Estimated 190,000 German Women Raped by US Soldiers After WWII

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Estimated 190,000 German Women Raped by US Soldiers After WWII

Around 860,000 German women and girls were raped by Allied soldiers at the end of World War Two, according to a new book published in Germany which estimates that more than one in five rapes were committed by US troops.

The accepted historical view in the West characterizing Allied soldiers who arrived in Germany, once the Nazis were already defeated, as liberators, and their Soviet counterparts as rapists and pillagers, is being challenged in a new book published in Germany, which alleges that Soviet troops far from alone in committing sexual violence against the local population.

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It is worth mentioning that the narrative of "atrocities" committed by the Red Army soldiers in Germany after the defeat of the Nazis has been wildly exaggerated over the course of the last 25 years. The issue has been used for  anti-Russian propaganda aimed at lessening the role of the USSR in defeating Nazi Germany. Curiously, at the same time Western-based historians have turned a blind eye to the rape committed by American and other Western Allied soldiers on occupied German territories.

"Until now, it has been said that between one and two million women and girls were raped by troops of the Red Army," Miriam Gebhardt, the book's author, told Suddeutche Zeitung in an interview last week. "I think there were fewer cases, around 860,000, which also includes victims of western Allied soldiers. Around 190,000 of those may have been victims of US soldiers."

"Around four to five percent of 'occupation children,' who have a German mother and Allied soldier father, were conceived as a result of rape," said Gebhardt, explaining how she got her figures. "Statistically, one from every 100 rapes produces a child," adding that her figures "are based on conservative estimates, they are not set in stone."
As well as statistical evidence, Gebhardt explores memoirs such as those of a priest of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freisin, which were also studied last year by journalist Maximiliane Saalfrank, according to whom "rape came to almost every village."

The subject of rape committed by Soviet soldiers has been covered before in popular culture, notably in the 1992 Helke Sander film "Liberators and Liberated," which was the first to cover the topic of rape committed by Soviet soldiers. In 2009 the film Anonyma: A Woman in Berlin," was released, based on the 1959 memoir of the same name, which also described rape by Russian soldiers.

The Slight of Slights: US Neocons Try to Rewrite History of WWII

"After the war, it was easier to talk about the Red Army raping women," says Gerhardt, than to challenges to the collective memory of the western Allies in 1945 as liberators. Stereotypes from the First World War of uncivilized Russians from the East, and Nazi-era propaganda about the Red Army also played their role, explains the author of the book, called "When the Soldiers Came."


While spreading stories of "uncivilized" and "brutal" Russian soldiers, many Western historians have remained silent on the massive casualties sustained by the Soviet Union during the Second World War. While the war claimed the lives of 418,000 Americans, 600,000 French nationals and 450,000 Britons, the USSR's casualties amounted to 27 million. On Soviet territory, Nazi soldiers committed hideous atrocities on a scale that could hardly be imagined by the West, such as the hanging and burning alive of peaceful civilians, including women and children.

Why a Dalit basti in Mathura has been a ghost town for last three days

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Why a Dalit basti in Mathura has been a ghost town for last three days

It was here on July 28 that a mob lynched Lalua alias Shyam, a Dalit, for allegedly raping and killing a 12-year-old upper caste girl Lali.

Empty Dalit houses in Mathura’s Parkham village after the murder of a 12 year-old girl.

The Valmiki Basti in Parkham village, about 10 km from the Mathura refinery in western Uttar Pradesh, has been a ghost town for the last three days.

At the front is the house of Lalua with household items lying strewn across the floor and cots turned upside down — with no people to drive them away, chickens and dogs have laid claim to everything inside.

It was here on July 28 that a mob lynched Lalua alias Shyam, a Dalit, for allegedly raping and killing a 12-year-old upper caste girl Lali. Sonu, the other man that the mob attacked that day, is lying on a hospital bed in Agra with both his legs and an arm covered in bandages. “It was Lalua, I did no wrong,” he said.

Today, the tension in the village is so high that about 20 families living in the basti have fled their homes fearing for their safety. And the Parkham railway station, where the girl was last seen talking to Lalua and which acted as a border on each side of which the Thakurs and the Valmikis lived, is now guarded by about 20 to 25 armed policemen deployed to keep peace.

Groaning in pain on his hospital bed, Sonu said, “Not one villager wanted to save my life. Had the police not arrived in time I would have been dead, too, like Lalua.”

The deceased girl’s father Mukesh Singh, who belongs to the Thakur community, is an agricultural labourer. His family is in mourning and he is agitated about his daughter’s “brutal murder”.

“Anybody who would have seen the condition in which my daughter’s body was found, would have wanted to kill those two men right there. She was raped, her face was disfigured and she was dumped in the shrubbery near the railway track. What the villagers did to those two men is absolutely right. Had I handed them over to the police, I would have never got justice,” Singh, now a father of five, told The Indian Express.

Senior Superintendent of Police Rakesh Singh said the UP police have registered two FIRs — one in the rape and murder of Lali, naming Lalua and Sonu as accused, and the other in Lalua’s death against unknown persons.

Singh added that they will investigate the case further after Sonu, who is under treatment at the Sarojini Naidu government hospital, is fit to give a statement.

“This (the mob attack) is not lawlessness but a sudden reaction to the incident. In a charged mob, even unknown people participate. A mob does not intend to kill but such things happen in society. It cannot be justified legally. They have taken the law into their hands and they will be arrested and sent to jail,” said the officer.

Following the lynching, Inspector Tejbir Singh, Constable Pradeep Kumar and the local chowki in-charge Nepal Singh were suspended, Singh added.

Mukesh said his daughter took her cow for grazing near the railway station at about 2.30 pm on July 27 and did not return. “At night there are no lights in village. We looked for her with our torches but did not find her,” he said.

The next morning, the Thakurs confronted Lalua after Brijesh, Mukesh’s neighbour, said that he had seen Lali talking to him near the railway station.

According to the FIR, the villagers “sternly asked” Sonu and Lalua about Lali following which the two confessed and led them to the spot in the dense shrubbery where she was raped and killed.

The outraged villagers then decided to take the two to the police chowki, it added.

Police said Lalua, however, made an attempt to flee and was chased down. The villagers then took the two to a spot 4 km away from the chowki and allegedly thrashed them, it added.

“As soon as we got information about the incident, we rushed there and took both of them to the hospital. But Lalua did not survive,” said Singh.

Sonu, who worked as a sweeper at the railway station, said he was combing his hair at his home when the agitated villagers reached there.

“Lalua had done wrong. He had two similar cases pending against him. He used to go to Mathura for court dates. When the villagers confronted him he took my name and that of two others — Arjun and Rajkumar. I could have run away but I had no fear because I did no wrong,” he said.

