Four-Member Independent Tribunal To Visit Kandhamal From Today

NEW DELHI, MAY 12, 2008, 09.50 Hrs (CBCI News):

A four-member Independent Tribunal is visiting Kandhamal district in Orissa to see the relief, reconstruction and security situation in the district four months after the violence that traumatized The Christian religious minority groups in the region from 24 December 2007 to 2 January 2008.

The Tribunal will be headed by the eminent jurists Justice Hospet Suresh, Justice Kolse Patil [both former High Court judges], Director General of Police [retired], Gujarat, Mr. R. B. Sreekumar and Ms Teesta Setalvad, the noted Human rights activist.

The Tribunal will visit Orissa from 12 to 17 May 2007 to hold hearings. The members of the Tribunal will arrive in Bhubaneswar on 12th may 2008, and will travel to Bamunigaon, Kandhamal via Behrampur. The tribunal members will visit the major blocks affected by the violence. The public hearings, in which a cross section of victims including displaced villagers will depose, will be held in Balliguda from 13th May to 15th May 2008, both days inclusive.

The Independent Tribunal is expected to return to Bhubaneswar via Phulbani on 16th May 2008. It will release its preliminary report at a Press Conference in Bhubaneswar on 17th May 2008 before the members depart for Mumbai. The final report will be published in due course

Copies of the findings will also be sent to the President and Prime Minister of India, Hon'ble Governor of Orissa, the Hon'ble Chief Minister, the Home Secretary and Director General of Police, Orissa, the National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, the National Minorities Commission, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, the national Commission for Scheduled Tribes, the national Commission for Women, the Press Council of India, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi, and other authorities.

The Independent Tribunal will set its own terms of reference and procedures.

The coordinating groups have informed the State government and the State Civil and Police authorities about the Independent Tribunal and its tentative itinerary.

Independent Tribunals and commissions set up by civil society have a distinguished global tradition and their reports have formed important inputs in opinion forming, reforms and human rights legislation.

India has also had a distinguished tradition of Independent Tribunals which have had an impact on civil society and have unearthed truth and brought out facts that governments, administrations, police and political parties have sought to suppress. Major recent tribunals have been on the Bhopal gas tragedy, police atrocities in the Punjab in the 1980s, the Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002, displacement, child labour, anti-Dalit violence and atrocities, police impunity, fake encounters, custodial deaths and issues such as the Nandigram violence.

Sent by

Dr John Dayal
President, AICU