from: forestcampaignnews@gmail.com
date: 21st
August 2007
Press Release: No
More Sabotage, Declares Convention
CAMPAIGN FOR SURVIVAL AND DIGNITY
National
Convenor: Pradip Prabhu, 3, Yezdeh Behram, Kati, Malyan,
Dahanu Rd. 401602.
Delhi Contact: Q-1 Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110 016. Ph:
9968293978, 26569023.
NO
MORE SABOTAGE
Forest
Communities Give Call Against Anti-Democratic, Anti-People
Moves to Dilute Forest Rights Act, Undermine Constitutional Protections
and Seize the
Resources of the People Political Leaders,
Progressive Organisations Express Their Support
The National
Convention on Forest Rights, attended by
organisations and representatives from ten States and addressed by a
spectrum of political and progressive leaders, reiterated the
determination of forest communities to fight against the government's
systematic effort to undermine and crush democracy in forest
areas.
The
Convention highlighted the following:
The
subversion of existing democratic policies and
institutions, such as those embodied in the Panchayat (Extension
to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (which gives the community control
over its resources), the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution and
the recently passed Forest Rights Act. The Convention
condemned the government's sabotage of the Forest Rights Act and
the repeated effort to dilute it through the Rules.
The
assault on communities and their resources through the
forcible seizure of their lands and resources by corporate capital,
government entities and the security forces. "Salwa Judum", a
campaign of inhuman state-sponsored violence in the name of countering
Maoist organisations, but actually intended to benefit corporate
interests, is a particularly extreme example.
The Central
and State Governments through such subversion and
assault will create - and indeed are creating - a spiral of
violent conflict and repression in forest areas. The
cost to the nation will be incalculable. Delegates from
each state addressed the convention to describe the current
situation in their States, including moves to seize community
lands for biodiesel plantations and SEZs, as well as brutal evictions
of police firings. The Convention was also
addressed by Noorul Huda, All India Kisan Sabha; Suneet Chopra,
General Secretary, All India Agricultural Workers Union;
Surendra Mohan, senior Socialist leader; Dr. B.D. Sharma, Bharat
Jan Andolan and former SC/ST Commissioner; Dileep Singh
Bhuria, Gondwana Ganatantrak Party and former SC/ST Commissioner;
and Dr. K.B. Saxena, former Chief Secretary of Bihar. All the
speakers stressed the need to fight the moves by the
government, not only in the Rules or in the Act, but on the ground in
the face of brutal and illegal repression. Some key quotes from
their speeches are attached.
The Convention
was attended by representatives from the States of
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa,
Tamil
Nadu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Rajasthan, as well as by
friendly organisations from North Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
OUR
DEMANDS
Ensure the supremacy of the community and democratic processes in
recognition of forest rights, by amending the Forest Rights Act and
ensuring just and effective Rules Ensure the implementation of
constitutionally required safeguards and the Panchayat (Extension to
Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, in adivasi areas
Ensure the
democratic management of forests
Halt the moves
to forcibly seize the lands, minerals and resources of
forest communities, either directly by the government or by allowing
corporates to engage in criminal violence
Halt the
privatization of forests and the handover of community lands
for private capital
Halt the
militarization of forest areas and the inhuman state-sponsored
terrorism of Salwa Judum
SOME
KEY QUOTES
"Adivasis have
been struggling to get this Act passed, but now
the government is using all methods against it and its purpose -
including mass crime such as salwa judum, a form of 'strategic
hamleting' used by the Americans in Vietnam. The government
is sponsoring terror in the country."
- Suneet
Chopra, All India Agricultural Workers Union
"The struggle of kisans, adivasis, Dalits and other oppressed
sections is the same struggle. The All India Kisan Sabha
and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have always supported this
struggle and are here to extend our support to your
demands. It shall be our endeavour to ensure that this Act
is not undermined through the process of the Rules."
- Noorul Huda, All
India Kisan Sabha
"We all know how the bureaucracy works, and we know especially
how the forest bureaucracy works. We have to have a
political response to this agenda. At the national level,
politicians, intellectuals and people's organisations have to join
hands."
- K.B.
Saxena, former Chief Secretary of Bihar
"Adivasis have only given to the world; we have taken
nothing. The government says keeps promising us pieces of
paper that are supposed to grant our rights; but then demand other
pieces of paper from us first as evidence, which is exactly what they
have always denied!"
- Dileep Singh Bhuria, Gondwana Ganatantrak
Party and former SC/ST Commissioner
"The government has to recognize the true democracy is when the
gram sabha decides. Until the gram sabha is given its due
powers, this Act
will be
rendered a weapon against the people."
- Dr. B.D.
Sharma, Bharat Jan Andolan and former SC/ST Commissioner
