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Salwa Judam under fire in Supreme
Court, may have to go
WSN Network
New Delhi: Salwa
Judum may have to go. The strategy to make the poor fight against
the organised poor in the name of countering what India calls "Naxal
menace" and most economists and political scientists see as a
reaction of lack of land reforms and skewed development was blasted
in a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) fact-finding report,
submitted to the Supreme Court on Friday.
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If private persons armed by the state government kill others,
the state is liable to be prosecuted as abettor of the murder:
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It said Salwa
Judam, the strategy of arming poor tribals against fellow tribals
turned Naxalites, was involved in grave human rights violations. The
NHRC report was highly critical of the Salwa Judum activists’
high-handed behaviour and human rights violations. It also made no
bones about the severe excesses being inflicted by the Naxalites on
the poor tribals, who appeared to be caught between the devil and
the deep sea.
The over
100-page report, which will soon be made public as directed by the
court, said NHRC’s fact-finding team found prima facie evidence of
human rights violations and excesses committed by the Salwa Judum
activists. “The allegation is that the state is arming private
persons. You can deploy as many police personnel or armed forces to
tackle the menace. But, if private persons, so armed by the state
government, kill other persons, then the state is also liable to be
prosecuted as abettor of the murder,” said a Bench comprising Chief
Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal
after perusing the report.
24 September 2008
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