HUMAN RIGHTS

Amnesty International Report, 1996 (Extracts) India

Thousands of political prisoners were detained without charge or trail. Torture of detainees was endemic throughout the country. At least 100 people died in police and military custody, many as a result of torture. Dozens of political detainees "disappeared". Hundreds of people were reportedly extrajudicially executed by members of the security forces. At least three people were judicially executed. Armed opposition groups committed grave human rights abuses, including deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians and hostage-taking.

The Government continued to face violent opposition from armed political groups in several states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Assam and other northeastern states.

Legislation allowing detention without charge or trial such as the National Security Act and, in Jammu and Kashmir, the Public Safety Act remained in force. However, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), which had been used to detain tens of thousands of political detainees without trial, lapsed on 23 May. Those held under the TADA remained in detention. A Criminal Law Amendment Bill containing many of the same provisions as the TADA, many of which violate international human rights standards, was proposed but had not passed into law by the end of 1995.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) established in 1993, continued initiatives to raise public awareness of human rights and held several state governments accountable for human rights violations. In its annual report, the NHRC made recommendations for the prevention of violations in areas facing armed insurgencies or violent opposition. However, it continued to have only limited powers to investigate reports of violations by the armed forces in these areas or to recommend criminal prosecutions of armed forces personnel.

Armed opposition groups committed grave human rights abuses, including hostage-taking, torture and deliberate and arbitrary killings.

Amnesty International called on the government to ensure that all political prisoners were tried promptly and fairly; to investigate all allegations of torture and deaths in custody and to bring to justice those responsible; to implement safeguards against torture; and to commute death sentences and abolish the death penalty.

Amnesty International appealed to armed opposition groups to stop human rights abuses and publicly urged them to release all hostages held in Jammu and Kashmir.

In January Amnesty International published a report,

India: Torture and deaths in custody in Jammu and Kashmir, which contained details of over 700 deaths in custody since 1990. The government's response indicated that it was reluctant to implement eight key. recommendations made by Amnesty International and dismissed most of the torture allegations. In March Amnesty International published an analysis of the government's response and in November it published India: Torture continues in Jammu and Kashmir. An Open Letter to Members of Parliament expressing Amendment Bill (1995) was published in July. Sixty- Amnesty International's concerns about the Criminal Law eight deaths in custody in states other than Jammu and Kashmir were detailed in India: Deaths in custody in responded noting that many of the cases were under 1994, published in August, to which the government investigation. Amnesty International published two reports concerning human rights violations by the Punjab police: in May India: Punjab police- beyond the bounds of the law; and in October India: Determining the fate of the "disappeared" in Punjab.

In an oral statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights in February, Amnesty International included reference to its concerns in India.

Nehru on Secularism

'Organized religion, allying itself to theology and often more concerned with its vested interests than with things of the spirit, encourages a temper which is the very opposite to that of science. It produces narrowness and intolerance, credulity and superstition, emotionalism and irrationalism. It tends to close and limit the mind of man, and produce a temper of man, and produce a temper of a dependent, unfree person. Even if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. So Voltaire said."

"Perhaps that is true, and indeed the mind of man has always been trying to fashion some such mental image or conception which grow with the mind's growth. But there is something also in the reverse proposition: even if God exists, it may be desirable not to look up to him or rely upon Him. Too much dependence on supernatural factors may lead, as has. often led, to a loss of self-reliance in man and to a blunting of his capacity and creative ability."

'India must, therefore, lessen her religiosity and turn to science. She must get rid of the exclusiveness in thought and social habit which has become like a prison to her, stunting her spirit and preventing growth'.