The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) hereby wish to draw
the attention of the international community to the plight of the adivasi
people in one corner of the State of West Bengal, India. That area is called
Lalgarh--an integral part of Jangal Mahal i.e., Forest area and situated in the
West Medinipur district of West Bengal. The tribal people of India had always
been the victims of anti-people policies of the ruling classes, be that during
colonial times or during the period following the �transfer of power� to
friendly hands in 1947. Forest lands were being systematically cleared to make
room for agricultural lands for revenue earning. Vast stretches of land were
converted into reserved areas by evicting adivasis from their land and habitats
on a massive scale. In the recent times, the central and state governments have
initiated the land-grab movements so as to facilitate the loot and plunder of
the country�s natural and mineral resources by the foreign MNCs.
At a place called Salboni within the same district and somewhat far from
Lalgarh, a Special Economic Zone was to be created by the big business house of
the Jindals on 5,000 acres of land. In November 2008, immediately after the
inauguration of the said SEZ project, the convoy of the WB chief minister, that
of one central minister and of Jindal was attacked with landmines by the Maoist
insurgents as a result of which some policemen got injured. What followed was
police repression of the most brutal kind. Village houses were raided at dawn
when people were still asleep, people were arrested, women were humiliated and
beaten with rifle butts on all parts of the body and the eyes and molested. One
woman lost her left eye as a result of police cruelty. One pregnant wife, whose
husband was picked up, was forcibly dragged out of her home and then thrown on
the road and beaten up. Schools students returning home after attending a
village cultural performance and a retired school and others were picked up and
detained illegally on mere suspicion of being involved in the mine explosion.
These atrocities were committed in Lalgarh and Binpur areas�far from the site
of the mine explosion.
The people of Lalgarh, however, refused to be cowed down by such terror. They
formed the People�s Committee Against Police Atrocities and demanded public
apology from the police and compensation for the damage done to the people.
They dug roads, felled trees on the roads, formed village committees and this
just struggle for dignity and against state brutality has spread to other parts
of Jangal Mahal embracing as many as 1,100 villages, if not more, in the three
adjoining districts at present. The People�s Committee formed village
committees, women�s branches, youth branches and have carried on development
work in the form of the setting up of health centres for free medical care of
the poor. They raised demands concerning initiated a total social boycott of
the police, raised blockades and check-posts preventing the entry of police and
the CPI (M) goons.
After the Lok Sabha elections held recently, and the formation of a
Congress-led government at the centre, the central government is all set to
send more para-military forces to help the �left-front� government suppress
this just struggle of the people. The central and state forces are being
accompanied by CPI (M) led goons who had already set up Salwa Judum-type
reactionary organizations to suppress the Lalgarh people�s, as they had done
in Nandigram earlier. The CPM-sponsored hermads/goons had already attacked many
villages controlled by the People�s Committee, killed some members, wounded
others and burnt a large number of houses. They are bent upon making genocides
in the Jangal Mahal area with the backing of the state and central forces. Very
recently, when a cultural team from Jangal Mahal went a place called Chakulia
in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand to mobilize people to participate in a
women�s rally scheduled to take place on 5 June, many of them were arrested and
molested in the police station and sent to jail. When the committee members
proceeded towards the police station to seek release of the political
prisoners, they were prevented from doing so by a massive mobilization of state
forces and the use of tear-gas shells against the precisionists. The situation
is really very critical and needs immediate intervention by the international
community.
The CRPP urges upon the international community to raise their voice against
the brutality done by the Indian ruling classes to the people of Jangal Mahal
to nip their just struggle in the bud by putting pressure on the government of
India through various means. The struggle being waged by the people of Lalgarh,
nay of Jangal Mahal, is a just struggle and we urge upon you to stand by its
side to the best of your ability.
Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP)
Gursharan Singh Amit Bhattacharyya SAR Geelani
Rona Wilson
President Secretary General Vice-President
Media Secretary
Postscript:
As reports last came in, the central government has kept its �Cobra� force�a
commando force of the notorious �Greyhound� type--ready on the Jharkhand-WB
border. Helicopter surveys have been going on and the state is preparing for a
massive crackdown with the para-military forces and the state police forces to
crush this just struggle of the people in pools of blood. Needless to state,
they will be joined by the notorious CPI(M) goons. Nobody knows how many people
will fall down dead in the battle ahead, how many people will receive bullet
wounds and get disabled for life in the process, how many children would lose
their parents, and how many women would be humiliated in their just and heroic
struggle for justice and dignity.
