Thursday, November 13, 2014
Criminal case against Modi in Australia
The American Justice Centre, a U.S.-based non-profit human rights organisation, has filed a criminal complaint against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Australia, arguing that in presiding over the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat he was responsible for “ordering, facilitating, inciting, participating, conspiring, aiding, abetting and carrying out organised attacks on civilian population of the State of Gujarat belonging to Muslim faith”.
The AJC, which filed the complaint in Canberra a day ahead of Mr. Modi’s scheduled visit there kicking off, made headlines in September during Mr. Modi’s closely-watched visit to the U.S. when it filed a similar complaint there and a federal district court in New York responded by issuing summons against Mr. Modi.
Mr. Modi will be in Australia as a part of a ten-day tour that included the ASEAN summit in Myanmar following which is set to participate in the G-20 meetings in Brisbane.
The plaintiffs, who are apparently victims of the Gujarat riots represented by AJC in the complaint, were fully identified in the Australian case though only their first names were mentioned in the U.S. lawsuit.
Among the plaintiffs was Asifbhai Vahora who, the complaint recounted, was an Indian citizen from Anand, Gujarat, who in 2002 was “trapped” in a nearby village by “an armed contingent of BJP-RSS workers,” who then “beat him severely and left him to die.”
When Mr. Vahora was later working as volunteer in the relief camps set up by NGOs for the victims of the riots, he was again “tortured, beaten, hounded, intimated, threatened by the workers of BJP and RSS,” the complaint said, and subsequently was turned away by authorities when trying to register a case against his assailants.
The AJC complaint goes on to argue that the administration of Gujarat was “completely complicit,” in the events of 2002, as was Mr. Modi as Chief Minister of the state at the time.
Not only did such complicity occur during the time of the riots, the case documents note, but Gujarat officials have also been “negligent” in attending to the resettlement and rehabilitation needs of the riot victims since that time.
Under Australian law Mr. Modi’s violated the Criminal Code Act of 1995, specifically sections 268.8 and 268.9, which together provided for five charges linked to “genocide” and “crimes against humanity,” the complaint says, adding that on this basis it called on Australia’s Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution to “indict and prosecute” Mr. Modi.
Labels: 2002, American Justice Centre, ASEAN Summit., G-20 nations, Gujarat riots, Modi, Modi role in riots, Narendra Modi
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Indian MPs-Obama-Modi controversy
Images of the Letters written by Indian MPs to Barack Obama, calling on the U.S. not to reconsider its decision to deny Narendra Modi an entry visa.
Labels: 2002, Barack Obama, Gujarat riots, Indian MPs, Indian Parliament, Modi, Narendra Modi
Monday, March 26, 2012
U.S. House concerned at reports of Modi's 'complicity' in riots
A resolution has been introduced in the United States House of Representatives expressing solidarity with the Obama administration's view that the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat “has not adequately pursued justice for the victims of the 2002 violence” and that they remained “concerned by reports from journalists and human rights groups about the complicity of ... [Mr.] Modi in the [pogrom].”
House Resolution 569, “Recognizing the tenth anniversary of the tragic communal violence in Gujarat,” was sponsored by Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, and it called on the Gujarat government to heed the recommendations of the State Department to “restore religious freedom for all citizens in Gujarat.”
This is not the first instance where the U.S. government has marked its concern surrounding the role of the Gujarat government in the riots. In 2005, it denied a visa to Mr. Modi on the grounds of religious freedom violation under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
This week, the House noted that in 2002, the violence directed against Muslims by Hindu mobs led to an estimated 2,000 dead and 1,00,000 displaced into refugee camps, and commended the National Human Rights Commission and the Indian Supreme Court, whose actions led to some convictions in Gujarat riots cases and also the arrest of a few high-level leaders in the Modi administration.
Recounting some of the details of the mob attacks, the resolution quoted a 2002 Human Rights Watch report entitled, “We Have No Orders to Save You,” in particular a section that noted that between February 28 and March 2, 2002 “the attackers descended with militia-like precision on Ahmedabad by the thousands.”
The report further described the unfolding of the targeted attacks, saying, “Chanting slogans of incitement to kill...they were guided by computer printouts listing the addresses of Muslim families and their properties...and embarked on a murderous rampage confident that the police was with them.”
Alleging that portions of the Gujarati language press had printed fabricated stories and statements openly calling on Hindus to avenge the Godhra attacks, the text of the resolution further noted that “Where justice has been delivered in Gujarat, it has been in spite of the State government, not because of it.”
Labels: Godhra riots, Modi role in riots, Narendra Modi
Monday, December 06, 2010
Lashkar militants planned attack on Narendra Modi
From The Hindu
Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were planning “operations... involving a car,” against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, according to a recent secret diplomatic cable of the United States State Department released by WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website.
The cable, created on June 19 2009, was sent from the office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “Security Officer, Collective Priority,” and the U.S. embassies in Tripoli, Casablanca and Johannesburg. Some of the information in the cable had been redacted by WikiLeaks, yet it bore Ms. Clinton’s name at the end and was categorised as “Secret,” “No Foreign,” and it was “derived from multiple sources.”
Under the category of “key concerns,” the notes on LeT member Shafiq Khan, and alternatively a person identified only as “Hussein,” said that they continued operational planning on three tasks in early June of 2009.
These plans were associated with a “possible operation against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendar Modi, the establishment of a training camp, and unspecified work involving a car.”
The cable added that Hussein would coordinate his activities with an India-based colleague identified as Sameer.
Providing some geographic information for the operations, the cable further said that the Pakistan-based Shafiq Khafa had been seeking out information on possible training sites for the operations in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala. It added that Khafa had an associate identified as “S.J.” with whom he was making these preparations in mid-June.
Quoting a “credible tearline,” or segment of an intelligence source, the cable went on to note that Khafa’s network was “striving to stand up two teams in southern India that rely on the support of LeT members based in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Nepal.”
However it cautioned that although specific details of planned LeT attacks remained unknown, intelligence obtained in late May of that year indicated that “Khafa’s cells were engaged in surveillance activities of potential targets, likely in southern India.”
Reports in May further suggested a Sri Lanka link, explaining that the establishment of a facilitation team in that country might then lead to Kerala or Tamil Nadu being used as a base of operations.
“The estimated time of completion for setting up the facilitation route and camps to be two to three months,” the cable said.
Labels: cablegate, Gujarat Chief Minister, LeT, Narendra Modi, terrorism, U.S. secret cables, Wikileaks
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