Tribals deserting Salwa Judum base camps

Dear All,

The tribals living in the base camps of Salwa Judum are fleeing the camps due to the harassment and ill treatment by the Salwa Judum activists states a report sent from Chintur in Khammam district bordering Konta of Dantewara and published in Andhra Jyothi on 1st October 2007. Those who are in the base camps are being treated like slaves.

Out of 33,000 persons housed in Errabore base camp at its beginning now there are only 6,000. Similar is the case with the other base camps in Konta tahasil.

In Dornapal base camp out of 45,000 persons there are only 10,000, Vinjaram base camp out of 17,000 there are only 2,000 and Konta base camp out of 12,000 there are only 2,000 at present. The report further states that out of 45 base camps set up around Bijapur, Dantewara and Bhoopalapatnam there are people only in 7 camps. The question that arises is where have these tribals have gone � Have they gone back to their villages or migrated to Andhra Pradesh or hiding in the jungles of Dantewara ?

The earlier wave of migrant tribals ( IDPs) who had migrated to Khammam, Warangal,Karimnagar, Adilabad and west Godavari districts in AP are leading a precarious life as the forest department of AP is trying to force them back into Chhattisgarh by repeatedly torching their houses. The tribal welfare department of Andhra Pradesh is not extending any help like issuing PDS cards, employment etc to these IDPs on the ground that they do not belong to AP. Most of the families are malnourished as they neither have land to cultivate or have regular wage employment.

Joint combing operations are being carried out by AP and CG police all along the border to prevent migration of tribals from Chhattisgarh.It is the responsibility of Sri Mahendra Karma and Sri Raman Singh to tell where have the people of Dantewada in general and the people who were forced to move into the base camps have disappeared.

Mean while in the All India DGPs conference held on 3rd October in New Delhi The central Government has decided to send Central police forces to weed out Maoists from Dantewada and Bijapur districts of Chhattisgarh, Malkangiri and Rayagada districts in Orissa, Chhatra and Palamu districts in Jharkhand and Aurangabad and Gaya districts of Bihar.The strategy is to comb every inch in these districts to control /weed out the Maoist.

JP Rao