India - Manipur: Across Relief Camps, Divided Survivors Are United by the Same Anger Towards the Govt | The Wire

Manipur: Across Relief Camps, Divided Survivors Are United by the Same Anger Towards the Govt

Across nine relief camps of both affected communities scattered across various villages of Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Imphal East, Kangpopki and Kakching districts in Manipur, there was similar grief even though accounts of violence differed.

Women and a child at the Kakching school camp at Kerirak, Manipur. Photo: Yaqut Ali, The Wire

Banjot Kaur

 

 

 https://t.co/SZrU5pZHj8

India: Thousands of Bru tribals fled Mizoram in 1997 following ethnic violence, and lived in camps in Trupura, they are to be repatrated now

The Indian Express

Bru repatriation: Cloud over process intensifies as none turn
No Bru has turned up for the verification process even on the third day of the ongoing last and final repatriation process for the community, a senior official said Thursday.

The repatriation process of Bru tibals is likely to be completed by September.
Aizawl | Published on:June 4, 2015 4:04 pm

No Bru has turned up for the verification process even on the third day of the ongoing last and final repatriation process for the community, a senior official said Thursday.

Mamit Deputy Commissioner Vanlalngaihsaka said over phone there has been “nil” verification because inmates of the Kaskau relief camp in North Tripura did not turn up at the government set-up counters over the past three days.

Inmates at Kaskau has meanwhile submitted a memorandum to the government saying they will not return to Mizoram unless their demands of being resettled in the same villages they once lived in within Mizoram and enhanced compensation packages are given. They also complained that the timing of the repatriation is not conducive for their farming season.

The officials deputed for the verification process at the camp are scheduled to move towards Khakchangpara relief camp next, but authorities are not hopeful that results will be any different there or in the four other camps they will go to afterwards.

If anyone who passes the verification process is willing to return to Mizoram, the state government would privide transportation for them to return to the state from Tripura and resettle them in selected villages where they will be allotted land and given compensation packages.

Tens of thousands of Bru tribals fled Mizoram in 1997 following ethnic violence between them and the majority Mizos following the murder of a Mizo official by Bru militants.

They made their way to Tripura where the neighbouring state put them in designated relief camps where they have been lodged ever since. Tripura has repeatedly said Mizoram should take back the tribals.

Six phases of the repatriation process has been organised since 2010 but these have met with limited success, partly because relief camp leaders have rejected the compensation package saying it is too less.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Mizoram and Tripura governments have agreed and told the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the repatrartion process, that this would be the last time an effort is made to repatriate the tribals.

Anyone who does not take part would be removed from Mizoram’s electoral rolls (where they have continued to remain after a generation in absentia) and the relief camps disbanded, the sides had agreed.

Kaskau camp has 1100-odd people registered in Mizoram’s electoral rolls, while more than ten times that number are spread over all the six camps taken as a whole. In all, about 30,000 people remain in the camps.

- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/bru-repatriation-cloud-over-process-intensifies-as-none-turn/

India: Muslim Child Victims of Violence in Kokrajhar Harassed In School For Not Having Uniforms

India - Kokrajhar or Muzaffarnagar: Camps shut, wounds open | Padmaparna Ghosh

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deep-focus/Camps-shut-wounds-open/articleshow/30083664.cms

The Times of India

Camps shut, wounds open

Padmaparna Ghosh, TNN | Feb 9, 2014, 06.25 AM IST

Whether it's Muzaffarnagar in UP or Kokrajhar district in Assam, those displaced by riots have to eventually leave the shelters and return home. But the road back is full of anxieties and insecurities, reports Padmaparna Ghosh from the northeast

Everyone remembers two details distinctly — when they left home and what they left with. For Hamer Ali, 30, it was July 19, 2012. His most vivid memory is of the calm river that runs alongside his village Kanibhur. "The mobs set everything on fire. When I looked back, even the River Aie looked like it was on fire," he recalls. Samati Brahma, 45, from Aloorbui village, left at 9.30 am on July 23. "I still have the sandals I walked out in," she says.

Ali and Brahma are among over four lakh people displaced by Bodo-Muslim riots of 2012, where ethnic tensions over land and livelihood between indigenous Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims escalated after members of both communities were killed. Over the next two months, hundreds of villagers from Kokrajhar, Dhubri and Chirang districts scurried to camps for safety.

Over the past year, most of the riot-affected have trickled back home, some as recently as last month. But no one remembers the exact date of return, symbolizing the aching finality of displacement and the hesitance of homecoming.

The road back is not merely retracing steps — there are insecurities about safety, anxiety about livelihoods, and a sinking realization that lives will have to be restarted . While the closure of relief camps means the evacuees are no longer the district administration's headache, does it mean a seamless return to the past? It's a question being asked about Muzaffarnagar, after the abrupt closure of relief camps barely three months after the September 2013 riots. Harsh Mander, founder of Aman Biradari, an organization working towards inter-communal solidarity, believes this 'invisibility' suits the district administration . "After they disappear from the camp, the government thinks its problem is over," says Mander, whose team will be tracking Muzaffarnagar camp evacuees.

The outsiders

What is the afterlife of camp evacuees? A crucial answer lies in the geographical reorganization of these Assamese villages post the riots. Before July 2012, 456 Muslim family homes in Kanibhur village, Chirang district, were set apart by vast swathes of fields. But when the Muslim families returned, they re-built their tiny, fragile bamboo shacks, really close to each other, seeking security in tight clusters. It was as if the Muslim houses had curled up into a protective, foetal position. Thirty-seven Muslim families of Chakrashila-2 village, Kokrajhar district returned, but didn't enter the village. Their huts stand inches from the highway on the village border, as if asking to be let in. Makram Ali, 46, and his parents moved to the village 40 years ago. "Historically, my family was always moving. Now we are back to the same life." The village, with its mixed population of Bodos, adivasis, Nepalis, Rajbonshis and Muslims, was looted and burned down. Without pucca houses or small businesses and their cattle — the major livelihood for Muslims — lost, Muslims like Ali's have been reduced to daily labour and NGO handouts. (Bodos are majority landowners and received the most compensation from state as well as central governments.) "Everyone used to be employed here. It was quite a nice village ," says Ali. The brand new bicycles, shiny water drums and liquid soap bottles which NGOs have distributed are incongruous in this backdrop. Bodiod Jamal, 40, of Chakrashila-1 did not receive compensation because he didn't have a land deed (for the land his house stood on) for rebuilding his house. "I made the walls stand with whatever I could find. We got some cycles though," he says.

Nirmala Brahma, 44, a Bodo woman in Muslim-dominated Aloorbui village in Kokrajhar, was a regular at the big weekly marketplace. After her return seven months ago, she doesn't venture out after dark. "It isn't that there is zero trust; we talk but there are small hesitations. Like I won't tie my cow far away," she says. Her village has sent about 30 Bodo children to an ashram 35 kms away which takes care of their education and food now. Muslim families in Bodo-majority villages have also sent their children to relatives elsewhere.

Rahul Dey, team leader with Indo-Global Social Service Society, one of the NGOs working in these villages, says these anxieties need to be addressed. "After one of the mixed-community peace meetings, a woman told me, 'I don't know why you are holding these meetings but I like the space I get' ," says Dey.

