Over 70 UK and Europe-based scholars concerned with South Asia have written a letter to the Vice Chancellor of the Central University of Haryana. They have condemned the September 21, 2016 attack on a group of staff and students of CUH who were involved in putting together a performance based on the award-winning writer Mahasweta Devi’s acclaimed short story “Draupadi”.

Kafila
Nivedita Menon
7 Oct 2016

The attack and threats of charges of sedition against those involved in the performance were instigated by the BJP-affiliated student group ABVP as well as by the local press, which has falsely and maliciously spread the view that the play is anti-national and represented an attack on Indian soldiers. The letter appeals to the Vice Chancellor of CUH to protect the freedom of expression of the university’s staff and students, and to encourage the democratic exchange of ideas through means of debate and discussion.

———-

Dear Vice-Chancellor Mahendra Pal Singh,

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the attack on faculty members and students of the Department of English and Foreign Literatures at your university by members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for the performance of a play on 21 September 2016. The play was based on a short story by the eminent Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi. We understand that the staff and students involved in the performance had sought and received all necessary permissions for the event, which was organized to commemorate the literary achievements of Mahasweta Devi, the recipient of some of the most prestigious Indian and international awards.

We write to express our serious concern over this attack on the freedom of academic expression of the staff and students at your university. Mahasweta Devi’s story “Draupadi” was written in 1971 and represents her creative expression of the exploitation of India’s tribals. It is regularly taught as part of course syllabi all over India and the world, including at the universities of some of the signatories to this letter. The claim by the ABVP and the local press that the play is an attack on Indian soldiers is manifestly fabricated. As one of the faculty members involved in the production, Dr Snehsata, has explained, students and teachers saw the programme as an academic and creative pursuit and their intention was certainly not to hurt the sentiments of soldiers as the ABVP has claimed: “In this event, I read the epilogue of the play recounting the data about atrocities on tribal people, especially sexual crimes against women by the Indian army. How ordinary soldiers are used by the state as a tool against its own people and how the body, especially the female body, becomes the site of revenge in the hands of Indian soldiers by the same state. All the teachers and students who were present there came up and congratulated us.”

We stand in solidarity with the courageous faculty members and students who performed the play and strongly oppose the sedition charges being brought on them. The university should be a place for the free expression of ideas, and thoughts; it should create space for dialogue and debate, and even disagreement. It is therefore further regrettable that the university caved in to political pressure and has instituted an inquiry into a matter that it had previously approved.

We appeal to you and other involved authorities to stand in support of your members of faculty and students who are courageously promoting the importance of literature and art in education.

You may contact us on the following email addresses:
Rashmi.Varma@warwick.ac.uk
rkalpana_w@yahoo.co.uk

Thank you for your attention,

Signed:
Dr. Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick
Dr. Kalpana Wilson, Birkbeck, University of London
Dr. Subir Sinha, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London
Professor Gilbert Achcar, SOAS, University of London
Professor Nadje Al-Ali, SOAS, University of London
Professor Dibyesh Anand, University of Westminster
Dr. Sundari Anitha, University of Lincoln
Professor Gautam Appa, London School of Economics and Political Science
Professor Jairus Banaji, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Murad Banaji, University of Middlesex
Dr. Shakuntala Banaji, London School of Economics and Political Science
Professor Gurminder Bhambra, University of Warwick
Dr. Brenna Bhandar, SOAS, University of London
Professor Chetan Bhatt, London School of Economics and Political Science
Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of East London
Sourit Bhattacharya, PhD candidate, University of Warwick
Dr. Angela Chiu, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Rohit Dasgupta, University of Loughborough
Dr. Sukhwant Dhaliwal
Dr. Meena Dhanda, University of Wolverhampton
Professor Stephen Dodd, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Lee Edwards, University of Leeds
Professor Bashabi Fraser, Edinburgh Napier University
Ken Fero, Coventry University
Dr. Radhika Govinda, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Hugo Gorringe, University of Edinburgh
Professor Bishnupriya Gupta, University of Warwick
Chris Gutkind, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Vanja Hamzic, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Christopher Harding, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Adam Hanieh, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Sarah Hodges, University of Warwick
Dr. Feyzi Ismail, SOAS, University of London
Professor Patricia Jeffery, University of Edinburgh
Revd. Dr. Anderson H M Jeremiah, Lancaster University
Dr. Virinder S. Kalra, University of Manchester
Dr. Lars Laamann, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Florence Libert
Dr. Sumi Madhok, London School of Economics and Political Science
Dr. Caspar Melville, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Alessandra Mezzadri, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Satoshi Miyamura, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Nayanika Mookherjee, University of Durham
Maggie Morrison, PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh
Professor Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, University of Warwick
Nithya Natarajan. PhD candidate, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Eleanor Newbigin, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Kerem Nisancioglu, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Paolo Novak, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Goldie Osuri, University of Warwick
Dr. Sharri Plonski, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Tim Pringle, SOAS, University of London
Dr Navtej Purewal, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Amit Rai, Queen Mary College, University of London
Professor Shirin Rai, University of Warwick
Dr. Anandi Ramamurthy, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr. Rahul Rao, SOAS, University of London
Professor Ben Rogaly, University of Susse
Professor Srirupa Roy, University of Goettingen, Germany
Dr. Kanchana N. Ruwanpura, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Aditya Sarkar, University of Warwick
Dr. Eurig Scandrett, Queen Margaret University
Dr. Alpa Shah, London School of Economics
Dr. Amrita Shodhan, SOAS, London
Professor Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University
Shreya Sinha, PhD candidate, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Shruti Sinha, Toulouse School of Economics, France
Dr. Harriet Tarlo, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr. Shabnam Tejani, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Isabelle van der Bom, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr. Leandro Vergara-Camus, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Amina Yaquin, SOAS, University of London
Dr. Richard Whitecross, Edinburgh Napier University

Contacts:
Dr. Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick
Rashmi.Varma@warwick.ac.uk
Dr. Kalpana Wilson, Birkbeck College, University of London
rkalpana_w@yahoo.co.uk
Dr. Subir Sinha, SOAS, University of London
Ss61@soas.ac.uk

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3. Spring Comes to JNU: Love, Laughter and Rage

In May of this year, 46 documents related to the ProSAVANA “civil society participation project” were leaked. Over one hundred public documents were obtained additionally under the Japanese Administrative Information Disclosure Law. This statement strongly condemns the findings in these documents and demands that the following concerns be addressed and questions answered immediately by the three governments.

Farmlandgrab
27 August 2016 | português, français

Background and Purpose
In October 2012, UNAC, the largest peasant movement in Mozambique, came forth with a declaration that outlined its concerns with ProSAVANA (i), a large-scale agricultural development program in the Nacala Corridor in the north of Mozambique. We, as members of civil society from the three countries involved (Mozambique, Brazil, and Japan), have since been actively engaged in seeking change in the program in a direction that respects the rights and sovereignty of local peasants (ii).

In May 2013, an open letter was submitted by UNAC and twenty-three local civil organizations to the governments of the three countries. The open letter requested an immediate suspension of the program, the disclosure of pertinent information, and a fundamental reconsideration of the program that would allow for the independent and active participation of peasants (iii). In response, the governments promised to carry out a “careful dialogue” with peasant and civil society organizations (iv).

However, information concerning the program continues to be withheld, and since 2013, there have been continued threats and human rights violations against individuals and leaders of peasant unions that have raised reservations or are in opposition to the program. “Public hearings” were held in the 19 districts where the program would be implemented between April and June of 2015. However, over 80 civil society organizations around the world, including UNAC, have condemned the “hearings” as rigged, staged, and flawed, and denounced the process and the outcome as invalid (v).

