Threats To RTI Applicant

S.O.S - eVoice For Justice - e-news weekly
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Editor: Nagaraj.M.R...vol.6.issue.10....06/03/2010

Editorial : Threats to RTI Applicant
-  PIL Appeal To Honorable Supreme court of India For Writ of Mandamus
Just weeks back , we have witnessed the collapse of a multi storied building in bellary ,Karnataka ,in this week we have witnessed  a fire tragedy in a  multi-story building in Bangalore,  months ago there was collapse of a huge building under construction in Bangalore , all resulting in loss of human lives. All these are the result of violations of Urban Town Planning Laws , Building bye-laws which  are observed more in breach by the criminals & conniving public servants .  The authorities are behaving like real estate agents of criminals , by-passing norms , framing laws to the tune of criminals . Authorities are not honoring RTI requests & even high ranking IAS officer  repeatedly threatens a commoner  seeking information under RTI ACT .
Information input  forms part of process of one's expression. One's expression in any forms – written , oral , etc becomes information input to the opposite person , in turn he expresses his reply. Information & Expression are inseparable parts & form lifeline of a democracy. That is the reason , Right to Expression is the basic fundamental right as well as human right of every Indian citizen. When a person's  right to expression is violated , his other rights to equality , justice , etc also  are violated. Suppression of Information amounts to curbing of Expression.

In a democracy , people have a right to know  how the public servants are functioning. However till date public servants are hiding  behind the veil of  Officials Secrets Act (which is of british vintage created  by british to suppress native indians). By this cover-up public servants are hiding their own corruption  , crimes , mismanagement , failures , etc. even RTI Act is not being followed intoto by public servants. However the recent delhi high court ruling affirming that CJI is under RTI purview & bound to answer RTI request , is noteworthy.

Our previous RTI request to CJI , union home secretary of GOI, President of India  , DG & IGP of GOK and others were not honored. The information I sought were answers to the following questions mentioned in the below mentioned websites . the questions concerned the past , present continuing injustices meted out to  millions  of Indian citizens , due to wrong / illegal work practices of  Indian judges , police & public servants  .   The  information we sought would expose the traitors , anti-nationals , criminals  in public service.  The information we are seeking are no defense secrets , no national secrets. The truthful information exposes the anti-nationals , traitors in the public service & strengthens our national security , national unity & integrity.

Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : "writ of Mandamus" and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants in the following cases to perform their duties & to answer the  questions.  JAI HIND. VANDE MATARAM.

Your's sincerely ,
Nagaraj.M.R.

Failure of duties & questions not answered by public servants

Circle Inspector of Police , Vijayanagar Police Station , Mysore City , Karnataka

http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/police-not-registering-fir-complaint  ,

CROSS EXAM OF HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA , SUPREME COURT OF INDIA –

http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/rti---supreme-court-... 
, 
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ , http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ 
, 
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ , http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ 
, 
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF UNION HOME SECRETARY , GOI , NEW DELHI –

http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/rti---supreme-court-... 
,

http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ , http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ 
, 
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ , http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ 
, 
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF DG&IG OF POLICE , GOK , BANGALORE –

http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/rti---supreme-court-... 
,

http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ , http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ 
, 
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ , http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ 
, 
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF MUDA COMMISSIONER , MUDA  , MYSORE , COMMISSIONER , MCC , MYSORE , DEPUTY COMMISSIONER , MYSORE  –

http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/rti---muda-mcc ,

http://crimesofmuda.blogspot.com/ , http://manivannanmuda.blogspot.com/ 
, 
http://crimesatmudamysore.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF BDA COMMISSIONER , BDA , BANGALORE , COMMISSIONER , BBMP , BANGALORE , DEPUTY COMMISSIONER , BANGALORE , CHAIRMAN , KIADB , BANGALORE  – 
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/rti---bda-bbmp-kiadb 
,

http://crimesofbda.blogspot.com/ , http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,

CROSS EXAM OF GOVERNOR , RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/rti---reserve-bank-o... 
,

http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ , http://theftinrbi.rediffblogs.com/

, http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/

NICE Corridor Questions to CHIEF MINISTER .Mr.Yediyurappa

Read full questionnaire 
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/nice-corridor-questions-to-chie\
f-minister

Human Rights Violations In Jammu & Kashmir

By Independent People's Tribunal 21 February, 2010 Countercurrents.org

Introduction

Since yesterday, we have been hearing about large scale violations of human

rights of the people of this state. We had testimonies from about 37 victims and

their kin. We have also had testimonies/statements from journalists and members

of civil society.

We went through the testimonies and evidence presented before us and are

presenting our preliminary observations in this interim report.

One thing is clear to us that there is a sense of suffering and injustice writ

large on the face of everyone who made their statements before us. We had made

it clear that we are not in any way linked with the official institutions or

authority, and yet so many of them gave vent to their feelings in their physical

and emotional state, which only strengthens our opinion that there is

substantial truth in those allegations.

Their testimonies are spread over a canvas of various violations of human rights

for a period of two decades, and it is clear that by way of reliefs and

remedies, what government has done amounts to a meagre little. It is here the

state has to answer in large measure for all indifferent attitudes, deficiencies

and neglect.

