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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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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Tribal houses burnt by salwa judum members
By Sonal Kellogg
Howra News
New Delhi
July 5: An independent fact-finding team of people’s groups which visited Lendra village of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh on June 26 at the invitation of the Campaign for Peace and Justice found that 11 houses belonging to the adivasis had been completely burnt down and razed to the ground by salwa judum members.
Salwa judum, a campaign sponsored and supported by the Chhattisgarh government, allegedly handed out brutal reprisals for depositions by members of this village before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). All their belongings were burnt down with the houses.
The NHRC was visiting Dantewada in June in connection with the Supreme Court’s orders in the salwa judum case of April 15, where the court asked the commission to investigate charges of human rights violations by salwa judum and report within eight weeks.
As per the resident tribals of Lendra, a group of more than 100 persons from the salwa judum camp at Erabor entered the village at around 8.30 am on June 15. The group was armed and some of them were in uniform. On seeing the advancing group, the tribals fled. However, two persons who could not flee were caught and beaten up. The attacking group then proceeded to burn down 11 houses in the hamlet.
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Trials of a campaigner for civil liberties
Siddharth Narrain
The New Indian Express
THERE was nothing to distinguish the tiny nondescript courtroom of Additional Sessions Judge B S Saluja in Raipur from any of the myriad other courts in this country. A sudden bustle from the police personnel outside the court alerted us to the arrival of a blue police van.
Dr Binayak Sen, in a characteristic light blue kurta entered the courtroom followed by the two other accused persons in this trial — Piyush Guha, and Narayan Sanyal. Almost a year after the Chhattisgarh government arrested Dr Sen, his trial had begun.
Read more
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Justice travestied
by Sandeep Pandey
(The Statesman, July 8, 2008)
I first met Dr Binayak Sen, his wife Ilina and their two daughters, Aparajita and Pranhita, at the conclusion of the ‘Pokhran to Sarnath Global Peace March’ on 6 August 1999 at the Central Tibetan Institute of Higher Learning in Sarnath, near Varanasi. Sarnath is where Buddha delivered a sermon to his first five disciples after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. The peace march was symbolically between a place of destruction ~ Pokhran ~ and a place of peace ~ Sarnath. It began exactly a year after the day India tested nuclear weapons in 1998 and concluded on Hiroshima Day. The objective of the march was to push for total global nuclear disarmament.
While the march was in progress for 88 days and over 1,500 km, the Sens were busy organising activities in Raipur, now in Chhattisgarh, and their work area in its support. We also later got a chance to work together for the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, a national platform.
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