Human Rights Watch Report
April 2002, Vol. 14, No. 3(C)

..VIII. RELIEF CAMPS AND REHABILITATION
 

Threats of Forcible Return of Displaced Persons  
In blatant violation of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (Principle 15(d)) a local civil supplies minister in Ahmedabad, Bharat Barot, threatened to close down three camps and forcibly return camp residents to places where their security could not be guaranteed. The minister argued that the predominantly Muslim camps were breeding grounds for terrorism.  

An organizer at the Dariyakhan Ghummat camp told Human Rights Watch: 

Bharat Barot, who is minister for the area, lives half a kilometer away but has not come to the camp.... He wants to remove the camp, but where would we go? We cannot go set up a camp in Pakistan. In many areas Hindus have pushed him away saying don't create animosity here. He is giving press releases saying that there are terrorists here. If they were terrorists then they wouldn't have died, they would have killed and fought back.... Whoever is here is completely helpless if they close and defame the camp. We're not going to send them home; we won't let them close the camp.252
In the third week of March, Barot wrote a letter to the Minister of State for Home, Gordhan Zadaphia, asking him to dismantle the three camps in his constituency housing 6,000 people. More than three-quarters of the camps' inhabitants are Muslim and many are residents of Naroda Patia and Gulmarg Society. Although no incidents had been reported between the camp and area residents, the letter stated that the Hindus living near these camps-in Dariapur-Kazipur-were feeling insecure because of the presence of so many riot victims. Barot also conveyed his demand to Chief Minister Narendra Modi.253 Barot's plea was turned down due to severe national criticism of the role of the state government in the violence.254  

A thirteen-member All-party Committee on Relief and Rehabilitation (the Committee) was set up by the state government on March 16, following an announcement by Prime Minister Vajpayee in the Lok Sabha (House of the People, Indian parliament).255 At the first meeting of the Committee, held under the chairmanship of Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari in late March, Chief Minister Modi said that contrary to his initial proposal to close the camps by the end of March,256 the state would not close the camps and that the victims would not be forced to return to their homes.257 The Committee also agreed to deal with rehabilitation measures and proposed that they be implemented through nongovernmental organizations. The reversal was reportedly prompted by pressure by the opposition Congress party.258 

252 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002. 

253 Meghdoot Sharon, "Riot victims are security risk," Indian Express, March 22, 2002. 

254 Malekar, "Silence of the Lambs," The Week. 

255 "Committee to oversee relief work in Gujarat," Press Trust of India, March 25, 2002.  

256 Manas Dasgupta, "Gujarat police top brass want a `free hand,'" Hindu, March 24, 2002. 

257 Manas Dasgupta, "No plan to close camps - Modi," Hindu. 

258 Ibid.