Following such developments, civil society in the three countries has repeatedly requested 1) respect for human rights, 2) improved transparency and accountability, and 3) valid and “Meaningful Dialogue” based on FPIC (free, prior, and informed consent). Despite verbal promises, the situation has only continued to deteriorate.

In October 2015, JICA initiated a “stakeholder engagement project” (vi) “in order to respond to criticism directed at the public hearings, especially of UNAC” (vii). However, the said projects were rolled out without informing civil society in the three countries, and have had negative repercussions, notably on Mozambican civil society. In February of this year, UNAC and nine local civil organizations issued a statement on ProSAVANA “denouncing the unfairness of the dialogue process” (viii).

In May of this year, 46 documents related to the ProSAVANA “civil society participation project” were leaked (ix). Over one hundred public documents were obtained additionally under the Japanese Administrative Information Disclosure Law.

This statement strongly condemns the findings in these documents and demands that the following concerns be addressed and questions answered immediately by the three governments.

What the Documents Reveal
The evidence from these documents, findings through field research at the program site (x), and a careful assessment of explanations given by the government in various meetings (xi), indicate the following:

1) In December of 2012, immediately following the denunciation of the ProSAVANA program by UNAC in October, the governments of the three countries agreed to adopt a “Communications Strategy” (xii). Various countermeasures against civil society organizations and movements raising reservations or in opposition of the ProSAVANA program were planned and implemented. The scheme was financed by JICA (xiii) as an “Intervention Proposal and Action Plan” (xiv).

2) A “Network of Collaborators” including district administrators, traditional authority figures, and cooperative individuals was formed (xv) in order to diminish the influence of peasant and civil organizations in the local communities of 19 districts targeted by the program and to undermine their claims (xvi).

3) In order to create division among civil society groups and to undermine the credibility of, and trust in international civil society organizations (especially those from Brazil and Japan), various measures were taken involving local government authorities and media (xvii).

4) In October 2015, JICA initiated the “Stakeholder Engagement Project,” and through a contract with local consultants (xviii), implemented a strategy to “achieve buy-in from civil society” (xix). Specifically, they identified potential conflicts of interest between local civil society groups or internally within groups and made strategic interventions (xx); “promoted the development of alliances”xxi in support of the ProSAVANA program; pushed for the “cultivation” of certain groups (xxii); and aimed to create “a (singular) dialogue platform”/“ProSAVANA advisory [working] committee” (xxiii). Only “those who demonstrate willingness” and approved by JICA and ProSAVANA-HQ were invited to the preparatory meetings (xxiv). The “No to ProSAVANA Campaign,” including UNAC and its provincial unions were also excluded and “disregarded in terms of negotiations” (xxv). The creation of the platform moved forward, as they expected to create a circumstance in which groups would have no choice but to participate for fear of being left behind and isolated (xxvi).

A thorough analysis of these documents, which this statement is based on, was published on August 22, 2016, by Japanese civil society (xxvii). The details can be found in that paper, but this statement concludes that it is clear that the ProSAVANA program, far from responding to the urgent concerns and demands of local peasants unions and civil society organizations that support them in the three countries, has actively strategized and sought to weaken, create division, and isolate, those raising valid concerns against the program.

Resistance, Demands, and Open Questions
We strongly condemn this intervention and manipulation of civil society by the government as part of an international cooperation program.

Land grabbing remains a pressing concern in the Nacala Corridor. The “Nacala Corridor Economic Development” program, which is the greater scheme that the ProSAVANA program falls under, continues to promote investment without effectively addressing this issue.xxviii International cooperation and aid programs should support the empowerment and solidarity of peasants and civil society facing these challenges. However, the ProSAVANA program does the opposite, intentionally weakening and creating division among peasants. Meanwhile, there is an increased risk of even more peasants losing their land.

The current situation, as discussed above, not only goes against the principles of “international solidarity” and “international cooperation” as promoted by the governments of Brazil and Japan and their respective agencies, but also violates fundamental constitutional rights of the peoples. We strongly condemn the three governments for withholding and concealing information, in breach of relevant guidelines and laws in each of the countries, and for continuing to deliberately and institutionally implement measures as outlined above. We also stress that these counter-activities taken against civil society are taking place in the context of deteriorating peace, democracy, governance, and human rights in Mozambique (xxix).

We, as citizens of the three countries, demand the following measures be taken immediately:

1. Stop the ProSAVANA program and all related activities
2. Disclose all remaining government documents related to ProSAVANA in order that the three governments fulfill their responsibility and accountability

We also request that the three governments provide clear responses to the following questions:

1. A response to the claims this statement makes on the “Communication Strategy”
2. A response to the claims this statement makes on the “Stakeholder Engagement Project”

Lastly, we manifest our strong concern with the following development:

According to the leaked documents, the “counterpart fund” from food (agriculture) aid (KR/KRII) provided by Japan will be the source of funding for future “dialogue” activities (xxx). The non-transparent nature of this “counterpart fund,” in which the beneficiary country pools funds outside of its own treasury, has been an outstanding concern. This only adds to the continued lack of transparency in the ProSAVANA program.

Conclusion
Since civil society organizations that have decided to participate in the dialogue mechanism are unaware of most of the information discussed above, we request that these organizations carefully examine the primary sources (xxxi) and the analysis paper (xxxii) for this information, and to then reconsider their future engagement with the ProSAVANA program.

We, the citizens of the three countries, declare our resolve to continue working with Mozambican peasants to protect their rights, dignity, sovereignty and land.

Organization Signatures
MOZAMBIQUE
1. National Union of Farmers-Mozambique (UNAC)
2. Justiça Ambiental (JA!)
3. Academic Action for Community Development (ADECRU)
4. World March of Women
5. Fórum Mulher
6. LIVANINGO
7. Mozambican League for Human Rights (LDH)
8. Friends of the Earth Mozambique
9. Comissão Diocesana de Justiça e Paz de Nacala-CDJPN
10. Comissão de Justiça e Paz da Arquidiocese de Nampula-CaJuPaNa

BRAZIL
11. AV —Articulação Internacional dos Atingidos pela Vale
12. Cimi – Conselho Indigenista Missionário
13. CONTAG – Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Rurais Agricultores e Agricultoras Familiares
14. CPT – Comissão Pastoral da Terra
15. FASE – Solidariedade e Educação
16. FETRAF – Federação Nacional dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras na Agricultura Familiar
17. INESC – Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos
18. MAB – Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens
19. MMC – Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas
20. MST – Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra
21. MPA – Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores
22. PACS – Instituto Políticas Alternativas para o Cone Sul
23. Rede de Mulheres Negras para Soberania e Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional
24. Amigos da Terra Brail

JAPAN
25. Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
26. Africa Japan Forum (AJF)
27. Concerned Citizens Group on Mozambican Development (Mokai)
28. No! to landgrab, Japan
29. ATTAC Japan
30. Asian Farmer’s Exchange Center
31. Japanese Federation of Farmer’s Unions

Supporting Organizations
1. NRAN (No REDD in Africa Network)
2. KEPA / Finland
3. Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) / South Africa
4. CESTA / El Salvador
5. Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.” (CSMM) / Ecuador
6. Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo (PIDHDD Regional) /Ecuador
7. FoE Togo
8. Centre for Environment and Development/Cameroon
9. World Rainforest Movement
10. FOE Africa
11. Groundwork South Africa
12. GRAIN
13. FIAN International

* We are collecting signatures of organizations until September 4, 2016. Please register names of organizations in: https://ssl.form-mailer.jp/fms/df0b2e67461365 or send it to: prosavanacomunicado@gmail.com

(i) The abbreviation for “Program for agricultural development in the African tropical savannah through triangular cooperation from Japan, Brazil, and Mozambique (September 2009 agreement).

