Girls in a dance group invited to perform in Eid program forced to dance naked in Assam
OPINDIA STAFF
Rainbow Dance Group during a music video shooting
In a shocking incident in Assam, girls in dance troop invited to perform at an Eid celebration were forced to strip and dance naked by rowdy spectators, although they managed to escape.
According to a complaint filed with police by Arup D Rabha, director of the dance group,
a special cultural show was organised on the occasion of Eid in the Asolpara village in Chaygaon area in Kamrup District.
Kuddus Ali, one of the organisers of the event, had contracted the Rainbow Dance Group of Boko in Assam for performing in the event on 7th June, and an amount of ₹37,000 was agreed upon for the same.
Accordingly, the 42-member dance group reached the venue in the evening on that day, but they were surprised to see that there was not any environment of a cultural program there. When they contacted
Kuddus Ali, he took them to a weird looking place which was surrounded by corrugated sheet fences on all sides.
When the dance group started their traditional dance performance, around 700-800 youths present their created a ruckus, and started trying to pull the clothes off the girls in the group. Instead of controlling the mob, the members of the organising committee also participated in this assault. They asked the girls to strip and dance sexual numbers naked, and threatened to attack them with daggers if they don’t comply.
Apparently, the
organisers had lied to the public that they have invited a naked dance group from Cooch Behar in West Bengal, and had collected a huge sum from the public in this pretext. The complaint says that
organisers and spectators touched the girls inappropriately while trying to get them to strip. They also verbally abused the group for refusing to dance naked.
Eventually,
the group somehow managed to escape from the barricaded venue, some of them barefoot, and called their friends for help and also called the Boko police station. One vehicle of the dance group was also attacked by axes and steel digger bars, causing substantial damage to the vehicle.
Later in the night, the dance group reached Boko with police escort. The Rainbow dance group’s director Arup D Rabha filed an FIR with Boko police station regarding the incident, where he has named
Kuddus Ali, Sayed Khan, Atikul Islam, Samajuddin, Jeherul Islam and Abbas Ali, along with all the members of the organising committee of the event as the accused in the case.
The police have started investigating the case, and have made two arrests so far, Subhahan Khan and Shahrukh Khan.
I'm guessing this is a Hindu group, hence the 'cultural' pretext. The viewers, however, were celebrating EID and consequently were Muslim. What a pathetic way to end Ramadan. Obviously, it didn't make them a lot more spiritual.
Police officers among 6 found guilty of shocking rape and murder of 8yo girl in India
Police officers stand guard before the verdict on rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, inside a Pathankot court © Reuters / Mukesh Gupta
Six men in India, including police officers and a government official, have been found guilty of the gang rape and the bludgeoning to death of an eight-year-old girl in an explosive case that sparked outrage across the country.
The nomadic girl was kidnapped, sedated and then gang raped multiple times in the Kashua district of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir in January 2018, the Times of India reports.
Her body was found a week after she went missing. News of the case sparked outrage in India and internationally, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calling on authorities to bring the perpetrators of the “horrific” crime to justice.
Six of the seven accused were convicted by a special court in Pathankot on Monday.
Government worker and village head Sanji Ram, who is believed to have masterminded the crime, his juvenile nephew and two special police officers were found guilty of murder and gang rape, while a police constable and an inspector were found guilty of destroying evidence after taking money from Ram.
The trial began in April 2018 in Kathua, but the Supreme Court ordered the case be moved to Pathankot in Punjab as the victim’s father said his family was being threatened. The year-long trial was held in camera and involved the questioning of 100 witnesses.
Order of Canada recipient Peter Dalglish found guilty of child sex assault in Nepal
Aid worker's legal team intends to appeal, calling the verdict
'a miscarriage of justice'
Nazim Baksh · CBC News
Peter Dalglish, an Order of Canada recipient who has been lauded for his charity work, has been convicted of sexually assaulting two boys, ages 11 and 14, in Nepal.
After spending more than a year at an overcrowded jail near Kathmandu, prominent Canadian aid worker Peter Dalglish has been found guilty of sexually assaulting children in Nepal.
