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India - Smallholders affected by state operation against Maoists

Her Excellency
Mrs. Pratibha Patil
President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi 110 004
India
Fax: +0091 11 23017290

                                                              Heidelberg/Germany, 29th April 2010

Honourable President,

FIAN International is an international human rights organisation, with consultative status at the UN, working for the implementation of the right to food worldwide. We have received information regarding the severe human rights violations in Central India in the context of the massive anti-Maoist operation called Operation Green Hunt, launched by the Government of India. The violations victimize the poorest of India's forest dwellers and subsistence farmers in drought-ridden regions where malnutrition is exceedingly high and chronic diseases linked with malnutrition are present in a great degree.
Already impacted by the earlier operation,  Salwa Judum,  carried out by state sponsored campaign activists against Maoists and their sympathizers, people living in the affected area have been facing forced eviction from their lands and livelihood resources, which as a consequence means hunger and malnutrition for most of them. In addition, as a consequence of Salwa Judum thousands of people were rendered homeless, hundreds were killed and raped in hundreds of villages in Chhattisgarh which were burned to the ground. Local people remain trapped in the violent conflict between both the security forces and the Maoists.
Further it has been reported by the press that the Operation Green Hunt is preventing the villagers from collecting forest food or buying larger quantities of food in the markets, as authorities fear that this food would provide supply to Maoist insurgents. Authorities also keep them from ploughing their fields.
According to many observers, Salwa Judum and Operation Green Hunt is  being carried out mainly to exploit the states' mineral and other resources and force people to give up their lands.
The recent  "Independent People's Tribunal on Land Acquisition, Resource Grab and Operation Green Hunt" during which the  testimonies of tribal people, activists, academics and experts from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa where heard, noted in its observations: "State violence has been accentuated by Operation Green Hunt in which a huge number of paramilitary forces are being used mostly on the Adivasis. The militarization of the state has reached a level where schools are occupied by security forces."
Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh - states in central and Eastern India - comprise some of the largest tracts of untapped mineral and forest resources in India. Their exploitation by domestic and foreign corporations has become a government priority. Already a large number of Memorandums of Understandings with large private companies and multinationals have been signed. In North Karanpura Valley (Upper Damodar River) in Jharkhand, over 30 new opencast coal mines have received environmental clearance. It is further reported, that a planned big dam at Bodhghat in Chhattisgarh will submerge more than a hundred tribal villages near a proposed steel plant forcing the villagers to relocate. It will also mean to clear the way for a bauxite mine and aluminium refining plant in Keshkal-ghat.

As a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
India is duty-bound under international law to respect and protect the peasants' human right to adequate food.

As a person working internationally for the Human Right to Food, I would like to ask you to:

- Immediately stop human rights violations and atrocities on Adivasis and other people living in mineral rich areas in India.
- Withdraw paramilitary armed police forces immediately
- Start a dialogue with local people  e.g. through the formation of an Empowered Citizen's Commission to investigate and recommend action against those responsible for human rights violations
- Make sure that government schemes and laws aimed at ensuring the right to food of the people, like NREGA, are properly implemented ,  ICDS centers are opened according to the requirements, PDS shops are functional etc.

Please keep me informed about any action you take in this matter.

Rolf Künnemann
Human Rights Director
FIAN International

Cc. His Excellency Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India; His Excellency, The Governor of Jharkhand; Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Minister for environment and forests; Honorable Mr. Yashwant Sinha, M.P., Jharkhand; Margaret Sekaggya, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders; Mr. Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Food; Mrs.Raquel Rolnik, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing; Mr. Walter Kälin, UN Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons.