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News Alerts | Civil Society Questions Anti-Naxal Operations

Civil Society Questions Anti-Naxal Operations

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published Published on Nov 4, 2009   modified Modified on Nov 4, 2009

A fact finding team of many civil society organizations has reported widespread occurrences of murders, tortures and cases of police atrocities in Chhattisgarh in the name of combating Naxalism. It is also being alleged that in the name of their own security, journalists are being stopped from going to so called “combat zones” where security forces have launched an Operation Greenhunt to flush out armed Maoists. 

Fifteen members of the fact finding team that visited Dantewada area between October 10 and Oct 12 represent seven civil society organisations. These organisations are: Peoples’ Union of Civil Liberties, PUCL (Chhattisgarh), Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights, PUDR (Delhi), Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (Dantewada), Human Rights Law Network (Chhattisgarh), ActionAid (Orissa), Manna Adhikar (Malkangiri) and Zilla Adivasi Ekta Sangh (Malkangiri).

The organisations have alleged that the atrocities are not covered by the local media and the area is under some kind of information blackout. The fact finding team has documented the brutal killings of seven villagers in Gachanpalli on Sept 17 and killings of another 10 villagers in Gompad encounters on October1. The report also documents cases of tortures, including those of women and children, illegal arrests, looting and burning, and forced displacement. 

The report poses some relevant but uncomfortable questions such as: If the people killed were indeed Naxalites then why did the security forces leave the bodies in the villages? And if the injured were Naxalites then why weren’t they arrested?

The report has demanded an impartial enquiry, fixing of responsibility for the murders and showing its conviction of the Maoists to the Supreme Court. It also demands rehabilitation o those affected and that the cordon and search operations be immediately halted. (Detailed press note about the fact finding team as released in New Delhi recently is enclosed below)

Many civil society organisations have also asked the government to come clean on the MOUs signed with various mining and metal companies in the Naxalite affected regions. They believe that there is a direct connection between these MOUs and anti Naxalite operations. (See link below: Interview with Arundhati Roy)

Also relevant here is a press report from Jagdalpur that exposes the questionable manner in which the government is proceeding with the formalities of conducting public hearings in assessing the environmental impact of the proposed Tata Steel project in the district’s Lohandiguda block. The project is expected to take up about 5000 acres of tribal land in 11 villages and use large quantities of water from the local rivers. (News report and link enclosed below) 

Follow the links so as to get more information on Operation Green Hunt and leftwing extremism:

'Indian democracy in a state of emergency', Karan Thapar interviews Arundhuti Roy, CNN-IBN, 26 October, 2009
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/indian-democracy-in-a-state-of-
emergency/103928-3.html

Gladson and Arundhati Roy on Naxalism: CNN-IBN Debate, October, 2009, http://newswing.com/?p=3659
 

Press Release

30th October 2009

Operation Green Hunt: Who is the state hunting?

Findings of fact-finding team into 17th September and 1st October murders by security forces in Dantewada
 
The government claims that Operation Green Hunt is a necessary measure to bring ‘civilian administration to 2.5 million people’ in areas which the Maoists control The Home Ministry has admitted that it will take at least 18 months to show the results. Begun in September, Operation Green Hunt has been accompanied with a huge publicity campaign against the Maoists and news ranging from beheading of a police officer to the most recent ‘train jacking’. What have been suppressed in this vehement campaign are violent actions carried out by the security forces in the name of ‘flushing out Maoists’. For instance, no substantive information has been given in the media regarding the Gachanpalli killings of 17th September 2009 and 1st October killings at Gompad and Chintagufa villages in Chhattisgarh by security forces. Nor have any reports appeared regarding detentions and arrests of several young men on 1st October. Information regarding looting, burning and torture which accompanied these operations have remained unknown. Also, that people have fled their villages and are living in make shift sheds in the forest, has gone unnoticed. The fact that on both these days, security forces (Cobra, local police and SPOs and Salwa Judum leaders such as Boddu Raja) went on a rampage—stabbing and killing people, looting, burning houses and forcibly picking up young men—is the other side of Operation Green Hunt which has been carefully kept away from public scrutiny.

