Multidimension is the culmination of diasporas from Indian subcontinent living in France, and the process of integration in the mainstream french society. Thus, our team works hand in hand to build a platform to share experiences of multicultural and multiethnic life. Tell us about your experiences, we’ll share
those with the world.
On March 26, the UN
Human Rights Council has approved an international war crimes inquiry into
alleged crimes committed during Sri Lanka's civil war. It has adopted a resolution
that allows the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) to
monitor progress and undertake a comprehensive investigation into atrocities
committed between September 2008 and May 2009, before the end of the war, by
the government army and the LTTE. Among the 41 countries participated in the
Council, 23 voted in favour of the resolution, 12 against and 12 abstained from
voting.
The Sri Lankan
government has strongly rejected the allegations against it declaring “The
resolution will not only constitute a serious breach of international law but
also sets a precedence on the sovereignty of nations”.
Navi
Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who is very critical about
the attitude of Sri Lankan Government since long time, has said that Sri Lanka
has made "little progress" towards ensuring accountability for
alleged atrocities and war crimes committed during the 26-year civil war
against the Tamil fighters.
War crimes are prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, of which Sri Lanka is a
signatory. In 2002 the International Criminal Court (ICC)
was created by the Rome Statute to prosecute individuals for
serious crimes, such as war crimes. Sri Lanka is not a signatory of the Rome
Statute. Therefore it is only possible for the ICC to investigate and prosecute
war crimes in Sri Lanka if the UN Security Council was to refer Sri Lanka to the
ICC, which is unlikely.
Background of the resolution
Tamil
people are an ethnic group native to the state of Tamil Nadu of India and to
the northeast zone of Sri Lanka. This community mainly consisting of Hindus,
with small section of Christians and Muslims, is the victim of civil war, which
wreaks havoc across Sri Lanka since 1983. After the Independence in 1947, the
conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamils only increase as the former consider
the latter as Indian nationals. In 1949, the government withdrew the
citizenship of a large part of the Tamil population to reduce their
representation in the electorate from 33% to 20%. Then in 1956, the government
changed the official language English by Sinhalese, which actually helped
establishing the dominance of the Sinhalese Buddhist community in local
government. The Sinhalese majority had imposed its language, culture and
religion while monopolizing political power. It was the year of 1971, when the
Sri Lankan Government implemented the policy of standardization to rectify
disparities created in university with the enrollment number of Tamil and
Sinhalese students and later the government added district quota as a parameter
within each languages, but the Sinhalese were in majority in number. Before
that, the Tamil population enjoyed a kind of social dominance in the education
structure because of their strong English background. But the advantage of
quota system for the Sinhalese students pushed the number of Tamil students
towards gradual declination in the universities. For example, in 1969, the
Northern Province, which was largely populated by Tamils and comprised 7% of
the population of the country, provided 27.5 percent of the entrants to science-based
courses in Sri Lankan universities. By 1974, this was reduced to 7%. This is
why an organization called Tamil Students League was born to oppose the law of
standardization implemented by the government. Later at the national level, in
1976 a pro-Independence organization named Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) was created in Sri Lanka. After several attempts to restore the Tamil
rights by forcing the Sinhalese Government, they took up arms in 1983, at the
beginning of the militarization of the conflict. Officially, it is between 1983
and 2009, the civil war took place in Sri Lanka between the Sri Lankan
Government dominated by the Sinhalese and the LTTE. The latter’s principle
objective was to defend the rights of Tamil people in Sri Lanka. In fact, the
Singhalese people have imposed their language, their culture and their religion
on the Tamils by monopolizing the political power. This movement wants to
establish historical Tamil Eelam, comprising the Northern and Eastern
Provinces.
In 2009,
the Sri Lankan military cornered LTTE in its area, after regaining all the
cities controlled by it. The latter finally took refuge in the region of
Mullaittivu with a civilian population between 150 000 to 300 000. During the final
days of the war, the army put embargo on the media entering the combat zone.
The 16th May, LTTE lost its access to the sea, which was vital for their
supply. On 17th may 2009, LTTE finally surrendered and ended this 26 years long
civil war by dropping their guns. On 18th may, Velupillai Pravakaran was killed
in the hands of Sri Lankan forces. According to the local authorities, around
15,000 and 20,000 civilians were surrounded in that combat zone. This figure
even goes up to 40,000 according to the UN. No one knows the exact number of
dead and injured during the last phase of the combat. This secessionist war
took over 100,000 lives and more than 800,000 people have become refugees.