Livelihoods lost

Bodo or Muslim, loss of homes, granaries and property has set villagers back years. Kathiram Basumathary, a farmer in Chakrashila-1 village, used to own two cows. Now he rents a tractor to plough his four-bigha plot at Rs 300 per bigha. "They return but resources are gone — cattle, water, land. The biggest loss is that of bargaining power," says Dey. "No one wants to live in a relief camp but when they leave, they are completely on their own."
Kanibhur, a Bodo-majority village was a major supplier of vegetables to the local market. Even today, a variety of vegetables are grown here. But after the return, there was a diktat against buying from or selling to local Muslims or hiring them for field work, punishable by heavy fines. Hamer Ali, 30, whose 10-member family owns 16 bighas of land, no longer goes to the market to sell the vegetables he grows. Down to a tenth of his income now, Hamer took his teenage brothers out of school and sent them to cities to find work.
Access to borewells for irrigation has been reduced and Muslim families are also hesitant to work in fields far from home or very close to Bodo areas. Whether Assam or Muzaffarnagar, economic and social boycotts are being used to sustain hatred between communities, says Mander. "Boycotts work effectively in rural areas than urban because the bitterness of estrangement is also greater because social bonds are stronger," he says.

Rebuilding trust

In 1971 there were just seven Muslim families in the three Chakrashila villages; now there are about 800. "The two communities managed quite well. Bodos and Muslims even did nightly guard duty together," says Prasanto Kumar Narjary, 70, former head of Bodo village Chakrashila-1 . He had witnessed the earlier riots of 1950. "I never thought it would happen again."
NGO workers believe that the toughest task of reconciliation is getting communities to trust the process. Shanti Gazun Manch, a team from Aman Biradari in association with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati, has been working towards this. Team leader Srinivas recounts the first time he went to a village right after the riots, "The villagers yelled at me for even thinking about peace. I left in tears." Today, they have mixed teams of Bodo and Muslims in 30 villages that have built peace committees and have made them talk to each other. His teams broke the ice in the villages by helping with children's education , health. They get some backing from student's unions and NGOs but not the government as an official in Kokrajhar says, "People have gone back. Peace has been announced. Why do you have to ask questions now?"

Neither friends nor foes

In Muzaffarnagar, Muslim organizations engaged in relief work have suggested Rs 5 lakh compensation for the riot-affected to move to new areas and not return, a measure Mander calls "incentivizing ethnic cleansing" . Landless Muslims in Assam's riot-hit areas have a similar offer — the state will give them Rs 50,000 to buy land elsewhere and sign an affidavit to not return. "We didn't take the offer. This is where I was born. Where will we go?" says Makram Ali.

It is this very land, and inter-dependency , that is bridging the distance between the two communities. In Aloorbui, a Bodo and Muslim woman pat rice cakes together to make 'Jogran' , a local liquor. Lokhiram Musahari, 40, in the neighbouring Tintilla, goes to the fields with his Muslim neighbour every morning. Musahari, a Bodo landowner, owned cattle while his landless but cattle-owning neighbour worked others' fields. After their cattle were looted, they forged a 50-50 sharecropping arrangement . "We are not friends. We don't joke around but it is okay," says Musahari. Seated in his hut, near the ruins of his concrete house, Musahari says that rioters removed his wooden doors and windows before burning down the house. They hang in the same village in another house, a sight that pains him. Yet, he is a regular participant in peace-committee meetings because he believes they can help. Local leaders and village elders are thankful for the interreliance between land and labour. Raju Kr Narzary, executive director, North East Research & Social Work Networking, an NGO, says: "It is a good thing that they need each other. It gives us a beginning."

India: Two Relief Camps in Uttar Pradesh Settle Into Permanency | Betwa Sharma

From India Ink / The New York Times, JANUARY 27, 2014

Two Relief Camps in Uttar Pradesh Settle Into Permanency
By BETWA SHARMA

Betwa Sharma
A house being constructed in Bhura camp in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday.


BHURA CAMP, Uttar Pradesh — The Bhura relief camp set up for Muslims who were fleeing violent clashes with Hindu-Jats in western Uttar Pradesh over four months ago is starting to look more like permanent settlements, despite the local authorities’ efforts to force residents to move out. Residents here say this is the first camp to become a colony.

Last week, at the Bhura camp, which holds 60 families, men worked energetically to build houses to keep out the winter chill and rain. Feverish construction this month has transformed shelters of plastic sheets and tarps into houses of red bricks and tin doors.

Mohammed Islam, 48, divided the day between nursing his sick goat and shoveling mud out of the plot for his new house. Mr. Islam’s three sons and a few other residents of the camp were heaving and placing bricks. “We are all helping each other in building houses. It saves costs, but there is also a feeling of camaraderie since we have been here for so long together,” he said.

Residents have named their new colony Mujahidnagar, which means “a place for those who have struggled.”

More than 50,000 people were displaced and 61 lives were lost in the religious violence that spread across the sugarcane districts of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, where camps were later set up in Muslim-majority areas.

Media coverage over the cold conditions at the camps as the winter set in and the outrage over the deaths of children who were living in tents pushed local administration to close all camps in the Muzaffarnagar district by early January.

Residents were moved or told to find vacant buildings to keep warm or to return to their home villages. Recipients of 500,000 rupees ($8,000) in state compensation, who were barred from returning to their villages as a condition for aid, were told to construct their own houses.

The authorities have contended that many residents who refused to leave the camps were actually from villages that had been unaffected by the violence, accusing the Muslims of trying to squat on government land. In December, the district administration said that the Malakpur camp, about eight kilometers (five miles) from the Bhura camp, was no longer recognized as a relief operation.

Yet construction has continued at the larger camp, which now has about 30 brick houses and 700 families. The extra construction hasn’t helped protect children from the cold, however.

On Thursday, men gathered to offer a last prayer for Shabnam, a 7-month-old girl, who they said had died that morning from pneumonia, the 29th death of a child at the camp since November.


Betwa Sharma
Saira Bano, mother of Shabnam, being consoled by her relative in Malakpur camp in Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday.
As the call for a mourning prayer rose from a makeshift mosque of plastic sheets and wood, her mother, Saira Bano, 35, sobbed into a neighbor’s chest. “She died on the last note of the morning prayer,” she said.

Sympathetic onlookers explained that Shabnam’s parents had spent 2,500 rupees, or $40, for a private doctor, but they could not protect her against the cold. Shabnam’s parents had built a small brick house for their seven children, but Ms. Bano said that rain had still seeped through the plastic roof this week.

Residents of Bhura and Malakpur camps said donations and Muslim charities are financing each of their houses for 15,000 rupees, which is just enough to buy poor quality bricks for the walls but not enough for a proper roof.

Haji Dilshad, manager of the Malakpur camp, said that more families were joining the 700 families from last year, including a few from those camps that were forcibly closed by the government since December.

The residents of Bhura and Malakpur said that they fended off the authorities by refusing outright to move and drawing steadfast support from the Muslim villages around them.

After seven vehicles of police personnel arrived on Jan. 1 to order residents of the Bhura camp to leave, and the residents of Malakpur camps felt similar pressure on Jan. 2, a delegation of camp supervisors met with Akhilesh Singh Yadav, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

“We told him that these people are tired, scared and worried, so please don’t hassle them anymore,” said Hafiz Mohammed Kausar, a former resident of Bhura village, who manages the camp. “The police have not visited then so let’s hope for the best.”

Still, residents of the fledgling colony are wary since they have received legal notices from the local district officials about fines of 8,800 to 14,000 rupees for trespassing on protected forestlands. But Bhura camp residents say their colony is being built on land belonging to the village of Bhura.

On Thursday, the constable Hamid Chauhan visited the bustling construction site to deliver summons for eight people to answer charges of hurting the official who had been handing out the notices of the fines. But Mr. Chauhan left after an hour without finding anyone. “They are all hiding,” he said.

While watching him leave, Mr. Kausar said, “These are all pressure tactics, but nobody here is going to fall for it.”

Even if the houses that go up are of shoddy quality, they are giving hope to residents about building a future.

Mr. Islam, who was a laborer in the village of Lakh Bawdi, said he had lost his will to live shortly after moving to the Bhura camp with his wife, six children and a goat, especially after his application for compensation was denied because of bureaucratic hurdles and botched paperwork.

