viernes, 27 de julio de 2012

INDIA: Unha crónica da matanza policial en Dandakaranya.



Cronica  de AWTW que recolle a visita a zona dos asasinatos dun grupo de trinta persoas de diversas partes da India, avogados, estudantes, sindicalistas ou profesionais có obxetivo de esclarecer a realidade da matanza da noite do 28 de xuño.


Report on a government massacre of tribal people in India:
"They cordoned off the villages and started firing indiscriminately"
23 July 2012. A World to Win News Service. On 28 June, 23 adivasis (tribal people) were killed in the state of Chhattisgarh, where the Indian government is carrying out what it calls Operation Green Hunt (OGH), a campaign launched in September 2009 to hunt down, torture and murder members and leaders of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and their supporters. The Indian government claims that they have only killed Maoists while also stating that anyone helping a Maoist will be treated as a Maoist and killed, created a huge outcry of protest. According to journalists from the BBC and The Hindu and many witnesses, the villagers were attending a meeting to discuss an upcoming seed festival held every year just before the onset of the monsoon. This meeting is part of a collective decision-making process on the utilisation and distribution of land among the peasants. In the late evening they were surrounded by security forces who opened fire on the attendees, many of whom had come from nearby villages. Victims of this attack were also hacked with sharp objects. Young girls were chased into the fields and beaten, their clothes torn off and threatened with rape. Following are excerpts from an article which first appeared on countercurrents.org and sanhati.com by Kamal K.M, a Mumbai-based film maker who was a member of the fact-finding team that visited the villages where the massacre took place.
Dandakaranya is a stretch of forest in India that runs through the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh. Roughly translated in Sanskrit, the word means "Jungle of Punishment".
When you enter the village of Kottaguda, located in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh, the first impression is one of serenity. The vestiges of the Salwa Judum pillage from a few years ago still remain as a burnt scar. The houses have stood starkly against these acts of aggression.
We couldn't see any trace of the massacre after ten days.
We were a group of thirty people from different parts of India, people of different professions and academic backgrounds. There were some people in the group who had been to similar kinds of fact-finding report missions, like Advocate Tharakam, Prasanth Haldar, V.S Krishna, Advocate Raghunath, C. Chandrasekhar, R. Shiva Shankar and Ashish Gupta. Some of them were official members of different human rights organizations under the umbrella of Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO). We advocates, teachers, government employees, students, former trade union activists and media professionals were united by a single objective: to unearth the truth about what had actually happened on the night of 28 June.
When we entered the village there was a solemn air about it. The only humans we saw there were some heavily armed paramilitary forces inside the bushes they might have been from CoBRA [an elite military unit] force or CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force].
The men in arms averted our gaze. They couldn't meet our eye with the shadow of the dastardly act of a few days ago looming large over them.
It was 8 pm on the evening of 28 June, Kottaguda village in Bijpapur District, Chattisgarh.
There was a meeting being held to discuss the upcoming seed festival Beeja Pondum. It was a wet monsoon night. Some people from other villages, like Sarkeguda and Rajpenta, were also attending the meeting. A few children loitered around playfully. At 10 pm, the CoBRA force and CRPF cordoned off the villages and started firing indiscriminately and without any warning.
The first attack came from the west, and instantly killed three adivasis. This was quickly followed by firing from three other directions. Terrified villagers started running; some tried to take shelter, some ran towards their respective villages. Yet, the bullets continued to spray for another 30 minutes. Then, as if to survey the dead, the CRPF forces fired two flare guns that lit up the area. They languidly ambled through the scene and collected the dead bodies that remained.
The national media duly reported the incident following the government version. But by the next morning it slowly emerged that those killed were actually villagers. It was in fact a massacre. It was clear that the victims were tribal villagers, who were randomly killed. Some newspapers and TV channels corrected their mistake and reported the truth. Some still have not corrected their mistake.
After that news report, there was no reaction at the national level. The governments at the state and the centre indicated that the massacre was actually a Maoist encounter, thus relegating the blame to victims. A day later, Mr Chidambaram expressed regret over the massacre taking place in a BJP-led state. The blame was passed around in this way. One would have thought that as Home Minister, he could have walked into the village, and expressed regret in a more palpable way.
The tribals in this area have had to suffer violence at the hands of various aggressors in the past. Feudal lords, in a lust for power, terrorised the villages with rape and pillage. Being a tribal belt, the post-industrialisation government also ignored the well-being of the people there. In reaction to this injustice, the Maoists emerged as revolutionaries to liberate the people from this aggression.
Beginning June 2005, the Chhattisgarh government encouraged a criminal vigilante movement titled Salwa Judum that pitted tribal against tribal, a divide and rule lesson learned from the Raj [the British colonial administration]. Adivasis in the former united Dantewada district received weapons and training support from the Chhattisgarh State Government. They ran amuck terrorising tribals perceived as being the support base of the Maoists. Over 600 villages were torched, over a hundred adivasis killed and a lot of sexual violence took place. Thousands of adivasis were forced into camps, even as upwards of 70,000 tribals fled to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which has a fairly long border with Dantewada.
