Tribals caught in Naxal-govt crossfire

Tribals from Chhattisgarh's Dantewada and Bijapur districts are on the run, from Naxalites as well as an army raised by the government to protect them from the insurgents "" the Salwa Judum.

The strategy of the Salwa Judum, which the government describes as a people's movement, is to identify villages and evacuate the residents to government camps.

Anyone who does not join them is branded a Naxal sympathiser and attacked, according to the tribals who were in New Delhi last week along with social activists to campaign against these atrocities.

A total of 20 camps have been set up in the last two and a half years for about 50,000 tribals evacuated from 644 villages of Dantewada.

Chomuru, a tribal from the Bhairamgad block of Bijapur district, said, "The Salwa Judum troops came to my village and said those who did not join them would be killed. So my kin joined them. The next day, they went to the neighbouring village, chased a man and killed him. The following day, personnel of the paramilitary forces burnt our houses. They came back again after three days and arrested four women. While the two elder women were released, the other two were raped. After this, their hair were cut and they were made to wear Naxal uniform and forcibly taken away."

Chomuru said he was part of the Salwa Judum but came back. He says those taken by the militia are made to burn and loot villages and are in no position to go to their homes for the fear of being killed by either the villagers or the Naxalites. Chomuru, who came to New Delhi with the activists to chalk out a plan to end the Salwa Judum's atrocities, says even police don't register FIRs in such cases.

He said in one incident, three men who had gone to cut bamboo in the mountains were beaten up and killed when they said they didn't know the Naxal hideouts.

He says two girls from his family were caught for not being in the Salwa Judum camps. While the elder sister was made to wear a Naxal dress and sent to jail, the younger was released after the family paid Rs 2,000, he said.

Chhattisgarh Home Minister Home Ramvichar Netam denied the Salwa Judum was terrorising the tribals.

"In certain cases, personal clashes have been reported among the villagers, who are no doubt divided on supporting this movement against the Naxalites," Netam said.

Those opposing the movement were also targeting the Salwa Judum and their properties for stopping the campaign, he added. The minister denied the police were not registering cases against the Salwa Judum.

"To my knowledge, no such case has come to the notice," he said. He said the Salwa Judum activities had not gone out of control. "It is a spontaneous movement of the villagers," he said.