(ii) “No to ProSavana! Launch of national campaign” (June 2, 2014). http://www.farmlandgrab.org/23577 The advocacy activities on ProSAVANA began with the first statement of UNAC released on October 11, 2012. (http://www.farmlandgrab.org/21211）It followed a position paper released by JA! on January 2013. https://issuu.com/justicaambiental/docs/ja_position_paper_on_the_prosavana_ Since then, many statements have been released by Mozambican, Brazilian, Japanese and international organizations. These are at the following site: http://www.farmlandgrab.org/cat/show/827

(iii) “Open Letter from Mozambican civil society organizations and movements to the presidents of Mozambique and Brazil and the Prime Minister of Japan (calling for the immediate suspension of ProSAVANA)“ (May 28, 2013). http://www.farmlandgrab.org/22150

(iv) House of Councilors Settlement Committee (May 12, 2014). After JICA chairman Tanaka Akihiko and Minister Kishida Fumio promised “careful activities(process)” and “careful dialogue,” on April 20, 2015

(v) Mozambique: People’s appeal for an immediate invalidation of the ‘Public Hearing of ProSavana’s Master Plan”（June 4, 2015）http://farmlandgrab.org/25017

(vi) Explained after its creation by JICA at the fifteenth dialogue meeting (February 19, 2016). The sequence of events is collected in the following document. “Voice of Japanese Civil Society: Declaration of Resistance to the ProSAVANA ‘Stakeholder Engagement Project’ and Demand for a Drastic Reevaluation” (March 18, 2016). http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/17kai_shiryo/ref3.pdf

http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/activities/ps20160318statement.html

(vii) The sixteenth dialogue meeting (March 9, 2016).

(viii) “No to ProSavana Campaign denounces irregularities in ProSavana dialogue” (February 17, 2016). http://www.farmlandgrab.org/25797 “Summary of the No to ProSavana Campaign’s meeting for convergence and resistance” (May 7, 2016). http://www.farmlandgrab.org/26181

(ix) The documents are available in their entirety at the following site: http://farmlandgrab.org/26158

(x) Since July of 2013, Japanese NGOs, along with peasant unions and civil society organizations in Mozambique, have conducted 8 joint field research. The results are as follows. “ProSAVANA Civil Society Report 2013: Findings and Recommendations” (April 2014).
http://www.dlmarket.jp/products/detail/263029 “Observations on ProSAVANA: Outline and Changes, and Recommendations from NGOs” (October 28, 2014). http://www.ngo-jvc.net/jp/projects/advocacy-statement/data/proposal%20final.pdf Also see the following report from a dialogue meeting: http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/14kai_shiryo/ref3.pdf

(xi) Since January of 2013, there have been seventeen “dialogue meeting on the ProSAVANA program” between Japanese NGOs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and JICA. The summaries a materials from the meetings are available at the following: http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/

http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/shimin/oda_ngo/taiwa/prosavana/index.html

(xii) The meeting record from coordination meeting of the three countries is available here: https://www.grain.org/article/entries/4703-leaked-prosavana-master-plan-confirms-worst-fears

(xiii) In order to formulate a communication strategy JICA signed a contract with a local (Portuguese) consulting agency, CV&A, and gave this as the purpose in the project aims (ToR [Terms of Reference], page 4). http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/docs/102.pdf For the primary sources related to the “Communication Strategy” see http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/index_docs.html

(xiv) ToR, page 4. In the “Monthly Report (Relatório de actividade ProSAVANA)” by CV&A, it became clear that CV&A had moved to enact the strategy they formulated. Only the monthly reports for July, August, and October of 2014 were disclosed by JICA.

(xv) “ProSAVANA Communication Strategy (Estratégia de Comunicação: ProSAVANA)” (September 2013), pages 10-12, 23-26, 46. http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/docs/104.pdf

(xvi) “By having direct contact with these communities, it will devalue these associations representing the communities or farmers. In order to minimize the strength of these organizations are as follows:…. By taking importance away from the Mozambican civil society organizations, it will take strength away from the foreign NGOs to operate in Mozambique.” (ProSAVANA Communication Strategy) (September 2013, pages 34-35.) http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/docs/104.pdf Original in Portuguese. This “strategy,” as a public document for the ProSAVANA program, was agreed upon by the three countries and JICA, authored and released by ProSAVANA.

(xvii) The original uses the word “devaluing.” And see the following description: “Additionally, following this communication strategy and doing away with the connection between the Nacala Corridor and the Brazilian Cerrado will help devaluate some of the principal argument points of these international NGOs” (“ProSAVANA Communication Strategy, pages 30-35. “The international media does not tend to take such offers, but ProSAVANA must always offer to support expenses” (34). These proposals are not solely from CV&A, as it is clear by the same appearing in the appended documents to its contract with JICA (ToR, “Communication Strategy in the Framework of ProSAVANA.” The latter is available here: http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/docs/103.pdf

(xviii) JICA’s ToR to MAJOL. http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/docs/122.pdf

(xix) Made clear in MAJOL’s “Inception Report” (page 5) disclosed by JICA. http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/docs/123.pdf

(xx) The original gives “identification of …potential conflicts or conflicts of interest between the project and particular groups or between the groups themselves.”

(xxi) MAJOL’s “Inception Report” disclosed by JICA“ (page 18).

(xxii) The leaked “semi-final draft” of the “ProSAVANA, Stakeholder Mapping” by MAJOL (page 20). http://www.farmlandgrab.org/uploads/attachment/Map.2.pdf

(xxiii) “A dialogue platform” in JICA’s ToR (October 2015) was transformed to a “ProSAVANA advisory committee” in MAJOL’s inception report (November 2015). MAJOL suggested JICA to modify “advisory” to “working,” and remained that way until January 2016 (MAJOL’s invitation letter).

(xxiv) Clearly written in JICA’s ToR (pages 2-3). http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/docs/122.pdf

(xxv) “Stakeholder mapping” (page 33) http://www.farmlandgrab.org/uploads/attachment/Map.3.pdf

(xxvi) See page 33 of the leaked “Stakeholder Mapping.” The original gives “is small enough to be essentially disregarded in terms of negotiation…” http://www.farmlandgrab.org/uploads/attachment/Map.3.pdf Disclosure from JICA has been denied.

(xxvii) No! to landgrab, Japan “ProSAVANA’s communication strategy and its impact: An analysis of JICA’s disclosed and leaked documents” (22 August 2016) http://farmlandgrab.org/26449

(xxviii) The internationally-known researcher on Mozambique, Joseph Hanlon, in his article “Comment on ProSAVANA: What does a successful campaign do after it wins?” (June 26, 2016), praised the campaign as “the most successful campaign in Mozambique.” Yet he criticizes organizations for continuing to focus on campaign against land grabs in Northern Mozambique, arguing that land grabs are no longer a major threat in the area. He writes, “There appear to have been no new large agricultural land grabs in the past five years. And existing projects are not doing well.” This is not how we view the situation. The dangers of land grabbing in the area are not decreasing. For example, Hanlon dismisses a proposed 240,000 ha project along the Rio Luirió (Lurio Valley Development Project) that could displace 500,000 families as not being serious. A recent article, based in part on information from the Panama Papers database, shows however that the project remains under examination by the Mozambique government and DUATs (land title) have been applied for. There is also the involvement of a company belonging to a holding company of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family, indicating that funding is a real possibility. (http://farmlandgrab.org/26386). If we follow Hanlon’s claim, the peasant and civil society organizations will not be able to engage in this kind of landgrabbing “plans” and in rolling back activities for already grabbed land. Further, the area along the current Nacala corridor is also experiencing land grabbing from not oJoint statement and open questions on ProSAVANA by the civil society of Mozambique, Brazil and Japan in response to newly leaked government documents.

(xxix) See “State of Military, Government, and Society in Mozambique: Focus on the Nacala Corridor and ProSAVANA” (March 3, 2016). http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/oda/2015301.pdf

(xxx) http://www.farmlandgrab.org/uploads/attachment/doc_2.pdf

(xxxi) http://farmlandgrab.org/26158 http://www.ajf.gr.jp/lang_ja/ProSAVANA/index_docs.html

(xxxii) http://farmlandgrab.org/26449

Related posts:

1. ProSavana: Consultor da JICA tenta espancar activistas durante consulta pública
2. Moçambique: UNAC manifesta indignação e condena processo do ProSavana
3. Aparente auscultação pública sobre o Prosavana: mais um processo de diálogo fantoche

The current conjuncture in southern Africa in the political, economical, social, cultural and environmental arenas, shows that the region is progressively being affected, in different forms, by the advance of three devils facing humanity today: capitalism, neo-colonialism and patriarchy.

2016 SADC Peoples’ Summit
19 Aug 2016

The Manzini Peoples’ Declaration

We, the more than two thousands representatives of the people of southern Africa, members and affiliates of various Social Movements, Trade Unions, Economic Justice, Human Rights, and Environmental Networks, Feminists, Women and Youth collectives, Non-Governmental Organisations, individual activists, students and academics, gathered in Manzini, Swaziland, from August 16 to 19 for the SADC Peoples’ Summit, held under the theme: “A Peoples’ driven SADC committed to total liberation for all”. We gathered in this land of stunning and courageous people to dialogue and envision a better SADC for all, by exchanging views, struggles, experiences, dreams and love.

The current conjuncture in southern Africa in the political, economical, social, cultural and environmental arenas, shows that the region is progressively being affected, in different forms, by the advance of three devils facing humanity today: capitalism, neo-colonialism and patriarchy.

The region is faced by ongoing and deepening multi-crisis as a consequence of neoliberal economic policies. Transnational Corporations (TNCs) capture and control of peoples’ means of production such as land, water, seeds, forests and seas is escalating with the complicity of political and government elites. We see greater levels of poverty and unemployment as a result of the inappropriate development models that are based on extractivism, exploitation of people and violation of Human Rights.

Public space is progressively closing in all SADC countries meanwhile the actions and work of social movements and activists are being criminalized.

A People´s Tribunal on Transnational Corporations took place at this Peoples’ Summit. The Tribunal started its work with the hearing of a series of cases from southern Africa, where the interventions of extractive TNCs are gravely violating the fundamental rights of the communities, with the alliance of governments, which ensure full impunity for corporations. The independent analysis and judgment of the Tribunal will make visible the atrocities caused by corporations in the region.

After 4 days of discussions at the Manzini Peoples´ Summit, the following are our deliberations, recommendations and demands:

Democracy and Good Governance
We have identified five countries that need to be urgently dealt with:

Lesotho
• SADC must force Lesotho to implement the SADC Phumaphi commission of inquiry resolution in solving the Lesotho crisis;
• The detained soldiers of Lesotho must be released from maximum prison;
• SADC to ensure that no one is above the law in Lesotho and strengthen democracy, rule of law and media pluralism;
• Wives of the detained soldiers in Lesotho with the assistance of other countries should start campaign demanding the release of the detained soldiers.

Mozambique
• We call for an immediate end of war in Central and Northern Mozambique;
• President Nyusi must use his constitutional power to stop military operations and meet RENAMO´s leader urgently in order to reach a perennial peace agreement;
• Stop the assassination and kidnapping of activists, academics and members of the opposition.

Swaziland
• The country must be democratized by unbanning political parties;
• King Mswati must respect the rule of law and human rights as he assumes chairpersonship of the SADC, starting by allowing political parties in Swaziland.

Zimbabwe
• Zimbabwe government must respect human rights and allow democracy to flourish;
• The SADC must ensure that police brutality against innocent civilians, especially women and children, comes to an end;
• SADC must respond to and investigate the mysterious disappearance of political activists;
• SADC countries must tell the Zimbabwean government to dissolve establishment 64, Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 and general laws Amendment 64 of 2016.

Mauritius
• We support the demand of Mauritius’ Social Movements for complete decolonization of the country and the closure of the United States´ military base on Diego Garcia;
• We call on the SADC heads of States to support the coming initiative to table a resolution at the upcoming UN general assembly on this issue.

Industrialization and Employment
• Governments must provide farming spaces in communities;
• Public policies must advance pro-poor agenda;
• Governments must nationalize all mines in order to create jobs. The domestication of Africa Mining Vision is need so that African can benefit.

Education
Corporate power is progressively capturing formal education institutions and curriculums to advance market and profit-based agenda. We propose a new and counter-hegemonic approach to address an alternative form of popular education for radical and emancipatory social and political change. Examples of the Popular University of Social Movements (UPMS) are to be promoted in order to reverse the current trend where the elitist and exclusionary formal education facilitates the spread of oppression and progress of capitalism.

We therefore demand:
• Free, quality, public and peoples’ driven education with innovative and emancipatory learning methodologies.

Women, Feminism and Gender
• SADC countries must protect women from sexual abuse, especially in Swaziland and Lesotho;
• Full participation of women in decision making must be ensured;
• Women should be allowed to own land in all SADC countries;
• Government should channel resources toward businesses that can empower women;
• No law or culture should be adhered to if it abuses or looks down upon women;
• Governments must provide protective measures and sanitary towels must be supplied to girls and women monthly for free;
• Governments must implement the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture, allocating half of the budget to women small scale farmers.

Natural Disasters
• Governments should intervene and provide water and farming inputs to mitigate the droughts in all areas affected by this disaster.
• Governments must ensure that an effective early-warning system is put into place to mitigate the effects of natural disasters – such as droughts.
• A regional campaign to demand SADC governments to prioritize and address drought-affected areas is needed.

Youth and Students
We note that effective and efficient Natural Resource governance and management is key to sustainable development financing in Africa. We therefore call SADC governments to:

• Domesticate the Africa Mining Vision to ensure the promotion of:
- Value addition to our natural resources;
- Local content development, and
- Policy reforms that plug Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs)
• Commit to domestic resource mobilization: No to conditional aid and debt that plunder resources of future generations!

The continued deterioration in democracy and good governance in SADC has marginalized youth from regional development process. We therefore call SADC governments to:
• Respect principles of democracy and good governance;
• Implement political governance policies reformation to allow youths’ participation in governance systems (youth quota system);
• Ensure transparency and accountability, Rule of Law, Human rights and Free and fair elections;
• Ensure young people are included in the decision making process and participate in all relevant spaces in SADC;
• Strengthen economical empowerment of the SADC youth;
• Equally promote youth interest and opportunities across the region;
• SADC must facilitate the skill and talent development of young people;
• A policy in relation to contracts, where a significant percentage goes to young entrepreneurs

Global trade structures and injustice
• Governments should ensure a safer and conducive trading environment for informal business.
• SADC must exit from the western economy
• We commit ourselves to campaign against unfair and oppressive trade agreements, to stop neoliberal policies promoted by the World Trade Organization.
• We demand a Stop to corporate impunity

Health
• Every person living with HIV should have access to viral load testing every 6 months and all health facilities must have viral loading machines;
• There should be free TB screening and X-ray for people living with HIV;
• Mosquito nets should be circulated to all health centres and be freely accessible;
• Scale up pediatric HIV treatment in all countries in the SADC region;
• Formalize and create conditions for payment for care workers;
• Governments must increase access to quality health care and training institutions;
• Decrease the doctor-patient ratio;
• Education about health issues must be intensified.

