GOAN LIBERATION BY GOING TO LAW? by Lucio Mascarenhas, Sangolda

Human law has progressed in some ways over the last hundred years. First there was the establishment of the International Court at the Hague, then the Nuremberg and Japanese Trials, the development of the United Nations and of International Laws, etc.

 

As illustrated by the Pinochet incident and the treatment of Slobodan Milosevic, the Cambodian and Rwandan situations, etc., laws in many countries and in regional groupings such as the European Community has been further developed to extend jurisdiction to crimes not normally within the jurisdiction of the laws of these states. Thus, a 'Criminal Against Humanity' can be hauled up and tried even when his purported acts were perpetrated in third countries.

 

Today, there are influential groupings of Goans throughout the West, in Lisbon, Portugal, in London, in America and Canada, in Australia and New Zealand, etc., and there are very many qualified, capable and eminent lawyers, criminologists, etc., of Goan extraction.

 

Moreover, Portugal is also a member of the European Community.

 

All this creates a great opportunity for the Goan Liberation Movement.

 

Goans must haul up Portugal before the European Community and International Court of Justice for its act of fraud perpetrated by the so-called 'Chavan-Soares Treaty', and force it to nullify that fraud upon Goa, and to resume its obligations towards Goa under the relevant provisions of International Laws. Furthermore, it should be possible to also haul up the Indian Union under these laws.

 

For residents in the United States, it should be possible to file a case against the Indian Union for damages for its invasions of 1954 & 1961, its act of occupation and pretended annexation, its flagrant acts of hypocrisy, the trauma, injuries, losses and displacements resultant to the invasions, the occupation and the pretended annexation, acts of state-sponsored terrorism prior and subsequent to the invasion, the rape of Goan women, the murder of Goans, the robberies by troopers of the invading forces, the destruction of Goan assets such as the Diu and Dabolim airports and the Goan Airlines TAIP (Transportes Aeros India Portuguesa), etc., as also against Portugal for its act of fraud, the 'Chavan-Soares Treaty'.

 

And even if it is only a class-action suit for billions of dollars in damages, it will still force Portugal, the Indian Union and the world to sit up and notice.

 

All this will build up pressure on both Portugal and the Indian Union and force the Goan Question to the forefront of International consciousness, and make it impossible for both perpetrators to continue with their wrong-doing.

 

I would suggest that Goans get together and look into these possibilities seriously.