Orissa: Interview with CMAS Leader on Police Killings

Narayanpatna is in southern Orissa near Andhra Pradesh

Posted on Sanhati, November 23, 2009

Narayanpatna: An Inteview with Gananath Patra

On the 20th of November three adivasis, including a leader of Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha (CMAS), were gunned down near the police station of Narayanpatna. The CMAS has been struggling for the redistribution of land among tribals in the region. Nachika Linga and Gananath Patra have been spearheading the movement since its inception. The police alleges the CMAS of conducting violence.

According to the police, hundreds of adivasis had come to loot the police station; the police had to fire in retaliation and hence the incident. Later, a section of media claimed that the government has issued a shoot-at-sight order against Nachika Linga. Kumudini Behera, another leader of the CMAS, is already under arrest. The following is a telephonic interview with Com. Gananath Patra, conducted by Satyabrata. This interview has also been published at Radical Notes.

Operation Green Hunt Drives Adivasis into Andhra Pradesh

Internally displaced persons from Chhattisgarh before their shack of sticks and palmyra leaf in Andhra Pradesh’s Khammam.

Express Buzz, November 29, 2009

Homeless Wanderers in Their Own Country

As Operation Green Hunt gathers steam in Chhattisgarh, state violence is also going up steadily. The result is that more people, mostly tribals, in the state’s Maoist-dominated areas are crossing the border to find sanctuary in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh as Internally Displaced Persons.

Each of them fled their homes either after a raid or because they feared for their lives. The stories these people tell of their ordeals are also beginning to provide a picture of the true extent of the destruction.

Gachanpalli is a small village some 30 km from the town of Konta in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. According to witnesses, the security forces raided Gachanpalli sometime in late October. They allegedly killed Madvi Admaya, Madkam Sulaya, Madvi Joga, Kovasi Gangaya, Madkam Moiyi. Witnesses say four of the five men were past 60 and too old to escape into the jungle. Madkam Moiyi was apparently crippled and incapable of walking.

They were said to have been bayoneted and shot to death in the middle of the village.Nineteen homes were also burnt down. This was the second attack on Gachanpalli.In 2005, the Salwa Judum burnt down 65 homes in the village.“ I have so much land at Gachanpalli, but no one to work on it now.” Kovasi Jogi, 60, lived in Gachanpalli. Now she inhabits an Internally Displaced Persons settlement in Khammam. Her village is almost empty now, peopled by ghosts and memories.