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Briefly...
Provincial Councils dissolved
The Seven functioning Provincial Councils were dissolved by proclaTnation by their Gower nors. The coTbined North and East Provincial Council was dissolved some time earlier after a Unilateral Declaration of Independence by its Chief Minister. Fresh elections to the Seven are to be held in May. Nominations Will be received this Week.
The Provincial Councils were set up to devolve power to the provinces in terms of the Jayewardene-Rajiv Gandhi Indo-Lanka agreement as a means of ending the ethnic conflict, After the temporarily merged North-East Prowincial Council Was dissolved earlier the existence of Prowincial Councils ceased to have meaning in the context of their original purpose.
Elections will not be held for the North-East PC in May. They are to held for the Western, Southern, Sabaragamuwa, Uwa, Central, North Central and North WesterT COucils. The elections are to be contested by UNP, the newly formed People's Alliance led by the SLFP and by the Democratic United National Front (DUNF) led by Lalith AthulathTLJIdali.
Foreign exchange law removed
Government removed the foreign exchange regulation which required exporters to remit within six Tonths hard currency earned from exports. Governmentsources said that it was a logical extension of the open economy. A spokesman said that the measure Would be reaConidered if it turned out to be harmful to the interests of the country.
The Opposition SLFP's spokeSman on economic affairs Kingsley Wickres Taratne, who is also a busnessman, described the new TOWe as "good for exporters but bad for the country".
The Government also recently removed restrictions on the quantum of exchange that travellers Could take abroad.
CWC lays
Mr Thondar ylon Workers' which represent thousand plant expected to ask a series of assur in its ThāSSiWebol the forthcoming electio S.
AIT long the a ETE
" Houses ar Workers;
Governme youth;
Guarantee the oth||
Eillilation teachers
State SC
Opportuniti employmer estate Work
" Janasawiya ог шпempl rkers.
DUNFC
lead
The Democrat Front (DUNF) se issue by appointil Sident Lalith Athi leader for one yea for the next year WiCB Presidert G ke. These two W rotation. The 14 reau arid 65 The TlTittelė 50 de Ewert of their CLI being elected Pri publiche Would a to be party leade
More conc State c.
Further CLJStO SSions have bğe Governmentforp can import cars taXrteSi, Witte they will be bro Members of Parli yment of such pri

doWinterTTS
n's powerful CeCongress (CWC) several hundred ation Workers is tsally the UNP for LrCeSifitist0thrOW Ick Vote Supportat Provincial Council
SSuranceS SOLIght
dland forestate
it jobs for estate
i 26 days work in or estate Workers;
of shortahes of Lind equipment in OlS; .
es of foreign it for Tembers of er families;
benefits for retired oyed estate wo
ecides on ership
lic United National tted its leadership ng senior Wice Preulathmudali as the ar, to be succeeded by the other senior iamini Dissąnayaill hold the post in
member - politbulmber Working coicided that in the nbent party leader esident of the ReJtomatically cease
.
essions for officerS
ms Duty concen allowed by the Lublic servants Who оп сопcessionary the WCOncessions ught in line with ament in the enjovileges.
To guard polls
To ensure "a fair" election 50,000 policemen will be on duty, a senior police spokesman said. Security for the Provincial Council polls due in May is being planned by the Election Secretatiat at Police Headquarters in Colombo. The military will also help the police, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile Elections Commissioner Chandramanda de Siliwa told the Inedia that he may be inviting international observers to monitor the polls in the seven provinces.
Media protest
They squatted at Lipton Circus, near the General Hospital in ColoThbo, for two hours on March 18 to protest harrassment of the media. The satyagraha was performed by mediamen, opposition policlans, trade unionists, farmer representatives and students. Among those present Were SLFF eäder Sirimavo Bandaranaike and DUNF leader Lalith Athuliath Tudali and Gamini Dissanayake.
äÜARDIAN
Wol, 15 No. 23 April 1, 1993 Price Rs. 10.00
Published fortnightly by Lanka Guardian Publishing Co. Ltd. No. 246, Union Place Colornbö - 2.
Editor. Mervyn de Silva Telephone: 4.47584
Printed by Ananda Press B25, Sir Flatmajothi Sarawa rham LuttLu Mawatha, Colombo 13, Telephone: 435975
CONTENTS
Lette 5 News Background 3 Amnesty Report (4) . 4 Why Human Rights Matter (2) Medībā: - " Indian Newspapers in the post-Ayodhya Situation " Pakistan's PrinThe Minister
and the Press 13 P 14 Democracy and the
Soviet Collapse (4) 15 ThE, FIsIE|Lut it to the
Indo-SriLE ka Accord '87 17 Books: 19 "Whigor Black " Nationalist

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LETTERS
MLSir FC:tOr
refer to the article "Focus on the Muslim Factor" by the Mr. Mervyn de Silva in the issue of the Lanka Guardian of 15 February.
Mr. De Siwa has infered that the SLFP) and the Opposition are ignorant of the trends in the World and that they are not aware that after the Iranian Revolution of a Khomeni, Islam has emerged as one of the Tost dynamic Socio-political forces at the tail-end of the 20th Century. Mr. De Silva also states that the UNP, Lunder Mr. PreTadasa, las Certainly created new space for tactical alignments, recognising the primacy of religion and race in the age of identity.
This categorical Conclusion has beer drawn by Mr. De Silva in view of the SLFP and the Opposition not attending the Convention of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, held on 7th February, 1993,
I am certain that the politically mature SLFP and the other Opposition parties are quite aware of the sweeping winds of change in the Muslim World.
Rather, what the SLFP and the Opposition hawerightly discernedis that Mr. Ashraf is certainly not, by any standards, a manifestation of the Islamic resurgence the world OWET.
Far from alleviating the suffering of the Tajority of the Muslims in the Eastern provirice and the rest of the island, he has on the Contrary Compounded their sufferings as a TESLUlt of his political gambits. On the formation of his party, the Sri Lanka Muslim. CongreSS, he announced his ConTITmit Tet to ensure that the Holy Quran and traditions of the Prophet (Sal) were adopted as the guidelines for his party's policies.
Saybhan Samat COTE ES
Note by Editor:
The official representatives of the Arab and Islamic Countries, including IMAM KHOMEINI'S IRAN, who were present at the meeting, evidently
Olda differeriE.
Elections
If the Parliamentary or Provincial Coucil Elections are held first then the members elected from what ever party, may cease to be interested insupportinga particular Presidential candidate. They will take an insurarice policy in their own future by being luke Warm at the Presidential Elections not knoWing who will win.
If the Presidential Elections carine first the Provincial Council members and ParliaTentary Thembers will Work tooth and nail
for their party's cand do this that the new Pr Presidential Cardiate Candidates for their ni or Parliamentary Elec
if thē ProWicial E Government, Will the streets "Phillipino" si Tent of thë Preside office?
Matala
Bishop's
MLJIch hawe belė the poor Bishop who a peace mission to The Tibers of the Bud who were also target to Was the late Mr. K popularity rose skyhierachy of the Tigers mpted sorTimeone to bl
It has becometh journalism that where South makes a gen negotiations he is sco national press. While Cating Strongly that pe at all costs by fluent page articles, thesed a different lote When decides that enough a day by brawing the to the Northern part hacked and ripped to editorial comments wi sarcasm. It happere Tantoo, Do We hawe of thinking forever wh ardmore in to thébé nity? Why not these adminit that discussior this monster was be
Tre
It is the country's and the sufferings anc Sands of innocent Nor other that prompts this Crop of Jaffna that South, is now fetchin a kilo in Jaffna. Suchis Solare sormany ot hawe to liwe there to k; Power Cutofa threel be substituted by kerc rial cost of R5, 200
call upon allic Whose love for his SECord to that of t
Tother, to rally round Fernando who had si break-through.
Wa'Wurhiya

idate. It is only if they esident or the defeated Will nominate the Tas ôxt Prowincial Counci| :tio.
lections are lost by the opposition take to the yle to prevent Partiant from continuing in
Ranjith Samarakkody
Mission
Written and said about had braved his way on the North, like a few hist clergy in the past, s of Criticism. The so Curtaranaturge Whose high after hawing met i, Which popularity proow him up.
e pattern of Sri Larıkan Wer someone from the uire effort for peace fed at by the so called On the Colle had adwoace should be restored editorials and middle ailies play their tune on Someone dow. South is enough and calls it ground situation to go
of the island. He is pieces by articles and thcynical remarks and d to Minister Thoridato go on with this line ich WDuldlead LISInüre wilderless of uncertai
puritans and pundits should begin where used for a decade Or
economy. On one side hardships of the thouthern population on the sletter. Dry Chilies, the was marketed to the g a price of Rs. 400the state of Cultivation. er Corriddities. You OW What is life there, ng year period cannot Sene at the phenomea bottle.
itizens of this country otherland is in no way a lowe he has for his Rev. Bishop Kenneth JCCeeded in making a
A. R.S.Mahalingarn.
Comrade Shan
Must Dr. Wickramabahu Bandara Kanunaratne, the Self proclaimed leader of the NSSP, display his crass stupidity and complete ignorance every time he puts pen to paper-particularly when the subject matter is someone who is not in the land of living? We remember his "appreciation" of Ramani Gunawardane which was actually a long harangue on his own links to the Kandyan and low Country aristocracy. Now he has done it again. This time his subject is Conrade N. Shanmugathasan, that scourge of all Lankan Trotskyites.
Dr. Bahu's statement that Shall "realned loyal to the Proletarian Revolution and the Socialist project in general" would hawe caused Shan much amusement - partly because Shan regarded all Trotskyites as enemies of the socialist cause and partly because Shan knew very well how loyal Dr. Bahu and his NSSP hawe been to the "Rewo|Lutjo".
According to Dr. Bahu, Shan's failure Was that he "retained true to his convictions". This Verdict is hardly surprising, coming from a man who's only conviction is that he's Sri Lanka's Marx, Lenin and Trotsky rolled into one and his collection of opportunist ignoramuses is the Bolshevik Party of Sri Larikal
Dr. Bahu then Says that Shan being given the chair of the Joint May Day Rally in 1978 "was the climax of his career and We of the NSSP could be happy that we gave his due in time." This event which accoriding to Dr. Bahu "was the climax" of Shan's career was so important to Shan that he doesn't even mention it in his 300 page autobiography "Political Memoirs of an unrepentent Communist". Obviously poor Comrade Shan wasn't aware that this meeting was "the climax of his career" That's probably because We are talking of a Than Who Tlet and had di SCLISSions With Mao at the height of the Cultural Revolution ("one of the greatest events in my life" as Shan called it in his Memoirs - p. 183), addressed nearly 5000 Red Guards of the East is Red Commune (Shan in his memoirs called this a "great privilege" and "an experience I'm not likely to forget"-page 174) and watched Red Guards demonstrate on Tien Miem Square, with Chaiman Maø taking the salute. With such feathers in his cap no Wonder Shan didn't regard the Joint May Day Rally of 1978 as rating even amention in his political testament. After all, when you are looking down from a lofty mountain peak you don't notice the every toadstool growing at the bottom or hear the incessant CrOaking offrogs.
Tilsaliran Bee Gun askera

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News Background
Provincia Elections as
he announcement that President
Premadasa had disSolWed all PrOWincial Councils (except the North East) and that the EleCtiOnS – COmnThisSiOriero had been instructed to set a date for nominations, came amidst growing rumours that the government Was planning to hold a referendum to postpohe P.C. polls. Another popular belief (particularly in the Opposition circles) was that a Presidential election would precede the P.C. polls. The thinking was that there's an anti UNP/Premadasa wawe in the country and therefore the government would not want to risk a defeat in the P.C. polls.
By doing the unexpected, President Premadasamanaged to take the Opposition by Surprise once again (as he did regarding the local government polls in 1991). The announcement came the day after Mr. Chadranada de Silva, the Elections Commissioner, recognized the newly formed Oppositional Front, the People's Alliance, as a political party. Nominations will be between April 1st and 8th and the elections are expected to be held in late May, or early June, the latest.
In a multiparty democracy even local-leWel electionScanbe of considerablesignificaIce because they can play the role of dress rehearsals for any subsequent national-level elections. Therefore, they can be helpful to both the Government and the Opposition, as they can provide the opportunity to political parties to correct themselves, to review their policies etc. - in order to become more ëlectable. The WoterSt00 Call USe SUChelections tosignaltheirapprobationordisapprowal of the various political parties and their policies. This is specially so in the case of the P.C. polls - because they will be held in 7 of the 9 provinces and will enable the government as Well as the Opposition to gain an understanding of the mass mood in the non-Tamil majority areas.
What the UNP and the Opposition have in common regarding the upcoming P.C. polls is that both sides perceve it as a referendum on the government and particulary the policies and programmes of Presi. dent. Mr. Premadasa himself gave this impression. When he said that a vote for the UNP at the P.C. polls will be a vote for him. The record of the President and the Government will be one of the most important issues in the Opposition's election campaign. The still unresolved problem about the desirability of the Presidential system will also feature very high on the oppositional agenda. According to latest reports, the newly formed People's Alliance and the DUNF have come to an agreementon some of the key campaign issues - the most important of which is the rejection of the
Presidential system towards abolishing it.
The last elector: and the Opposition fa rnment polis in 1991 rged a clear Winnerof the total Wotes pic hawe been Certain S economic develop effect of Which is general belief is that political developmen ring this time can WC of the governmentand the formation of: SLFP and some of opposition parties.
The impact these have On the electoral ther is as yet unclear WEHET HE DUNF S.W.R.D0. Bandarları: away from the UNP in 1951. In this rega Tibered is that SWRC significant inroads it base in the electio after the split in 1 1,026,005 votes (up While thig, SLFP TE 361,200 votes (much left Wote of 439,661) SWRD's adoption of its debatable. Whethe tedthe UNPil 1956 Cart det ir the UN helped by the fact th Sir John Kotela Wela, king than who was electorally.
Note of these få present in the case o DUNF has no equiva slogап апdthey havt opponentthan Sir Jol dasa. Therefore thep
lay turn out to be E nging and supplantin Wis-a-Wis the SLFP Sustained euphoria ming of the SLMP) that sese it Carl be at staka at the upcd the futLITE Of the UNP DUNF. If the DUNFf i.e. if it fails to Win ITO polled, then it will fa the two party syste Syster. This Will Serii nces it may hawe co wiable alterTlatiwe tot
The reCertfor IE al||iaTCD is another Si