His Canadian lawyer, Nader Hasan, said Dalglish's family and friends are devastated by the verdict and that his legal team plans to file an appeal.
Hasan said there is no clear timeline when the judge will issue a written verdict or when sentencing will take place — both of which have to happen before he can file an appeal.
Dalglish, 61, could be facing a prison sentence of 10 years or longer, Hasan said.
Arrest in Nepal
Dalglish was taken into custody at gunpoint in April 2018 at his home near Kathmandu by members of the Central Investigation Bureau of the Nepal Police. He was charged with sexually assaulting two boys, ages 11 and 14, who police say were in the home at the time of his arrest.
Investigators have previously said they followed Dalglish for weeks after they received information about alleged abuses.
Dalglish has consistently denied the charges.
Dalglish will remain in the Dhulikhel jail, located on the outskirts of Kathmandu, until he is sentenced. (CBC)
"He wasn't someone who was a tourist there," said Hasan. "He lived there and spent years doing humanitarian work in Nepal. He wasn't in some seedy hotel luring children. He was part of the village, was well liked and a mentor to many young people and adults in that village."
A slew of abuse allegations has been levelled against aid workers in Nepal in recent years, and authorities have arrested several foreigners in an attempt to deal with rampant child abuse problems.
Dalglish was denied bail last summer on the grounds he was a flight risk. He has since been held at the squalid, overcrowded Dhulikhel jail, located on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
Advocate for the eradication of child poverty
Dalglish, who was born in London, Ont., and earned
a law degree from Dalhousie University, has spent decades working in Africa and Asia to combat child poverty.
In the late 1980s, he co-founded
Street Kids International, a Canadian NGO focused on delivering programs to help improve the living conditions for vulnerable kids in developing countries.
More recently, Dalglish served as a
senior adviser to the UN Habitat in Afghanistan, as well as worked with the
World Health Organization and the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response in Liberia.
In December 2016, Dalglish was named a member of the Order of Canada for his humanitarian work.
'Miscarriage of justice'
Dalglish's lawyers accuse police of interfering with and bribing the boys he is alleged to have abused, along with other potential witnesses.
According to documents seen by CBC's investigative program The Fifth Estate,
one of the boys gave three different accounts about the alleged abuse: one to police, one in court and one to a private investigator hired by Dalglish's family.
Everything Dalglish's legal team and family have learned about the case came through the course of this independent investigation, said Hasan.
"These are things that have created a miscarriage of justice," he said.
Up until his arrest on April 7, 2018, Dalglish was living in this mountain villa in Nepal. (CBC)
Hasan also said there were a number of irregularities that prevented Dalglish from having a fair trial.
Nepalese authorities do not allow the accused to meet with their lawyers alone, he said, which is
a contravention of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Nepal is a signatory.
"When I visited him in the jail in Nepal [last April], I was granted a 15-minute sit-down with him, which was apparently not being observed or recorded, and that was an indulgence that I was told had never been granted," said Hasan.
Authorities in Nepal have also not submitted any forensic evidence against Dalglish, Hasan said.
"The other major challenge is that Nepal is a jurisdiction where they have
no rules of disclosure," he said.
'It's not Peter'
In an interview with The Fifth Estate last December, Nienke Schaap, Dalglish's ex-wife, said that when she heard of the charges, her immediate reaction was that it was a "setup."
She and Dalglish were married for five years and have a daughter together.
"It's not Peter. It's so against his values, everything, I can't picture it," said Schaap. "Peter has a good value system. I know that. I've been around him for a long time, and I can't imagine that Peter crossed the line. There is no way."
Peter Dalglish is shown with his ex-wife, Nienke Schaap, and their daughter. (Nienke Schaap)
Schaap said she stays in touch with Dalglish through two young Nepalese men who have been taking him food in prison every day since his arrest.
"They take care of him ... and they immediately send me a note saying that I have to write Peter," she said. "We try to keep him upbeat, and I always close my mail with: 'Keep the faith. We'll get you out.'"
Dalglish will remain in the Dhulikhel jail until he is sentenced.
