** * * * Jharkhand News * <http://jharkhand.org.in/>
* India's tribals: Caught in the crossfire * Land. Water. Minerals. Guns. They are all connected. In India's heartland, after the last metalled road has turned into a dirt track, there are villages where people have not seen tap water and electricity. They have never met a doctor or gone to school. They live in the middle of dense forests, sharing space with dangerous animals. They live on fertile land, but there is never enough food in their stomachs. Hunger they are familiar with and now they are simmering with anger. They realise that they were never given a chance to live with dignity. They are India's original inhabitants - the indigenous people we call the tribals. Now, they are caught in a deadly crossfire between the rebels who claim that they are waging a war on their behalf and the State that says it's trying to protect them from the Maoists' mindless violence. Not sure whom to believe, the tribals are confused. And they wonder why there hasn't been any change in their lives for such a long time. In Chhattisgarh, the state with the highest tribal population in the country, even basic civic amenities like roads, health centres and education facilities are lacking. Even the areas in the grip of violence are beyond the reach of the police forces. The wells here are dry. The land is parched. The roads are dusty. The people are famished. It's the same story in Jharkhand. Even after seven years of its creation, more than 80% of the tribal villages in Jharkhand are without roads, electricity, potable water and health centres. There is no irrigation facility in more than 90% of the state. No wonder when the Maoists walk into a village and talk of revolution, people listen to them. No wonder when people hear about the mining companies coming and taking away their mineral wealth, they are enraged. They want their land back. They want their forests intact. And they don't want others to exploit their minerals. When they see everything slipping away from their hands, they turn to guns. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indias_tribals_Caught_in_the_crossfire/articleshow/2788500.cms * Naxalites have Rs 60-cr budget for 'struggle' * NEW DELHI: The CPI (Maoist) has a budget of no less than Rs 60 crore for carrying out its armed struggle during 2007-09. And of that, Rs 42 crore is earmarked for arms, ammunition and explosives, Rs 2 crore for intelligence gathering, an indicator of how Naxalites are prepared to pay an entrenched ring of informers. The remaining amount is allocated for transportation, computer training, propaganda and documentation. The revelations came from Misir Besra, a top-rung Maoist leader who was arrested in Jharkhand recently. The statements by Besra, also known as Sunirmal, are significant in view of Friday's attacks in Orissa as Besra, a "politburo" leader, had specifically spoken of police stations in the state being on the Naxalite hitlist, along with a few individuals, politicians and officers in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The Nayagarh attack points to the authenticity of Besra's "product". If his comrades knew of his arrest, the determination to still go ahead with the attack speaks volumes of the confidence and gumption of the ultras. Even though the Naxalites have of late taken a beating in Andhra Pradesh, the group's leadership remains firmly in the grip of comrades from the state. As many of seven politburo members are from Andhra Pradesh, with four — including party general secretary Muppala Lakshman Rao alias Ganapathi — coming from Karimnagar, a district long affected by Naxalite presence. The secretive ways of the Naxalite leadership and its success in avoiding identification despite on-off peace talks had put investigators at a disadvantage. But now, agencies have an exact idea of the structure headed by a politburo comprising 14 permanent members and six "alternate" members. While Ganapathi is party general secretary, the permanent members include Mallojula K Rao, Cherukuri Raja Kumkar, Prashanth Bose, Nambala Keshavarao, Pramod Mishra, Sumanand Singh, Katakam Sudershan, Akhilesh Yadav and Balraj. Each has a responsibility with respect to 'military' operations, intelligence, propaganda, training, documentation, budget and procurement of arms and ammunition. Officials believe that most of them might have even been taking shelter in urban areas with the help of unarmed sympathizers whose number could be anywhere between 50,000 and 70,000 across the country. "Disclosures made by Besra about the leadership will now at least help us launch our efforts in the right direction as he gave us feature-wise details of the commanders and politburo members," said an official. Though the politburo is the top decision-making body, lower cadres are being managed by regional bureaus, zonal/state committees, district/division committees and squad area committees. The basic armed unit, called dalam, has eight to 10 guerrillas trained in using landmines and launching surprise