Agriculture
• Small-scale producers, fishers and farmers need a voice in developing agricultural and environmental policies.
• We demand a free circulation of peoples´ seeds across the region and the right of production, saving and sharing of native seeds among people.
Globalize the Struggle, Globalize Hope!
Nothing about us, without us!
SADC for the people!

Manzini, 19 August 2016

Related posts:

1. Popular University of Social Movements gathers in Harare: social movements and academics to dialogue on the state of land, seeds and food in SADC
2. Popular University of Social Movements Workshop in Zimbabwe – Final Statement
3. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Walter Chambati – Statement

Popular University of Social Movements Workshop: “Land, seeds, food, water, people and the climate in SADC – 15 years after the agrarian reform in Zimbabwe” – Harare (Zimbabwe), 12 -14 July 2016

FINAL STATEMENT

Preamble
Over the past 15 years, Zimbabwe’s fast track land reform programme redressed colonial land inequalities and now provides lessons for its neighbours on how to democratise land ownership and broaden economic participation. From July 12-14 2016, various social movements and academics from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Spain and Portugal gathered in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare to discuss and debate the state of land, seeds, food, climate and people in Southern Africa. The event was being held under the banner/auspices of the Popular University of Social Movements, known by its Portuguese and Spanish acronym, UPMS.

The key outcomes of this meeting are as following:

We acknowledge that women are the main agricultural producers in the region. As such, women should be at the center of all agrarian reform, food sovereignty and self-determination initiatives.

We are a diverse group comprised of social movements, activists, peasants, and academics, women, men and youth gathered here in Harare to discuss on land, water, seeds and people in the SADC Region.

We believe that:

• Communities should have autonomy in deciding the utilisation of resources and should be empowered to make decisions related to their development now and generations to come.
• There is need to share resources in order to protect peace and the integrity of farmers and the citizens of a country.
• Land remains central and plays multiple functions hence it is central to our livelihoods, thus we need to protect the democratisation of land ownership for food sovereignty.
• Building collective struggles to fight for the redress of social inequities and articulation of movements is crucial.
• Popular and academic knowledge to inform our struggles is key
• Privatisation of land should be denounced and stopped. As such land should be taken out of the markets for greater access by the citizens of a nation
• Social struggles should be mobilised between institutional and extra institutional spaces. These should be peaceful and in support of the advancement of people’s rights.
• Capitalism, colonialism and patriarchy should be denounced and fought against. We acknowledge that the State is a contested terrain and that we need to work from within and from outside the State. We acknowledge that some of the problems that we are currently facing are a manifestation of problems that have historical ties to colonialism. We see the effects of colonialism and the brutality it causes and how it cocoons people in poverty.
• People know what they want and as social movements we should contribute to the construction of post-colonial states in order to match the new realities and to break boundaries caused by class, race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, etc.
• We should delink ourselves from colonial ties and develop new home-grown frameworks to support the people of Africa in realising socio-economic, political and environmental rights.
• We need to re-enforce the importance of the peasantry that should be understood as a diverse group devoid of colonial Eurocentric definitions.
• In the formation of local agro industries owned and controlled by peasants and in the establishment of mechanisms that support peasants development.
• Some NGOs and peasant organisations are disconnected from the peasants on the ground and there is need to reconnect leadership with the grassroots.
• There is need to decolonise the mind and to recognise the value of indigenous knowledge systems, food and seeds. Currently, there is colonisation of culture and this impacts on foods and the choices that consumers make.
• We denounce the use of constitutions in some African countries to impede the redistribution of land to peasant farmers.

We demand:

Agriculture policies/agroecology
• Agricultural policies should support and promote agro-ecology for food sovereignty. As such, land use and access should be oriented towards agro-ecological practices for food sovereignty.
• In Zimbabwe, we call for the defense, democratization and deepening of the agrarian reform.
• In Mozambique, we call for immediate stopping of land grabbing and privatization of land.
• In South Africa, we call for a radical land redistribution and agrarian reform.

Mining
• Mining acts should not override agricultural activities. As such there is need to protect farmers and their livelihoods from victimisation and from capitalist interests.
• Land for agriculture should be protected against mining activities and where benefits are shared this should not be at the expense of the environment. There must be synergies between sustainable mining and agriculture for the benefit of peasants to promote food sovereignty.
• Mining should not be given precedence over agricultural activities. As such legislation and policies on mining should not undermine agricultural activities of a nation.

Knowledge
• The use of academic knowledge for the service of popular struggles.
• African states should endeavour to mobilise internal resources to support demand driven African research that benefits its peoples This research should be self-determined across spheres.
• We call for our governments to support our farming and the development of our indigenous farming, seeds and knowledge systems.

Funding
• Public funds should not be abused by the State. As such, community participation should involve wide consultation and the participation of marginalised groups.

Regional Trade
• Member states should promote intra African trade agreements and ensure the establishment of local markets, as the SADC protocol on trade.

National/local markets
• There is need to protect local markets from the domination of markets by Multinational Corporations
• We call for the State to put in place infrastructure that supports peasants so that they have access and links to reliable markets that lead them to improved livelihoods now and generations to come.
• Governments should capacitate peasants and provide them with information infrastructures and link them to adequate markets.
• There is need to reconnect producers and consumers through public procurement policies.
• We need to reorient the focus of production towards home markets before satisfying international needs.

Harare, July 2016
Popular Education for radical social transformation!
Globalize the Struggle, globalize hope!

List of participants and organizations

Related posts:

1. Popular University of Social Movements gathers in Harare: social movements and academics to dialogue on the state of land, seeds and food in SADC
2. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Walter Chambati – Statement
3. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Elizabeth Mpofu – Statement

Following weeks of public demonstrations against corruption, bad governance and a rapidly deteriorating economy, people all across Zimbabwe heeded a call last week for a nationwide stay-away, in an act of defiance against the government.

Africa is a Country
Jacquelin Kataneksza
12 Jul 2017

In recent weeks, protests both within and outside the country have increased in both number and intensity. On Friday July 1, the Zimbabwe-South Africa border post, Beitbridge, was shut down and a Zimbabwe Revenue Authority warehouse set on fire, after citizens took to the streets to protest a government ban on the importation of basic goods.

On Monday July 4, public transportation drivers in Harare clashed violently with police during riots over police harassment and extortion on the roads, while in London, UK activists besieged Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa. The following day, teachers, doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe began nationwide strikes over the government’s failure to pay their salaries on time.

President Robert Mugabe’s order for Zimbabweans to “go about their normal business” on Wednesday went unheeded. Rather, the national stay-away day, galvanized by the social media movement #ThisFlag (to contest ownership of national symbols by the ruling party), marked one of the biggest and most peaceful stay-away actions since 2007.

In South Africa, a wing of demonstrators from the #tajamuka movement, called for Zimbabwean residents there to protest outside the Zimbabwean consulate. The Zimbabwean government responded by shutting down the social media networks, particularly Whatsapp, in an effort to thwart the stay-away. The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) further warned members of the public against sharing information or images pertaining to the stay-away, citing such materials as threatening, subversive and offensive, and stating that anyone generating or sharing such materials would be arrested. Hackers from the group Anonymous Africa retaliated by shutting down government websites and the state controlled broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). In the aftermath of the stay-away, leaders of the #tajamuka movement are calling on citizens to march on the State House this coming Saturday and demand Mugabe’s resignation.

