balaji@bacall.UUCP (Balaji Narasimhan) (09/29/86)
Most Bhopal victims are likely to suffer from eye disease Most of the 200,000 victims of the 1984 Union Carbide lethal gas leak are likely to suffer from an eye disease that can lead to blindness. This was revealed by an Indian government commission last Friday. According to one expert, the development of corneal opacity, a condition that can cause blindness, was detected recently in medical studies. It is not yet known how many people already suffer from the disease. But according to the expert, most victims had the symptoms. The disease can be corrected by an eye surgery. New riots in Gujarat kill 17 At least 17 people have been reported killed in riots between Hindus and Muslims and in police firings in Gujarat which started on September 15. At least 5 people were killed in Baroda where the situation has been tense since August 19 when 7 people were killed in clashes and police firings. Further details are not available. There have been at least 12 major outbreaks so far this year with the most vicious riot being in July following the rathyatra in Ahmedabad. At least 57 people were killed, hundreds injured and property worth millions of rupees was destroyed. Amnesty International reports widespread human rights violation in Sri Lanka Amnesty International has reported of widespread killings of Tamil youth in the custody of the security forces in Sri Lanka as well as in encounters along with torture. A 89-page report cites eye witness accounts of torture and disappearance of hundreds of Tamil youths during between January 1985 and February 1986. It also gives an account of the secret execution of 119 youths in December 1984. Amnesty lists four main factors facilitating these abuses. These are suspension of legal safeguards to protect those taken into custody, introduction of legislation dispensing with the holding of inquests into unnatural deaths, the persistent refusal to investigate most cases of 'disappearance' and the failure to try members of the security forces alleged to be responsible. Sworn affidavits in the Amnesty report blamed Tissa Weeratunga, a nephew of Sri Lanka President Jayewardene and former chief of the army and anti-terrorist commander in Jaffna, for torture and abuses. Weeratunga is currently a Sri Lankan diplomat in Canada. Canadian media has been discussing his role based on the Amnesty report and has demanded an investigation into the charges against him. Indira Loyalists criticize Rajiv's policies Former union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and six others who claim allegiance to the policies of Indira Gandhi presented a memo to President Zail Singh criticizing Rajiv Gandhi government's actions as not being in nation's interests. The memo ridiculed the accords on Punjab, Assam and Mizoram as instant decisions on complicated problems; it also said that the government performance is utterly undesirable. Mukherjee and his colleagues were earlier expelled from the party and they have banded themselves together as All India Congress(I) Workers' convention and call themselves Indira Loyalists. Their charges were repudiated by Congress High command as false and opportunistic. Bungling in Indian Red Cross Several instances of irregularities and delays in projects to be undertaken by the Indian Red Cross has been reported by its chairman Mohsina Kidwai. These projects include aid to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy and the orphaned children of Assam. The American Red Cross sent Rs 25 million to the Indian Red Cross in February for Bhopal gas victims. But most of this sum is yet to be distributed to the victims. The Swiss Red Cross sent Rs 870,000 in 1983 for building a home for children orphaned in the massacre of February 1983 in Assam. The home is yet to be built. Kidwai says nothing has been done except the laying of the foundation stone. The Central Vigilance Commissioner, in his report in 1979, had also charged the bungling of relief material meant for Bangladesh refugees. Sources: India Now, India Abroad, and the Albany Times-Union. --------