Clarifications

Dear comrades

Sorry for abruptly stopping postings on the blog.

Like I said in the earlier posts, the main reasons being
that I differ with the direction that India's largest
maoist party is taking, and that I am right now
associated informally and might work part time with
a non-political, non violent organisation which
does not make it conductive to continue with this blog
for now.

Also I have started studying and working fulltime
which leaves little time to blog.
And whatever time I spend online I spend it for studying.

Posting may be resumed at some point of time
in the future depending on how things shape up in the present
till then please visit maoistresistance.

Regards

Abhay
Team Naxalrevolution

This blog is closed

This blog is closed indefinitely until further notice.Please refer to
maoistresistance for latest news and updates.

Regards

Abhay

For Team Naxalrevolution

Please sign this petition to help ban the RSS in UK

The RSS is one of India's largest terrorist organisations.A large chunk of funds
to run the organisation is raised from the UK and USA.Please sign this
petition to get the RSS banned in UK for now.The RSS has a presence in more
than 90 countries for now which is four times more than that of Al-Qaeda !

The BJP a frontal organisation of the RSS is used to propogate its Hate ideology
and to shield criminals from the paralyzed arm of the law.

The RSS has been waging a war against Indians since independence
to establish a Hindu Rahtra (A Hindu Nation similar to Hitlers Aryan Nation)
which has directly resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 minorities
mostly muslims, christians and sikhs.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/bantherss/


Link to video

Tags: Ban the RSS, UK, sikh, muslim, hindu, christian, atrocities, fundamentalists

Is The FARC A terrorist organisation ?

Are the FARC terrorist?

Por: Allende La Paz/ ANNCOL

The FARC gains more credibility every day at the national and international level. Uribélez on the contrary reveals his perverse soul. He does not answer for the actions he orders. Who is responsible for the victims of State Terrorism? Are the FARC 'terrorists'? What would be a 'beneficial' form of Europe's meddling in the Colombian internal conflict? Allende La Paz writes.

In spite of the attempts by the narco-paramilitary regime of Alvaro Uribe Vélez to take away credibility from the FARC, every day that goes by the Colombian insurgent organization gains more respect and receptivity in wide spaces of what is known as the 'international community' and even more so at the national level.

This has been more than evident in what Alfonso Lopez Michelsen calls 'the crisis of crisis', that is to say, the recent and terrible death of the 11 deputies of the Valley of Cauca, fallen due to 'cross fire' between the FARC and an unidentified military group, but that everything points to highly specialized groups of the military forces with advisers from the USA, who pretend to 'rescue' the prisoners in control of the FARC, which is the same as killing them in those 'attempts'.

The international opinion received the announcement of the Occidental Joint Command of the FARC as a show of the seriousness of the Colombian guerrilla organization and gave the news a meriting credibility. For that reason the statement of the President of France and the Foreign Affairs Office of that country could not have been clearer: France declared its total opposition to the order of 'military rescue', in that undiplomatically but necessary way at the time.

The predominant note in international publications was one of condemnation to the rescue combat operations, all of them alleging that the responsibility fell - and falls on the Colombian president. How very true, as it has already been said by other analysts from different media.

Uribélez and his politics of war

Would it be necessary for the oligarchy to be 'touched' by the war to be able to engage in a Peace dialogue?

These almost five years that Alva-raco Uribélez has been the tenant of the House of Nariño (presidential palace), have done nothing but deepening the war in Colombia and flooding the rural areas and Colombian cities with innocent blood. His howls declaring war to the FARC while at the same time vehemently denying there is a war are repeated over and over. The strident call to the generals to 'rescue' the prisoners in control of the FARC is a common place in the daily broadcastings of the different media in Colombia.

There is no stage where Uribe does not do the same. In Cali - where he suspiciously travelled two months before 'to govern' from there – he came up with the litany of the 'military rescue'. In Buenaventura he ordered the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt with 'drool on his face'. Why did he do this in the Valley? Later the Occidental Joint Command of the FARC-EP stated in a public communiqué published in ANNCOL that every day there were combats in the zone. The military operations being carried out in the Valley, Cauca and Nariño are almost equal to the ones being carried out in the south-east with 'Plan Patriota'.

The hysterical shrillness are a daily thing telling the army - because he is incapable of doing it himself – that 'we have already done away with half of the FARC, now lets go for the other half', a story that not even he believes. Why Alva-raco Uribélez does hate the FARC that much? Why his demential obsession for this guerrilla organization? What mental disease affects the Colombian president who seems obsessive-compulsive with the FARC?

Nevertheless, when due to his policy of war - ordered by the gringos- those who fall are members of the 'Colombian political class', he does not assume the responsibility, as it would correspond to a true statesman, or as it is done every day by the common Colombians in the exercise of their daily activities. But instead we see the newspaper El Tiempo declaring that Colombia is in mourning, as if we were not in mourning since 1948, or will it be that for El Tiempo the dead that count are those of the oligarchs?

But Alva-raco Uribélez is a coward, he does not take responsibility for the 11,282 'out of combat' assassinated by his narco-paramilitary forces. He says nothing about these murders. Nothing, absolutely nothing. And now he tries to vindicate the death of the deputies as his triumph when blaming the FARC for it. Could such a criminal and ill mind be conceived?

Until when will the oligarchy and the governors in turn persist with their policies of war against the people? Or will it be necessary for the war in Colombia 'to touch' the leadership of the 'political class', the business class, the military leadership, that is to say, to the Colombian oligarchy, for the war to be seriously considered by the tenant of the House of Nariño, so that he starts to seriously engaging in a dialogue for a political exit to the Colombian internal conflict and for reaching peace?

Who believes the Colombian army?

The Colombian army have always killed and have never answered for their crimes.

The Colombian army - as Alva-raco Uribélez- does not assume their responsibility when their plans fail. The declarations of general Freddy Padilla are cynical and contradictory. We just need to go through the web-page of the Colombian military forces to see the magnitude of the operative that they develop in the zone of influence of the Occidental Joint Command.

We should remember the civilian massacre at the Palace of Justice. There, still today, they try to hide their crimes, like 'cats'. Let us remember that from 1964 the Colombian military forces have committed massacres against the civilian population in the application of the pro-gringo Doctrine of National Security, attempting 'to take away the water from the fish'.

This dreadful application has produced almost 100,000 dead, innocent unarmed civilians, and has produced the obscene conspiracy of the military forces with the narco-traffickers bands, called narco-paramilitary. Mancuso is responsible for the murder of 6,000 peasants. "Jorge 40" of 2,500 murders. "Don Antonio", lieutenant of "Jorge 40", acknowledges 533 murders! Isaza 'only remembers 73! And none of the mass media has showed 'horror' for these unmerciful massacres. Of course, it is that the dead are from the people!

How many massacres have been perpetrated by the narco-paramilitary forces in Colombia since 1964? Since Virgilio Barco (1986-1990) to Alvaro Uribe Vélez (2002 -...) they have perpetrated 3,726 massacres! In that same period 6,525 Colombians have disappeared – incomplete data - (kidnapped, tortured and executed without contemplation); extra judicially executed (not in massacres, but individual cases) 28,245 Colombians; there are forced displaced (denounced and silenced cases) 5' 440.000 Colombians.

They exterminated the Patriotic Union (5,000 leaders), a left party founded after the agreements of the Uribe between the FARC and the government of Belisario Betancourt, in application of the DSN. They have assassinated 4,500 union leaders - according to numbers of the unionists themselves - to favour the multinationals and the national companies and to impose neo-liberalism.

And who takes responsibility for these crimes? The army? NO! The governors in turn? NO! Who hurts for them? The oligarchic mass media? NO, because as the doctors say, "the easiest pain to stand is the other people's pain". It is the people who cry them.

Are the Farc terrorist?

The FARC do not apply terror individually or collectively.

At these particular times it is a necessity that the international community analyzes the qualification of the FARC as a 'terrorist' organization. The inclusion in this 'list' was done by pressure of the first terrorist state of the world, the United States. And this does not agree with reality.

The European Union, specially, must look at this objectively - to reconsider its position with respect to the FARC. The facts of the FARC are serious and are at the scrutiny of the entire world.

The FARC were born in 1964 as a response to the violence unleashed by the Colombian state in the application of Plan LASO (Latin American Security Operation) - a plan similar to the Plan Colombia - and since then its first flag has been peace among Colombians. Its seriousness with respect to the Humanitarian Exchange or Exchange of Prisoner of War - one more real meaning - has been clear, transparent and categorical.

In a country in war - war of the State against the people -, the people develop their forms of resistance - among them the guerrilla of the FARC - and in that fratricide and imposed war, there have been, there is and there will be dead from side and side. That is painful reality. In that war against the people the whole state participates: the executive authority (orders the war every day), the legislative power (legislates for the war, creates taxes for the war) and the judicial (penalizes and conceals the political crime).