He had left his village work on Sept. 8 before phoning his nephew in the afternoon, only to hear him gasp his last breath after being shot. Neighbors later told Mr. Islam that his father’s brother and his aunt had been bludgeoned to death.

He and his family left their belongings, except for the goat, and moved into a Muslim house in Bhura village, the camp’s namesake, then into a cramped tent at the camp.

With the fear of eviction slowly dissipating, and a new house for his family soon to be ready, Mr. Islam spoke of feeling revived, which also motivated him to get back to work. He spends his days nursing his sick goat and shoveling mud out of the plot for his new house.

“I feel like this is home now,” he said. “People want to name it Mujahidnagar, but we’re another part of Bhura village so that’s what I want to call it.”

Betwa Sharma is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi.

India: The displaced of Muzaffarnagar | Urvashi Sarkar

Daily News and Analysis, Jan 21, 2014


Poverty and sickness stalk riot victims as they grapple with survival issues.

Don’t mention the word cancer,” cautions Liaqat Sheikh as he leads the way to a small tent in Joula camp where his wife Bina is bedridden. It is pitch dark inside. There is electricity only at night. Bina lies tucked under blankets, and struggles to sit up, her face gaunt. Though her family has kept the tent clean, the surrounding squalor and dirt of the camp defeat the purpose.

“The doctors suspect cancer. This can only be confirmed after tests are done in Delhi,” says Liaqat, who belongs to Hasanpur village. Liaqat fled with his family, including six children, during the Muzaffarnagar riots of September 2013 and found refuge at a camp in Joula in Muzaffarnagar.

Bina requires proper medical care, but Liaqat is unable to proceed with treatment since he has lost his source of livelihood. The family sold their buffalo for her diagnosis which cost them Rs35,000-40,000. Doctors have asked them to shift Bina to a hospitals in Dehradun or Chandigarh, where the cost of treatment is beyond their reach. “My house was burnt down. I have incurred losses worth Rs4-5 lakh. The expenses for my wife’s treatment have so far come from my brothers, loans on interest and imdad (relief),” says Liaqat, his tone a mix of resignation and anger. Compensation is remote since the Uttar Pradesh government has not yet recognised Hasanpur village as riot-affected, though it is part of the Lisadhi gram panchayat, which was recognized as riot-hit.

Liaqat’s plight is not a stray affair. There is misery all around in the camp. According to Ghulam Mohammed Joula of the Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Manch, 90,000 to 1 lakh people were rendered without livelihoods following the riots. “They have lost their homes and jobs and are surviving on aid. People were initially engaged as labourers, drivers and carpenters, but now they have no source of income.” Poverty has induced existing illnesses to fester and encouraged fresh ones to take root.

Close to Bina’s tent, lives Afsana who suffers from tuberculosis and visits Mehrauli every fortnight to receive treatment. Neither she nor her husband have any source of income. There is also Mohammed Qasim, worried about his nine-year-old son Umar. While rolling up the boy’s sleeves, Qasim draws attention to a bone jutting out, which must be set. “His hand was plastered but it didn’t help.”

Thirty five-year-old Sanjeeda, mother of four, has been suffering from a staggering range of illnesses, including tuberculosis, jaundice and typhoid. She has lost all but her voice and even then struggles to speak. Her husband earns Rs300 a day, which is spent for her treatment.

Nasima, who lost her son in the wake of the riots has been experiencing fits, but her husband Raisuddin cannot afford her treatment. Mohammed Salim’s wife Husno suffers from nerve blockage after an operation. Akhleem’s daughter Najma has developed a septic condition after giving birth.

Government doctors occasionally visit Joula on request. According to Askari Naqvi, a lawyer with the Joint Citizen’s Initiative, though the state government has been involved in some relief work, when it comes to health care, its track record has been dismal. “There is little in terms of health infrastructure. The health sub-centre at Loi has a bunch of incompetent staff. The camps aren’t prepared to deal with pregnant and lactating women and newborns. It is mostly the NGOs who got doctors to the camp.” Askari has also written to UP Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani with the details of 140 ailing people, but, hasn’t received any response. Askari recalls instances when ambulance drivers had to be begged to carry the sick, and government doctors who visited camps in vehicles, chose to stay inside the vehicles and asked people to come to them instead.

Muzaffarnagar District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said the state government funded Bina’s — the woman suspected with cancer — initial tests. “We also paid for another woman’s operation. At Loi, we have opened a permanent health sub-centre where people from Joula visit.

The Samajwadi Party government is providing relief not only in camps, but also for those scattered in villages.” When asked about the dismantling of the camps, he claimed that no camp had been forcibly shut. “We merely want people to move out of the open to safer closed spaces.”

According to the UP government, many individuals lodged in camps were not riot-affected but came seeking free land and doles. But talk to the people of villages like Hasanpur, and they recall the horrors of September, which forced them to flee.

A pregnant Gulshana lost her twin babies in the riots. She is from Karonda Mahajan which lies between Lakh and Phugana villages — the last two were declared as riot-affected but Karonda Mahajan was not. Her father Mohammad Isaq says that though their property is intact, they are scared to return. “My daughter was hit and fell to the ground. We heard screams and gunshots.

How can we return?”

The state is yet to grant compensation to villagers from Karonda Mahajan, Hasanpur, Kuraba, Dulhaira, Kheri-Patti, Dhindhavli, Kinoni, Haroli, Bhajju, Bhaura-Kalan and several others who had suffered during the riots. Only nine villages from Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts have been identified for compensation. In cases where the victim received compensation of Rs5 lakh, a substantial chunk has gone into buying land for building homes. The precious little that remained is being spent on survival. Additionally, they are required to forsake the right to return to their villages.

A visit to Kandhla, Malakpur and Joula camps reveals that some relief had reached through civil society’s efforts. The victims, at least, had a single layer (though flimsy) of warm clothing. They are grateful for the clothes and food but mention the need for housing. At Malakpur camp, brick structures have emerged, though most people still continue to live in tents. One also sees goats and bullocks. This was not the case in September when, after the riots broke out, these camps witnessed poverty and starvation. Imran Mohammed of Malakpur camp has opened a small provisions store where he sells sweets. A few have started selling vegetables. At Kandhla camp, Nafedi Babu says that he has sent two sons to Haryana to work in the garments business. But men finding work are exceptions. The displaced of Muzaffarnagar are grappling with issues that determine their survival — health, livelihood and homes, even as the SP looks the other way.

The author is a freelance journalist and works in the development sector. Views expressed are personal

India: Status Report on Condition of Persons living in Riot Relief Camps in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli Districts of Uttar Pradesh by PUDR

Peoples Union for Democratic Rights

PRESS RELEASE

6 January 2014

Status Report on Condition of Persons living in Riot Relief Camps in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli Districts of Uttar Pradesh

Following the unprecedented outbreak of riots in the rural areas of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baghpat, Meerut and Saharanpur districts of Uttar Pradesh in the first week of September, tens of thousands of Muslim families have been living in relief camps for the last four months. However, over the past week, the Uttar Pradesh Government has been following a policy of forced closure and eviction of people from such camps. As a consequence, the situation created has resulted in increasing the vulnerabilities and insecurities of persons affected by the riots.

A five member fact finding team of Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) visited the relief camps last week, between 28th and 30th December 2013, to get a firsthand account of the condition and problems faced by people living in these camps. The team visited a total of 8 camps in the districts of Shamli and Muzaffarnagar and met people from over 60 villages. In Shamli District, the team visited the camps at Malakpur, Barnavi, Kandhla, and Madarsa camp in Shamli town. In Muzaffarnagar district, the team visited the camps at Loyi, Shahpur, Jogiya-kheda and Jaula. In addition, the team also met people from 5 other camps. In all PUDR interacted with people of 13 camps. The team also met the DM Shamli, ADM Muzaffarnagar, SHO of P.S. Phugana, Village Pradhans of Loyi and Jogiya-kheda, health workers, teachers, journalists, members of religious communities, relief camp committee members and relief workers associated with various non-governmental organizations.