While stay-aways have been held several times since 2000, this one is markedly different on account of its non-partisanship, and its use of social media as a mechanism through which to foment and coordinate dissent: Citizens, through direct public mobilization, have deliberately articulated the need for an alternative social order; they have done so without a formal opposition political party to galvanize them; they have done so using the technological avenues available to them. Zimbabwean Twitter feeds, Whatsapp threads and Facebook walls have become spaces of electronic civil disobedience.

This digital activism is not restricted to the online environment. It has manifested in the form of collective public action. The use of social media platforms allows for the co-construction of a new type of social movement and the possibility for alternative forms of social, political and economic organization. Concrete demands have been made. Calls have gone out for the government to remove roadblocks that police officers use to demand bribes, pay civil servants on time (by the end of last week, the government had paid some of the salary arrears), take action against corrupt ministers, remove import controls (which have since been somewhat relaxed), and rescind plans to introduce “bond notes” as a means of easing the liquidity crisis in the country.

Mugabe’s government is facing serious popular resistance. Could this resistance be the basis of a national movement with real political potential? Yes, absolutely. Zimbabwe is in a new phase of politics. The public demonstrations – both organic in the form of riots and protests and organized in the form of the strike and national stay-away – point to an increasingly active and performative citizenry. Through the interface of global digital platforms and local activism, Zimbabweans are reconfiguring visibility and voice, understanding them locally, nationally and transnationally, and thereby illuminating new possibilities for alternative subjectivities and social formations.

But, there are concerns. As things stand, three separate resistance blocs are most visible; #ThisFlag, #tajamuka and Acie Lumumba’s fledgling political party, Viva Zimbabwe. A key challenge moving forward is to foster a continued coalescence of ideas, visions and plans beyond anti-Mugabe rhetoric and politics. The recent and ongoing actions in Zimbabwe point to very real forces at work, with the potential to transmute political and social arrangements within the country. Looking ahead, Zimbabweans will need to harness those actions, ideals and agendas cohesively so as not to lose momentum or face the risk of falling into obscurity – the unfortunate and all too common destination of many such movements.

Related posts:

1. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Elizabeth Mpofu – Statement
2. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Walter Chambati – Statement
3. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Statement

Workshop “People Land Seeds Food – 15 years after the agrarian reform in Zimbabwe”. Universidade Popular dos Movimentos Sociais – Workshop Harare – Zimbabwe 12 to 14 July 2016.

Statement – Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Centre for Social Studies/University of Coimbra – ALICE Project

This Popular University of Social Movements workshop intends to perform a deep and serious discussion, in a form of exchange, on the meaning of the Zimbabwe land reform, looking at its impacts after 15 years. As Zimbabwe is intimately linked with other Southern African countries, the workshop will also look at the current situation in the neighbouring countries, regarding issues such as land, seeds, food, water and climate, aiming to strengthen cooperation and co learning from the available experiences.

Related posts:

1. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Walter Chambati – Statement
2. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Elizabeth Mpofu – Statement
3. Popular University of Social Movements gathers in Harare: social movements and academics to dialogue on the state of land, seeds and food in SADC

Workshop “People Land Seeds Food – 15 years after the agrarian reform in Zimbabwe”. Universidade Popular dos Movimentos Sociais – Workshop Harare – Zimbabwe 12 to 14 July 2016.

Statement – Elizabeth Mpofu – Zimbabwe Organic Smallholder Farmers Forum

This Popular University of Social Movements workshop intends to perform a deep and serious discussion, in a form of exchange, on the meaning of the Zimbabwe land reform, looking at its impacts after 15 years. As Zimbabwe is intimately linked with other Southern African countries, the workshop will also look at the current situation in the neighbouring countries, regarding issues such as land, seeds, food, water and climate, aiming to strengthen cooperation and co learning from the available experiences.

Related posts:

1. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Walter Chambati – Statement
2. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Statement
3. Popular University of Social Movements gathers in Harare: social movements and academics to dialogue on the state of land, seeds and food in SADC

Workshop “People Land Seeds Food – 15 years after the agrarian reform in Zimbabwe”. Universidade Popular dos Movimentos Sociais – Workshop Harare – Zimbabwe 12 to 14 July 2016.

Statement – Walter Chambati – African Institute of Agrarian Studies

This Popular University of Social Movements workshop intends to perform a deep and serious discussion, in a form of exchange, on the meaning of the Zimbabwe land reform, looking at its impacts after 15 years. As Zimbabwe is intimately linked with other Southern African countries, the workshop will also look at the current situation in the neighbouring countries, regarding issues such as land, seeds, food, water and climate, aiming to strengthen cooperation and co learning from the available experiences.

Related posts:

1. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Elizabeth Mpofu – Statement
2. UPMS Workshop Harare Zimbabwe 2016 – Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Statement
3. Popular University of Social Movements gathers in Harare: social movements and academics to dialogue on the state of land, seeds and food in SADC

A hundred and twelve lives, most of them young, some very young, were lost in Kashmir when the army, paramilitaries and police forces opened fire on several occasions from June to September in 2010. That was only six years ago.

Kafila
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
July 11 2016

The latest reports indicate that around twenty three lives have already been lost in the last two days alone, in the aftermath of state troopers, soldiers and paramilitaries firing at funeral protests, after Burhan Wani, a twenty two year old insurgent, who had acquired the aura of a folk hero in Kashmir, was killed in an ‘encounter’, along with two of his associates, on Friday morning in a village in Kokernag

A hundred and twelve lives, most of them young, some very young, were lost in Kashmir when the army, paramilitaries and police forces opened fire on several occasions from June to September in 2010. That was only six years ago. The latest reports indicate that around twenty three lives have already been lost in the last two days alone, in the aftermath of state troopers, soldiers and paramilitaries firing at funeral protests, after Burhan Wani, a twenty two year old insurgent, who had acquired the aura of a folk hero in Kashmir, was killed in an ‘encounter’, along with two of his associates, on Friday morning in a village in Kokernag.

Several more people have sustained serious injuries. The body count is likely to rise. Curfews have returned, phone and internet links are suspended, but nothing seems to keep people from spilling out onto the streets, and unlike previous instances, the communications ban seems to be unworkable. No one can pretend that Kashmir is not in crisis, again, today.

The people in power, at the state and the centre, were different in 2010. Omar Abdullah, then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, was offering mealy mouthed rationalizations for killing kids then, while Mehbooba Mufti, was weeping crocodile tears. It is the other way round right now. Omar is being ‘sensitive’, Mehbooba, who the roll of the dice has placed in the position of chief minister now, is ’sullenly’ presiding over a badly timed by-election victory. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was silent then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is playing percussion instruments in Africa now. If Nero played the harp while Rome burnt, Modi beats drums while Kashmir goes up in flames.

In other words, the Indian occupation of Kashmir was business as usual then, it is business as usual now. Its only the body count that might distinguish one episode of the venality of the occupation from another. At the moment, we can only hope that the number of young people being killed will remain within two digits. But this is highly unlikely. The spiral of funerals, shootings, funerals and more shootings is unlikely to wind down too soon. This nightmare has only just begun.

As far as India’s assault on the people of Kashmir is concerned, the more things change, the more they seem to remain the same. ‘Confidence Building Measures’ rise and fall, The principal parts and their players change, governments come and go, parties change shape, size and color, coalitions are done up and undone, the one thing that remains the same is the fact that the occupation of Kashmir by the military forces of the Indian Republic stays founded on a basic and fundamental immorality – the lack of consent. The ‘largest democracy in the world’ is afraid to confront the ‘will of the people’ in what it considers to be its crown. India’s pretence at being the ‘largest democracy in the world’ will ring hollow as long as it keeps the people of Kashmir ‘integrated’ into coffins with bombs and bullets.

