interrogations lasted 16-20 hours a day and included threats to torture and rape his family. He describes instruments of torture such as ‘Bajirao’ , a whipping strip made from conveyor belt material attached with a wooden handle on one side that causes permanent pain without any external injury marks.
“Often the police don’t stop at torture. In Mumbai, the police staged the disappearance of Khwaja Yunus , a young man being interrogated for a bombblast in 2004. It later emerged that he had died in police custody. The same year, Mumbai witnessed a series of slum demolitions in which the state acknowledged 24 deaths.
“The real tragedy is that no effort is being made by the government to check the increasing cases of human rights violation across the country. Despite a Supreme Court order in 2006 that directed every state to set up a police complaints authority (PCA), only 18 of the 29 states have so far set it up, and it is functional in only 10 states, says a report by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). “Even where they are functional, they are designed to fail,” says Navaz Kotwal of CHRI.
“While India has a poor human rights record, Sardesai points out that no country in the world is free of human rights violations. After all, the US, which moved the UNHRC motion against Sri Lanka , is a well-known perpetrator of war crimes in other countries.
“Even small countries like Nepal and Bhutan don’t have clean records. Some 100,000 ethnic Nepalese were forced out of Bhutan in the 1980s and 1990s. Five years after Nepal’s civil war ended , a report by Human Rights Watch and Advocacy International says victims are still waiting for justice while the alleged perpetrators have “been appointed to senior government positions and sent abroad on UN peacekeeping missions…”
“Nepal, Bhutan and India may have a deceptively clean image, thanks to the troubled neighbourhood they’re in. But the Sri Lankan case has opened a can of worms that may finally bring attention to its neighbours’ equally bad rights record.” (EOM)
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In spite of all these,we Sri lankans still look on India with a brotherly affection,since we are aware of the plight your Prime Minister was in,due to Tamil Nadu politics.
However while fully agreeing with the contents above we congrtulate TIMES for displaying its’ nerve in dissent.
Talking about US Human Rights record is a mere waste of time-utter nonsense>>>>>>>>>>>
This timely article highlights India’s sordid record of human rights violations and crimes against humanity. War crimes were also committed in Jammu & Kashmir against the Freedom Fighters of J & K in their struggle for autonomy. Civilians in this State were machine-gunned in their thousands and buried in mass graves. So far well nigh 300,000 had been killed over the years and continue to be killed. Women were raped, a war crime.
India was therefore a blatant hypocrite when it proceeded to give SL ‘advice’ on letting UNHRC officials vist SL to conduct its own independent investigation, as requested by USA, TNA and diaspora Tamils. Is this going to be like the ‘Darusman Inquiry and Report of UNSG? India is now our proven enemy. It has stabbed SL in the back, after stating categorically it will not vote in favour of US Resolution against SL. India has failed miserably to back its closest ally and neighbour with whom it has a so-called ‘special relation’. We are not interested in its poor excuse of having to bow to demand of Tamil Nadu CM to vote in favour of US Resolution. Their coalition is not going to break-up even were India to abstain. Bacause Tamil Nadu will also lose out.
How can India cover its own dismal track record in human rights violations and crimes against humanity? Prisoners are tortured by police and prison guards daily around the country. There is no clamour by Indian NGOs, AI and Human Rights Watch etc against this. UNHRC is not bothered either, because USA has not given it the green light to go-ahead with inquiry and demands for investigation. UN is today in the total control of USA. This is a total shame! The Freeworld countries must now get together to form their own UNO.
USA is well known to have the worst track record for war crimes and crimes against humanity which continues unabated. No one raise concern as it is the most dominant nation in the world. USA has sponsored this action against SL in UNHRC meeting in Geneva to divert attention from its own dismal and appalling track record. India is now proven to be as bad as USA. They are birds of the same feather. No wonder India backed USA sponsored Resolution against SL. USA and India will support each other one day when the spot light turns against them in the UNHRC meetings in Geneva.
SL MUST NEVER LET INDIA OFF THE HOOK FOR THIS TREACHERY. IF IT DOES SO, MR WILL SHOW HIMSELF TO BE A WEAK PRESIDENT LIKE HIS PREDECESSORS. WE MUST INFACT TURN THE TABLES ON INDIA AND USA FEARLESSLY WITH OTHER SMALLER NATIONS TOGETHER WHEN THE SPOT LIGHT TURNS ON THEM. INDIA MUST BE REPRIMANDED IN THE NEXT SARC AND ASEAN MEETINGS FOR ITS TREACHERY.
LA, You make me sick with your naive talk of ‘brotherly affection’. India is our worst enemy for more than two milleniums and remains so. It’s people like you with such thimking who make SL always a slave of India to be exploited.
Hey Nicholas,
LA was being sarcastic can’t you take a hint? Use your brain before you comment. Also two milleniums ago there was no such country called India. India the current country is an invention of the British Imperialists as is also the United States creation of British Imperialists. I think you are talking about the Dravidian Chola Kingdoms in South India who have sent armies over to conquer Sri Lanka in the past from time to time, that is who King Dutugamuni was fighting not India. However that is after the Indian Sinhalese people came with king vijaya in exile from nothern India about 3000 years ago. Over many generations the Sinhalese people adopted Buddhism. Intermarried with over countless generations of dark skinned aboriginal people who are the true original inhabitants of Sri Lanka, and the south indian chola darker skinned dravidian colonists that is why Sri Lankans have so many hues of skin from the very dark to the very fair skinned like the original sinhalese people who migrated from North India. Anyway Nicholas Dias your assumption that India over two milleniums is Sri Lanka’s worst enemy does not stand up to historical scrutiny as much as you would want it that way. All Sri Lankan Culture and peoples had its roots in India. That is why Sri Lanka is so much like India. LOL! and not like China.