The Maoists came together from different parts of Andhra Pradesh, and started working with village folk protecting them from the intruders, organizing their farming techniques, empowering their women, teaching them to wear clothes. All in all, the tribals of Dantewada forests felt safe with the Maoists.
The proceedings that terrible night of 28 June were nothing but a routine meeting in the village to discuss several community issues. Nobody was conspiring against the Indian Government, as our Home Minister Mr Chidambaram insinuates. Dismissed by NGOs and Corporate Charities as "Maoist-infested areas", the tribal of Dantewada have little hope for relief from their circumstances. Yet, those thirty minutes plunged them into a profound, grieving silence, a silence that they are still trying to come to terms with.
As our fact-finding team entered the open ground between the villages of Sarkeguda and Kottaguda, we could hear a mournful singing. The women of the village were gathered around a house. The first women who saw us started crying, as though they had seen some distant relatives come to offer condolences.
The village folk started gathering around us. Men, women, children each had their story to tell, each one desperate to be heard. Mothers who had lost their sons wept inconsolably. Widows and children looked on hopelessly. Several relatives showed us photos of their deceased loved ones, wearing them like badges of fortitude. Many didn't even have such a relic to display.
Six of the dead were minors, including a 12-year old girl, Kaka Saraswati, daughter of K. Rama. She was hit while fleeing towards her house in Kottaguda. Of the other five minors, two, Kaka Rahul (16) and Madkam Ramvilas (16), were studying in class 10 at a school in Basaguda. Both stayed at a hostel in Basaguda and were visiting home during the summer vacations.
Several victims showed us their injuries and bullets that had penetrated their flesh. The landscape too had been tainted. Bullets, which had been randomly sprayed at the villagers, were found lodged in nearby trees.
A loitering bull had also been injured. Apparently several other cattle had also been killed that night. This particular bull had a bullet lodged in his leg. He could not put his foot down, because of the deep pain he felt. His resilient balancing act on three legs spoke volumes for the people who tended to him. My question about any veterinary help for the ailing bull was dismissed as facile. There was no doctor to tend to the injured people here in these distant villages.
As each person spoke, we started to patchwork the facts of the incident together. On the morning of the 29th, CRPF killed the last victim when he came out of his house to check on the silence outside. Then the CRPF men dragged two women to the fields nearby, and tore at their clothes. Three other women were also abused, beaten up and threatened with rape, all this to no end.
In fact, flouting standard norms, the CRPF men not only carried away the bodies but also scooped away the bloodstained ground beneath the bodies. According to the Bijapur superintendent of police, a proper post mortem was conducted by a team of doctors at the Basaguda police station and a report is being prepared This is hogwash, as a post mortem has to be conducted at a hospital properly equipped for the routine and not a police station. Significantly, the villagers are unanimous that no post mortem was carried out, a fact corroborated by several reporters who saw none of the tell-tale marks that show on the body after a post mortem procedure.
The CRPF now says that seven of the deceased Madkam Suresh, Madkam Nagesh, Madvi Ayatu, Kaka Sammayya, Korsa Bijje, Madkam Dilip and Irpa Narayana were Maoists and that there are various cases of violence of a serious nature lodged against them in various police stations across Chhattisgarh State.
The killing was actually arbitrary. For the CRPF to now find some validation of it is astonishing. If what they say is to be taken at face value, then it is clear that it is extra judicial killing in prima facie [on the face of it].
Ten days after the massacre, the first governmental action was taken. A truckload of compensation arrived, escorted by R. A. Kuruvanshi, the Revenue Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Bhoopalapatnam. Rice, daal, clothes, utensils this was the value of seventeen lives. The villagers vociferously refused it. Their anger screamed, but with dignity. They did not abuse or curse. They didn't set ablaze the truck, an epitome of the insult rendered to them by the Government.
If we are Maoists, then why do you bring us this rice? Why did you do this to us?
The Revenue officer listened dumbfounded. He didn't have any real response in front of the lamenting people. He returned with a shiver in his soul. Everyone watched silently as the truck made its way back through the jungle path.
In the recent past, encounters between Maoists and members of the police and special forces have only drawn attention when it is the latter who are injured or killed. In 2010, the Prime Minister demanded a report from the Home Minister about the incident of 6 April 2010, when 74 troopers of the CRPF were shot dead by the Maoists near Chintalar in what is now Sukma district. The massacre of tribal villagers in Kottaguda didn't illicit such a response. It is convenient to believe the official version that the massacre was an encounter between Maoist and State forces, and that the villagers were used as a human shield.
The National Human Rights Commission didn't consider visiting the villages with an official fact-finding team, and scouring for the truth of what happened that night. They asked for a report from CRPF Director General 12 days after the incident. One can only imagine what kind of report will be drawn out.
It is only the Government of Violence that is the ever-present demon in these forests of Dandakaranya.

