September 19, 2002	Thursday	Rajab 11, 1423

TORONTO, Sept 18: A gathering of prominent university professors and intellectuals has called upon international organizations dealing with human rights to explore all avenues to bring the perpetrators of Gujarat genocide to justice.

The Canada-based South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) arranged a day-long forum on ‘Genocide in Gujarat’ in Vancouver with speakers, mostly Indian Canadians, regretting that the Gujarat tragedy has created a negative impact on peace prospects in the subcontinent.

Nishrin Jafri, daughter of a Congress leader from Ahmedabad, Ehsan Jafri, who was murdered in the clashes, also spoke on the occasion.

She gave a moving account of what happened to her father and other members of her family.

Other speakers pointed out that the Bharatya Janata Party (BJP), along with other Sangh Parivaar organizations like RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), had succeeded in winning over upper caste Hindus during the eighties.

They said the upper caste was particularly strong in Gujarat, which has become a BJP stronghold.

Prof Radhika Desai of University of Victoria, Canada, gave an incisive perspective of the rise of Hindu extremism in India, in general, and in Gujarat, in particular.

She said there was nothing surprising about this: rather, it was the coming together of BJP’s ideology and strategy, on the one hand, and the political inclination of India’s predominantly Hindu elite.

Radhika drew the participants’ attention towards the fact that there has been a regular pattern to the communal riots in Gujarat, where the properties and businesses of the minorities are destroyed systematically.

She said this socio-economic factor had provided a very fertile ground for the massive ideological and political growth of Hidutva.

Professor Mordecai Briemberg of Canada Palestine Network provided a global perspective of genocides and crimes against humanity. He said these crimes were committed because the other side was deemed to be less than human.

He analysed the happenings in Gujarat in the perspective of the ongoing violence in Palestine.

Dr Sharma, Professor Emeritus at the Simon Fraser University, held the government responsible for not intervening immediately to stop the massacre in Gujarat.

Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed of Stockholm University spoke about the negative impact of the Gujarat massacres on peace in the Sub-continent and also on the entire world.

Dr Laurie King-Irani of University of Victoria discussed the many avenues that could be explored to bring to trial the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Gujarat.

Earlier, the President of SANSAD, Dr Hari Sharma, said the aims and objectives of his organization were to draw the world’s attention to crimes against humanity.

The delegates passed a resolution which said those responsible for the genocide in Gujarat must be brought to justice within the legal framework of India.