To, The Acting Chairman West Bengal Human Rights Commission Bhabani Bhaban Alipur Kolkata – 27
Respected Sir,
I would like to draw your kind attention into the fact that the Indo- Bangladesh bordering districts under state of West Bengal turn out to be a killing field for posted Border Security Force personnel. The whole attitude and acts by the Border Security Force has been trembling our faiths on ‘Rule of law’ and its subsequent legal deliverances. They are killing innocent citizens without showing any respect for procedures or set rules and laws of the country by their whimsical attitude and scant and aggressive approach to undermine the procedures/ rules and provisions, with great opportunity to enjoy impunity in case of civic offences stated by the socio- legal framework of this country. In their act of complete demolition of set procedures they are not even sparing the women and infants.
I am referring one such case which took place on 04/05/2010 at Village Dakshin Dhadial, Balabhut, Police Station- Tufanganj, District – Coochbehar, West Bengal, India and in representation of ongoing atrocities perpetrated upon the people living along the Indo- Bangladesh border. The incident was adequately published by the periodicals and driven us to make our observation.
We carried out a thorough fact-finding on the issue and thereafter making this complaint.
The actual issue behind the regular skirmishes between the villagers and posted BSF personnel is due to abrupt and irresponsible demarcation between Indo-Bangladesh border and in this course barbed wire fences erected between the countries without following any national and international parameters and beyond any logical justification and rationalities.
This given circumstance driven and compelled the villagers to reach their farming land at the other side of the fence; which is actually located within the Indian Territory, after submitting their Identity Card to the posted Border Security Force personnel (BSF) guarding the border.
On 04/05/2010 around 7.30 am one villager named Mr. Salam Ali son of Mr. Chandmia Seikh aged about 32 years of abovementioned village went for cattle grazing and in due course crossed the barbed fence at so called Indo- Bangladesh border after enrolling his name at the BSF camp as usual in accordance to ongoing practice. But after around 15 minutes some BSF personnel called him and intimated him that he would not be allowed to go to his own farming land at the other side of barbed fence. He asked the reason for restricting his movement but was replied without any reasons by the BSF personnel. Salim Ali protested the act of the BSF personnel, but in vain. In the mean time some more villagers including 7-8 women assembled at the spot. Subsequently he contacted with Mr. Absud Salam; one member of local Panchayat (PRI representative). He also was not entertained by those BSF personnel. At the very moment Mr. Salam Ali saw that his cattle were taken to the BSF camp by some BSF personnel. Soon he tried to prevent them. The other villagers also protested against those BSF personnel and involved into a scuffle with them. Ms. Pariskar Bibi, one of the villagers, was shoved by one of the BSF personnel and resultantly she fell down on the ground. This act of disregard made villagers agitated. Suddenly and astonishingly, Ms. B S Bhamboo; a BSF officer, ordered for firing and following his order Mr. Bijendra Singh Chouhan, a duteous constable of BSF started firing indiscriminately. Consequently, six persons among the assembled villagers got bullet injury. Ms. Basirun Bibi was hit by one bullet at her chest and most pathetically her 6 months old grandson Master Ashique, who was on her lap, was hit by a bullet at his head. They fell unconscious on the ground and profusely bled. The eye-witnesses informed us that the innocent child breathed his last at the spot on the lap of his grandmother.
All of the injured persons including the baby who were supposedly died after the indiscriminate firing were taken to Tufanganj Hospital by the villagers, not by the posted BSF or police. Ms. Basirun Bibi; grandmother of the deceased baby also passed away at the hospital. Two unnatural death cases were registered at the police station regarding the death of Master Ashique and Ms. Basirun Bibi vide no. U.D Case Nos. 24 and 25 respectively. Mr. Nirmalya Gharami; Executive Magistrate and Mr. Bhushan Chhetry, Sub Inspector of Tufanganj Police Station conducted the inquest of the dead body of the baby and Mr. Pradip Halder, Block Development Officer, Tufanganj Block and Mr. Shankaracharja Adhikari, Sub Inspector of Tufanganj Police Station conducted the inquest of the dead body of Ms. Basirun Bibi. The other injured persons namely Ms. Sonaban Bibi, wife of Abdul Gafur Mian aged about 45 years, Mr. Abdul Kader, son of Mr. Iman Ali, aged about 40 years, Mr. Mahiruddin Seikh, son of Mr. Shahid Ali Seikh aged about 39 years and Ms. Pariskar Bibi aged about 45 years; and all are residents of the same and adjacent villages were referred to Coochbehar Zila Sadar Hospital for treatment. All of the injured persons except Ms. Pariskar Bibi, who was already discharged, are surviving at the Hospital with grievous hurt and assault. Three of the BSF jawans were also falsely admitted at the hospital but they have already been discharged because they did not sustain any serious injuries.
