INDIA: Denial of land rights; brutal attack on tribals
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The struggle for land rights waged by the indigenous communities in the southern Indian state of Kerala has taken a violent, tragic turn with the police and the forest protection staff unleashing a brutal attack with gunfire on more than 1,000 tribals to evict them from the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Wayanad where they have occupied the land. The tribals resisted this violent move with bows and arrows and other rudimentary weapons.
According to the information we received, 16 people (15 Adivasis and one policeman) were killed, and more than 50 people were seriously injured by the shooting and combat operations that the authorities carried out late on the evening of Feb. 19, 2003, against the tribals, who have rallied under the banner of the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS), the apex organisation of about 35 indigenous communities in Kerala.
During the attack on the tribals, a huge contingent of police beat up men, women and children and pulled down and set fire to their makeshift tents made of bamboo, grass and plastic sheets even as the tribals tried to repulse the attack with their bare hands and farm implements. The police fired several rounds of rubber bullets in the morning to evict the Adivasis. Later in the evening, as the AGMS took two forest protection staff members as hostages, hoping to effect a retreat of the advancing police force, the police opened fire indiscriminately. Witnesses to the event say the death toll could be much higher. Reportedly, the police are using excavators to bury the dead in the area, which has been cordoned off to the public and the press since the shooting.
On Jan. 4, 2003, a total of 1,100 Adivasi families entered this area in protest against the failure of the Kerala government to implement its commitment based upon a agreement it had reached with the Adivasis on Oct. 16, 2001. On this date, a committee headed by the chief minister agreed that (a) landless Adivasis and those having less than one acre of land would be given five acres of land each, (b) the state government would, by a cabinet resolution, declare all tribal habitations in Kerala as scheduled areas under Article 244, (c) the Supreme Court judgement on the 1999 act would be implemented and (d) a tribal mission would be constituted to implement the agreement.
On the basis of this agreement, the government identified 22,491 landless Adivasi families and 30,981 families with less than one acre. Thus, a total of 53,472 families were identified as being eligible to receive five acres of land each. However, as of Jan. 1, 2002, only a total of 59,452 acres of land had been handed over to the Adivasis, which amounted to less than 2.2 percent of the total land required for allotment under the agreement.
However, the betrayal of the government’s promises, which also included cultivable lands, a five-year rehabilitation programme and moves toward tribal self-rule as provisioned under the Indian Constitution, left the Adivasis desperate and disillusioned. For the AGMS and Adivasis, the present confrontational phase of the struggle has meant a desperate return to the locale and the roots of the primordial conflict with the rulers who had usurped the forests and turned the forest-dwellers into bonded labourers.
The struggle showed that democratic alternatives existed outside the bounds of rigid principles and procedures of law. For the first time in Kerala’s history, the Adivasi land struggle had also opened up a space for dialogue and constructive cooperation between the government and its most wretched citizens, the Adivasis. Within a year, however, the Adivasi cause was betrayed once again with the Revenue and Forest departments listing several forest lands and uninhabitable and uncultivable hill tracts for assignment. The bitterness that resulted out of this betrayal has now penetrated the rank and file of the Adivasis in Kerala, forcing them back to the forests and confrontation that has become violent.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Please send your protest letters to the chief minister of Kerala, the prime minister of India and the federal minister of environment and forests, expressing your extreme concern about the brutal police attack on Adivasis on Feb. 19, 2003, that has resulted in the death of 16 people and serious injuries to more than 50 others. In addition, please urge them to withdraw the police immediately from the area and provide medical treatment for those who were injured.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear
I am shocked to learn that 16 people (15 Adivasis and one policeman) were killed and more than 50 others seriously injured by the shooting and combat operations that the authorities carried out late on the evening of Feb. 19, 2003. I have also learned that the police and other government officials involved in this heinous operation have been secretly disposing of the bodies of the dead Adivasis in the forest.
According to reports, a total of 1,100 Adivasi families entered this area on Jan. 4, 2003, to protest against the failure of the Kerala government to implement the commitment it had made in an agreement with the Adivasis on Oct. 16, 2001. In this agreement, a committee headed by the chief minister of Kerala agreed that (a) landless Adivasis and those having less than one acre of land would be given five acres of land each, (b) the state government would, by a cabinet resolution, declare all tribal habitations in Kerala as scheduled areas under Article 244, (c) the Supreme Court judgement on the 1999 Act would be implemented and (d) a tribal mission would be constituted to implement the agreement.
On the basis of this agreement, the government identified 22,491 landless Adivasi families and 30,981 families having less than one acre. Thus, a total of 53,472 families were identified as being eligible to receive five acres of land each. However, as of Jan. 1, 2002, only a total of 59,452 acres of land had been handed over to the Adivasis, which amounted to less than 2.2 percent of the total land required for allotment under the agreement.
However, the betrayal of the government's promises, which also included cultivable lands, a five-year rehabilitation programme and moves toward tribal self-rule as provisioned under the Indian Constitution, left the Adivasis desperate and disillusioned. For the Adivasis and their organisation, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS), the present confrontational phase of the struggle has meant a desperate return to the locale and the roots of the primordial conflict with the rulers who had usurped the forests and turned the forest-dwellers into bonded labourers.
Therefore, I urge you to withdraw the police from the area to stop any further brutal and murderous assault on the Adivasis and to initiate a judicial inquiry into the incident by a sitting judge of the High Court. Furthermore, I urge you to instruct all of the relevant departments of your government to implement the agreement dated Oct. 16, 2001, and to guarantee the right to life and equal protection of the law to the poor and backward sectors of society.
I look forward to learning about your prompt action into this violent incident.
Sincerely yours,
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER BY FAX OR E-MAIL TO:
1. Mr. Shri. A. K. Antony
Chief Minister of Kerala
Room No. 141, Third Floor
North Block, Secretariat, Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala, India
Tel: +91 471 333812 or +91 471 332184
Fax: +91 471 333489
E-mail: chiefminister@kerala.gov.in or cmkerala@vsnl.net
2. Mr. H.E. Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Prime Minister of India
South Block, Raisina Hill
New Delhi 110 011
India
Fax: +91 11 3016857/3019545 (O), +91 11 3019334 (R)
E-mail: vajpayee@sansad.nic.in or http://pmindia.nic.in/writetous.htm
3. Shri Dilip Singh Judev
Minister of Environment and Forests
Paryavaran Bhavan, C.G.O.Complex
Lodhi Road Institutional Area
New Delhi, India
Tel: +91-11-4361748/4361727
E-mail: secy@menf.delhi.nic.in
