Sreelatha Menon: A homecoming in Bastar

Business Standard, July 20, 2008
EAR TO THE GROUND
Sreelatha Menon

The collector of Dantewada has agreed to give 10 quintals of paddy seed to restart farming in Nendra. Nendra is a village in Konta block in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh which has been lying deserted for the last three years after multiple attacks by the government-backed anti-Naxal militia, the Salwa Judum, and the police. The collector’s gesture was in reciprocation of a rehabilitation effort by an NGO called Vanvasi Chetna Ashram to facilitate homecoming for the villagers who were living either in jungles fearing reprisals from the Salwa Judum and the police, or in neighbouring villages of Andhra Pradesh. Some of them are in camps set up by the state government.

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

How the Salwa Judum experiment went wrong: Live Mint

a11d4e2a-4de7-11dd-a550-000b5dabf636 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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July 14, 2008 | Filed Under Press Reports | Leave a Comment 

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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July 14, 2008 | Filed Under Press Reports | Leave a Comment 

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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July 14, 2008 | Filed Under Press Reports | Leave a Comment 

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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July 14, 2008 | Filed Under Press Reports | Leave a Comment 

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