They are all actors of the war involved in one of the parts: the State. The state intends to continue applying its war doctrines so that they can continue governing and applying policies that only favour their interests (to see the living conditions in the communities in Colombia: extreme poverty, poverty, misery, lack of health, education, public services, etc, while the oligarchy gets wealthier: during the three first years of Alvaro Uribélez administration, the two greatest oligarchs of Colombia, Julio Mario Santodomingo and Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo, tripled their fortunes! ).

The people, on their part, develop their forms of resistance, including the creation of armed forms, the guerrillas. The FARC has a program that establishes as its objective the "taking of power" and a structure of leadership that responds to the directions of the National Secretariat. Their military actions always have political consideration and their execution depends on political considerations.

The FARC is not a terrorist group because it does not apply terror individually or collectively. If it did apply terror individually it would had killed who knows how many traditional 'politiqueros' (liberal and conservative) that have oriented the massacre of the opposition and of the popular fighters through the military-narcoparamilitaries. If the FARC were terrorists, be sure that, the oligarchy would have already felt in their flesh the lead bite of the insurgency.

But loyal to their Marxist-Leninists principles, the FARC condemns terror as a form of political-military actioning and they do not apply it against the oligarchy. Their actions are directed to strike the military-narcopara military forces and, forced by the circumstances of the war, sometimes they capture members of the 'political class', some state civil functionaries. But, we need to always have in mind, that this is not their main form of actioning.

The Exchange of Prisoners and Peace

If before the death of the deputies, the Exchange was a necessity in the Colombian life, now it comes about as vital. The Colombian president cannot continue playing with the life of the prisoners.

It has already been said by many countries of the international community, especially France, Switzerland and Spain. The demand of the Exchange from these governments to the government of Alvaro Uribe Vélez is a beneficial meddling for peace in Colombia. That will oppose the warmongering plans of the United States that by means of these plans intends to seize ALL our natural wealth with the minimum effort (Plan Colombia is defrayed 93.5% by Colombia) and which will logically affect the interests of other countries, specially the European.

In the direction of the beneficial meddling of Europe, the recognition of the FARC as a belligerent force is fundamental, as it is well indicated by the insurgent organization itself, since the demential blindness of Alvaro Uribe Vélez only allows him to listen to the warmongering 'siren songs' of the United States, which at the same time satisfy his morbid obsession.

Our Liberator Simón Bolívar said to General Heres, on July 25 of 1825:

«Against the swine one can use the same weapons they use».

Varahi displaced seek rehabilitation package

People of nowhere

Bangalore: A group of 400 persons of Chakra Savehaklu and Melsunka villages in Tirthahalli Assembly constituency, whose lands had been submerged under the Varahi hydel project, will present a memorandum to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Energy Minister H.D. Revanna on Thursday seeking package for their livelihood.

Addressing presspersons, Janata Dal (Secular) general secretary M.G. Mani Hegde, Nakunji Sudhakar, Tirthahalli unit and Ramamanohar Shantaveri said that these people had lost their lands in the 1980s, but had been denied compensation.

They said that only 500 of the 1,500 farmers were given compensation as they had khata and other land records.

They said that the former Congress Minister D.B. Chandre Gowda had failed to help the others, who were tilling the government lands unauthorisedly on the premise that they were not eligible for any compensation, as they were not owners of the land.

Had the hydel project not taken up, they would have got the same lands.

These affected persons from Agumbe, Hosanagar and Nagara hobli did not have any support for their families, Mr. Hegde added.

He said that 40 families from Melsunka village, affected by the naxalite menace, should be given a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh each and three acres of land.

They should be provided with employment. He charged that senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Araga Gnanendra, representing Tirthahalli in the Assembly, was coming in the way of helping them.

They said that the displaced persons, mostly Janata Dal (Secular) workers would wait at the premises of the party office, here till they got justice.

MANGALORE: 'ADDITIONAL BATTALION OF ANTI NAXAL FORCES SOON'

One step forward to suppress peoples voice

Mangalore, Aug 23: At a media briefing held here recently, the home minister M P Prakash, informed that an additional battalion of Anti Naxal Force (ANF) with 1,117 new cops will be formed very shortly. A proposal in this regard had been sent to the Finance Ministry, which in turn has agreed in principle to sanction funds for the new battalion he informed.

"At present, the ANF has 543 cops which is insufficient,’’ he added.

Prakash further stated that the ministry has acquired 176 acres in Koppal district to form an Indian Reserve Battalion with 1,110 staff to prevent untoward incidents in North Karnataka and 50 per cent of the funds would be sanctioned by the Central government, he added.

According to Prakash the department would recruit 4,025 additional staff to make the state police the best in India and the 4,500 personnel recruited last year would be posted to various stations immediately after their training, he said.
Prakash also spoke of a few proposals sent to the finance ministry for approval one of which was for the opening of a new police commissionerate for Mangalore and the other for opening of a residential school for children of police personnel either in Mangalore or in Udupi.

Moreover based on recommendations of police officers, the department is planning to increase the amount of insurance paid to the police who die during police operations from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, he informed.

Giving another glad tiding, Prakash said that the local government authorities had sanctioned land for the Malnadu Karnataka State Reserve Police Battalion, which would be formed in Hassan. The Armed Police Training Centre in Hadagali and Kudremukh would also be started soon, he declared.

Withdraw support, Maoists tell Left

Hypocrisy of CPI(M) continuing

HYDERABAD: Maoists have urged the Left parties to withdraw their support to the UPA government in the wake of the nuclear deal with the United States, and warned that the Centre’s move to push through the accord would lead to a “perpetual dependence of our country on the U.S.”

In a statement here on Wednesday, Azad, spokesman of the central committee of the CPI (Maoist), pointed out that the Left parties were crying hoarse against the 123 agreement but continuing to support the UPA government. The CPI (Maoist) demanded that the deal be scrapped immediately.

Mr. Azad termed the deal a “total sell-out’ of the country’s interests to the U.S. The deal, if fructified, would disturb the regional stability and widen the gulf between India and Pakistan. “By facilitating India to produce significant quantities of fissile material and nuclear weapons with the U.S.’ blessings, the deal would ignite an arms race in South Asia,” he said.

The spokesperson accused the MNCs, GE and Westinghouse, of playing a key role in pushing the deal on India’s back as they would derive huge profits from energy contracts.

The deal would make India totally dependent on the U.S. for nuclear fuel supplies and by giving the U.S. the right to terminate the agreement on a one-year written notice, the country would be pushed deep into the vice-like grip of the U.S., he said.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/23/stories/2007082361241300.htm

Housing shortage in urban India up 134% in last six years

In spite of so-called economic hype, the living standard of average Indians’ are worsening rapidly….View of an expert

Everywhere on the ground lay sleeping natives — hundreds and hundreds. They lay stretched at full length and tightly wrapped in blankets, heads and all” — is how Mark Twain had discovered Mumbai slum more than a century ago.

Many more heads have moved there for shelter since then and across cities. According to the last report of the National Sample Survey Organisation, one out of every seven urban households in India today live in slums. About eight million households live in slums now — two million more than those lived there a decade ago.

Interestingly, the number of slums has declined somewhat during the period. But then, this must have increased the population density in the slums and has worsened the living conditions further in the absence of any significant improvement in basic amenities. Clearly so.

More than half of the non-notified slums, which account for the larger part of the slums, did not have any latrine facility according to this survey. Underground drainage system existed in just 9% of these slums and underground sewerage was available to only 15%. This survey was conducted some five years ago but there is no reason to believe that living conditions in slums has improved in the mean time.

These figures were, however, drowned in the glory of 8% GDP growth. The government left them to survive on trickling down effect of high economic growth. In fact, the amount of funds provided by the government under National Slum Development Programme (NSDP) has increased by just Rs 230 crore in last five years. The amount released under this scheme has increased from Rs 385 crore in 1999-00 to Rs 614 crore in 2004-05. In fact, a year ago in 2003-04, a sum of only Rs 335 crore was released under this scheme —less than that of 1999-00.

The NSDP scheme has been discontinued since 2005-06 and in its place a new scheme, Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission has been launched in December, 2006. A lot of good things have been promised including improved housing, water supply and sanitation for urban poor under these schemes.

The living conditions in slum has, however, worsened further on the mounting pressure of new entrants as the housing shortage in urban areas has galloped over the years. According to data provided by National Buildings Organisation, aggregate housing shortage in the country has increased by 134% during the last six years from 10.56 million units in 2001 to 24.71 million units in 2007. The number of urban households during this period has increased by 11.5 million. Many of them found their ways to slums for shelter.

Predictably, Maharashtra which has the largest urban population has suffered most. The housing shortage in urban Maharashtra was estimated at 3.72 million units in 2007 — up by nearly three times from 1.34 million units in 2001. Tamil Nadu has the second-largest housing shortage at 2.82 million units in 2007 followed by Uttar Pradesh with 2.38 million units and West Bengal with 2.04 million units. Not surprising. For, while the demand for dwelling units is rising sharply following increase in number of households, the growth of construction of houses has lagged behind.