The following is a summary of the main findings of the team.

1. Forcible eviction of the riot affected from the relief camps

The hearing of the matter by the Supreme Court and the increased media reporting of the plight of the victims in the camps has had a paradoxical impact. The administration is determined to close down the camps. Various methods are being deployed towards this end. These include the filing of cases against the victims residing in these camps for trespassing on government property; pressurising relief committee members; large-scale police and official presence to browbeat people into leaving the premises; and breaking up the large settlements of victims to facilitate in this pressurising.

In the case of Loyi camp, over a hundred families from Kharad village still awaiting rehabilitation payment were being moved to a government barrack temporary accomodation, on 29th-30th December, ostensibly to provide them with better care and facilities. Other families were being told to clear out of the camp even when they were insecure about returning to their village. This insecurity is worse when those responsible for conducting attacks are not charged for the crimes or even when accused continue to be free to intimidate the victims.

2. Apathy in Provision of Relief by Government Agencies

Our team found that none of the relief camps were initiated or managed by the government. Relief camps came up in Muslim majority villages to which the victims fled during the rioting.

In every camp visited, we were repeatedly told about the apathy on the part of the State administration to supply relief material and services. It was only a fortnight after the start of these camps that the administration started providing relief materials. After 1 October the administration even stopped providing food in most of these camps, which we confirmed at the Jaula and Jogiya-kheda camps. With winter approaching and a Supreme court order of 21 November explicitly calling upon the administration to resume supply of relief material, the Administration did not make any attempts to distribute woollen clothes and blankets for people residing in the camps. It was only in December, when the petitioners drew attention to 39 deaths in the relief camps, that the administration resumed supply of medicines and 200ml of milk per family in 5 camps.

The camps also house a large number of school-going children. While in some places, services of a primary school have been provided, students from higher classes have nowhere to go. Schools in the close vicinity have refused admission to the riot affected. Girl students face this in a more aggravated form. Those having to take the board exams this year have already missed some examinations. Such students face the imminent loss of a year that may effectively deny them futher education.

Medical facilities are primitive. A meagre stock of pills are being distributed at most camps. The DM Shamli expressed inability to provide any better services lamenting the sorry state of the district health-care system. Many pregnant women have given birth and many are in late stages of pregnancy. No services of a gynaecologist are available anywhere in the district and there has been no attempt to provide nutritious food for these mothers. A Committee set up under the directions of the Supreme Court to look into the deaths in relief camps reported 34 deaths of children.

3. The Current number of Relief Camps is under-reported by the State Government

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in December, the State government had stated that out of the 58 camps in operation in September, 53 had been discontinued and only 5 camps were in existence (4 in Shamli and 1 in Muzaffarnagar districts). Our team found this assertion to be wholly false.

We were told by informed residents that relief camps were in operation at 25 villages, some of them housing more than one camp. Our team was able to visit 13 of these locations and found camps in operation. The number of people receiving relief from these camps far exceeds the number of people present in the camps, since many victims have been moved to private houses in the villages in the light of the extreme weather conditions.

The assertion by the ADM Muzaffarnagar to our team on 30 December at the Loyi camp was most shocking. He claimed that there was no relief camp at Shahpur village. An hour later our team found three functioning relief camps at the village!

The exclusion of a large number of camps from the official list merely highlights the callous attitude of the administration by denying all relief to these victims and leaving such people wholly at the mercy of private charity. It is a blatant attempt to misinform the public at large.

4. Misleading Estimates of People Affected by the Riots

The lack of supervision of the relief camps by the district administration has meant that figures of the riot affected are arbitrary. In a report dated 4 October 2013, filed by the Harmony Committee constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government, the total number of internally displaced was estimated to be 33,696 persons. Of this the largest segment of displaced people approximately 74 percent were reported to be living in relief camps located in Muzaffanagar district, followed by 22 percent in Kairana, 3.3 percent in Shamli and 0.7 percent in Bagpat. By December, the number stated in the government affidavit to the Supreme Court is 5,024.

The falsity of the above claim is apparent from the records of residents available at the relief camps. The relief committees running the camps provide the only proper record of victims based on the distribution of material relief at each camp. According to additional affidavit filed on behalf of the petitioners in the case of Citizen for Justice & Peace and others v. State of Uttar Pradesh (petition no. 170 of 2013) the total number of persons living in camps as of the 6 December was 27, 882. Our estimate of the displaced persons from our visit to 13 camps more or less confirms this figure.

5. Flawed Categorization of ‘Riot Affected’ Villages and Persons

We were told by relief committees that families from 162 villages had abandoned their homes and sought refuge in the relief camps. Our team was able to speak to riot victims displaced from over 60 villages. Officially however only 9 villages have been declared as being riot affected, and therefore eligible for Government rehabilitation package. Based on a criteria of worst affected in terms of murders, the 9 villages identified are: Lak, Lisaad, Bahawdi, Kutba, Kutbi, Phugana, Mohammadpur Raisingh, Kakra and Mundbhar. As per the Government package, approximately 1800 families have been identified as riot affected and eligible for a one time rehabilitation package of Rs. 5,00,000 from these villages.

But there exist a large number of persons, beyond the nine government recognised villages, who are in no situation to return to their homes. They have faced serious intimidation and humiliation from their Hindu neighbours. They have suffered their houses being broken into and women humiliated by armed mobs. They have found their homes ransacked when they visited the village with police escort. And in some cases their family members who were unable to flee are still missing, three months after the incident. These villages and their Muslim residents are not being categorized as the riot affected and thus rendered ineligible for rehabilitation. Many of these persons that our team interviewed, recounted having fled empty-handed from their homes on the night of 7 and 8 September.

6. Problematic Rehabilitation Package and its Terms

The State Government’s one-time rehabilitation package of Rs. 5 lakhs for each riot affected family is extremely problematic. This package is based neither on the size of the house in the village, nor is it based on the number of families residing in the house. Hence every resident riot affected family of the 9 villages has not been provided the amount of Rs. 5 lakhs. Multiple families residing in the same house face this problem most acutely where the head of one family has been paid while others have been denied.

The terms of this rehabilitation require beneficiaries to return the Rs. 5 lakh if they were ever to move back into their original homes. Given the present situation of the victims living in tents under the open sky, with little hope of returning to their homes, acceptance of this rehabilitation is a fait accompli. Once the money is brought into use, the labouring households that comprise an overwhelming majority of the victims shall never be in a position to return it. In this manner the government policy effectively ensures that the victims are forbidden to return. The rehabilitation package is therefore in essence a compensation package that fails in every respect to compensate for the losses suffered by the victims.

On the reverse side, the government has made no commitments to protect the houses and community properties of the victims that comprise masjids, idgahs, madrassas and graveyards. Therefore these properties would over time willy nilly fall into the hands of those who perpetrated the violence against the Muslim victims, thereby creating an economic incentive for future communal violence.

What is lost sight of in this process is the culpability of the state. The overwhelming reason for the inability of the victims to return to their lives is the government’s failure to protect them from communal violence; to apprehend and punish the perpetrators; and refusal to provide effective security to them. The rehabilitation package therefore becomes a ploy to hide this abysmal failure.

7. Slow progress of Police investigation of complaints related to Murder, Rape, Arson and Looting

It has come to the knowledge of the fact finding team that the police is deliberately trying to distort evidence and delay investigations in a number of cases. As a result, the maximum of 90 days period allowed for investigation under section 167(2) of the Cr.P.C. is passing by and persons accused of heinous crimes get a right to be freed on bail. As per the additional affidavit filed on behalf of the petitioners in the case of Citizen for Justice & Peace and others v. State of Uttar Pradesh (petition no. 170 of 2013), atleast 5 persons arrested for heinous crimes are already out on bail and those named as accused in FIRs cannot be arrested without a court warrant due to the delay. The following cases indicate towards a dubious role of the police in conducting the investigation.

