Dear Marcos, Your family and mine have had a familial relationship going back to my father's time, which began in 1881. I therefore take what you write very seriously and give your words the weight they deserve. I have read your current post very carefully. You have given us your own eyewitness account of having seen cases of liquor stacked in the room of an Indian Army man who like you was staying at the Mandovi Hotel in 1962. You have given us your revered relative Mons. Gomes-Catao's account of Indian army personnel stealing plumbing equipment from Old Goa churches. These are obvious examples of wrongdoing that I join you in condemning. However, earlier in your post you mention Adv. Antonio Lobo "not delving into the suffering faced by the general populace at the hands of army personnel in the form of robberies, rapes, harrassment and intimidation, which are widely known perhaps to survivors of my generation but difficult to raise... without [being able to cite] specific instances." Then, to make your accusations stick, you add: "However, I do recollect some specific cases of which I was a witness or [on which] I got information from impeccable sources." Those impeccable sources included yourself, a taxi driver, and the Monseigneur. I accept them all. But that testimony referred only to thefts of goods, not to rapes. You have proven to my satisfaction that stuff was stolen, but you have not produced a jot of evidence that there were numerous rapes. People keep accusing the Indian Army of committing multiple rapes, but that charge is unsubstantiated. My own oldest sister, now deceased, who hated the thought of Goa being invaded, admitted to me that very few rapes had been committed by the Indian troops. And when I pressed her on this, and asked, "How many?", she could only point to two. The reports of multiple rapes are a canard, and I am sorry to see someone of your stature perpetuating them by saying they are "widely known perhaps to survivors of my generation." I am such a survivor, and I have spoken to other survivors who lived in Goa at the time, and some of them are my cousins, but they had no personal knowledge of multiple rapes being committed by the Indian Army, only hearsay. Significantly, the hearsay came from people who had an interest in smearing an army that had routed their Portuguese "heroes." With my very best personal regards, Victor Rangel-Ribeiro --- On Sat, 1/5/13, Jean & Marcos Catao <cata...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Jean & Marcos Catao <cata...@yahoo.com> Subject: [Goanet] GOA LIBERATION RETROSPECT Adv. Antonio Lobo To: "goanet@lists.goanet.org" <goanet@lists.goanet.org> Date: Saturday, January 5, 2013, 11:07 AM It was heartening to read the exposition on the unbecoming travails imposed on some prominent GOANS by the PROCONSUL sent to GOA after Operation VIJAY, who behaved even more arrogantly than the Roman Cesars. It was specially encouraging that the courageous expose was not censored. Adv. Antonio Lobo was gracious enough to confine himself to the problems faced by some eminent GOANS not delving into the suffering faced by the general populace at the hands of army personnel in the form of robberies, rapes, harassment and intimidation, which are widely known perhaps to survivors of my generation but difficult to raise because of the inevitable comment that would follow about the lack of validity of speaking in general terms, without specific instances.However, I do recollect some speciific cases of which I was a witness or got information from impeccabel sources. I was in GOA in early January 1962, staying in one of the front rooms of "Hotel Mandovi". People familiar with the hotel will know it is possible to peep into the neighbouring room, from the verandah of each front room (facing the river). My neighbour was a Colonel of the JAT Regiment ( a Sikh) and piled at the foot of his bed was an array of two layers of alcoholic beverage boxes rising more than halfway to the ceiling, each containing twelve bottles. There must have been 16-22 boxes. Obviously, an Indian army Colonel's emoluments would nothave sufficed to defray the expenses of such a bonanza!How did they land there? Then, driving from the hotel to the Patriarchal Palace in Altinho, the taxi driver pointed out to me the house of a prominent industrialist, with a gaping hole in thefront wall covered by a makeshift wooden plank, broken down by invading miscreants intent on robbery. And who has not heard of the then current jibe that the I.N.S. Mysore almost sank on the way back to Bombay with the weight of the electronic and other looted goods? Also, the Portuguese in 1960 had renovated some of the churches in Old Goa, installing modern sanitary system and equipment.On 21st December, my uncle, Mons. F.X. Gomes-Catao who, as a Canon had to live in one so as to be able to participate in the daily Matins & Vespers, was amazed to find some army personnel breaking the walls in order to carry away wash basins,comodes,etc!Lucky he was not tempered with! probably because he had nothing worthwhile beyond his books and manuscripts! Finally, in semi-humorous vein attesting to the PROCOSUL's "popularity" among the GOANS of the day, my wife's aunt, a totally apolitical old lady, named her newly acquired dog after the PROCONSUL, which I thought totally unjust to the dog, a consuderate and humane animal!!!. MARCOS GOMES-CATAO