Take for example, the construction of houses for economically weaker sections; a huge 1.14 lakh dwelling units were targeted to be constructed in 2006-07 but only 22,960 units were constructed up to August 2006. That is, only about a fifth of the target was achieved during the first five months.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Indicator

India bad example of agri liberalisation

In 2006 , 1,044 suicides were reported in Vidarbha alone officially – that’s one suicide every eight hours. “This is a human rights violation.It’s a mass genocide of farmers.”..says farm activist Kishor Tiwari.

A noted Indian economist recently warned of a negative impact of liberalisation of agriculture on Bangladeshi farmers, saying the acute problems now being experienced in rural India could be repeated here.

Utsa Patnaik, professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University of India, said economic liberalisation and reforms had exposed Indian farmers to intolerable burdens that had led to sharp increases in the number of farmer suicides. In India, more than 100,000 rural farmers had committed suicide since 1998, she said.

According to Patnaik, liberalisation leads farmers to shift from food production to export-oriented crop production. However the prices of such export-oriented products in international markets are declining gradually, she said.
Patnaik was outlining the impact of liberalisation on the agriculture sector in her country during a lecture titled 'Whither Agrarian Development Under Neo-liberalism' at Dhaka University campus yesterday. Department of Economics of the Dhaka University and Unnayan Onneshan, a local centre for research and action on development, jointly organised the lecture.

The professor said along with India many other Asian countries are being targeted for economic reforms and liberalisation by the international financial organisations including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB).
The IMF and WB prescriptions to these countries include cutting government expenditure, tightening monetary policy, the devaluation of local currencies and reducing the ratio of budget deficit to GDP, she said.

These moves are forcing the countries to take contractionary macro-economic policies, which are basically "nonsensical theories" of the IMF and WB, she said.

She said the high growth of the Indian economy is based on the country's service sector. The contribution of the service sector in the Indian economy is more than 50 percent, while the contribution of agriculture came down to only 20 percent after the liberalisation.

Liberalisation has meant the Indian economy has witnessed less than 1 percent employment growth, while the unemployment growth is growing very fast. In 1980s, employment growth was 2.8 percent, which came down to 0.7 percent in 1990s, Patnaik said.

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=914

Rebels seize guns from Philippine police station

MANILA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Communist rebels wearing army uniforms walked into a police station in the southern Philippines on Wednesday and left with 11 assault rifles and handguns, officials said.

Around 20 members of the New People's Army (NPA) emptied San Isidro's police station, which was located inside the town hall, at around noon without firing a shot.

"They came in two vans pretending to turn over a captured rebel," Eleuterio Quilisadio, police chief in the southern province of Davao Oriental, told reporters.
"But once inside the town hall, they disarmed all police officers and emptied the town's armoury of weapons, bullets and supplies."
The rebels also raided a nearby mango plantation, taking two more guns from security guards, police said.

It was the second NPA raid in the area since April when guerrillas seized 114 weapons from a prison.

Since 1969, the 7,000-member NPA has been fighting a protracted guerrilla warfare in 69 of 81 provinces in the mainly Roman Catholic country.
The communist insurgency, one of the longest-running Maoist rebellions in Asia, has killed more than 40,000 people.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews

Truth Unmasked

India's Ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen about Indian Parliamentarian....

''running round like headless chicken..''

Security at what cost?

Martin Luther King, Jr. once told
"Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?"...once again time has come to ask ourselves what are we doing for Dr. Binayak Sen...?


Garimella Subramaniam

Chhattisgarh’s Special Public Security Act under fire

Chhattisgarh’s champion of rural public health and civil liberties, Binayak Sen, has been incarcerated in Raipur’s Central Jail for over three months. His detention under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) 2005 brings into focus the government’s dangerous strategy of countering Maoist insurgency with state-sponsored private armed militias, with grave implications for the exercise of fundamental rights.

The immediate provocation for the judicial remand of this medical missionary, of no religious denomination, on May 14 was the campaign he led to spotlight the killing last March of seven adivasis in Bastar. But the arrest is part of a pattern of repression by the Raman Singh government to quell democratic opposition to plans for large scale acquisition of the mineral-rich tribal land.

No incriminating evidence

It took the police over two months and repeated adjournments from the courts to file a charge sheet. Even so, the voluminous document fails to provide any incriminating evidence against Dr. Sen. Allusion to his many authorised visits to the jail to counsel undertrials — in his capacity as State general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties — is a case in point. The High Court, while rejecting the police demand for remanding Dr. Sen to the custody of the investigating agencies, denied him bail.

The Salwa Judum, a voluntary association of land-owners and contractors backed by the state, has, since 2005, unleashed a reign of terror. Thousands of adivasis have been removed from more than 600 villages in Dantewada district alone. The National Commission for Women and other independent fact-finding teams have highlighted the atrocities committed by Salwa Judum, including assaults on and killing of women, torching of houses, and extortion of illegal levy from passing vehicles.

A public interest litigation filed in this connection has alleged a complete breakdown of the civil administration and sought the Supreme Court’s intervention for the restoration of the rule of law. Eminent personalities, including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, renowned social critic Noam Chomsky, and Booker-Prize winning author Arundhati Roy, have rallied behind Dr. Sen.

Dr. Sen has for three decades been at the forefront of unravelling the connections between endemic poverty, disease, food security, and macro-economic policies. Elements of the alternative model he pioneered include advocacy of oral medication over intra-muscular injections, a validated mechanism for timely diagnosis of malaria and tuberculosis, and supply of low-cost medicines. This distinguished alumnus of the Christian Medical College, Vellore, served on the official committee for the ‘Mitanin’ programme to train 60,000 women health workers, launched by the previous Ajit Jogi government.

Recent events are a fallout of the overtly political character of Dr. Sen’s social activism. For example, he challenged the CSPSA even before it received presidential assent. The High Court dismissed his petition; but to him, that outcome only underlined the need to raise public awareness about the arbitrary law.

The State can, for instance, declare any organisation as unlawful without specifying reasons and slap a three-year sentence on its members. It can dub routine acts of free expression and association as unlawful activities and pronounce a seven-year imprisonment on those that it disapproves of. As the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative points out, the two-year sentence under the CSPSA for protecting members of an unlawful organisation can be used to harass persons who are forced to shelter to armed groups.

Political parties of the Left and democratic mainstream, including the Congress and the Communist parties, have called for the Chhattisgarh law to be scrapped and, by implication, for Dr. Sen’s release.

The Hindu

Naxal plans for Bombay at nascent stage

It's propaganda by the mainstream media that naxalite works in the forests and speaks for the tribal cause only, but the some recent news reveals some different truth

Interrogations of a senior captured Naxalite indicate that the gang is taking preliminary steps to establish a presence in the city.Senior police officers believe that the Naxals are attempting to gain a foothold in the city. The officers formed
this opinion in the wake of the arrest of two Naxalites in Bombay.

"Sridhar Krishnan alias Vishnu was incharge of the Naxalite movement in the state. He was also among the top 10 Naxalite policy makers at the central level in the country. We are now investigating to try to understand their method of operations. During the preliminary stage of our investigations we have not come across any dangerous and any major movements. Thus it can be assumed that they were at the very preliminary stage of their operations in the city," a top official from the ATS informed this paper.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Police along with the ATS arrested K.D. Rao, a lawyer of the Bombay High Court outside the YMCA Hostel near Colaba on Monday night. He was charged under several cases including some where Naxalites were involved. The ATS produced Rao before the Additional Magistrate's court at Mazgaon, who later handed over Rao to the Andhra Pradesh police.

Andhra police officials informed that the advocate, K. D. Rao, was arrested for a case involving a policeman's murder at Vijaynagar. In September 2001, Rao along with other Naxals had killed
police Inspector Gandhi, informed police officials.

Shahid Azmi, Rao's advocate said, "There are allegations against Rao that he had murdered an officer and led a mob of 30 Naxals in the court." When he was produced before the Additional Magistrate's court, Rao said that he feared that the Andhra Police wanted his custody to kill him en route to Andhra Pradesh.
His lawyer also expressed similar fears. Shahid Azmi said, "The Andhra Pradesh police has a history of not producing the accused in the court. They are normally killed enroute to Andhra Pradesh."

The court took note of Rao's apprehension and asked police inspector V. Vijaykumar of the Vijaynagar rural police station to ensure the safety of the accused. The court also directed Vijaykumar to present Rao before the Vijaynagar District Court on August 24.

Azmi said that the Andhra Pradesh Police have given an undertaking to the court that they will not misbehave with Rao. Rao's case is expected to come up for hearing in the Vijaynagar Court on August 24. Azmi informed that Rao used to practice as a lawyer in Andhra Pradesh during the 1980s. He moved to Bombay some five years back, becoming a member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa about two years ago


http://www.cybernoon.com

Shakesphere quote

All the world's a stage, and all the men and
women merely players: they have their exits and
their entrances - William Shakesphere

Please welcome Avik

Comrades last few days the posting is being done
by Comrade Avik
You may have noticed subtle differences.

He will hopefully continue to post for a
long time to come.