PlebiSCite
and a pledge to Work
altest thĒ GOWETTEert ced was the local goveI. There the UNP eme- With More thall 50% died. Since then there ignificant political and nents, the Cumulative ard to calculate. The he two most significant s Whichtook place duirk to the disadvantage - the split in the UNP är alliancē, betweer the the smaller Left wing
a two developments will te separately and toge'. It remains to be seen will be able to do. What like did. When he broke and for Ted the SLFP "d What mLUStb. TETEdidn't manage to make to the UNP electoral ns held immediately 952. The UNP polled from 751,432 in 1947) Inaged to obtain only less than the combined ... If it had not been for the Sinhala Only policy rhe Could have defeaor even made a signifiP. Wote. He was also at the UNP was led by aforthright, plain spea
in no Way an asset,
Wourable factors Will be f the DUNF today. The lent of the Sinhala Only afar Tore for Tidable Tr, in President Premaossibility that the DUNF As ineffective in challegthe UNP as the SLMP despite the initial and hat resulted in the soCarnot be ruled out. In said that What is more ming P.C. polls is not but the survival of the ails to do a Ross Perot, ethan 15% of the Wotes il in the task of turning im into a three party OLISlydamage ary Cha| projecting itself as a ng UNP and the SLFP. ation of the oppositional gnificant political deve
lopment, the effect of which on the electorate is unpredictable. This is the first electoral coalition between the SLFP and the traditional Left after the breakup of the United Front in 1976 (except for the alliance between the SLFP and the CP during the 1982 Presidential election in support of the candidacy of Hector Kobbekaduwa). The new alliance does not include the DUNF - though it's beliewed that the two parties hawe Come to an agreement to Work together in the caTpaign, not to attack each other and instead, tO COCentratether fire On Presidert PrElädS ad the UNP.
The P.C. polls will be of crucial importace to the SLFP and to Mrs. Bandaranaike personally. Though Mrs. Bandaranaike has опce agalппапаgedtogain the шpperhand in the inner party struggle (the formation of the Alliance is a victory for the Sirima-Chadrikaline) the divisions in the SLFP are far from being over-as the recent fiasco over. the appointment of an acting Leader of the Opposition clearly proves. If the new alliance fails to win in even one of the provinces, it will be a personal defeat for Mrs. B. The divisions in the party will surface once more. The possibility that a rebellion may breakout within the SLFP against the leadership and the policies of Mrs. B. cannot be ruled out, in the event of a defeat at the P.C. polis. If this happens, the SLFP willigo into a Crisis from which it will not be able to emerge for Sometime-perhaps not even in time for the Presidential elections of December 94.
The UNP is probably depending on its various economic programmes to ensure its Victory at the P.C. polls, Most notable among these are the Janasawiya Programme, the rural industrialization drive (in the form of the 200 gament factories programme), and the President's latest scheme of developing 15,000 villages. The UNP is probably hoping that the beneficial effects of these will far outweigh the negative political developments which took place since the P.C. polls of 1991. The fact that the Opposition does not have a clear economic programme will probably Work in the UNP's favour.
After Weeks of public speculation and deliberation (which gave rise to a frenzy of rumours and Counter rumours), Mr. Thondaman's CWC has decided to contest under the UNP sympol - a piece of news which will come as a relief to the UNP and will cause the Opposition some disappointment. The UNP will be intent on winning in all the provinces -because even if the Opposition manages to win in one province, they will use that as a base and a spring board for a concerted anti Premadasa campaign. If so, their next airm will be to force the UNP to have early Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Page 6
AMNESTY REPORT (4)
LTTE's Massacre of Civili:
mnesty International's Work on
abuses of human rights by the armed opposition groups is based on principles derived from international humanitarian law. The organization promotes minimum standards of humane behaviour by which any opposition group should abide. The LTTE announced in February 1988 that it would abide by the provisions of the Genewa Conventions and its (Optional Protocols I and II. It continue:S to claim that it abides by these standards, but consitent reports from the northeast indicate that it fails to do so.
Both international human rights law ald InterTlational FUTlantariam laW deáling with armed conflict prohibit all forms of torture and the killing of defenceless people. Common Article 3 of the Genewa Conventions, which applies to all parties to an internal armed conflict, requires that all persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of the arried forces who are in detention, WOLnded or have laid down their arms, must always be treated humanely. Such people should newer be Turdered, rutilated, tortured or subjected to cruel, humiliating or degrading treatment. Hostage-taking is also prohibited.
Armed conflict between government fOICBS and the Sec9SSIOrlist LT TE COntinued in the northeast during 1992 with heavy casualties reported on both sides, Control of Tuch of the northeastertained uncertain. The government retained cointrol of the towns of Mannar, Wavuniya, Trico Talee, Batticaloa and Artparai. The Jaffna peninsula remained primarily in LTTE hands, but government forces took over part of the peninsula, as Well as holding several islands closeby. Access to the peninsula by land or Sea W35 ClOSed. Te3SiOS batWEer the TarTi and Muslim communitiesin the east, particularly, were heightened with a series of Communal attacks and counter-attacks.
. Forces of the LTTEcommitted numerous gross abuses of human rights, including the deliberate killing of hundreds of non-combatant Muslim and Sinhalese civilians, the arbitrary killing of civilians in bomb attacks on buses and trairs, the torture and killing of prisoners, and abdu
ctions for ransom. The LTTE also execu
ted prisoners accused of being traitors.
On 15 July 1992, 18 Muslim men, Wo Terland Childre Were shot dead Wher the bus they were travelling in Was reportedly attacked by the LTTE at KirankuIam, between Kattankudi and Kalmunai in Batticaloa. District. A. Week later, On 21
July, a train Was stop loa, on its way to Co reports, Muslim pass ted from the others a people died. In Septe ple, most of Whom ’N killed when a bobb planted by the LTTE Wded market place
Sirhalese Ciwilias " LTTE attackS ir til KohongasWeWa in V Ciwilias WETE killed ir
The killing in Api willagers at Alarchipo District, has been m October 1992 anew took place: OWer 19 including small child ппassive earlyпогпіп on four adjacent villa District. According to Paliyagodella interW International, the att 4anT, while the willa|| and ended about thr said the villages, Wh area of the east, W policemen, 10 sold guards, some of Wh. the til TeardsonThe of N duty. Hundreds of L nded on the Willages; security forces returr Out of artunition. after about two hours on the first exchang to panic, fleeing in E TOUTICerThent CarT180 dspeaker that people mosque. On the Wa attacked and killed. three sisters and t persom interwiewed || tional flad al Bger family's sole survivo undergrowth until th The LT TE dB lied re massacres, but Witne the LTE COTTitted
Among the tho believed to be held risk'Ofil=treattlent Wı and military personn as traitors to the L they were believedt rmation to governme had CriticisEdLT TE Were members of groups in the past, a hostages held for r LTTE deserters Wh1C people who have fle

3S
ped outside Batticalombo. According to апgeгswereseparaand killed. ADOut ten mber 1992, 22 pedWere Muslims, Were EliewEdito hawe beer
exploded in a croat Sainthamarathu. WETE also killed in east, such as at Weli Oya, where 15 T October 1992.
r 1992. Of 62 Muslim tana PolonnaruaWa entioned above, in еп larger пnassacre O Muslim willagers, ren, Were killed in a gattack by the LTTE ges in Polonnaru Wa tWOSurvivors from iewed by Amnesty ack began at about gers Were sleeping, ee hours later. They sch-are in the border 'ere guarded by 26 iers and 10 home om Were in camp at whom were on sentry IT TE cadres desceand opened fire. The hed fire, but SCOI ran Air support arrived i. Residents woke up e of fire, and began I directions. An anVer the mosque loushould gather in the y there, many were The father, mother, WO brothers of One by Amnesty Internakilled. He Was the r, and had hidden in e fighting was ower. sponsibility for these SSES are Certain that these acts.
usands of prisoners by the LTTE and at ere Sri Lankan police el, TarTills per CeiWeid TE: CaLS9, beCaLSE o have provided infort forces,Tamils Who policies, Tamils who
riWa TaTTil Tiilitant nd Tamil and Muslim anSOTI. Relatives of have escaped, or of d to ewade ConScri
ption, are also Said to hawe beeldetained. A number of Sinhalese prisoners may also be held, according to a press interview With a Sirhale5 e fisera WFO WES among three fishermen released by the LTTE in August 1992 after seven months in detention (Island, Colombo. 24 August 1992).
Amnesty International cannot verify the number of prisoners held by the LTTE, but reports consistently put the figure at over 2,000. The LTTE has not informed relatives of the whereabouts or fate of many of its prisoners, Some of whom hawe reportedly been tortured and killed. Accoriding to a former LTTE member, there were about 250 alleged traitors held prisoner in a camp in the Wanni (south of the Jaffna peninsula) around the time of Amnesty International's visit. He said Tamil prisoners suspected of being inforiners were routinely beaten and tortured during interrogation until they "confessed", and some were then shot dead. Methods of torture used to extract Confessions included severe beatings, holding prisoners' heads under Water inter Tittently and tying them to a tree and then firing ShotS BTOLInd thErtl.
Relatives are not necessarily informed by the LTTE whether the prisoner is alive or dead, and many prisoners held by the LTTE appear to beim incommunicado detention. The ICRC regularly visits 40 policemen and a soldier held as prisoners of War, but has not been granted access to Tamilprisoners. The LT TE claimed in a letter to Amnesty International dated 24 September 1992 that, "Prisoners are peritted visits by relatives and by human
rights and humanitarian organisations."
However, Amnesty International has received complaints from relatives of prisoners that they have been given no infortation at all. Some suspected informers, however, have been paraded in public, according to witnesses.
Indiwidual prisoners held by the LTTE, and whose whereabouts and fate are not known include student and Writer Thiagarajah Selvanithy and dramatistThiFairhathan, Who Were both arrested on 30 August 1991. A student called Manoharan, Who Was also arrested that day, Was released in 1992. A bookseller, Mainam, was arrested in December 1991, and in February and Apiril 1992respectively, Rajaratnam, a farmer, and Senthan, an engimeer, were arrested. Senthan was released later that year. There hawe also been reports that in January 1992 the LTTE Fådø TlEWS HTT1[]LITICE[] that threå TT1ET1 aged over 70 years old had been arrested

Page 7
for having had contacts With past "traltors". They are Perinpanayakam from Urumpiral, former Inspector Thamotharampillai and Chelliah from Madduwil, and are believed to have been arrested three months before the radio broadcast. TWO Sinhalese prisoners were abducted in Batticaloa District by the LTTE on 13 November 1991, together with two Thai nationals Who Were released to the ICRC two days later. They were BM BaddeWWla, an artiployee of Sri U-Thong Coimpany, and G. Gamini Wickremasinghe, an employee of the Ceylon Electricity Board. Their whereabouts and fate are not known.
Numerous people hawe been held for ransom by the LTTE as part of its fund-raising effort. The hostages included SSivagnanam, an 84-year-old retired lawyer from Chankanai, Jaffna, Who Was detajned on 9 September 1992 with a ransom demand of Rs 2,500,000 (about US$600,000), who is believed to have been selected because he has relatives living in Europe who are presumed to be wealthy. Relatives in Jaffna were refused permission to see him and given no inforation about his state of health. In Batticaloa, Amnesty International interviewed a TaT || Tan Wh05e Wife had be detained by the LTTE forransom, and released after agreeing to pay by a specified date. A former LTTE member described to Amnesty International how funds were extracted from the public by force, including by taking children prisoners for raInsom from their parents.
The 40 captive policemen and one soldier may also being held as hostages. They were seen by a delegation of Buddhist monks which visited Jaffna in April 1992. According to a Reuter report of 28 Apir 1992, the LTTE offered to release them if the government releases 4.1 LTTE prisoners.
Musins hawe also been held for ransom. Forty-three Muslims were taken hostage in Jaffna and Vavuniya Districts between January 1990 and May 1991. Twelve were released after 18 months in detention, with no ransom having been paid, in March 1992. One had died in detention and nine others had been released in 1991 after the ransort demanded was paid. The fate of the others is not KnOWI.
Amnesty International interviewed some of the released Muslim hostages from Jaffna during their visit. They had been held in chains at Usan, one of their places of detention. During the day, each individual had his ankles chained; at night, they were chained to each other. During questioning by the LTTE about their property, they had been assaulted. One hostage had once been visited by his Wife.
But while they Wer Slim Shad been dri the Jaffna peninsul So it Would not hi. relatives to see the stage who died, A to have been 68 y On 16 October 199. assaulted the pre rading to a witness, to his house to fet After his return, he and collapsed and
Executions by traitors continued to including public ex dents told Amnesty SOners Senten Cedt paraded before th execution, sometim their necks, and it sentences were pi witness described tional the public exe that took place nea of Vavuniya, on tP 1992. A group of a ten prisoners, incluic road junction at Crowd of people W Colombo from the there, and forced dings. The prisone of giving informatic were taken down fro to stand on the sard placed ready "so ti not stain the soil" proclaim their guilt. W they had confessed had been beatend nember of the LT TE to start. The te W An LTTE member of one of the execut witness identified a Nagarajah from Om put in a box and a W scene Was told total at the Wavuniyaar took her documents had no choice butt return for her pape continue with her jo lowed the bodies.
A for Tēr LTTE International that it w captшred govemmє Could notriskafals he said that sor the SC alive and remained of the attitude of the leader. As mention Then are also known Amnesty Internatior 91 policemen who since the LTTE att in the East in JuIB 1

