Lucknow Update

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

It has been some time that Arif Jafar, Director of our

Regional Liaison Office in Lucknow, and the rest of

our colleagues who were jailed by the Lucknow police

have been released on bail. During their incarceration

we received immeasurable support from all of you and

that support was immensely helpful to us in keeping up

our morale and in encouraging us to continue with the

work that we do with the highly vulnerable population

of MSM in trying to save lives from the scourge of HIV

and AIDS.

Because of the catching up that we had to do after

they were released, we were kept on our toes, not to

mention that some very important conferences like the

6th ICAAP in Melbourne and the 1st National meet on

Male Sexual and Reproductive Health in Bangladesh,

organised by Bandhu Social Welfare Society (to which

we were providing technical assistance), were in the

offing that kept us engaged. All this has prevented us

from getting back to you sooner with an update on what

is happening in Lucknow and we do apologise for this

delay.

The current situation is that the Lucknow police have

gone ahead and filed a charge sheet against the four

of our staff in the magistrate’s court. They have been

charged under the same sections that were mentioned in

the FIR, namely, Section 377 of the IPC read with

Sections 120B and 109 of the IPC [conspiracy to commit

carnal intercourse against the order of nature and

abetment of carnal intercourse against the order of

nature], Section 292 of IPC [Obscenity], Section 3 and

4 of the Indecent Representations of Women’s Act, and

Section 60 of the Copyrights Act.

The fact that Before, During and After the arrests we

had given full information to the police on the

context in which we did HIV/AIDS intervention work

with MSM under the national policy of targeted

interventions has been totally ignored by the police.

However our lawyers have perused the charge sheet and

believe that there are a lot of factual and legal

errors and misrepresentations in the same. We are in

the process of finalising the next course of action on

the legal front, but there is a high probability that

we shall be filing for a discharge. We are hopeful of

succeeding in the courts, and repose faith in the

justice system and believe that ultimately justice

shall be done. We do not think the Indian Judiciary

will punish us for trying to save lives by following

policy formed by the government of the country.

Next we must state that the support of all our friends

have never waned through this whole process and with

their help and support and with the hard work that all

our staff have put in this past few months, our office

in Lucknow that was opened after a court order on the

14th September 2001, is now fully functional, up and

running. We have a Resource Centre in the office that

has a very wide collection of materials on male

sexualities and reproductive health issues, and we

would urge any one who needs any form of help with

regards to such materials to please feel at ease to

approach us for the same or to visit us at our office.

Please also contact us for any other help that we may

be in a position to render to you.

Apart from all those whom we must thank for their

overt support, and especially to Lok Prakash and

Aditya Bondyopadhyay in India for their coordination

and support work particularly in Lucknow itself, we

must also thank some of the friends and supporters who

have rendered valuable help and support from the

background, even if they could not come to the fore or

make overt statement or take public positions, given

the constraints of their offices and positions. At the

same time Shivananda, who was working from our London

office at the time of the arrests, was able to

coordinate an international response, obtaining

encouraging support from a range of British political

leaders, individuals, as well as from international

NGOs and human rights organisations, and we must thank

them also.

Since Arif’s release we have met with many esteemed

persons who have all extended their full support. In

this context we must mention the names of Mr. JVR

Prasada Rao [Director National AIDS Control

Organisation], Ms. Neelam Kapoor [Deputy Director

NACO] Mrs. Gandhi [india’s Representative to the

UNGASS, MP and leader of the Opposition], Mr.

[Country Representative UNAIDS], Mr. K Pradeep

[uNAIDS], Mr. Tim Marteneau [Health Sector Group,

DFID, India], Mr. Shale Ahmed [Executive Director of

Bandhu Social Welfare Society, Dhaka], Ms. Shabana

Azmi [MP and HIV/AIDS activist], to name a few. We are

grateful to all of them for the support that they have

extended to us personally, and to the work that we do.

To end this mail we must add that NFI was represented

in strength at the 6th ICAAP in Melbourne, where we

were moved by the huge support that was exhibited to

us by all and sundry from all over the globe who were

present there, and we feel that their support is a

source of strength to us and a constant reminder to

our persecutors that ultimately good work done in good

faith for the cause of saving lives is recognised and

valued and that mere persecution coming from misplaced

and myopic viewpoints shall not be enough to deter us

from our chosen field of work.

Thanking everyone again for their support and wishing

them all the best for the coming holiday season.

Shivananda Khan

Executive Director

Arif Jafar

Director, Regional Liaison Office

Naz Foundation International

E-mail:<nazfoundint@...>

__________________________________

______________________________