attacks. While extortion from contractors, miners, tendu leaf traders and other forest produce, including ivory and sandalwood merchants/smugglers, is a basic means of finance, arms and ammunition are usually looted from the police. Besides, they procure explosives, mainly gelatine sticks, from contractors in mining areas. A particular politburo member, Pramod Mishra of Aurangabad, Bihar, was made operational in-charge of New Delhi during the 9th congress of the Maoists. In the congress, held in the forests of Bheemband in Bihar for 10 days last year, it was decided to put one urban combat team specifically to identify targets in Delhi and Haryana. Ganapathi is the man who heads the CPI (Maoist) and its armed wing, People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), having nearly 11,000 armed cadres spread over as many as 13 states. He is certainly not the only one who runs such a huge 'army'. There are nearly 100 others who are part of the Naxalite command structure with their central committee comprising a team of 14 dedicated full-time politburo members. Security and intelligence agencies, however, do not exactly know where Ganapathi or others live and operate from. They found out from Besra that the top leaders shift their bases depending upon their own intelligence. Besra has hinted at locations which encompass dense forest areas of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar (along the Nepal border), AP, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Abujmad in Chhattisgarh, the Palamau-Chatra belt in Jharkhand and the dense Dandakaranya forests in north Telengana region of AP are, however, considered the three main hideouts. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Naxalites_have_Rs_60-cr_budget_for_struggle/articleshow/2790408.cms Twenty Maoists killed in Orissa Bhubaneswar (PTI): Security forces on Sunday gunned down at least twenty Maoists, including some women cadres, during the ongoing combing operation at Nayagarh, where extremists killed 14 policemen, and four other districts of Orissa. Security forces, however, lost three of its personnel in the combing operation launched on a massive scale in different sensitive pockets in Nayagarh, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Rayagada districts. "We have information about killing of 20 Maoists and three jawans of Special Operation Group (SOG) during the combing operation," Home Secretary T K Mishra told reporters. Refusing to divulge details of the operation, Mishra said casualty of naxals could be more. "But we have specific information about death of 20 ultras since yesterday," Mishra said adding Additional Director General of Police M M Praharaj was leading the operation which would continue "till the end". Without disclosing the exact location where the maoists were killed by security force, he said "reports are received from different places including the Gansar Hills". Mishra said sophisticated equipment like night binoculars, global positioning system (GPS) and other gadgets were being used to monitor movement of ultras inside dense forests. This apart, Mishra said two choppers were being used for movement of personnel in order to coordinate the operation. Thirteen policemen were among 15 people gunned down by about 500 heavily-armed naxalites who struck at five police establishments and drove away with huge quantity of arms and ammunitions in Nayagarh district of Orissa on Friday night. Sources said besides elite Greyhound Forces from Andhra Pradesh, specially trained para-military jawans, SOG forces and armed police jointly launched the operation. "We are on offensive mode and there is no question of compromising with the situation as 14 policemen and a civilian were killed by Maoists on Friday night," Mishra said. Mishra also refuted allegations of failure of intelligence at Nayagarh saying the ultras, in fact, outnumbered security personnel. Centre's support Lauding Centre's support in carrying out the operation, Orissa Government said it was in touch with the union home ministry. Special secretary in the union home ministry M K Kumawat, who is also chief of the task force against Maoists, today went to Nayagarh town to assess the situation there. "All possible assistance will be provided for tackling the Maoist problem," Kumawat told reporters at Nayagarh after inspecting the looted armouries. Meanwhile, a delegation of opposition parties led by Congress leader J B Patnaik today made an on spot inquiry at Nayagarh and held the state government responsible for killing of 14 police personnel and a civilian by Maoists. Patnaik said he would raise the issue in the assembly tomorrow. The spot was close to Bhubaneswar and it was an alarming indication, he said. hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200802172141.htm ** <http://www.jharkhand.org.in/live> * * *Jharkhand Blog @ jharkhand.org.in/blog<http://www.jharkhand.org.in/blog> * -- Jharkhand News [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jharkhand Online Network http://www.jharkhand.org.uk