Scathing probe of Oxfam GB slams aid group's failure to stop sexual, physical misconduct
Jonathon Gatehouse · CBC News
An Oxfam mural on a wall in Corail, a camp for Haitians displaced by the 2010 earthquake, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince on Feb. 17, 2018. A new report by the U.K.'s Charity Commission says the aid group ignored or downplayed concerns raised by whistleblowers about misconduct by staff in Haiti. (Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)
Oxfam GB
The British arm of Oxfam, one of the world's largest aid organizations, has been slammed for failing to heed warnings about sexual abuse by its program workers in Haiti, and for its internal culture of "tolerating poor behaviour."
The damning findings come from a newly released report by the
U.K.'s Charity Commission following an 18-month probe into
Oxfam GB's actions in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
The investigation concludes that
the aid group ignored or downplayed concerns raised by whistleblowers who complained that staff were hiring local prostitutes for parties, and did not sufficiently investigate claims of physical abuse and other misconduct it received from two girls aged 12 and 13.
"No charity is more important than the people it serves or the mission it pursues," the report says.
[Oxfam GB's] governance and culture with regard to safeguarding has repeatedly fallen below standards expected and failed to meet promises made."
A worker checks water sanitation equipment at Oxfam's logistics warehouse in Bicester, England, before shipping it to Haiti on Jan. 15, 2010. Oxfam provided aid to Haitians in the aftermath of the disastrous 2010 earthquake. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
The charity handled the matter internally at the time, firing four people and letting three others resign, including its country director for Haiti.
But when the story became public (3rd story on link) at the beginning of 2018, dozens of other victims came forward and allegations were raised about staff sexual misconduct on projects in Chad and the Philippines. It was also reported that the
aid worker at the centre of the Haiti scandal, Roland van Hauwermeiren, had left a job with another British charity in 2004 after concerns were raised about sex parties in Liberia.
Oxfam isn't the only charity with disturbing accusations of abuse and child sex abuse in Haiti and elsewhere.
More than 100 UN Peacekeepers Ran a Child Sex Ring in Haiti. None were ever Jailed
Oxfam GB saw more than 7,000 donors cancel their gifts following the revelations and had to slice $27 million from its 2019 program budget. T
he group's chief executive stepped down, and under threat of a funding freeze by the U.K. government, the organization agreed not to apply for any new aid money until the allegations were fully investigated.
Last month, Oxfam disclosed that it has dismissed 79 staff since the spring of 2018 after receiving more than 300 complaints of sexual harassment, bullying and sexual exploitation.
An independent inquiry that the charity commissioned to examine its work culture and practices in the field is due to deliver its final report later this month.
An Oxfam emergency team delivers hygiene kits to prevent the spread of Cholera and other diseases in the town of Camp Perrin, Haiti, in October 2016 after hurricane Matthew. (Fran Afonso/Oxfam International via EPA)
Today's Charity Commission report comes with an official caution from the government regulator, which requires Oxfam to create a plan to improve its governance and implement a series of recommendations.
But
the investigation also contained a warning for other aid groups.
All charities need to absorb the central lesson from Oxfam's shortcomings, it says.
"Keeping people safe is an integral part of their front line operations. It is not an added extra."
And
all indications are that the problems in the charity sector extend far beyond one group.
When the Oxfam scandal broke in early 2018, it was reported
a total of 120 workers from several leading British charities, including Save the Children and the Red Cross, were facing sexual abuse allegations.
And a survey of leading global aid organizations, conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation earlier this year, found that
they had fired 91 staff after receiving 539 reports of sex abuse and harassment in 2018.
In March, the United Nations said that it had received just over 200 reports of sexual exploitation and violence by staff and partners last year, including 54 allegations levelled against peacekeepers and 19 against World Food Program employees.
Haiti's Minister of Planning and External Cooperation, Aviol Fleurant, displays a statement about the Oxfam scandal in Port-au-Prince on June 13, 2018. (Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)
Last week, a federal court judge in Connecticut ratified
a $60 million US class action settlement for 170 Haitians who say they were victims of sexual abuse as children while attending a school run by a now-defunct American charity.