domingo, 22 de julio de 2012

Revolta dos obreiros da fabrica Maruti.Suzuki en Manesar.





Morto o director xeral da fábrica.

Axencias.
A multinacional automovilística Maruti Suzuki recoñeceu que o morto no incendio provocado durante as revoltas de obreiros do mércores na súa fábrica situada ao sur de Delhi é o director xeral da planta.
O falecido foi identificado como Awanish Kumar Dev e, segundo dixo a EFE o subcomisario da Policía local, Maheshwar Dayal, 91 traballadores foron arrestados acusados de asasinato, e máis de 50 persoas resultaron feridas, entre elas 40 executivos e directivos da fábrica de automóbiles.

Os disturbios na fábrica de Maruti Suzuki, subsidiaria local da xaponesa Suzuki, estalaron tralo despedimento dun empregado que, supuestamente, había abofeteado a un directivo despois de que lle infligiera un trato denigrante.
O problema iniciouse cando se produciu un altercado entre un supervisor e un traballador, pero este último foi despedido de inmediato, o que orixinou unha protesta multitudinaria na planta automotriz que se saíu de control.
Tralos choques, un grupo de traballadores intentou encerrar nunha sala a executivos da empresa, algúns dos cales fixéronse os mortos para salvar a vida.
Importantes dotacions de policia desprazaronse a factoría.
Fontes da policia india acusan aos traballadores protagonistas da rebelión de ter vinculos cos maoístas e concretamente có clandestino PCI (Maoísta) que din conta con bases na cidade.
Polo menos cinco edificios da planta, incluíndo unha sala de control, foron incendiados durante os disturbios, pero cando o lume foi controlado, os bombeiros atoparon os restos calcinados dun corpo.




Noxenta noticia nun jornal de A Coruña recolle os "Tours da pobreza" na India.

Los arrabales se convierten en un atractivo turístico en Nueva Delhi

| Actualizado 21 Julio 2012 - 02:00 h. El Ideal Gallego.
  un arrabal en el este de nueva delhi que puede ser visitado en un tour organizado por una ong y que se ha convertido en un nuevo atractivo turístico para la ciudad.  . efe/moncho torres
un arrabal en el este de nueva delhi que puede ser visitado en un tour organizado por una ong que se ha convertido en un nuevo atractivo turístico para la ciudad. . efe/moncho torres


Los arrabales se han convertido en atractivo turístico en Nueva Delhi, donde por un precio módico el visitante puede apreciar el arte de sobrevivir entre excrementos, moscas y basura. La capital india se suma así a la lista de ciudades con visitas guiadas por los llamados “slum”, un negocio que se disparó en Bombay tras el éxito del filme “Slumdog Millonaire”. El responsable del proyecto es Yoga Shiva, que se define como “un profesional del entretenimiento” y que de la mano de la ONG Proporcionando Educación a Todos se ha embarcado en una iniciativa con tintes benéficos pero también empresariales. FOTO: efe

martes, 17 de julio de 2012

INDIA: Comunicado do PCI (maoísta) chama á unha seman de homenaxe aos martires da revolución do 28 de xullo ao 3 de agosto.








COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
DANDAKARANYA SPECIAL ZONAL COMMITTEE
June 10, 2012

Observe Martyrs Week From July 28 to August 3!

Red Homage to Our Party’s Fore-founders and Beloved Teachers Comrades Charu Mazumdar and Kanhai Chatterjee!
Let’s rededicate ourselves to fulfill the cherished dreams of thousands of martyrs including Comrades Ramji, Shrikant, Sheshanna, Suneeta, Ranita, Sukku, Mahesh, Mangli, Paklu, Pramod and Shivaji!
July 28 has a special significance in the history of Indian Revolution. Comrade Charu Mazumdar and Comrade Kanhai Chatterjee, who broke the backs of the revisionism deep-rooted for decades in the Indian Communist Movement and established the path of protracted people’s war for the Indian Revolution, emerged as the founder-leaders of CPI (Maoist). On this day in 1972, Comrade Charu Mazumdar succumbed to police torture. In the path directed by these two great comrades, the Indian Revolution is marching forward unabatedly for the last 45 years facing many upheavals, defeats and setbacks. Even if it faced setback at one place, by gaining strength in other places, it stood as a ray of hope for all the oppressed masses of entire country. This 45-year bloodstained history contains invaluable sacrifices of more than 15 thousand martyrs. By virtue of these sacrifices, revolutionary movement has been advancing raising the slogan `Naxalbari Ek Hi Rasta’, with the aim of building liberated areas through area-wise seizure of political power. July 28 is an important day to commemorate the sacrifices of all the martyrs and to rededicate ourselves to fulfill their cherished dreams.
In the last one year, nearly 150 comrades have sacrificed their lives all over the country. Forty of them are from Dandakaranya (DK). These martyrs include higher leadership comrades, party members, PLGA commanders, red fighters, mass organization activists, revolutionary people’s committee representatives and revolutionary masses. Many of these have lost their lives in fake encounters carried out by government mercenary forces while others have laid down their lives fighting heroically with the enemy forces. Few of them have lost their lives due to illness and in accidents. On the occasion of July 28, let’s commemorate each and every martyr and pledge to fight relentlessly to fulfill their dream of building a new democratic India free of all forms of exploitation and oppression.
On November 24, 2011, in Burishole jungles of West Bengal, police and paramilitary forces carried out a covert operation and killed Party’s politburo member and dynamic mass leader Comrade Mallojula Koteswarlu (Ramji/Kishenji) in a most inhuman manner. For the last 38 years, Comrade Ramji carried out various responsibilities at different areas all over the country in the revolutionary movement. From the days of Jagityal `Jaitrayatra’ to of late Jungalmahal mass movement, he led various mass struggles. From 1987 to 1993, he was instrumental in leading the movement in Dandakaranya. After many foul plays to assassinate him, enemy at the end succeeded in it. With the revolutionary spirit of Comrade Ramji, by intensifying mass struggles and people’s war we can create many more great leaders like him.
DK special zonal committee member Comrade Harak (Shrikant) passed away on February 26, 2012 due to serious illness. Comrade Harak had joined the Party in 1993. From 1998 onwards, he took responsibilities of the movement in Gadchiroli district and played a key role in it. In spite of serious heart ailment, he insisted to be among the people to carry out mass work incessantly. In the end, he lost his life amidst the downtrodden. By traversing firmly in his path, we can create millions of successors of the revolution.
On March 18, North Telangana movement has lost another great leader. SZCM Comrade Gundeti Shankar (Sheshanna) lost his life due to snake bite. Revolution is not a feast. It’s a bloody and tough class war full of dangers, difficulties and constraints. For the last 30 years, Comrade Sheshanna as a true mass leader strived firmly with determination for the cause of revolution. The Telangana soil would keep giving birth to many more great revolutionaries like Comrade Sheshanna.
Senior Party activist Comrade Suneeta (Swaroopa) also lost her life on March 18, 2012 due to breast cancer. As an ideal communist she held the revolutionary flag aloft for 30 years. She stands as a real role model for the present generations who stood strong in the revolution till her last breath.
