Peace Padayatra in Chattisgarh, DGP in California

We must protest human rights violations in Chattisgarh. The Chief of Police who has been silencing dissent and as Salwa Judum spreads terror in the interior tribal villages, is visiting California this week. Please read on:

Himanshu Kumar, who has been working for more than 15 years with Vanvasi Chetana Ashram in the tribal villages of Dantewara, in Chattisgarh, has sent this message about the Peace March they are taking through the villages:

“We are starting a padayatra from Errabore today. Our padyatra will end on 2nd October, Gandhijis birthday in Dornapal. We plan to cover 22 interior villages in 12 days. We are a group of 14 volunteers from Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, including 3 girls. Our night halt today will be at Nendra village….”

Meanwhile, the Director-General of Police, Mr. Vishwa Ranjan is visiting Berkeley California, to speak at a seminar on “Indian Democracy.”

Concerned individuals are planning to raise tough questions for the DGP at this seminar. Concerned faculty are endorsing a letter to present to the DGP in Berkeley. If you are / know faculty who would like to see & sign this letter pls respond to paravinda gmail.com with your name, title and affiliation.

Himanshu Kumar has a question for the DGP of Chattisgarh:

Why have FIRs have not been filed against the Salwa Judum/ SPOs/ Police officers?

1. On 18th March 2008, three tribals living in Matwada Salwa Judum camp in Bijapur district, under the protection of police and SPOs, were brutally killed by the salwa judum/police. The attackers started beating them up at 4 pm and continued beating them for 4 hours till they were finally killed at around 8 pm–their eyes were gouged out and their heads beaten with rocks.

Himanshu ji took the three widows to meet with the DGP. He listened to them and consoled them and told them that such atrocities will not happen again. But later, he claimed that Himanshu ji had lied about this incident, and claimed in court documents that the widows are making false accusations under the influence of the Naxalites. The police has refused to file any FIRs on this matter

More about this incident can be read (in Hindi) here

2. On August 11th, 2008, Salwa Judum/police visited the Arlampalli village and killed 5 people who were engaged in agriculture at that point. The village people claim that they were involved peacefully working in the fields at the time they were killed by the police. They were not threatening the police in any manner. Again, Himanshuji took the parents of one and the wife of another deceased person to meet with the SP of Dantewada, where they complained to him that the police killed their loved ones with no justification. Once again, no FIR was filed.

More information here (again in Hindi): (including the report by Himanshu ji, and petitions by parents and wife of deceased).

If you can BE IN BERKELEY to demand that the DGP STOP supporting Salwa Judum, STOP imprisoning human rights activists, STOP silencing voices of dissent in Chattisgarh and DROP CHARGES against and RELEASE political prisoners including Dr. Binayak Sen, Ajay TG and others, please go to Barrows Hall on Saturday Sept 26 at 2 pm and make your voice COUNT.

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September 26, 2008 | Filed Under Protests | Leave a Comment 

Know for yourself the Sinister ways of Chhattisgarh Police : Kavita Srivastava

DIARY NOTES

Events of the Third Phase of Dr. Binayak Sen’s Trial & Incidents Preceeding Ajay TG’s Bail

Since Dr. Sen’s trial is disproving the prosecution’s case the police is openly trying to fabricate evidence both inside and outside the court. The police even tried to use Ajay’s TG legitimate release against Dr. Sen, hence the events of both the cases have been written together

The third phase of the trial of Dr. Binayak Sen case began on the 29th of July and lasted till July 31st. The key witnesses, the material witnesses had already deposed in the first two phases of the trial and some were tendered off. The subsequent witnesses were to be mostly seizure witnesses or police and jail personnel. Since most of the 20 witnesses who had deposed in the first two rounds of the trial had in no way confirmed the police case, the prosecution in an act of desperation had filed an application of recalling three of the witnesses who had deposed in the second phase between the 1st of July and the 4th of July. This was slated for argument in the course of these three days.