It cannot be gainsaid that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (1958), has

been in the force for nearly two decades in this state. This Act has been

misused and in being misused wherever it is made applicable (Manipur, for

example). Therefore, if we take this situation into account, this draconian law

has undoubtedly facilitated grave human rights abuses including "disappearances"

by the very nature of the power bestowed on the armed forces.

Any abuse of powers by the armed forces is criminal offence. It should promptly

be investigated by an agency independent of the armed forces, followed by

impartial prosecution. The testimonies of all witnesses clearly establish that

there has been no satisfactory investigation by any agency or authority in the

State, leave alone any prosecution. On the other hand, we get an impression that

all institutions of the State, the executive, the legislature, the human rights

commission, and to a certain extent even the judiciary have failed to do justice

to the victims of "disappearances" and other human rights violations.

The UN General Assembly in 2006 has unanimously adopted the International

Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

Earlier, there was the UN Declaration to the above effect (December 1992).

Article 2 of the Declaration says that, "the prohibition" of "disappearances" is

absolute and no State can find an excuse. Article 7 says, "no circumstances,

whether a threat of war, internal political instability, or any other public

emergency may be invoked to justify" these acts of violation. Hence, it is not

open to the State to resort to enforced disappearances which would include all

custodial deaths on the ground of any threat to internal security or external

safety and stability. It is here the State's liability becomes absolute, and we

should have no hesitation in making these observations.

We have the testimony of Ms. Parveena Ahangar, who is the Chairperson of the

Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), which clearly establishes

that 8-10,000 persons have disappeared from about 1989. Incidentally, we may

point out that during the period 1984-1994 during the agitation for Khalistan in

Punjab, there had been similar disappearances, and recently a report based on

the State's Human Rights Commission, shows that over 2059 bodies were identified

in Amritsar district and still over 1000 bodies are lying there in the district,

and there are a large number of skeletons in other districts. Moreover,

internationally, disappearances and "custodial deaths" fall within the

definition of "torture". Prohibition of torture and ill treatment is underlined

by its non-derogable status in human rights laws. No State can justify such an

act.

General Findings

1) Various instances of the security forces' crimes have been brought to our

notice. These are violations against the Geneva Conventions (Common Articles

2/3), the Indian Penal Code and the civil law of the country. The

police/paramilitary and surrendered militants have flouted Indian laws and the

rules of war. As a consequence, large numbers of civilians have died, including

women and children. Women, including young girls, have been harassed, raped, and

gang raped, and children in their early teens shot.

2) The judicial machinery has barely functioned. Despite the stern report of the

Bijbihara Magisterial Enquiry, recommending the severest action against the BSF

officers and Jawans. But nothing was done. A number of cases filed in the

District and High Courts have been pending for years, and there are numerous

cases of lack of judicial action taken in terms of awarding compensation and

instructing the security forces to produce the disappeared and so forth.

The tribunal heard repeated examples of FIRs filed by the families that were

distorted by the police to accuse the victims. Counter FIRs have also been

lodged by the police, the latest incident being as recent as yesterday. Under

the pretext of translating FIRs in Urdu into English, the police has completely

distorted the complaints made in the original FIR. One such case with evidence

was produced before the Independent Tribunal.

The State Human Rights Commission has no power to investigate paramilitary and

military excesses, though it does have the power to request investigation

reports of the enquiry by the paramilitary and the military forces. The SHRC

seems to have failed to exercise its powers proactively to provide justice to

the victims. The general trend is that the State as well as the central

government ignores the recommendations made by this Commission.

3) Rape

The worst case of mass rape was heard by the women jurists from the testimonies

by women from Kunan posh pora, who talked about the night of February 22, 1991,

when the Army came to their village, isolated the men, and gang raped at least

23 women of all ages from 14 to even a 100 year old woman. The rape took place

in front of their young children. There was brutal impact on their bodies and

since then, they have suffered physical and mental trauma for years. They have

been socially discriminated and ostracized, landing them into a traumatic state

of mind that has been permanent. This is the grossest of human rights

violations.

4) Throughout the conflict, people have been maimed and disabled due to the

indiscriminate firing of security forces during even non-violent protests.

People have also been disabled during interrogations where torture was used. We

heard the testimonies from Bijbehara, where forces had indiscriminately opened

fire on peaceful demonstrators in 1993. Many injured persons have been disabled

for life and have suffered mentally, physically, and financially. Hardly any

steps have been taken for their rehabilitation.

The testimonies we heard of disabled persons revealed that they were totally

shocked and shattered. The disabled deposed before us to say that they could

bear with the aftermath of physical injury, but not with the mental pain, agony,

and trauma that make them feel that they die several deaths everyday, rather

than living even once.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1) The controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act should be withdrawn from

J&K. Even the Public Safety Act and other anti-terror laws should correspond to

the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which

India has ratified.

It should be noted that India has been repeatedly criticized in the UN Human

Rights Committee for the existence of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which

violates crucially several articles of the ICCPR.

2) Keeping in view the large concentration of military and paramilitary forces

in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, which is disproportionate to the civilian

population and is also making civil administration ineffective in many matters.