e in detention, all Muwen by the LTTE from a underthreat of death, awe been possible for Til thereafter. The Hobdul Cader, was said Bars old. When he died atlsan. Heihad been vious evening, acco
and had been taken ch six pieces of gold. was ill during the night died the next morning.
the LTTE of alleged o be reported in 1992, ÉCLutions. Jaffna resir International that priO death in Jaffna were e public before their es Withnoticesaround hat thair Criměs and ublicly announced, A to Amnesty Internacution of 10 prisoners ar. Tharidikulam, north he morning of 6 July rrned cadres brought ding two women, to the Paranathan. A large ho were travelling to north were gathered 0 Watch the procee's had been accused in to the army. They mthe Wehicleandtold bags which had been at their blood would . They Were told to When two of thern said falsely because they uring interrogation, a : ordered the shooting are shot in the back. hen cut off the head ad prisoners, who the S a lorry driver called anthai. The head Was 'OTET trWE|Er title (eit to the sentry point my camp. The LTTE away from her, so she deliver the box and rs before she could Urney. The LTTE re
membertold Amnesty aS LTTE policytoki|| nt soldiers, as they Surrender. However, diers had been taken in custody because particular LTTE area d earlier, 40 policeobe alive in custody. alhäS the rames Of have been missing cked police stations
90.
Human Rights in the South
Torture and ill-treatment
Torture was reported in both police and military custody in the south, of both political detainess and criminal suspects, The testimonies which follow demonstrate that illegal arrests are still carried out in the south, facilitating torture and ill-treatret.
In Badulla and Nuwara Eliya Districts Tamil prisoners of Indian origin were tortured in both military and police custody during 1991 and 1992.
One former prisoner told Amnesty International of historture by plainclothed soldiers in Badulla. A group of armed men wearing civilian dress had taken him from his home in Badulla one evening in July 1992. They did not identify themselves at the time, but later told him they were army, not police, personnel. They took him, bliindfolded and handcuffed, in a brown Hiace Van to what he believes was an army camp in an estate bungalow. There, his blindfold Was removed and he Was questioned for about two hours. He denied any contactor knowledge of the LTTE and Was severely beaten for several hours on his face and body. Several times, he had petrol poured into his nostrils and a plastic bag put over his head for two to three seconds. The third time this was attempted, he fell unconsious. In the early morning, he was left chained to a table. The next day, he was questioned further and taken to the Badulla police. They in turn took him to hospital, where he spent several Weeks under police guard. He then spent over two months in police custody at Badulla, where he was regularty visited by the ICRC before being released unconditionally. There, he saw other prisoners who had beaten in order to get them to Confess, and a group of five prisoners under special guard who had been injured and who were chained by the legs for most of the day. One of the five had apparently been there for eight months; the other four for nearly a year.
Another Tamil suspect was tortured in a "safehouse" by police in Nu Wara Eliya, according to his testimony. He was arrested in July 1991 and taken to a dilapidated house. There, he was beaten on his chestandstomach, and an attempt was made to push a burning match into his penis. He was hung upside down and fingers were injured. After four days, he was taken to Nuwara Eliyapolice station, but two weeks later he was again taken to the "safe-house" where he was assauited again. His medical certificate details several injuries consistent with his history of torture.
(Concluded)

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Page 9
Why Human Rig
Mary Robinson (President, Irish Republic)
A regards international machinery, Ways must be found to encourage uniwersal ratification of the UN Cowenants and Protocols. This could involve giving more publicity to non-ratifying states or entering into a constructive dialogue to explore the reasons for their reticence. It Was also considered Vital to actively encourage States to withdraw reservations to these instrurTients.
Unido Lubtedly the World Conference provides an opportunity for improving implementation of existing standards and the effectiveness of mechanisms. Particular attention Tust be devoted to considering Ways and means of preventing violations from occuring. Failure to do so could deepen public Scepticism of the role of the UN in this area. The most compelling Weaknesses concern (1) the absence of an early-Warning system to signal danger and of a focal point within the UN to which those who are close to a deteriorating situation can communicate informally (2) the inability of the UN organs to react Speediyand effectielyto Urgent situations or gross, systematic violations of human rights. The absence of powers to order binding interim measures at both European and Universal levels must also be urgently reconsidered.
The idea was proposed that the time had arrived to create a High or Special Commissioner for Human Rights. He or she could be mandated to take investigating initiatives in situations of emergency as Well as Co-ordinating all of the UN's human rights activities and ensuring the integration of human rights issues in reSpect of other UN activities such aspeace-keeping and peace-building. Although there was some dispute as to whether the mandate should cover both protection and CO-Ordination and Whether the CommiSSionershould be located in Geneva close to infrastructures or in New York close to political decision-making, the idea or such an office was broadly supported.
A Special Corrissioner or other of fice with similar functions could more efficiently address the needs for urgent action and greater co-ordination of resources. As Such it should be given serious consideration. Yet its success is ultimately bound Lupo With the need for a funda Terletal re-evaluation of the UN human rights budget, Less than 1% of the UN budget and 0.75% of its staff is disproportionately
low for the ambition: tation in an era ofi ties. It was alarming that the UN COTI SÕcial ard Cultural Staff and is service Clearly the financial Thade a Wailable muE sted. In particular, Human Rights mus tion. Where it cano and technical assist thout infringing on E monitoring
Strong wiews that Wiolations of been largely ignore cially procedures f ndards prohibitingg A clear Consensus meeting that the W. adopot reCOITırmenda sting human rights adequate attention tions of Women's hul that fal|| Within their sideration should that affect Wome such as rape or re. legal capacity. It w; urgenteed for a U On these pressing ble T5.
The recentewe via involving ethnic matic rape hawe hig the intellational C clear signal to those human rights abuse able to act with impl. ration should be gly a interlatiola Cri nal or global level to punish but also WİCitirTS. The Willa an irportant OCCasi tionship between h humanitarian law, W being given to meth the basic hur Tanitar in the Genewa Cor Cols.
Recognition of til NGOS
ASā of the World Confer cally upon the exte

ghts Matter
Sofeffective implemecreased responsibilito learn, for example, mittee on Economic, Rights has no expert 2d by one secretary. and human resources stbe significantly boo
the UN Centre for it be placed in a posisfer advisory Services ance programTBS Wiaffective human rights
have been expressed Women's rights hawe dby UNbodies, espeor implementing staender discrimination. las emerged from this Orld Conference must tions for reform of eximechanisms so that can be given to ViolaThan rights in the areas mandate. Special Cobe given to violations n disproportionately, stricions on Women's as felt that there Was NSpecial Rapporteur
and neglected pro
nts informer Yugoslacleansing and systehlighted the need for immunity to send a responsible for gross is that they will not be Inity. Further consideVer to the Creation of nimal tribunal at regioWith powers not only O grant reparation to Сопferenceprovides Orto explore the relauman rights law and ithi particular attention hods of implementing ian standards set out Wentions and Proto
he role played by
Tarked, the credibitity ence will depend critint to which it is open
and responsive to the concern of NGOs from all regions. Indeed, the role of NGOs is a thread which links all the topics of this Conference. Their creative energy is a Wital resource. The effectiveness of the Work of the UN ad other intellational organisations in this area Will depend on the extent to which they take NGOs into a real partnership. Where Would the promotion and protection of human rights be today Without the skills, experience, dedication and COTimitment of the thousands of men and Women Working in these organisations? In a real sense they are the Voice of the voiceless. They are also the major standard bearers for Women's rights. But how can this partnership be improved on?
Three concrete proposals hawe eTerged. The first is that NGOs enjoy the broadest possible participating rights in the World Conference. It is frankly disturting to hear that NGOs from Eastern European and other countries, who do not enjoy Consultative status and Who hawe not, because of a Catch-22situation, participated in a regional preparatory meeting, may haWario MocLS Sfar 7di in Wierima. Surely. Some way should be found of accrediting these Organisations before the Wienna Conference if we are not to exclude a sizeable section of the associative Community.
The second is that the expertise of NGOs on the ground be properly utilised by states in preparing their reports for submission to international bodies. They could be consulted in the preparatory phase orgiven the possibility of submitting comments to the national authority or more actively associated in the drafting of the report. The third proposal is that the Crucial role of NGOs in monitoring human rights violations in the field (where many have lost their lives) be recognised by the adoption of the UN Declaration on "the protection of human rights defenders".
Development, democracy and human rights
Participants hawe stressed the need for the World Conference to ContinUe the progress that has been made in the international community in asserting the basic principle that human rights must be central to development. There was consensus that the success of the World Conference depended on placing emphasis on people as the subject of rights and on seeking
7

Page 10
ways to help the poorestsectors to exerciSetheir freedom of expressionand association so vital to political progress. Yet the implementation of the principle could be Tanaged in at Way which avoids Counter-productive confrontation and further polarisation between North and South.
Wiews Were expressed that deWalOped countries should be Seen to take economic, social and cultural rights more seriously. In addition, measures taken by donor governments because of deficiencies in the human rights record of developing countries should not be marked by selectivity and political expedience if their stand on the Uniwersality of basic principles is to be credible. Donor agencies should adopt operative guidelines which are based on transparent criteria. It should be understood that credibility is related to the absence of disparity between domestic practices and international policies on human rights questions.
At the sametime, the huTan rights record of developing countries, particularly in cases of widespread and systematic violations, is central to developmental assistance and may give rise to appropriate responses. The for In that these respOnses take should not, however, be rigid. The donor community, inconsultation with NGOs, Tust develop a framework of CO-O- peration with the developing World which permits constructive dialogue and action OLLECOCorris.
It was also strongly felt that international financial institutions. Such as the World Bank should integrate human rights concerns Tore consistently into their deWelopment projects. The effect of these projects on indigenous people's, minorities and trade union rights should be taken into account. The notions of good goveLLLLL0L LLLaL LLLL LLLL LL LLL LLLLaLaL LLLLLL related more precisely to a proper human rights discourse.
The notion of Solidarity is central to these issues. But solidarity between North and South also arises in a Tore dramatic Context to which We should already tum our inds. I understand that by the year 2000 the World Health Organisation enviSages that there will be 40 million persons in the World who are HIW positive, an extremely high percentage of whom will be in developing countries. The demands on international solidarity with countries particularly affected will challengeal of us in a most compelling manner.
Upgrading economic, social and cultural rights
The World Conference Tustake a Serious effort to upgrade the protection of
economic, social and cultrual rights. As Professor Alston has stressed, the Vienna
8
COfereCe Tlust SOL "Warning of the large-s med meglect of econom ralrights ower the pasti SinCe Teheran". The
munity has left far be ideological dispute a these rights. The inte indivisibility of both set accented and endors tional community. How se? HoW can We prOC and turn a blind eye misery of millions? Bu these rights seriously rised by relative negle 55. Tē5 diculi within Europe Wheret Charter of the Counci been high on the list of not been ratified by all
has an over-Cutber
The charisT.
That Wë in West OU a realistic and imagini: imperative. The rights shelter and educatioFl The death of 40,000 from malnutrition is a
Science.
NumerOLJS SuggE Tēta VBBērd promotion of ratificati Om Economic, Social : re-thinking and re-or. system and upgradir the disposal of the C the Cowenant. These stions, particularty Pro point plan of action, me place on Our agenda.
But I Will limit. In tW[] []bSETựatiCTIS Whi thinking. First, there ni effort to ensure recog social and cultural rig and regional levels. If at these levels, prog the international le Wel. the space to elbowth ssively into our socia The startling observa that there is practically these rights. We hawe people that they hawe should give careful t ction that the proces require different skill those normally invo model of human right has been said that u Circle of actOS TOTT Tlal rights work, whoma ill-equipped in What specialised and cort spects for undertakin forts will be slim. Th recognise that a new

