July 1, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 30, 1424

NEW YORK, June 30: The ringleaders of massacres committed in 2002 are still roaming free in Gujarat (India), Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released on Monday.

The 70-page report, “Compounding Injustice: The Governments Failure to Redress Massacres in Gujarat,” by the biggest human rights watchdog examines the record of state authorities in holding perpetrators accountable and providing humanitarian relief to victims of state-supported massacres of Muslims in February and March 2002.

The HRW urged the Indian government to take over those cases of large-scale massacres where the state government has sabotaged investigations.

The government’s record on the massacres is appalling, said Smita Narula, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

Sixteen months after the beginning of the violence, not a single person has been convicted.