International Day of Action to Free Binayak Sen and Demand Repeal of Black Laws

Siddharth Varadarajan, Associate Editor of The Hindu, explains:

"For the past three years, the Chhattisgarh government has been financing and arming a private vigilante death squad known as Salwa Judum (SJ), whose terror tactics have led to the forced displacement of tens of thousands of tribals from their homes. The Special Police Officers (SPOs), often minors, who form the core of SJ are accompanied by paramilitary forces and the police. Their modus operandi consists of forcing villages suspected of being sympathetic to the Maoists to relocate to strategic hamlets on the main road. Villagers who resist are attacked and killed, their huts and property looted and destroyed. Several independent inquiries -- the most recent of which was by the National Commission for Child Rights -- have confirmed the violation of human rights on a massive scale, including sexual violence. In Kota Nendra village, for example, during the course of an SJ attack in 2006, not only was a three-month-old burnt alive (his mother gave up eating and died soon after of grief) but other children were shot while bathing at the borewell and in the village pond.

"Though the SJ is an initiative of the ruling BJP in the State, it has the full backing of the Congress at the Centre. In a recent appearance before the Supreme Court -- which is hearing a PIL [public interest litigation -- litigation for the protection of the public interest] urging the disbanding of the vigilante squads -- the Centre's counsel actually argued that the government was forced to rely on civilian SPOs because the regular police were (allegedly) too scared to take on the Maoists. It is bad enough that the establishment insists on pursuing a purely military solution. But when it arms and dispatches untrained civilians to commit crimes, this makes the government, as the Chief Justice of India noted on March 31, guilty of abetment.

[...] "The PIL against Salwa Judum in the Supreme Court is so important precisely because it aims to strengthen the rule of law. [...] The Chhattisgarh government has chosen to accuse the petitioners -- who include a former Secretary to the Government of India, two senior academics and a former MLA -- of acting on behalf of the naxalites.

"Last year, the widely respected medic and human rights defender, Binayak Sen, who had documented some of the excesses of the Salwa Judum, was arrested under the Chhattisgarh Special Security Act, which criminalises dissent. One year on, he is still in jail." (Siddharth Varadarajan, "A Lesson in Statecraft, from Nepal to India," The Hindu, April 25, 2008.)

It is clear that the Indian government is committing unconscionable acts against the people under the guise of security and counter-insurgency activities. Rather than attempt to solve the problems facing the society on a political basis that acknowledges the legitimacy of the diversity of political views and freedom of conscience, they have opted instead for violent and repressive tactics against all those who oppose its supposed right to act with impunity.

The following information is taken from the Free Binlayak Sen website. We calls on everyone to support Dr. Sen as part of the work to oppose state terror and demand that political issues be resolved in a manner which does not criminalize dissent.

Free Binayak Sen! Disband Sulwa Judum!
Repeal All Black Laws!

No to Indian Government Violence Against the People!
Free Prisoners of Conscience Now!

- www.freebinayaksen.org -

Who Is Binayak Sen?

Sr. Binayak Sen is a paediatrician, public health specialist and national Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). Dr Sen is noted for extending health care to the poorest people, monitoring the health and nutrition status of the people of Chhattisgarh, and defending the human rights of indigenous tribal and other marginalized communities. On April 21, 2008, the Global Health Council announced that Dr. Binayak Sen had been selected for the highest international honour in Global Health and Human Rights, the Jonathan Mann Award for 2008.

Why Is He Imprisoned?

Dr. Sen had been providing medical treatment to Narayan Sanyal, a detained Naxalite leader, in the Raipur jail. Even though his meetings with Sanyal were conducted with the permission of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, and under close supervision of jail authorities, Dr. Sen was detained and charged with aiding and abetting Narayan Sanyal and supporting anti-national activities. Dr. Sen was detained under provisions of the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2006 (CSPSA), and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA).

Why Are UAPA and CSPSA Called "Black Laws"?

The CSPSA dramatically broadens the ambit of what is deemed 'unlawful'. It criminalizes all organizations whose actions may have the merest tendency to disturb public order, and all individuals who have any type of association with such organizations. The CSPSA makes it illegal for the press to even report on activities of organizations deemed unlawful. The UAPA, amended in 2004 to include provisions from the dreaded POTA [Prevention of Terrorism Act] greatly increases the State's power to imprison people for extended periods of time without trial and without providing any evidence of guilt. Both these legislations, in the name of combating violent movements, actually target all people's movements, journalists and human rights activists, and all other formations questioning the State's policies.
These laws are increasingly being used to silence voices critical of the government. Other activists recently arrested under these draconian laws are Lachit Bordoloi, a human rights activist from Assam; Prashant Rahi, journalist from Uttarakhand; Govindan Kutty, editor of People's March in Kerala; Praful Jha, a journalist from Chhattisgarh; Vernon Gonsalves, an activist from Nasik; Arun Ferreira, Ashok Reddy, and Dhanendra Bhurule, and most recently Ajay TG, another activist with PUCL, Chhattisgarh.

Why Is the Government Fabricating Charges Against Binayak Sen?

Binayak Sen earned the government's ire by being a fierce critic of the high-handed and illegal ways that the government is using to put down a Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh. Dr. Sen participated in many investigations which drew attention to severe human rights violations, including murder of unarmed and demonstrably innocent civilians by the police, and the "Salwa Judum" -- a government-backed vigilante group active in Southern Chhattisgarh.
For instance, Dr. Sen's and PUCL's investigations had exposed that 12 alleged Maoists, killed by the police in Santoshpur village in a supposed gunfight on March 31, 2007, were actually tribals executed at close range. The State Human Rights Commission took note of this investigation, and ordered the bodies of the victims exhumed. A few days later, Dr. Sen was detained and remains in prison.

What Is Salwa Judum?

Salwa Judum is a vigilante movement in Southern Chhattisgarh that has been armed and supported by the Government of Chhattisgarh, and the Home Ministry since June 2005, apparently in order to combat the Maoist insurgeny.
The policy of arming a civilian militia has escalated the level of violence and a civil war like situation has emerged with innocent citizens caught between the Naxalites and the Salwa Judum. Over 100,000 people have been displaced and hundreds of villages have been abandoned and those displaced and others forcibly picked up from their villages, have been confined into roadside 'relief camps', where they face acute shortage of food, water and other basic amenities. These parts of Chhattisgarh are also the most mineral-rich parts of the country, and it is believed that several corporate houses are in talks with the government to acquire these lands.
Dr. Sen had been a vocal opponent of the Government's policy of arming Salwa Judum, and had organized fact-finding teams to visit the area and bring the harsh living conditions to light. Recenlty, the Supreme Court of India also issued a strong disapproval of the State's backing of Salwa Judum.