NETHERLANDS, January 30, 2003. According to a press release from “source” above, Agni Foundation’s annual symposium’s theme this year in February is Religious Cleansing For Centuries In The South Asian subcontinent. The press release read, in part, “In these modern and progressive times, freedom of religion and tolerance are unfortunately not self-evident everywhere on the globe. Speakers will deal with the status quo of the rights of Hindu minorities, especially in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Also religious cleansing in Kashmir is a part of the program. Bangladesh is one of the most violent countries in the world in the case of human rights violations. Although human rights of minorities and freedom of religion is guaranteed in the constitution, the authorities fail to protect the rights of religious minorities. Bhutan has ethnic purification institutionalized and has since 1990 involutarily and forcefully deported to Nepal a sixth of the total domestic population, mainly the ethnic minority Lhotshamp. Until recently in Afghanistan strict dress codes, threats and the strictly Islamic constitution made the life for these groups unbearable. After the departure of the Taliban, religious minorities are still excluded from active participation in negotiations over the building up of the country. The National Assembly of Pakistan passed a law formally abolishing bonded labor, but debt bondage remains widespread where without exception those in debt bondage are Hindus. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a non-governmental organizations has secured the release of between 7,000 and 8,000 bonded labourers in Sindh over the past five years. In the past ten years over 200,000 Kahmiri Pandits who feared for their life fled from Kashmir and live now elsewhere in Indian refugee centers as refugees in own country. The symposium is to held in the Museon, The Hague, Netherlands.”
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