Thursday, Feb 12, 2004
Religious freedom: U.S. panel lists India among `violators'
By Sridhar Krishnaswami
WASHINGTON, FEB. 11. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended to the Secretary of State that 11 countries including India be designated as "Countries of Particular Concern" (CPCs) on account of the "systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom that the governments are responsible for or have tolerated."
The 11 countries the commission wants in the designated category are: Myanmar (Burma), North Korea, Eritrea, India, Iran, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.
Last May the United States designated Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan as CPCs.
"It is the opinion of the commission that with the exception of Iraq, nothing has changed to warrant the removal of these countries from the list of CPC designations," the commission chair, Michel Young, has said in the letter to the Secretary of State.
"In addition to the five countries previously designated by you as CPCs, the commission finds that the Governments of Eritrea, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom and recommends that they be designated as CPCs this year," Mr. Young said in the letter.
Three members of the commission, including the chair, have dissented with the recommendation placing India in the list of CPCs. One commissioner is on record that India should be placed on the Watch List instead.
"In India violence including fatal attacks against Muslims and Christians continues and the government has yet to address adequately the killing of an estimated 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat in 2002," Mr. Young wrote.
"Several Ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have publicly allied themselves with extremist Hindu organisations known collectively as the Sangh Parivar whose members regularly employ hate speech against religious minorities, have been implicated in violence against them and seek legislation to prohibit the religious conversion of Dalits and others from Hinduism," the commission has said.
"The designation of countries of particular concern is one of the most important human rights acts taken by the U.S. Government. We strongly urge the State Department to name those countries that have not yet been designated," said Mr. Young.
He has further cautioned the Secretary of State that merely designating the countries would not do and that specific actions would have to be taken under the provisions of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998.
In critical observations of the action taken by the State Department thus far, the commission said: "For every country named as a CPC to date, the only official actions taken have been to invoke already existing sanctions rather than to take additional action to advance religious freedom pursuant to IRFA."
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.