TEN-DAY FAST IN PROTEST AGAINST THE BLACK LAWS & FOR RELEASE OF Dr BINAYAK SEN, AJAY TG and others 16 - 25 June 2008
A 10-day Fast beginning 16th June, 2008, is being organized at Raipur in Chhattisgarh to express solidarity with Dr. Binayak Sen (Medical Doctor), Ajay T G (Film Maker) -- both are members of the PUCL, and many others detained under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (1967) amended in 2004. These draconian laws sanction the violation of due process by the state, and thus contravene internationally accepted norms of jurisprudence as well as democratic governance. As Senior Advocate K G Kannabiran, National President of PUCL, India, argues in his letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the CSPSA and UAPA operate by criminalizing the very performance of civil liberties activities, and culpability is decided upon not by direct proof, but through guilt by association. The PUCL-Chhattisgarh Unit, with Dr. Binayak Sen's active leadership as its General Secretary, had exposed the government sponsored so-called campaign Salwa-Judum in Chhattisgarh which legitimizes extra-constitutiona l violence and pits adivasis against adivasis. The Fast is to ensure that human rights of marginalized people are not trampled upon and human rights defenders continue to work fearlessly. The Fast will end on 25th June, the day Emergency Rule in India was declared in 1975, followed by a National Convention on Repressive Laws & Human Rights on 25th & 26th June 2008 at Raipur. We invite you to join the campaign to end arbitrary abuse of state power and protect democratic rights of ordinary citizens by joining in the fast for any number of days either in Raipur or at your own place.
