NEW DELHI, 29 May — Authorities failed to protect people from communal violence during the country’s worst religious bloodshed in a decade in western Gujarat state, global human rights watchdog Amnesty International said yesterday.
More than 900 people, mostly Muslims, died in reprisal killings and clashes after a mob firebombed a train in Godhra, burning alive 58 Hindus in late February, official figures say. Human rights groups and Western diplomats say at least 2,000 people have died.
"The Indian authorities failed to protect people from communal violence which led to the deaths of hundreds of people and displacement of thousands," Amnesty said in an addendum to its annual 2001 report.
The rights watchdog released its annual report earlier yesterday in which it said human rights abuses continued unabated across the globe last year, typified by illegal executions, disappearances, torture and imprisonment without trial.
"Amnesty International sent a memorandum to the government of Gujarat urging immediate protection for those at risk and an impartial investigation to bring those responsible to justice," the human rights watchdog said.
Nearly three months after the Godhra incident, more than 100,000 people, mostly Muslims, are still living in crowded and ramshackle relief camps, with either no home or too petrified to return to their homes fearing fresh attacks from Hindus.
Muslims, opposition parties and civil rights groups have accused the state’s Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of turning a blind eye to the violence in Gujarat — charges it has denied.
Survivors say local police not only stood by as Hindu mobs torched and razed Muslim homes and butchered men, women and children, but also fired on Muslims, herded some into the arms of mobs and prevented others fleeing.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said police took firm action and brought the riots under control in three days. Amnesty’s India Coordinator Vijay Nagaraj said it was difficult to determine the exact number of deaths in Gujarat because of lack of access to the riot-torn state. Amnesty cannot send out its teams in India without government permission.
"Amnesty has put in an application to visit Gujarat but hasn’t received a response yet," Nagaraj said.
"We do not have direct and uninhibited access to survivors which slows down the process. Our report is based on information from non-governmental organizations and activists in Gujarat." The Amnesty report also said the Muslim community in India "had become increasingly vulnerable to victimization by both the state and some Hindu political groups" after the Sept. 11 attacks.
It said tensions between police and Muslim groups had erupted into rioting in different parts of the country and religious antagonism had also "escalated" when Hindu activists intensified plans to build a temple on the site of a razed mosque.