The
reportage was done on last 18 may, the Sri Lankan Tamil community of France
demonstrated at Paris’s Trocadéro against the persecution and torture it
suffered in Sri Lanka, and to demand for an international enquiry into the
atrocities committed by Sri Lankan Army.
After the
announcement of the UN Human Rights Council’s decision, the Tamils are now
expecting that the justice will be done and the perpetrators of human right
violation will be punished.
In Sri
Lanka, led by President
Mahinda Rajapaksa,
there is undeclared censorship on the freedom of speech and the liberty of
press. Quite an important number of journalists and civil right activists are
victims of repressive state apparatus. A few died, some are in prison and a
handful took refuge in foreign countries.
In the
South-Asian perspective, this ethnic conflict has greater political
significance. It marks a number of points in Indian context. In Tamilnadu where
the sentiment related to the persecution of Tamils in Sri Lanka continues
playing an important role in the State politics. The issue has also created
uproar in national politics. India got embroiled in Sri Lankan conflict by
sending Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in the island to disarm the different
Tamil militant groups under the mandate of Indi-Sri Lankan Accord in 1987, with
the objective of ending the Civil War. But the action escalated into armed
conflict between IPKF and LTTE. Finally IPKF was withdrawn in 1990. But there
were a number of accusations of human right violation against the peacekeeping
force. LTTE had took its revenge by killing one of the two signatories of the
accord, then prime minister of India Rajib Gandhi in a terrorist attack in 1991.
The
assassination had dented severely into the support base of LTTE in Tamilnadu,
which shelters a large number of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.
After the
IPKF debacle, the bilateral relation between India and Sri Lanka decorated
gradually. But with the time, the subject turned again into an ethnic
solidarity among the Tamil regional parties during the last phase of the war in
2009, and which remains alive in the political climate of the State, resulted
in a number of violent incidents.
There are
speculations that the Chinese government has helped Sri Lankan State with arms
and other useful services. Those become convincing when one sees the Chinese as
the biggest foreign investor in that country.
Thus, India must take
notice of the changes in Sri Lanka for its own regional interest.
The provincial
council election in the north of Sri Lanka was held in September 2013 and the Tamil
National Alliance (TNA), which is the political proxy of the LTTE, won 30 out
of 38 seats.
The election result has threatened to reignite the tension between the
government and the Tamils. Many in the north appear unwilling to give up
longstanding claims to greater autonomy despite economic development and
significant investment in infrastructure in the north since the end of the war.
Click here to read our full magazine: The
garments industry in Bangladesh has been expanded almost uninterruptedly since
the late 1970s. The successful export oriented readymade garments (RMG)
industry of Bangladesh has observed remarkable growth since its beginning late
1970s. Paradoxically, this flagship industry of Bangladeshi private
entrepreneurial talent took roots through the first export consignment of
shirts from Bangladesh made by state trading agency, the trading corporation of
Bangladesh made by state trading agency, the destination was some east European
countries. Subsequently, however, private entrepreneurs entered the industry
and phenomenal growth took place in RMG exports in Bangladesh. Export of RMG
increased from us dollar 40 thousand in 1978-79 to us 6.4 billion in 2004-05. The
industry has also provided employment to nearly 2.8 million workers (BGMEA,
2009) most of them women drawn from the rural areas.
Explosive
growth of RMG exports is of not inimitable to Bangladesh. The annual compound
growth rate of RMG export industries Indonesia (31.2%) Mauritius (23.8%)
Dominican Republic (21.1%) compares favorably with that of Bangladesh (81.3%)
over the 1980- 87 periods. However while the initial conditions were favorable
for export growth in the countries noted above; this was far from the truth in
case our country. The ratio of the workers male: female was 9:11 and there age
limit was 18 - 35 years. 90% of the workers are from helper to operators.
Others are supervisors, technicians etc. Their education level is primary to
secondary level where 57% workers are only able to write their names, 36% of
the workers are living in the slums and others are in the match sift houses.
Only 62% workers are sending their children to school.
The
garments workers are earning their breads by very hard labor. They render to
the owners from the dawn to midnight. Sometimes they have to work even for more
than 24 hours without rest (they get breaks for their snacks, which are
arranged by the authority) during in the emergency shipment. Of course they are
still ill paid, notwithstanding the different labor revolution for various
times. In 2006 there was a huge movement in the garments industry where a lot
of factories were gutted, vandalized the infrastructures for their various
points of demand. The fast point demand was to increase the minimum salary in
the entry level at least 3 thousand taka per month. Later govt. had fixed that
2200/- tk. per month but later the BGMEA fixed it only tk. 1667 (one thousand
sixty seven) per month by a trilateral agreement (BGMEA-Bangladesh govt. and
labor union of garments workers) which is final to concluding the movement so
far.
During
a fieldwork, working with the questionnaire it was randomly found by the
visitors that some workers are not getting this amount also from the factory
owners. They have no holidays and even sometimes they are forced to work in the
holidays. On occasion, the owners pay their salary after a month’s delay by
showing different excuses. Moreover, reduction of wages, attendances are in the
common practices in the garments floor. The garments workers have no job
security yet. Anytime without any reason they may be suspend, demotion,
transferred even sacked from the company. Even though there is a clause in the
service rule that the sacked employee should get at least one month salary from
the company if he/she is sacked from the company without any cause (surplus,
lack of work) but in fact, the due salary is not given sometimes. Very few
companies abide by the rules of govt. and BGMEA. Each company has its own rules
as all of the garments workers are ill fed and ill clad. Hardly can they spend
for their accommodation after purchasing their food staffs. They can’t be a
chooser rather live in an area only to stay alive. In our field work, we have found
that most of the garments workers are live in the rented slums; the room is 10
feet x 12 feet, roofing by iron sheet. Common unhygienic bath, kitchen for 8 –
10 family, shortage of water, crude electricity line etc. monthly rent each of
the room is tk. 1800.
The
garments workers are in low profile regarding the academic education. In the fieldwork
most of the female workers only can write their names and address, most of them
left the school after primary education. Few of them have gone to class viii.
Most of the guardians of the garments workers are poor. They prefer to thing
job is better than education. Most of the guardians are also illiterate. They
think female education will not bear a good result to their family rather
working in the garments factory will bring some money which will help them to
run the family smoothly. Only 87% of garments workers send their wards to
school while other 13% are showing different causes that why could not send
their children to school. 73% are in the primary level, 19% are in the high
school and only 8% have crossed the S.S.C and none was found H.S.C passed
above.
As
a human being we must need amusement in our leisure time, to refresh the mind. In
fact, work productivity is ultimate goal. But hardly the garments worker can
manage time to have the amusement even in the holidays they have to work
sometimes. Recently, a collapse of a cracked building where there was 5 RMG
garments has caused nearly 1100 deaths and most of them were female workers.
The clients of these garments are mostly from western countries. Due to the
high demand, the owners forced the laborers to work because they had to export
urgently. Once again, the workers were trapped and they could not escape death
because of the lack of emergency exits.
Bangladesh,
which focuses on the low cost labor to attract the international companies, is
today the 2nd largest exporter of RMG products in the world but this strategy
is based on a short-term view et is not aware of the social and environmental
costs. What is needed is a long-term vision to invest in the developments of
buildings & managerial competences. The owners & the Govt. should also
be entitled to take their share of responsibility. The Govt. should investigate
the cause of accidents and prosecute those whose negligence is the cause of the
death of workers. They should also be engaged in a national inspection program
to make sure the factory buildings meet the safety requirements. For their
parts, the owners should also immediately examine the security issues of their
garments, perform a investigation on their factory buildings, cooperate with
the unions to train the workers of security policies and should also allow the
workers to voice their concerns. Bangladesh is proud of being the 2nd largest
exporter of RMG products in the world. We want this country to enhance its
pride by assuring the security of factory workers. Wahid Murad Copyright : www.multidimensionparis.com
To read our full magazine, click here : Bengali New Year or
Pohela Boishakh, occurring on 14th April, is the first day of the Bengali
calendar. This is the first day of the Bengali first month Boishakh according
to Hindu Vedic Solar Calendar, based on Surya Siddhanta. This
festival generallycelebrates in West Bengal, Bangladesh, Tripura
and Assam. The New Year begins in different seasons in different countries of
the world. The Bengali New Year is in summer. Summer is not so pleasant time in the region of Bangal. Festivals and merriments are not as much possible in
summer as during the beginning of winter or spring. However, Pohela Boishakh
connects all Ethnic Bengalis irrespective of religious and regional
differences. Ethnic Bengalis across the world and from all walks
of life unite to celebrate
this festival. To every Bengali, young and old, rich and poor, wise and
ignorant, it is a time of gaiety to
be celebrated with great merry-making, to be enjoyed in every possible manner.
This festival was
promulgated by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1584 AD. During Mughal reign, Hindus
were bound to pay taxes as per the rule of Muslim Hijri calendar, based on
lunar calendar which did not coincide with the harvest. To give relief and to
streamline the tax collection Mughal emperor ordered a reform of the calendar. Revenue was collected according to the lunaryear,
whereas the harvest was dependent on the solar one. From the beginning of his
reign, Akbar had felt the need of introducing a uniform, scientific, and
workable system of calculating days and months through a reformed calendar.