Killing of Meherudeen (father of Rafeeq) from Dunger village, Phugana Thana, Muzaffarnagar district is a case in point. Meherudeen's body was found hung by the neck, naked in the house of co-villager Pawan Jat on 8 September 2013. Under pressure from village head Ramchandra and other powerful Jats of the village, the body was buried in the graveyard near the village. Today, the family members say that Meherudeen died because of illness. The family has now left the camp and is residing in Kandhla. But three people from the same village have been witness to the entire episode and they find mention in the FIR. They are also being threatened to death in case they testify. Their testimonies have been video-recorded and submitted along with the FIR. An application has also been written to the police authorities requesting post-mortem of the body, but in vain. According to law, the police is required to record a Panchnama upon reaching the incident site, and to record the cause of death as stated by the family. However, in this case, the Panchnama was not created. Even after the FIR was filed, the body has not been exhumed and sent for post-mortem.

Another case in point is that of Aamir Khan s/o Raisuddin from Anchhad village, Thana Binauli, District Baghpat. On 8 September 2013, Aamir and his family including his father, mother, wife and younger brother left the village out of fear and moved to their relative's house in Shieikhpura. On the morning of 12 September 2013, after consulting with family members, Aamir cycled back to his village to see if things had normalised. When Aamir did not return till late evening, his father, mother and wife decided to go and check. They reached their house around 6pm, and found Aamir's body hung by his neck from the ceiling. On hearing their screams many villagers gathered and the village head was also called. Two villagers, Sanjeev and his father Jagbeera, started abusing the family and demanded the return of a loan of Rs. 80,000 that Aamir had allegedly taken. The village head Samarpal got Aamir's body buried and announced that in case anyone made enquires it should be stated that Aamir died of illness. The police was called by the Jat residents and told the same, and ignored repeated requests by the family for post-mortem. Their thumb impressions were forcibly taken from them and the police left. The three people were then held captive in their own house by the village head Samarpal, Sanjeev and Jagbeera to force them to return the loan mentioned above. It was only several days later, on 30 September, that they were released after depositing the money with the help of their relatives. The family then moved to Jaula village camp, Thana Budhana, Muzaffarnagar district and reported the incident on 1 October 2013. The family has again requested the police for a post-mortem but it has not yet been done.

PUDR demands:

1. That the forcible eviction of the displaced people from relief camps be stopped forthwith and victims be provided relief till a permanent secure arrangement is worked out.

2. That a Commission be set up to record all the people displaced from their villages, the reason thereof and their properties in the village so as to ensure proper and sufficient provision of relief and rehabilitation measures.

3. That the rehabilitation package should not be discriminatory and every married couple and every unmarried adult be treated as a separate family for the purpose.

4. That the perverse conditions attached with the rehabilitation package be removed. The properties left behind by the victims in the villages including community properties such as graveyards, masjids, etc. be recorded and protected against encroachment by other village residents.

5. That measures be taken to ensure protection to eye-witnesses and complainants against threats and intimidation.

6. That unbiased investigation and prosecution be ensured by handing the same to a central agency.

D Manjit and Asish Gupta,

Secretaries, PUDR

Ph-9868471143, 9873315447

India: Next Target: Muzaffarnagar Relief Camps (अगला निशाना: मुज़फ्फरनगर राहत शिविर ) | A reportage by NewsClic

Newsclick Production, December 29, 2013

On the 27th of December, 2013 the riot victims in Loi relief camp in Muzaffarnagar district once again witnessed the heavy- handedness and insensitivity of the U.P government yet again. In the peak of the winter cold, the government is trying to evacuate the refugees in the camp. Around 10 tents in the camp were destroyed by a bulldozer early morning on 27th December. Ironically, most of the people being targeted are those who still haven't received any compensation from the state for the losses they suffered during the riots. Along with this the feature also looks at the fear among the riot victims in other relief camps.

२७ दिसंबर, २०१३ को मुज़फ्फरनगर के लोई राहत शिविर में दंगा पीड़ितों को एक बार फिर उ.प्र. सरकार की संवेदनहीनता और क्रूरता का सामना करना पड़ा। सर्दियों की चरम पर सरकार शरणार्थियों को शिविरों से हटाने पर अमादा है। २७ दिसंबर की सुबह को सरकार द्वारा १० झुग्गियों को बलपूर्वक तोड़ दिया गया। दुर्भागयवश, अधिकतर लोगों को मुआवज़ा दिए बिना ही वहाँ से खदेड़ा जा रहा है। इस के साथ इसमें अन्य राहत शिवरों में पीड़ितों के भय को भी दिखाया जा रहा है।

India: Photos of Protest in Defence of Muzaffarnagar Riot Affected at UP Bhavan on 2 Jan 2014

Several organisations came together to protest, outside the U.P. Bhavan in Delhi on 2 January 2014
, the closure of the camps in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli which were the only protection that thousands had from the bitter cold. The photos posted below were taken by Mukul Dube.

Muzaffarnagar coverstory by Outlook - 30 Dec 2013

Outlook Magazine, 30 December 2013

EXCLUSIVE | cover story: muzaffarnagar
Thread Bared
They had invested hope in the village pradhan. He had said he’d protect them. Instead, what happened at his house during the morning of the riots will make you shudder. Outlook meets Muslim women at the camps, the faceless Nirbhayas of Muzaffarnagar....
by Neha Dixit
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288907

EXCLUSIVE | cover story: muzaffarnagar
The New Lord Of The Chaudharis
The polarisation is complete. Modi and BJP’s chances have never looked better.
by Narendra Bisht
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288908

EXCLUSIVE | cover story: muzaffarnagar
Better Safe Than Sorry In Kamalpura
No attacks were reported but Dalit Hindus of riot-affected areas take no chances
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288909

India: With the closing of relief camps in Muzaffarnagar, even the meagre food support has disappeared

The Hindu, December 14, 2013


BAREFOOT

Winter in exile

by HARSH MANDER

With the closing of relief camps in Muzaffarnagar, even the meagre food support has disappeared.

As the winter cold descends this year on Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts in Western U.P., some 20,000 people will camp in makeshift unofficial camps amidst squalor and official neglect, or survive in small rented tenements or with relatives — exiles from the villages of their birth. Three months after one of the grimmest communal outbreaks in more than a decade, the dominant mood among the survivors is still of fear and despair, amid a persisting climate of orchestrated hatred.

A hate campaign — falsely claiming that Muslim boys were enticing Jat Hindu girls in a “love jihad” — led to violent murderous attacks in September on Muslim settlements mainly of poor agricultural workers in the two districts. Some 50,000 people fled in fear, and took refuge in Muslim majority villages mostly in the grounds of madrassas and mosques; belatedly, the State commenced food supplies to these camps. A week later, I joined a fact-finding committee to enquire into the condition of the survivors. Almost the same team — Seema Mustafa, Sukumar Muralidharan, Kamal and Anuradha Chenoy, and Rammohan — decided to revisit the area nearly three months after the mass violence to evaluate the aftermath of the carnage.

We now found that all relief camps had been officially terminated, even though several displaced persons were still unwilling to return home because they continued to feel unsafe. Whereas displaced persons in camps should be officially assisted and supported to return to their original homes, to force them to do so by premature closure of camps can result only in thousands being left without even the meagre food and health support which the government had extended in the camps.

