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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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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Chhattisgarh tribals having sleepless nights
Meri News
K. Sudhakar Patnaik
Tortured and tormented by Chhattisgarh government backed Salwa Judum – a Naxalite movement – thousands of Chhattisgarh tribals migrated to Andhra Pradesh. Adding to their agony, the Andhra Pradesh government considers them pro-Maoists..
THE TRIBALS living in about 800 villages of Dantewada, Bijapur and Bastar district of Chhattisgarh forests migrated to Bhadrachalam and Khamam district of Andhra Pradesh one year back. They settled there to save themselves from both the Naxalites and the Chhattisgarh government, which is backing Salwa Judum - a Naxalite movement.
These tribals at present are neither the citizens of Chhattisgarh nor the citizens of Andhra Pradesh. The tribals, who depend upon forest produce and cultivation as they live in the forest, are forcibly displaced by the Chhattisgarh government, police and Salwa Judum. The Salwa Judum burnt some of their villages, killed people, raped women and snatched away domestic animals of those who refused to leave their birthplaces.
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Salwa judum in Manipur: Eyes Wide Open
CURRENT AFFAIRS
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 28, Dated July 19, 2008
TERESA REHMAN
Guwahati
Two Manipuri villages rethink on their decision to have their own Salva Judum after a visit to Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district
THE METHODS and premises of the Salva Judum — Chhattisgarh’s controversial civilian mobilisation against the state’s Naxals — remain bitterly contested, but analysing the pros and cons of the strategy represents far more than mere academic interest in insurgency-riddled Manipur. After a series of militant attacks, two villages here — Heirok in Thoubal district and Chajing Konjeng Leikai in Imphal West district — decided this year to ask the government for permission to bear arms against the ultras. With the Union Home Ministry granting consent, the state government decided to create 500 Special Police Officer (SPO) posts from the two villages, 300 from Heirok and 200 from Chajing.
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Gallery
From freebinayaksen.org- Updates from Google News
- Mrinal Sen , Adoor, Benegal demand release of film maker Ajay TG - MyNews.in
- Filmmaker's arrest ignites controversy - NDTV.com
- Political twist to Devdas, Paro - NDTV.com
- Mishra plans a period comedy film - Sify
- Bullet can’t be tackled with bullet: Sandeep Pandey(Interview) - Thaindian.com
- Wife of imprisoned Dr. seeks support of world community - India New England
- Reports From Indian Media
- बिनायक सेन के बचाव में आए एम्स के डॉक्टर - नवभारत टैम्स
- Binayak Sen’s release demanded - Hindu: New Delhi
- Binayak Sen’s release demanded - Hindu: New Delhi
- Sreelatha Menon: A homecoming in Bastar - Business Standard
- PUCL Kerala unit elects new office bearers - New Kerala: Kerala News
- Different Devdas and Paro in Sudhir Mishras version - The Navhind Times
- A different Devdas and Paro in Sudhir Mishra's version - India eNews: Top Headlines
- Trials of a campaigner for civil liberties - New Indian Express
- Justice travestied - The Statesman
- Sabotaging people's work is not my style: Aamir - CNN-IBN Top Stories
- 'C'garh anti-terror law to go if Cong returns' - Central Chronicle
- Chhattisgarh anti-terror law to go if Congress returns: Ajit Jogi (Interview) - New Kerala: India News
- Chhattisgarh anti-terror law to go if Congress returns: Ajit Jogi - India eNews: Politics
- One-day fast for Binayak's release - New Indian Express