PUDR Press Release: PEOPLE'S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
PRESS STATEMENT
16 June 2007
"Release Binayak Sen": Noam Chomsky
The widespread campaign to release Dr Binayak Sen and repeal the Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act received a fillip today with one of the world's foremost public intellectuals, Professor Noam Chomsky, demanding that he be released.
Noam Chomsky, Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Arundhati Roy, Prabhat Patnaik, Ashok Mitra, Habib Tanvir, and Rajendra Yadav and many other intellectuals, writers, and poets, issued a statement today, in which they said they were "dismayed at the continued detention in custody of Dr Binayak Sen, General Secretary of the PUCL, since 14 May". His arrest, their statement said, "is clearly an attempt to intimidate PUCL and other democratic voices that have been speaking out against human rights violations in [Chattisgarh]". They have demanded that that Dr Binayak Sen be released immediately; that harassment of other activists be stopped; that the Salwa Judum be disbanded; and that the Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2006 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 2004 be repealed.
Their statement is attached.
NAGRAJ ADVE, SHASHI SAXENA Secretaries PUDR
RELEASE DR BINAYAK SEN, REPEAL CHATTISGARH ACT
We, the undersigned, are dismayed at the continued detention of Dr Binayak Sen, General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), since 14 May. Dr Binayak Sen is also National Vice-President of PUCL, one of the oldest civil liberties organizations in India .
Dr Sen epitomises a dwindling tradition in India of public health professionals taking health care to the poorest sections and most underdeveloped regions of this country. For the past 30 years, he has been promoting community rural health care centres. He was a member of the state advisory committee that piloted a community-based health worker programme in Chhattisgarh. He also helped establish the Shaheed Hospital in Dalli Rajhara, set up and operated by workers for over 25 years.
We believe that the arrest of Dr Binayak Sen is a grave assault on the democratic rights movement in India . PUCL Chhattisgarh has been one of the foremost independent organizations to draw attention to the excesses committed by the Chhattisgarh government under its Salwa Judum campaign. The fake encounters, rapes, burning of villages and displacement of adivasis in tens of thousands and consequent loss of livelihoods have been extensively chronicled by several independent investigations. Dr Sen's arrest is clearly an attempt to intimidate PUCL and other democratic voices that have been speaking out against human rights violations in the state. In recent days, the targets of state harassment have widened to include Dr Ilina Sen, who for years has been active in the women's movement, Gautam Bandopadhyaya of Nadi Ghati Morcha, PUCL's Rashmi Dwivedi, and other activists of PUCL.
1. That all charges against Dr Sen be dropped and that he should be released immediately; 2. That the threats to and harassment of other activists be stopped immediately; 3. The immediate disbanding of the Salwa Judum; and 4. That the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2006 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2004 be repealed.
SIGNATORIES
London Demonstration supporting Dr Binayak Sen Date 24th May 2007 Thursday Venue Outside the Indian High Commission in the aldwych in London Time 11am to 12 noon Date: 5/16/2007 7:43:14 AM Subject: Petition for release of Binayak Sen from imprisonment Dear Friends,
You may have heard that Dr. Binayak Sen (Batch of 1966 from Christian Medical College, Vellore) was imprisoned this afternoon, May 14 in Raipur for his civil liberties work among the tribals of Chattisgarh. We are requesting for his immediate release by petitioning the President of India, Prime Minister of India, President of the National Human Rights Commission and Governor of Chhattisgarh.
We request your support by adding your name to this on-line petition.
1. Press control + click on the following link to take you to the petition: http://petitiononline.com/Binayak/petition.html
2. Please read the petition titled: “Release of Dr. Binayak Sen, Vice President National PUCL, from imprisonment”
3. If you would like to sign the petition, please scroll to the bottom of the page and click on. "click here to sign petition" and follow instructions that appear. Please include your e-mail although it will not appear on the petition.
The petition needs to be sent to the President at the latest by May 15, 2007 evening. We would request you to urgently attend to the concern and circulate it to all friends and colleagues of Binayak.