In order to ascertain these facts, a 15 member fact-finding team visited Dantewada area between 10th and 12th October 2009. The team comprised members from PUCL (Chhattisgarh), PUDR (Delhi) Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (Dantewada), Human Rights Law Network (Chhattisgarh), ActionAid (Orissa), Manna Adhikar (Malkangiri) and Zilla Adivasi Ekta Sangh (Malkangiri). The team was initially denied permission and was repeatedly questioned and interrogated at Dornapal and Errabore police camps on the way. The team stayed at Nendra village and met witnesses and victims from several villages and gathered testimonies from them. Subsequently, the team spoke to District Collector and Superintendent of Police, Dantewada. Given below are some of the observations made by the team.
 
17th September 2009: 7 villagers brutally killed by security forces.
 
1. Gachanpalli murders: In the early hours of 17th September, 6 villagers were murdered by security forces in this village. Dudhi Muye (70 yrs) who could hardly walk was murdered after her breasts were cut off. Family members who had fled the scene on seeing the security forces, found her lying dead in a pool of blood. Similarly, Kawasi Ganga (70 yrs) who could barely see was stabbed and murdered in his bed. He too was found by his family members who had fled from the house and had taken shelter in the forest. Madvi Deva (25 yrs) was tied to a tree and shot at three times and then beheaded. His grandfather who was accompanying him back to the village was a witness to this. The family hasn’t found his body. Three other villagers, Madvi Joga (60 yrs), Madvi Hadma (35 yrs) and Madkam Sulla were stabbed and murdered. The last two were killed in front of one witness, the wife of Madkam Sulla. Madvi Joga was killed after being stripped naked while ploughing his little plot of land. All the houses were ransacked, broken and burnt down. Family members are either living in sheds in the forests or have taken shelter with relatives. Many others have also taken similar shelter as their houses were burnt down by the security forces.

The case of Madvi Deva: This young man was a resident of Singanpalli village and had gone out in the morning of 17th for some family work. When he did not return his family searched for him. Two days later, a Patel from another village informed the family that he   had been shot and killed by the security forces and his body was buried in the compound of Chintagufa PS. The Patel was asked to supervise the burial in the PS.
 
2. Torture: Burnt in hot oil: Muchaki Deva (60 yrs) of Onderpara was grazing cattle on the morning of 17th September. He was caught, beaten and dragged into the village by security forces. He was hung on a branch of a tree and pushed into a pot of hot oil which was kept ready under the tree. He was then pulled out and poured over with water. As a result, the upper part of his body is severely burnt and he has developed maggots in his wounds. He gravely ill and although he has no access to medical aid he has been taken to Bhadrachalam by members of the fact-finding team.

Tied and paraded: 6 villagers, including 3 women were tied and paraded through Gachanpalli and other villages where the security forces went. Fortunately, they escaped as timely rains made it possible for them to flee.

3. Forced displacement and terror: families of those who were murdered by security forces and those whose houses have been burnt down vengefully, have fled the village and are living in make shift sheds in the forest. The condition of the others is no better as the entire village has been terrorized by security forces.
 
1st October 2009: 10 villagers brutally killed by security forces
 
1. Gompad ‘encounter’: SP Dantewada described the operations in Gompad village on 1st October as an ‘encounter’. An encounter with a difference: while 9 villagers were killed by security forces in the village and their bodies were left there, no casualties were inflicted on security forces. This too the SP confirmed. 4 members of one family, Madvi Bajar, his wife, Madvi Subbi, their married daughter, Kartam Kanni and their young daughter, Madvi Mutti were stabbed and killed inside house. So too were two other villagers from Bhandarpadar, Muchaki Handa and Madkam Deva, who were staying the night over at Madvi Bajar’s house on their way home from Andhra Pradesh where they had been working. Another couple, Soyam Subba and Soyam Jogi were stabbed and killed inside their house. Yet another villager, Madvi Enka was stabbed inside the house and then dragged all over the village. Before leaving the village, the security forces shot him and left his body. All 9 deaths, like the ones on 17th September, were preceded by stabbing and the bodies were left in the village. When the team asked the SP about recovery of bodies from the encounter site, the SP stated that Naxalites had ‘taken them away’.
 
More killings: In Chintagufa, a 45yr old man, Tomra Mutta was stabbed and shot inside his house. On seeing the sudden arrival of the security forces, Tomra Mutta ran to protect his family. He was shot in the process. The team confirmed 10 murders that had taken   place that day but there is apprehension that the total number of killings may be much higher as many villages could not be contacted or accessed. The SP confirmed that two sets of raid parties set off that day comprising of Cobras and local police. Hence, the details with the team do not give the entire and exact picture of how many villages were attacked and targeted.

