Ketan Modi
On Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:12:24 +0530 wrote
>Please include my signature.
>
>B.H. VEERESHA
>MAHITHI HAKKU ADHYAYANA KENDRA
>54, 17TH CROSS, M C LAYOUT
>VIJAYANAGAR, BANGALORE 560 040
>TEL.NO. 9448704693
>
>--- On Fri, 19/8/11, Nandita Shah
>
>From: Nandita Shah
>Subject: [HumJanenge] FW: Joint Statement on Martyrdom of Shehla
Masood (for your endorsement)
>To: "Federation of Animal Protection Organisations"
>Date: Friday, 19 August, 2011, 11:08 PM
>
>
Send your endorsement to
Apologies if you have already seen this
>
>
From: Gopal Krishna
>Reply-To:
>Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 07:59:51 +0530
>To: krishna2777
>Subject: Joint Statement on Martyrdom of Shehla Masood (for your
endorsement)
>
>
Please send your endorsements with name, organisational or professional
affiliation, place and email address by 22nd August 2 O' clock. We will
send this statement to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and
Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs with copy to Union Environment
Minister in the evening of 22nd August. You may circulate this message
for endorsement.
>
Joint Statement on Martyrdom of Shehla Masood (for your endorsement)
>
16 August, 2011
>
"I am proud to be an Indian.Happy Independence Day."
Shehla Masood, 15 August, 2011
>Gandhi "the purpose of civil resistance is provocation". Anna has
succeeded in provoking the Govt and the Opposition. Hope he wins us
freedom from corruption. Meet at 2 pm Boat Club Bhopal"
Shehla Masood,16 August, 2011 few minutes before her martyrdom
>
Shehla Masood, a Madhya Pradesh based civil rights and environmental
rights activist was was shot dead by an unidentified person in front of
her residence in Koh-e-Fiza locality in Bhopal around 11 AM on 16th
August, 2011.
>
We the undersigned aghast at the irony that tigers, tribals, trees and
civil rights and environmental rights activists are being hunted and
killed in the same manner.
>
We demand that the possible connection between her murder and her
raising the issue of illegal Diamond mining project in Chhattarpur
district, Madhya Pradesh by Rio Tinto, a transnational mining company
headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and NYSE
listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange must be investigated along with other
suspicions by a high level probe team. (Factsheet on Rio Tinto's
illegal mining activity attached)
>
She was active to save the watershed of the Panna Tiger Reserve and the
Shyamri River, one of the cleanest in the country from Rio Tinto's
mining activity along with other activists.
>
We suspect that the considered timing of her elimination during the
ongoing anti-corruption campaign when she was on her way to support
Anna Hazare's fast is meant to overshadow the issue of illegal Diamond
mining project in Chhattarpur district, Madhya Pradesh by Rio Tinto and
the political Mafiosi.
>
The mining block is inside a forest which is the northernmost tip of
the best corridor of teak forests south of the Gangetic plain. It is an
established law that mining is non-forestry activity. There is an
immediate need for a probe to determine who allowed the mining to take
place in such an ecologically fragile area.
>
The Bunder mine project, near the city of Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh,
about 500 kilometres south-east of Delhi, is likely to be one of the
largest diamond reserves in the world. It is estimated that there is a
''inferred resource'' of 27.4 million carats, a diamonds resource seven
times richer than the Panna mine, country's only working diamond mine.
>
A statement dated March 22, 2011 was laid in the Parliament (Lok Sabha)
on "need to review the diamond mining project in district Chhattarpur,
Madhya Pradesh posing serious threat to environment in the region".
>
We have learnt from senior journalists that two Collectors have been
transferred to facilitate the ongoing illegal mining and the fact that
the new Collector has allowed mining which came to light when a PIL was
filed stating that Rio Tinto has been carrying on exploitation of
mineral resources in Chattarpur district violating the prescribed
provisions.
>
Prior to the statement in the Lok Sabha, on March 10, 2011, the FOREST
ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING of Ministry of Environment & Forests listed
Agenda no. 6 on " Prospecting of diamond at 143 additional locations in
2329.75 ha. forest land located in 18 compartments in Buxwaha Range in
Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh by M/s Rio Tinto Exploration
India Private Limited. [File No. 8-49/2006-FC-(Vol.)]" to discuss it
but did not do so stating, "Due to paucity of time the proposal could
not be discussed during the meeting".
>
We had written to the Union Environment Minister and Parliamentary
Petitions Committee separately drawing its attention towards Madhya
Pradesh High Court's notices to the Centre and the state government on
illegal mining of diamonds by international mining companies. The court
had asked both the governments to reply in this matter within four
weeks. Considering the act of illegal mining as a serious offence, a
double bench of Chief Justice Sayed Rafat Alam and Justice Sushil
Harkauli criticised the Forest Departments, Mining Secretaries of the
state as well as the Centre and issued notices against them in addition
to the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board and Chattarpur Collector.
>
We take cognisance of the fact that Corporate Watch, a London based
group had chosen Rio Tinto to award it for its display of heinous,
misguided, and altogether anti-social behaviour over the last ten years
in 2010.
>
We take note of 'Rio Tinto: the Tainted Titan,' the Stakeholders
Report, www.cfmeu.asn.au, 1997, which states "It's (Rio Tinto's)
activities in some of the wildest and the most pristine places in the
world and their impact on the environment of those places, the people
who live there, the life-style of the indigenous people and also its
corporate culture, are subjects of real concern."
>
We submit that Rio Tinto project is threatening unique forest resources
in the area affected by the mine in Chhattarpur, MP. In this context,
it may be noted that Roger Moody, a veteran journalist in his book
Plunder, describes Rio Tinto's activities as ranging from "brow-beating
opponents, leaning on governments and price-fixing, to violating
international law, union-busting and management of one of the world's
biggest commodity cartels". His book outlines numerous examples of its
environmental irresponsibility.
>
It is germane to recollect what Sir Roderick Carnegie, as Chairman Rio
Tinto-Zinc (RTZ) had said at its 1984 shareholders' meeting: "The right
to land depends on the ability to defend it".
>
We salute the struggle and martyrdom of Shehla Masood who defended our
forests, rivers, land and wildlife in the face of unscrupulous
corporate assault in nexus with ruling political regimes.
>
Shehla Masood used to conclude her messages with a proud "Roarrrrr"
that cannot be silenced by the bullets of her assailants.
Signatories
>
Gopal Krishna, ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA), New Delhi
(krishna2777@gmail.com)
Prakash K Ray, Jawaharlal Nehru University Researchers Association
(JNURA), New Delhi (pkray11@gmail.com)
>
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