Rural riots are very different from urban ones, because people usually know their attackers intimately, unlike the relative anonymity of cities. The sense of betrayal and loss, and the associated anger, pain and bitterness therefore generally runs much deeper in rural riots. As one survivor who continues to live in a makeshift unofficial camp remarked to us, “When faith is broken, it is very hard for it to be rebuilt.”

The sense of fear and alienation of the survivors is enhanced by distressing reports of organised social and economic boycott of Muslims after the mass violence. Many men testify that if they go back to their villages, they are told they should shave their beards off if they wished to live in their village. People also report similar hate exchanges in buses and public spaces. Three young men were killed when they went to work in their fields. Sporadic incidents of sexual assault are also reported. Survivors recount intimidation and boycott in employment as farm labour, or economic activities like pheris¸ or selling cloth and other goods from house to house.

The confidence of survivors to return to homes is further shaken because of the very low number of arrests. For around 540 FIRs registered in connection with the violence, involving more than 6,000 accused persons, as few as 208 arrests have been made so far. Even the Sadhvi who instigated violence with her hate speeches in the September 7 mahapanchayat was arrested only on the day of our visit, on December 2. This reflects regrettably low political and administrative will to ensure legal action against those who indulged in mass hate violence in September 2013.

One reason given for low number of arrests is that large numbers of women block the entrance to the village whenever police vehicles drive there for arrests, or that tractors are parked to thwart police passage. Survivors on the other hand believe that police themselves informally tip off the villagers before arriving to make arrests, otherwise how would so many assemble at short notice to blockade village roads? This allegation is difficult to independently verify, but no self-respecting police administration can accept this kind of public blockade to persist when it comes in the way of fulfilling their official duties. The SSP of Muzaffarnagar also said that it was necessary to verify independently if the complaints were authentic and plausible or malicious and false, before undertaking the arrests. It is as though the police have shifted the burden to prove the crime to the shoulders of the battered and displaced survivors. It has been our experience of many riots that it is unusual for survivors as a rule to lodge false and malicious complaints after communal carnages, therefore it is unreasonable for police to presume that many complaints may have been filed to settle personal enmity.

There are also distressing signs of judicial bias, because most arrested persons have been granted bail almost the next day or soon after their arrests. This ignores the gravity of hate crimes, and the susceptibility of the survivors to intimidation because of their vulnerable situation after mass targeted violence has spurred large-scale fear, destruction of livelihoods and habitats and migration.

It appears that these refugees from hate have little to look forward to, except a long and lonely winter of continued exile.

Panel to look into reports of children’s deaths at Muzaffarnagar relief camps

The camps were set up in the aftermath of September’s communal violence

Spurred into action by the Supreme Court rap, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday constituted a high-powered committee to look into the veracity of the reported deaths of children due to cold in the relief camps in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts and suggest remedial measures. The committee will be headed by the Commissioner of Meerut Division, Manjit Singh. The District Magistrates and Chief Medical Officers of the two districts will be its members. The relief camps were set up in the aftermath of September’s communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts, which claimed the lives of about 50 people and rendered several thousand homeless.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/panel-to-look-into-reports-of-childrens-deaths-at-muzaffarnagar-relief-camps/article5456824.ece?homepage=true

India: 40 children dead in UP riot relief camps

At least 40 children dead as UP riot relief camps brace for a long winter
Pritha Chatterjee : Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Thu Dec 05 2013
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/at-least-40-children-dead-as-up-riot-relief-camps-brace-for-a-long-winter/1203511/

India - Muzaffarnagar: Why aren't the Muslims going home?

http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/why-aren-t-the-muslims-going-home-113110900732_1.html

Business Standard

Joel Rai
November 9, 2013

Why aren't the Muslims going home?

The families that were affected by the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar district have no hope of their homes being restored to them. Is the government really unable to reassure them of a safe return?


Jameel Teli is 25 years old, married and has three sons, Sahil (8), Arshad (5) and Anas (3). He lived in Kakda village in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh in a joint family, including his parents and his elder brother's family of five. The men all worked as hired workers on the sugarcane fields. They had a fairly spacious 100-square yard, four-room house in the village.

Today, they live in two tents at Shahpur around 20 km from Muzaffarnagar city, having left all their belongings back at home before fleeing Kakda in panic on September 8. Teli looks haggard, the worry clearly etched into his weather-beaten face.

"I can't get back my house even if I want to go back home," he says in a mix of colloquial Hindi and Urdu. "The Jats have taken over our house." With around 2,000 other Muslims, Teli has been living in Shahpur's Camp No 2 for two months now. There are two others camps there, and a total of 31 across the district, where around 40,000 Muslims have found shelter after having left their homes in the wake of communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and some adjoining districts on September 7-8.

Fear is palpable in the air at the camp, and none of the Muslims has dared to retrace his step back to his village. So how does Teli know that his house has been seized by his neighbours? "Some of us tried to go back to our village," he begins. "Despite the presence of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel posted there, we saw armed Jats on the roads. They threatened us, and I could espy some people in my house. We had to beat a hasty retreat," he says.

Short, greying and equally despondent, Mohammad Ilyas, 53, also worked in the sugarcane fields. Muzaffarnagar is the hub of the sugar industry in Uttar Pradesh. Most sugar mills are owned by Jat farmers, while the majority of the labour force comprises Muslims. The population of the district is divided almost equally between Muslims (47 per cent) and non-Muslims. Ilyas says that they have left behind 350 houses in Kakda village. "All pucca houses, made of brick," he says. "Some of them have been burnt down, most have been looted," he says. "Returning to our village is not an option, we will be risking our lives," he says.

Not one single person in the various relief camps says that he wants to go back to his home and hearth. But you have everything in your village, your house, your belongings, how can you not go back, you ask them. "How can you even think of asking such a question?" says Mohammad Imamuddin, who has accepted that he will never return to his village of Chindori. "Going back is like committing suicide." Imamuddin, tall, bearded and in his fifties, and head of a 10-member family, says that starting life all over again wouldn't be too much of a problem. "We are poor, we did not own land, only our houses, and we were only majdoors. Our parents taught us how to cut cane, we can do that in a new place as well."

The fatalistic acceptance of the Muslims of their uprooting is disturbing. The party in power counts the Muslims and backward classes as its special constituency and yet here it is unable to assure the people of safety in their own homes. Today, people who have lived for generations together are enemies. Mohammad Taiyyab, 27, who worked as a medical representative for pharma firm Windlas Biotech, says not one person from his Bharal village in Baghpat, friends he grew up with, neighbours, has called him after he escaped from the village. Despite many of them having mobile phones, "only the stockist called, that too about the drugs I deal with." The divide seems complete.

Even Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav appears to have accepted that the communal violence has wrought permanent ethnic dislocation. He recently told a news channel, "We tried... but they [the Muslims] are not ready to go back as they saw people who they loved burn their homes and kill their family members. That's why we have given them a rehab package to restart their lives." But talk to those living in the camps, who depend on generous donors even for their daily food, and you realise there are no instant solutions in hand.

With no government assurance on their safety, the community has taken into its own hand the rehabilitation of the villagers. At Khampur village, 16 km from Muzaffarnagar city, a fortified colony is coming up. Called the Jamiat Colony, it consists of 126 two-room brick houses with small courtyards. The 29 bighas of land on which they are built were donated by the villagers of Khampur following the September 7-8 upheaval. Already 75 families have moved in. The houses are unplastered and have rudimentary infrastructure, but they are happy to have a new permanence in their lives.

Thirty-four villages have been affected by the conflagration. The government has said villagers from only nine will be compensated. The rest will have to fend for themselves. "At least the government should give us compensation. Then we can think of a new life," says Mohammad Naushad.