On 14/05/2010 around 5.15 pm our fact finding team talked with Mr. S. Adhikari, Assistant Sub Inspector, Duty Officer,of Tufanganj Police Station over phone and came to know that on 04/05/2010 at around 01.05 pm Md. Salam Ali, son of Md. Jahan Ali lodged a complaint vide General Dairy Entry no. 170 against the BSF personnel at Tufanganj Police Station and subsequently one case was registered at the police station vide No. 115/10 dated 04/05/2010 under section 302 of Indian Penal Code against BSF personnel. The Investigating Officer of this case is Mr. Bhusan Chhetri, Sub Inspector of police. Mr. Sushil Kumar Dubey, Company Commandant, ‘G’ company under Battalion no. 113 also lodged a false and fabricated counter complaint vide general dairy entry no. 116 against the villagers of the said village at Tufanganj Police Station and subsequently one case also was initiated at Tufanganj police station vide No. 116/10 dated 05/05/2010 under sections 147/148/149/186/353/325/379/307/506/511 of Indian Penal Code. The Investigating Officer of the case is Mr. Prasanta Das of same police station.
The complaint made by the BSF proves that they are trying to shield their personnel involved in the heinous crime perpetrated by their ranks having no respect to the rule/law/ procedure/ directives for firing.
On 05/05/2010 C.P.I. (M), the ruling political party and S.U.C.I. another political outfit of this state called on a strike protesting against the BSF firing. Later AITC; the major opposition political party also called on strike on the same issue.
The above gory incident is evident enough to prove the fact that the inhumane BSF personnel are least concerned about the national and international laws about killing of persons and not paying any respect to article 21 of Indian Constitution regarding guarantees enshrined to the populace became living beings.
I am requesting you to take action to restrict the BSF personnel from enjoying impunity by any legality and make them accountable to governing laws of the country. I am placing few demands relating this incident:-
1. Both the cases initiated against the BSF personnel and the villagers should be investigated by one competent and independent agency 2. The BSF personnel should be tried in regular criminal courts instead of BSF court 3. The ‘Right to Life’ as enshrined in article 21 of Indian Constitution should be protected for the family of the victims and BSF personnel must face trial to infringe the same 4. The BSF person
nel should be posted at the actual Indo- Bangladesh border and evacuated from the villages and civilian inhabitation 5. All the legal and administrative obstacles including the barbed fence erected kilometers inside from actual border which restrict the villagers to access their own farming land or prevent them from earning livelihood from the Indian territory should be removed without any delay 6. All the victims of BSF firing and the family members of the deceased should be given adequate financial compensation and rehabilitation with proper protection of them to uphold the proper investigation and subsequent legal proceedings.
Please take urgent action for positive changes in this grimy situation.
Thanking you,
Yours truly, Kirity Roy Secretary, MASUM & National Convenor, PACTI
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is a retired physician who practiced holistic, non-drug, mental health care for the last decade of his forty year family practice career. He is a contributor to and an endorser of the efforts of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and was a member of MindFreedom International, the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
While running his independent clinic, he published over 400 issues of his Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter, which was emailed to a variety of subscribers. (They have not been archived at any website.) In the early 2000s, Dr Kohls taught a graduate level psychology course at the University of Minnesota Duluth. It was titled “The Science and Psychology of the Mind-Body Connection”.
Since his retirement, Dr Kohls has been writing a weekly column (titled “Duty to Warn”) for the Duluth Reader, an alternative newsweekly published in Duluth, Minnesota. He offers teaching seminars to the public and to healthcare professionals.
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">Gary G Kohls George Monbiot[/caption]
Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did We Get into This Mess? Politics, Equality, Nature and other.
Prof Johan Galtung was born in Oslo. He earned the PhD degree in mathematics at the University of Oslo in 1956, and in 1957 a year later completed the PhD degree in sociology at the same university.
Prof Johan Galtung received nine honorary doctorates in the fields of Peace studies, Future studies, Social sciences, Buddhism, Sociology of law, Philosophy, Sociology and Law.
State Councilor of St. Petersburg, Russia. Founding President, Global Harmony Association (GHA) since 2005. Honorary President, GHA since 2016. Director: Tetrasociology Public Institute, Russia. Philosopher, Sociologist and Peacemaker from Harmony. Author of more than 400 scientific publications, including 18 books in 1-12 languages. Author of Tetrism as the unity of Tetraphilosophy and Tetrasociology – science of social harmony, global peace and harmonious civilisation. Director, GHA Web portal “Peace from Harmony”. Initiator, Manager, Coauthor and Editor in Chief of the book project “Global Peace Science” (GPS).