With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
George M. Chandy Director
Christian Medical College Ida Scudder Road, Vellore - 632004 Tamil Nadu, India Phone 0091 416 2282010 / 2232024 Fax 0091 416 2232054 www.cmch-vellore.edu http://home.cmcvellore.ac.in
|
Amnesty International Statement on Dr. Binayak Sen
India: Human rights defender detained amid harassment of adivasi indigenous
rights activists
16 May 2007
Amnesty International is concerned over the apparently arbitrary arrest and detention of
Dr. Binayak Sen, a human rights defender at Raipur in the central Indian state of
Chhattisgarh, and the police harassment of two other human rights defenders in the state.
Dr. Sen is the general secretary of the Chhattisgarh unit of the People’s Union
for Civil Liberties, one of India’s foremost human rights organizations, and has been
instrumental in working on access to health for adivasi communities in the state. On 14
May 2007, he was detained at the Tarbahar Police Station, Bilaspur district, when he was
returning from Kolkotta to Raipur. On May 15, he was lodged in Raipur prison. Police
officials later sealed his residence and searched his clinic. His organic farm in a nearby
village was also searched.
Reports say Dr. Sen has been detained under provisions of the Chhattisgarh
Special Public Security Act, 2006 (CSPSA), and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,
1967), which was amended in 2004 to include key aspects of the Prevention of Terrorist
Activities Act (POTA), 2002. The POTA was repealed in 2004 following widespread
criticism of abuse and human rights violations. The CSPSA and UAPA allow for
arbitrary detention of persons suspected of belonging to an unlawful organization or
participating in its activities or giving protection to any member of such an organization.
The PUCL has stated that, apart from Dr. Sen, two other PUCL members,
Rashmi Dwivedi and Gautam Bandopadhyay, have been facing harassment and threats
of arrest from the police. The three have been actively protecting the rights of adivasis
(indigenous communities) in the face of escalating violence in Chattisgarh between
armed Maoists and Salwa Judum, an armed anti-Maoist campaign widely regarded as
sponsored by the state government. They have been instrumental in bringing to light
unlawful killings of advisis , sexual assault of adivasi women and disappearances of adivasi
youth. The latest instance was the unlawful killing of seven adivisis in Santoshpur village
in Bastar-Dantewada area on 31 March. While the state police had earlier claimed that
those killed were Maoists, the state government recently ordered an inquiry into the
killings after which the bodies have been exhumed last week.
The PUCL has stated that police allege that Dr. Sen had passed letters from
Narayan Sanyal, a detained leader of the banned CPI (Maoist) who he had met in the
Raipur jail last month, to Piyush Guha an alleged member of CPI (Maoist) under
detention since 1 May. Dr. Sen, at the time of his arrest, told the media that this charge
had no basis since the prison authorities were present during for all the meeting with
Narayan Sanyal.
Amnesty International urges the Government of Chhattisgarh to immediately
release Dr. Sen unless he is charged with a recognizable criminal offence and take urgent
steps to end the harassment of the other human rights defenders in the state.
BACKGROUND
Since 2005, Chhattisgarh, especially the Bastar-Dantewada area, has witnessed escalation
of violence between the Maoists and the Salwa Judum. Civilians were routinely targeted on
both sides, resulting in at least 300 deaths. The latest unlawful killings took place on 31
Also, 45,000 adivasis displaced from their homes have been forced to live in special
camps putting them at increased risk of violence.
The Chhattisgarh state government claimed that it enacted the CSPSA to take action
against the Maoists. Human rights organizations in India have criticised the CSPSA
saying that it has several provisions similar to those in POTA. These include:
violation of the principle of certainty in criminal law (including vague definition
of membership and support to terrorist organisations);
absence of pre-trial safeguards (including insufficient safeguards on arrest, the
risk of torture, obstacles to confidential communications with counsel);
virtual impossibility of obtaining bail as there is no provision for remedy of
appeal or review of detention;
threats to freedom of expression and
threats to freedom of association.