The Government of India should take immediate steps to minimize the number of

these forces in order to bring relief to the civilian population.

3) We recommend the establishment of a special judicial authority making an

independent and thorough inquiry into all allegations of human rights

violations, including disappearances, custodial killings, rape, torture,

including torture of prisoners, fake encounters, and all other cases related to

excesses by security forces.

4) Every case of killing by police and security forces in situations like

protests, demonstrations, riots, etc. should be followed by a judicial inquiry

into the police/security forces firing/actions, followed by proper, time-bound

administrative action. It is made clear that the police have no license to kill

anyone in any situation, unless they can justify this action under Section 100

of the IPC, which has to be done in a judicial procedure.

5) Provide proper rehabilitation to families of deceased, injured, and

traumatized victims, especially the raped.

6) Compensation as interim relief should be arranged promptly. Compensation

should be adequate and purposeful. Compensation should be for both injury to

person as well as for damage to property, i.e. houses, etc.

7) The State should immediately establish Fast Track Courts for the purpose of

trying the large number of cases which are pending.

8) Both state as well as central governments should take immediate steps to

address the sufferings of detainees who are languishing in various jails and

interrogation centres in and outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir and have

been complaining of torture and inhuman treatment inside the jails.

9) The State should provide witness protection since many of the witnesses are

being threatened.

Justice S. Suresh, former Judge, Bombay High Court

Justice Malay Sengupta, former CGI, Sikkim High Court

Justice A. Baruah, former Judge, Calcutta High Court

Professor Kamal Mittra Chenoy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Dr. Nusrat Andrabi, former Principal, Government Women's College, Srinagar

Professor Anuradha Chinoy, Jawahrlal Nehru University, Delhi

Shujaat Bukhari, senior journalist, Srinagar

IPT was organised by HRLN (Human Rights Law Network) & ANHAD

……………………..DECLARATION………………………

Name : ...........................NAGARAJ.M.R.


Address : ...................LIG-2 / 761 , HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS OFFICE , LAKSHMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL , MYSORE – 570017     INDIA

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Social commitment : every human being is endowed with certain human rights by virtue of birth , one of those rights , right of expression . we don't need any government's or authorities or court's or any so called MNC organization's approval & confirmation of our human rights. In exercise of those human rights I am doing this duty of a human rights watchman & voicing my concerns to authorities , seeking justice to the oppressed.

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Warning : we do not have any relations whatsoever with US based MNC HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH  ( HRW ) or it's associates . If some body assumes that we are related to them , it is at their own risk. In the past if some body assumed that we are related to them without seeking
clarifications from us , without reading the paper in detail , it is his / her own fault. In future also , if any body needs clarification about us they are always welcome. Wherever term HRW or human rights watch is used in our e newspaper since it's inception till date , it refers to my professional title of a human rights watchman ie humanrightswatch , but doe not refer to US based HRW or
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I ,NAGARAJ.M.R. hereby do declare that information given above are true to the best of my knowledge & belief.



date : 23/02/2010…………………………..your's sincerely,

place : India…………………………………Nagaraj.M.R.

INDIA: Dubey represents a decaying system

The case of police torture reported from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh state on 17

February must be a shame for the entire country. The video of sexual harassment

and torture of a Dalit woman by Police Sub-Inspector, Mr. Kailasnath Dubey, in

the presence of another woman officer in full public view was televised across

the country. As usual, when the incident became public, the government

reluctantly responded by temporarily suspending the officer.

The video, available from a newsfeed by The Times of India is available here.

Officers like Dubey are not rare in India. Cases documented by the Asian Human

Rights Commission (AHRC) show a consistent and widespread pattern in the use of

torture and other forms of inhuman treatment by law enforcement agencies in the

country. Contrary to the general belief like those reflected in the viewers'

comments in the video mentioned above, police officers who resort to violence

and inhuman treatment against persons in their custody, or members of the public

are omnipresent in India.

The current state of Indian police is reflected in Dubey's despicable act. The

incident is the external manifestation of an inept and wasted institution,

incapable of discharging the responsibilities of public service. Dubey is the

representative of a state institution that has been neglected, overburdened and

systematically denied any form of modernisation. The primitiveness of this

institution is reflected in its intellect that still depends on brute force as

an accepted means of crime investigation. Its colonial mindset is echoed in the

acts of police officers like Dubey, who believe that it is their lawful right to

punish people at will.

The government that has done nothing so far to modernise the law enforcement

agencies is solely responsible for this. This neglect is intentional, and is a

calculated negation of the constitutional duty by the government. When

legislative processes that pleases the administration's whims like the

Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2008 gets a 'fast lane'

approach, an equally or probably more important piece of legislation, the

Prevention of Torture Bill, 2008 is subjected to the legislative deepfreeze

since the day it was drafted.

Government's lack of interest in the issue is reflected in the Bill. The Bill, a

mere 477 words in a page and half, not only fails to meet international

standards against torture, but also falls short of the country's own domestic

jurisprudence on the issue developed by its courts, in particular the Supreme

Court of India. The Bill, like Dubey, represents yet another institution in the

country, its legislature, and its collective intellectual dishonesty.

