South Asia Citizens Web

After last months crackdown on Anti-POSCO demonstrators in Orissa, some groups in South Korea took the initiative of organizing a picket infront of POSCO Headquarter in Seoul, South Korea.

Later in the day a Joint Press Statement was also released and circulated. The press statement was prepared under the aegis of Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS), Gong-Gam (Public Interest Lawyers’ Group), Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). The was also endorsed by All Together (Students’ Organization), Citizens’ Forum for Corporate Social Responsibility, Centre for Corporate Social Responsibilty, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy along with individual activists.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) will be held in New Delhi, India, from 3-14 October 2010. Given the many unanswered questions that have marked the CWG process, HLRN undertook a study on various dimensions of the Games. The HLRN study questions the rationale for spending thousands of crores of rupees on a one-time sporting event, which instead of delivering any benefits to the masses is resulting in multiple violations of human rights, especially of the most marginalised sections of society.

The government needs to reconsider the role the state has played in the persecution of minorities

While the Indian Government considers deploying the army and air force to quell the rebellion in the countryside, strange things are happening in the cities.

The paltry payments made to the victims, the escape of Anderson on a government plane, the neglect of the babies born subsequently with terrible deformities and ailments, the inability of the state to clean the contaminated soil, the petty sentences rendered and the 26 long years in the trial court, all seems separate instances which though regrettable are treated as issues of governance and not one of politics, conspiracy and betrayal. Let’s not look at the past, we are advised, let’s look to the future to ensure that such an incident does not take place again. But unless we understand the treachery of the past it is impossible to change things for the future.