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"Report Delayed is Justice Denied", says CICH
Citizens' Initiatives for Communal Harmony (CICH) today staged a dharna near
the Goa Assembly Complex, holding up placards, protesting against the
failure of the Goa Government to prepare and release the report of the
enquiry into the communal violence in Sanvordem-Curchorem on 3-4 March 2006.
Citizens' Initiatives has pointed out that after the communal violence in
Sanvordem-Curchorem, the first large-scale incident of organized communal
violence in Goa, it was only in May 2006, that bowing to pressure from
citizens' groups, the Government instituted an enquiry under the District
Collector, North Goa. The enquiry process has been deeply flawed, with the
Collector having taken a long time to get the process of taking depositions
started. When depositions were being taken, adequate effort was not taken to
ensure a secure, conducive atmosphere wherein the victims of the violence
could depose without fear.
Citizens' Initiatives has further stated that after completing the
depositions in July 2006, there has been no sign of the report being
released. Repeated meetings with the Collector and the Chief Secretary have
yielded no fruit apart from general assurances that the report would be
released. The call that went out on the occasion of Goa Liberation Day
2006 from Azad Maidan also went unheeded. Finally, today although the Chief
Secretary has given an assurance that the report would be released by 15 th
February, CICH persisted with its dharna, in order to register protest
against the inordinate delay in the report, which is an indictment of a
government which professes to be secular, in tackling the issue of
communalism.
The victims of the communal violence as well as the common citizens of Goa
have been waiting for the government to identify the perpetrators of the
violence as well as those who instigated them and shielded them. It is only
when stern action is taken that a message will go out to communal forces
that they they cannot play communal games with impunity, CICH has stated.
With placards like "report delayed is justice denied", the dharna focussed
attention on the fact that the wounds of the communal violence in
Sanvordem-Curchorem will continue to fester unless the government shows its
firm commitment to secularism by releasing the report, and taking firm
action against those responsible.
(Albertina Almeida) (Ramesh Gauns)
Co-Convenors,
Citizens' Initiatives for Communal Harmony
January 24, 2007