Sonu’s father Shyamlal had been a sweeper with the Railways for 30 years. The family hails from Agra but has been living in Parkham due to Shyamlal’s job which Sonu took over. Sonu said his wife is mentally ill and two of their children died soon after birth.

“The Thakurs took us near a canal. They hit my head repeatedly with a lathi. Then they hit my feet and then broke my legs. I can’t remember all the faces. There were about 50 to 60 people,” Sonu alleged.

On Wednesday, Sonu’s parents waited by his bedside along with two police officers posted at the hospital for his protection. “My son took over my job because I was too old to work,” Shyamlal said.

Sonu’s mother Ramsinghi broke down when asked about her son. “We will never go back to Parkham. We are too scared. My son has a sick wife, both his children died and now he is on a hospital bed,” she said. “We don’t know where the rest of the Valmikis in the village went. All we know is we can never go back,” Shyamlal said.

Classified Evidence: US Soldiers Raped Boys In Front Of Their Mothers

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Classified Evidence: US Soldiers Raped Boys In Front Of Their Mothers

Now, over a decade later the evidence of these events are beginning to surface, but the Department of Defense is still doing their best to keep it under the radar

(TheAntiMedia) According to a number of global mainstream media sources, the Pentagon is

covering up a disturbing video that was never made public with the rest of the recent torture report.

According to various well respected journalists, including Seymour Hersh, the appalling video was recorded at Abu Ghraib, the notorious US torture dungeon in Iraq that made headlines roughly a decade ago, when the inhumane tactics being used at the prison were exposed.

Sadly, it seems that the evidence released years ago was only scratching the surface.

While the video has remained under wraps thus far, Hersh says it is only a matter of time before it comes out.

Giving a speech at the ACLU last week after the senate torture report was initially released, Hersh gave some insight into what was on the Pentagon’s secret tape.

In the most revealing portion of his speech he said that:

“Debating about it, ummm … Some of the worst things that happened you don’t know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib … The women were passing messages out saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened’ and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It’s going to come out.”

“It’s impossible to say to yourself how did we get there? Who are we? Who are these people that sent us there? When I did My Lai I was very troubled like anybody in his right mind would be about what happened. I ended up in something I wrote saying in the end I said that the people who did the killing were as much victims as the people they killed because of the scars they had, I can tell you some of the personal stories by some of the people who were in these units witnessed this. I can also tell you written complaints were made to the highest officers and so we’re dealing with a enormous massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there and higher, and we have to get to it and we will. We will. You know there’s enough out there, they can’t (Applause). …. So it’s going to be an interesting election year.”

Put into context with another speech that Hersh gave earlier this year, it becomes clear that the women who witnessed these young boys being raped were actually their mothers.

At a speech in Chicago this past June Hersh was quoted as saying:

“You haven’t begun to see evil… horrible things done to children of women prisoners, as the cameras run.”

Other stories at the London Guardian also talked of young Iraqi detainees getting violently raped by US soldiers.

Ten years ago when the initial Abu Ghraib scandal was in the news, the Guardian published the testimony of an Abu Ghraib detainee who allegedly witnessed one of these brutal attacks.

Former detainee Kasim Hilas said in their testimony that:

“I saw [name blacked out] fucking a kid, his age would be about 15-18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard the screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [blacked out], who was wearing the military uniform putting his dick in the little kid’s ass, I couldn’t see the face of the kid because his face wasn’t in front of the door. And the female soldier was taking pictures.”

Now, over a decade later the evidence of these events are beginning to surface, but the Department of Defense is still doing their best to keep it under the radar. That is why now more than ever, it is important to keep the pressure on and force the release of this evidence, while the torture report is fresh in the minds of the general population.

John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war. In addition to his writing and activist work he is also the owner of a successful music promotion company. In 2013, he became one of the organizers of the Free Your Mind Conference, which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled “Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance” at bookpatch.com.

CASTE CULTURE CAN INSPIRE RAPE CULTURE

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CASTE CULTURE CAN INSPIRE RAPE CULTURE

Isn’t there a lot of rape news banging our ears since last 2 years? But what we might have missed are these facts. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 24,923 rapes were reported last year. This figure is supposedly high since majority of rapes are not even registered. Now focus on this statistics that says a major chunk of this act happens in RURAL INDIA!


National Crime Records Bureau says 4 dalit women are raped every day.
Over 80% of these rape cases in High Courts and close to 75% of rape cases in the Supreme Court came from rural areas.
Over 65% of cases involving the rape of a child (less than 12 years old) came from rural areas.
If we dig in more, it’s our DALIT YOUNG WOMEN who are ‘Easy Targets’.  They are teenagers between 13-19 years of age. That Badaun case still gives goose bumps. Why women harassment is so easy in rural India? Let us recall few silly reasons our national leaders have given in past.

1. Their women are suspected of witchcraft.
2. Rural women have no access to toilets and hence have to go out in open at wee hours.
3. If the rural women are not into prostitution, the girls from good families would be raped.
4. Poverty forces them to bargain the loans they take from the riches.

But, one of the most valid and strong reasons behind the torture of dalit women is the Indian Caste System. The upper castes have never respected the lower castes. We can see teenagers addressing elderly servants using ‘tu’ instead of ‘aap’. Talking about our men, they see poor woman as an object of pouring out their hidden desires or anger. A fair example of this is the Bhanwari Devi case. Bhanwari was a dalit woman raped by a bunch or rich men. The judge stated that he believed an upper caste man would never rape a Dalit.

In past, the castes were grouped by in categories: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Later, between 1860 and 1920, the British segregated Indians by caste. Certain groups, now known as “Dalits”, were treated as untouchables. Called the ‘Untouchables’, unfortunately their girls are most likely to be ‘touched’. The cases of girl trafficking have increased more than ever. They are kidnapped from the villages and thrown into prostitution or forced to become domestic help, also an occupation where they face sexual harassment from their masters.

The other day we saw 2 small girls begging at the Rambagh circle traffic light. They were around 8 years old and roaming almost naked. We noticed this 30-something man staring at their bare flat chests non-stop. That made us uncomfortable. Is it the ‘men’s tendency’ or the ‘easily available footpath girls’?

Many think they are poor, are not well-versed with laws and aren’t powerful enough to use them.  So we pick any random beggar from the street, rape her and throw her back. This similar case happened in Jaipur’s city area last year where a garbage-picking girl was raped.


The question now is – will this caste system keep on deciding whose daughter should go into prostitution or get raped? Though, inter-caste marriages in our country show we have started to overlook the caste issue; but in case of women, we still need to negotiate with our hearts.

What The Indian Rape Documentary Doesn’t Explain About Rape Culture

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What The Indian Rape Documentary Doesn’t Explain About Rape Culture

In Dimapur, India on Thursday, an enraged mob stormed a jail, napped an alleged rapist, then stripped and dragged him across town, and eventually killied him. According to local news reports, prison guards and police officers did little to stop the attack.