On August 20, 2011, Gadchiroli’s Makadchuvva village witnessed an unprecedented event in the contemporary history. Comrade Ramko Hichami (Ranita) alone courageously fought the enemy encirclement of hundreds of forces and thus added a new chapter in it. This heroic woman guerilla killed three CoBRA/C-60 commandos and seriously injured four others before achieving the martyrdom. Comrade Ranita’s bravery and sacrifice always be inspiring to all the fighters of PLGA.
On January 27, 2012, DVCM Comrade Mangu Paddam (Sukku) laid down his life while fighting the enemy forces heroically at Raigarh district in Chhattisgarh. On October 11, 2011, in a daring ambush carried out by PLGA on the enemy forces near Netanar village, Kanger valley LGS commander comrade Mahesh laid down his precious life fighting ferociously. On August 16, 2011, in East Bastar division, at Tirka village Comrades Badru, Gopi and Akash sacrificed their lives in a daring resistance. Unable to face them, showing cowardice enemy burnt the house in which the red fighters got trapped. On March 26, 2012, in a PLGA ambush at Bhejji, Comrades Mangli and Paklu martyred fighting gallantly with the enemy forces. On May 16, 2012, on the occasion of `Bharat Bandh’, Comrade Shivaji, PPCM of COY-9, lost his life in an enemy attack at midnight near Bhairamgarh. West Bastar division action team commander Comrade Pramod lost his life in attempt on the life of a notorious enemy of the people, Rajkumar Tamo. Comrade Govind, area committee member of National Park area lost his life with snake bite. Many more comrades have laid down their lives fighting with the cruel enemy. Madkami Maasa, Podiyami Masa, Nengi Yadav, Dunga Dhurwa and other unarmed people succumbed to fake encounters and unabated violence perpetrated by the police and paramilitary forces.
Dear People and Comrades!
Today the ruling classes with the sole aim of wiping out the Maoist movement are carrying out a countrywide cruel war in the name of Operation Green Hunt (OGH). In this war, in addition to the deployment of hundreds of thousands of paramilitary forces, deployment of Army has also been commenced now. On the pretext of `training’ Army has stepped into Bastar region. Actually the aim of this war is not just to suppress the Maoist movement, but to suppress all movements and forces which come in the way and form an obstacle for handing over the country’s resources to foreign capitalists and corporate houses. In Dandakaranya and in some other places in the country, denouncing the fake development model of the ruling classes, the real people-centered development schemes have come forward as an alternative. The progress and growth of this alternative has become unacceptable to the ruling classes and their imperialist masters. That’s why they are hurrying to end this war by putting every effort at their disposal. Worldwide imperialist economic crisis is also hastening them up to end this war quickly. That’s why they are indulging in barbarism, mindless violence and massacres. As a part of this only, they are eliminating the revolutionaries and the leaders of the revolutionary movement.
Repression always leads to revolution is a historical truth. Ideas cannot be wiped out by killing people. The exploitative ruling classes of the country are getting exposed day by day. The issues of hunger, poverty, unemployment, corruption, scams, price-hike, displacement etc. are making people restless. None of the parliamentary political parties has any credibility in the eyes of the people. In this context, the fact is that the Maoist People’s War which is marching ahead with matchless sacrifices and heroic struggles, stands as a great inspiration to the toiling masses of the country. With the aim to spread this inspiration further, let’s commemorate Martyrs’ week from July 28 to August 3. Let’s pledge to expand the people’s war across the length and breadth of the country and to intensify the guerilla war by safeguarding the Party. Let’s decorate martyrs’ columns built in the villages and build new ones at predetermined places as part of propagating the priceless sacrifices of the martyrs in every corner. Let’s emulate the ideals of the martyrs and propagate their spirited life histories among the vast people. With the inspiration of the great martyrs, let’s consolidate the revolutionary movement as per the aspirations of the billions of Indian oppressed masses. Let’s expand the people’s political power by intensifying the class struggle.
(Gudsa Usendi)
Spokesperson
 Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee



domingo, 15 de julio de 2012

Join Joint Protest Demonstration Against the Massacre of Adivasis of Bijapur

Invitation



Join Joint Protest Demonstration Against the Massacre of Adivasis of Bijapur


Date: 17thJuly (Tuesday) 2012, Time: 11 AM

Place: Chattisgarh Bhavan, Chanakyapuri, Delhi




Dear friends,



Recently the Indian state has intensified its eviction and extermination campaign against the adivasis of central and eastern India under the rubric of Operation Green Hunt. On the night of 28 June 2012 when the adivasi peasants of Sarkeguda, Kottaguda and Rajpenta (Bijapur district of south Chhattisgarh) gathered to plan the performance of the traditional festival Beej Pandum (seed festival), they were surrounded by hundreds of Police and Para-military forces of the Indian state. The armed forces resorted to indiscriminate firing killing 17 adivasis (including 6 minors) cold-blooded. Two other villagers were likewise killed near Jagargunda village of Sukma district in the same night, and predictably, were shown as casualties of an ‘encounter’ between the Maoists and the armed forces.

As the testimonies of the eyewitnesses coming through the Media, Fact Finding Reports of different Civil / Democratic Right Teams and the statements of different social-political forces (including the Congress Party of Chhattisgarh ) now confirm that the killing of the adivasis was a heinous massacre committed by the Cobra battalion of the CRPF and the Chhattisgarh Police, under the command of top police officials. Even the Union Tribal Minister Mr. K C Deo has said that ‘17 innocent citizens, who were unarmed, who were wearing just a dhoti or a baniyan and who did not even have a sickle or a knife’ had been killed by the CRPF.

But still the central Home Minister and the top officials of CRPF are claiming that these adivasis have been killed in a "fierce" gunfight in the dense jungles of Dantewada on June 27-28 in a joint anti-Maoist operation by the CRPF and state police. This is really a matter of grave concern for all the justice loving progressive and democratic forces of our country.

We, the under signed progressive, democratic and civil rights organizations working in Delhi have decided to show our anguish and concern in front of Chhattisgarh Bhavan, Chanakyapuri on 17th July 2012 at 11 AM, in the form of a Protest Demonstration.

We earnestly appeal to you / your organization to join us at Chhattisgarh Bhavan to make the protest programme successful. Hope your positive responses.



PUDR, SFR, KYS, KNS, INKLABHI MAZDOOR KENDR, People’s Front, AIFTU (New), REDICAL NOTES, MAZDOOR PATRIKA, SANHATI, PDFI, PUCL, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO), Vidyarthi Yuvjan Sabha







--

Yours
Dr. Darshan Pal, M.B.B.S., M.D. (Anaesthesia)
President, B.K.U. (Ekta), [Dakaunda], Distt. Patiala
# 900 Adarash Colony, Bhadson Road,Patiala, Punjab
India
darshanpal1@gmail.com
Tel: +919417269294,
LL-+911752357694

martes, 3 de julio de 2012

INDIA: Condeando brutal asasinato de campesiños pobres. Unha declaración da Fronte Democrática Revolucionaria (RDF)



O seguinte comunicado da Fronte Democrática Revolucionaria da India denuncia enerxicamente a masacre de 20 campesiños adivasi e seus fillos en Dandakarany, Chhattisgarh. Crime perpetrado polas forzas de seguridade da CRPF e bandas feixistas, na noite do 28 de xuño do 2012.

Os campesiños, de varias aldeas, atopabanse reunidos para organizar unha festa popular, o Festival da Semente, cando centos de efectivos dos corpos represivos, do sanguinario batallón Cobra, asaltaron a xuntanza asasinando a 18 campesiños e  a dous mais na aldea de Sukma.

"Para agachar á masacre, de proporcions xenocidas, e defender este acto inxustificable" di o comunicado, "os monicreces das clases dominantes, teñen presentados os feitos como unha grande victoria militar contra os maoístas!, O criminal Chidambaram, chegóu ao extremo de afirmar que tres importantes líderes maoístas morreron no "encontro". 

Entre os mortos atopanse cinco nenos e reportanse violacions a mulleres adivasis por parte dos "victoriosos" membros do Batallón Cobra. Diversos testimonios de campesiños descartaron a presencia de guerrilleiros naxalitas e denunciaron as mentiras da propaganda do rexime reaccionario. 
O camarada Vijay Madkam, Secretario da Comisión do Sur Bastar, PCI (maoísta) eo camarada Jagan voceiro do Norte Telangana SZC, suliñaron, o 30 de xuño, que toda-las persoas que morreron na masacre perpetrada pola policía do Estado de Chhattisgarh, eran habitantes do pobo adivasi e non membros do clandestino PCI (maoísta),








REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRATIC FRONT (RDF)Contact: revolutionarydemocracy@gmail.com

Press Release-

2nd June 2012

Condemn the massacre of 20 adivasi villagers and their children in Dandakaranya by the mercenary forces of the fascist Indian state!