And
More Than Me,
an American charity that focused on rescuing Liberian girls from sexual exploitation, is facing possible criminal and civil action after a ProPublica investigation says it failed to prevent the rapes of young women in its care by staff members.
Today brings news that
a prominent Canadian aid worker had been found guilty of sexually assaulting children in Nepal. Peter Dalglish, the founder of Street Kids International and an Order of Canada recipient, has been in a jail near Kathmandu for more than a year after the Central Investigation Bureau of the Nepal Police arrested him at gunpoint.
He denies the charges made by two boys, aged 11 and 14, and his lawyers have accused the police of bribing and intimidating witnesses.
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'Abuse victims were sent back to war zones'
in Oxfam cover-up
Oxfam abuse victims were sent back to war zones after raising complaints against aid workers, it was claimed in an official report exposing the scale of the scandal that engulfed the charity.
The report, by the
Charity Commission,
accuses Oxfam of underplaying the scale of allegations made by victims in Haiti and the UK in an attempt to protect the charity’s reputation and keep donations coming in.
It found that the charity failed to respond adequately to allegations that aid workers in Haiti were sexually abusing women whom they were supposed to be helping.
It also found that 16 child volunteers in UK high street stores had complained of being victims of abuse. However the report found that Oxfam “tolerated poor behaviour”.
The Charity Commission, which has been investigating Oxfam since last year, concluded that the charity’s approach to the allegations was marked “by a desire to protect its reputation and donor relationships”.
One allegation in the report, published yesterday, said:
“Beneficiaries who raised complaints against Oxfam GB and UN staff were removed from camps and repatriated back to conflict zones by staff who wanted to protect their colleagues.”
On Tuesday, the National Crime Agency confirmed it was investigating a case relating to two Haitian girls, aged 12 and 13, who claimed that they were “beaten and used” by an Oxfam “boss”.
Their emails were seen by Dame Barbara Stocking, the charity’s CEO at the time, and the charity concluded that the claims were “fake”.
However the report condemned the charity saying it did not take their allegations “seriously enough”, that it “should not have taken the risk with the safety of minors” and should have reported the allegations to police.
About | Oxfam
Oxfam was founded by Oxford Quakers in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. Its initial focus was lobbying to allow food to the citizens of famine-struck Greece (caused by Nazi occupation and Allied blockades).
Over subsequent years the charity shifted its concerns to alleviating global poverty and the causes of poverty. Oxfam as it is now is an affiliation of 19 charitable groups under the auspices of Oxfam International.
Monthly protests in Japan gaining traction in fight to reform rapist-friendly rape laws
Sexual abuse victims and their supporters rallied in nine cities around Japan this week to protest against recent court acquittals of alleged rapists and urge reform of the nation's anti-rape law.
Holding flowers and placards with slogans such as "#MeToo, #WithYou," sexual abuse survivors on Tuesday evening recounted their experiences to show the need to scrap
a measure they say puts too high a burden on rape victims, discouraging them from coming forward and hurting their legal chances if they do.
"If we keep saying 'No' to sexual violence and deliver our voices, I have hope this unreasonable law will surely be changed,"
Misa Iwata, who said she was gang raped at 16, told a crowd of hundreds gathered near Tokyo Station.
"To raise one's voice is frightening," added Iwata, a member of sexual abuse victims group Spring. "But by raising our voices, society and politics will surely change."
Legislators revised Japan's century-old rape law in 2017 to include harsher penalties, among other changes. The reforms, however, left intact controversial
requirements for prosecutors to prove that violence or intimidation was involved or that the victim was "incapable of resistance."
Recent acquittals has revived outrage over that legal standard, which means that
not fighting back can make it impossible for prosecutors to prove rape.
In one such ruling in March, a court in the central city of Nagoya, acquitted a father accused of raping his 19-year-old daughter.
Despite recognizing that the 19-year-old victim had sex with her father against her will in 2017 after having been sexually abused by him for years, the branch acquitted the man, ruling that she could have resisted if she had wanted.
Japan Times
Victims and activists want the law changed to bar all non-consensual sex. "This kind of case is continuing because most people don't have the sense that the judgments are wrong," said designer Miku Yokoyama, 23, who attended Tuesday's protest. "We are here today to make a movement to change that."
