Press Releases by Human Rights Organizations and Parties Against Chattisgarh Maoist Attack
Statement Condemning the Maoist Politics of Murder in Chhattisgarh
We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the horrific massacre of leaders and workers of the Congress Party carried out by the CPI(Maoist) in Chhattisgarh on Saturday. We also wish to express our deepest condolences to the families of all those killed including the security personnel accompanying the convoy of Congressmen returning from an political rally at Sukma in Bastar district.
The killing of senior state Congress leaders and their cadre is particularly barbaric and reprehensible as they had, in the course of the Maoist ambush, become captives or had surrendered voluntarily. This is tantamount to cold-blooded murder of prisoners in custody, an act that goes against all norms even in a state of civil or international wars. It is also most foul as Maoists have tried to stop political activity they do not agree through violent means.
The latest Maoist action will only invite even more state repression in the area. The CPI(Maoist) leadership, which authorized the attack, seem to have cynically calculated that such increased repression will swell their numbers and help their movement grow. If that is the case then their politics is as evil as those they claim to be fighting against and should be shunned by all those who stand for democratic norms in political struggles for peace with justice.
We call upon the Congress Party, the state and central governments to exercise great restraint in their response to the Maoist atrocity.
Abha Dev Habib, Associate Professor, Miranda House, DU
Apoorvanand, Professor, Delhi University
Anivar Aravind, IT Engineer, Bangalore
Arshad Ajmal, Social activist, Patna
Dilip Simeon, Academic, New Delhi
Jagadish, Trade Unionist , Bangalore
Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Human righst activist, Mumbai
Kavita Srivastava, PUCL, Rajasthan
Satya Sivaraman, Journalist, New Delhi
Shabnam Hashmi, ANHAD, Delhi
Vinod Raina , Educationist, Delhi
Press Release 2:
Press Release : NAPM on Maoist Ambush in Chattisgarh
New Delhi : Once again in the ongoing politics of offensive and counter offensive between State and Maoists, adivasis have lost their lives. In an ambush on the convoy carrying Congress leaders, Maoists have reportedly killed 27 people and injured several others including senior Congress leader, V C Shukla. On the intervening night of May 17-18 too eight villagers, including three children, and a personnel of elite CRPF Cobra battalion were killed in a gun-battle near Edasmeta village in southern Chhattisgarh too. Adivasis caught in the armed conflict have been the worst victim of this war of control over resources, territory and sovereignty. That this happened during the Parivartan Yatra, a programme of the Congress Party to reach out to the people, is indeed unfortunate.
National Alliance of People's Movements condemns this ambush leading to loss of precious lives. Life of those in power and leadership are important and so are the lives of common adivasis who are being tortured, jailed and killed by Security forces and Maoists alike. In the ongoing conflict both claim to represent the interests and work for Adivasis but their stance and means has only alienated them and perpetrated injustice on them. Their rights have often been violated resulting in large number of adivasis in jail on false trumped up charges. In the same Durma valley where the attack by Maoists have killed Congress leaders, state administration violated all the existing laws and procedures to facilitate land grab for Tata Steel.
Salwa Judum, an armed Sena of the young and adolescents worsened the scenario. It has been termed as illegal and directed to be disbanded by Supreme Court, but State government responded by making them part of the regular police. Even, as Salwa Judum burnt houses, raped women, maimed and killed adivasis, the State supported it and failed to provide justice to adivasis and continued to brand them as Maoists and their supporters. A democratically elected government in Chattisgarh or at the Centre can't use the dictum of 'you are with us or against us'. Its allegiance is to the rule of law and its duty is to protect the rights of its citizens.
Even while, politicians across the political spectrum are terming this as an attack on democracy, let us not forget that every time an adivasi is jailed, killed, their houses burnt, women raped and their schools occupied to facilitate resource grab or termed as collateral damage in the 'Operation Green Hunt', democracy is attacked and the faith of citizens in the State's ability to uphold justice and rule of law, shaken. Violence on both sides is condemnable and should be avoided forever.
We fear that this latest ambush will now be used by the state to justify further militarisation in the region and make lives of Adivasis more difficult. There is an urgent need for political intervention and dialogue. The guns of State or Maoists, will not solve the problem. Politics of violence and counter violence will only make lives of adivasis and others in the region more difficult, which will ultimately have an impact on the democratic norms and freedom of citizens elsewhere in the country, as seen in shrinking spaces for non-violent, democratic movements and arrest of activists. Soni Sori, Lingaram Kodopi and many others are braving brutality as a result of the war promoted by the state and Maoists, both. Mahendra Karma, openly supported Salwa Judum, a violent outfit and the same violence has killed him. This is tragic, yet a telling fact.
The swiftness with which the centre has promised all help in this regard and dispatched a large number of security forces, if the same urgency was shown for providing justice to the victims of Salwa Judum in all these years, Indian state would have won a bigger political battle by now. Awards, compensation and martyrdom will be bestowed on those killed by Maoists but Adivasis victims of this collateral damage and those languishing in jail need justice too. There is an urgent need to address that otherwise situation will only deteriorate. We demand that political dialogue in all sincerity be initiated to arrive at a political solution rather than increased militarisation.