“Despite [the] public asking to extend the interrogation and take action on the culprit, they forcibly [took him] out,” T.R. Zeliang, the provincial chief minister of Nagaland told the Indian new channel NDTV. “The the security people were overpowered and they could not contain the situation.”
A local law enforcement official told NDTV that police decided against firing on the crowd because so many who gathered in front of the jail wore school uniforms.

“This was not straightforward vigilante justice against a man accused of rape,” an Indian journalist noted. “The underlying tension is linked to anger at illegal migrants. Thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants have migrated from [the province of] Assam to Nagaland in search of jobs. Many say they are now a vulnerable community.”
Considering this, the lynching may have more to do with the fraught ethnic tensions in the region than with a real sense of outrage over his alleged rape of a local woman last month.

This crime comes just as an Indian court banned the broadcast of “India’s Daughter,” a BBC documentary about the gang rape of a young Indian woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012. While the documentary unpacks the events and underlying sentiments that led up to that shocking event, some argue that it undermines the complexities of how India’s rape culture stretches across socio-economic and religious lines as seen in Dimapur.

The Indian Home Ministry said that it asked news channels not to air the film because it “appear[s] to encourage and incite violence against women.”

Filmmaker Leslie Udwin said that the government banned the film because of fears of public protests not unlike the ones that erupted after the especially gruesome rape that her film focuses in on.

In the jailhouse interview of one of the rapists blamed her for the violence he and five other men wrought upon her. Mukesh Singh is serving a three year sentence – the longest he can serve as a juvenile – for his part in fatally raping a 23-year-old student.

“A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night,” Singh said. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”

But it wasn’t just the rapists who expressed such deeply misogynistic views.

“In our culture, there is no place for women,” one of the rapists’ lawyers said – a statement for which he might face action from Indian bar associations.

Comments like these underlie what a committee charged by the government to investigate sexual violence in India called a “subculture of oppression.”

“Thus, complaints of rape become mere matters of formality – low on priority because there is no understanding of the acuteness of the violation of human rights in respect of a woman by sexual assault and the psychological trauma she undergoes,” the committee wrote in a report last year.

With so much attention on India’s rape culture after the 2012 gang rape, many Indians are eager to watch the film despite the ban. At least 100,000 have already done so through the BBC’s website, and other websites.
One of them is Salil Tripathi, a columnist for the Indian website, Live Mint.

“If you are Indian, know India well, or are concerned about the routine and widespread violence against women, the film tells you nothing that you don’t already know,” he wrote in a post on Thursday. “If the film set out to assert that rape is an epidemic in India, then showing its spread across sectors, classes, religions, and regions was essential —that would have indicated the gravity of the problem.”

Instead, he said, the film focused only one case – and did nothing to explain how rape is handled across different cross-sections of the population.

While many middle-class Indian women and foreign tourists have been raped in recent years by men who, like Singh, may have found their independence to fall somewhere between an affront and an invitation, rape is often complicated by India’s stark socio-economic and religious divides.

According to the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, the vast majority of women who are raped are from the historically marginalized Dalit caste. “90 percent of [rape] victims were Dalits and 85 percent of Dalit rape victims were underage girls,” S.R. Darapuri, the organization’s vice president said.

To fully understand India’s rape culture, it’s important to parse out how gender-based violence is exacerbated by tensions across the many fissures in Indian society.

While the focus on one victim and her case is important, it’s also important to understand why this victim can so readily be dubbed “India’s Daughter” — and to remember why other cases of rape haven’t gotten as much attention — either in the media or in courts.

A far cry from the relatively swift trial and sentencing featured in the film, a Dalit woman who alleged she was raped in 1995 saw her case thrown out by a judge who said, “an upper-caste man could not have defiled himself by raping a lower-caste woman.”


Rape culture is complicated and requires a lot of work to unpack. The very different responses an alleged rapist in closed-off and quiet town Dimapur and one in New Delhi makes that clear.

Dalit girl set on fire for pursuing education in UP

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Dalit girl set on fire for pursuing education in UP

A 17-year-old Dalit girl, in Diwan-Tola hamlet of Patthardewa village in Kushinagar district, was set on fire on Thursday morning.

According to the police, the four accused were angry because the victim was appearing for the ongoing intermediate examinations.

As per the victim's statement to the police, the student was alone in her hut and cooking food when the accused-Dhiraj Yadav, his brothers Arvind and Dinesh, and their father Ram Pravesh Yadav-barged in, dragged her out, poured kerosene on her and set her on fire.

"They didn't like that I was pursuing my education because they were failing in school every year. A few months ago, Dhiraj somehow got a photograph of me and tried to blackmail me. A major altercation broke out between our families on the issue," she was quoted as saying to the police in the community health centre.

The victim was admitted with 70 per cent burn injuries.

The victim's brother said Dhiraj had attacked him earlier in the day. "He fought with me in the field. He was angry because I had reacted against his plan to blackmail my sister. Later, he went to his father and said I had beaten him. Since we belong to the dhobi community, a low caste, they decided to punish me and my family," he said.

Meanwhile, Station House Officer of Ramkola, under which the village falls, P.K. Tripathi said, "It is a case of assault and battery. We have registered cases against the accused persons and a manhunt is on to arrest them. The condition of the victim is critical."


In another incident, the village chief of Sikarwar village in Sonbhadra district, Ram Kishun Jaiswal, and his six aides forcefully tonsured the head of a 42-year-old Dalit man, Vippat, when the latter protested against his hay roof being taken away for Holika dahan.

The Untold Story Of The Alleged Mass Rapes By The Indian Army In Kunan Poshpora

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The Untold Story Of The Alleged Mass Rapes By The Indian Army In Kunan Poshpora

I certainly did not know how to react when I read Salman Khurshid’s reaction in The Hindu on the Kunan and Poshpora rape case where he was rueful about the fact that the case had happened in his country that he couldn’t do anything about it, or in a finer meaning, that he simply knew yet chose not to do anything about it to save his power status.

In the meeting he had absurdly yet diligently asked the participants to read about the history and struggle of the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, and stated giving his example about what forgiveness is, what struggle is and what building hope out of despair is. The minister said that it ‘was plain human nature to learn to move forward for which conditions need to be laid’.

After reading this, I was occupied by the thoughts that whether I should appreciate this person for at least being partially honest unlike other institutions who have continuously covered the truth relentlessly or should I resent him because the meaning behind his honest and straightforward words was- ‘It happened, we learned, now move on’. The battle is full of hurdles and justice has been delayed but ‘moving on’ can never be a solution and be accepted. We have had enough atrocities of the worst and unimaginable kind in once what was regarded to be ‘Paradise on Earth’ turning it into a ‘Burning Inferno’. Instead, I believe we should pause to consider the case again and again and will do so until justice is served in our pseudo-democratic country where justice is fast for the potent and opulent. I wish he had given us more than just hope instead of just casting examples to look for hope in a country where hope has been looked upon for the past 66 years.