* * * * *
The reason why a friendly government cannot ensure the Muslims are safely returned to their villages has perhaps to do with politics rather than social dynamics. Right from the time the trouble started on August 27 when a scuffle between three youths over eve-teasing at Kawal village led to the killing of the trio, one a Muslim and two Jats, all subsequent events have been attended by political opportunism. When the Jats called a mahapanchyat at Nagla Mandaur, close to Kawal village, on September 7, the most forceful words were reserved for the Muslims as well as the Samajwadi Party government. Then a video was circulated purportedly showing the lynching of the Jat boys at Kawal, which the police determined was fake and originated in Pakistan. Among those arrested for circulating the video was a BJP MLA, who posted it on his Facebook account. In the meanwhile, the Bharatiya Kisan Union led by Rakesh Tikait and Ajit Singh's western Uttar Pradesh-based Bharatiya Lok Dal have upped the ante by pressuring the government into taking action against the Muslims. Privately, political watchers say that ever since the Samajwadi Party came to power in the state, there has been a growing anxiety among other communities who fear that they will be left out of the development pie.

Tauqeer Raza Khan, an influential Muslim leader of western Uttar Pradesh who has been granted minister of state status by the state government, has been touring the districts after September preaching communal harmony. "The violence is related to the general elections of 2014," he says. He also cautions that political forces are causing a polarisation of votes, and therefore, Uttar Pradesh is likely to see more such clashes. He, however, doesn't agree that the Samajwadi Party itself may gain out of the situation. "This is a conspiracy for political advantage. Some parties want to polarise society and get the Hindu jamaat on their side," he explains.

Former legislator of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Saeed-uz-Zaman, a rich sugarcane farmer in Khampur, is more balanced in his views. "Yes," he says, "there is politics involved. And you can understand what a disaster this is when you realise that these Muslim families did not even leave their villages in 1947 after the Partition." He then nuances the situation. "This is not a Hindu-Muslim confrontation. It is only a Muslim-Jat quarrel. You see, political elements incited the Jats and said their ijjat was at risk. Even now, the Jats are regretting the events of the past and their leaders are urging the people not to continue the fight."

But will things return to status quo soon? "After the 2104 elections, life will return to normality," declares Khan. A senior police officer reiterates this. "The day the election results are announced, we will be able to bring everything under control."

Utterances like these mean that the events of September were less about social schisms, more about vote-bank politics. The current situation where it is impossible for the Muslims to return home can actually provide political dividends to almost every political party. It is in the interest of both the Congress, desperately trying to make a comeback in Uttar Pradesh, as well as the Samajwadi Party to keep the pot boiling. The image of the suffering Muslims handily sends a message to their vote bank that their futures are not assured under other parties. For the others, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the upheaval hardens sectarian attitudes, to their benefit. Perhaps conditions could have been created for the return of the affected Muslims to their homes, but when it serves the politicians not to send the Muslims home, what do the woes of 40,000 people matter?

India: Nowhere People After Muzaffarnagar Riots

web feature at outlookindia.com

All photos: Sanjay Rawat/ Outlook

Muzaffarnagar: Riots

Nowhere People

They have been driven away from their homes. And now the Akhilesh government wants them out of relief camps as well, but only once they sign away their right to return home for Rs5 Lakhs

Pragya Singh

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav boldly declared in September that his state will “never become another Gujarat”, but the affidavits that victims of Jat-Muslim riots in Muzaffarnagar: are being made to sign tell another story altogether.
Under the guise of providing a “financial assistance” of Rs5 lakh to these victims, the state seems to be running a scheme to empty refugee camps as soon as possible, whatever the human cost.
“I and my family members left our village from fear due to the violent events that took place there, leaving our house and village. Under no circumstances will we ever return to our village and home again,” reads one of the three prominent conditions those availing the UP government’s financial aid have to sign off on.
The Samajwadi Party government’s apprehensions seem to be about the continued presence Muslims in camps, not the terrible conditions prevailing in them, or even the reasons for this present crisis. It also seems to be ignorant of the identity crisis that has taken root among the Jats, (around 14 per cent of western UP’s population), and a key reason why the area has become engulfed in violence.
That the government is unmindful of the crisis is clear from another condition it has placed in these affidavits: Those who avail of the state’s aid will not be allowed to live in any refugee camp thereafter. Nor will they be able to live “illegally” on houses constructed in the village lands, or government-owned lands. This begs the question—where in this area will a Muslim find land and housing worth Rs5 lakh?

The money, the state has made clear in the affidavits, is meant to be used to construct a house. But here too, a condition has been imposed: “After my family or any member of my family avails this one-time financial assistance, we will not try to recoup any loss of immovable property in our village or in any other place.”
In effect, these conditions ensure that those who were forced out of their homes will forego all their properties for Rs5 lakh, regardless of what they owned, or lost in the riots. This sum is to be paid in only one instalment, into their bank accounts, after which the state intends to wash its hands off the matter. For many people, this will be a far lower compensation than the rich agricultural land of this part of the state is worth.
It is confirmed that such affidavits have been signed by many residents who have taken shelter in the camps at Shahpur Bassi. The entire camp consists of Muslims who fled for fear of their lives after the violence that broke out on September 8.

Muslims in a relief camp in Shahpur, Muzzafarnagar

Villagers in Shahpur and around say they are not sure what the government intends to do with the properties that Muslims have left behind in their villages. Many report that their properties have been burnt down, broken into, and appropriated by other villagers. Haroon and his son Ilyas picked up their meagre belongings, next to tears, at Kakada on Tuesday: “Look at this, they have taken away everything of value that I owned,” he sobbed. Going by the affidavits they are now expected to sign, they will lose any right to claim damages against those who trespass into their homes or occupy their land.
These affidavits do not specify the religion of the beneficiaries, however, the composition of  camps makes it clear that only Muslims have sought shelter in them. No camps are known to have come up housing Jat victims or any other community.

Muslims in a relief camp in Shahpur, Muzzafarnagar.