|d the alas belis cale, deeply ingraihic Social and Cultu[]uarter Cĩa Century international Corthind the cold-War s to the status of ardependence and s of rights has been gd by the internacould it be other Wiclaim our humanity on the Squalor and t delivery on taking lä5 JBB CFläräcléSct ad half-heartees are also present he European Social of Europe has not state priorities, has memberstates and SOIT)8 enfOrCerTherit
renergies in finding ative Way for Ward is to food, healthcare, are not negotiable. children every day affront to our CO
astions for improveinvolving the active Jn of the Coverlant and Cultural Rights, lering the reporting Ig the resources at ommittee set up by - and other suggeofessor Alstons ter arita Tore inTiportant
yself to highlighting hshould guide Our ust be a concerted Inition of economic, ghts at the national there is no solidarity ress is not likely at They must be given eir way more aggreand legal cultures. tion has beel Tade i'r Oedu Cation about + d.01Blittle t0 infor IT them. Second, We hought to the refles of upgrading may s and expertise to lved in the judicial simplementation, It less. We Widen the lyinvolved in human y feel ill at ease or as become a highly plex агеa, the prog the necessary rehe title has come to impetus needs not
only political Will and allocation of greater resources but the involvement of trained. more precisely targeted, multidisciplinary skills.
Conclusion
I cannot speak of development and human rights without evoking the misery and hardship that encountered on a visit Somalia in October last year. Witnessed, at first hand, human suffering, degradation and humiliation on a Scale that defies adequate description. I saw children dying from malnutrition in their mothers' arms. visited a Somali refugee camp in Northern Kenya where there were 60,000 people without a single latrine.
Myinner sense of justice equality was outraged at what I had seen, The World is capable of providing the 2,600 daily calorie allowance for everyman, Woman ad Child. We hawe f00dTOLluntainS 3rd large tracks of land taken out of production. Are we not diminishing our own sense of humanity by failing to address the starvation and destitution of so many of our fellow human beings? How can We assert the universality of human rights by ignoring the life chances of millions of people?
This painful act of witness, on behalf of the people of Ireland who were deeply Conce Ted at events i SOITalia, hasa poterit relevancē to our proceedings. It taught The that the problems of Somalia and other Countries of Africa Were of such a Scale that they could not be left exclusiWely to the United Nations, the European Community or Governments, and that a people-to-people resропse was also пеCessary for effective action. Am indiwidual assumption of responsibility and engagementon a large scale Would surely impact on political priorities.
So too with human rights. There are naturallimits to the effectiveness of natiorial and international laws. We must strive to make them more effective to be sure, But at the end of the road it is our capacity a:Sİflı dividualSto be COrı Carrled and TOWEd. by injustice that is the real driving force behind the human rights movement. We must ensure that the seeds of SuchirdWidual responsiveness are firmly planted and flourished in our rational cultures. This frust be the goal of national education programmes. We must elevate the rights of others to a higher platform in our Collective conscience.
In Somalia a distraught mother Said to пе“we певаwery basic things, we need the World to Lunder Stad". Let LS alliste very carefully to this simple human plea. And let us ensure that above the din of legal argument and contention others hear it too.
(Concluded)

Page 11
影 n
Indian Newspapers in the
Charu Gupta and M.K.S.
he BJP-WHIP-RSS Call for kr. Sely
at Ayodhya on December 6 and its aftermath have been the highlight of warious national mainstream newspapers. During this period oneSaw various sparks of pluralistic', 'secular and "fair reporting. However, as time passed, certain subtle changes came about. Though in compari
Son to Advani's rath, ya fra in 1990 the "
newspapers were definitely restrained, there were reflections of communal colouring as well, albeit cleverly done. More important, as the BJP stand became more belligerent and offensive, the shift too became Tore Wisible.
Other reasons for this shift are also discernible. The mainstream print media assume to a large extent that their major audience are the Hindu readers and Muslim readers do not form part of the readership, or at least not a part Worth catering for. Thus they mould their news to suit the stance of this majority, or what they think is its stance,
There are a large number of stigmas and negative symbols associated with Muslims in popular Hindu Consciousness. In fact, the aggressive Hindu nationalism rests uponan irrational and hateful hysteria againstithe minorities, particularly Muslims.
An analysis of the newspapers after December 6, 1992" reveals that in spite
Delhi editions af Warious newspapers hawe been taken for this study.
Charu Gupla leaches Historyĩn Møllal Nehru College (Evering), Delhi University; and M.K.S. works in Nawabharar Times, New Пg|".
of various examples one thing that stand OWerall tone of the minority stance, Th. nuity in the printin Since the days of AC EWE TLIch befOre types regarding the ned deeply ingrain sness of a majority o Clear biases and pr slims are aggressor triotic and are being
The facts on t that
- Muslims Hindus numerically if EWET
- they are less Hindus (in fact, give ratio in this country, Wives, the all Hild bachelors);
- COTTLrari of their lives and pri hardly be excessive - if they hadre or favoured, they W. Spered faster and mr
However, ignori the Tajority of the pers Continue to be misconception. The pulate, shape and si it caters to prevalen reinforces religious selective perception searchlight, illumina leavingothers in dai
 
 
 

post-Ayodhya Situation
s of good reports, the s out clearly from the ewspapers is an antiere is al Tost a Comitiedia regarding this. iwani's rathyatra, and that, certainstereoMuslinTS hawe relaed in the conscioufjournalists, reflecting ejudices, that is, Mus and zealots, unpa
appeased,
he other hand, show
cannot Outstrip the in at least 200 years,
polygamous than the the reality of the sex if all Muslims had four ILS WOuld hawe been
ots take a greater toll operty, So they could lyпilitant; апd ally been 'appeased' Ould Surely hawe proIOre vigorously.
ing such blatant facts, Tainstream newspaWrapped in myth and y Tlar Lufacture, mamiuppress news so that it popular beliefs and Sleгеоtypes. Wilh a
l, the Tedia act like a
lingsопеareas:while rikTESS.
I
THE image of the Muslim threat to the Hindu society was presented in a headline in Janisatta, a leading national Hindi daily (December 13, 1992 p.2):
Ayodya ki Mussir77-bahu bastiyor ke HF
LOF GE légu (Fear how along Hindus in the Muslim-dorinated areas of Ayodhya)
The myth of Muslim aggression was reinforced in another story in Navbharat Times (December 30, 1992, p.3). The report is from Waranasi and says:
I., Fikchh/le ShLukra War ko yahar bari sarikifhiya CCCM TLLtCCMMM GGLGGMMOuL CtLLLLL LLSLLLL bari swrapratikriyabahusiankhyakarta main hLith. Gyar Wapikshafsaak sarah Sachshāori bana hua hali. Koi Bhi sabhya ragrik ab İrı gaiyan main kharidari ke Iya yang menghabifafa ha.
(Last Friday a large number of Muslims had offered prayers her. This evoked an irrediate reaction from the majority people. The Gyanwapi region has become like a barrack. Any civilised citizen is now afraid to go into these lanes for shopping.)
There is an explicit assumption in the report that it is the Muslim action alone that leads to a Hindu reaction.
Апother report in Jansafta (December 30, p.1) was more strident:
...PhirјШГпme kе гоz Gyanvарfлnasjidптgin marmaz parfinē ko afurikos paarich hazaar ML5aTarmor kafarra w se is d'harmaksfile/Flar kiha wa meln tanawhogaya hai. Jiski pratikriya mein Saumwaar ko kof ok Jaakh logon me Wishwarah kadarshan kiya...Khas baat yef Phi kini bari bhir bina kislappealyasanagaFlärka fill.

Page 12
(Them om the day of sur 77 m a 5000 Muslimshad gathered to offer prayers in the Gyanwapi Masjid, leading to tension in the air of this religious city. As a reaction to it, around one lakh paid horriage to Wishwanath on MoIday.... It is importarit to note that SLUIch large crowds gathered without any appeal or orgamisation.)
These prejudices and negative perceptions went a step further with the reporting of communal tensions in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Alongside one noticed that by December 8 and 9, the BJP started justifying its misdeeds by quoting the destruction of temples in these Countries. The print media played their part, not only by displaying the news prominently but also by giving it provocative headings,
For example, there Was a prominent news on the first page of the Tirnes of India (December 8) titled: "Temples burnt in UK, Pak, Bangladesh".
Punjab Kesari, a Hindi daly (December 9, 1992, p.3), had a box news titled:
LL MLL LLLLLL LTTM CMMMMe eLL L0L0S f.paralle (Attacks in Pak on temples on Hindivideo cassettes)
On December 10, the tone became more frenzied in the paper. On p. 4there were two news items on the Sarte. Further, specific names of temples Were mentioned like Dhakeshwari temple and Jagannath temple, etc. having been destroyed in Bangladesh.
The cake, however, was taken by Indian Express (December 9), which in its front page in a big box item had a picture of a temple falling and the caption stated: "Pakistanis watcha Hindu temple in LahoTE CILJITıble after der Or StratiOS attack It With Crowbars and Swords".
Nawthara Times (December 12, p. 12) also talked about how after so many days temples continued to be destroyed in Bangladesh. The Times of India (December 12) had a report of temple destru: ction on the first page, but when intellectuals opposed it in Bangladesh and talked of restoration of temples, the news was relegated to p.9. Again the same paper (December 21, p.1) had a second leadstory which referred to the demolition of more than 60 temples in Pakistan in a ruling party sponsored carnage.
Though it is true that the destruction of all religious sites has to be condemned, "one cannot equate the destruction of religious sites during riots and the demolition
10
of the Babri Masjid. not just another act of out of control, but Was сапpaign.
The news stories the image of every M These news ites, Written and presentec the BJP agenda of c tion to overcore the mOst people selt im Babri Masjid Was de the fact that the BJP themselves had destr bogira and the Sila-F the Babri Masjid Was almost all newspaper
There also SEET rule that when temple: remain "temples' but destroyed, they becor res" Or remain merel The Tres of India ( while talking of riots i
...One particular pla bunt Of the attack HI broke1 or defiled. lt thick coat of soot, E piecBS.Theydrowe: allաք Լյրը,
Clearly the fings Muslit to which C the temple (as ther Masjid) and even kille
This kill of "The ring Contrary evidenc is an unconscious be of its readers Would which could give an ssion regarding Mus be used to reinforce EWErlstflätlET1[]t:0 C[]| tio Stand ab Etter ChE här thOS that do T
I
THE bias is not res but extends top many-a-time when a riot, he/she acquires: amb Lut MUSliTS a med, faceless, namel one talks of aggress reversed. Then Hild and Muslims acquire
Especially in th sees a close resert newsmen's anticipa events would be like happened. A particu

The de Tolition Was wandalism by a mob Spart of a sustained
; tended tOreinfOrCe usliпп as aп епеппу. the way they were dalSOConforTedtO owardly rationalisaguilt and discomfort mediately after the stroyed. In contrast, RSSWWHPCO "oyed the Ram7 Chaarr Faso along with largely ignored by S.
is to be an unwritten sare destroyed they when Masjids are The 'disputed structuy "religious places". December 11, p.1), n Нагуапа, says:
ce of Worship bore the dall of its 14 idols Were lols wera cowered by a riday strewn about in away 80 cows and burnt
års are pointed at a are and destroyed el are lo idols in a 2d the "holy cow.
dia blindness'igno
a suggests that there
lief that the majority
mot question items LInfavourable imprelims or which could a stereotypes. Thus form to the expectaance of Taking news
t.
restricted to structueople as well. Thus Hindu is killed in a a specificidentity and ways remain unnaess. InwerSely, when iors, the proposal is IS bECOmEnamEleSS
a distinct face.
e Case of riots one blance between the tions of what the 2, and what actually lar rneʼWS frarTheʼWOrk
is established and the riot is covered accordingly. The story is readily slotted into a framework which is reassuringly familiar to both the journalist and the Teader.
Reporting, especially in the case of riots, is not simply a matter of collecting facts. Facts do not existin isolation but are located within wideranging sets of assumptions, and which facts are thought to be relevant to a story depend on which set of assumptions are held. It stands to reason that journalists seeking to meet their deadlines must have a set of preconceptions of what is related to what. If both the joшпаlists and a пajority of the readers associate Muslims with the threat, then reporters and editors, pressured by deadlines and constrained by the limited amount of space available, may simply treat the news about riots in a Way which conforts to this definition. In other Words, what they are doing isto present the news which is unfamiliar by virtue of just having happened, in as familiar and easily digestible a fashion as possible. This leads to a obWiOuS di StortiOr.
Another problem in dealing with reports on riots is that there is a tendency to neglect the background material. Riots
are likely to appear as sudden and une
xplained or as having only direct and immediate causes. The underlying state of affairs is largely absent and easy assumptions, instinctive associations, stereotype models are upheld.
This time too while reporting riots this Was the dominant trend. As a specific case study, the reports on riots in Seelampur in Delhi hawe been examined in detail as one has some information regarding what actually happened there (thanks to reports by the Sampradayikta Wirodhi Aandolan, PUCL, etc.). Ewen a cursory glance reveals that the news reports were largely based on police sources and there was an unquestioning acceptance of comTunal stereotypes regardless of actual evidence. The victims of the systematic carriage Were invariably presented as the perpetrators of the crime.
The CorTrTLura WiolerCġ ir Selaпрurtookan extremely uglyturn on December 11, 1992, Most of the national dailies (Delhi editions) made this their headline the next day. All the newspapers showed a tendency to accept the Wersion of the authorities without corroborating evidence. Regarding the question as to who instigated the riots, the fingers were to a large extent pointed towards the minority community.