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First published at :
">Leo M Semashko Robert C Koehler[/caption]
writes for the Huffington Post, Common Dreams, OpEd News and TruthOut. He considers himself a “peace journalist.” He has been an editor at Tribune Media Services and a reporter, columnist and copy desk chief at Lerner Newspapers, Chicago. Koehler launched his column in 1999. Robert Koehler has received numerous writing and journalism awards over a 30-year career in USA. He writes about values and meaning with reverence for life. He is praised as “blatantly relevant” and “a hero of democracy”.
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First published at :
">Robert C Koehler Robert J Burrowes PhD[/caption]
has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?‘
He has been a radio producer (Earthstar Radio, San Francisco), organized and worked with the homeless, and is an advocate/activist in the nonviolent protest movement for safe energy, human rights, and peaceful solutions.
He is USA Vice President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association whose mission is to build a parallel world body to the United Nations, an emerging Earth Federation with a Provisional World Parliament under the Earth Constitution.
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First published at:
">Roger Kotila PhDProf Richard Falk[/caption]
an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, author, co-author or editor of 40 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs.
Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies, and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is Achieving Human Rights (2009).
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First published at :
">Richard FalkDr Gray Corseri, PhD[/caption]
is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. He has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including, TMS, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and Counterpunch.
He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.
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First published at :
">Gary CorseriAntonio Carlos Silva Rosa, Editor, TMS[/caption]
born 1946, is the editor of the pioneering Peace Journalism website, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, an assistant to Prof. Johan Galtung, and Secretary of the International Board of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
He completed the required coursework for a Ph.D. in Political Science-Peace Studies (1994), has a Masters in Political Science-International Relations (1990), and a B.A. in Communication (1988) from the University of Hawai’i.
Originally from Brazil, he lives presently in Porto, Portugal. Antonio was educated in the USA where he lived for 20 years; in Europe/India since 1994.
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First published at :
">Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa
John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist, Associate Professor Emeritus, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is noted for his books and research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin, evolution, as well as human cultural evolution, has its background situated in the fields of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory.
He is an Indian citizen & permanent resident of Australia and a scholar, an author, a social-policy critic, a frequent social wayfarer, a social entrepreneur and a journalist;He has been exploring, understanding and implementing the ideas of social-economy, participatory local governance, education, citizen-media, ground-journalism, rural-journalism, freedom of expression, bureaucratic accountability, tribal development, village development, reliefs & rehabilitation, village revival and other.
For Ground Report India editions, Vivek had been organising national or semi-national tours for exploring ground realities covering 5000 to 15000 kilometres in one or two months to establish Ground Report India, a constructive ground journalism platform with social accountability.
He has written a book “मानसिक, सामाजिक, आर्थिक स्वराज्य की ओर”on various social issues, development community practices, water, agriculture, his ground works & efforts and conditioning of thoughts & mind. Reviewers say it is a practical book which answers “What” “Why” “How” practically for the development and social solution in India.
worked as a mediator for the church in Belfast; as faculty at The School of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, and as Executive Director, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation. He has founded several Indian NGOs, is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
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First published at -
">Vithal RajanRene Wadlow[/caption]
is the President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation on and problem-solving in economic and social issues.
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">Rene WadlowBaher Kamal[/caption]
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Baher Kamal
Egyptian-born, Spanish-national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of Human Wrongs Watch. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, coexistence defender, with more than 45 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.
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Credits :
">Baher KamalRosa Dalmiglio with Lama Mongolia[/caption]
She is a member of the China Council Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe (special art, culture and humanity), which touches the hearts of all people and portrays the strong willpower so encouraging to 60 million Chinese disabled persons.
Ms. Dalmiglio is Intermediary Agent of CICE, Centre International Cultural Exchange, a direct subsidiary of the Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China. CICE is a comprehensive institution engaged in cultural exchange programs, professional publication and presentation of cultural art works such as exhibits, receiving foreign art troupes and artists, holding international cultural research programs, and producing intercultural and interreligious documentary films.
She is a member of China Disabled Person’s Federation, CDPF. She is also a member of the International Women Federation, which is concerned with the financial ethics of women s enterprises in underdeveloped areas.
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credits:
">Rosa Dalmiglio
Director, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies.
A recipient of Cultural Doctorate of Philosophy of Economics from USA. He is an active member of various professional bodies, namely -
He participated and presented papers in various International/national/regional seminars, conferences etc.. He remained member of the Academic Council of Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar. An unwearied researcher has about 200 research papers published in various international and national journals of repute and 15 research monographs to his kitty. Besides, he has authored/co-authored /edited 15 books which have been well received and highly acclaimed during his three decades of professional career. He was honoured by various national and international awards, namely, Guru Draunacharya Samman, Vijay Rattan Award and so on.
Dr Ron Paul served in U.S. House of Representatives three different periods: first from 1976 to 1977, after he won a special election, then from 1979 to 1985, and finally from 1997 to 2013.