A friend, who happens to be Kashmiri, reflecting on the events of the past few days, posted on her Facebook wall – the cryptic, yet crystal clear comment – riffing off the psychopath’s anthem from the film Darr – “Tu Han Kar, Ya Na Kar, to Hai Meri – K, K, K, K” – meaning, regardless of “whether you say you yes, or no, you, K, K, K, K, are mine”.

Like any ordinary, garden variety, obsessive psychopath, the Indian nation state’s possessiveness about Kashmir has nothing to do with the ‘yes’, or ‘no’ of its people. The love that Indian nationalists have for Kashmir, like the love that the character played by Shahrukh Khan for his K-K-K-Kkiran, is a lethal embrace. It doesn’t care for how suffocating a stranglehold that passion can be. Had it been any different, then the decades of denying the right to a promised plebiscite would not have produced so many Burhan Wanis in so many coffins in so many villages, towns and cities of Kashmir.

The killings of 2010 did not stop time,just as the killings of the 1990s did not, although their intensity should have made even time hesitate. The hours and days should have stopped in their tracks. Clocks and calendars should have gone on strike, but they did not. Summer gave way to autumn, which gave way to winter. Several winters passed. Elections, a deluge, and the daily humiliations of cordon operations, searches, checkpoints and the casual violence born of the highest military-to-civilian ratio in the world produced its own casualties.

In October 2010, Burhan Wani, then sixteen years old, was on a motorcycle, with his brother Khalid Wani, and a friend. They were out on a bike ride, through Tral, the area that they had grown up in, as teenage boys do, anywhere. They were stopped at a Special Operations Group Picket of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and ordered to get cigarettes for the troopers. Khalid went and got the cigarettes, Burhan and the friend waited. After the transaction, for no apparent reason, the troopers pounced on the boys, beat them up severely, damaged the bike, which had been Khalid’s pride and joy. Khalid lost consciousness. But perhaps it was Burhan who suffered the greatest injury, and that injury, an invisible one, was what any self respecting young person with a sense of dignity might feel when beaten for no reason other than the fact that he is there to be beaten.

The foundation for this casual violence meted out by people in uniform on people who do not wear uniforms lies in the circumstances and history of a violent occupation. When power rests on nothing other than the fear and injury that it perpetuatess in the minds of a population then its violence becomes a banal habit. Burhan Wani had seen six cousins turn up at doorstep in coffins as a child. His brother Khalid, who had never been a militant, was killed recently, for no identifiable reason – other than that he had been to see Burhan in his forest hideout. In Kashmir, a young man does not have to die for a reason. One might as well ask the question the other way round. What circumstances have continued to let a young man live, without a pellet in his eye, without a bullet in his spine, without crutches and wheelchairs and bouts of intense psychological trauma? Death requires no reason in Kashmir, it is life that demands an explanation.

Four months of killings on the streets produced an ideal atmosphere for the maintenance of the Indian Republic’s peace in Kashmir in the autumn of 2010. Policemen stopped some teenagers, cocked their loaded guns at them, demanded cigarettes, beat them to pulp. Business as usual.

It is possible that Burhan the teenager died that day when his brother’s motorcycle was stopped so casually, so callously. It is possible that Burhan the ‘militant’, who grew to be ‘militant commander’ was born that very same day.

Within a few weeks Burhan disappeared into the mists of the forests of South Kashmir. He emanated, over the years, in the form of videos shared over social media, playing cricket, listening to songs through his headphones by a campfire, posing, like a slightly silly macho young man with guns that he should never have had to feel the need for, that were thrust on him by the fact that ‘men with guns’ is the most important face of itself that the Indian state shows to Kashmiris. The militancy that is generated is the mirror of the occupation’s protocols. Armed men beget armed men. Commander Burhan Wani was produced and destroyed by the Indian state, which made it impossible for a young, intelligent, charismatic man like Burhan to salvage his dignity by any means other than that of being an armed combatant.

In Burhan’s last video, he speaks of targeting soldiers and policemen, those who represent the armed might of the Indian state. As far as statements go, this video is by not very different in spirit from an Indian solider saying that he would target an armed insurgent, in Kashmir, or any other enemy. This is the kind of dull propagandist machismo that is a routine feature of the communiques of an armed conflict. In war, (and Kashmir is a battlefield, which is proven simply by the overwhelming presence of the Indian army and paramilitaries on Kashmiri territory) those who take on themselves the mantle of being soldiers, fight their adversaries, and often feel the need to say that they will. The Indian army does it as much as the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.

But there are a few other things that Burhan Wani says. He says he and his fellow fighters will not touch Hindu pilgrims on the Amaranth Pilgrimage in Kashmir. He says that the pilgrimage is their right, and nothing should prevent them from undertaking their religious duties. He also says that they will not hurt Kashmiri policemen who do not hurt them. He appeals to Kashmiri Pundits to return and live again as neighbors with Kashmiri Muslims, but says that any efforts to make what he calls ‘Israeli’ style ‘settlements’ (referring here to the the armed and fortified Israeli settler enclaves within West-Bank-Palestine) will be resisted. The video is in fact a list of the people Burhan Wani says he will fight, together with a list of the people he says that he will not harm. The second category outweighs the first.

The conduct that the Indian state has demonstrated in response to the crowds that gathered at the protests to mark Burhan Wani’s death show us that the standard operating procedure, at least as of now, for the Indian state represents a spirit opposite to that of Burhan Wani’s declaration. At least as far as honour is concerned, Burhan won, the Indian state lost. Unlike Burhan and his band, the armed might of the Indian occupation is making no bones about the fact that it is out to get unarmed civilians. They are shooting at young people, boys, girls, old women, at anyone who comes in their way. They are attacking ambulances carrying injured people. They are entering hospitals, attacking doctors and nurses, and lobbing tear gas shells into intensive care units, suffocating patients with respiratory diseases. They are breaking every single code that governs the conduct of what might be thought of as an ‘honourable’ war.

It is under these circumstances that the client politicians of the occupation make appeals to parents to keep children indoors, so that they do not come in the way of soldiers bullets. This indicates the extent to which the occupation understands, and has internalized, its own savagery. The officials and politicians of the occupation are not making an appeal to soldiers not to aim at the bodies of young people, because they know that such appeals will be meaningless. The chief spokesman of the Jammu and Kashmir Government walks out of a press conference when pressed for answers about why so many people are being killed. There is a rare candour in this breakdown of a ‘press conference’.

The newsrooms of Delhi and Mumbai are already full of people volubly gloating as the body count rises. Editors of respectable newspapers are calling the fallen Burhan Wani, a ‘pig’. News anchors are demanding to know why the insurgent and those being killed by troopers should be given the dignity of a burial, why, instead, their bodies should not be burnt and have their ashes scattered instead. This is how India is taking back Kashmir. This is how India is losing Kashmiris.

At least in this instance, the Indian state and its disgusting clients in the media and political class have not had the courage to demonstrate the promise of a soldierly compassion that Burhan Wani had held out, that no violence would be done unto unarmed civilians, whatever be the conditions of battle.

I would have liked to have met Burhan Wani. We would probably have, (in fact I am sure that we would have) had a lot of disagreements, serious disagreements. About nationalism, about what he might hold out as the goal of national-liberation, which I would only see as illusion. About means and ends in politics. About faith, certainty, and doubt, about how the calcification of identities imprison political imaginations, about the eternal difference between war and revolution. But for that to have happened he needed to have lived and played some more cricket, or even faced the consequences of an arrest, and a trial, if charges more substantial than the making of internet videos and wearing costumes could have been proven against him. Given his charisma, his intelligence, his youth, and his obvious following, he might have been able to play a part in the scenarios necessary for finding peace and freedom in Kashmir. He might have been able to be a part of the future, not the past, of Kashmir.