The battle starts with a firm determination but with the flow of time we find ourselves in a web, a vicious circle where one won’t be given a choice to win but only to withdraw and where the days and years will pass until we become immune to our pain. The haunting memories are still there but hope falters. That’s the story of hundreds of innocent people of Kashmir, who are victims of atrocities done by the Indian army. These innocent people still have the faith and strength to look up to justice from the judiciary or government who have themselves given the ‘license to offence’ to the military via Armed Forces Special Powers Act / Public Safety Act and where the truth has been suffocated under the heavy sheet of hypocrisy prevalent in our system. One of the most heinous crimes perhaps for me is the Kunan-Poshpora rape case where women numbering anywhere between 53 to 100 were raped by the very men who had been appointed by the central government to protect them.

On the night of 23/24 February 1991, Army personnel of 4 Rajputana Rifles entered Kunan Poshpora village with the mission to cordon off and to find grenades. Instead, they caught all the men of the village, interrogated them and severely tortured them physically and emotionally to the extent of barbarism while the women of the village were raped irrespective of their age, at gun point. One of them had even delivered a child a few days ago. All were raped in front of their small children who looked on crying in horror while their mother was raped by beasts. On March 19th, a UK based newspaper ‘The Independent’ carried a report titled, ‘Indian villages tell of mass rape by soldiers’, based on narratives the reporters had heard in Kunan Poshpora. Among them was the story of a woman who was assaulted by six soldiers. “One by one, they raped me, while my five year old son was forced to watch, weeping beside the bed,” she told the paper. Almost all the women of the village were raped. The next morning when the men were released, they were shocked to see that their daughters, mothers, sisters and female acquaintances had been raped by the men in uniform. The whole village froze on that morning of 24th February, not because it was cold but due to the nature of the heinous crime which infected villagers with dead silence yet loud mourning. They wandered like madmen, crying on top of their voice still shaken up by the jolt to think of anything about their next step. How are people supposed to react when they are stripped off their dignity, that they have nurtured for years leaving them haunted with their own bleeding flesh?

On 25/26 February, villagers sent letter to DC of Kupawara and police authorities regarding the rape and torture. After receiving the letter dated 25/26 February and protest on the part of villagers of Kunan and Poshpora, DC Kupawara visited the village for enquiries and informed the Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir and other authorities, including the local police via a letter dated 7th march, 1991, regarding the incident. Upon receiving this letter, the Trehgam Police Station registered FIR under section 376, 452 and 342 RPC. It is to be noted here that the incident took place on 23/24 February 1991 but the FIR was registered some days later. The delay obviously happened because of the long course of ‘sending and receiving letters’ and the investigation followed by it. Moreover, the army personnel did leave the village but had surrounded the village for 3-4 days for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, this delay in filing the FIR was taken as an advantage by director of prosecution who said the delay was absurd as the police station was just a few kilometers away from the village. If the incident had happened then they could have registered the FIR the very next day and called all the accusations absurd and far fetched stories done by people who sympathize with militants. Before moving forward, it is necessary to read the investigation report of DC Kupawara, based on which the FIR was registered.

In his response report, the DC Kupwara wrote to the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir under the subject- Atrocities committed by the Army Personnel in the Kunan and Poshpora Village of Kupawara district, Dated- 7th March, 1991. In this he wrote that after receiving the letter dated 5th March 1991 he carried out the necessary procedure and was shown evidence of the barbarism (torn clothes and the rooms). Moreover, the presence of alcohol bottles showed that the heinous crime had been carried out under the influence of alcohol. In order to justify their motives, the army forcefully procured a No Objection Certificate from locals. The nature of the crime and its magnitude as per the Kupwara DC had bought him to a level of shame to put the atrocity in descriptive words on the paper. However, he recommended a team to be formed and carry out the investigation and bring the culprits forward.

After receiving this letter, Wajahat Habibullah (the then Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir), visited the villages along with ‘Lt. Col. Naeem Farooqi, Shri Tyagi Commdt 76 BSF’ on 18th March 1991 to look into the allegation but with a clear intention to do away with the charges and this can be seen in the analysis of the report as submitted by him which had the following conclusion:

1- The number of alleged victims has been continuously fluctuating.

2- It is intriguing that despite such major incident having taken place no one reported of crime the next day.

3- The jawans are not allowed to carry liquor during operations so villagers have planted alcohol bottles.

4- When almost every house in the village was allegedly a victim, it is inconceivable that there could have been no alarm raised and the men were ignorant till after the army had left.

5- It seems like they have acted under militant pressure as the people of the village are simple folk.

The second blow to hopes of the people of these twin villages came when a three member team as setup by the Press Council of India (on the indirect behest of the army) and headed by B.G. Varghese was formed and included K.Vikram Rao and Jamnadas Akhtar to investigate the allegations from Kunan and Poshpora. The controversial and baseless report as submitted by the Press Council of India termed the charges as fraud and a hoax which was bred by those who highly sympathize with the militants and their sympathizers and by those who stood against the nation of India. They further went out to state that the allegation were a part a psychological warfare that was being adopted to malign the image of the Indian army and to bring forward yet again the Kashmir issue in front of the world but as a human right issue.

In the book ‘Crisis and Credibility’, as published by the Press Council of India, they dismissed all the allegations against Armed forces made till date very sophistically yet absurdly. In their words - “The last two incidents (Dudhi Killing and Kunan Poshpora) have given rise to the gravest charges of all. Hence, it would perhaps be best to dispose of them first.”  This statement gives clear impression that the book has been written with the prime aim of clearing away all the allegations and shielding the Armed Forces with their illogical and absurd justifications. They did not shy away while claiming that the medical report was rubbish. In their words- ‘Abrasions on chest and abdomen’ are likely to be common among village folk in Kashmir as they hug ‘kangris’ or earthern pots and live coals to ward off the winter chill. As for torn hymen, this could be a result of natural factors, injury, pre-marital sex, or rape.”

A general argument, in the defense of the armed forces and to save them, in context to the incident given is that why was the incident reported ‘ten days’ later as the village is ‘not that remote’, and if it was a question of shame for the rape victims, then how come the women talked about it ‘tirelessly’ and brought the matter in the front. It is surprising how three veteran journalists simply questioned the very chastity and dignity of women which was snatched by force adding more gash into their wounds.

Consequently on 23rd September 1991, the Director Prosecution informed that the case was ‘un-fit’ for launching criminal prosecution. Therefore on October 21, 1991 the case was ‘’closed as untraced’’ by the police.