Page 13
All reports of December 12 tell of a mob snatching a stengun from a policeman and stabbing him. In a way this incidentis supposed to explain the police action in Seelampur.
The Times of India (p.1): Trouble erupted around 10.20 last night, When a crowd from the Seelampur side of a small bridge on the Jaffarabad train altacked a policg picket, Knifed two policemier and began dragging one of then into the Welcome Colony inside, The policeman, costable Awadh Narain, Was then rescud, Knifed in six places, his condition is reported to be serious.
Indian Expressp.1): In retaliation, some unidentified persons attacked a polica picket at Jaffarabad pulia. Later the missing copa, Awadh Narain, was found lying near C-Block, Welcome Colony with stab Wounds on his head, chest and back.
However, both the stories fail to look at the background material in which they should hawe discussed the unprovoked attack on the Mustafa Masjid by the mob. The Indian Express report further stated in the end (December 12, p.9):
The Police top-brass maintain cd that it was the former community (meaning Muslims, on the basis of the whole report) which had instigated the riots.
Worst still is Navbharaf Tries on the Same day (p.1):
Welcome ke kuch og "Pakistan Zindabaad" aLIr 'Hindus Ian Muraldabaad' ka riare lagaine lagg. Kuch logonne virods kiya fohangarna shшгш ho gaya. (Sопne people of Welcome starteid shouting slogaris like: 'Pakistanı zinda = baad" and "Hirdus Mrdabaad. When some people opposed this, trouble started.)
At aпother place the same report says:
Police re dangayon (implying Muslims) ke kabize se Saaf kaffe a Mr Chakulon SG bhara ak thai7a, ek faMwaro bararmado ki. AyükTo ke mL fabisk SLJEb kiuchpurva niyoj" (fra.
(Police recovered seven country made pistols and a bag full of knives from the rioters. According to the CoTThissioner, everything was preplanned.)
All the reports have totally ignored the contrary evidence. Thus the media adhered to a readymade framework in which Muslims appeared to be automatically
identified with 'aggresiveness', 'threat' or
Conflict.
The report in Indian Express (December 14, p.5) is an extremely damaging One. In a block, it narrates as to how the riots spread in the Capital.
How the Riots sy DeC.6 Tension buik 85 thOLUSAK lman al 5 pr starts patroll Riots break Curfew is clau wed by viol rth-East Delt few clampai afterton, A Cop is sta of violences Welcome places of W0 Violence fları fer to go for in Welcome, піпgareas. P whole dy. Walled city areas Still Ur xgd til aCross the rih
It is amazing th reference is finaldetic Babri Masjid in the reason and causef nce. Inı fact, it clear Muslims as instigat While talking of Wi Delhi, the same rep
D.
D.C.
Dec.
Dec. 72
The situation Wentf Curfew and other T. thousands of illegal tled. Mr Kaushal(F ättributed this to til residents in this a Wagers, and in th preoccupation they CE har the Sero in the Walled city.
The report is hig ntains clearly that th the Hindu majority in migration and the port further neglects nation and disadvar slims except insofar tions SearTito Contri pposed threat, for E anti-social behaWiOU
Navbharat Times ( has a reportentitled
Purwi DI kadang (Riots in cast Delhi
The report state ...Policp SLvfrom ke Welcome Colony's rhegir? Se Saaf:Pakis bafaya ki sinhf logo danga ke ya Luks mukfıya kaararı b

"ead in the Capital s up aroundJama Masjid throng to hear Shahi 1, armed polico mowes in, Igby late evening. ut im Walled city as the pcd in the Torning folloIlca in Jaffarabad (ND) loading to 3 deaths. CUhere immediately in the
bod and fresh incidents artin North-East, covering olicio , Station, SewEral ship set afire.
is up again as people preFriday prayers, 10 killed Janata Colony, and adjoithed battle continues the
nd part of trans-Yamuna der CLurife'W. Cuirfe W relaild city but not in areas Eľ, at not even a passing the destruction of the } Whole report as a rthe Spread of Violey points the finger at ors of riots in Delhi. Coller CB in north-east Drt Says:
rom bad to worse, despite вasures, lпапагсаwhere Bangladesh migrants Sg'olice Commissioner) has To fact that Thost of the rea are essentially daily 2 absence of any other a more inclined to WioleT the 'same community'
hly motivated, lt malethгеat percelved by is implicit in Muslim |r presence. The rethe extent of discrimitage Suffered by Muas these very condibute towards the Suxample, by fostering
.
December 16, p.12)
pшгvаліyo/її?" preplanned?)
LISaardang ka baad "glгаflaагkiyegayеkgоп Fani nagrikhair. Poficere i nalin shariya sagawin ko ya. Dange bharakarna ka f yāhi f. Dagg k്
LOLCLCLCLL S LLLLLLMM LL LLLLLLLLSS MM SLMMS staan Murda baad" ke nara se hull... Force ka Kahana haïkopoïcapickgts parhamsakar PeWalWEFhirbhij 'Fakistar Zindabaad"kerafalaga rahsh. Israfı kogorra baad mein within makanon par possono lokar Sunyort d'hang. Se golbar kl. (According the police sources, out of the people arrested from Welcome Colony after the riots, seven are Pakistani citizers. Police said that these people only provoked the local peopleforriots. Thiswasalso themainreason for the outbreak of riots. The riot started with the slogan Pakistan Zindabaad"and Hindustar Murabaad. Policesay that the mobthat attacked police pickets was also raising the slogan of Pakistan Zindabaad'. The sama people later on took position in different houses and fired in an organised manner.)
The reportistotally false and planted. The claim is contradicted by the police records themselves. Almost all the arrests are of local Muslims of Welcome and Janata Colonies. If indeed the Muslims of the locality were so Well-armed, as the report says, surely there Would have been more casualties among the police and the Hindus. On the contrary, almost all those injured and killed as well as those arrested are Muslims.
While almost all people of Seelanpur referred to the communal role played by the DCP of northeast, Deepak Mishra, When he was transferred to West Delhi, the newspapers viewed him extremely sympathetically.
Jansatla (December 17, p.3) states: ... Police ayuki re dange kesarrayzila police ќіќагүahї Ko Ihik bafaya... LJлћола kaha ki rg me do shuday kg |grre gayehair. Linki wyaktegafraiman Sri Mishra g'ehari (urlfragr'fsari).
The Police Commissioner stated that the action of district police at the time of riots was correct. He said that people of both communities had been killed during the riots. In his personal opinion, Mr Mishra is a fine and honest officer.)
Navbharaf Times, same date (p.1), says: ...L'star purvi DIW ke posicGayukt Deepak Mishra käächrak bad karyagy. ssIha8naran se police Tlahakira mensabida fachaa gayi hai. Adhikarsh poice adhikaryan re FS adesh kotanuchit aur polita ka manabalgirang Wala adesh basaya. The DCP of north-east Delhi, Deepak Mishra, Was Suddenly transferred today. This has created a shock wave in the police department. Most of the police officers considered the actincorrect, and bad for the morale of the police force.)
There are many other instances in other riots where Muslims are shown as aggressors. It is cleverly done and amidst a report names of some Muslims are

Page 14
inserted as being arrested for inciting violence. One KnOWS of the holocaust unleashed by the BJP-RSS-VHP-Shiv Sena combine in Ayodhya. However, Mawbharat Tires (December 8, p.1) has a report which says:
Karsa Wakor) ki Luftajana ka Tukhya kaarar tha, doasre sampradaya dwara karsgiwakon par golf chala deng sig AirTrier ke ek karse Vak ki Tia Lt. Is ghafna ki report Ayodhya koľwali rTnain daj karayî gayî ha, jismon Hazi MahIood Wa Lirika putra karaanzad kiya gaya
(The main reason for the anger of the kar sewakis was the death of a kar SēWalk from Ajmer due to firing by the other community, This incident has been reported in the AYOdhya police station and in it Hazi Mahmood andhis som have been narred)
Indian Express (December 9, p.1) also specifically refers to the arrest of 400 students of Aligarh Muslim University. Апоther report of the samе пеwspaper (December 23, p.6), while talking of the Bhopal riots specifically: blameS Arif Aqil, an independent MLA from north Bhopal, for inciting riots. The reportends with:
The million-dollar question is: who decided and why that MrArif Aqil and others like him should not be taken into custody till half the city was in flamEs? It may be true that this person had a role in riots but then only one person, and that too a Muslim was singled out for blamic.
On the other hand when it Comes to victims or people killed, they inevitably are Hindus. Specific names are given. Thus The Times of India (December 8, p. 2 and 4) names in detail the kar Sevaks Who died, that is, "Rakesh from Gujarat, Vishnu Das Nitanfrom Maharashtra. and Purushottam Das from MP". Again in the sаппепеwspaper (December9, p.4)there is a news about a priest killed in Allahabad.
Similarly in the Punjab Kesar (December 8, p.10), specific names of Hindus have been given, who were injured in riots. Indian Express (December 11, p.5), While talking of the Ghaziabad riots, says:
The situation had turned explosive on Wedne: sday evening following the murder of two persons including a temple priest on Goshala Road.
The worst, however- is Indian Express (December 15, p.3). It has two reports on that page. The first one is titled J-Kilitants demolish 40 terTiples, 150 shouses. The report SayS:
Kashmirimilitants hawe destroyed at least 40 temples and 150 houses during the Pas! fiWE days. In villages like... entire settlements of
12
minority houses, sch ashrar is were reduc precious idols of antiq along with the terTip emiront Kashmiri po! A Troo in Kugam wal
in the sate reWS day, same page, the titled "FiftySeven mass reprisals'. The report The reporter suppoSE wivid details. But in a Muslims are shown and 'attackers'. The Cific na TBS Of a nLTib There is an affiliation the Hindus and the Muslims, specially Cortes out in its T excerpts from the rep
A total of 57 people 23 villages in and ar ndhu, Debisialth, a st awiwid account of thi a Hindustan-Pakista ckers were raising F Khagen Pal (31), h attackers looted his ahead towards ther
They were yelling king for Hindus, thay because SOM B pop lished a Tosque at only ingrandmother and shivering ash borother's Wes Ch8Si butchered to death.
Bangshi Das form Municipal Board, sé Hindus, most of whic here during the parti Of thE Muslim iTT 1971"... The Bang grab and by evicting adding that there systernatic influx of the border, They pX was only an axCUSE Sid... Th 5 CE19 Jogijam. Hera tooth in the name of Allal
di EutCHE WE
Way...
Clearly it was : yed through the maj and Muslims. There natio of facts with neWS and reportSW sed, with opinions O space. The 'subjec to a structuring of r: it Lpheld existingirn rall stereotypeS.
The presence (

ols, a55 ad ed to ashe5. Several Je value Were alsobLJmt lds. The house of the t, Srawanand Premi, at is also reduced to ashes.
paper, on the same re is another report sacred in Nellie-type
is On ASSafT riots. adly gives extremely Very instance cited, as the 'aggressors' eport contains speer of "Hirdu Wicti TS". of the author with
anger against the
migrant Muslims, aked fort. Some JOt:
WBr3 Ta55aCTEdin thig ound Dalboka. Dirhabahool teacher, who gawe 2 massacre, said, "It Was n situation, afd the alla"akistan slogams"... Alme ld in a latrine pit as the
paän wend and surged earby cluster of houses. ke possessed Ten, koowere mad for Our blood, le WedonotkrOW, derTOa place We hawe heard 's tales," ha said, Weeping B recalled how his two ed through the fields and
as Chair Ilan of the Hojal id, the Bengal-speaking I had arrived and settled |kon, hawe been the target grants "who came after adesh Muslims Walt to the Hindus, Dr Dassaid, 1as been a regular and the Muslits from across ssess arms and Ayodhya lo aunchthis attack, he Was nothing different in attackers raised slogans | Ard EDLuTt di W hOUSES yman who came in their
Hindu World COWe}rity of reportson riots Was a shrewd CObi
fictionalisation. The are virtually editorialithe Writer finding free vising' of reports led Ws in such away that ges, enforcing Cultu
floadedWords, phra
Ses and paragraphs gawe a definite tilt to the story. In fact rumours, which spread like wildfire among the Hindu community, Were given an institutionalised form through these reports. Rumours merged with wivid facts. To the reader it was all "news.
There is also an ingrained habit of gathering news and opinion from officials and police, where the version can be equally biased. The importance of the full context and background is thus ignored. The prejudices, predispositions accept unfavourable beliefs about Muslims. They come to be seen as generating conflicts. Thus the anti-Muslim feeling was given an institutionalised framework.
(This is a part of a much largerstudy on Print Media and Communalism after Ayodhya)
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Page 15
Pakistan's Prime Minis
Mushahid HLISSaim
e function in Islamabad marking the first death anniversary of the founder of the Jang Group of Newspapers, Mr Khalilur Rahman, was an appropriate opportunity for a candid discussion om relations between the PreSS and the goverent. The last occasion when such discussion took place and then too the Prime Minister was present, was in April 1991, during a ser Tinar organised by the Ministry of Information in Islamabad.
While tributes were paid to Mir Khalilur Rahman for his pioneering role in Urdu journalism and in the introduction of modell technology, the occasion also witnessed an interesting exchange between the Prime Ministerard the Editor-in-Chief of Jang Group of Newspapers, Mir Shakilur Rahman. Responding to Mir Shakilur Rahman's statement that "newspapers are not king-makers nor can newspapers play a role in the rise and fall of governments," the Prime Minister presumably making a pointina lighter vein, said "I am glad that this reality has finally dawned (on Jang Group), but it is better late than flèWès."
This exchange and the comments of the Prime Minister are illustrative of the recent troubles that the Jang Group faced after the government had assumed that this chain of newspapers was engaged in pursuing not just legitimate criticism of gover Tentactions but WaSalso apparently keen and eager to pust the goveriment out of office, Felce the tone and the coverage particulary during the period of the Long March was perceived as geared towards this goal.
Three realities need to be understood in the context of relations between the Press and the government, particularly the role of journalists which has become increasingly important given the proliferation of newspapers and the virtually unfettered freedom of the Press that is prevalling in the country. First, journalists in Pakistan today hawe become hardened Conspiracy theorists often prone to purSuing conspiracies and motives where none may exist. For instance, there is little doubt that the quality of Press reporting in Pakistani newspapers in the last few Tonths has left a lot to be desired since political preferences have invariably taken precedence over facts. This "conspiracy
Coverage" reached period of the Long M ting assumption of C the Press, and the "The government W of days," with som Lawas the prefете ThB SECOrdre ctly stated by Mir S| January 25 function Prime Minister perte PTESS Carlot Tak TTT-ents, ewer if tha role and goal. Wer neither the popular Khan nor the agitat Bhutto Would lawg the failure of Gene referedLT ... - || | Le PeSSade the officially-certific based on simply hig Tests" of the SE TE Convey the "allis W more apot commer famous Bengali po Haq Who said that" read newspapers пеwspapers, don't . The third real Telations betWeltf rnment pertains to a
to the Jang Group
the last few months even hostility, betw апd the Јалg Grou| is apparent becaus stan's most popula Jang Was perceivec a barometer of pol stan. The operating lar WisdorTn, if you
Jang Switches, it in rnmentis going", bu case Was different, Count that the gove somewhat Ore C Jaring line than it. W been in the case ( Underpinning this r in any relations be chain and the gove of qшid pго дшо пе HCC0LITht SITlC{}|f C[]| then freedo I of Criti affected. In other W.

