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India's Human Rights Commission Indicts Gujarat Government
By IOL South Asia correspondent
New Delhi, April 1 (IslamOnline) - In a severe indictment, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Monday accused the Gujarat government of failing to stop the communal violence in the state since February 28 following the train-attack at Godhara the previous day.
The NHRC, India's highest official human rights organisation has asked to transfer the investigation of "critical cases" to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and establishment of special courts to try them. CBI is the Indian equivalent of the FBI. Cases hitherto were being investigated by local police which was accused of partiality and inaction. The NHRC is headed by a former chief justice of India and enjoys a high constitutional status within the Indian polity.
In its "Preliminary Comments" for immediate consideration for central and state governments, the NHRC said it has received "widespread" allegations that first information reports (FIRs) lodged with the police have been poorly or wrongly recorded and that investigations were being "influenced" by extraneous considerations or players. "The Commission is of the view that the integrity of the process has to be restored. It, therefore, recommends the entrusting of certain critical cases to the CBI," the NHRC said.
"These include the cases relating to Godhra incident, which is at present being investigated by the Government Railway Police, Chamanpura (Gulbarg Society) incident, Naroda-Patiya incident, Best Bakery case in Vadodra and the Sardarpura case in Mehsana district," the Commission said. All these incidents relate to major carnages.
The Commission also recommended that special courts should try these cases on a day-to-day basis and the judges should be handpicked by the chief justice of Gujarat High Court. Daily hearings will ensure speedy disposal of cases. The commission also said that there should be a specific time frame fixed for thorough and expeditious completion of investigations.
The NHRC said that special prosecutors should be appointed as needed and procedures should be adopted to conduct proceedings so that the traumatized condition of the victims, especially women and children, was not aggravated. It added that the victims should be protected from further trauma or threat. There are persistent reports that victims are being terrorised and forced to water down their complaints or to withdraw them. Houses of complainants have been burnt down and refugees in camps have been attacked. There are efforts to disperse them after doling out meagre compensation with the threat that the victims will get nothing if they don't accept what is being offered. The vast majority of victims are Muslim.
The NHRC also said that a particular effort should be made to deputize sensitive officers, particularly women, to assist in handling such cases. The Commission said that given the wide variation in the performance of public servants in discharge of their statutory responsibilities, action should be initiated to identify and proceed against those who have failed to act appropriately to control the violence at its initial stages or prevent its escalation thereafter. By the same token, the police officers who have performed their duties well should be commended.
The Commission's recommendations came after examining a comprehensive report sent by the Gujarat government following the commission's rejection of a "perfunctory" report sent by the state earlier. NHRC chairman Justice JS Verma had visited some worst violence-hit cities including Godhra and Ahmedabad last month.
Other steps recommended by the NHRC include constitution of special cells under district magistrates to follow the progress of investigation in cases not entrusted to CBI and monitoring of these cases by the Additional Director General of Police (Crime). There should be a specific time frame fixed for expeditious completion of investigations and setting up of police desks in relief camps to receive complaints, record FIRs and forward them to police stations.
The Commission said provocative statements made on electronic or print media should be examined and acted upon and the burden of proof shifted to such people to explain or contradict their statements. The NHRC also made recommendations on the manner camps should be run with senior government officials of the rank of secretary given specific responsibility in groups of camps.
Special facilities and camps should be set up to processing insurance and compensation claims and inmates should not be asked to leave the camps until appropriate relief and rehabilitation measures were in place for them and they feel assured on security grounds that they could leave the camps. This observations comes amid reports that the guilty rulers were trying hard to disperse the refugees quickly before Prime Minister Vajpayee's proposed visit to the state on April 4 so that he comes to a normal state of affairs.
There is speculation here that the strong stand taken by the NHRC will soon lead to the resignation or dismissal of the Gujarat state government led by Narendra Modi who openly connived in the riots and justified them as natural events.
The NHRC sent a confidential report to both the central and state governments and after getting their response it will come up with comprehensive recommendations.
Meanwhile a mob set on fire houses in Mehsana district on Monday as communal violence continued unabated in Ahmedabad city and parts of Gujarat claiming two more lives. A mob set on fire at least eight houses at Adundara village near Kadi town of Mehsana district, police said. Curfew continued in Kadi town. Two persons, injured in violence three days ago, succumbed. A man, assaulted in Ranip area of the Ahmedabad, died on Sunday night as did an old man injured in stone pelting at Petlad town.
Indefinite curfew continued in Ahmedabad's Gomtipur area which remained in the grip of tension set off by violence on Saturday last. Police opened fired at two places in Vejalpur and Danilimda areas late Sunday night to disperse stone pelting mobs resulting in injuries to one person in the firing. Official figures of persons killed in these riots are about to touch 800 while unofficial figures are many times higher. Many areas of Gujarat still remain under curfew.
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