2. Torture: Travails of a 2yr old: Madvi Bajar’s grandson was not spared. He is all of two and yet the security forces beat him, cut four of his fingers, broke his teeth and cut off part of his tongue. He has been taken to Bhadrachalam by members of the fact-finding team.

Witnesses reported several instances of harassment at the hands of the security forces. In Gompad, one villager was caught and interrogated and then shot at in his leg. He managed to run away but still has the bullet injury and has had no medical treatment. In Chintagufa, security forces tied another man and made him walk to Injaram PS. They severely beat him and also attacked him on his toe with a knife. He was finally let off in the evening. In Gompad, one young mother was shot at under her knee by security forces inside her house. Her four children fell on her and she was thus, saved. Without any medical treatment for over two weeks, she was first brought to Dantewada, and now to Delhi where she has been operated upon and is undergoing treatment.

3. Arrests: 8 arrested and 2 missing: Ten young men between 18-32 years were beaten and picked up by security forces from Mukudtong and Jinitong villages on 1st October. Eight have been shown as arrested in a case that was registered on 3/10 at Konta PS under various sections of IPC, Arms Act and Explosives Act. They are currently lodged in Dantewada jail. However, two still remain missing. Female relatives who went in search of those missing at the Konta PS were harassed, made to affix their thumb impression on blank documents and driven away. When they returned two days later, they were abused, told not to return and informed that the men had been taken to an unknown place.

4. Looting and Burning of property and houses: As many as 9 instances of looting and burning by security forces were reported to the team. Unlike the 17th September killings which were followed by arson and burning of the houses of those murdered, security forces on 1st October looted homes. They took away paddy, pusles, brass pots and poultry from many homes. Money, ranging from 300/- to 10,000/- was stolen from these houses. Destruction of property, particularly burning down of houses was carried out in as many as seven instances.


5. Presence of SPOs and Salwa Judum leader with security forces: Residents of Mukudtong village confirmed that the ‘raid’ party was accompanied by known Salwa Judum leader, Boddu Raja of Injaram camp and they recognised SPOs Pande Soma of Phandeguda village and Ganga of Asarguda village. Residents of Gompad village were able to recognize SPO Madvi Buchcha who belongs to their own village.

6. Forced displacement and terror: Several families are living in makeshift sheds in the forest area as their houses have been burnt down. Those who are unable to run and flee are living in terror in the villages and residents and relatives have helped them to repair their houses and have given them other support.
 


Conclusion
 
While the team could only meet residents of some of the villages, there is apprehension that a much larger number of people were killed on both days in other villages. The same is true for instances of torture, loot and detentions. The clamp down on information makes it impossible to know what exactly is happening in distant and far flung villages. However, what is clear is that the operations conducted by security forces have compelled villagers to leave their villages, flee into the forests and/or take shelter with relatives in other villages.
 
The condition of those who are residing in their villages is precarious and vulnerable. Given that the government has not complied with the Supreme Court order on rehabilitation of displaced families (families which were displaced in the earlier phase of Salwa Judum violence), the new and current phase of violence by security forces has added to the crisis in these remote and inaccessible villages. Instead of rehabilitating people, the government, in the name of combating Maoism, is bent upon unleashing its lethal paramilitary forces and evicting people from their villages. It is imperative to immediately end to this policy of eviction and terror and enable people to settle in their villages.
 
Unanswered Questions

1. If each of the deceased were ‘maoists’, then why did the security forces leave the bodies in the villages? What was the point of the brutality that preceded killing?
2. Equally, if those injured were also Maoists, then why didn’t the police arrest them? Why were they not given medial aid?
3. Why was an old man tortured brutally in hot oil? Why was a two year old subjected to such torture?
4. Why were houses looted and burnt?
5. Why is justice denied in these cases? Why haven’t the families of the deceased, those injured and tortured and those whose houses were looted given compensation?
 
