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ACHR condemns
attacks on the innocents in Assam and Bihar
Asian
Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) today condemned the assaults on the
innocent North East passengers in Bihar and subsequent killings
of innocent Bihari civilians by the armed opposition groups in Assam;
and also the attacks on Bihari candidates in Mumbai by the Shiv
Sena. About 50 persons have been killed in Assam in the last nine
days.
ACHR
charged that the Bihar government allowed the situation to deteriorate
because of its failure to take appropriate and prompt actions against
systematic and organised assault on the North East passengers from
10 to 12 November 2003. These North East passengers were attacked
simply because of their physical features and had nothing to do
with the driving out of the Bihari candidates from the examination
halls in Assam. On 13 November 2003, a Naga girl was gang raped
and paraded naked in a running train; and another Mizo girl was
molested in front of her brothers. Only after a backlash against
the innocent Bihari civilians started that Bihar government took
belated actions of providing security to the train passengers.
At
the same time, the retribution against the Bihari civilians in Assam
simply on the basis of their ethnic origin and who are as innocent
as the train passengers from the North East is a contemptible act.
"The
deliberate and indiscriminate killing of Bihari civilians by armed
opposition groups in Assam violates the basic principles of international
humanitarian law, in particular, the provisions of Article 3 common
to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and their Additional
Protocol II relating to the protection of civilians and non-combatants."
- stated Suhas Chakma, Director of ACHR.
The
ACHR appealed for peace and communal harmony; and urged the concerned
state governments to take appropriate actions, including against
the Bihar Police personnel and Railway Police personnel who refused
to take action against the hooligans who attacked the North East
passengers and register the FIR of the rape of the Naga girl. "It
is only through the enforcement of the rule of law by identifying
and punishing those guilty of the crimes whether in Bihar or Assam
that the sense of security can be provided."[END]
For
more information please call Director of Asian Centre for Human
Rights in New Delhi, India at +91-11-25503624 or 25620583
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