Several anonymous people had volunteered
to post on this blog after I has made a request
a couple of weeks ago..
But for now we do not need your help

We will get in touch with you again
if we need your help.

HC dismisses Naxal's torture plea(Arun Ferreira's case)

"Strange how blind people are! They are horrified by the torture chambers of the Middle Ages, but their arsenals fill them with pride!"

-- Bertha Von Suttner



NAGPUR: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Tuesday dismissed dreaded(WTF ?) outlaw Arun Ferreira's alias Sanjay Choudhary's petition alleging mental and physical torture by the police of four states - Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Earlier too, a division bench comprising justices D D Sinha and Bhushan Dharmadhikari dismissed dreaded naxal Murli alias Ashok Satyam Reddy's similar plea. Both petitions were dismissed on ground of lack of evidence from the side of petitioners. Murli and Ferreira were arrested by the Nagpur police along with two others - Dhananjay alias Dhannu Burle and Naresh Bansod - at Deekshabhoomi on May 8. In his petition, Ferreira said that during his stay at Amgaon lock-up, he was severely beaten up by the police along with intelligence bureau officials. He alleged that he was threatened by the police personnel that if his wife Jennifer, who is believed to be a Maoist sympathiser, would be arrested if she comes to Nagpur and his counsel Surendra Gadling would be implicated for defending naxals.

Murli had alleged that 30ml petrol was pumped into his rectum using a syringe while he was in custody at the Amgaon police station. As a result, he was under severe pain and bled while attending nature's call. To add to woes, the cops had not allowed him to sleep for six days on the trot under pretext of interrogation, Murli had claimed. However, all his claims fell flat when his endoscopy and colonoscopy test results revealed that he was suffering from piles and no apparent signs of torture as claimed by him were found in the test.

The policemen came under a barrage of allegations from the two outlaws. The accused duo claimed that they were threatened by the police that they will be subjected to slow poisoning with the help of some unknown chemical. Ferreira, who, according to the police worked as sales agent for a leading pharmaceutical company, claimed that he was being threatened by the Chhattisgarh police of making him 'infertile' by placing ice cubes in his under garments. The outlaws also complained of lack of medical aid from the doctors.

Advocate Anand Deshpande appeared for the state government.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Forest dwellers demand more rights over forests

New Delhi : Dozens of activists travelled from unknown hamlets deep inside forests all over India to the nation's capital Tuesday to press their demand for more rights over their own lives.

Brought together by the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, the forest dwellers demanded changes in the rules notified by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs after the passage of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act in 2006.

They also demanded implementation of the law after the changes they wanted - mainly formation of empowered and representative committees in every village.

The act was passed Dec 18, 2006. There was a long hiatus before the ministry published a series of draft rules June 19 to make the act operational, and gave the public 45 days to suggest changes to the rules.

The suggestions have been given, the period is over, and there is no further move from the ministry, according to Pradip Prabhu, convenor of the campaign.

The representatives of voluntary groups and community organisations who gathered at the Indian Social Institute here Tuesday accused the government of "sabotaging the act" by rejecting the recommendation of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) and saying that the panchayat (village council) would decide who would have the right to farm land inside a forest and collect minor forest produce.

Since most villages located inside forests were very small, a panchayat took in a large number of villagers, Prabhu pointed out. In effect, this meant that most villagers would not be able to attend panchayat meetings and argue for their rights. The activists demanded that the gram sabhas - committees that would decide on the rights of individuals - be constituted at the village and even hamlet level.

The activists were also very upset because the June 19 notification takes away from the gram sabha the right to decide if a government agency or a private firm can exploit forest resources. They demanded that the "power to protect its forests" be given back to the gram sabha and that the "consent of the community be required" before there was any "interference" in a forest.

Prabhu said despite the assurances of the government, there was no sign that forest dwellers who did not belong to any scheduled tribe would get any right. On the other hand, the government had rejected the demand that "people who mainly use hired labour" should not be considered forest dwellers. He demanded that the gram sabha be involved in deciding who was a forest dweller.

The activists also demanded that the consent of the gram sabha be mandatory for resettlement and rehabilitation of any forest dweller who lost his home because a forest was declared a wildlife reserve.

According to Prabhu, forest dwellers should be allowed to take minor forest produce to a market of their choice, and not to the nearest village or collection point as envisaged by the government. He also demanded that forest dwellers and women be made members of the gram sabha.

The activists felt that in the absence of more rights for local people was a major reason why Maoists had made deep inroads into the forested parts of India and that the reaction of the state - by forming the salwa judum militia by the Chhattisgarh government, for example - had only worsened the situation. They demanded the withdrawal of the salwa judum initiative.

Prabhu was apprehensive that the government wanted to privatise forests in the guise of creating carbon sinks that would offset global warming. "This threatens the survival of both the forest and her people," he said. "Such moves are fraught with dangers - ecologically, socially and politically."

CPIM leader expelled for molestation

Another face of CPIM...

BURDWAN, Aug 21: A CPIM leader was expelled from the party today after charges of molesting a tribal woman was brought against him. The leader was hauled to a tribal court on the outskirts of a village about 30 km from Burdwan town. The incident occurred on 19 August.

A case against Mr Diger however is still pending at the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court, Burdwan. A widow of the same Horipur village has alleged had Diger had attempted rape on her on 27 September 2006. The woman, secretary of a Self Help Group backed by the CPI-M had sought judicial help but the case is still pending.
Mr Shyam Pal, zonal secretary of the party said: “He has been removed on charges of financial corruption.” He reserved comment on verdict by the tribal court against Mr Diger.

http://www.thestatesman.ne

INTERVIEW WITH PRACHANDA

What are the planning Maoists have, after their Fifth Plenum? What will be the future of the CA polls? What policy will the Maoists embrace towards India? And how far will the Maoist-SPA alliance go? Maoist Chairman Prachanda spoke on these and various other contemporary issues in an exclusive interview with Nepal magazine recently. Excerpts of the interview.

Q. Your Fifth Plenum (extended meeting) drew much attention. What was so special about it?


Prachanda: The difference between the political circumstances during the earlier four extended meetings and this year’s meeting is the specialty. The earlier extended meetings were held during wartime, for the preparations of the war. This year, the extended meeting took place in a completely new environment of the ongoing peace process and at a time when we, too, are a part of the government.


Secondly, when we entered into the peace process from the process of the People’s War, it was but obvious that several questions would be raised from within and outside the party. The Fifth Plenum has answered all such questions and brought about uniformity in understanding.


Q. What does uniformity in understanding mean?


Prachanda: Transforming a country by addressing the class, caste, regional and gender issues in the transitional phase in a peaceful manner and being a part of the government to hold a Constituent Assembly election are rare experiments in communist movements. Our party has transformed the people’s war into strategic defense, balance, and then strategic retaliation and then ultimately into the peace process, which is a novel experiment in itself. Therefore, this process would obviously have given rise to several questions from within and outside the party. Whether this process will lead us to success or surrender? Such questions had been raised very naturally. We had to answer such questions. And, understanding the fact that the path we have chosen to bring about social and revolutionary changes in a novel way by analyzing all the revolutions and counter-revolutions of the 20th Century is what we call the uniformity in understanding.


Q. We heard that your party rank and file came down heavily on you, that internal differences were spilled over, and that three lines conspicuously surfaced in the fifth plenum. What is the truth?


Prachanda: This is utter nonsense that I was heavily attacked. Had it been so, it would have been impossible to get the 2200 representatives of the plenum united again at the end. Definitely, the honest revolutionists were gravely concerned whether the party would deviate (from its original path). Because of such concerns, several questions were raised. What about security when the central leaders congregate in Kathmandu? Would the follow the path of deviation like the CPN-UML while staying in Kathmandu and enjoying vehicle ride? It’s true that concerns such as these were raised. But it was more than clear that they had a huge confidence in the leadership.


As far as the three different lines are concerned, they exist in all parties: Rightist, extremist and the middle-path. We represent a revolutionary line. I did not write Prachanda Path in the document of the plenum. But no one said Prachanda Path was the main line and should not be left out. This also helps to understand the line and debates of the party’s extended meeting.


Q. Your earlier documents used to attack directly; this time around you have said many things vaguely. Why?


Prachanda: The language we used when we were in Rolpa and the one we have to use while in Kathmandu has to be inevitably different. The language used while in one’s own base area and the language that is used while in the White Area cannot be the same.


Q. Do you still consider Kathmandu a ‘White Area’?


Prachanda: Yes, because Kathmandu still does not belong to the people.


Q. You often mention the phrase ‘a new or a novel experiment’. What is this experiment for-- for a revolution or a compromise?


Prachanda: When we talk about a new or a novel experiment, it is for a revolution. Considering the global and national situation and development in science and technology, we have to find a conclusion to push forward the revolution and for that a new and novel experiment is required.


Q. What will that revolution do?


Prachanda: In Nepal’s context it (revolution) will alter the feudal-production relationship or the feudal-property relationship. It will also change the feudal-political relationship and the feudal-cultural relationship. Secondly, it will free Nepal and the Nepali people from the interventions of the foreign imperialists, reactionaries and expansionists.