Temporarily suspending Dubey from service is a standard practice adopted by the

government to avoid responsibility. Dubey is a Sub-Inspector of Police, having

officers under his command and above him. The question is, what other procedures

will follow the suspension.

Will there be an independent investigation in the case? Is there any mechanism

other than the facade of a departmental inquiry to investigate crimes of this

nature? Are Dubey's acts a crime? If it is a crime, how is it different from a

crime of similar nature committed by an ordinary citizen? Are Dubey's superior

officers responsible for Dubey's conduct? And above all, how would the

government compensate the victim in the case and based on what standards?

Torture is viewed as a heinous crime. It is condemned internationally and its

use considered a denominator with which the justice institutions are assessed.

Good law enforcement agencies being a necessary requisite for development, in

developed nations, torture is rare as opposed to countries like India.

Sustainable and equitable growth is impossible to achieve without healthy

justice institutions.

India has thus far failed to accept the reality that its policing requires an

overhauling. The country has conveniently excused its self from ratifying the UN

International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading

Treatment or Punishment on the ground that its domestic legal framework is

capable of dealing with the issue without obliging to an international

framework.

India has repeatedly refused to accept the request of the Rapporteur on Torture

to visit the country. In fact it has refused entry to several other mandate

holders within the UN framework, a negative denominator with which India's human

rights framework is assessed.

Torture negates the concept of democracy. It promotes corruption and mostly

affects the poor. Torture has no place in a rule of law framework and vitiates

the moral as well as legal authority of a government.

A government that lets its law enforcement agencies to torture the citizens

rules by fear not by the law. Such a government is equally responsible for the

crime like the torturer police officer.

India Seeks Jail For GM Food Critics

By Devinder Sharma

I am not sure whether you would believe your ears. You can't probably imagine

that any sensible government (except for USA, of course) can try to gag your

voice. If you thought that your fundamental right to speech and freedom is

guaranteed under the Constitution, you need to think again. The proposed

National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) bill is actually trying not

only to silence the opposition to GM foods, but also has provisions that can put

you in jail for a minimum of six months.

Look at the power of the GM companies, the ghost of the Emergency era is back.

During the Emergency, all those who opposed Mrs Indira Gandhi were jailed. But

the proposed NBRA goes still further. In addition to putting you in jail, it

also imposes a fine of Rs 2 lakh. And if you hold a demonstration against a

university or try to 'obstruct' research, you face imprisonment for three months

and/or a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

This is the power and reach of the GM companies. The US is already contemplating

legal provisions which will outlaw organic farming. In India, the Department of

Biotechnology, which has possibly framed this legislation, is aiming at turning

Indian science into a ghetto.

If the bill was already in force, you and me (those who opposed the introduction

of Bt brinjal) would have been in jail by now. Dr M S Swaminathan and Dr Pushpa

Bhargava too would have been in jail. Interestingly, and as I told Mail Today:

"Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who has questioned the safety of GM crops,

would have been behind bars because he would have violated it."

Here is the report from the front page of Mail Today:

GOVT MOOTS JAIL FOR GM FOOD CRITICS

By Dinesh C Sharma in New Delhi

http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=1922010

Draconian clause in biotech regulatory Bill aims at muzzling debate on safety of

GM products

IF THE ministry of science and technology has its way, criticising genetically-

modified ( GM) products could land you in jail.

An Indian citizen who questions the safety of any GM food or medicine could be

put behind bars for a minimum period of six months under a new law proposed by

the ministry.

The clause to silence critics of GM food is contained in the Biotechnology

Regulatory Authority of India ( BRAI) Bill,2009 prepared by the Department of

Biotechnology, which is a wing of the ministry of science and technology headed

by Prithviraj Chavan.

'Misleading public about organism and products' is one of the crimes for which

punishment has been prescribed in Section 63, Chapter 13 of the Bill which deals

with various " offences and penalties". The clause specifically deals with

critics of biotech products including GM food crops.

PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE TO POSCO

People in Niyamgiri Hills Under Threat

I am deeply concerned about the negative impacts that a planned bauxite mine in

the Niyamgiri Hills will have on the Dongria Kondh, an Advisai community that

has lived on and around the Niyamgiria Hills for centuries. The Dongria Kondh

depend on these Hills for their food, water, livelihoods and cultural identity.

If mining goes ahead their entire way of life and their survival as a distinct

people is under threat.

I am also concerned about the impact of Vendanta Aluminium's refinery in

Lanjigarh. The existing refinery operation has caused air and water pollution,

and undermined the human rights of local people. Despite this, Vedanta Aluminium

– the operator – has sought permission for a six-fold of the refinery's

capacity.

No assessment of the human rights impact of either the mine or refinery has ever

been undertaken – despite the clear risks. Local people have been given almost

no accurate information on either project, and consultation processes have been

wholly inadequate.

The companies involved in the mining and refinery projects, both subsidiaries of

Vedanta Resources - have repeatedly ignored community concerns, breached state

and national regulatory frameworks and failed to adhere to accepted

international standards and principles in relation to the human rights impact of

business. The government of India has failed to enforce national legal and

regulatory requirements properly and protect human rights.