The Tokyo protest was one of nine nationwide from Fukuoka in the south to Sapporo in the north and Osaka in western Japan. Organizers began holding the monthly protests in April.
"The voices of those saying 'We cannot keep silent' are spreading," media quoted author and activist Minori Kitahara as telling a crowd in
Fukuoka, where another non-guilty verdict was handed down in March.
Other court rulings the demonstrators have protested against
include a case in which a man, indicted over raping a woman
after she passed out from drinking, was found not guilty by
the Fukuoka District Court’s Kurume Branch on March 12.
His acquittal was made on the grounds he “misunderstood”
that she had consented to having sex with him.
Japan Times
The #MeToo movement has been mostly subdued in Japan, where only a few sexual assault victims report the crime to the police; a majority tell no one at all for fear of being blamed themselves and publicly shamed.
17 children relocated as physical, sexual abuse claims rock Cape Town, SA children's centre
Kamva Somdyala - News 24
17 children have been removed from Al Noor care centre in Cape Town following allegations of abuse
Seventeen children have been removed from a care centre in Woodstock, Cape Town, following allegations of abuse, the Western Cape Social Development department said on Wednesday.
The department took the decision to move children from the Al Noor Child and Youth Care Centre after conducting a preliminary investigation into a number of serious complaints of alleged physical and sexual abuse there.
Department spokesperson Esther Lewis said the children have been placed in other child and youth care centres. Lewis said the department would, once investigations concluded, find alternative longer term placement for the children.
"Due to the seriousness of the allegations, involving a number of children at the home, the department has deemed it necessary to remove and place the children in temporary alternative accommodation in terms of Section 173 of the Children's Act to ensure their safety while criminal investigations are underway."
"They are receiving the necessary social support, including assessment and counselling, while criminal charges have been laid with the police against the alleged perpetrators," said Lewis.
The department is also in the process of suspending the home's registration pending the final outcome of its investigations into the matter.
Child rapist Peter Daniels' jail term
increased to 12 years on appeal
WILTSHIRE POLICE
A serial paedophile who admitted 78 charges of child sex abuse has had his sentence increased.
Peter Daniels, 70,
was handed six life terms in February and ordered to serve a minimum term of nine years in prison.
But the sentence was reviewed by the Solicitor General after
Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson complained it was "unduly lenient".
The Court of Appeal has increased the minimum term to 12 years.
'Prolific offender'
Daniels, known as "Uncle Peter" was trusted by local families as a babysitter, taking children out on day trips, buying them presents and taking them on day trips.
He abused 22 children between 2008 and 2017.
During sentencing at Winchester Crown Court in February, a judge said
he had "never encountered sexual abuse on such a relentless scale".
Mr Macpherson said: "This result today shows the importance of challenging the courts and appealing sentences when we feel they do not reflect the seriousness of the crimes.
"I believe today's sentence is more proportionate and addresses the scale of Daniels' offending and the lifelong impact this will have had on his many young victims.
"I would like to thank the courts for taking the time to re-examine their original decision and responding so positively to the concerns raised by me on behalf of Wiltshire Police."
Chief Constable Kier Pritchard said officers who worked on the case would welcome the result and "feel it is a more adequate punishment".
"This new sentence handed down today means Daniels will be in his eighties before he is considered for parole and we hope that provides some comfort for his victims, who are still coming to terms with what happened to them," he added.
I love this law in Britain that allows anyone to challenge a sentence for inappropriateness. This is a perfect example of how well it works.
Bob Higgins jailed for 24 years for abusing young footballers
Survivors say questions remain as to how youth coach
sexually abused 24 players over 25 years
Steven Morris
Guardian
Victims of the football coach Bob Higgins, who is beginning a 24-year jail term for abusing schoolboy players, have said there are still many questions to be answered about why he was able to evade justice for three decades.
Survivors called on high-profile players and managers who worked with Higgins at Southampton FC to explain what they knew of his offending and claimed that by remaining quiet they continued to protect him.
They said
Peterborough FC, where Higgins was also employed, and the
Football Association also
needed to come clean about why he had been able to coach and abuse youth players for seven years after concerns were raised about him.
