reportage in via di traduzione The Government of Violence : A Massacre In Dandakaranya By Kamal K.M, Countercurrents.org, 16 July, 2012
‘Dandakaranya’
is a stretch of forest in India that runs through the states of
Chattisgarh, 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 Chattisgarh, 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 massacre from ten days ago.
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
kind 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 June 28 th .
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 force or CRPF.
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.
8pm on the evening of 28 th 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 10pm
, 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 infact a
massacre. It was clear that the victims were tribal villagers, who were
randomly killed. Some news papers 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 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 Chattisgarh
government encouraged a criminal vigilante movement titled Salwa Judum
that pitted tribal against tribal—a ‘divide and rule lesson learnt from
the Raj. Adivasis in the former united Dantewada district received
weapon and training support from the Chhattisgarh State Government. They
ran amuck terrorising tribals perceived of 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 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 group implies no membership and
there’s no levy to the Party. It is a non-organized political presence
in the State. In fact, there is no other political presence in the area,
as the moneyless tribals don’t find a place of significance with other
political parties.
The proceedings that terrible night of
June 28 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 Dantekada have little hope as relief for their circumstance. 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 condolence.
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 –
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 29
th , CRPF killed the last victim when he came out 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, “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 are Maoists and that there
are various cases of violence of a serious nature lodged against them in
various police stations across Chattisgarh 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.
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 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 April 6, 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 N ational 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 after 12 days of the incident.
One can only imagine what kind of report will be drawn out.
An expert group of the Planning Commission
of India had declared that the Maoist insurgency is to be viewed not
merely as a law and order problem, but as one with roots in material
deprivation, unfreedom and social oppression that have over many decades
remained unaddressed by the Indian State . It stated that though the
Maoists employed a fair amount of violence towards their ends, it was
essentially a political movement. This implied that the resolution
necessarily required negotiations with the Maoists. It was also
reiterated that legislation which protect the rights of Adivasis and
Dalits should be implemented properly. Despite this, the scenario hasn’t
changed. The Government all but consigned this precious deocument to
the dustbin and persists with thoughtless decisions of indiscriminate
killing.
It is only the Government of Violence that is the ever-present demon in these Forests of Dandakaranya.
Kamal K.M is a Mumbai based film maker. He was part of the fact finding team that visited the villages where the massacre took place. He can be reached at snehapoorvamkamal@gmail.com
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