I urge you to:

- Refuse clearance for the refinery expansion and mining plans until full human

rights impact assessments are carried out, and human rights concerns addressed.

This includes respecting the rights of the Dongria Kondh to their traditional

lands and seeking their free, prior, informed consent in relation to the

project.

- Take action to address the existing pollution caused by the Lanjigarh refinery

and enforce laws and regulations to prevent any further pollution.

Your's  sincerely,

Nagaraj.M.R.

Classic Financial and Corporate Scandals

"Bankers who hire money hungry geniuses should not always express surprise and

amazement when some of them turn around with brilliant, creative, and illegal

means of making money."

Linda Davies

The quotation is from a speech by the financial thriller writer on the

Psychology of Risk, Speculation and Fraud, at a conference on EMU in Amsterdam.

Visit : http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/scandals/classic.html ,

Shed a Tear for US  Democracy

by Robert Weissman, Public Cititzen

January 22nd, 2010

Shed a tear for US democracy.

Yesterday, in the case Citizens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that

corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to

influence election outcomes.

Money from Exxon, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer and the rest of the Fortune 500 is

already corroding the policy making process in Washington, state capitals and

city halls. Now, the Supreme Court tells these corporate giants that they have a

constitutional right to trample our democracy.

In eviscerating longstanding rules prohibiting corporations from using their own

monies to influence elections, the court invites giant corporations to open up

their treasuries to buy election outcomes. Corporations are sure to accept the

invitation.

The predictable result will be corporate money flooding the election process;

huge targeted campaigns by corporations and their front groups attacking

principled candidates who challenge parochial corporate interests; and a

chilling effect on candidates and election officials, who will be deterred from

advocating and implementing policies that advance the public interest but injure

deep-pocket corporations.

Because the decision is made on First Amendment constitutional grounds, the

impact will be felt not only at the federal level, but in the states and

localities, including in state judicial elections.

In one sense, the decision was a long time in coming. Over the past 30 years,

the Supreme Court has created and steadily expanded the First Amendment

protections that it has afforded for-profit corporations.

But in another sense, the decision is a startling break from Supreme Court

tradition. Even as it has mistakenly equated money with speech in the political

context, the court has long upheld regulations on corporate spending in the

electoral context. The Citizens United decision is also an astonishing overreach

by the court. No one thought the issue of corporations' purported right to spend

money to influence election outcomes was at stake in this case until the Supreme

Court so decreed. The case had been argued in lower courts, and was originally

argued before the Supreme Court, on narrow grounds related to application of the

McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

The court has invented the idea that corporations have First Amendment rights to

influence election outcomes out of whole cloth. There is surely no originalist

interpretation to support this outcome, since the court created the rights only

in recent decades. Nor can the outcome be justified in light of the underlying

purpose and spirit of the First Amendment. Corporations are state-created

entities, not real people. They do not have expressive interests like humans;

and, unlike humans, they are uniquely motivated by a singular focus on their

economic bottom line.

Corporate spending on elections defeats rather than advances the democratic

thrust of the First Amendment.

We, the People cannot allow this decision to go unchallenged. We, the People

cannot allow corporations to take control of our democracy.

There are some things that can be done to mitigate the damage from today's

decision.

First, we must have public financing of elections. Public financing will give

independent candidates a base from which they may be able to compete against

candidates benefiting from corporate expenditures. We will intensify our efforts

to win rapid passage of the Fair Elections Now Act, which would provide

congressional candidates with an alternative to corporate-funded campaigns

before fundraising for the 2010 election is in full swing. Sponsored by Sen.

Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, and Rep. John Larson, D-Connecticut, the bill would

encourage unlimited small-dollar donations from individuals and provide

candidates with public funding in exchange for refusing corporate contributions

or private contributions in amounts of more than $100. The proposal has broad

support, including more than 126 co-sponsors in the House.

In the wake of the court's decision, it is also essential that the presidential

public financing system be made viable again. Cities and states will also need

to enact public financing of elections.

Congress must ensure that corporate CEOs do not use corporate funds for

political purposes, against the wishes of shareholders, with legislation

requiring an absolute majority of shares to be voted in favor, before any

corporate political expenditure is permitted. There are other legislative

approaches to limit today's damage, including a range of measures proposed by

Representative Alan Grayson, D-Florida.

These mitigating measures will not be enough to offset today's decision,

however. The decision itself must be overturned.

We need a constitutional amendment specifying that for-profit corporations are

not entitled to First Amendment protections, except for freedom of the press. A

constitutional amendment is not a thing to throw around lightly. But today's

decision so imperils our democratic well-being, and so severely distorts the

rightful purpose of the First Amendment, that a constitutional corrective is

demanded.

Winning a constitutional amendment will be a long-term effort. The starting

point is for the people to petition their government to demand action. Public

Citizen with allies has launched such a petition effort. Got to

<www.dontgetrolled.org> to sign the petition.

The Supreme Court has lost its way. Democracy is rule of the people -- real,

live humans, not artificial entity corporations. Now it's time for the people to

reassert their rights.

Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen <www.citizen.org>.

Asia Inhales While the West Bans the Deadly Carcinogen

by Melody Kemp, Special to CorpWatch

February 16th, 2010

Seoul University's Dr Domyung Paek addresses the ANROAV meeting Phnom Penh 2009.