In 2004, the State Human Right Commission (recommending body) (SHRC) after hearing grievances from two people (one victim and one another) and later by others, recommended that the case be re-investigated. However, the DGP brushed aside the charges that were again brought forward. However, after pursuance from the SHRC, the DGP did admit to interrogation and torture and rape after consumption of liquor. Post this, the SHRC held the the Rajputana Rifle and the 68 Mountain Brigade accountable to the crime and ordered a re-probe and re-investigation to be headed by a Special Investigation Team [SIT] which was to be headed by an officer not below the rank of SSP but in a specific time period. However, the rigidity and stubbornness of the J&K government prevailed over the order and no action was taken. This went to such a great extent that not even an action report was filed.

This comes in complete contrast not only to the Section 19 (5) of the Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Human Rights but also to the Rights as defined under the fundamental rights of citizen in the Indian constitution as India does in all accord regard Jammu and Kashmir a part of the country and time and again has said that the ‘democratic’ voting done symbolizes that the citizens have accepted India as their nation. This also defies the preamble quoting and goes against the ethos as well as the ethics of the human right charter and finally against the humanity and it’s very moral and ethics.

The case was again re-opened in March 2013 when 50 women filed a Public Interest Litigation [PIL] in the court demanding justice. The shrewdness of the pillars of justice and the mechanisms involved to attain it yet again came forward when the J&K police filed a closure report immediately in the same month with the Kupwara Court of Sub-judge, Judicial Magistrate. Consequently, the PIL that had been filled was disposed of by the High court on the grounds that the judicial magistrate of Kupwara was capable enough to handle the investigation.

This filing of the PIL was not only countered as mentioned above but to do away with it, the advocate general of the J&K government talked of a certain unclear ‘High Level Committee’ of the government which was to meet on the 8th of May, 2013 and that also the case no longer held grounds as a closure report had been filed with the Kupwara court as well. Moreover, it was also stated that no compensation had been paid. This was also a contributory factor for the High court to dispose the PIL.

This act of the state and its institution met with a protest petition on the 10th of June, 2013 requesting the court to order further investigation under Section 173 (8) CrPC headed by a SIT as the police investigation was incomplete and affected by mala fides. However, the Chief Prosecuting Officer [CPO] filed a counter petition (unclear) stating that it was on the grounds of monetary compensation. Following was the terminology used in the petition:

“Under the garb of said recommendation of SHRC, the de-facto complaints are being advised to prefer protest petition, so that the recommendation of SHRC could be made applicable to others also….That after a gap of 22 years, the de-facto complaints have awakened from the sleep and have smartly tried to get this Hon’ble court convinced, that they were having no knowledge and have recently known about the closure report…”

However, on 18th June 2013, the Judicial Magistrate reprimanded the police for its laxity to file a closure report in 1991 and why hadn’t the police disclosed the identity of the 125 perpetrators in spite of the fact that the court had acknowledged of the rape and a SIT team was to head investigation by a personal not below the rank of SSP. Consequently on the 2nd July 2013, Abdul Jabbar, SSP Kupwara was appointed as the lead officer.

The incidents of 3rd July 2013 (keeping the victims waiting for five hours) and that of 30th July 2013 (summoning of victims who were no longer alive) show the seriousness of the police in its attempt to carry out the investigation with the duty assigned to it with utmost trust by a court of high stature. Consequently, an extension was appealed by the police for six months to carry out investigation. Another reason stated by them was that the unit (68 Mountain brigade) involved was no longer under the Brigade command of the area and time was required. The Judicial Magistrate, without consultation of the petitioners, granted a three month extension which shows the stature of the common problem riddled man.

The irony comes to the fact that the letter to the army took about two months of time and the so called high level committee meeting scheduled on 14th May 2013 also had shown no advancement which yet again shows the relation between the state and the affected and the seriousness the state has for its subjects.

Even after twenty two years of the incident, B.G. Varghese and K.V. Rao, who mastered the craft of treachery in the report ‘Crisis and Credibility’ still believe that the allegations were ‘bogus’ and ‘over-blown’ and that the Army could not be ‘blackmailed’. They made the following statement:

“The militant’s idea was to put the Army in a position of public shame and make people feel that the Army was a dangerous element itself making the Army reluctant to go into areas. They (rape victims) are victims not because they were raped but portrayed as having been raped. They were promoted as rape victims, and the sentence of social stigma was passed onto them.”(B.G. Varghese) (Interview to The Hindu)

“Molestation may have happened. But charges of rape were definitely not true.” It was “bad luck” for 4 RR, which became a victim of “powerful Pakistani propaganda”. (K.V. Rao)

Why has the army enjoyed so much of impunity? What is it that has really failed our system and the state to charge the army and reprimand it into the court if we are to be considered for one moment a ‘secular-democratic nation’ where the government is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’

While writing this, an incident kept disturbing me again and again where justice was given to the brave rape victim (16th December 2012) who unfortunately lost her life but her life did not go in vain and she did come out as an inspiration and hope when all her culprits (except one due to being juvenile) were sentenced to death. In the concerned incident, the entire nation stood together and voiced their support for the demand of justice for the girl. The honorable media covered and debated and aired everything possible to the extent that the defendant lawyer had to tell the judge that the decision had to be taken on intellect ground and not on emotional grounds by taking the media as an influential mode.

Where is the media now? Why have they failed to cover the incident in the same manner on grounds of humanity and as per the ethos and grounds on which the media should function? Why have the people, especially those residing outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir and working on human rights, have consistently failed to bring into light this rape incident? Why has there been a total black out created over the Indian state and its masses about such mass brutality and torture? Why has the government chosen to remain ignorant about the human rights violations that are taking place in Kashmir? Perhaps the truth is too costly to be told. Perhaps power is mighty and justice blind.

Man sent to jail for raping wife, who is his first cousin

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NEW DELHI: In the first order of its kind, a man has been convicted on charges of rape, cruelty and harassment against his wife. Though, as per law, there is no penal provision for charging a man with the rape of his wife, the court held that the accused and the victim were first cousins and he had committed rape on her even before marriage, making it "incestuous". 

While sentencing the man to a seven-year jail term for rape, the court said the man not only tortured the woman after marriage but also raped her — his first cousin — for more than 12 years before marriage, and forced her to marry him. "This is not a case where the accused has been accused of raping of his own wife for over 12 years but a case where he had been accused of raping his first cousin when she was a minor below the age of 15 years and was compelled to marry the accused on account of long term physical relations which he had made with the prosecutrix," Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said while holding Inderpreet Singh guilty under Section 376 (rape) of IPC. 

Even as the accused raised the objection that he cannot be convicted under Section 498A (cruelty and harassment against a woman by her husband or any member of matrimonial home) as their marriage was void as per the Hindu Law, the court justified its conviction under the penal provision saying, "this court has been informed that a petition has been moved for declaring the marriage between the accused and the victim as nullity which is pending before the competent court but that in itself will not mitigate the offence committed by the accused. The marriage between the prosecutrix and the accused being void is yet to be declared nullity by the competent court of law, the provisions of Section 498-A Indian Penal Code would hereby apply". 