Demands
 
1. That the government must accept responsibility for murders committed on 17th September and 1st October by security forces and file FIRs against those responsible. Further, the government must acknowledge all instances of torture, illegal detention and destruction of property. FIRs must be lodged in each case and compensation given in each instance.
2. That an impartial inquiry (comprising civil society representatives and representatives of organizations working in the area) be conducted into the incidents of murder and acts of arson, loot and torture on 17th September and 1st October by security forces. The focus should be to bring out the truth behind these killings an also investigate the extent of the operations carried out on both days. 
3. That the government must immediately take steps and show its conviction in the Supreme Court order on rehabilitation of villages and implement it immediately. The above described incidents of 17th September and 1st October have created fear and panic and compelled villagers to flee. Unless the government implements the SC order, villagers will not be able to live in their villages.
4. That along with the implementation of the above mentioned order, there be an immediate end to cordon and search operation carried out by security forces in these areas. Lack of rehabilitation coupled with an ever increasing size of the paramilitary forces in such backward areas with low population density raises fears of repeated incidents, such as the ones described above.
 
 
Signed by
 
Sharmila Purkayastha, PUDR
Asish Gupta, PUDR
Himanshu Kumar, VCA
On behalf of fact-finding team


A silent hunt for dissent by Krishnamurthy Ramasubbu

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=A+sile
nt+hunt+for+dissent&artid=zsxfDVBl6WE=&SectionID=f
4OberbKin4=&MainSectionID=f4OberbKin4=&SEO=jagdalp
ur+bastar+chhattisgarh+Krishnamurthy+Ramasu&SectionNam
e=cxWvYpmNp4fBHAeKn3LcnQ==

10 am, October 12 — Jagdalpur, Bastar district headquarters town in Chhattisgarh, looks like a ghost town. Large areas around the collector’s office have been cordoned off. Around 50 tribals sit in a hall waiting for a public hearing of the environmental impact assessment report of Tata Steel’s proposed Rs 10,000-crore greenfield steel project in the district’s Lohandiguda block.It’s noon by the time officials of the district administration and Tata Steel arrive. Sashi Bhushan Prasad, head of Tata’s environmental division, is presenting the report. His start is dramatic: “One hundred and twenty-five years ago, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata had a dream for a village in Jharkhand, and that is Jamshedpur. It was many times worse than our Bastar.”This is followed by, “Carbon steel…electrostatic  precipitators…sodium and nitrogen oxides…automatic combustion control systems. Our technology will be better than the best in the world or at least equivalent. I will skip the technical things because you won’t appreciate them.”The audience pays no attention. For a project that will take up around 5,000 acres of tribal land comprising 11 villages, use a large quantity of water from the river Sabari and will pollute the Indravati, the audience is surprisingly disinterested. After the presentation, the collector asks if there is any objection. Total silence. No one has any objection, but Tata’s project has not progressed beyond paper work and presentations since it signed an MoU with the state government in 2005.

Guarded tour
3 pm-4 pm — The hearing is over.

The audience walks out towards a waiting posse of security personnel. Asked about the hearing, some pretend not to hear. One of them says, “We are from around Bastar...we have come on a tour.” They are loaded into a convoy of jeeps arranged by the government. That was the public hearing.Reportedly, the collector told the press later, “The public hearing was successful. The people of Bastar should be congratulated.” Two days earlier, on October 10, people from about a dozen villages near Raigarh expressed their opinion on another proposed plant, of Visa Steel and Power, by burning public property worth Rs 20 lakh at a public hearing.

At Lohandiguda village, where Tata Steel is setting up shop, village panchayat chairman Budram Kashyap is asked why he did not attend the public hearing. "We were not allowed," he says. "There was a blockade outside Lohandi¬guda.” People at Kumli village nearby say Tata men blocked the roads.In these villages, Tata Steel is not a happy name, although they claim to have paid compensation for 70-75 per cent of the land in Lohandi¬guda and the 10 surrounding villages.“Some people here were willing but others were not. In the other 10 villages, they don’t want to give land at all,” says Kashyap.

“Even people who took compensation money were pressured. There is pressure from the government that is difficult to resist.”

Fear of imprisonment

The people of the other 10 villages, Badanji, Bade Paroda, Belar, Beliapal, Chindgaon, Dabpal, Dhuragaon, Kumli, Sirisaguda and Takra¬guda, feel likewise.It is harvest season and a group of farmers are loading a trailer with the new paddy at Kumli. Farmer Pandey Nath says his land is not being acquired but he still opposes Tata.

 "Tomorrow they will have a factory near my land, pollute it and edge me out. No one wants to sell but they have all taken money now. No one was taking initially, so they sent three or four people to jail to set an example. They did impersonation, faked papers and everything they could to show that compensation had been paid,” he says to the collective nods of 10 other farmers whose lands are being acquired.