Q. That means, at a certain point, violence could again take place in the name of revolution?


Prachanda: In one way or the other, each revolution is violent. No matter how peaceful a movement you call it, it always has violence and counter-violence. Secondly, we have felt if we can move forward on the political base formed after our 10 years of people’s war, people can achieve freedom in a peaceful manner as well, and we can constitute a new society. And we are currently engaged in the same experiment. But whether it will always remain peaceful or turn violent again does not depend on us; it depends on our opponents. It depends on the imperialist and feudalist elements which are not yet completely defeated. There is a possibility that they could use violence against the people once again. In that case, the people will have to retaliate against them. At that point, the revolution could again turn violent.


Q. So, there still remains a final confrontation, no?


Prachanda: It can be understood that way. If the process we have embraced after the 12-point understanding and other agreements is obstructed and if the people are not given an amicable atmosphere to express their mandate in a peaceful way and if violence is again used against the people, then a final battle can take place.


Q. There have been allegations that it’s you who have been committing violence and excesses through the Young Communist League (YCL).


Prachanda: Some media houses that believe in reactionary violence are engaged in this propaganda. This is not the truth. If you go to the bottom of each such incident, then you will realize that these incidents have taken place in retaliation to the ruling mindset of the ruling class.


Q. You are in the government. Then aren’t you, too, among the rulers?


Prachanda: If one looks at the outer structure (of the government), one can say so. But, in essence, we joined the government just for the sake of the Constituent Assembly polls. We are not the whole-sole in-charge of the power. Power and government are not the same thing. And again, when we joined the government, we were told that it would be run on consensus, which is not happening. If it continues this way, the relevance of us staying in the government will be over.


Q. So, when are you quitting the government?


Prachanda: Our ministers are giving an ultimatum today. Then, it will depend on how the government leadership takes the issue and how it is discussed in the eight-party. It will be sorted out in a few days.


Q. People still have doubts about the CA polls; will the election take place on the said date?


Prachanda: It should. But looking at the preparations made by the government leadership and its modus operandi, we have serious doubts about the polls taking place on November 22. Holding the elections without creating certain essential conditions will not fulfill the people’s aspirations. For example, all the agreements reached so far must be implemented in a proper way. Above all, all the groups, including those in Madhes, which are creating troubles, must be controlled.
Since the Gaur carnage, our more than 50 cadres have been killed. But no action has been taken against the guilty. They are walking free. In such a situation, how can one believe that the government can hold the elections in a proper manner? How can we believe? We have already said that India does have a role in one way or the other in creating unrest in Terai, especially the Hindu extremist groups of India are creating troubles in Terai. The government’s failure to control this has given rise to misgivings about the possibility of elections. Besides, feudal royal and other reactionary forces are also trying to thwart the elections. Therefore, we have been saying that an environment for the elections can be created only by declaring the country a republic before the polls.


Q. It is said that you yourself don’t want the elections because your (party’s) popularity has gone down lately.


Prachanda: There is no reason to doubt us as far as the elections are concerned because thousands of our fighters sacrificed their lives for the CA polls. We cannot be against the polls. Yes, we do feel that we might lose; it’s because the feudalists in the country and imperialists- reactionary forces are hatching conspiracies and trying to marginalize us. Despite that, we are not going to deviate from the election front. We have already formed a high-level committee to write an election manifesto. We will soon announce our first list of the candidates in the preliminary level.


Q. There have been allegations that you are complicating the already sorted out issues like a republican set up and proportional electoral system to obstruct the elections.


Prachanda: When it was decided that the CA polls would not take place on June 20, we wrote a note of dissent that the CA polls would not happen unless the country is declared a republic. After we pitched the republican voice high, parliament amended the interim constitution incorporating a provision that it could remove the king with a two-thirds majority. In this circumstance, how can it be said that we are against the polls. This (republican set up) is our old demand.
As far as the proportional electoral system is concerned, this is what we have always believed in. We had compromised thinking that the elections would be held within June and also because the Nepali Congress did not accept the demand for a fully proportional system. But, we were unable to clarify ‘the compromise’ before the people. We admitted in our fifth plenum that this was a mistake and we clearly put forth that the proportional electoral system is our belief. But we have not said that we will shy away from the elections if the country does not adopt the proportional electoral system. In this situation, how are we obstructing the elections?


Q. On the question of a republic?


Prachanda: Our party has decided that a republican set up is a must. We have already announced that we will run campaigns for the republican set up. However, we will not shy away from the elections if that does not happen.


Q. Is your relation with Prime Minister Koirala thawing?


Prachanda: I won’t call it thawing… But the truth is there is a contradiction in the way the political developments are taking place and the way the Nepali Congress is working. Girija Prasad Koirala and other leaders who, during the people’s war, told us what we did – attacking the headquarters or targeting the choppers – was alright, now act in a way as if they want us go back when we are in the peace process and in the government. We doubt that Koirala is going to have a huge regressive and bourgeois change.


Q. What will be the status of the Koirala government if, in case, the elections don’t take place?


Prachanda: There won’t be the Koirala government if elections don’t take place. Not only will Koirala’s government go, the country will face a huge disaster.


Q. What kind of disaster?


Prachanda: The country will be caught in a complex civil war if the CA polls are not held in proper manner.


Q. Civil war?


Prachanda: Yes, a civil war. The series of events have shown that. At that time the scale of international forces’ intervention will be very large. Many people even indicate Nepal’s fate as that of Afghanistan and Iraq. But not Iraq or Afghanistan, Nepal could turn into a Vietnam of the 21st century. This means, there is a possibility that the Nepali people will once again have to revolt against international intervention. What I believe is, if the peace process does not move forward in a proper manner, yet another people’s revolt is a must.


Q. Are you in a position to organize that sort of people’s revolt?


Prachanda: The people of Nepal have to do that. We, on our part, could of course try to lead the revolt.


Q. But, how much possibility is there of deferring the polls to Baisakh (mid-April to mid-May) through an agreement by amending the constitution?


Prachanda: I don’t think so. It does not happen every time. There won’t be any situation where the Nepali people will tolerate the postponement of polls time and again.


Q. That means, if polls don’t happen in November, there is no possibility of polls at all in the near future?


Prachanda: I think it won’t be wrong to draw such a conclusion.


Q. For what the people’s revolt you are talking about?


Prachanda: Firstly, it is for holding of the polls. If that could not happen, it is for transferring all the power to the people.


Q. Power in the people’s hands means power in your hands?


Prachanda: Power in our hands means power in the hands of those who represent the people


Q. When are you launching your people’s revolt?


Prachanda: The process has already begun. Our comrades who are ministers have outlined certain points and given an ultimatum to quit the government if those points are not met. This itself is the beginning of the revolt.


Q. What will be the eight-party equation if the elections do not take place?


Prachanda: I doubt that the coalition will remain intact if the elections do not take place. Either the eight parties will again launch a fresh movement or some of the parties will join hands with the reactionary forces and some will reach out to the people.


Q. What will be the role of the PLA in the revolt?


Prachanda: The PLA cannot be used in course of the people’s movement. But, anything can happen if a situation arises wherein the country heads towards the people’s revolt. The PLA may not remain inside the ‘cantonments’. It will come out.


Q. What will happen to the UN monitoring/ supervision process if the election does not take place on the scheduled date?


Prachanda: The agreement was for nearly one year. If the election does not take place within that period then the UN’s role would come to an end. There will be no need of the UN to stay here.


Q. Let’s change the context. You claim that there is a conspiracy against you in the Terai. Where was that conspiracy hatched?


Prachanda: The problem in Terai is of a serious nature. It is not true that the Hindu extremists alone are behind it as we had been mentioning sometimes. When we sealed an agreement for the Constituent Assembly elections, representatives of the United States went to Madhes to instigate (the people) against us. America has tried to marginalise the Maoists in Madhes. Secondly, the expansionist faction of the Indian ruling class is also conducting planned activities. Thirdly, the feudal-landlord class, which was earlier displaced from Terai, is also involved for revenge. Fourthly, influence of the parliamentary parties was almost non-existent in Terai. They are also taking it as a chance to reduce the Maoist influence there. All these groups have united against the Maoists. And, the dacoits, murderers and criminals, who were chased away by our activists, have also organized themselves. Therefore, the Madhes problem is multidimensional.


Q. Haven’t you talked to the Indian side about the Madhes affairs?


Prachanda: We have been holding discussions. I have been raising the issue with the Indian ambassador—i. e. with the officials working in Delhi. If India had wanted then this kind of mayhem could have been definitely averted. Now they say that such activities are taking place due to the open border. But, there is no ground to easily accept that. It seems to be part of a strategy to sabotage Nepal’s revolutionary movement. Secondly, the general public in Nepal knows that a big ‘design’ of the Indian ruling class to expand its influence in Nepal-- particularly in Madhes-- has been in play. We have been countering this.