With this end in view, he commissioned Amir Fathullah Shirazi, a distinguished
scientist and astronomer, to make the changes. However, the Public celebration of Pohela
Boishakh and the large-scale organizations of cultural events have started more
recently.
Observance of Pohela
Boishakh has become popular in the cities these days. The most colorful Pohela
Boishakh festival takes place in Dhaka. After the sunshine people gather under
the banyan tree at Ramna Park where Chhayanat artists open the day
with Rabindranath Tagore's famous song, ” Esho, he Boishakh”. Social
and cultural organizations celebrate the day with cultural programmes. Newspapers
bring out special supplements. Prior to this day, special discounts are
available on furniture, clothes, electronics, shopping and various deals. Special line of sarees, usually cottons, and white
sarees with red print is sold before this day as everyone dresses up for this
day. Jasmine flowers are also a huge sale for this event which adorns
the women's hair. Pohela Boishakh is also the beginning of all business
activities in Bengal. The Bengali Hindu traders purchase new accounting book.
On this very day many shop keepers worship Ma Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth
for wealth, prosperity and welfare. It is marked as the beginning of the
business. The Hindu traders purchase new accounting book which is known as
“Halkhata”. People have also chosen this day for socializing. Many shop keepers invite their customers to their
shops, so that they can be a part of this celebration.
The historical
importance of Pohela Boishakh in the Bangladeshi context may be dated from the
observance of the day by Chhayanat in 1965. In an
attempt to suppress Bengali culture, the Pakistani Government had banned poems
written by Rabindranath Tagore . Protesting this move, Chhayanat opened their Pohela Boishakh
celebrations at Ramna Park with Tagore's song “Esho he Boishakh”. The
day continued to be celebrated in East Pakistan as a symbol of Bengali culture.
After 1972 it became a national festival, a symbol of the Bangladesh nationalist movement and an integral part of
the people's cultural heritage. Later, in the mid- 1980s the Institute of Fine
Arts added color to the day by initiating the Boishakhi parade, which is much
like a carnival parade.
In France, the Bengali New Year is celebrated in
various cities such as Paris, and Toulouse through Boishakhi fairs, where
people gather to celebrate the culture Bengalis through dances, fashion shows,
stalls of art, music, clothing, food etc. But the largest celebrations of the
Bangla New Year are held in Paris. Along with France, Sweden, Italy and United
Kingdom also celebrate the Bengali New Year with festivals and merriments. The
Bengali community in the United Kingdom celebrates the Bengali New Year with a
street festival in London. It is also the largest Asian festival in Europe and
the largest Bengali festival outside of Bangladesh.
Pohela Boishakh and Boisakhi Melaare
one of the most colourful aspects of Boisakhi celebrations in the Bengali
culture. One can find vivid and vibrant colours of life in rural Bangla in such
fairs. Happy with the harvest and the ensuing prosperity, men and women dress
themselves in their fanciest clothes and participate in the Boisakhi fair with
joy. Various activities have been incorporated in Boishakhi fairs to give
people a chance to let their hair loose and enjoy the spirit of life and inner freedom. However, this fair is no longer a part of bengali rural culture. Boishakhi
fairs are everywherenowadays. It is a major cultural day for Bengalis and they spend this day with
nice celebration. Bengalis use to celebrate this festival with great love,
spirit and enthusiasm and in this modern era they also greet their closed one
through beautiful Bengali New Year SMS and by saying “Subho
Noboborso” or “Subho Pohela Boishakh” to convey their love and feelings for
them. Today Pohela Boishakh is a national holiday of Bangladesh and
public holiday of Kolkata and West Bengal. By Shovan M. RAHMAN Copyright : multidimensionparis.com
To read our full magazine, click here: The Delhi Saket court gave verdict to the four convicts in the December 16 Delhi gang-rape case.“ Death Penalty” as the court said that the
intensity of the offense could really not be tolerated.This heinous incident had provoked the
citizens of India and forced the Indian government to be more stringent on
anti-rape law.
The culprits Mukesh Singh (26),
Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19), and Vinay Sharma (20) comes under the
rarest of rare category of capital punishment. The judge convicted them for
gang-rape and murder of the 23 old paramedic student in a Delhi private bus.
The judge commented that it would be inhuman if it turns a blind eye towards
such a gruesome crime! The crime against women is on the high and it is time to
challenge the brutality with punishment.
