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Written questions European Parliament

Posed by: Max van den Berg1
Concerning: Religious minorities in Gujarat, India2
Date: March 16, 2004


After the answers given by the Commission on May 15th, 2003 on questions raised by me and some colleagues on April 9th, 2003, the situation in Gujarat with regard to the trial of the perpetrators of the massacre in February 2002 and the rehabilitation of victims and/or their next of kin has hardly improved.

In November 2003 Amnesty International reported about the illegal detention of Muslims in Gujarat. Before that Human Rights Watch published a report about the threatening of human rights activits in Gujarat.

AWAAZ South Asia Watch recently concluded in their report 'In Bad Faith? British Charity & Hindu Extremism' that front organisations of the Hindu extremist RSS have, under false pretences, raised millions of pounds that are channelled to organisations involved in large scale violence and fanning of religious hatred against minorities.

Lastly, there are several reports about discrimination of Muslims on the labour market.
  1. Has the Commission taken notice of the above mentioned reports of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and AWAAZ?
  2. Has the Commission taken any action on this?
  3. If so, what is the result? If not, why not?
  4. Has the present situation in Gujarat consequences for the actual implementation of the non-discrimination principle as far as employment policies of European companies is concerned?


Related information (not part of questions themselves):

Amnesty International: Abuse of the law in Gujarat: Muslims detained illegally in Ahmedabad (http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA200292003)

Amnesty International - India, Gujarat - Denial of Justice for Victims (26-2-2004) (http://http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA200032004?open&of=ENG-IND)

Human Rights Watch: India: Protect Gujarat Activists Now (5 September 2003) (http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/india090503.htm)

'In Bad Faith - British Charity & Hindu Extremism' (http://www.awaazsaw.org/ibf/index.htm)


Notes:
1 Max van den Berg belongs to the PSE (Group of the Party of European Socialists); he is one of the vice-presidents of the Parliamentary Committee on Development and Co-operation.
2 This is an unofficial translation from the Dutch original.



For answers to these questions: click here.


India Committee of the Netherlands - March 26, 2004