Q. What is your India policy now?


Prachanda: We had raised nationalism as the main agenda when we launched the people’s war. In the latter phase, when our responsible friends were getting arrested in India, and the Indian interventions increased, we started our preparations to fight against India. We discussed about a tunnel war with India. I had prepared a document after studying the tunnel warfare of the Vietnam War.


It is an open secret that we wanted to hold talks with the royalists before ‘February 1’. Our policy on nationalism and threats from India remains the same if the issues of the tunnel warfare and the talks with Gyanendra are viewed together. However, the February 1 incident badly turned the situation towards an autocracy. It was a newer development than our expectation and analysis. After the advent of the autocracy, we had to go against it. We had to forge a working alliance with the parliamentary parties for that. On top of that, we had to opt for an alliance with the Nepali Congress. And for that, we had to seek Delhi’s support.


Q. Why? What is the relationship between Delhi and the Nepali Congress?


Prachanda: There is a very deep-rooted relationship between Delhi and the Nepali Congress. Is that a secret? Observing the developments since this party was born shows a special relation. For instance, we wanted to strike the 12-point agreement in Rolpa. But, we went to Delhi after Girijababu said he won’t come to Rolpa, and would rather meet us in Delhi. We had a tough time hoodwinking (the Indian authorities) to bring Girijababu to our place. But no matter how much we tried to trick the Indian government, we don’t feel that it was unaware of our meetings. Girijababu had stayed as a guest of the Indian government. That (12-point understanding) took place with the Indian government’s consent. In this way, India did have a role in the signing of the 12-point understanding. In other words, it won’t be otherwise to say that we, too, had some kind of relationship with India through the Nepali Congress.


Q. Now, what does India want from you and what do you want from India?


Prachanda: A relationship of equality. We want the past agreements and treaties (with India) be reviewed appropriately. Also, we want India to help us positively in this transitional period as a neighbour. On the part of India, may be it now wants us to work as per its interest and wish? However, we didn’t work in that way after joining the government. What we feel is India did play a role to marginalize our party’s influence in Terai; it wasn’t good.


Q. What do you feel about Indian Ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee’s recent remarks about the CA elections?


Prachanda: The kind of language he used was very objectionable. That is against the Nepali people and the independence of the Nepali state. It gives a clear hint that India wants to dictate things (in Nepal). It smacks of the tone and language of former US ambassador Moriarty.


Q. Are Nepal’s nationality and sovereignty under threat due to foreigners?


Prachanda: Earlier, when I said the country is heading towards a catastrophe, I also meant to hint at the danger looming on Nepal’s national integrity. The way foreign meddling has been on the rise, if viewed in all contexts, it may pose a danger to Nepal’s independence if all nationalist forces do not stand united. However, I don’t think that danger has already come. The national feeling of the Nepali people is very strong. The Nepali people are always ready to make any kind of sacrifice for the country’s independence. Nevertheless, there are indications that do hint at huge conspiracies being hatched against Nepal’s national integrity and national independence.

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Chronology of the Persecution of Prof. Jose Maria Sison by the Philippine, US and Dutch governments

CHRONOLOGY OF THE PERSECUTION OF PROF. JOSE MARIA SISON

BY THE PHILIPPINE, US AND DUTCH GOVERNMENTS

Issued by the International DEFEND Committee



Since his release from military detention and the nullification of subversion and rebellion charges against him in 1986 after the fall of the Marcos fascist dictatorship, Prof. Jose Maria Sison has been subjected to a series of false and politically motivated charges in 1988, 1991, 2003 and 2006. One after the other, these charges have been dismissed and nullified by Philippine courts in 1992, 1994 and 2007. Thus, they have been proven as malicious and pure fabrications of the Philippine military, police and intelligence authorities.

But the Philippine, US and Dutch governments have used the false charges to persecute Prof. Sison. The trumped-up charges of subversion in 1988 and multiple murder in 1991 and the charges of subversion and rebellion nullified in 1986 have been used by the Dutch government to prevent the legal admission as refugee and residence of Prof. Sison in The Netherlands. Even the most unfounded propaganda attacks from the time of Marcos to 2006, which never materialized into formal complaints, have been used by the Philippine, US and Dutch governments to malign him as a “terrorist.” These governments do so even as Philippine prosecutors and courts dismiss and nullify the formal complaints and charges.

Under the Marcos fascist dictatorship, the Philippine government subjected Prof. Jose Maria Sison to arbitrary detention from 1977 to 1986 and to various forms of physical and mental torture, including water cure, punching, more than five years of solitary confinement, prolonged deprivation of basic necessities as well as medical and dental care and repeated death threats. He was arrested and detained without judicial warrant and was charged before two military commissions for subversion and rebellion. He was thus put in jeopardy of being punished twice for the same alleged offense of seeking to overthrow the Philippine government.

After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, the Aquino regime released Prof. Sison from military detention on March 5, 1986. The two charges of subversion and rebellion against him were nullified through the dissolution of the military commissions as organs of repression. He joined the faculty of the Asian Studies Center of the state institution, the University of the Philippines in April 1986. From September 1986 onwards, he went on a tour for a series of university lectures and solidarity speeches in Oceania, Asia and Europe on the situation and prospects of the Philippines. The Philippine military authorities publicly attacked his lectures and pressured the Aquino regime to cancel his Philippine passport. They trumped up a new charge of subversion against him in September 1988. This became the basis for the cancellation of his Philippine passport.

After the arbitrary cancellation of his passport, Prof. Sison applied for political asylum in The Netherlands in October 1988. The Dutch Ministry of Justice used the false charge of subversion and related false claims against him from the Philippine government as the basis for issuing a negative decision on his asylum application in July 1990. The US State Department admitted publicly that the Philippine government intervened in the asylum case in order to oppose it. But the highest administrative court, the Judicial Department of the Council of State (Raad van State), made a judgment in 1992 annulling the unfavorable decision of the Dutch Ministry of Justice. It recognized Prof. Sison as a political refugee and criticized the ministry for using secret intelligence dossiers against him in contravention of the principle of fair administration and for delaying for more than four years the approval of his asylum application.

Despite the 1992 judgment of the Council of State, the Dutch Ministry of Justice refused to grant asylum to Prof. Sison. It also ignored the repeal of the Anti-Subversion Law by the Philippine government in 1992 and the consequent dismissal of the charge of subversion against Prof. Sison by the Pasig city court and the related nullification of the specifications against him. It likewise disregarded the resolution of the Manila city prosecutors in April 1994 dismissing as something based on pure speculation the 1991 complaint of multiple murder arising from the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971. It continued to use the false charges against Prof. Sison and argue that to grant him asylum would run counter to the commitment and credibility of the Dutch state to its allies. Further, it cited raw intelligence dossiers to fabricate the claim that he is in contact with “terrorist” organizations. It was thus already using the “terrorist” label against him as early as in the years from 1990 to 1994.

In response to the new appeal of Prof. Sison in 1993, the Council of State, as the highest administrative court, issued in 1995 the judgment reaffirming its previous ruling that he is a political refugee under Article 1 A of the Refugee Convention and that he is under the protection of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It ruled that Article 1 F of the Refugee Convention did not apply on him because there was no sufficient evidence against him for crimes that would exclude him from consideration as a refugee. It directed the Dutch Ministry of Justice to grant him legal admission as refugee and residence permit if there was no other country to which he could transfer without violating the Refugee Convention and without putting him at risk of ill treatment prohibited by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. But the Dutch Ministry of Justice ignored the judgment of the Council of State and continued to refuse him legal admission as refugee and the permit to reside in The Netherlands.

Prof. Sison appealed to the newly-created Aliens Court in 1996 against the refusal of the Dutch justice ministry to grant him asylum. The court ordered the Dutch government to make a new decision. The Dutch government ultimately took the position before the Law Unification Chamber (REK, Rechtseenheidkamer) that it had the freedom of policy or discretion to refuse to Prof. Sison legal admission as a refugee and not to give him residence permit but to cease and desist from expelling him from The Netherlands in order to avoid the violation of the principle of nonrefoulement in Article 33 of the Refugee Convention and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Being dependent on justice ministry personnel, funds and facilities, the REK upheld the position of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and dignified the brazen lie that Prof. Sison was liable for the false accusations of the Philippine government and for “contacts with terrorist organizations” on the basis of intelligence dossiers already examined and evaluated by the Raad van State in 1992 and 1995. It ran counter to the 1992 and 1995 judgments of the Raad van State, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in the Chahal case, the dismissal of all charges against Prof. Sison in the Philippines from 1992 to 1994 and the total absence of any criminal charge against him abroad.