Every young person who is dying or injured in Kashmir today could have been a part of that conversation. Every fatality is a cancelled conversation. Perhaps even a difficult cancelled conversation. Whatever else may or many not happen over the next days, weeks, months, we can say one thing with certainty. Without that conversation there will be no peace, no freedom, in Kashmir, or in India.

For that conversation to occur, we need to arrive at a situation where the casual violence of an occupation does not kill a teenager’s spirit, repeatedly. That requires a much greater courage than even the fighting spirit that can be mustered by an occupying army.

For that to happen, India needs to become what it takes to be a peaceful and friendly neighbour, not a violent occupier, of Kashmir.

I know that in my life-time, despite what the idiots who are in power think, that day will come.

Related posts:

1. The Struggle for Human Dignity Continues in the Shadow of Death
2. Rebellion as contagion: What the High Court possibly meant when it spoke of an infection
3. Choice, Agency and the Naming of Names – The Trap of ‘Immediate Identities’ and the Vision of a Democratic Revolution

A Florida civil court held former Chilean officer Pedro Pablo Barrientos liable for the murder of folk singer Victor Jara, whom Augusto Pinochet had killed 43 years ago

The Real News Network
1 jul 2016

Transcription

GREGORY WILPERT, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. I’m Gregory Wilpert joining you from Quito, Ecuador.

On Monday, June 27, a civil court in Orlando, Florida found Pedro Pablo Barrientos guilty for the murder of Chilean folk musician Victor Jara, which happened 43 years ago. The court ordered Jara’s family $28 million in damages. This is an historic decision because it was one of the very rare instances in which victims of human rights abuses sued a perpetrator of the abuse in a U.S. court.

Victor Jara was killed in Chile shortly after Augusto Pinochet’s coup against Salvador Allende in 1973. Jara was a well-known Chilean folk musician and member of Chile’s Communist party at the time. Here’s a clip from his song El derecho de vivir en paz (The right to live in peace).

With us to talk about the guilty verdict in the Victor Jara case is Gabriel San Roman. He’s author of Vinceremos: Victor Jara and the New Chilean Song Movement. He’s also staff writer at the OC Weekly, and followed the case closely. He joins us from Anaheim, California. Thanks for joining us, Gabriel.

GABRIEL SAN ROMAN: Thank you for the opportunity, Gregory, to speak on this important, important legal victory.

WILPERT: Sure. Let’s begin with, exactly with that, with the significance of the trial. What would you say does it mean to have identified and declared guilty one of the killers of Victor Jara now, 43 years after the fact?

SAN ROMAN: We just heard the song El derecho de vivir en paz. And the family of Victor Jara, Joan Jara, his widow, who is 88 years old, his two daughters, Manuela and Amanda, have waited 40 years, more than 40 years, and haven’t had that right to live in peace, as the song says.

And the significance is that this finding of liability is the first time that, in the case of Victor Jara, there’s been any kind of liability and airing of evidence in a courtroom. So it’s truly historic. There’s new details that have been unearthed in the course of the trial. And it is something that is being celebrated in Chile and around the world, because Victor Jara’s legacy spanned not only just Latin America, but other places where freedom song definitely is something to give energy and life and vitality to social movements.

WILPERT: Why do you think it took so long to identify this person? I mean, he’s been living in the U.S. since 1989, according to some reports. And now this is so many years later that he’s finally being held liable. What was the delay in this?

SAN ROMAN: Well, Victor Jara was tortured and murdered in the days following the September 11th coup. And he fell victim in [Estadio Chile], in Santiago. And since that time–Joan Jara found his body on September 18, which is the national celebration of independence for Chile from Spain. And she knows the condition of his body at the time that she saw it. He was riddled with bullets, his hands were broken.

So what that allowed for, because it’s a situation that could have been even worse, she considers herself one of the lucky ones because she was able to recover the body of her husband, instead of him being buried in an unmarked mass grave.

Of course, the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet lasted for 17 years, and Joan Jara started her journey for justice during the dictatorship. And of course that’s not going to go anywhere. But even after Pinochet loses the plebiscite vote in 1988 there is this immunity for prosecution for actions under the coup. That has weakened a bit, but there’s also been this veil of silence within people who were at Estadio Chile working in the military during the coup. That’s really why it’s taken more than 40 years to get to this point.

WILPERT: Can you tell us anything else about where the case will go from here? It seems unlikely that the family will be able to collect anything from Barrientos, who is supposed to pay $20 million, but from the reports I’ve seen he’s merely a short-order cook right now. Will he remain free, or is there any chance he could go to prison at some point?

SAN ROMAN: Barrientos–it’s a big settlement. Very important and significant amount. Barrientos claims he collects $700 in Social Security and nothing more. He moved his assets, though, into a trust to protect them ahead of the trial, which is very curious, because he knew that he could find himself on the losing end of this. Before the Jara family sued in U.S. court in 2013, the previous year there was an indictment from a Chilean court that is seeking Barrientos and indicting him for murder and torture charges, along with seven others.

Chile has, the Chilean government, has asked the United States to extradite Barrientos since 2013. And for the times that has passed, the United States has not acted on that. How this verdict in a civil trial, where the, the burden or the proof is lower than a criminal trial, will affect that extradition case remains to be seen. I know that–I believe the Los Angeles Times asked the State Department about the status of the extradition request, and they did not offer comment. But there is hope in Chile that this verdict against Barrientos, finding him liable for the torture and murder of the iconic folk singer, will strengthen the hand and persuade the United States to send Barrientos back to Chile, where he can face criminal trial, and a greater–and the family can get a greater, a greater degree of justice to be served.

WILPERT: Let’s place Victor Jara’s murder in its historical context. He was killed just as Pinochet was consolidating power after he overthrew Salvador Allende in a brutal coup. Why was Jara so important for Pinochet?

SAN ROMAN: Victor Jara, the significance of this case is due to the significance of Victor Jara’s music and his status in Chile. And this was well-established in the trial, too, with expert witnesses who said that the movement, La Nueva Cancion Chilena, was very key to the successes and the morale of Unidad Popular, the governing coalition of Salvador Allende. Therefore, when Jara is taken to Estadio Chile and recognized because of his publicity, he is beaten and he is taunted as the trial–[inaud.] testified in video testimony. Part of that included stepping on his hands, and then definitely stomping on his wrists to break them so that he could not play the guitar ever again. So the torture took on elements that targeted him specifically as a folk singer.

And Victor Jara was born in Lonquen, which was outside of Santiago, to a peasant family where his mother was a true, true folk singer, singing at wedding parties and at funeral rites. The kind of music that the [inaud.] would later come in and document as the godmother of La Nueva Cancion. And so as the politics of Chile progressed, Allende had a different number of presidential bids that were unsuccessful. But during the ’60s, as 2 million politics were changing, the music changed along with it. And folk singers began to emerge out of [benas]. They began to utilize poetry. Of course, Pablo Neruda was still around, and offering his poetry in this cultural renaissance during that time that accompanied the political renaissance.

So Victor Jara very much emerged as the main protagonist of La Nueva Cancion Chilena. And he sang songs of hope. He sang songs of protest. He really documented the ups and downs of the Chilean left. And at the time of the coup he was singing songs that were, that included lyrics that indicated that he knew that he could die, and that he would die truthfully, singing his song. And that’s how history recalls him.

WILPERT: Well, I think this is a very important case, and we will certainly want to see if anything more develops, and we’ll probably get back to you if there are new developments in this case. So anyway, thanks so much, Gabriel, for joining us on this issue.

SAN ROMAN: Thank you, Gregory. My pleasure.

WILPERT: And thank you for watching the Real News Network.

End

DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.

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