Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Independent Judiciary and Rule of Law: Demolished in Sri Lanka

    by Rohini Hensman, 27 February 2013

    Among the continuing acts that erode democratic institutions in Sri Lanka is the recent impeachment of the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers who head various arms of the Sri Lankan government run a repressive and autocratic regime that does not brook opposition. Despite this, the opposition parties Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Tamil National Alliance along with civil society bodies like the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations and students have come together to fight back.

  • Pakistan: The Taliban’s new, more terrifying cousin

    by Dilip Simeon’s Blog, 27 February 2013

    For the Hazaras, a group of Shia Muslims from Afghanistan with a large population in Pakistan, leaving the house has become a fraught enterprise. Schools have emptied, students stay home and parents try to explain to their children why people want them dead. They believe their government is at best uninterested in protecting them, and many are so traumatized they believe it’s complicit

  • India: Letter to Ministry of Environment and Forests re serious anomalies in the EIA report for the Mithi Virdi Nuclear Power Plant

    27 February 2013

    This follows our earlier representation dated February 22, 2013 pointing out how an un-accredited consultant, Engineers India Limited(EIL) was appointed by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to prepare the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report for proposed 6000 MW Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi area of Bhavnagar district, Gujarat. While we seek the cancellation of the public hearing for the plant, we bring to your notice serious anomalies which have come to fore.

  • Anwar Dayal: Deconstructing Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh

    27 February 2013

    After the Pakistan Army launched its murderous crackdown in East Pakistan on 25 March 1971, Jamaat threw in its lot behind the generals. Whereas a number of Islam-pasand politicians—including many from various factions of the Muslim League—supported the junta’s quest to maintain a united Pakistan, Jamaat went a step further.

  • Text of ’Kathmandu Declaration’ adopted at conference on Peace building in South Asia

    27 February 2013

    We, women and men at the regional conference on “The Changing Dynamics of Peace building in South Asia: Recasting Women’s Agency and Transformative Strategies”, share the vision of South Asia as a region strengthened by peace, justice, democracy and respect for human rights.
    We believe in transforming the current reality through citizens’ engagement and the inclusion of women’s perspectives.

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