During his first term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul founded the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), a non-profit think tank dedicated to promoting principles of limited government and free-market economics. In 1984, Paul became the first chairman of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a conservative political group founded by Charles Koch and David Koch 'to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation.' CSE started a Tea Party protest against high taxes in 2002. In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two new organizations, with Citizens for a Sound Economy being renamed as FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation becoming Americans for Prosperity. The two organizations would become key players in the Tea Party movement from 2009 onward.
Dr Paul proposed term-limit legislation multiple times, while himself serving a few terms in the House of Representatives. In 1984, he decided to retire from the House in order to run for the U.S. Senate, complaining in his House farewell address that 'Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare.... It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic.'
He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry.
In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces.
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Credits:
">Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.Jason Hickel[/caption]
He is international consultant of the UN – FAO and international consultant for sustainable development and sustainable future of humankind of Universal State of the Earth - USE.
On 8th October 2016 he was appointed as The Chairman of the Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment protection Committee of the USE, the Supreme Council of Humanity - SCH from Athens, Greece and London, UK.
He is researcher working on: Nature; the Nature, Space and Environment protection; the Climate change system; System thinking; Globalization and global studies; Networking, Complexity and Swarm research: Sustainable Development and Sustainable Future of Humankind. He was among the pioneers researchers (1986 – 1994) to apply nature, space, and environment protection in a local community by activities we call today Local Agenda 21 Processes – a holistic program for survival of our civilization under new challenges of the third millennium.“Commencing from Local Community Sustainable Future and moving towards Sustainable Future of the Global Community of Humankind”.
He is independent researchers with many domestic and international publications and talks. Together with many researchers in co-operation worldwide within philosophy, operational research, global studies, case studies and complex problem solving research, system thinking, requisitely holism, networking and complexity, swarm research, integration and disintegration of matter and energy and universal upbringing, education and lifelong learning. He is contributing a systemic, requisitely holistic and a better understanding of the present. His latest research within the system theory, system thinking, networking, complexity and swarm research may provide a possible answer enabling people to better understand our world of humans.
During 2014 he completed 50 years of research work (1964 - 2014). This year he completed 50 years of been Dr. Vet. Med. Since 1986 he worked on the protection of Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment and completed 30 years of research.
For research on the climate change system and the book “System Thinking and Climate Change System (Against a big “Tragedy of Commons” of all of us), Ecimovic, Mayur, Mulej and co-authors, 2002, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize 2003. His work on “The Information Theory of Nature” was his second nomination for The Nobel Prize during 2007 in Physics. His third nomination for The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was for “The Environment Theory of the Nature”, published in the book “Three Applications of the System Thinking”, Ecimovic, 2010. Within last 10 years he has contributed trilogies: “The Nature”, “The Sustainable Future of Mankind” and “The Life 2017” – please see at: www.institut-climatechange.si
I grew up in Chile, got my medical degree there, began an academic career in 1970, and left for the USA due to the military coup in early 1974. My first job in the USA was working as a public nutrition professor in the international programme of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.
I started to travel to Africa in 1975, and worked a year in Cameroun in 1980 helping to prepare their five-year nutrition plan. I then moved to New Orleans, to Tulane University’s School of Public Health, and taught in the department of nutrition for ten years, before moving to Nairobi where I was an advisor in the Ministry of Health. Seven years there got me into extensive consulting in Africa, often on nutritional issues. In 1995 moved to Vietnam where I worked for two and a half years in the Ministry of Health as a senior primary health care advisor.
Many years of touching the reality on the ground, in Latin America, then the USA, then Africa and Asia, has made me understand that the real challenge is in the social and political determinants of malnutrition. I have devoted my writings and teaching to that. Over the years, I have found an important shift in my colleagues’ attitude and understanding towards acknowledging the basic causes of malnutrition. But yet I see little happening as a result. I submit that it is our guild’s lack of experience in the political arena that explains this dichotomy. I devote much of my energy to bridge this gap, and am a fervent advocate of empowering claim holders to demand needed changes from duty bearers. Nutrition is a perfect port of entry for that. Equity, social justice and people’s empowerment in a human rights sense is what really will make a difference.
There is no alternative but to deal with nutrition problems as indivisibly linked to social, political and environmental problems. We need to address them as such. The question is: are we all prepared to do that? The answer, in my view, decides whether we are part of the solution or part of the problem. Travelling and living in different parts of the world has reinforced my conviction that we need to get down from our academic ivory towers, and need to change the curricula of our young and upcoming colleagues, to give them the tools to act in such a context. To me, public health nutrition cannot be anything but that.
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">Claudio Schuftan Dr MDProf. Ram Puniyani[/caption]