While sentencing him to a three-year jail term for harassment, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.05 lakh on Singh, stipulating that the amount should be given to the victim. 

In its order, the court took a stern view of child abuse as the victim was raped even as a minor. "Crime against women has increased in recent years, most of the offenders being previously known to the victim or enjoying some kind of a fiduciary, family or trust relationship which they betray. It is for the Courts to meet these challenges by moulding the sentencing system to ensure that public confidence in the efficacy of law is not undermined," the court said. 

The victim told the court that she was compelled to marry her cousin in March 2008 after she became pregnant. After the marriage, her husband began physically assaulting and subjecting her to mental cruelty. She alleged that Singh had been raping her since 1996 when she was just 15. As per the prosecution, Singh, 37, and the victim were living in a joint family and he used to teach her when she was preparing for her class 10 board exams. 

Court held that the accused and the victim were first cousins and he raped her for 12 years before marriage, making it "incestuous". She was a minor below 15 years then and was forced to marry him.

Indian American hired hitman to kill rape victim

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Indian American hired hitman to kill rape victim

An Indian-origin man accused of raping a New York University law student tried to hire an undercover police officer to kill his victim in exchange for $15,000.

Rajeev Kumar was charged with rape and sodomy in August, after a DNA match linked him to a 10-year-old assault on the student. The 30-year-old is currently in jail serving a five-year probation sentence for an insurance scam, but has denied the sex assault charge.

According to the New York Daily News, Kumar’s scheme to silence his accuser was blown open in a NYPD undercover operation, in which he is believed to have said that he would pay $15,000 for the rubout.

The NYPD carried out the operation following tip-off that Kumar had told fellow inmates at Rikers Islands that he would pay for someone to ‘get rid of his problem’.

The undercover police officer revealed that Kumar didn’t know where the rape victim lived, but he knew what school she graduated from and had her photograph.

It is believed that the photograph was provided to defence lawyer Nelson Schmukler in an evidence file.

Kumar’s inmate information page on the department of correction website confirmed that he is now charged with conspiracy in the first degree.

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The Rape of Latinas in the US Military

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The Rape of Latinas in the US Military

Los Angeles, Alta California - May 10, 2004 - (ACN) Today, I heard and viewed the "goody two-shoes" First Lady on ABC's "Good Morning America" and almost vomited when I heard her say that the sexual torture of Iraqi POW's and female detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison was not what the USA stands for. I ask, where did she study US history? I would like to invite her to "obtain some culture" and view the play "Ramona" that has been playing continuously for 81 years in Hemet, Alta California (http://www.ramonabowl.com/home.shtml). The rape of American Indians, Mexicans and African slaves has been an ongoing enterprise by barbaric whites ever since European savages set foot on the Western Hemisphere. Perhaps, the "First Lady" can be excused for her ignorance. White Texians are not known to be particularly "educated" nor "cultured"!

The USA military has pillaged and raped the American Indians and the Mexicans in the southwest in the same way they are now doing to the Iraqis. Even today, naive Latinas who join the US Armed Forces are being brutalized and raped by racist Jews and white military personnel. They are being recruited for the exclusive enjoyment of depraved US Jewish and white military personnel. If they are doing this within the US military ranks, what can Iraqi men and women expect in their own occupied land? The brutalization of people of color by white military armed forces is a historical fact.

Another "dirty secret" of the Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz run Pentagon is the shameful "raping" of women of color in the US military that has reached "epidemic proportions". There are hundreds of Mexican-American and other enlisted women in the US military whose lives have been totally shattered by a military they thought would never betray them. Their lives are now in total shambles after the Pentagon threw them out and blame them for the brutal rapes that took place while they were in uniform.

There are hundreds of documented rapes of Latinas in the US military and thousands more that were never reported because of fear and shame of the victims. This is also true of the hundreds of rapes of Iraqi women and young girls that took place in Baghdad during the early days of the US occupation. The following five cases are just examples of the hundreds that have occurred during recent years.

The Rape Case of Second Lieutenant Orlinda Marquez

Orlinda Marquez, one of many Mexican-Americans brainwashed by the US educational system, dreamed of being an officer in the military ever since she was a kid in the fifth grade. Ms. Marquez confesses, "I bought a rucksack from an Army surplus store and ran to and from school with that rucksack." Naive and innocent Orlinda Marquez took an ROTC scholarship and graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden with a degree in engineering and geophysics. She fulfilled her lifetime dream and joined the Army Corps of Engineers in 1987 as a Second Lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Marquez was brutally raped by a non-commissioned officer while she slept in her barracks and her entire illustrious career and life completely destroyed. She has than self-destructed after a racist US command that has no respect for women of color blamed her for the rape.

The Rape Case of Airwoman Arabella Rivera

Arabella Rivera came from a military family. Her brother was in the Air Force and her father in the US Army. Ms. Rivera , at age 18, joined the Air Force, and was sent to Lowry Air Force Base. Naive and innocent as most Catholic girls, the white military beasts started conspiring against her. Her first orders were to wear short skirts. She had been in photography school at the base for about three months when she was set up for a sexual assault. An officer she trusted forced her to perform oral sex in his car. "I didn't know what the hell he was doing. He grabbed me and pulled me down. ... He wouldn't let me go. I was choking. I thought I would die," she recalled.

After that night, her life was in shambles and she began to drink heavily to relieve her shame. A few days later, walking home from the airmen's club, the same man followed her to a remote part of the base and sodomized her. She said she screamed and cried until he let her go.

The next week, when a master sergeant followed her into a bathroom and began putting his hands up her shirt, she "freaked out," she said. He stopped, and told her the incident never happened, and that life would be hell if she told anyone. Arabella Rivera was subsequently assaulted numerous times. After one incident she was forced to work with her attacker. Arabella Rivera has had intensive therapy, but had to drop out after an extremely traumatic session.

She never reported the assaults because of the threats and feeling that no one would believe her.

Being a female in the military, she said, meant "you had to fight tooth and nail to compete with the men. So I became one of the boys. Had a foul mouth like the men. Drank like them and became promiscuous. I didn't know how to be a lady anymore. I didn't show emotion. I didn't cry."

The above behavior may be the same "syndrome" Lynndie England demonstrated and that is depicted in the the Abu Ghraib torture photographs of Iraqi POW's. Lynndie England reputed to be a lesbian, never-the-less was extremely promiscuous and is now five months pregnant in the brig at Fort Bragg.

Arabella Rivera began therapy, but at first reliving the trauma was too much to take. "I crawled on the floor, cried and cried and said, 'I can't do this anymore.' "I didn't want to die, but I didn't want to live." She ended up in the psychiatric ward of VA Hospital.

