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Vragen Europees Parlement

Indiener: Max van den Berg

Betreft: Religieuze minderheden Gujarat

Na beantwoording door de Commissie op 15 mei 2003 van vragenvan mij en enkele collega's van 9 april 2003, is de situatie in Gujarat met betrekking tot de berechting van de daders van de massamoord van februari 2002 en de rehabilitatie van de slachtoffers en/of hun nabestaanden nauwelijks iets verbeterd.
In november 2003 berichtte Amnesty International nog over de illegale detentie van moslims in Gujarat. Al eerder was er het rapport van Human Rights Watch over de bedreiging van mensenrechtenactivisten in Gujarat.
AWAAZ South Asia Watch concludeerde onlangs in het rapport 'In Bad Faith? British Charity and Hindu Extremism' dat mantelorganisaties van de Hindoe-extremistische RSS onder valse voorwendselen miljoenen ponden bij het Britse publiek hebben ingezameld die zijn doorgesluist naar organisaties betrokken bij grootscheeps geweld en aanwakkeren van haat tegen minderheden.
Tenslotte zijn er diverse berichten dat moslims worden gediscrimineerd op de arbeidsmarkt.

  1. Heeft de Commissie kennis genomen van bovengenoemde rapporten van Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and AWAAZ?
  2. Heeft de Commissie ter zake actie ondernomen?
  3. Zo ja, wat is het resultaat? Zo nee, waarom niet?
  4. Heeft de huidige situatie in Gujarat gevolgen voor het daadwerkelijk kunnen toepassen van het non-discriminatiebeginsel bij het personeelsbeleid van Europese bedrijven?
16 maart 2004

Questions European Parliament

By: Max van den Berg1

Regarding: Religious minorities in Gujarat2

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?
March 16, 2004

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.

Landelijke India Werkgroep / India Committee of the Netherlands - March 26, 2004