In April 1998 the justice secretary of the Philippine government issued an official certification declaring that there was no pending criminal charge against Prof. Sison and referred to the 1992 nullification and 1993 dismissal of the 1988 charge of subversion as well as the 1994 dismissal of the 1991 charge of multiple murder related to the Plaza Miranda bombing. From 1994 to 2003, the Philippine government, including the military and police authorities, took a rest from filing any formal criminal complaint against Prof. Sison. The Philippine military authorities merely hurled propaganda attacks against him, despite the fact that the Philippine government had already requested the US government in November 2001 to designate Prof. Sison as a “terrorist”. It was only in 2003 that they submitted to the Department of Justice a complaint against him for the June 2001 killing of the intelligence officer Col. Rodolfo Aquinaldo. The Filipino lawyers of Prof. Sison succeeded in having the complaint archived because of its patent falsity and political motivation and because of the lack of Philippine jurisdiction over him in the light of Philippine and international law.

The US government designated Prof. Sison as a “terrorist” on August 12, 2002 and the Dutch government followed suit within 24 hours on August 13, 2002 despite the completely clean legal status of Prof. Sison, despite the absence of any specific act of terrorism that can be ascribed to him, despite the absence of any kind of criminal charge or investigation involving him and despite the Hernandez doctrine in Philippine jurisprudence concerning political offenses and the absence then of any anti-terrorism law in the Philippines. The “terrorist” blacklisting of Prof. Sison by the US and other governments has placed him in a position worse than that of a convicted murderer. He is prohibited from gainful employment. He is deprived of his social benefits, including living allowance, housing, medical insurance, civil liability insurance and old age pension. His bank account is frozen. He is prevented from receiving royalty payments for the publication of his books. He is preempted from receiving compensation for damages due to him for winning his human rights case against the Marcos regime. His fundamental rights have been violated, including the right to the essential means of human existence, the right to the presumption of innocence, the right to defense, the right to be informed of reasons for the sanctions, the right to judicial protection, the right to private and family life, the right of free movement, the right against slander and defamation and the right to be secure against threats to life and reputation.

Out to please the US and Philippine governments politically, the Dutch government, with the open lobbying of Philippine authorities, pushed the Council of the European Union to blacklist Prof. Sison on October 28, 2002. Two days after the blacklist decision of the Council, the Dutch government repealed its blacklisting of Prof. Sison but persisted in violating his fundamental rights and causing material and moral damage to him by invoking the Council decision. The Dutch and British governments are the main interveners in support of the Council of the European Union in the case filed by Prof. Sison against the Council before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg since February 2003. The Dutch government is the main source of the lies given to the court that (a) Prof. Sison is liable for “terrorism” (and not for rebellion under the Hernandez political offense doctrine of Philippine jurisprudence) for being allegedly the Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and head of the New People’s Army and (b) the 1992 and 1995 judgments of the Dutch Council of State and the 1997 judgment of the REK on his asylum case held Prof. Sison liable for “terrorism” (contrary to the fact that these courts recognized him as a political refugee under Article 1 A of the Refugee Convention and as someone protected by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights).

In 2005 Arroyo and her henchmen in the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security and the Anti-Terrorism Task Force started to escalate false accusations against Prof. Sison in the mass media and pushed military officers to file baseless charges of common crimes (like murder, robbery, kidnapping and the like) against him in connection with incidents ascribed to the New People’s Army in various parts of the Philippines. The campaign of slander was obviously intended to reinforce the “terrorist” blacklisting of Prof. Sison by various foreign governments and to justify the intensified extrajudicial killing, abduction and torture of progressive legal activists. It was also intended to link Prof. Sison to a broad united front of legal political forces striving to lead the people to oust the Arroyo regime for having cheated in the presidential elections of 2004. The filing of criminal charges against Prof. Sison culminated in an omnibus charge of rebellion in April 21, 2006 against him and 50 other people, including underground revolutionary leaders, progressive congressmen and anti-Arroyo military officers. The purported facts of the charge of rebellion covered the entire period, from the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines on December 26, 1968 to the filing of the charge on April 21, 2006 and disregarded the nullification of charges and the amnesty proclamations from 1986 to 1995.

On April 23, 2007 the Council of the European Union sent to Prof. Sison a letter with a one-page statement that repeats the two lies provided by the Dutch government, as mentioned in No. 9 above. On May 22, 2007 he sent a letter of reply and told the Council that the statement of lies had already been presented by the Council to the European Court of First Instance, has been debunked in court and does not amount to a statement of reasons as required of the Council by the court in cases of “terrorist” blacklisting. Then the Council made a new decision on June 28, 2007 blacklisting Prof. Sison on the basis of the aforesaid lies it had made before. This new decision of the Council is obviously intended to serially perpetuate Prof. Sison in the ‘terrorist” blacklist, continually violate his fundamental rights, cause material and moral damage to him and undermine or render useless any favorable judgment of the European Court of First Instance on his case against the Council of the European Union.

The European Court of First Instance issued its judgment on the Sison case on July 11, 2007 annulling the decision of the Council placing him on the “terrorist” list and freezing his financial assets. The annulment is grounded on the Council’s infringement of Prof. Sison’s right to defense, its failure to give a statement of reasons from the second time that it blacklisted him and the violation of his right to judicial protection. The court does not require the Council to pay for the material and moral damages suffered by Prof. Sison due to its decision and fails to mention that the Dutch government has invoked the decision of the Council in order to inflict material and moral damages on him. However, the court requires the Council to pay for the costs of the litigation to the lawyers of Prof. Sison as plaintiff and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as intervener. Insofar as it can be established that the Dutch government has directly inflicted material and moral damages on Prof. Sison, he can take legal action to seek compensation for such damages. But it can be expected that the Dutch government will resort to every legal trickery to evade accountability.

In the meantime, Prof. Sison has won a resounding legal victory in the Philippines. The Philippine Supreme Court issued on July 2, 2007 a judgment nullifying the omnibus charge of rebellion and all the supposed evidence from 1968 to 2006 against Prof. Sison and his 50 other co-accused. In effect, the supposed evidence cannot be used again against all or any of them in any new charge. The solicitor general has publicly admitted that the value of the state’s stock of purported evidence has been wiped out. This is the latest instance when Prof. Sison is cleared of a criminal charge. It previously happened in 1986, 1992, 1994 and 1998. At this moment, the Philippine and foreign governments persecuting Prof. Sison should be at a loss in holding him liable for any criminal offense or any semblance of this. The Philippine government can fabricate a charge of rebellion against Prof. Sison only from the date after April 21, 2006 and a charge of “terrorism” from July 15, 2007 which is the date the Human Security Act of 2007 became effective. However, the Human Security Act of 2007 is now under fire by a broad range of democratic forces, human rights organizations and legal experts in the Philippines and abroad for being patently unconstitutional.

Prof. Sison has won a significant legal victory with the July 11, 2007 judgment of the European Court of First Instance. But he still needs to complete his legal victory by contending with the preemptive June 28, 2008 decision of the Council retaining him in the “terrorist” blacklist and by filing a new application for annulment of said decision insofar as he is concerned. He still has to defend his fundamental rights and demand compensation for the material and moral damages inflicted on him.

We expect that the Philippine, US and Dutch governments will continue to persecute Prof. Jose Maria Sison by using against him their political power and the existing fascist “anti-terrorism” laws and decisions that they have devised in order to justify state terrorism and wars of aggression. We need to continue and intensify both the political and legal struggles of democratic forces and the people of the world in order defend the fundamental rights of Prof. Sison and other victims of the global trend of fascisation and aggressive wars generated by the imperialist powers and their reactionary puppets.

We must struggle to stop immediately the persecution of progressive leaders like Prof. Jose Maria Sison and the suppression of anti-imperialist and democratic forces and peoples fighting for national liberation, greater freedom, social justice, development and world peace!!!

Ruth de Leon

International Coordinator

International DEFEND Committee

Email: defenddemrights@ yahoo.com

Website: www.defendsison. be

Expansion of Red Base in India

while government claims about the slowdown of maosist activity,the truth is something diffrent

ANGUL, Aug 21: The imminent threat to Angul district from Maoist infiltrations now comes from the Parjanga side of Dhenkanal rather than from Rairakhole region of Sambalpur where they are already active.
The police have stepped up surveillance and combing operations to try and check the Maoist movement under the Parjanga police station areas in Dhenkanal.
The Maoists Janashakti group which established their base within about 5,000 square km area of the bordering forest region of Jajpur, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal have reportedly made some inroads into the Mahavir road areas under the Kamakhyanagar police circle .

They were operating in parts of Kankadahad forest areas earlier which witnessed the killing of three forest guards last year. Reliable sources said that the Maoist cadres, taking the advantage of lack of development in this part and of rains have made advances into Chaulijharan, Khajurinalli, Baunsamunda, Karadapal and Phuljhari tribal villages of Mahavirroda area, barely 25 km from Talcher.
The Talcher-Angul industrial belt is critical in terms of power and coal supply and the ultras may set targets here.

DIG Mr Arun Kumar Sarangi holds the view that the ultras had come under intense pressure due to sustained combing operations in Kankadahad forest area and some of them may have sneaked into the adjoining areas under the Mahavir Road outpost of Parjanga police station.