The Rape Case of Sailor Yuriria Acuna Pineda

Yuriria Acuna Pineda of the US Navy now lives in Los Angeles . . . homeless. A young Mexican-American woman of very meager economic resources, she has been unable to find help for her mental problems due to the brutal rape inside a bathroom by another sailor by the name of Roger Northern II in June of 2001. The US Navy investigator by the name of Kevin O'Neil concluded that Yariria had "asked for it"!

At a homeless shelter for veterans in Long Beach, Acuna Pineda has applied for benefits for post-traumatic stress syndrome and has begun counseling.

Although she is only 24, she said it's hard to feel hopeful about her future when she had planned to remain in the Navy. "Everything I learned in there, it's useless now. I have to start all over. I feel it was all taken from me, what I had worked so hard to get."

The Rape Case of US Army Medic Susana Armenta

As one of the few women working in an ambulance unit at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, 18-year-old Susana Armenta did not question a supervisor when he instructed her to wear only dresses.

She was alone in her barracks early one morning when her supervisor walked in and sexually assaulted her. As he was leaving, Armenta, now 39, recalls his saying, "Thank you. You just made my day."

She did not report him, she said, for fear she would be demoted or punished.

Two months later, she left the service and eventually joined the Reserves.

In 1991, Armenta was activated for Operation Desert Storm. She was at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs doing laundry when she walked back into her room and suddenly felt a huge shove.

"I remember seeing a face and blond hair. I know the person was very heavy because I was hurting so bad," she recalled.

She remembers few details of the rape itself, but can recall waking up the next morning feeling numb. "I went to the bathroom and saw the blood and the stickiness and the bruises," she said. "I took the longest shower of my life, and that was it."

Weeks later, she realized she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease from the assault, she said, and was treated by a doctor.

After the rape, Armenta returned to work. "I drank wine to keep myself under control. I was so scared I would see him again. One day at work I began crying hysterically. I asked for a chaplain, and the next thing I knew I was admitted to the psychiatric hospital."

The Rape Case of Airwoman Sofia Rodriguez

Sofia Rodriguez was 25 and had been in the Air Force one year when she became pregnant. She was in the third month of pregnancy at McClellan Air Force Base in California when she was raped. A staff sergeant brutally raped her and she almost lost her baby.

"The next thing I remember ... he was raping me," Rodriguez said. "I couldn't move. All I could do was cry and think, 'What's going to happen to my baby?' I can remember the tears coming down my face, and he was saying I was crying because I was enjoying it. He had his hand on my throat."

Rodriguez doesn't remember how she got away. "I went to my dorm, locked myself in my room, and my whole life changed." She says , "I blamed myself. I even thought about suicide."

The trauma from rape, she said, "takes your life if you let it. ... I joined the military with my whole heart. You don't expect to be raped by your own peers or superior."

The above five case of rape of Latinas in the US Armed Forces are just examples of the hundreds that have occurred in recent years. There are thousands more that never get reported or investigated. These and the known cases of rape in occupied Iraq are not mere isolated cases as the First Lady and her husband George Bush are saying. It is a pattern that has been established ever since the hordes of invaders pillaged Aztlan and are now doing in Islamic countries. This is one primary reason why many in Aztlan do not consider the stupid jock Pat Tillman a hero. He was, for us, just another "white (or Jewish) rapist" responsible for the murder of an unknown number of Afghani children. There are actually "no heros" in the current Zionist instigated war against Islam. Soldiers of Mexican descent in the US military should instead fight for the honor of the Mexican-American women that were raped as described above.

In addition, La Voz de Aztlan is calling for all the elected Congresswomen of Mexican descent to STOP giving our community mere "lip service" and start doing something constructive in making sure, that at least, the US military cease "raping" our enlisted military women. The US military has been accused of raping a 9 year old Iraqi girl in Baghadad, a 12 year old Iraqi girl at the Abu Ghraib prison and of the sodomization of Iraqi boys in addition to adult Iraqi POW's. What is it going to take for all five of you to speak out vociferously?

Please do not follow the example of Congressowman Loretta Sanchez of Orange County, California who shamelessly partied with the Jewish pornographer Hugh Hefner at the PlayBoy Mansion? PlayGirl Loretta Sanchez has now been instrumental in electing as a congresswoman her "do-nothing sister" Linda Sanchez because apperantly she colluded with certain questionable elements of the Califronia Jewish dominated Democratic Party. We have been witnesses of the Jewish inspired pornographic tactics that Loretta Sanchez utilized during her campaign. Her "flashing of her calzones" during opportune times is worst than what Lynddie England did to the Iraqi POW's. Our community will not stand for this! Congresswomen Loretta Sanchez, Linda Sanchez, Lucille Royball-Allard, Grace Napolitano and Hilda Solis . . . stop "prostituting" yourselves just to be re-elected. Stand up for moral principals and human justice around the world now or you will be kicked out of office by our community! Stop the rape of Mexican women and other Latinas! Stop the rape and the occupation of Iraq now!

Villagers boycott kin of rape accused

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Villagers boycott kin of rape accused

COIMBATORE: Behind its pastoral quiet, balmy Angalakurichi is now a village seething with fury.

Till a fortnight ago, the village nestled at the foothills of Anamalai, was locally known only for its coconut farms and people stringing bright marigolds. A tranquil village of 2,500 families, Angalakurichi had seen few crimes and criminalsmuch less a shocking case of rape and murder. But on the searing afternoon of October 29, Angalakurichi shot into spotlightfor the wrong reasons.

Two natives of the villagecab driver Mohana Krishnan and his friend, Manoharan, a tractor driver, allegedly raped a schoolgirl from Coimbatore on the soil of Angalakurichi and drowned her along with her little brother in the canal near the village.

And two days after the cab driver was shot down by the Coimbatore police in an encounter, the village is in no mood to "pardon" even the kin of the "notorious natives."

The angry villagers have asked the parents of the tractor driver, Manoharan, who along with the cab driver, allegedly murdered the two children, to leave Angalakurichi.

The one-room tiled house of Manoharan, who is now lodged in Coimbatore prison, is now locked. Panchayat president of Angalakurichi C Dhanalakshmi has ordered Manoharans parents Ramasamy and Selvi, to leave the village immediately. They were eking out a living hawking flowers at the hill retreat of Valparai, but they are too scared to emerge from their house to buy groceries too. A lock hangs outside their front door, but they quietly remain inside the house.

"The villagers do not want Manoharan's parents to stay in the village any more. It is a collective decision taken by the villagers, who want to see Manoharans family out of the village for bringing disgrace to the village by committing this heinous crime, the panchayat chief told TOI.

The family has been denied groceries and other essentials by shopkeepers. "Ten persons from the Kongu Munnetra Peravai came to house and threatened the family. They asked the family to leave the village or face dire consequences, Satish Kumar, a neighbour, said.

Villagers said he was married six months ago but his wife separated within four months of the marriage. "Manoharanused to drink and quarrel with his wife. That's why she left, a neighbour K Muthusamy.

