A three-member fact-finding team
which visited Koodankulam and neighbouring villages says in its report that the
law-enforcing machinery has been behaving in a way which has no place in a
country that calls itself democratic.
“If people who have resisted and
protested peacefully for a year can be charged with sedition and waging war
against the nation in such a cavalier way as has been done here, what is the future
of free speech and protest in India?” the team asks in its report released today.
The team comprising Mr. B. G. Kolse Patil, former judge of the
Bombay High Court, Ms Kalpana Sharma, senior journalist, Mumbai and Mr.
R. N. Joe D’Cruz, Tamil writer, Chennai, visited Idinthakarai, Tsunami
Colony, Vairavikinaru and Koodankulam and recorded the testimony of witnesses
regarding police atrocities of September 10 and 11.
The following are excerpts from
the report:
From individual testimonies of
people in Idinthakarai it is evident that many people have been injured. We saw people with
burn injuries when they came in the path of the tear gas shells that were
fired. Others had injuries from the lathi charge. In several cases people had
to get stitches on these wounds. But the most important issue that appeared repeatedly was that people were
afraid to step out of the village to seek medical help for fear that they could be arrested.
Villagers complained about the desecration of
the Lourdes Matha Church in Idinthakarai, where police had reportedly broken an
idol of Mother Mary, and had urinated inside the church premises. Broken pieces
of the idol were shown to the team.
In the Tsunami colony, the fear
was palpable. Most houses were locked as people are afraid to return to their homes.
Several villagers showed us their houses where windowpanes had been broken, cupboards
ransacked and doors damaged allegedly by the police who entered the village on
September 10. Thereafter for several days, a police force camped in the
village. As a result even today many of the residents of the village are afraid
to spend the night there and instead sleep in the tent outside the Lourdes
Matha church in Idinthakarai.
Fear was also evident in
Vairavikinaru village where villagers showed us evidence of the destruction to
houses when the police party raided the village on September 10. Nine people
were arrested including a 16-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man who is
practically blind in one eye. The people we spoke to kept repeating that they
did not know what they had done to invite such treatment from the police.
Villagers in Koodankulam are even
more terrified as they live closest to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project. On
September 10, a large police contingent entered the village, arrested 34 people, broke into
houses where the frightened residents hid, and destroyed property and vehicles.
Now, villagers said they are so afraid that they lock their doors after dark,
many cannot sleep and are fearful when they hear a vehicle entering the
village.
In all these villages, one common
factor was that each of those arrested was charged under identical sections. These
included 124A (sedition), 121A (waging war against the state), 307, 353 and 147 and 148.
The other more disturbing
testimony was from the women in all four villages. They spoke of the abusive
and sexist remarks of the police when they came to their village and also when
some of the women went to the police station. One disabled woman gave evidence of
physical molestation and another, who was part of protest on the beach near the
plant, spoke of police chasing the women into the sea and making obscene
gestures.
Despite this situation, villagers
expressed their determination to oppose the project. However, they repeatedly asked
why no one from the government or from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India
Limited was prepared to hold a proper public hearing where they heard the apprehensions of
the villagers and presented their point of view. They asserted that as the people
living closest to the nuclear plant they had a right to question and to know
all the facts.
Although we did not have the time
to independently verify some of the things the villagers told us, we could
conclude the following based on what we saw and heard:
1. We believe that our findings
raise a matter of great gravity given that they endorse widespread reports about violence
against women, children and the elderly by the police. The actions of the police
also include acts of looting and damage to public and private property and open
intimidation. Most importantly, they represent acts of illegality that cannot be challenged by the
victims as the perpetrators of the crimes are the
police themselves. We urge the
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, State/National Commissions for
Women, and the National/State Human Rights Commissions and the Hon'ble
Supreme Court to take serious note of these violations and act to restore normalcy and a
sense of justice.
2. That sections like 124A, 121A
had been irrationally used to charge those arrested on September 10. Villagers showed us
notices from the police with identical charges irrespective of the age of the
person arrested, including four juveniles and several senior citizens.
3. The public humiliation and
beating of young boys and old men is bound to leave deep wounds in the psyches of the
victims and those who witnessed it. Mothers and husbands have seen their sons and
husbands beaten and dragged off by the police.
4. So many women spoke about the
abusive language and sexual gestures and actions of the police that we do not
doubt their version.
5. The action of the police has
created a fear psychosis in the area. There are police barricades at the entrance to
Kudankulam and some of the other villages. When you go on the road you can see the
massive presence of the force. People feel as if they are under a state of siege.
6. The desecration of the Lourdes
Matha Church in Idinthakarai by the police is a dangerous and deplorable act.
7. The injuries that we saw were
real and not imagined. The fact that people have little or no access to health
care and are afraid to step out and seek it is a serious matter. Many said they did not dare step
outside the village to seek medical help for fear of being arrested or attacked by the
police.
8. The damage to homes in the
Idinthakarai Tsunami Colony are also real and not imagined, as alleged by the
police and mentioned in newspaper reports. The fear created by the police in that and
other villages where they attacked is also there for all to see.
9. The fact that people feel
helpless about reporting these atrocities is another reality that does not
require further confirmation. Repeatedly we were told that people did not know how to seek justice when
doing so would mean going to the very police that had attacked their homes and arrested
their people.
10. The refusal of the
authorities at the Juvenile Home to allow us to see the boys in their custody
further strengthens our fears and suspicion that the boys had been badly beaten and traumatised.
We believe the use of force
against peaceful protestors was extreme and totally unjustified. People have the
right to hold a peaceful protest and even if the police have to disperse them,
there are ways to do so without injuring people. Why was no effort made to
negotiate with the leaders of the movement before lathi-charging a crowd in
which there were so many elderly people, women and children?
The reign of terror that followed
September 10, resulting in a palpable fear in all the villages, is condemnable, as is
the desecration of places of worship by the Police. These villages have no
choice but to live in close proximity to a facility that they believe puts their
lives in danger. Is the government planning to continue terrorizing them to
force them to stop expressing their concern?
The targeting of women by the
police through abusive language and physical molestation has to be condemned in
the strongest terms. Why were male policemen allowed anywhere near women
protestors when women police were also present in strength?
Although we have attached a list
of 56 people who have been remanded, many more people cannot be traced or have
been reported missing. Furthermore, the police appear to have deliberately lodged those
remanded in jails far away from the area, thereby making it virtually impossible
for the families to visit them.
After two days of listening to
testimonies and viewing the damage done to homes and vehicles allegedly by the police,
we have to conclude that this kind of behaviour by the law-enforcing machinery has no
place in a country that calls itself democratic. If people who have resisted and protested
peacefully for a year can be charged with sedition and waging war against the nation in
such a cavalier way as has been done here, what is the future of free speech
and protest in India?
