From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [R-G] For further info about Indian Maoists, read here... AFP. 19 January 2002. India's dominant Maoist rebel group offers peace talks. NEW DELHI -- India's most powerful Maoist guerrilla group has offered to start its first-ever peace talks with local auhtorities in the southeast of the country, reports said Saturday. The outlawed People's War Group (PWG), which enjoys significant influence in several Indian states, said it had made an "unconditional offer" to talk with the government of Andhra Pradesh state to stop frequent police killings of its members, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said. The offer came after police shot dead a PWG deputy commander in Andhra Pradesh's Venkatampalli district, the news agency quoted police as saying in the provincial capital of Hyderabad. Police said the slain guerrilla leader, Boya Ramakrishna, was wanted for several counts of murder. "We are not setting any pre-conditions for talks," PWG said in an undated letter to the privately-run Committee of Concerned Citizens, which has been trying to broker peace between the state government and various left-wing rebel organisations in Andhra Pradesh. "We only request the (state) government to stop the encounters, arrests, raids and combing operations at least for two to three months." "We want the government to have a direct dialogue with our leadership," the PWG said in the letter. "If it wants to talk through mediators, we will send our charter of demands." Andhra Pradesh government officials said the peace talk offer was put forward because PWG assassins triggered outrage across parts of southern India last month when they murdered a widely-respected tribal leader. The Maoists have carried out a wave of attacks in Andhra Pradesh over recent months that has included killing a top politician and blowing up a dairy belonging to state chief minister Chandra Babu Naidu. They have also damaged factories, a courthouse and a Coca Cola plant. The Indian government has threatened to launch a national-level crackdown on the PWG, which holds sway in the countryside of at least four southern and eastern states. New Delhi has threatened to use a new anti-terrorism law -- the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) -- to put down the left-wing insurgency. Under POTO, described as draconian by opposition political parties, any person could be detained on suspicion that he or she may possess information relating to terrorism and can be sentenced to death. India also suspects the PWG, especially in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal, of having links with the Maoist guerrillas of Nepal, who last month launched a string of attacks that left more than 400 people dead. The PWG has been waging a campaign against exploitation of landless farmers and what they say are "anti-poor" state policies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green Leninist-International list: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