On October 29, Mohana Krishnan came to meet Manoharan in a car carrying two children. Manoharan left with Mohana Krishnan and never returned.

The villagers only regret is that they could not "save the innocent children. If only the children had cried for help, we would have rescued them," R Dorai, a farmer said.

Three accused in Delhi gangrape still at large

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Three accused in Delhi gangrape still at large

New Delhi: Three of the four men who allegedly raped a 19-year-old call centre employee in east Delhi are yet to be arrested, police said on Thursday. But one of them has been identified.
Ramvir, a 22-year-old auto driver, along with his three accomplices abducted the victim on the morning of November 3 as she was waiting for her cab near the Mandawali railway colony in east Delhi.
"Of the four, we have arrested Ramvir. We have identified one of his accomplices who will be arrested soon," Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) K.C. Dwivedi said.
"The girl came to us on November 7 to register the case. The medical report confirmed that she was raped," he added.
The victim said: "I was waiting for my cab when some men came in an auto and forcibly pulled me inside. They took me to an isolated place near a jungle and raped me."
The case was registered four days later as the victim and her family remained mum.
The victim's mother claimed that the police did not cooperate with them and were reluctant to register the case.
It took them over four hours to file the FIR (first information report) on November 7, she said.

Cops accused of police station rape

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Cops accused of police station rape

Raipur: In a shocking crime that has shaken Chhattisgarh's Dharmjaigarh town, two girls, including a minor, have alleged that they were raped by four policemen in the police station complex earlier this week.
A first information report (FIR) against the policemen was filed late on Thursday, police said, adding that the small town in Raigarh district, about 280 km from here, was tense.
The girls, who had been quiet since November 9 when the incident took place, mustered up the courage to speak out and were escorted by an angry mob when they went to file the complaint.
The girls were allegedly raped inside a house in the police station complex on the night of November 9 but were coerced into silence by threats of dire consequences if they spoke out, an official said.
"It's a very shameful incident. The guilty policemen will not be spared. I am rushing to Dharmjaigarh town to seek the help of the girls to identify the policemen who brought a slur on the police force," Rahul Sharma, superintendent of police, Raigarh, said.
He added that a police complaint had been filed late on Thursday against the four policemen who allegedly raped the two girls one by one.

Girl, 3, raped in TN village

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Girl, 3, raped in TN village

Rameswaram: A three-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a youth at a village in Ramanathapuram District today.

Police arrested V Thangapandi (23) following information from the neighbours.

The girl was playing in front of her house in Mullwadi village when Thangapandi took her to his home and allegedly raped her. On hearing her screams, neighbours rushed to the house and rescued the girl.

Erwadi Deputy Superintendent of Police Sangu rushed to the village and arrested the youth.

 

Palestinians abused in Israeli facility: Rights group

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Palestinians abused in Israeli facility: Rights group

Jerusalem: Israeli human rights groups have alleged abuse of Palestinians in Israel with backing of the state, which include violations like cruel detention conditions in sealed cells, disgraceful hygienic conditions and continuous cuffing of detainees' hands.

The B'Tselem organisation and Hamoked Center for the Defence of the Individual report, based on the testimonies of 121 detainees held in Petah Tikva detention facility of Shin Bet, also claim that the inhuman treatment of the Palestinian detainees has the backing of the state.

The other ways of interrogation includes sleep deprivation, and other methods that harm the detainees physically and mentally.

The Human Rights Groups noted that complaints on the matter have led to no criminal investigations to which the state has reportedly responded by saying that the interrogations were being supervised, and that the court had rejected similar claims in the past. The violations allegedly begin from the moment of the arrest and continue until the detainees transfer from the facility.

As per the report, nine per cent of the witnesses related that the interrogators used physical violence against them in the interrogation room.

"The use of any one of these means, certainly their combined use, constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and in some instances, torture. All are strictly forbidden under international law and Israeli law," the organisations stressed in their report.

Thirteen of the 121 detainees reported of sleep deprivation which lasted more than 24 hours, thirty six percent of the detainees said they were humiliated and cursed by their investigators, 56 percent reported of threats, and 9 percent said they were treated violently, it said.

Many of the detainees reported that the interrogators used family members as a means of pressure - thirty six percent of the witnesses mentioned curses, threats, or acts of extortion regarding family members.

In one case, a 63-year-old widow was held in the facility so that members of her family could see her suffering while under detention, the report claims.

Two days later, the woman was released without any charges brought against her, it says. Most of the detention cells are underground, or were perceived thus by the witnesses, while the interrogation rooms, by contrast, are above ground and have windows enabling the detainee to know if it is day or night, it further added.

Those interviewed stated that an electric bulb lights the cell 24 hours a day, and the detainee is unable to change its intensity or turn it off.

This creates severe distress and causes eye pain, headaches, and vision problems, the Human Rights Groups said.

The report's authors also reveal harsh hygiene conditions saying, "One-person cells had a squat toilet that reeked, the mattresses and blankets were filthy, the detainees were not given the means to clean the cell, except in isolated cases and following insistent demand".

"35 per cent of the detainees were not provided a change of clothes for long periods and, in some cases, even during their entire stay in the facility. 27 per cent of the witnesses were not allowed to shower", they alleged.

B'Tselem and Hamoked have no doubt that "the handling and treatment of the detainees, as revealed in the report, are consistent with the philosophy of interrogation that seeks to break the detainees by causing shock and fear, detaching the detainees from things to which they are normally accustomed, and by severely depriving them of sensory stimuli, movement, and human contact".

Other components of this philosophy are physical weakness by means of sleep deprivation, reduction in food intake, exposure to cold and heat, and pain, the primary source of the pain being forced prolonged sitting in rigid bodily positions, the report argued.

"This philosophy is described in CIA interrogation manuals of the 1960s and 1980s, which were used to guide interrogators in tyrannical regimes in Latin America.

The result of the use of these methods, as stated in the manuals, is psychological regression and a detainee who becomes putty in the hands of the interrogator," it added.

The organisations also claimed that the treatment of the Palestinian detainees, as described in the report, receives the backing of the Israeli State.

Since 2001, Palestinians interrogated by Israel Security Authorities agents have filed 645 complaints to the Ministry of Justice regarding the manner in which they were interrogated, but not one of the complaints led to a criminal investigation against the interrogator.

"The State of Israel attempts to justify the severe infringement of the detainee's rights by claiming the actions are necessary to thwart serious acts of terrorism. This claim does not warrant violation of the absolute prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment," the report states.

"Furthermore, Israel's attempts to divert the public debate to what it refers to as the 'ticking-bomb dilemma' is artificial," the organisations say, explaining that "most of the Palestinians who gave testimonies for the purpose of the report were not suspected of serious offenses, in comparison to the scale of offenses allegedly committed by Palestinians who are brought before military courts in the occupied territories".