In parts of Asia, carrying 500 grams of one white powder can draw a death

sentence, but importing 1,000 tons of another lethal white dust is both legal

and profitable.

Asbestos, a known carcinogen banned in much of the world, is a common and

dangerous building block in much of Asia's development and construction boom.

This other white powder causes 100,000 occupational deaths per year, according

to Medical News Today.

While images of kids with heroin-loaded needles stuck in their arms spark public

outrage, clouds of asbestos fibers in factories and on construction sites often

draw official shrugs and denials. Illicit drug use does not rank among the top

ten causes of death in young adults, according to a 2009 global study of

adolescent health by the Murdoch Children's Research Center in Melbourne in

2009. But in some Asian nations including China, asbestos is in the top ten

causes of occupational disease in laborers, some of whom were exposed as working

children. The numbers are generally thought to be higher since much of Asia's

data rely on a highly mobile workforce with high a turnover rate.

Like a sleeping grizzly bear, asbestos can be deadly when disturbed, and all

along the mining, manufacturing, installation, cutting, and deconstruction

processes, the mineral is turned into air-borne fibers that lodge in the lungs

and cause fatal respiratory diseases, including mesothelioma.

Across much of Asia, white asbestos, also known as chrysotile, is widely used to

make asbestos-cement construction material such as roofing tiles, wall panels,

and expansion joints, as a fire proofer, and in brake linings and gaskets in

large vehicles. As part of the process of development, people are trading

bug-filled, flammable grass roofs for asbestos cement tiles and walls.

A few years ago at a state-owned roof tile factory in Vietnam young male workers

clad only in shorts carried bags labeled "Asbestos-Kazakhstan." The air was

thick with white dust huffing up like steam from lava. Visiting occupational

health and safety experts held their breath as long as they could; some

smothered their faces in dust masks. The workers did not have that luxury. Their

only protection was handkerchiefs tied bandit-style over their mouths and noses

as they climbed the sides of the hoppers.

"I know it's dangerous," said the manager spreading his hands and shrugging,

"but it's also cheap, and people only want to buy cheap tiles."

Drugs or Dust

"It's just a PR campaign when they say that asbestos can kill," Uralasbest's

Viktor Ivanov told AFP in 2007, when he headed the Chrysotile Association, an

industry group based in the Russian town of Asbest. The website for Uralasbest,

the Ural Asbestos Mining & Ore Dressing Company, calls the company the world's

"oldest and largest manufacturer and supplier of chrysotile." In 2005 the

Russian firm produced about a quarter of the world's chrysotile asbestos and

exported it to 35 countries (pdf): 53 percent outside the Commonwealth of

Independent States (to China, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, etc.), and

13 percent within the CIS nations that had been part of the former Soviet Union

(Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, etc.).

Very little of the product ends up in the West. More than 60 countries have

partially or completely banned asbestos, including the United States, Australia,

Japan and South Korea. The EU nations and others have completely banned both

brown amphibole and white chrysotile asbestos, and the International Agency for

Research on Cancer has classified all types as a human carcinogen. Although some

studies have found that chrysotile's small fiber size makes it less virulent

than brown amphibole, the WHO is unequivocal: "no threshold has been established

for the carcinogenic risk of chrysotile."(pdf)

But asbestos merchants, disputing World Health Organization (WHO) data and

overwhelming scientific evidence, claim that chrysotile is safe. Uralabest's

website decries "the wave of anti-asbestos psychose [sic] [that] was spread over

Western Europe." "Today's asbestos industry is totally harmless," Tatiana

Kochetova of the Asbest-based Institute for Asbestos Projects told the Russian

Journal. "There hasn't been one case of asbestos caused disease here for many

years. Locally produced asbestos does not cause any harm."

Researchers Jock McCulloch and Geoffrey Tweedale document that the rates of

malignancies dropped in Asbest only after the introduction of dust control

technologies (and the dispersal of ill workers). Those same safety measures

that, in any case, mitigate rather than eliminate risk are largely lacking in

the countries to which Russian asbestos is exported. (McCulloch J and Tweedale G

2008 Defending the Indefensible: The Global asbestos Industry and its Fight for

Survival. OUP.)

Russia's Exports

Uralabest's product comes from Asbest, a classic monogorod, or single-industry

town in Bazhenouskoye in north of Kazakhstan, along the eastern slope of the

Ural ridge. The open-pit mine covers 90 sq. km. and stretches 11.5 km long, 1.8

km wide and almost 300 meters deep. There, some 10,000 workers turn out more

than 500,000 tons of chrysotile asbestos annually.

In 2009, Uralasbest was forecasting production of 450,000 tons, "a significant

portion of the world market," and its FY 2006 revenues were $192 million,

according to Rye, Man & Gor Securities (pdf). Russia produced 925,000 tons of

asbestos in 2008, according to the US Geological Survey, almost half the

estimated world production of about 2 million tons a year, and worth $900

million.