This was also the period when it became clear that charge sheet was not being filed in the Ajay TG case and that statutory bail was imminent however, we were suddenly filled with the hope that perhaps the case itself would be closed as Ajay had not committed any criminal act and hence there was no evidence to that effect.

29th July. 2008

No hearing happened as a senior member of the bar had passed away. Before we reached the Court, Dr. Binayak Sen, Pijush Guha and Narayan Sanyal had been already taken away to the jail. We were very disappointed that we had missed him. Read more

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September 26, 2008 | Filed Under articles, trial updates | Leave a Comment 

An attempt to deprive tribals of their constitutional rights: National Adivasi Alliance

Mangalore Times

Bangalore July 28: Decrying the conspiratory moves by forces with vested interests to thwart the rendering of constitutional benefits to the Adivasis across the country, the National Adivasi Alliance (NAA), a national level NGOs network has, in unison declared to intensify its efforts to lobby for the effective implementation of the Forests Rights Act. The resolution to this effect was taken at the three-day national workshop on “Adivasi World View and Adivasi Dialogue organized by NAA in association with Coorg Organisation for Rural Development (CORD) that concluded here on Sunday.

Briefing reporters here on the deliberations, NAA spokesperson, V S Roy David informed that the discussions which were actively participated by Adivasi representatives from eight states across the country including Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa, strongly felt that it was high time that the Governments and the other powers that may be, accorded serious weightage to the Adivasi ways of sustainability, ecology governance and justice system so as to enable progress in the true sense.

Read more

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July 29, 2008 | Filed Under Press Reports | Leave a Comment 

CONVENTION ON DRACONIAN LAWS

DELHI, JULY 26-27, 2008
Venue : Garhwal Bhavan, Panchkuian Road, Opp Videocon Tower, New Delhi
(near New Delhi Railway Station)

In order to seek moral legitimacy for their existence in the present neo-liberal era, governments increasingly are resorting to sideline the constitutional provisions of civil liberties, right to association and freedom of expression in the name of global action against terrorism. The Indian government has joined the US in this global campaign. Man Mohan Singh has also said, on more than one occasion, that naxalism is a bigger threat than terrorism. The other side of the coin is that citizens get killed or face repression at the hands of police when the state machinery brands anybody a naxalite or a terrorist and violates all norms of human rights.

Binayak Sen, the General Secretary of Chattisgarh People’s Union of Civil Liberties and national Vice President of the same body, an organization established by late Jayaprakash Narayan, and a doctor who used to run a non-governmental people’s health care programme is presently the target of Chattisgarh government. Binayak had started exposing some of the misdeeds of the state machinery in persecuting people by invoking the fear of naxalism. He is presently languishing in jail in spite of national and international protests.

Read more

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July 25, 2008 | Filed Under announcements | 1 Comment 

Chhattisgarh and the danger of dissent

Hindustan Times, July 20, 2008
Paramita Ghosh

If Ajay TG had been smart enough to know where to point his camera, his films might have been showing in Osian today. As it stands, he is in Durg jail, 40 km from Bhilai.

Having started making films 7-8 years ago, he would capture “daily life, festivals and rituals of Durg”, and particularly, says Ajay, in a statement, “my own neighborhood — an old village now surrounded by urban growth.” In Chattisgarh though, these are acts of terrorism.

This week, www.releaseajaytg.in, a website was set up by a committee for his release. Playwright Habib Tanvir, activist Aruna Roy, professor Dr Kamal Chenoy, ex-director ActionAid India, Harsh Mander, law expert Usha Ramanathan, journalist Siddharth Vardharajan, among others, are its members.

Renowned film-maker Mrinal Sen who signed the petition condemning Ajay’s arrest, says: “I wish I was 30 years younger, so that I could have physically joined you all in this campaign.”

Tanvir says, “Chattisgarh was always a peaceful place. It is a great shame that artists, film makers and journalists are being targeted in this state.”

Read more

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July 20, 2008 | Filed Under Press Reports | Leave a Comment 

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