June 16 - 25: Raipur: 10 day solidarity fast in support of Dr. Binayak Sen & Ajay T G

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 members of the People's Union for Civil
Liberties (PUCL) <http://www.pucl.org/>, 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-constitutional 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.

Love,
 Rajendra Sail (9826804519),
Gautam Bandopadhyay (9826171304),
Ilina Sen (9425206875),
Kavita Srivastava (9351562965),
Faisal Khan (9313106745),
Sandeep Pandey (ashaashram@yahoo.com)
 For more information, please see:
About Binayak <http://www.savebinayak.ukaid.org.uk/index.html>
Ajay T G arrest<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chhattisgarh-net/message/8903>
Amnesty Int. on Ajay T G
arrest<http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/010/2008/en/a7506618-21c9-11dd-9fd1-1991658d2e30/asa200102008eng.html>
Analysis of Binayak's case by
PUCL<http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Human-rights/2007/sen-case-analysis.html>
On Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act
2006<http://oldcontent.newswatch.in/news-analyses/attacks-on-scribes/3893.html>
On Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
2004<http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF106.htm>
Salwa Judum : PUCL
report<http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Human-rights/2006/slawajudum.htm>
Online
petition to free Binayak<http://www.petitiononline.com/Binayak/petition.html>
Status of Binayak's trial <http://www.freebinayaksen.org/>
Solidarity with Binayak <http://monthlyreview.org/0607sen.htm>
Jonathan Mann Award Announcement for Binayak
<http://www.globalhealth.org/news/article/9833>
Human Rights Watch
Statement<http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/29/india18681.htm>
Medico Friend Circle Brochure on
Binayak<http://www.mail-archive.com/greenyouth@googlegroups.com/msg03256.html>