www.sacw.net > Victims and refugees of 'Development', 'Nation Building' and Conflict in the Indian Subcontinent

7 Feb 2005

AN APPEAL TO THE ORISSA STATE GOVERNMENT TO PUT AN IMMEDIATE END TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS’ ABUSE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF ORISSA

We, the undersigned, express our gravest concern at the continuing spate of human rights abuse being inflicted by the Orissa state police on villagers whose only 'crime' is that they have been peacefully resisting moves by bauxite-mining multi-national companies to displace them from their land of birth and sustenance.

Despite the fact that the Fifth Schedule of the constitution guarantees the right of land to indigenous people, adivasis in the bauxite-rich districts of Orissa face the imminent threat of displacement by aluminium companies. It is extremely disturbing that the state government of Orissa has consistently chosen to protect the interests of bauxite-mining multi-nationals rather than the interests of the people it is bound by the constitution to protect.

In 1993, in the wake of globalization, the Orissa government entered into contracts permitting bauxite mining, with the private company Utkal Alumina International Ltd (UAIL), whose stakeholders included ALCAN of Canada, Hindalco of India, and originally Norsk Hydro of Norway. Not a single contract took into account the consent of the original settlers of the land, the adivasis, for whom the contracts implied certain displacement.

We are most concerned that the Orissa state police on December 01, 2004, launched a brutal lathi charge on 400 adivasis, mostly women, who had gathered to peacefully protest against the inauguration of a new road to a proposed bauxite-mining site in Baphlimali owned by ALCAN. As a result, 16 people were critically injured and three women were beaten unconscious. Since this incident, we understand that Kashipur, a seat of resistance against bauxite mining, has been in a state of virtual siege. Platoons of armed police with firing orders have occupied Kucheipadar village - the centre of the struggle. 18 activists of Prakrutik Sampad Surakshya Parishad (PSSP), the umbrella organization of adivasis spearheading the struggle against bauxite mining, have been picked up from their villages mostly in the night in separate incidents and are now in jail without access to any possibility of bail.

This is not the first time that adivasis of Kashipur have faced the threat of industrialization at gunpoint. On December 16, 2000, three adivasis were killed in Kashipur when police fired on unarmed villagers, associated with the people’s struggle against bauxite mining. Following international outrage at the incident, one of UAIL’s original stakeholders, Norsk Hydro of Norway, withdrew from the project in a move that clearly implicated both the UAIL and the Orissa government.

In this context, we urge the government of Orissa to take every possible measure to put an immediate end to the abuse of the human rights of the indigenous people of Kashipur. We believe that development should not be forced but rather should involve the participation of the people. In keeping with this, we urge the government of Orissa to withdraw the police deployed in Kashipur and surrounding areas, and immediately release the arrested villagers.