Annual R epor t 2 0 0 2 – 2 0 0 3
1 . R ef ugee W at ch
1.1 T he new look RW (No. 17 in December 2002, and no. 18 in Apr il 2003) has s tar ted being publis hed under the editor s hip of Paula B aner j ee and with the collabor ation of S outh As ia For um for Human Rights (S AFHR).
1.2 T he December (2002) iss ue was bas ed on the focal theme on “Unr es t and Displacement: Raj bangs his in Nor th Bengal”. S uj ata D. Hazar ika wr ote on the focal theme. Apar t fr om the r egular featur es , the is s ue contained ar ticles by Paula Baner j ee, Maghna Guhathakur ta, Raj es h Khar at.
2 . P r oj ect s
2.1 As par t of our pr oj ect on ‘I ndian bes t pr actices on as ylum and r efugee tr eatment’, CRG or ganized a Review Wor ks hop in New Delhi on 8 June 2002 in which bes ides the team of commis s ioned r es earcher s , Augus tine Mahiga – for mer Chief of Mis s ion, Wei Ming Lim- Ka’aba and Nayana B os e fr om UNHCR and Mahendr a Lama, Pr adip Bos e and S ubhas Ranj an Chakr abar ty as evaluator s wer e pr es ent.
2.2 CRG has s ucces s fully completed the above- mentioned pr oj ect in collabor ation with the UNHCR and you will be glad to hear that the book entitled Refugees and the S tate: Practices of Asylum and Care in I ndia, 1947- 2000 bas ed on r epor ts s ubmitted for the pr oj ect has come out fr om S age (New Delhi). T he book has been edited by Dr . Ranabir S amaddar and contains paper s by Paula B aner j ee, S amir Kr . Das, Ritu Menon, S ubir B haumik, K. C. S aha, S abyas achi B as u Ray Chaudhur y, Raj es h Khar at, V. S ur yanar ayan, As ha Hans , S ar bani S en and B . S . Chimni. Muchkund Dubey - - the for mer For eign S ecr etar y at the I ndia I nter national Centr e, New Delhi on 14 June 2003, launched the book.. Amongs t many other s , the book launching function was attended by Lennar t Kotsalainen - - Chief of Mis s ion, J. N. Dix it – for mer For eign S ecr etar y, Justice S uj ata Manohar , Raj eev Dhawan, Pamela Philipos e, Mahendra Lama and s ome member s of our team of r es ear cher s . Ranabir S amaddar , Paula Baner j ee and S amir Kr . Das – coor dinator and j oint coor dinator s r es pectively of the pr oj ect, r epr es ented CRG s ide.
2.3 CRG has j us t completed the pr oj ect on s tudies on ‘I nter nally Dis placed Per s ons (I DPs) in S outh As ia’. T he Review Wor ks hop or ganized by the Br ookings I nstitution, Was hington DC in which the team of r es ear cher s dr awn fr om all over the S outh As ian countr ies was held in Colombo on 6- 7 Mar ch 2003. Dr . S abyas achi Basu Ray Chaudhury coor dinated the pr oj ect. T he team of r es ear cher s included Joe William, S ubir Bhaumik, S amir Kr . Das , Manes h S hr es tha, Paula B aner j ee, Mos s ar at Quadeem, Meghna Guhathakur ata, S ur aiya B egum and Atta- ur Rehman. T he r epor ts pr esented at the Wor ks hop wer e extens ively commented upon by Rober ta Cohen, Jeevan T hiagar aj ah, Mar io Gomez, Jehan Per er a, Ranabir S amaddar , As ha Hans , Pr adip Kumar Bose. Rober ta Cohen in her I ntr oductor y Comments congr atulated CRG on succes s fully completing s uch a mammoth pr oj ect within a r eas onable time fr ame and looked for war d to mor e of s uch collabor ation in futur e. Dis cus s ions ar e pr es ently under way for br inging out the r epor ts in the for m of a book without any fur ther delay. T he book is likely to be edited by Paula Baner j ee, S abyas achi B as u Ray Chaudhury and S amir K r . Das.
2.4 T he S econd Civil S ociety Dialogue on Peace was held at S antiniketan on 13- 16 July 2002. Par ticipants and r esour ce per sons fr om the nor theast as well as other par ts of I ndia took par t in it. Paul Gentot deliver ed the keynote addr ess . T his time the focus was on a s omewhat deeper inter action between the r elatively younger
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par ticipants and r esour ce per s ons . T he focus was on cultur al democr acy and gender j us tice. Ritu Menon s poke on how publis hing can lead to mar ginalisation of women and how women publis her s wor k as a neces s ar y cor r ective to that s ituation.
T he Pr es ident of Naga Mother s ’ As s ociation attended the s es s ions and s poke on women’s r ole in ar med conflict. T her e wer e s tudents f r om Manipur , Nagaland and Mizor am who par ticipated in the dis cus s ions . T he dialogue ended with par ticipants ur ging MCRG to continue its Civil S ociety Dialogue Pr ogr amme in futur e. T he r epor t of this meeting has been pr epar ed by Dr . Paula B aner j ee and has alr eady r eceived accolades .
2.5 CRG has decided to or ganize the Winter Cour s e on For ced Migr ation in collabor ation with UNHCR, the Govt. of Finland and Br ookings I nstitution fr om 1 to 15 December and the wor k for the Cour s e is cur r ently in pr ogr es s . Par ticipants and r esour ce per s ons fr om all over the wor ld ar e expected to j oin the Cour s e. T he lis t of par ticipants has alr eady been finalized. T he Cons ultative Meeting was held in Kolkata on 28 Apr il 2003 and the s election committee compos ed of Pr iyankar Upadhyay, As ha Hans , Paula B aner j ee, and Ranabir S amaddar met in Kathmandu between 2 and 4 Augus t 2003.