Expose the white lies of the killer gang of Chidambaram-Raman Singh portraying the massacred adivasis and their children as leaders and cadres of the CPI (Maoist)!

Rise up to oppose the genocide of Adivasis under Operation Green Hunt by the Indian state and its War on People! When the adivasi peasants of Sirkegudem, Kothagudem and Rajupenta – adjacent villages separated by not more than a kilometre in the Bijapur district of south Chhattisgarh – gathered in hundreds on the night of 28 June 2012 to plan the performance of the traditional festival Beej Pandum (seed festival), they least expected to be surrounded by six hundred armed forces personnel of the Indian state. At least 18 adivasis lost their lives in the cold-blooded massacre that followed. Two other villagers were likewise killed near Jagargunda village of Sukma district the same night, and predictably, were shown as casualties of an ‘encounter’ between the Maoists and the armed forces. As the testimonies of the eyewitnesses coming through the media, activists as well as the statements of the CPI (Maoist) now confirm, the killing of the adivasis was a heinous massacre committed by the Cobra battalion of the CRPF and the Chhattisgarh police under the command of top police officials including CRPF Director General Vijay Kumar and Chhattisgarh Inspector General of Police T G Longkumar. It is also clear that this massacre is a part of Indian state’s extermination campaign against the Maoist revolutionary movement and the adivasis of central and eastern India under the rubric of Operation Green Hunt that was aunched with a media blitzkrieg in September 2009.
To cover up this massacre of genocidal proportions and to defend this indefensible act, the puppets of the ruling classes, be it the chief architect of Operation Green Hunt, central Home Minister Chidambaram or Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, have tried in vain to colour it as a ‘major military victory’ against the Maoists! Chidambaram even went to the extent of propagating the lie that three important Maoist leaders were killed in this‘encounter’. The top-brass of the CRPF and police too are shouting from rooftops about gunning down ‘armed Naxalite leaders and cadres’. They are patting themselves on their backs for carrying out a ‘daring night attack’!They have claimed that 6 men belonging to the armed forces have sustained‘injuries’ during the so-called ‘firing in self-defense’. The cock-and-bull story of terming this gathering as a big ‘Maoist meeting’ attended by‘senior Maoist cadres’ has also been floated. A section of the corporate media has shamelessly echoed the sadistic celebration of this bloodbath by the ruling classes and their mercenary armies. However, such theatrics and white lies have utterly failed to hide the truth behind the Sirkegudem massacre. The fact that hundreds of heavily armed‘security’ personnel commanded by top CRPF and police officials encircled and indiscriminately fired upon a village assembly with an intent to kill as many of them as possible, and that the trail of this massacre was continued till the next day leaving a total of at least 20 defenseless adivasi villagers dead – including five children – has been laid bare. At least four instances of sexual assault on adivasi women, a number of serious injuries and the reign of white terror through arrests and brutalities against the villagers during this ‘daring operation’ have also come to light, exposing the fascist fangs of the Indian state and its loyal armed forces.

The seed festival is an important event in the agrarian cycle of the adivasi peasants of Bastar, observed during the onset of Monsoon. The rituals connected to this festival are believed to be necessary for enhancing the productivity of the seeds and for ensuring a good harvest of crops. This festival, apart from marking the commencement of the agricultural season, is also crucial for making collective decisions regarding the utilisation and distribution of agricultural land and means of production. Given the import of such meetings ahead of the seed festival, it is hardly surprising that several hundred villagers from the three villages were present in the meeting called for planning the upcoming festival. The meeting included the old and the young, men and women. Like many of the meetings, ceremonies and festivals of the Bastar adivasis, the meeting at Sirkegudem village on 28 June too went on till the small hours of the night. The same night, three teams consisting of two hundred CRPF Cobra commandos and police personnel each, commanded by a CRPF DIG, set out for Sirkegudem from Jagargunda, Chintalnar and Basaguda CRPF camps (the first two are located in Sukma district while the last is in Bijapur). By 1 o’clock in the night the gathering at Sirkegudem was surrounded by the government forces and was fired upon indiscriminately. As per the testimonies of some eyewitnesses published in newspapers, the villagers shouted at the armed personnel to half fire but the firing was not stopped, and the bloodbath continued for several minutes. Later some of the dead bodies were loaded in a tractor by the armed forces and taken away from the killing fields.