Tata and the state government have promised jobs, better infrastructure, education and hea¬lthcare, but people seem unmoved.

“I have been to Jamshedpur,” says Kashyap. "The children of Tata employees are educated. When Tata opens here, will they give us jobs or them? If Tata were serious, they could have trained the unemployed youth of Lohandiguda."Tribal lands are shared and each parcel has 10 to 50 people dependent on it, according to the tribals. A single job for each piece of land will not help. Sources say Tata Steel has spent more than Rs 150 crore over the last four years to "create goodwill". But in villages like Kumli, the charm offensive has plainly not worked.

Pankaj Nath is clear about the general mood. “We will take up weapons," he says bleakly. "The men will fight with their hoes and the women with their sickles.”Kamal Gajviye, a CPI member and farmer at Kumli, is losing his land to the project. “The collector has often accused me of being a Naxalite. I am not. But I will become one, if this continues. They will all become Naxalites.”The government says there is no resistance to land acquisition, or blames it on Maoists. A high-ranking police official says people “right now" are unsafe because of the Maoists and subject to their pressure. "Once people are secure, they can decide freely. Then if they do not want the project, it should be fine.” Ask Kashyap about this pressure from Maoists, who allegedly eliminated Vimal Meshram for acting as Tata Steel’s broker in Lohandiguda, and his reply is, “This man was killed for doing brokerage work for Tata. But there is no Maoist pressure. We never see them. How can they inti¬midate or pressure us?”

Lohandiguda does not have CRPF deployment, but later this year, along with other pla¬ces in north Bastar, it could see paramilitary units, as part of Operation Green Hunt, a central government offensive against Maoists. Once they arrive, it might be difficult to express such dissent freely. Three hours away by bus, in the south Bastar villages of Dhurli and Bhansi in Dantewada district where Essar is planning a Rs 7,000-crore greenfield steel plant, the CRPF’s constant presence makes a difference. At Bhansi, a group of men from the paramilitary security force are having breakfast when the village panchayat chairman comes. He refuses to talk about Essar, “I won’t talk about Essar. Two of my friends were murdered over it.”‘Kill us first’At Dhurli, the panchayat chairman has run away, “Oh…,’’ says one of the men at a tea stall. "He stays in Dantewada fearing the Naxals. He probably took money from Essar.” Samruram Mar¬kam, the village kotwari, says it is "a little pea¬ceful now’’, but last year it was bad. "The collector is with them (Essar), so they come in with the force and threaten us. Essar came in 2005 and along with them came the CRPF camp.”The restive mood of Lohandiguda is missing in these villages. “In case our land is taken by force,” says Markam, "we have decided to asse¬mble all the men, women, cattle, goat, chicken and dogs, and ask them to kill us before taking the land. We will die anyway without our land." There’s a note of despair in his voice. In Raipur, N Baijendra Kumar, principal secretary to the chief minister, says mining projects have not taken off in Bastar because, “44 per cent of Bastar is forest and most of our mine¬ral resources are beneath that. Environmental iss¬ues come with the application of the Forest Act. Also, with tribals we have seen emotional problems when it comes to land.” He denies any direct relation between Green Hunt and mining or related activities, “There is no direct link. Some activists are trying to show a correlation. The operation will improve everything, health, education, infrastructure. Obviously it will also improve mining.”At Dhurli, an old woman drops her washing to chat, “Is it true that many soldiers are going to come next month? They say they will cut us up and throw away our bodies, after Diwali.... Is it true? ” It’s hard to answer that.

— krishnamurthy.ramasubbu@gmail.com

The threat of a desi East India Company

The Chhattisgarh government has been insisting on setting up steel plants in the state to ensure value addition. Chief minister Raman Singh had said that companies should not behave like the East India Company and cart away only mineral raw materials from the state. As part of this plan Tata’s plant is planned in North Bastar, while Essar’s plant is planned in South Bastar.

Company: Tata Steel
Location: Lohandiguda block, Bastar district
Displacement: 11 villages
Land: 5,050 acres approximately
Product: Steel from iron ore
Capacity: 5.5 million tonnes per annum
Estimated cost: Rs 10,000 crore

Company: Essar Steel
Location: Dhurli and Bhansi villages, Dantewada district
Displacement: 2 villagesLand: 1500 acres approximately
Product: Steel from iron ore
Capacity: 3.2 million tonnes per annum
Estimated cost: Rs 7,000 crore
 

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