2.6 CRG is planning to or ganize a Cr eative Wr iter s ’ Wor ks hop on For ced Displacement of Population at Dar j eeling fr om 6 to 10 November 2003. T he Cons ultative Meeting for the pur pos e was held in Kolkata on 28 June 2003. T he r es pons e to CRG’s adver tis ement for the Wor kshop has been over whelming and finalizing the s election lis t for both the cour s e and the wor ks hop was a ver y difficult j ob. T he s election committee met in Kolkata on 25 Augus t 2003.
2.7 CRG or ganized its fir s t ever popular lecture in collabor ation with the Depar tment of His tor y, Pr es idency College on 21 Febr uar y. Rada I vekovic deliver ed the lectur e on the Balkan s ituation at the end of the year 2000. I t gener ated deep inter est in the minds of the s tudents and other s pr es ent at it. Looking at the over whelmingly pos itive r es pons e CRG is planning to or ganis e a lectur e ser ies in 2003- 2004.
2.8 T he fir s t volume of S outh As ian Peace S tudies Reader to be br ought out under the editor s hip of Ranabir S amaddar is alr eady in pr es s and is expected to be out s ometime in late 2003.
2.9 Member s of the Gr oup pr es ented paper s , par ticipated in, chair ed var ious s es s ions of national and inter national s eminar s and wor ks hops on migr ation, r efugee r ights , conflict and peace in the nor theas t, par tition, dis placed women, and new for ms of j us tice; they als o took par t in var ious r es ear ch pr ogr ammes and planning committees . CRG became mor e known thr ough thes e activities of its members . 2.10 T he pr oces s of launching a webs ite in pur s uance of our ear lier decis ion has been pr ogr es s ing in r ight ear nes t. T his has become es s ential in view of the for thcoming Winter Cour se.
3 . Of f ice Af f air s
3.1 I have always under lined the impor tance of an office infr as tr uctur e in car r ying out the pr oj ects. I n view of this , a Committee on the Byelaws was for med and it s ubmitted its r epor t to the EC meeting held on 27 Januar y 2003. T he r epor t is bas ically intended to str eamline the office adminis tr ation of CRG. T he r epor t is under the active cons ider ation of EC.
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3.2 We have always felt the neces s ity of appointing full- time employees s o that a full- fledged office s et- up can function pr oper ly. We have tr ied it out within the cons tr aints by way of expanding the office hour s of the alr eady employed per s ons . However , much needs to be done in near futur e.
3.3 As per r epor t, in 2003- 2004 CRG plans to invite a s enior s cholar to take up the challenging j ob of the Dir ector of Pr ogr ammes.
4 . P lan f or 2 0 0 3 -2 0 0 4
4.1 CRG has plans of continuing all its 2002- 2003 pr ogr ammes . I s s ue 18 of Refugee Watch has alr eady been published in Apr il 2003. I t focus ed on the s ituation in I ndo – Banglades h Bor der . For the fir s t time CRG s pons or ed an inves tigative r epor t. T his r epor t by Kr is hna Baner j ee commented on incr eas ing dis placement in the bor der . Bhumitr a Chakma of Dhaka Univer s ity commented on the s ituation of Chakmas on the other s ide of the Border . Apar t fr om these ar ticles, all r egular featur es s uch as news , r epr ints , featur e r eviews etc. wer e continued. I n 2003- 2004 two mor e is s ues have been planned. T he next is s ue will focus on the s ituation on I DPs in S outh As ia and the thir d will be on Legal I ns tr uments for victims of for ced migr ation, which will be edited by S abyas achi B as u Ray Chowdhur y.
4.2 CRG hopes to continue its Civil S ociety Dialogues. I n fact the T hir d Civil S ociety dialogue took place in S hillong in 10- 12 Apr il 2003. T his dialogue focus ed on is s ues of autonomy and the s ixth schedule. Par ticipants fr om As sam, T r ipur a, Nagaland and Mizor am attended the pr ogr amme and pr es ented s hor t paper s on themes of autonomy. Par ticipants r anging fr om s cholar s s uch as Udayan Mis hr a, Bhupen S ar mah, Guatam Chakma to activists r epr es enting the Bor o Women’s Jus tice For um, the NS F and the MAS S actively took par t in the deliber ations . T he r epor t edited by S anj ay Bar bor a is in the pr oces s of being publis hed. CRG is planning to hold one mor e dialogue in 2004.
4.3 CRG is planning to begin a extens ive r es ear ch on I ndian pr ovis ions on autonomy.
I t is ex pected to cover a lot of gr ound on the is s ue of autonomy and will have its focus on the whole of I ndia. We have alr eady star ted dis cus s ing it with s ome of the pos s ible collabor ator s of the pr oj ect.
4.4 CRG is planning to widen the s cope of the next winter cour s e. I t is hoped that the s econd Winter Cour s e will not only focus on is s ues of For ced Dis placement but als o on the s ituation of minor ities and r acis m in S outh As ia. Member s of CRG have had pr eliminar y dis cuss ions with the Gover nment of Finland in Augus t 2003 and ar e hoping to finalis e the pr ogr amme by the end of 2003.
S amir Kumar Das S ecr etar y
MCRG