Medha Patkar, Prafulla Samantara, Dr. Sunilam, Arundhati Dhuru, Gabriele Dietrich, Gautam Bandopadhyay, Ramakrishnan Raju, Sister Celia, Maj. Gen (Retd) Sudhir Vombatkere, Vimal Bhai, Krishnakant, Rajendra Ravi, Meera, Seela M, Madhuresh Kumar
Press Release – CPI(ML) [Red Star] On Maoist attack
CPI(ML) Condemns the 25th May Attack of Maoists on Congress Rally
The 25th May attack on the "Parivartan Rally" of Congress in Bastar region ofChhattisgarh by Maoists leading to killing and injuring of many including Congress leaderMahendra Karma and severe injury to V.C. Shukla, is a suicidal act which will only lead to further intensification of state terror against the adivasi masses. The CPI(ML) condemns this anarchist action by CPI(Maoist) which will only tarnish the image of Naxalbari uprising of landless and poor peasants of North Bengal in 1967 for land and social change and the people's struggles led by them in different states.. The class collaborationist line of CPI and CPI(M) which in effect lead to colluding with Congress on the one hand, and the anarchist acts of Maoists in AP, in Jharkhand and W. Bengal along with Chhattisgarh which have led to their debacle in these areas on the other, are only helping the reactionaries to defame the communist movement and to launch vicious attacks on it in all fields. Both these trends have done serious damage to the communist movement.
It is abundantly clear that the present attack leading to killing of many Congress activists including the leaders will be used by the ruling system to intensify the already started para-military onslaughts to wipe out Maoists from their strongholds. It is infantile on the part of Maoists to think that by killing Mahendra Karma they can take revenge againstSalwa Judum or other atrocities perpetuated against the adivasis and other oppressed sections. If Karma took initiative in putting forward the Salwa Judum, it was the BJP led state government and central forces which implemented it. Instead of targeting the ruling system, and Congress, BJP like parties who implement the reactionary policies by heading central and state governments, Maoists are indulging in anarchist attacks which is serving the ruling system as a cover to attack the democratic movements and the adivasi people, to help the land grabbing and mining of Essar, Jindal, Tata like corporates. This Maoist attack like many of their earlier acts will be used by Congress to depict all communist revolutionaries as supporters of BJP also, while in fact they are fighting against these communal fascists, and attack Congress and BJP as two sides of the same coin.
The CPI(ML) once again appeals to the Maoist leadership to evaluate their hitherto activities, to retrace their path and to join the path of mobilizing and educating the masses for countrywide offensive against the ruling system. It calls on all democratic forces to oppose all attempts of the central and state governments to use this attack as a cover to intensify state terror.
KN Ramachandran
General Secretary
CPI(ML)
26 May 2013
CPI(ML) [Liberation] : do not unleash greater repression on Bastar people
"The CPI(ML) holds that militaristic actions by Maoists, isolated from democratic movements and political assertion, cannot be justified by the logic of retribution, and are counterproductive in developing any mass resistance to the government's policies of corporate plunder and Operation Green Hunt," a statement by party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said.
Chhatisgarh PUCL condemns the abduction and killings of Congress men in Bastar
Chhatisgarh PUCL condemns the abduction and killings of Congress Party men in Darbha Ghati in Bastar area of the State
Calls for urgent intervention by democratic forces
to end the spiral of violence in the Region
Raipur,
25th May, 2013
The Chhattisgarh PUCL strongly condemns the attack by suspected Maoists on the convoy of Congress Party leaders in the course of their election campaign in the forested Darbha Ghati in Sukma area in which, according to news reports till the present time, Congress leader Mahendra Karma and Uday Mudaliar have been killed and the President of the Congress Party Nand Lal Patel is suspected to have been abducted. More than 20 people have been reportedly killed with several seriously injured and the numbers of missing, injured and fatalities are on the increase.
The PUCL has always had a principled stand opposed to violence and the politics of killings and abduction. The spiraling violence in the Bastar region in which the present killings and abduction have occurred, and only a week ago on 17th May, 8 villagers including 3 children and a jawan were killed in an operation of security forces in Village Edesmeta, district Bijapur. For the first time, the police actually admitted that those who were attacked were innocent and instituted an enquiry. This situation requires the urgent intervention of all democratic forces in the country as also expressed in the recent strong and anguished letter issued by the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri K Chandra Deo to the Governors regarding the situation in the Scheduled Areas.
Sudha Bharadwaj
General Secretary
(Chhattisgarh PUCL)
Press Release 6:
Barbaric Maoist Attack Condemned
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the barbaric attack by the Maoists on a convoy carrying Congress leaders participating in the 'parivartan yatra' of the party in Bastar district of Chattisgarh. The attack has led to the death of 18 people including senior Congress leaders like the state Congress President and injuries to several others. This is the latest and most shocking example of the politics of violence and terror practiced by the Maoists against all their political opponents.
The Chattisgarh government is answerable for the reported lack of security arrangements for the yatra. On the one hand the BJP government allows the killing of innocent tribals as happened last week in the name of fighting the Maoists and on the other hand it utterly fails to protect legitimate democratic activities in the state.
The CPI(M) extends its condolences to the families of all those killed. It demands a high level enquiry into the incident. It also demands firm action to be taken to stop these Maoists depredations. It calls upon all democratic forces to fight the politics of violence by the Maoists.
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