Higgins, 66, from Southampton, showed no emotion as Judge Peter Crabtree jailed him at Winchester crown court for the
abuse of 24 schoolboys over a 25-year period from 1971 to 1996.
The judge said Higgins was a cunning and manipulative predator who abused his position of trust as a respected coach and caused real, enduring harm to his victims. Higgins had not shown a jot of remorse, he said.
Many of his victims, now middle-aged men, sat in the public gallery as Higgins was sentenced.
They had testified to suffering decades of mental health problems because of his crimes, and expressed anger, shame and guilt at what had happened to them.
Some told the court
they had tried to kill themselves, and many said they had
struggled over the years with flashbacks, panic attacks, depression, anxiety, lack of trust and problems with personal relationships. A number went on to have good careers in football, but some said they had lost their chance of fulfilling their potential because of Higgins.
After the sentencing, Hampshire police said more people had come forward to make allegations against Higgins since his conviction and that the possibility of further prosecutions had not been ruled out.
On the steps of the court, survivors made it clear their fight for justice was not over.
The former Southampton youth player Dean Radford described how he and other boys came forward in 1989 to reveal that Higgins had abused him but were not believed.
“We hope those Southampton club directors, high-profile players and management who spent time with Higgins will stand up and tell the truth,” he said.
“We believe many people must have known what was going on. By not speaking out these people were and still are protecting a predatory paedophile.”
Radford paid tribute to the former Southampton junior star and Higgins victim Billy Seymour, who died in a car crash earlier this year. He said: “Billy will be looking down on us smiling knowing Bob Higgins cannot harm any other child ever again. He will never be forgotten. We did it Billy, just like you said we would. You can now rest in peace our dear friend.”
Higgins worked with youngsters at Southampton between 1975 and 1990 and at Peterborough between 1994 and 1996. When the Guardian broke the story of abuse within football in 2016, Higgins was still working in the game, though not as a coach of junior players.
Dion Raitt, who was abused by Higgins as a junior player at Peterborough, said
Higgins used the boys’ hunger to succeed to exploit them. He said: “Football was our lives, football was our dreams. We would have done anything to make it as a professional footballer.
“There remain many questions that we deserve answers to. How was Bob Higgins able to slip through the net for so long? How was he ever put into a position of power at a professional football club like Peterborough United?”
Raitt said it was “especially shocking” that
in 1989 the Football League, then the game’s governing body, had issued a warning to all clubs about Higgins. “Sadly because of potential failings we were subjected to horrific abuse at the hands of Higgins,” he said.
During the sentencing hearing, another victim, who cannot be named, criticised the FA and Southampton over their handling of Higgins. He asked the court: “Where were Southampton? Where were the FA? Where was their due diligence and safeguarding policies? They had a duty of care, a responsibility.”
Two other former Southampton youth players, Anthony Connolly and Lee Smith, waived their right to anonymity. Connolly had told the court he first met Higgins when he was 12 and said the coach groomed his parents as well as him. Addressing Higgins directly, he said: “You took away my childhood.”
He said the abuse created a “void inside of me” filled (and filled it) with “fear, anxiety and torment”. He said
he had turned to drink to try to drive the fear away and suffered mental health issues. “I hope Southampton FC and the English FA have learned from their mistakes,” he said in court. “I hope the proper safeguarding is in place.”
Smith described Higgins as a monster who ruined the dreams of his victims for his own “sick perverted satisfaction” and said: “The football community is now a much safer place.”
Southampton and Peterborough have apologised to the victims. After Higgins’s conviction the FA said it recognised their distress. “We continue to signpost victims and survivors to speak to Clive Sheldon QC whose team is conducting the independent inquiry into allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse in football,” it said
Both football clubs declined to comment on Wednesday on the former players’ calls for more answers.
An FA spokesperson said: “The FA has commissioned an independent QC to conduct a review into, what, if anything, the FA and clubs knew about the allegations of child sexual abuse at the relevant time, and what action was taken or should have taken place.
“It is therefore inappropriate for the FA to comment on these questions whilst that review is ongoing.”