“We are not taking any chance and have launched combing operations in the villages of Mahavir Road area as a precautionary measures, Mr Sarangi said.
He, however, ruled out threat to the Talcher industrial belt from Parjang side of Dhenkanal as the police are keeping a strict vigil on all suspicious movements.
The district administration is taking no chances.

http://www.thestatesman.net

High Court lawyer accused of Naxal links arrested in city

Mumbai, August 21: In a joint operation with the Andhra Pradesh Police, the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the state police on Monday night arrested a lawyer practising in the Bombay High Court for his alleged links with Naxals and involvement in the killing of a police officer six years ago. The police arrested K D Rao outside YMCA hostel near Colaba.

According to Andhra Pradesh Police officials, Rao was arrested for his alleged involvement in the killing of a circle police inspector at Vijaynagar in September 2001. Sources in the ATS said the information about Rao’s presence in the city and his alleged involvement in the police officer’s murder surfaced during the interrogation of Naxal leader Shridhar Srinivasan alias Vishnu, who was arrested by the ATS on Sunday night. Rao used to practise law in Andhra Pradesh in the ’80s, the police said, adding that he moved to Mumbai five to six years back and became a member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa about two years back.

Commenting on the arrest, Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police said, “There was a pending warrant against him which we have executed.” State ATS chief, Additional Director General of Police K P Raghuvanshi, denied Rao’s involvement in any Naxal activities in the state. “We have yet not found him to have been operating in the state but as he was wanted by the Andhra Pradesh Police and we provided all possible help.”

Rao was produced before the Additional Metropolitan Magistrate at Mazgaon where the Andhra Pradesh police obtained his transit remand.
But when presented before the magistrate, Rao expressed apprehension of being killed an encounter by the police. His lawyer Shahid Azmi said, “Andhra Pradesh Police have a history of killing accused arrested from outside the state while being taken back to the respective city. Rao was never named in the FIR. It is an open FIR that does not name any accused. It was an undetected case.”

The court took note of Rao’s apprehension and asked Police Inspector V Vijaykumar of Vijaynagar rural police station-head of the police team from Andhra Pradesh-to ensure the safety of the accused. The court also directed Vijaykumar to present Rao before the Vijaynagar district court on August 24.

http://cities.expressindia.com

5-points against Tata Projects in Bangladesh

While the farmers and indigenous people of India are fighting for their existence, our neighboring country Bangladesh is also under the continuous threat of corporate greediness. We can easily hear the increasing voice of protest in Bangladesh about the Tata investment proposal . Economist S. Nazrul presents why this project will be just another name of corporate exploitation


Economists are famous for making ambiguous, guarded, and qualified statements. However, at times a spade needs to be called a spade. Press reports indicate that the wheels of the government machinery are turning towards an approval of the Tata investment proposal.

This is one such occasion when clear statements need to be made, and here is one statement -- the Tata investment proposal is not good for Bangladesh, and neither the current (unelected) nor the future (elected) government should approve it. Since this is not the place for a detailed and technical discussion, I will present 5-points against the Tata investment proposal in the following blunt manner.

Export of gas in embodied form
The Tata investment proposal is basically a proposal to export Bangladesh's gas in another form. Under this proposal, the gas will be used to produce steel and fertiliser, much of which will be exported to India and other parts of the world.

How can Bangladesh agree to such a proposal when she herself is in dire need of her limited gas reserves to meet current and, in particular, future domestic demand? According to reports, Tata is demanding a 20 year guarantee of gas supply at a concession price.

The Daily Star of May 15 reports that the executive chairman of the Board of Investment (BOI) is advocating Kafco formula as the model to follow in deciding the price at which gas will be supplied to Tata plants.

This is tragic indeed! He should read some of the articles written by Prof. Nurul Islam to know that Kafco has proved, and is proving, a bleeding wound for the government exchequer. Extension of the Kafco formula to Tata will simply increase the bleeding.

The proposed Tata investment is of the predatory type, aimed at taking away the limited amount of non-renewable mineral resource (namely gas and coal) that the country has. It is, therefore, not a good idea.

Very limited employment expansion
The proposed Tata investment will not lead to any sizeable employment expansion, and hence, there will not be any appreciable "trickle down" benefit from this investment. The steel plant, the fertiliser plant, and the power generation plant, are all very capital intensive, employing at best a few thousand people, many of whom will be coming from outside the country.

In a country of 150 million, several thousand jobs will hardly make an impact. Tata investment is not aimed at utilising Bangladesh's renewable and abundant resource, namely the labour force.

The Tata investment is, therefore, entirely different from foreign investments coming to the garments, textile, and other labour-intensive industries (in SEZ and EPZs) which together are creating hundreds of thousands of job for Bangladeshis.

While Bangladesh may welcome foreign investment aimed at utilising the country's renewable resource, labour, it should be equally wary about Tata's predatory proposal. Equating these two types of foreign investments would be a grave mistake for Bangladesh.

Very feeble forward and backward linkages
The Tata investment will benefit Bangladesh very little in terms of forward and backward linkages. The reach and width of the forward linkage is very limited because most of the steel and gas produced will actually be exported to India and other destinations.

There is not much of backward linkage either. All the machineries for the plants will basically come from outside. There will be very little input demand to be met from Bangladesh's domestic sources, other than, of course, gas and coal.

So, instead of providing a big boost to the entire economy, the Tata plants will remain as an enclave without much of a link with the rest of the economy, an enclave whose main purpose will be to siphon away the country's mineral energy resources.

Wrong industrial structure
Tata investment will be a step toward a wrong industrial structure in Bangladesh. The other day even Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lamented India's oligopolistic and government patronage-dependent industrial structure (see The Daily Star of May 14). Being one of the largest industrial houses of India, Tata is the pre-eminent member of this oligarchy.

When India herself is regretting, it will be a grave mistake on the part of Bangladesh to gravitate toward an oligarchic industrial structure by approving the Tata investment proposal.

In the case of Bangladesh, the damage will be all the greater because Tata is a foreign entity. If allowed to go ahead, Tata investment will lead to a lopsided industrial structure dominated by a foreign giant.

This is exactly the kind of industrial structure that Bangladesh should avoid. Bangladesh may, instead, follow Taiwan's example of fostering a non-oligarchic industrial structure populated by numerous small and medium sized plants and companies.

Taiwan's non-oligarchic and more competitive industrial structure has served her well, as the comparative experiences of Taiwan and Korea in the face of the Asian financial crisis at the end of the 1990s amply demonstrated.

While the chaebols-dominated Korean economy plunged into a deep recession, Taiwan was hardly affected by the crisis. Chaebols were oligarchic and dependent on government patronage, exactly the characteristics of the proposed Tata investment.

In the case of Korea, at least the chaebols were national companies. In case of Bangladesh, Tata is a foreign company.

Worrisome influence on the nation's body politic
The final point arises from the fact that, in many respects, Bangladesh is still a weak state. This state already finds it difficult to withstand the predatory onslaughts of domestic capitalists.

It will find it even more difficult to withstand the influence and pressure of a giant like Tata, which will in general enjoy the support and sympathy of the state of India. In fact, the commercial interest of Tata may emerge as an additional complication in the good neighbourly relationship between Bangladesh and India.

Having occupied a significant industrial and physical space inside the country, the company will be in a position to exert considerable influence on the state and body politic of this nation, and it is difficult to be sure that this influence will always be beneficial.

The way Tata is trying to get its investment proposal approved during the tenure of the current interim, unelected government does not bode well in that respect.

Above are the 5-points against Tata. Of course, all these points can be further elaborated and substantiated. In fact, Prof. Wahiduddin Mahmud's report on the Tata investment proposal, published earlier by this newspaper, does so in many respects.

There are also other discussions and analyses available. However, the important point is that if bureaucrats and other decision makers develop private interests in the project, then no amount of argumentation and analyses will help, because they will simply play deaf and blind and do their own thing.

The current government's anti-corruption drive has been targeted so far mainly toward politicians. However, many bureaucrats, too, had an important role in the corruption, embezzlement, and selling-out of national interests to foreign companies that the nation witnessed in the past years. It is difficult to believe that they have all rectified themselves.

The present government has set the good precedence of confiscating ill-gotten wealth and bringing such wealth back to the country from outside. What this means is that, sooner or later, those who want to enrich themselves at the expense of the nation can be brought to book.

They should know that the people of Bangladesh, including non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs), are watching. The remittance money sent home by NRBs has now reached almost $6 billion per year, exceeding the country's combined net export!

Tata's total investment figure, which many suspect looks bigger on paper than its actual worth, pales by comparison with the investment that NRBs are making in their country each year, and they are not planning on remitting the investment income!

So, for the Bangladesh economy, NRB remittance is the real source of investment, and the authorities should try to make the best use of this resource.

NRB remittance, together with the garments export earning, is keeping Bangladesh afloat. Both of these owe to Bangladesh's main renewable resource, namely labour. The government should focus on making the best use of investment, both domestic and foreign, that is labour-intensive.

It should save the country's limited quantity of mineral resources for optimum domestic use. It should, therefore, say "Thank you, but no!" to the Tata investment proposal.

http://meghbarta.org