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The silence of the lambs

Nathaniel's case gained national attention because he became the first child charged with first-degree murder to be prosecuted under a 1997 Michigan law that allows adult prosecutions of children of any age in serious felony cases. Though he was convicted of an adult charge of second-degree murder, the judge called the law under which he was charged "fundamentally flawed". "While there is no guarantee Nathaniel will be rehabilitated at 21, it is clear 10 years is enough to accomplish this goal," said Judge Eugene Moore and rejected the option of sentencing him to an adult prison and remanded him to juvenile detention.

In his ruling, Judge Moore said society should be committed to preventing future criminal behavior: "The real solution is to prevent an adult criminal population ever from coming into existence." Among those who endorse such views is the US Supreme Court: "Youth crime as such is not the offender's fault; offense by the young also represents a failure in the family, school and the social system, which share the responsibility for the development of America's youth."

Amnesty International -- that vanguard of Indian liberals -- states that "public shock and outrage at violent crimes by children have increasingly been expressed in calls for tougher punishments... What receives far less attention is the way justice systems the world over are violating the basic human rights of children who come into contact with the law. They are held in prisons in inhuman and degrading conditions... They are given sentences which disregard the key principles of juvenile justice -- rehabilitation and the primacy of the well-being of the child."

The Committee on the Rights of the Child monitors the performance of states in respecting the rights of children. It states that children "should be held separately from adults, and have the right to maintain contact with their families and to legal assistance; and guarantees the right to a fair trial. It also obliges governments to promote laws, procedures, institutions and policies specifically applicable to children, such as using alternatives to judicial proceedings and institutional care where appropriate to the child's well-being."

The CRC is applicable to all persons below the age of 18, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is reached earlier. The minimum age of criminal responsibility -- the age below which children are deemed too young to be legally responsible for their actions and face criminal charges -- varies from country to country. In no country is a boy of 13 legally an adult.

Now, ponder the deathly silence of all the human rights advocates of India, our ultra liberals, our secular activists, on the 14-year imprisonment of a tribal boy not yet quite into his teens. Last week, Sudarshan Hansda aka Chenchu was sentenced for being part of the mob that killed the Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two minor sons. The Bhubaneswar juvenile court said: "If Hindu mythology can be of any help in this case, this is the land where dreaded dacoit Ratnakara was transformed into Valmiki and as such, this Court has faith and belief that the Superintendent Juvenile Home, Angul, will nurture and display to the world outside the gradual transformation of Chenchu Hansda to a Valmiki." And then the court ruled that the 13-year-old Chenchu would not be sent to a special home because "it will not be in the interest of other juveniles of that special home since it will have contaminating effect on other juveniles." Therefore, the boy will spend 14 years among hardboiled criminals.

It has been established that on the night of January 22, 1999, a mob led by chief suspect Dara Singh torched the jeep in which Staines and his two sons were sleeping. A mob -- i e, a crowd, horde, mass... Chenchu's lawyer, Gyanendra Acharya, says, "The punishment is illegal and erroneous. Hansda is innocent and he did not commit the crime for which he has been sentenced. The CBI had examined around 90 witnesses of whom only 13 have been named in the charge sheet. During cross-examination, all of them denied having seen him committing the crime. His name was also not mentioned in the first complaint lodged with the police after the incident. The Juvenile Justice Act (section 21 and 22), which describes the punishment for a juvenile delinquent, says that either a convict be confined for 3 years or till he attains the age of 18."

The victims of Keonjhar were White, Christian and Australian. The murderer is Brown, Hindu and Indian. The court for juvenile crime consisted of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sukumar Sahoo and Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate G Mahapatra. The man who composed the report on the Hindu-Muslim Bombay riots of 1992-93 was Justice Srikrishna.

Eighteen persons were charged with the Staines murders. Of them, the trial of 14, including Dara Singh, is scheduled to begin in the sessions court of Bhubaneswar from December 1, while 3 are absconding. Chenchu's is the first conviction in the case.

Do I feeeel for Chenchu like my tender-hearted colleagues feeeeel for even jailed terrorists? No. Hypocrisy is the art of professing virtues one does not hold, and I'm happily deficient in all the arts. I'm aware how mature today's 13 year old can be. I believe that if an adolescent burns alive one adult, forget two children, he should jolly well be hanged. I'm with the US and all those "developed" nations who are re-thinking their juvenile justice system: All 6 Australian states abandoned the welfare model of juvenile justice during the 80s and adopted an alternative "justice model" that emphasises accountability. Goaded by cries for tougher crime control, Canada abolished the concept of delinquency with the Young Offenders Act of 1984 and introduced proportional sentencing for young offenders. England replaced all juvenile courts in 1992 with "youth courts" that focus on offender accountability.

But I'm not a human rights jehadi! I haven't cried when the police thrust needles into the eyes of prisoners. I don't weep over the brutal beating of a teenaged boy in a police station. The stream of brutality that flows past us 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year round, leaves me untouched. I can't remember any lump forming in my throat when I've listened to tales of woe. I rub my hands with satisfaction when I read about under-aged gun-toting separatists shot dead in army encounters. For I'm from the "other" side -- the communalist-divisive-fundamentalist darkness that is Veer Savarkar's (and not the Sangh Parivar's) Hindutva. And therefore, I want someone to tell me why Chenchu's incarceration needs no comment from our liberals.

"How to be a civil libertarian" states that the difficulty level for becoming one is "medium" and the "Time Required: A lifetime." Among its guidelines are: