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If Ethnic Cleansing Works Once, Why Not Try Again?
Edited for brevityBy Rosemary Morris Special to ASSIST News Service In February/March 2002 a market survey was taken of Muslim traders, homeowners in Gujarat, India, particularly in the Ahmedabad area. What followed that particular survey was the ethnic cleansing, and horrific genocide of vulnerable Muslim men, women and children resulting in thousands being killed, and many thousands ending up in refugee camps. Several human rights groups went to Gujarat during 2002 and brought out their reports and submitted to the authorities but nothing changed. The Gujarat government just said it was communal riots, but from all the reports done both by national and international human rights groups, it was a definite, systematic attack on the Muslim community from the fascist forces in Gujarat. In March 2003, we see that there is a new move on another minority community, but this time it is the Christian community. The Gujarat government have admitted that there has been some 'informal' gathering of statistics of the Christian community. It has been reported in the media the Gujarat police have started a discreet survey of Christians in some parts of the state, filing information on the size of the families, their job profiles and sources of foreign funds. However, both the police, the local government either blame each other for obtaining these surveys and information, and now the Gujarat government blames central government!!!! It has been stated by the home minister of the State of Gujarat that MP Ram Vilas Paswan had raised a question regarding religious conversions and in order to give a complete reply, the Central government had asked for statistical information!!! It has to be seen as a targeted survey simply by seeing the questions asked! They survey asks for name, details of Christian institutions in the area; how many people converted in the village during the past year; how many new institutes have started in the past year; details about converted Christians in the village; and what are the reasons behind the conversions in the district. Several families in Ahmedabad city have been visited late at night (10.0 -11.0 pm asking the questions such as when they converted and who converted them. Not only is this intimidation but also harassment. Posted by: Kathy 2003-03-19 |
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