Human Rights Watch says India backing violent vigilante group that has displaced thousands
Yahoo India News
Tue, Jul 15 05:28 PM
NEW DELHI (AP) _ Indian forces are collaborating with a vigilante group that carries out brutal attacks that have displaced tens of thousands of people in eastern India in an attempt to crush a communist uprising, a human rights group said Tuesday. Human Rights Watch called on the Indian federal government and the Chhattisgarh state government to end their support for the Salwa Judum vigilantes and take immediate steps to protect civilians caught in the fighting.
“The Chhattisgarh government denies supporting Salwa Judum, but dozens of eyewitnesses have described police participating in violent Salwa Judum raids on villages killing, looting and burning hamlets,” Jo Becket of Human Rights Watch said in a statement. The New York-based rights group also called on the communist rebels to end their attacks on civilians and stop recruiting child soldiers.
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MEDICAL EVIDENCE SUPPORTS DETAINEES’ ACCOUNTS OF TORTURE IN US CUSTODY
Cambridge, Mass. (PRWEB) June 18, 2008 – Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has published a landmark report documenting medical evidence of torture and ill-treatment inflicted on 11 men detained at US facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, who were never charged with any crime. The physical and psychological evaluation of the detainees and documentation of the crimes are based on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture claims. The report also details the severe physical and psychological pain and long-term disability that has resulted from abusive and
unlawful US interrogation practices. Read more
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Release Ajay TG Campaign getting momentum
Ajay TG has a right to make films.
Ajay TG has the right to show his films.We have the right to see his films.
We strongly protest and condemn the arrest of independent documentary filmmaker
and freelance journalist Ajay TG by the Chattisgarh Police.We demand his immediate release from prison and the dropping of all charges against him.
We reiterate that it is not possible to silence
the voice of dissent, the expressions of our conscience or even the reporting of facts
by intimidation, imprisonment and the politics of branding.
Filmmakers, artists and activists distributed hundreds of RELEASE AJAY TG pamphlets at the opening ceremony of the 10th Osian’s Cinefan - Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, in New Delhi on the 11th of July 2008.
Recipient of the Osian’s Lifetime Achievement Award, renowned filmmaker Mrinal Sen signed the petition condemning Ajay TG’s arrest.
Demanding Ajay TG’s release, Mrinal Sen said, “I am with you. I wish I was 30 years younger so I could have physically joined you all in this campaign.”
A Committee for the Release of Ajay TG has been formed with eminent personalities such as Habib Tanvir, Aruna Roy, Dr. Kamal Chenoy, Dr. Banwari Lal Sharma, Dr. Usha Ramanathan, Harsh Mander, Siddharth Vardharajan, Sudhir Pattnaik, Ranjan Palit and Amar Kanwar.
Also a new website http://www.releaseajaytg.in/ is launched by the campaign committee
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Dr Binayak Sen: The Movie!
Indo-Asian News Service
Monday, July 14, 2008: (Mumbai):
It’s an incarnation of the classic love-torn couple Devdas and Paro as never seen before - fighting each other as political adversaries in Sudhir Mishra’s version of Devdas that goes on the floor in August.
“It’s more like William Shakespeare’s Hamlet as applied to the politics of India,” said Mishra. He will shoot Devdas in the deserts of Rajasthan.
“I want those vast stretches of sand for dramatic emphasis,” said Mishra who has made films like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and Chameli.
The truth is never far away from Mishra’s cinema. He now wants to make a new genre of cinema, what he calls a ‘mockumentary’.
“It’d be shot in the documentary style. The events would all be dramatic recreations of real incidents. I’m planning to apply this format to my film on the life of doctor-activist Binayak Sen, the child specialist in Chhattisgarh who has been accused of sedition and jailed.
“It is interesting to film the lives of real characters who are caught in a moral crisis. In that sense the life of Binayak Sen is no different from that of Hamlet or Devdas,” he said.
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How the Salwa Judum experiment went wrong: Live Mint
Krishnamurthy Ramasubbu
Live Mint, Wall street Journal
Conflict between the militia and Naxalites in the past 3 years has displaced thousands of tribals in Chhattisgarh
Dantewada, Chhattisgarh: It took five days for Gantala Baby and people from the 60 families in her small village in mineral-rich southern Chhattisgarh to cross the Dandakaranya forests and arrive at their destination, Khammam in Andhra Pradesh. Several people died during the 260km trek through unfriendly terrain, and Baby’s son Aadavi Ramudu was born en route.
That was in 2006. Baby, now all of 18, is still struggling to make ends meet at Charla in Khammam. She is among at least 150,000 tribals who have been forced to leave home in Chhattisgarh. Some have moved to Andhra Pradesh. Others live in camps run by the Salwa Judum, a state-backed militia formed around three years ago to fight Maoists (or Naxalites) in the region.
After criticism from several entities, including human rights organizations and India’s top court, the Chhattisgarh government, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) one, is disbanding Salwa Judum, which is translated as peace force by some people and cleansing water by others.
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From freebinayaksen.org- Updates from Google News
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - Times of India
- With fear and hope - Hindu
- Orissa Police in Service of Hindutva (and POSCO) - Desicritics.org
- POTA 3.0: India's New Terror Law - CounterCurrents.org
- Mumbai attack: Who is asking the real questions? - Express Buzz
- Poetry: Matte Finish - Desicritics.org
- Reports From Indian Media
- With fear and hope - Hindu: Sunday Magazine
- Mumbai attack: Who is asking the real questions? - New Indian Express
- Equality before the law? - Oheraldo
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - TOI: India
- Chidambaram says Govt disapproves of Salwa Judum - Express India-- Front Page
- Chidambaram says Govt disapproves of Salwa Judum - The Indian Express -- Front Page
- Centre disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - Rediff: News
- Government disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers - NDTV National
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers - Hindustan Times: News
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers - Hindustan Times: India
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - TOI: India
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - Doordarshan
- Rhetoric rejected - Frontline
- Outcome shot in the arm for salwa judum - Asian Age: India
- PUCL Vice-President's bail plea rejected - New Kerala: West Bengal
- Chhattisgarh HC: PUCL vice president's bail plea rejected - IndLaw News
- Different kinds of silence - Telegraph: Opinion
- Whither democracy? - Oheraldo
- Q&A: 'Rights activism uses space within the Constitution' - TOI: Editorial
- The Shootin' Sheriffs - Outlook