NEW DELHI, 9 March 2003 — International human rights groups want the federal government to investigate India’s worst Hindu-Muslim violence in a decade, saying no convictions have been made in the year since the riots, which they estimate killed more than 2,000 people.
In a report on the bloodshed in western Gujarat state, London-based Amnesty International said that police investigations into the massacres have been severely biased against Muslims — a minority in this predominantly Hindu country.
In Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city, a senior official rejected the allegation of bias. A state government-appointed, independent inquiry commission was traveling across the state to gather facts and Muslims were free to register their complaints, he said.
The violence erupted on Feb. 27, 2002, when Muslims torched a train car in the town of Godhra, killing 60 Hindus. Hindus retaliated, burning Muslim neighborhoods throughout Gujarat. Police estimated 1,000 people were killed, but New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International put the total at more than 2,000.
Human rights groups, opposition parties and Muslim organizations accused the state government — headed by the Hindu fundamentalist party that also governs India — of abetting the Hindu rioters.
Journalists saw police fire on Muslims trying to defend themselves against Hindu mobs. Hundreds of Muslims said police stood by as Hindus burned their homes and killed their relatives.
The lack of independent investigators “prejudices most trials even before they begin,” Amnesty International said. “The same police officers cannot be the accused and investigators at the same time.”
Human Rights Watch said the state government cannot be trusted to deliver justice, and that a federal probe is needed.
“Witnesses who initially came forward to file complaints and identify their attackers have since been harassed, threatened or bribed into turning hostile on the witness stand or (are) simply not showing up when a case goes to trial,” the group said. Gujarat’s government has ignored recommendations by the federally appointed National Human Rights Commission that special courts be established and cases be filed against state officials who failed to curb the violence.
The government official said that special anti-terrorism court had been set up on Thursday to try those accused in the train arson. No special courts were being set up to try those accused of the ensuing rioting, but public prosecutors were trying to assist the complainants, he said.
Human Rights Watch said the state arrested 131 Muslims for the Godhra train attack and all were charged under a new Prevention of Terrorism Act, or POTA, which makes it more difficult for defendants to obtain bail and see lawyers or relatives.
“But no Hindus have been charged under POTA for post-Godhra violence against Muslims,” Human Rights Watch said.
The government official said that the POTA charges were the discretion of the investigating agencies, who had found no Hindus involved in anti-state activities that threatened the country’s sovereignty.
Amnesty International also slammed the state government for its inaction over widespread violence against women.
According to Amnesty, accounts by eyewitnesses and rights activists indicated women in Gujarat were beaten up, stripped naked, gang-raped, stabbed with iron rods, swords or sticks.