The old trick deployed by the government armed forces of killing adivasi villagers and branding them as ‘Maoist/Naxalites’ can no longer fool the people. The dead have once again exposed the lies of the Indian state. A 9 year old girl and an 11 year old boy are among the dead, while three more children of 12 to 15 years of age have been also killed by the CRPF in the massacre. Kaka Saraswati, 12 years of age, was one of the children killed. Vijju, an adivasi woman of around 65 years, lost two of her sons in the massacre. She told reporters, “My sons were not Naxals”. Sabka Mitu, 17, died of a wound caused to his throat by a sharp object. Irpa Chottu, a 14 year old adivasi boy of Sirkegudem told that he was caught by the armed forces, interrogated and subsequently shot in his leg. The next morning the forces shot dead Ramesh, an adivasi youth, in front of his father Irpa Raju while trying to go out of his house. These mercenary gangs subsequently broke open Raju’s house and looted Rs.5000. These are only a few instances of the atrocities which have come to light so far.

Villagers who survived the massacre have testified that no Maoist was present in the gathering and the government’s armed forces did not even care to check the purpose of the meeting before opening indiscriminate gunfire, presuming that it was a Maoist meeting. In two separate statements, Vijay Madkam, Secretary of the South Bastar Committee, CPI(Maoist) and Jagan, Spokesperson of North Telangana SZC clarified on 30th June that all the people killed in the massacre perpetrated by the Central and Chhattisgarh state police on 28 June were adivasi villagers and that no leaders or cadres of the Maoist party were killed. They also said that there was no firing from the side of Maoists as they were not present at the site of the massacre. Gudsa Usendi, the Spokesperson of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoist) in a telephonic interview to ABN-Andhra Jyothi has condemned the statement made by Central Home Ministry that top Maoist leaders Somulu, Nagesh and Mahesh were among the killed. He also clarified that Irpa Suresh, claimed by the government to be the commander of Bijapur and Dantewada PLGA, was also not among the killed. The Irpa Suresh who was killed was in reality a tribal peasant visiting his relatives in the village.

Rather than being brought to book for executing this heinous crime, the armed forces and their commanders are being hailed as heroes by the political crooks running the country – whether it is Chidambaram, Raman Singh or Nankiram Kanwar. These criminals in uniform enjoy so much of protection and patronage from the state and the ruling classes for faithfully carrying out their anti-people agenda that a soldier who took part in the massacre boasted by declaring that “We did not use any area weapons such as grenades or rocket launchers. If we really wanted to, we could have razed the entire village”. As if more was left to be done even after carrying out this macabre execution and brutality!

Indeed, razing of villages after villages, killing civilians suspecting them to be Naxalites, fake ‘encounters’, custodial murders, rape, torture and arrests have become the ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ of the mercenary forces operating under the direction of Chidambaram fascist gang running the country today. If more than 650 villages of Dandakaranya were burnt down – many of them repeatedly – by the Salwa Judum during 2004-2008, the latest phase of Indian state’s war on people under Operation Green Hunt has resulted in hundreds of cold-blooded murders and brutalities perpetrated against revolutionaries, political activists and adivasi villagers in Chhattisgarh alone. The Indian state has used unrestrained coercive powers – often legalised through draconian laws such as AFSPA, UAPA, NSA, CPSA, etc. – apart from deploying its military might against the people of the country who have chosen to resist the unbridled exploitation by the ruling classes.

This is why the struggling people led by the Maoist revolutionaries have become the ‘biggest internal security threat’ to the feudal and comprador ruling classes of India. To crush this movement and to prevent the people from seizing political power, these rulers have unleashed a brutal war under the direct command of the imperialist powers against the growing revolutionary movement in central and eastern India. The Sirkegudem massacre is the latest episode in this all-out class struggle. With the Indian Army lurking in the outskirts of Maad in North Bastar with the fig-leaf of‘training’, such brutal massacres and genocide of adivasis in the hands of the government’s forces threaten to become much more frequent in the coming days, unless we rise up and collectively resist this fascist onslaught. RDF appeals to all the democratic and pro-people organisations and individuals as well as the people at large to demand punishment of the police personnel, police officers and their political masters who are directly responsible for perpetrating the Sirkegudem massacre, including the CEO of Operation Green Hunt, P. Chidambaram and his aide Raman Singh.


President
Varavara Rao
09676541715

General Secretary
Rajkishore
09717583539

G N Saibaba
New Delhi
India