Once a state-owned corporation, Uralasbest is now privatized. More than half of

Uralasbest share capital is owned through a Russian regional bank (Urals Bank

for Reconstruction and Development). Stroyexport, another Russian company, owns

14 percent, and two South Africa-registered companies -- Petrov & Co and Mavrol

Management -- own 21percent. The top managers control about 30 percent of the

company (pdf). In 2007 Uralasbest entered into a joint venture with Swiss Minmet

Financing Company to recover magnesium from its asbestos mine tailings. This

move was meant as a hedge against the global decline in construction.

Perhaps more threatening to Uralabest's economic future than recession is the

growing awareness that asbestos is toxic, and alternatives are available. In

2000, citing Canada's high level support for its industry as a model, Russian

asbestos industry officials sought Vladimir Putin's assistance in countering

"asbestphobia."

Russian corporations also looked to Canada's -- and Kazakh's -- marketing

efforts in newly rich Asian nations. That strategy has produced rich results

according to the World Asbestos Reports, and the WHO confirms that some

countries have reduced restrictions and increased production and use of

chrysotile.

India Imports

In 2008 India – along with Pakistan, Canada, Russia – rejected the banning of

chrysotile asbestos mandated under the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed

Consent (PIC). PIC lists chemicals that require exchange of information on

health hazards prior to trade.

India, which imported 360,000 tons of asbestos in 2006, claimed that evidence of

chrysotile's lethality was not conclusive, and that it was awaiting the results

of a major health study before joining the convention, according to Madhumitta

Dutta of the Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI).

However, "India failed to inform the international community ... that the

[health] study was funded in part by the asbestos industry," charged Dutta.

"Still worse, the study was kept under wraps, and is not accessible to public

health specialists or labor groups."

Gopal Krishna, a consultant on clean industry and also of BANI, condemned his

country's rejection of PIC. "There is a political consensus in India to promote

asbestos at any human cost," he wrote in India Together in 2006.

Underlying that consensus are the close links between the asbestos industry and

some prominent Indian politicians. "With asbestos firms being owned by

politicians or the state itself, the government seems to be following a classic

ostrich policy," Krishna wrote. "The reality is that the country's most powerful

parliamentarians bless the asbestos industry."

They include Buddhadev Bhattacharya, the chief minister of Bengal's Communist

government, who gave Utkal Asbestos Ltd. an Environment Excellence Award which

it used in its advertising. Rebranding itself in 2006, the company dropped the

word asbestos from its name. Now called UAL Industries Ltd., it is a major

producer of fiber cement corrugated sheets and accessories under the brand

Konark, and its website boasts that it "has left no stone unturned to achieve

its motive of becoming the leading player in Eastern India."

Visaka Industries' chairman, G. Vivekanand, is the son of G. Venkataswamy, a

member of Parliament, deputy leader of the Indian Congress Parliamentary Party,

and a former Union Textile Minister. Vivekanand put out a fact sheet claiming

that chrysotile is safe, and blamed Western media coverage of past events for

generating unfounded fear.

Indian media reported that Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi encouraged Visaka

industries to set up in her constituency Rae Bareli, and saw the plants as a way

to boost employment and electability. The plans were fast tracked, breaking

records for passage through the Departments of Environment and Forests. Visaka

annually produces 600,000 tons of asbestos sheets, mostly used in roofing. One

of its main marketing targets is India's rural population, 80 to 85 percent of

which now live under thatched roofs, the company website notes.

In October 2009 Visaka Industries announced it is setting up a 100,000-ton

capacity asbestos cement sheet plant at Sambalpur in Orissa at an estimated cost

of $8.6 million "to meet the rural demand." It is also ramping up the capacity

of its Pune plant from 65,000 to 100,000 tons per annum, according Vivekanand.

In 2007 an Indian news channel showed workers hand-mixing asbestos into rice,

while a voice-over intoned that chrysotile is safe enough to use as a husking

agent. The rice was later sold as premium basmati.

Dying to Work

"I have seen young men suffering from the cancers caused by this material

[asbestos]," says a guard at an asbestos cement sheet factory in Guangdong,

China. "The bosses don't care, and the government intimidates us [who are]

working for safety. They say we are sabotaging China's development. Sometimes I

get very frightened and cannot sleep thinking I will be arrested. I may get the

disease, as the air is full of dust. I hope that someone would help me if that

happened. I can't quit. Where would I go? I have no skills and jobs are hard to

find."

This worker's story is echoed throughout the Asia. In China alone, the official

incidence of industrial lung diseases is around 100,000 per year. Experts

familiar with Beijing's official statistics would multiply that figure by three

or four to get close to the real toll.

Harvard University and the World Health Organization report that occupational

injuries and disease already surpass infectious disease as the major causes of

death in the developing world and threaten to undermine any economic or moral

imperatives gained by trade. More people die per day of workplace illness

throughout the world than are killed by global terrorist attacks, wars, drugs,

or by the various pandemics (such as avian and swine flu) that attract huge

institutional funding, according to Sanjiv Pandita, director of the Hong Kong

based Asia Monitor Resource Center.

If you consider that 100,000 per year die of asbestos alone, it is not hard to

extrapolate that figure to match Pandita's assertion. Meanwhile, the systematic

erosion of trade union power and labor standards by globalization has

exacerbated the problem and undermined opposition/occupational justice.