ter and the PreSS
its peak during the arch when the operaOnspiracy-theorists in : politicians, Was that will go within a matter even seeing Martial d"Solution". ality which was correTakilur Rahman at the and reaffirmed by the airls to the fact that the e Orunmake golwetWere to be its chosen a that to be the case, outburst against Ayub on against Zulfikar Ali taken place, or, say, ral Zia in his falous hese cases, after all, regulated to promote dtruth Which I WES hlighting the "achievespective rulers and to "ell" mood. Perhaps a it was made by the litician, A.K.M. Fazlul Those Who Wote don't and those Who read vote". ity in the Context of le pressand the gowein issue that is specific of Newspapers since hawe See a dista 1 CE, Veen the government p. The reason for this a for decadesas Paki"Urdu newspaper the l, rightly or Wrongly, as itical change in Pakiassumption CorpopuWi| WEnt tät "Wher leans that the goveit this time around, the Was probably on this rtment Was perhaps (OICerned about the rould hawe - otherwise lf other newspapers. 'eality is the fact that зtween a пеwspaper rtment, the element
eds to be taken into incessions are sought II"
cismi will obviously be ords, a very clear line
haS tObe de TarCated betWEEr bUSTESS interests and editorial concerns, and should one take precedence over the Other, then the likelihood of the other suffering is obviously higher.
In this Context, both sides need to understand their respective roles. Mir Shakiur Rahman was on target when he said that the Press "has the right to criticiSe and to act as public Watch-dog on the government of the day". When the goveTITıEntfiled the Sedition case against The News, it was as ill-conceived and unwarranted as any subsequent assumption which night have been on the part of the newspapers from the Jang or any other group that they could push the goveIlment Out of power simply through a certain kind of Coverage, notwithstanding the facts on the ground. Hopefully, this episode is behind us and lessons hawe been learnt on both sides so that the government can go on with its business of governance and the Press play its legitimate and rightful role as an articulator of public thinking and as a watch-dog which can critique the government in a frank and free manner. If there are any failings, the answer to that is not governmental control or officials restrictions since pluralism within the Pressensures that Such Concerns - can be met by the Press itself and in this regard, the initiative of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) to establish an Ombudisman should be a Welcome move. Major fheWS paperSelseWhere, in fact, hawe their own Ombudsman like, say, The Washington Pos, or The Tirnes of India.
Press-government relations apart, the Prime Minister said some positive things on issues that are eating into the vitals of Pakistani society like the scourge of sectarianism, the virtual collapse of the educational system with power of the Kalashnikov, most certainly stronger than the power of the pen, at least as far as the campuses are concerned. The problem is that successive governments hawe mostly treated education and educational institutions as a "law and order' problem in Which students are eitherseen as a constituency to be courted, which
was the case during the last Martial Law,
or perceived as threats to the stability of the government of the day; hence a co
13

Page 16
пbiпatioпоfappeasement or repression, which was the case in the Bhutto and Ayud years. The result is the appointment of spineless Professors as Vice Chancellors of Universities who are often too willing
bullyboys even if it means doing so at the cost of self-respect or the dignity of the teäCherS.
Sectarianism itself has become a Serious security proble in for the country, and its national security implications are evident when such an issue which is, at one level, an offshoot of regional politics, with a proxy War between competing Muslim countries and at another level, with acquiescence in the terror and bigotry of armed gangs that are splitting Muslims through name calling under the cover of slal. The reason sectarianiseeds to be treated as a national security problem is that its resonance is likely to spillower into those areas, including the government and its personnel, which Were hitherto immune from this imported "infeCition". It is no accident that a number of Indian analysts and Writers hawe started referring to the "sectarian time bomb" as a threat to the unity and stability of the Pakistani state. The Prime Minister has done Well to take notice of this menacing threat, but this should be followed up with actions that can Correct What could end up as a degenerating slide into divisiveness among Muslims.
Interestingly, both the President and
the Prime Minister have been talking of reforming the political system, a fact mentioned by the President in his December 22 addreSS to Parlia Tet and the Prire Minister too referred to a political system Where "opportunism and selfinterest take precedence over the national interests". The problem with this aspect is somewhat clear since despite being a democratic political system, the social base of such a system is extremely narrow with doors virtually slammed shut for the middle class, the political system being propped mostly by offspring of the feudals, or big money Which has been earned even through dubious means. Attempts to cleanSea corrupt political system can only be successful if laws which exist in the first place are stringently applied across-the-board in a uniform manner so that there is no selectivity in-dealing with those who are influential and those Who are often termed in the Press, Some what patronisingly, as the "common man".
It is good that the Prime Minister engaged infrank talk With the media at the function in honour of Mir Khalilur Ra
14
hman since the impol case as Well as in re Opposition and the
need for a dialogue Continuously and at of Such a dialogue cases, Press-goverr Well as the governm tiÕTS. Il tE CE5E of Teeting of the Jour mmittee (JDC) deleg Minister, for the first til follow-up action whe physically assaulting ntified and punished, nces of police maltre:
- Were rectified, thanks
efforts. Oft DC. S.
Th
Of three: Tf Tg TEE ALE: Which St.
The story Herg Elig'!! TE ČOK Artesy at
WFET SC Fortig B FH IFA Ir di ueek
His first A Sociali He ride Wat is
So this ye Нe labоці Frar the Ta: Dar
Η επί Τειρή Dryர்g Figle rேought Ол тtisty Mille ca: Scal recruz. Eyes orice
Thus gre. Afld Hoff And swee And sit si Fiυε Εμμ. Fifty cent Carried a OFET)

stant principle in this also contributed to the normalisation of lations between the relations between the Jang Group and the
government is the government.
10 bE Carried OI1 ASfarasgovernment-Opposition ties all levels. The fruits are concerned, the January 28 statement are evident in both of the PPP Executive Committee should ment relations as help to move efforts in a positive direction ant-Opposition rela- since Benazir Bhutto herself underlined the former, after a the need "for a national Consensus on halists Defence Co- issues and genuine attempt should be ation with the Prima made to remowe CauSBS for diwisiwe eSS The, there Was Some and to have a dialogue in the national n those accused of interest". In this context, the role of the journalists were ide- Press has been extremely important and and specific insta- positive in nudging both the government atment of journalists and the Opposition towards such a dialoito the initiative and gue and it is a good sign that both have uch a dialogue has responded well to each other's initiatives.
e Non EntitSTable
Part II
Styles of Office the Prologue told шe heпce relate iшill пошу штfoldi tures of08, 300 nேjudge yle he struts across the World's Mirage
cannot begin of his school Tαλε η ταπείει ίΕe tosξει ιμοαι School Ties he zips out of his case di secret to each. Time and Place.
εί απα αριμπεαίη ήίς νομιλι όν έήε GCE
g Macedoned is closer OST ld Sec pro77ptly pathin or his back
he proudly frod the Employed truck
Boss Luas an erpatriate Dane Btundr ரேer of50mefime αμr Hero or thε τrSίίίrηε έει country needed most (as Orle Square Meul
Lithuent forth with Wision fired with Zeal red through the day for his Country's Weal lush South West, the Highlands and the Wanni e for a dine got Milk flow sweet to the hungry.
ாற்றது) 10 பரபரed up Fre high tech and Scandinavian land care ls, broad acres and also one-cow outfits Milk to City Streets and roses to War cheeks
afterпоолs at village Co ops
rattled and housers revued the slopes பsigEdmoney in theirp: "hopeless sparkled in sad sockets
the Mil Bord Ther came the 0pen Marker 'Or Ďr hearing thať halfpiniť cosť a quarteť Ecordersed Milk of four rupees or a pack of Spray dried lasting weeks 2es for a pourd'offresh, made butter! s for icecream or a patter Lay by cleuer cocktail chatter said he thought his Dane was a Haifer
(Continued)
U.Karulatilake

Page 17
K. Padmanabha Memorial Lecture (4)
South Asian Aspect of C
Sumit Chakravarty
ut it is in the sphere of ethnic
relations that basic lessons are to be drawn in South Asia. It has been prowed once Tore that force or coercion Cannot lead to any lasting solution of sensitive national problems. The failure of the Soviet Union to settle the ethnic question, despite the massive false propaganda of the past, has brought out this point in bold relief. In ultiethnic South Asian Societies innovative moves are essential to ensure that ethnic indentities of various groups are preserved and furthered and the rights of all these groups safeguarded. Hence the issue of autonomy of such groups COTesto the fore. The deTIOCratic frameWork of governance of the South Asian Countries alone can Teet the challenge on this score. That is Why it is essential to reinforce the foundations of democracy ir all these States.
In a short span of time the world has experienced incredible transformations in several areas including economy, ecology, population, social life. In this backdrop it is valuable to listen to the opinion of the celebrated British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm. In an article "Crisis of Today's Ideologies", he writes: "The problems of a globe which can today be made uninhabitable by the sheer exponential growth in production and pollution, the problems of a World divided into a minority of Very rich states and great majority of the poor cannot be solved in this way. They do not even, in the last decade of the century, look as though they could be solved without systematic and planned action by governments within states and internationally, and Without an attack on the central strongholds of the consumer market economy. Things will not just right themselves. That is what socialists remind liberals. If this public action and planning is not undertaken by people who believe in the values of freedom, reason and civilisation, it will be undertaken by someone. Unfortunately it is most likely to be undertaken by that most dangerous phenomenon of our fin-de-siecle: Right-wing, demagogic, Xenophobic, nationalist regimes equally hostile to liberalism and socialism, because both represent the Values of reason, progress and the age of great revolutions".
Precisely a yea marking the birth a Indian Premier Ind rmer Minister for Ex jral, presented a Hinges of Global C the global changes first years of the pos face... a combinatio Welcomed and som What is to be Welc of the superpowers cans may have Wor not believe that any - they are also ex it always happens, Wage War even ag. and friends do not or without enthusia: med is the emerg World with many influence. But what the lack often and for Thankinda robus future, Who Can bri a rainbow image of Cold War Was a lo humourless prosea tion and conflict. beginning to reveal hope new visions o Out Of HurIlan min GorbacheW5 unbOu Intries that hawe CrC social progress an struggling to crossi
An inicisiwe Sri | winatha P. Aryasin “SAARC: Compuls to Regional Coope World", presented rbachev Reforms a nge" in New Delhit South Asian ASSC Cooperation (SAAF come up with a Coh SAARC Tērbog-Sit changing global sce Would- not be poss rigidities of the regio tions of SAARC an perception among Ir the power vacuшпп the Waning interest other extra-regional would be filled by II

