South Asia Citizens Web

Odhikar is deeply concerned to learn from the media of the proposed amendments to the Anti- Terrorism Act 2009, approved by the Cabinet meeting on December 26, 2011, which has widened the scope of the Act by approving death penalty for financing terrorist activities. The existing law stipulates that a person guilty of the offence of financing acts of terrorism shall be sentenced to not more than 20 years and not less than three years of imprisonment. According to new amendments, as reported by media, a person or entity will be considered a terrorist if they harm or help harm another country while staying in Bangladesh.

We, the undersigned, visited Gobindpur, Dhinkia and Patna villages of
Jagatsinhpur district of Orissa, on 22nd December, where the villagers
are peacefully resisting the proposed POSCO steel plant for the last
six years in order to protect their lands and livelihoods from
complete destruction. Our visit was in the aftermath of the incidents
of 14th December 2011, during which the peaceful protest against the
construction of the coastal road connecting Paradip port to the
proposed site of the POSCO steel plant, was viciously and unexpectedly
attacked with country-made bombs by hired goons of the local
contractor Bapi Circle, who is a known criminal with many pending
cases in Odisha. In the process, many protesting villagers, including
elderly women, were badly injured. One of the men hired by Bapi Circle
was also killed by being accidentally hit with a bomb thrown by his
own associates. After this heinous incident, the state government has
slapped false charges of murder (Sec 302 of the Indian Penal Code)
against 11 key activists of the Posco Protirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS),
including some who were not even present at the time of the attack.

We the peasants, workers, fisher folk, indigenous communities, Dalit, landless people, women groups, human rights groups youth and representatives of other smallholder food producers of South Asia, representing NGOs/CSOs, peoples movements from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have met at Kolkata from December 10-12, 2011 for Regional Peoples’ Convention and we also took part in a mass rally of small food producers at Kolkata. The Peoples Convention intensively discussed status of food security in South Asia, highlighting emerging challenges and demanding food sovereignty . . .
We resolve to launch a campaign against Land Grabbing in South Asia and we would resist all efforts of land grabbing in this sub-region. We further resolve to struggle against all forces that create poverty, conflict and violence.

The l’affaire ’Bhagwadgita As It Is’ and the way it unfolded here raises many uncomfortable questions about our polity as well as society and the way secularism is understood and practised by us. It also denotes the impetuosity with which the articulate sections of our society get agitated when matters of faith are debated.

Greetings! We, hundreds of thousands of “Koodankulam Children” who will be the worst victims of a natural or human error or manmade disaster at the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), would like to appeal to you to scrap the KKNPP project immediately.