The Indian judiciary has to imbibe
confidence amongst the women particularly during this time when crime against
women is on the forefront . The fire has not only been convicted of gang rape
but also of murder, dacoity, kidnapping and destroying the evidence. The mother
of the 23 year old victim thanked the nation and the actions taken by the media
– expressed satisfaction with the verdict of the Saket court. She was happy
with the new legislation and the fast track case.
Analytical view
about the Death Penalty
Overall, the Indians feel that such a death sentence should be a warning to all
the rapists and psychopaths. The public
demand was also that the culprits have their genitals cut before hanged to
death. Hope it will instill fear into the hearts who would even think about
committing such a crime in the future. But is it so? The Women’s rights activists are absolutely
against the popular public demand. They strongly refuse to support this. Kavita
Krishan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association who was
also one of the prominent voices against this December rape, said that a death
sentence cannot make much difference to the society. In fact Delhi witnessed a
damaging child rape case immediately after these four were arrested.
Sexual violence runs deep in our
Indian society amongst every strata or culture. So the source or the root cause
of this violence has first to be identified. How can a death sentence in one
case make any difference to the Indian male mentality? The death penalty is
seen as a quick fix solution. Hanged till death is just a vindictive attitude
to show “violence against violence”.Rapes, kidnapping wife beating, torture by relatives, child trafficking,
dowry deaths are all results of lack of respect for women.
Masculinity or the typical Hindi translation
of its “mardangi” is to be done away with from the mindsets of the men.
Violent features in men are imbed to them since their birth. This gets imbued
with due course of time. The bad behavior of the men in the family toward his
mother, seeing the neighbors treating women as doormats, gives them the right
to be bad or violent towards other women. So unlearning this process should
begin in school as well as the public places. The contemporary masculinity is
to be unwinded from the deep root.
Children from an early age must be educated
about equality, not only in terms of gender but also in terms of other castes
or religions. Women should come forward with the sexual complaints more often,
rather than shying away from it. They should have strong faith in the criminal
justice system. And the police officer who is really good in helping these kind
of women should be awarded and honored . This would change the mindset of the
society and the police to respect lesbians, or women who are skimpily dressed,
and also to the lower caste women like the Dalits or the tribal women. A large
number of public forums are to be organized to educate the parents along with
their children regarding the safety in public places and guidelines to make the
women feel safer. More self defense classes are needed in school for girls.
Boys should be specially made to learn to respect and treat his girls
schoolmates equally. Anger management courses should be introduced in the
school syllabi as it has proved encouraging.
Rapists are not scared as our
judicial system is not reformed. Very low conviction has happened and this
discourages the women to go for criminal proceedings. The investigative methods
are not strong which after the Delhi rape case should be properly implemented
now. The witnesses are threatened along with the victim. The recent rape case
of a small town Malda, West Bengal is a very good example. The victim had to
change her home along with her family, but died a brutal death in a house fire,
that is still under investigation.
Setting up fast track court or
speedy trial to give a verdict can never be a complete Redressal to a case. Men
will continue to subjugate a woman to stay to certain standards. The gang rape
of a 20 year old girl in a village called Birbhum, West Bengal, is a recent
incident that highlights the plight of woman folk. Since she was having an
affair with a man of another village, the village headman punished her by
raping along with 13 other men.Men
cannot accept the fact that they need to respect the women, but rather
subjugating the women to violence would only establish the superiority of men.
A complete change in the society is needed, which cannot happen after the
night.
Most rapists during the reform
session inside the confinement, mostly confesses to the psychiatrist that he
wants to kill the woman he raped. The vindicticdive attitude remains there. As
seen in the Delhi rape case, that the girl after the rape was inserted foreign
objects inside her private parts. This is a kind of perversion of men.
Again, another perspective has been
seen that the punishment is very swift and fast in rape cases when the men
belong to lower classes or is a common man. Had it been a BSF Jawan or a
celebrity the investigations would be slower and even the punishment.
The police force has to be
sensitized and not mock the woman who has come to lodge a complain. The police
triesto rape her again in the office
room by making a mockery of her. The DNA has to be collected and proper gloves
be used when there are no eyewitnesses. The more police post is to induce with
proper training to these officers. They are also humans and one must remember
that major chunk of these police belongs to smaller towns and also different
caste. So their upbringing have been done with the knowledge that men are here
to win and conquer. This perspective has to uproot during training.
And the worst is the media who try to make the
rape just a few days coverage. More follow up is needed to support the backward
class women. Stop using women as an object, particularly in advertisements,
magazines and so on.