Slobal Change
rago, at a conference Iniversary of the late ra Gandhi, India's foternal Affairs, l...K. Gupaper entitled "The hange". Reflecting on he averred: "In the t-Cold Warperiod, We n of something to be ething to be regretted. oned is the Withiring yndrome. The Amerithe Cold War - I do one nation has won hausted in Victory as and now they cannot inst Iraq if their allies pay up the cost, With sm. Also to be Welcoence of a multipolar leaks of power and is to be regretted is Women who can spin t credible Wision of the ig to Our İmagination the 21st century. The ng Sombre period of ind tension, confrontaNow that the sky is its many colours, I do f the future will break ds. We need many ind, both in the couissed the Rubicon of i HOSE Who are stil
Larıkan obserwer, Ra1а, поted in a paper ons and Constraints ration in a Changing at a Seminar on "GOnd International ChaW0 years ago, thatthe clation for Regional C) was compelled to asive plan to help the ates grapple. With the nario. Yet, he felt, this ble due to structural I, the functionallimitainostimportart, the dia's neighbours that reated asa result of of superpowers and powers in South Asia dia. HoWewer, these
problems and Concerns notwithstanding, the need for South Asia to address and respond to the global challenge of change is something that SAARC can ill-afford to brush aside. As Aryasimha himself observed, the changing global scenario should Spur one to explore possibilities of reorienting South Asia's relations with the World "by looking more closely to countries within the region". This changing landscape, he pointed Out, "could become astimulus to the realisation of the need for a more equitable relationship with extra-regional powers by the countries of South Asia acting in 'unison'".
In a paper that he delivered at the same seminar Abdus Sattar, the then High Commissioner of Pakistan in India and Currently the Pakistani Foreign Secretary, Wrote: "Surely there are lessons to be learnt from the experience of the USSR. Even a superpower has been obliged to awaken to the necessity of addressing problems at home and solving disputes with neighbours. Pakistan as Well as India hawe much to do to make up for lost time. We car and should solve bilateral problems. There is no difference that cannot be bridged through purposeful dialogue".
All these words are of special relevance in the context of the impact of the Current global changes on South Asia
Specifically Satafs observations should not be dismissed as empty rhetoric. Their significance cannot be overlookedby any serious observer of the IndoPakistan scene. The global changes also underline the imperatives for the effective functioning of SAARC — With the accent on economic interaction - in defence of regional peace, stability and mutually beneficial fruitful cooperation, The profound impact of these changes on South Asia will become increasingly evident with the passage of time. These changes, dispassionate analysts believe, Would inexorably draw the entire Indian subcontinent towards a confederal set-up there by guaranteeing a genuinely democratic decentralised polity, so vital for the balanced growth of the developing World which South Asia represents.
(Concluded)
15

Page 18
Blackl
its you
 

BlackKnigst COLOGINE

Page 19
The Prelude to the Indo-Sri
Negotiations Between India and Sri Lan,
K. M. de Silva
Introduction in
Analyses of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord of July 1987 have generally neglected the prolonged discussions that took place in the period November 1984 and mid 1987 and between the governments of India and Sri Lanka, and between them and representatives of Sri Lankan Tamil opinion, during which the substance of the accord which was signed in July 1987 was Thoulded. This paper seeks to fill that gap by outlining the main stages in the evolution of the accord. Other papers discussed Eärilier at this Conference hawe dealt With the earliest phase in the evolution of this accord, the period from late 1983 to November 1984 with Mrs Gandhi taking the initiative. -
Relations between Sri Lanka and India showed an immediate improvement when Rajiv Gandhi took over as Prime Minister of India upon the assassination of his mother. Sri Lankan diplomats and Senior cabinet ministers who met Rajiv Gandhi in the early Tonths of his Prime Ministership came back positively encouragedifnotenthused, He Seemed genuinely interested in helping to restorestability and peace to strife torn Sri Lanka, and his early mowes gawe confidence to the Sri Lanka goverment that unlike his mother he would be an impartial mediator in the country's burgeoning ethnic conflict.
One of the first things that happened was the fading away of G. Parthasarathy, Mrs Gandhi'seminence grisein Sri Lanka affairs, and his replacement in the negotiations between the two countries by Romesh Bhandari, India's Foreign Secretary chosen by the new Prime Minister as his personal envoy to Sri Lanka. He proved to be distinctly more acceptable to the Sri Lankan political leadership and officialsall of whom were relieved that Parthasarathy Would no longer be the principal policy maker in regard to Sri Lanka.
Parthasarathy was the quintessential
establishment man, journalism, diplomac and as a trusted advi Gandhi- and espe - for Who I he cond tiations on many ser Caland even perSOn: that was both perso|| Parthasarathy's inwo) of a biography of Mrs in 1977-8 by Dom Mo expatriate Indian poe little thumb-nail sketc career, Moraes provi ntial details:
"G. Parthasarathy, k GP. hadbggilan ex verу пеarly playсd
OCCITÉ är LutStar Vice-Charcolor of th versity in dahi, and the planning Corini.
Moraes painted picture of Parthasara Mrs Gandhi to go be extend her support to in Writing the biograp
He also provide description of Partha association with, D. Il-known lawyer, to Certain sensitiwe iSs them) from the biogra Moraes reports the la
"... the party may no things she tells you."
What is important for merely the success t regard, but the auth ssment of the role pla advisors in general.
"... this confirmed ground round her, TILSTOOTIS after Tä she wants the Tso the end she tends to and to do exacty wł sensible"
In Raj Thapar's

anka ACCOrd of 1987
ra, November 1984 to Mid-1987
with a background in | and administration or to Nehru and Mrs cially to Mrs Gandhi ucted delicate negositiwe Tlatters, politiI. An example of one |al and political Was Wesertitherlatter Gandhi being written raes, the Well-known and Writer. In a neat h of Parthasarathy's ded some of its esse
TOW to his intirata5 a5 cellent cricketer and had för Ildi. Hi had läte ling diplomat, had been e Jawaharial Nehru Ui
most recently, head of 3siմm."
a mot very flattering thy's atterpts to get Lck on a promise to him (Dom Moraes) ny,
Sus With a mordant Sarathy's attempt, in P. Singh, a weget him to exclude Lues (as they sa W phy he was writing. Wyer as saying
like it if you print certain E:
Our purposes is not ley achieved in this Dr"S Sardonic a SSeVed by Mrs Gandhi's
Ty wiew that in all the dvisers bulge up like l, sometimes because Igtimes not, and that in disregard all the advice at she Links or feels is
recent Tlemoir Pa
rthasarathy again appears in this same unflattering light, on One occasion needling Romesh Thapar on the projected Jawaharlal Nehru University' and, on another, flying all the way to Rome on behalf of Indira Gandhi to try to persuade the World Future Studies Foundation, that the Indian government should have the right to nominate Indian participants.
If Sri Lankan politicians and diplomats were increasingly critical of Parthasarathy because of his closeness to the TULF, Indian politicians and bureaucrats resented the influence he had with Mrs Gandhi. This included the cabinet rank, i. e. the status of a Cabinet minister for protocol purposes, he enjoyed and which raised him above the level of other officials and even politicians.
The new man that Sri Lankan politicians and diplomats had to deal with in New Delhi, Rosnesh Bhandari, provided a contrastin style, substance, and Outlook to his predecessor. In an interview he gave a Well-know Indian journal in April 1986-after he had left office-Bhandari stated that "early in the new administration" it was decided to give "high priority to developing a neighbourhood policy," and "a new thrust in good neighbouriness." Bhandari was closely identified With these foreign policy initiatives including the ones on Sri Lanka which we review in part II of this paper. He had tried to force the pace of Indian diplomacy to achieve breakthroughs within a short time, to accomplish in "one year what should normally hawe taken three years... New initiatives particularly towards the nelghbours had to be telescoped into a span of days." These bold foreign policy initiatiwes were designed to project an image of Rajiv Gandhi as "a great conciliator," on a regional basis no less than within the country. The formulation of foreign policy moved from the Ministry of External Affairs to Bhandari and a circle of advisers around Gandhi in the Prime Minister's office and elsewhere. The policy planning committee which Parthasarathy headed, and Parthasarathy himself, were edged out of the decision-making process.
17

Page 20
INDIANMEDIATION - THE SCOPE WIDENS
L aa LLaL aHHLLLLLLL LLLLLLL LLLLLL ower from Parthasarathy, relations between the Sri Lanka and India had been soured by misunderstandings and misapprehensions on both sides. On the Indian side there was the feeling that President Jayewardene had not tried hard enough to get his government to support the agreements reached in Delhi in 1983, in particular on the document known as Annexure C". On the Sri Lankar side there was a strong suspicion of Indian Totiwes in their Wolwe Tertir Sri Lanka's Tamil problem. These difficulties had been compounded by Parthasarathy's patent failure to distance himself from the TULF. Surprisingly, Indian officials and diplomats themselves shared some of these misgivings about Parthasarathy's style of negotiating.
Bhandariarrived in Sri Lankafortalks
with the government in July 1985. This
coincied, more or less with the arrival of a new Indian High Commissioner to Colombo, J. N. Dixit, who was to play a Very prominent and controversial role in the Indo-Sri Lankan affairs ower the period 1985 to 1989. Whether it was a matter of nurturing and expanding India's mediatory role in Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict, or in further and protecting India's strategic interests in regard to this small island neighbour of a sub-continental power Dixit proved to be one of the most masterful diplomats India has ever sent to Sri Lanka. Apart from the Indian High Commissiomer's traditional contacts With TarTil groups in the island, he endeavoured to influence Sri Lanka government policy in the Indian interest by cultivating a wider range of government politicians than his predecessors ever attempted to do. Indeed few if any of the latter had as great an influence on the making and implementation of Indian policy Sri Lankathan he had. His influence increased with every passing month till it reached its peak in 1987 and 1988.
Bhandari quite deliberately set out to win the trust of President Jayewardene and his colleagues by demonstrating a sensitive understanding of their own difficulties. The need of the hour Was a fresh start. So far as Bhandari Was concerned this meant moving away from negotiations in which the TULF was treated as the main
18
spokesmen of Sri La t0 talkS With the Wari activist groups who influence in Tamil po expansion of the which required very diplomacy since Bha strength of the Sri L arguments against it rdene had initially rai had asked Bhanda Indian) government ted with Sir Tilar Sep own country especia |leaders of these se terrorists wanted by range of charges, fro kidnapping to murde LTTE leader had pu nsibility for the killing Mayor of Jaffna, afe rnment party (SLFF later, the Well-knoW Today in its issue of a prominent profile interwiew With him in the killing of Mayor "military operation') Test COSet tOS on equal terms to : groups?
Bladari WCF zing the пеed fог р nka's own national spending severalew Jayewardemetalking he agreed to Bhal representatives oft
Et Sould Tee Wists for disGCLuSsiOS discussions, in Apr that his greatest act weeks of his negoti: in thus persuading neto change his - - policy of refusir groups. In making t conceded, the Sri L rship was taking an thing which many in ticians did not fully
These discussi the first direct talks 1985 between PE and Prime Minister mechanics of deal Tamil problem. Bł -building exercises talks thus resulte

kāTāTiterasts ous Tamil Separatist by now had greater litics in the island, an negotiation process careful preparatory Indari recognized the ankan gowemment’s t. President Jayewaised objections-he Iri Whether his (the would have negotiaaratists groups in his Ilywhere some of the paratist groups Were the police for a wide mgang-robbery, and r? Prabhakaran, the blicly claimed respoin 1975, of the then low-Tamil and goveP) politician. (A year 1 Indian journal lпаја 30 June 1986 Carried of Prabhakaran and which he proclaimed Duraiappa as his first | Could any govepeak, he had asked, Such indiwiduals and
him ower by emphasiragmatism in Sri Lainterest. He recalled enings with President g things overtill at last dari's proposal that he Sri Lankan goweTamil separatist acti;. Reflecting on these 1991, Bhandari felt hievement in the early ations in Sri Lankalay President Jayewardeand his governments ng to talk with these his change, Bhandari ankan political leadeenormous risk, SOTledian officials and poliecognize.'
ons pawed the Way for i New delhi ir Jura sident JayeWardene Rajiv Gandhi on the ing with Sri Lanka's landari's confidencethat preceded these d in a major brea
kthrough, when the Sri Lankan government agreed, officially, to begin negotiations with Tamil separatist groups, in additiom to the TULF, something it had hitherto refused to do on the grounds that this would give these armed separatist groups a legitimacy they Were notentitled to hawe.
The increase in the number of spokesten for the Tamil minority had some predictable consequences, beginning naturally enough with a struggle among them for dominace, anda questforthe position of sole spokesman. The TULF, the most moderate of the Tamil groups, found itself edged out of any position of influence. Instead the lead went at Warious stages to other groups, with their bewildering range ofacronyms, PLOT TELO, LTTE. and EPRLF all of who were assiduously cultivated by the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) the Indian equivalent of the CIA, and provided with arms and arms training in India with the knowledge if not under the aegis of the Indian government. The TELOgroup was specialfavourite of the RAW. The LTTE ewentually pushed ahead as the dominant group largely because of its strong and expanding base in Jaffna. Three leaders of the strongest ofthesegroups Prabhakaran, Uma Maheswaran, and Sri Sabaratnam, Were soon engaged in a bitter and eventually violent rivalry for the position of principal spokeSTharl of the Tamil CaLISe. Prabhakaran eventually Won the day. But that is another
story.
(To ba Continued)
NOTES
1. Dom Moraes, Mrs. Gardh (London, 1980),
p. xv-xWi.
2. .
d
4. Raj Thapar, AM. These Years, A Memoir
(Delhi, 1991), pp. 369-70.
5. itki, p.467.
LLLLSSSLLLLaOLKH HLLLLHLL0L LLLLLS S a LTS strated Weekly of India, 13 April, 1986, pp. 16-17.
草。血范质
B. For Parthasarathy's political oriëntation Seg, "The 25 most powerful people in India, Tipaririť Wol. xxv(1), April 1985, p. 19. By the title this article appeared he had lost of his influence and power.
9. Romesh Bhandari, interview with the author,
29 April 1991.
10,凸、