Around 50,000 people fled from villages around Muzaffarnagar in the immediate aftermath of riots that broke out two months ago. The numbers of refugees has now come down, as per unofficial estimates, to around 20,000. Those who remain consist mainly of people who faced the worst of the violence. Many of them are steadfast against returning to villages they fled from.
“The homeless victims have left everything behind in their villages. They are eking out a miserable existence in these camps, and say they are doing so with no assistance from the state after the first couple of weeks,” says Mohd Shaukat, a member of the town committee at Shahpur, who is also managing affairs at the Bassi camp, housing about a 1,000 people in two locations.
Mohd. Salim, who was working as a mistry at Kawal village, says he owned several buffaloes and a plot of land too, but the livestock has been taken by the neighbours by now. “People have taken over everything I left behind at my village,” he says. He is too terrified to return for now. Like several other residents, he hopes to return for a short trip in a while, just to pick up his movable belongings. As for the  land: He just hasn’t thought that far. “All my days at the camp go in looking for work,” he says.
While the state government is imposing tough conditions on these hapless victims, it appears to be ineffectual against sporadic bouts of violence, and seems to have run out of ideas to refresh the dwindling farm economy of the region.
On Wednesday fresh violence broke out in Shahpur after Irfan, from the Bassi camp, identified a man, Yogendra, he had seen participating in the violence at Kutba and Kutbi villages. Yogendra was beaten up by a crowd on the spot. A while later, Irfan, too, was shot dead at nearby Rasulpur village. In the melee, a shop belonging to a local, Dr Harveer Arya, was burnt down. It is not clear by whom.
In a strange twist to this latest violent episode, farm leader Naresh Tikait, a leading figure among the Jats, son of late Mahendra Singh Tikait, and now chairman of  Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), announced on November 8 that Muslims involved in the latest round of violence must be arrested within 24 hours—he said the government is being “ek-tarfa”—one-sided. His brother Rakesh Tikait told Outlook earlier that the ongoing violence is not just between Jats and Muslims. Though no community other than Muslims and Jats has taken any part in the violence since September, he says, “It is a Hindu-Muslim fight.”
While leaders of various hues try to add fresh communal touches to the clashes, the panchayats are being accused of having failed to restore confidence among Muslims refugees to return to their villages.
“The panchayat leadership at present has failed. It will take years before a new leadership that is convincing and vigilant of farmer’s needs will arrive on the scene here,” says Harinder Singh Malik, a former Congress Member of Parliament and prominent figure in the local Jat politics. He, too, attended the earliest ‘mahapanchayat’ of Jats, in the events following which all hell broke loose. He denied having addressed that meeting. Both Malik and Rakesh Tikait insisted that the panchayat was a “shok sabha”, held to mourn the deaths of two Jats at Kawal village.
The absence of a viable Jat leadership makes the role of Akhilesh Yadav’s government even more critical at this juncture. More than 80 per cent of Jats are farmers, who find that the size of their holdings is shrinking. Their main crop is sugarcane but their payments are delayed by mills, sometimes by over two years.
Diesel and fertilizer subsidies are being withdrawn, putting immense pressure on farmers’ costs. Besides, most Jats only study up to school and the community has not taken to technical education. Most of the youth joins the Army or police force. In fact, despite the ongoing fighting, the highways are lined with row after row of boys jogging: They are preparing for the physical fitness tests compulsory before joining the forces.
Due to the Arya Samaj influence, Jats have not diversified from farming into poultry-keeping or piggeries: They are mostly vegetarian, and against killing. Meanwhile the veterinary hospitals in the area are largely without doctors, making it next to impossible to maintain livestock.
Member of Parliament from Bijnor and Muzaffarnagar resident Sanjay Singh Chauhan told Outlook that both Muslims and the Jats are “disappointed” with the ongoing events, and want to live side-by-side again, but the Panchayats may be in no position to find the appropriate solution this time. “There is a reason for this. The Panchayats are only attended by leaders who agree that the village should be restored to its original composition. Those who disagree—the lumpen elements who caused the rift, who spark off the violence, are not even present at the panchayat meets,” he says. He says the law and order problem needs to be solved by the state machinery—the Jat-dominated police and constabulary.
Indeed, this is one reason why the state has failed to prevent khap meeting after meeting. At Mohammadpur Raisingh, the Gathwala khap has announced a Khap gathering on the 10^th of November. This has been put off until the next day—November 11, once the SP government agreed to fulfil its demands to arrest Muslims accused of rioting. One wonders why the same SP government is taking away the right of evicted Muslims to recoup their only real asset: their land and buildings.

India: Sadbhav Mission's Flyers and Memo in Aftermath of Communal violence hit Muzaffarnagar, UP

Dard Mandi Paida Karo Aur Zulm Se Lado (Version 2)
by Sadbhav Mission Delhi
Flyer in Hindi - PDF - 215.6 kb

Build Compassion, Fight Oppression
Flier by Sadbhav Mission Delhi - October 2013
PDF - 43.6 kb

Memorandum by Sadbhav Mission to SDM re Relief Camps in Kairana (Shamli)
PDF - 49.2 kb

Shocked at the attitude of the UP govt towards the victims of Muzaffarnagar communal Carnage: stament by Shabnam Hashmi

Media Statement

Shocked at the attitude of the UP govt towards the victims of Muzaffarnagar communal Carnage.

No ration has been sent to Jola (4500), Jogia Kheda ( 700 people), Loi ( approx 4000) , Malakpur (1200 familes)- - Kandala (2000)- for over 15 days. Same stories are coming in from all sides. Extreme pressure is being built on camp organisers and victims to close down camps. There are efforts to either threaten those who have filed cases or lure them with money. False cases are being slapped on the community leaders who are coming forward to help the victims. In the repetition of the Gujarat Modi model there are efforts to buy off some of the vulnerable victims and make them sign affidavites that the community leaders asked them to file cases. Also heard that one lakh is the going rate for removal of each name from the FIR.

Shabnam Hashmi,

Muzaffarnagar
[24 October 2013]

Himanshu Kumar's blog post from refugee camps - the aftermath of Muzaffarnagar communal violence

शहनाज़

मुज़फ्फर नगर में दंगा पीड़ित मुसलमानों के कैम्प में घूम रहा हूं .

कहा जा रहा है कि ये हिंदु मुस्लिम दंगे हैं , लेकिन सारे कैम्प सिर्फ मुसलमानों के ही क्यों हैं ?

एक भी हिंदु दंगा पीड़ित शिविर नहीं है .

ये बदमाशी ठीक नहीं है .

http://dantewadavani.blogspot.in/2013/10/blog-post_10.html

Life in A Refugee Camp Near Muzaffarnagar | India Ink - NY Times Blog

by PAMPOSH RAINA [7 Oct 2013]

A month after the riots broke out, about 24,000 people continue to live in refugee camps in the districts of Shamli and Muzaffarnagar, according to the state administration officials.

READ MORE HERE

India: Report by fact-finding team of independent social activists, which visited relief camps of the survivors of the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts

The Hindu,
NEW DELHI, September 23, 2013
“Cry for justice in Muzaffarnagar relief camps ”

Mohammad Ali

A fact-finding team of independent social activists, which visited relief camps of the survivors of the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts, has indicted the Uttar Pradesh Government for “abdicating its responsibility for relief and rehabilitation in the aftermath of the communal riots, the way it abandoned its duty to provide security and protection to people during the communal carnage.”

The riot, which went on for a week, took around 50 lives and resulted in the displacement of more than 50,000 people, mostly those belonging to the minority community.

While the team has demanded immediate arrest of all those named in the FIRs, it has also appealed to the Union Government to table and pass the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill which has been languishing in Parliament.

The report was released by writer, activist and National Advisory Council member Farah Naqvi; Pushpa and Maheshwari from Vanangana (Chitrakoot); Askari Naqvi, Puneet, Meena and Azra from Rehnuma Adhikar Manch/ Sanatkada Samajik Pehel (Lucknow); Rehana Adeeb, Usman and Shadab from Astitva (Muzaffarnagar); Archana Dwivedi from Nirantar (Delhi); and Disha Mullick, from The Women, Media and News Trust (Delhi).

Describing some of the most heartrending stories by the survivors who left their homes and villages after being attacked, the report highlighted the denial of the State administration in recognising the urgency to act. The standard response of the local officials was that “things are getting back to normalcy”.

“There are simply thousands of terrified, trembling, desperate people sitting in relief camps, with the bare minimum facilities, with the overwhelming cry for justice, relief and rehabilitation, while the government remains mute spectator to the unfolding tragedy,” said the report, while arguing that ‘official’ numbers of those dead and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are a “gross underestimation.”

The report pointed out that a vast majority of displaced persons, whose fate remains uncertain, are poor Pasmanda (backward) Muslims like those belonging to D hobi, Ansari Teli, Lohar, Julahe, Faqir, Jogi and Lilgar castes.

The fact-finding team has demanded immediate relief and setting up of a rehabilitation commission, headed by a sitting High Court Judge, to oversee a comprehensive reparation plan for all the affected districts, including Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baghpat, Saharanpur and Meerut.

The State administration has not even considered preparing village-wise lists of missing persons and has neither initiated processes for lodging of FIRs and complaints, assessing compensation for death, injury, destruction of property and planning rehabilitation, alleged the fact-finding team.

The team visited six relief camps in the two districts. In spite of reports of cases of hurried burial without any post-mortem, the State administration has no clue on how to deal with the cases, the team charged.

The report also highlights the need for providing help to survivors in pursuing legal justice, police desks in camps, lawyers on the ground in camps, medical check-ups and medico-legal intervention for sexual assault.

Another important need of the hour, said the report, was State security for people to visit their villages to assess damage, and a long-term plan of providing safety and security for survivors who want to go back to their villages.