Working for Safety

Workers and activists around Asia are not convinced by industry reassurances and

are getting organized. At a September 2009 meeting in Phnom Penh of the Asian

Network for the Rights of Accident Victims (ANROAV),120 activists and

Asian-based academics from 16 countries heard stories of frustration and

harassment. Delegates charged that globalization has led to "state sponsored

pimping"-- governments selling workers' bodies and lives in return for

investment.

The importance of the issue, and frustration from waiting for governments and

employers to act are evidenced by steadily increasing attendance at ANROAV's

annual meetings over its ten years' existence. "While lots of money is made by

CSR [corporate social responsibility] consultants, we see little change in the

death rates" said Hong Chee, a Hong Kong delegate.

Mandy Hawes, an American occupational health and safety advocate, reminded

delegates that occupational standards may be legal but not safe. "We should

bring environmental and occupational standards into line," she said.

Opposition to asbestos is growing and is fueled around the world by a flood of

compensation demands. Claimants, dragging desperately on oxygen, have pleaded

before TV cameras for compensation and an end to asbestos use.A regional

coordinating group was set up earlier in 2009 at a meeting in Bangkok. A-Ban is

seeking an Asia-wide asbestos ban. It has its work cut out. As the anti-asbestos

activists know all too well, bans on international trade in asbestos have been

barely disturbed the industry. Like Uralasbest, companies have merely shifted

their marketing focus to developing countries where environmental and workplace

standards are more lax. China now absorbs 54 percent of global production, says

Ye-Yong Choi of BANKO, the Korean movement that recently achieved a ban on

asbestos.

He recommends a global campaign in which activists "move much more strategically

and collectively. …I have felt we are too gentle in some way whilst our enemy,

the asbestos industry, moves very collectively and aggressively."

Anatomy of Asbestos

Despite industry and government denials, evidence of chrysotile's harm was clear

in lung X-rays showing unmistakable white patches indicating the inevitably

deadly progression of mesothelioma--a cancer directly linked to asbestos

exposure. Etched into the medical data on the corner of each film was the word

"chrysotile," the supposedly safe form of the mineral.

The X-rays belonged to Dr. Domyung Paek, chest disease specialist and

epidemiologist from the University of Seoul, Korea. His collection of medical

transparencies showed that work-and environment-related chest disease leaves a

distinctive radiological calling card that is easy to differentiate from

tuberculosis and other lung diseases.

All the victims in Paek's X-rays were Asian workers, belying the myth propagated

by some Asian labor officials that asbestosis and mesothelioma are "Western"

diseases. Paek predicted that Asian nations would see tsunamis of

asbestos-related diseases, marked by the gasping deaths of the pale, drawn - and

often young - victims. His view is supported by Japanese researcher Ken

Takahashi, who on reviewing historical and global trends, found that marked

rises in incidence and prevalence inevitably preceded national bans.

Studies cited by McCulloch and Tweedale have found asbestos disease in young

Russian and Kazakh workers with less than three years exposure. Victims usually

die a year after diagnosis. Expensive drugs such as Alimpta and Platinol can

lengthen a patient's life by up to six months, but are well beyond the capacity

of Asian workers. Palliative care, a tall order in most poor countries, is the

best they can hope for.

The pain of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases can be agonizing

and requires the other white powder -- morphine -- to provide relief. Ironically

many of the countries where asbestos disease is rife, such as India, have a

shortfall in the supply of legal scheduled opiates.

Around Asia

But there is no shortfall in asbestos. In addition to the raw mineral imported

from Russia and other countries, Europeans keep sending old ships to India and

Bangladesh to be broken up. Bangladesh needs the steel, but along with it comes

tons of old friable asbestos including the more dangerous brown variety.

China, in addition to its role as major importer, also exports asbestos. The

sourcing website Alibaba.com lists at least ten Chinese companies, some with ISO

9001 certification, that sell asbestos products. Tsyuyoshi Kawakami of the

U.N.'s International Labor Organization's Bangkok office found Chinese asbestos

in Lao cement factories on the outskirts of Vientiane. The Lao government,

currently enjoying a resources boom, is thinking of exploiting its lodes of

asbestos, according to a Lao NGO worker.

There are some bright spots. Thailand, until recently one of the region's major

users (brake linings, gaskets, and roofing tiles), has reduced both importation

and production of asbestos-containing goods.

Other Asian countries are beginning to rethink asbestos use. Joint research done

by BANKO and Indonesian's own fledgling anti-asbestos organization IBAN in 2009,

documented asbestos on the windowsills of schools and homes surrounding two

asbestos cement works in Cibinong (West Java).

Cambodia, too, is starting to recognize that its burgeoning construction

industry may bring the hazardous materials along for the ride. Dr. Leng Tong,

director of Occupational Health and Safety in Cambodia's Ministry for Labor and

Vocational Training told the ANROAV delegates that "Cambodia strongly commits …

to eliminate asbestos from the workplaces in the region."

"If he is serious," Choi of BANKO commented, "it would not only gain Cambodia a

huge amount of prestige in the world, but also provide a wonderful example to

neighboring countries."

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