Page 21
BOOKS
White on Black by Jan Nederween Pieterse Yale £20, 2
Dr. Jan Mederween Pieferse, a we/Iknown Du ethпІс солfIIct to thisЈошrлаІ. This is a review of
Још гла|st.
he Kenyan novelist Ngugi Wa
Thoing"O is right: "If you want to pity the White man, Watch thirt dance." The dance On Sh0W in Jan Neder Ween Pieterse's Whiffe or Black amounts to a quickstep through white European images of Africa and blacks in popular culture. This bold project sets out to compass the slave trade, plantation slavery, Colonialism and its after Tlatl.
The book is popular in design and academic in Tethod. Pieterse's prose is haunted by the language of academic jargon. But when he sticks to his illustrations and examples, he is readable and informative. He shows Cultural stereotypes Operating at all lewels, and traces the white view of blacks assavage, uninhibited, libidinous, athletic or musical, to name but few. Pieterse, rightly, gathers French and Belgian examples along with the Dutch and English,
While on Black starts with Egyptian images ofblacks.lпgeпегal, Egypt, Gгеece and Rome took blacks as they found them: as Nubian Warriors, as emissaries from the unknown described by Pliny, or as citizens of the Roman empire. With the rise of Christianity, the colour black accrued negative connotations, notwithstanding the legend of Prester John (an apocryphal Christian-Ethiopian) and exteinsive diplomatic links with Ethiopia as a potential non Moslem ally in the Crusades during the 14th and 15th centuries.
in the 16th and 17th centuries, the focus shifted to America. The New World fascinated Such StalWants of Western hu
Whites an
manism as Montaig and Montesquieu; foi forgotten. Then came
BetWeen 1451 15m slaves were imp cas by Dutch, Englis ders. Theen Suingabı WIned anti-slavery tra cher Stowe's rice the book that started of blackS aS Silla WES growing literature of ndeSCension.
After slavery Ca bjugation by another C for Colony Was as bet: "C is for Colonie that of all the greatn has most" (An ABC 1899). As the home to impose values, it r colorhial products lik bananas; thiESE rea advertisements pictu
In Africa, the p Christianity and Com qual atention; Pieter la ries and Short One ctably, some shock from Colonial Africai Missionary Calendar 1938 depicting a bla of shoe polish above LJ Wardrrik Zoo ZWar Why I am so black").
The second half to European images asserwants, sportsTI
Nationalism by Rabindranath Tagore with an introd Nationalism
P Thompson and I Were together
in Manchester during the Michaclmas Term of 1990. He was then busy editing the unpublished correspondence of his father, E J Thompson, a close friend and admirer of Tagore.
Like his father, E believes that Tagor suffered from many ir introduction he refers ting evasion of the less, he genuinely :

459 pages
tch асаdелпіс, has cопtributed плапy articles оп LLL YLLLLLL LCLL LLLLCCS LC LCCCCLCCCLLL L CLL LaLLLL
d Wrongs
Te, Hobbes, LOCke a While, Africa Was 2 slavery.
and 1870, around Orted into the Aeriad ATericaltraolitionistdebate Spacts like Harriet BeeTorn's Cabin (1853),
the civil War. Images
appeared against a denigration and CO
TÉ COloriali Sm, Suname. In England, natural as the alphais, Rightly We boast, ations, Great Britain for Boby Patriots, nation reached out eaped benefits from e Coffee, rubber or Ched it5, HOS ir ring blacks.
rops of colonialism, Imerce receive urese is long on missioconomics. But, prediпg images епerge including the Mill Hill picture from May 27 :k child holding atin the Caption WL. Weet ben ("Now you know
of the book attends fAfrica and Africans en (Joe Louis), erhite
rtainers (Al Jolson) or erotic dancers (Josephine Baker in the famous bananaskirt, 1926). These images hardened into advertising symbols like the golwog, which once was the mascot of the Beatles but became more widespread as the face of Robertson's marmalade, or the Mohr, which is the face of sarotti chocolate in Germaпу.
Blacks in advertising throughout the 1960s, '70s and '80s were associated habitually with the tropics - with fruit and plenty; this, says Pieterse, reinforced the white cultural prejudice that blacks were lazy and feckless. Only with Grace Jones' 1987 Citroen advertisements and Beneton's "United colours" campaign did the images start to change fundamentally. These Towes relied O'Black is beautiful" and Black Power in the 1970s, and the Crowning in 1984 of Wanessa Williamsas the first black to be Miss America.
In essence, white on Black unpacks the prejudices in Euro-Western staples like La Black Sāro OT the black laidir Gors Wsff TS wird. This is a Book about things rather than about theories, so Pieterse curbs his intelligence and avoids thinking in favour of showing.
He has developed, albeit half-heartedly, a Crucial issue. He needs to broaden the coverage, His book should be trarl Sferrabletootler Culture5. It Should show why and how the fact of us seeing the Shuar of Wa orani in West Ecuadoras Savages makes it easy for us to cut down their rain forest,
Andrew St George
(Curéy:F('[B8)
иction by E. P. Thomson
as Suicide
E. P. Thompson also a's intellectual Work consistencies, in his ito Tagore's "infuriaspecific". Nevertheappreciates the fact
that Tagore's "Nationalism is a prescient, even prophetic Work whose foresight has been confirmed by sufficient evidencetWO World Wars, the nuclear arms race, environmental disasters, technologies too clever to be controlled."
_= 19

Page 22
I Would go a step further to point out that in the midst of the ruin nationalism has Wrought the World ever, in Europe, Asia and Africa, Tagore's idea of UniveSal Humanity stands out as a hope for the recovery of mankind. "There is only one history", Tagore asserts "the history of man. All national histories are merely chapters in the longer one."
The lectures or Which Nationalism is based Were delivered in Japan and the United states during 1916-17. The poet was then aged 55; and the frighful Wreckage caused by the First World War must have shaken any faith he had in the redeeming feature of nationalism, "Nationalism is a great The lace", he observed, and the World War, for him, mirrored the fulfilment of "agressive Westem nationalism, of Science divorced from soirituality, by which the Nation Will drag the greater part of the world into the botton of destru"חסtiם
It is not that Tagore was biased against the West; for he declares, "I am
not against One nation in particular, but
against the general idea of all nations, What is the latio?"
He defines it as "an organized poWer", which incessantly keeps up the insistence on becoming strength and efficient. The "moral exalation" of this mechanical organisation is supremely dangerous to humanity. For, whenever "Power removes all checks from its path... it ultimately rides into its crash of death."
It is from this viewpoint that Europe, which gave birth to the Cult of lationalist, became "a curse to the World by using her power for her own selfish needs". Tagore's diatribe against European natiorialisIT is mind-beggling, yet true, One Could easily See, according to Tagore's logic, that neither Imperialism not Fascism Was a deviation but a natural outcore of Nationalism. "If this Nationalism persists indefinitely, and armaments go on exaggerating themselves to unimbaginable absurdities", predicts the poet, "then it will end in a conflagration of suicide."
It look the Olympian heights of a sage to Condemn nationalism precisely when it was gaining newer converts and legal recognition by the League of Nations and otherinternational bodies. Tagore's ideas Were scoffed at by Western intellectuals. HiSATerican audiences, Corments Thompson, could not fail to recognise their own features in his diatribes against materialism, technology, mechanical organisation, and the unbridled pursuit of wealth, Some, indeed, resented being scolded at "700 dollars a scold".
At first, Tagore entertained high hopes that the Japanese cultural heritage Would give expression to Pan-Asianspiri
20 ■
tual Values, Which
aggressiwe material Nation. Buthis Co as he observed exac of imperialist greedir "What is dangerous iTitation of the OUt West, but the acci mationalisSTIS ET 0
Wat but Id que synthesis Of The res? Tagore was impatient with the nationalism. For, hay by a nation that was attitude, he was afr: all eager to buy a pa India's real strength but in its organisatio tio... "India is t00 Wa: diverse in its races. packed in one geog
How Wery true; nalists paid any he aspect of Indian SOC WO Luld ridot hawe Thal Destiny" their unidirt
Despite his poi was a truly scientif Gandhi's mixing of He also refused to e structive methods - rning of foreign cloth with the charkha. He support, in the early -Operation: as he Wr in March 1921, the si tted by such calls "n but to non-education Trioned his Court reforming and renew - agriculture, Socia and overcoming the Caste and religion. be achieved by gove politicals - the two the dUO Mahat GE NehrLI left behirld,
Таgore was a f tics". And, again, loo miseries politicians brought aboLutin ewe We of either affluence close Tagore appea our age. True huma lle in politics or polit rties of the patriotic wa ntly avoiding both.
Tagore's mostal in his concluding re Such has no ulterior in itself. It Is a spor ssion of Tlar as also Who tried to Subordi OW I Wills hawe tu TT prophets

Contrasted With ST1 Of the WESET iction soon faltered, tly the same features modernizing Japan: for Japan is not the Ward features of the aptance of Western ". חWו
ia, and her o'Wrn urniany ra Ces and cultugetting increasingly rising tide of Indian wing been dominated
strictly political in its aid Indians too were litical nationally. But ay not inpolitical unity in of a social federa5 in i5 area and t00 It is many countries aphical receptacle."
had the India natioed to this pluralistic ial organisation, they
d2 "O Mil-D 1епsioпal goal.
etic fancies, Tagore icc man... - He - dislikigd politics with religion. ndorSe Gandhi's dg+ the boycott, the bu1, and the obsession Was to Withhold his 1920s, front on-coote to C. F. Andrews Iudents Were Cormiotto fuller education h". Above all, he suymen to set about ing their own society Welfare, education,
barriers erected by None of these could arment or by power unfortunate legacies
Indhi and Ja Wahlarlal
ounder of "anti-poliking at the TheSS and Coff all brands hawe у соuntry, irrespectior powerty, how very rs to a diagnosis of liberatio does mot icians, including paIriety, but in Consiste
biding passage rests amarks: "society as Ourpose. It is an end itaneous Self-exprecial being." Althose nate society to their led out to be false
Courtesy, Dadar Herald,
Brief Encounter
Suwi malee Karuna ratna
ore than thirty years ago,
remember a slender girl of about fifteen, she was tall and very poised. We Spoke together for about two or three hours, being the only young people in a Company of adults. Throughout the conversation, I was struck not by her good looks so much as her intelligence and obvious leadership qualities which stood out. There was an earnestness about her and alSO, at that tirThe, a lawete Which Conveyed to The her sense of high purpoSe. It is, no doubt, this samme motiwating force, so marked in her as a child, which is being translated into real terms today and which is manifesting itself to the whole world in a most noblemanner.
Her father, revered in his country as "The Patriot" was assassinated when she Was a toddler of two years, and growing up under the towering shadow of his greatness, it is not surprising that his exceptional daughtershould have chosen his example and path to follow, even to the bitterest end of her convictions - matyrdom.
The girl Was, of course, Aung San Suu Kyi and the occasion recall so wividly Wasafunction hosted by the Indian Ambassador in Rangoon at the time, Shri Lalji Mehrotra, and his Wife, or the lewe of Madame Aung San's departure to India as Burma's Ambassador.
In the Lanka Guardian of March 1, 1993, p. 19, Jane Russel quotes a quiet passage of great dignity and power from Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize winning book"Freedom from Fear" Written under house arrest in Rangoon. It is a piece of chaste prose Which appeals to all humanity not only for courage and endurance in the face of brute force, but ethics. This in Buddhist terms is Dharma, Numerous are the Sutlas where the Buddha has drawn attention to the Concatteration beWeen man's material condition and spiritual life. The Buddhist doctrine, no doubt, has been the main Wellspring of Suu Kyi's inspiration.
Aung San Suu Kyi's "Buddhistcourage" transcends the narrow confines of race and Creed and addresses itself to universal spiritual values, the ultimate moral Worth in man. What she appeals to is ethics, not 'ethnics' as the printer's devil Would have us believe on page 19 of the article referred to.
Thank yolu, Mr. Editor, and Jame Russel, for that inspired and inspiring profile of Aung San Suu Kyi - the modern, non-violent Wersion of Joan of Arc.

Page 23
Why there's so in this rustict
There islaughter and light banter amongst these rural daTsels who are busy sorting out tobacco leaf in a bart. It is one of the hundreds of such
barns spread out in the mid and upcountry inter Inediate zone where the arable land remains fallow during the offseason.
Here, with careful nulturing, tobacco grows as a lucrative cash crop and the green leaves turn to gold... to the value of over Rs. 250 million or more annually, for perhaps 143,000 rural folk.
 

ENRICHING RURALLIFESTYLE
und oflaughter obaccobarn.
Tobacco is the industly that brings eploy IIent to the second highest number of people. And these people are the tobacco barn owners, the tobacco grOVEITS and those who work for the Tı, On the land. and in the bars,
For them, the tobacco leaf means meaningful work, a Cornfortable Eife and a secure futu Te. A good enough reason for laughter.
CeylonTbbacco Co., Ltd.
Shார்g and curing for our land and her people.

Page 24
PEOPL
Celebrating
Dynam
In 1961. People's Bank ventured out int of only 46... and a few hundred Custome
Today, just 30 years later
People Resource exceed Customer Listings at a S Branch NetWork in exce in Sri Lanka -
In just three decades People's Bank has in the SriLankan Banking scene. Their sp resources at their Command dedicate
dedication that has earned them the tit
PEOPLE'S BAN)
Banker to the Millions

ES BANK
Three Decades
Of
iC GirOV/vth
he challenging world of Banking with a staff
S.
s 10,000 taggering 5.5 Million ss of 328, THE LARGEST
s grown to become a highly respected leader )ectacular growth is a reflection of the massive d to the Service of the Common man - a le “Bankerto the Millions'