Gujarat Riots Were Planned Genocide Says the International Community
The European Union, the Human Rights Watch (USA), and the British High Commission released scathing reports in April blaming the Gujarat and Indian governments and Hindu fundamentalist organizations of promoting, organizing, and exercising genocide of Muslims throughout India. The reports are the result of independent assessments through eyewitness accounts and research into the Gujarat carnage. They describe, in detail, the horror experienced by the Muslim minorities, especially brutalized were the women and girls. The Human Rights Watch (USA) report is circulating in Congress. Here are some articles and excerpts from the reports...
Gujarat violence backed by state, says EU report
By Edna Fernandes in New Delhi, www.ft.com
Published: April 29 2002 18:15 | Last Updated: April 29 2002 18:37
A European Union investigation into India's worst race riots in a decade has concluded that the violence was not spontaneous but a pre-planned policy involving state ministers to "purge" Muslims and destroy their economy, according to an internal report by EU embassies in Delhi.
The report provides one of the most damning indictments yet on the Gujarat riots, which have killed almost 900 people, mostly Muslims, in a matter of weeks. One EU source said the report pointed to "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims in the state and that there was clear evidence of complicity by state ministers.
On Monday, a group of Gujarat victims came to Delhi to tell their stories. Dilawer, a nine-year-old boy, told how his parents were killed. "They spread water. A naked wire was there. My mother died of electric shock. They burned my father also." Another victim, Feeroz Bhai, told how he watched a Hindu mob use a sword to cut out his unborn child from his eight-month pregnant wife, killing them both.
Carnage Not an Internal Issue, says EU
Aunohita Mojumdar, The Times of India
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2002 12:17:14 AM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=7801423
A news report on the EU observation on Gujarat had led to a furore with the government’s statement on Monday, saying ‘‘India does not appreciate interference in its internal affairs.’’Rejecting this contention, EU diplomats affirmed their right to comment and said the events in Gujarat constituted a threat to international order. The apparent rejection of the secular principles by a section of the political leadership was a matter of concern as it deviated from India’s secular principles, they said.
“We Have No Orders To Save You”
State Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat
Human Rights Watch, Report April 2002
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india/India0402.htm#P106_4953
Indian government officials have acknowledged that since February 27, 2002, more than 850 people have been killed in communal violence in the state of Gujarat, most of them Muslims. Unofficial estimates put the death toll as high as 2,000. At this writing, murders are continuing, with violence spreading to rural areas fanned by ongoing hate campaigns and economic boycotts against Muslims. The attacks against Muslims in Gujarat have been actively supported by state government officials and by the police.
The Gujarat government chose to characterize the violence as a "spontaneous reaction" to the incidents in Godhra. Human Rights Watch's findings, and those of numerous Indian human rights and civil liberties organizations, and most of the Indian press indicate that the attacks on Muslims throughout the state were planned, well in advance of the Godhra incident, and organized with extensive police participation and in close cooperation with officials of the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, BJP) state government.
Government figures indicate that more than 98,000 people are residing in over one hundred newly created relief camps throughout the state, an overwhelming majority of them Muslim. They hold little hope for justice and remain largely unprotected by the police and local authorities. One relief camp resident asked: "The same people who shot at us are now supposed to protect us? There is no faith in the police." A lack of faith has also kept many camp residents from approaching the police to file complaints. Fearing for their lives, or fearing arrest, many have also been unable to leave the camps to return to what is left of their homes.
This report is by no means a comprehensive account of the violence that began on February 27. Ahmedabad was only one of many cities affected. Reports from other areas indicate that the violence was statewide, affecting at least twenty-one cities and sixty-eight provinces. Information from these areas also suggest a consistent pattern in the methods used, undermining government assertions that these were "spontaneous" "communal riots." As one activist noted, "no riot lasts for three days without the active connivance of the state."
Assistance from international humanitarian and United Nations agencies is sorely needed for Hindus and Muslims in relief camps. Human Rights Watch urges the Indian government to actively seek the assistance of these groups and to invite United Nations human rights experts to investigate state participation and complicity in the violence in Gujarat.
Riots were planned: UK mission
Saurabh Shukla, www.hindustantimes.com
(New Delhi, April 14)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/150402/detfro03.asp
The British High Commission in the Capital has reported to the British Foreign Office in London that the continuing violence in Gujarat is aimed at removing Muslim influence from parts of the state.
Significantly, the report, prepared by three British diplomats who recently toured the affected areas, placed the death toll at around 2,000. The figure - arrived at from information shared by civil rights groups, victim families and state police officials - is more than double the official death toll of 850.
Extremely critical of the Sangh Parivar's role, the report identifies the VHP and Bajrang Dal as the main instruments for realising the ghettoisation of the Muslims.
The High Commission's team to Gujarat was led by Peter Holland, First Secretary in the Mission's Political Section. They were assigned the fact-finding task after a British national of Indian origin was burned to death, and two of his family went missing.
The report was sent to the British Foreign Office in London on Friday.