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Don't recruit children in conflict areas, HRW tells India

The international rights body also expresses concern that an auxiliary force of special police officers, intended only for civilian law enforcement, is being used in armed operations against Maoist insurgents in Orissa
Reacting sharply to plans by the Orissa government to recruit tribal youth as ‘special police officers’ (SPOs) in armed operations against Maoist insurgents, also known as Naxalites, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on India to ensure that this form of recruitment does not take place.  
In November 2008, the Orissa government announced plans to recruit an estimated 2,000 local tribal youth as SPOs to counter Naxalite insurgency in the region.   
“No matter how serious the threat, Orissa should not use children to fight the Naxalites,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. “Nor should special police officers, intended only for civilian law enforcement, be sent on paramilitary operations for which they have no training and that leave them at risk of Naxalite reprisals.” 
In the adjoining state of Chhattisgarh, SPOs, including many children under the age of 18, are deployed in armed operations against Naxalites, without adequate protection and training. Although the Chhattisgarh police claims it has now removed all children from the ranks of the Salwa Judum, a state-supported people’s movement to root out Naxalites, allegations continue that many minors still take part in armed operations. 
“Many children, including some as young as 14, were recruited and used for dangerous armed operations,” says HRW in a July 2008 report titled ‘Being Neutral Is Our Biggest Crime: Government, Vigilante, and Naxalite Abuses in India’s Chhattisgarh State’. It was also found that SPOs were routinely deployed alongside paramilitary police on anti-Naxalite combing (search) operations, putting them at risk of injury and death. 
Indigenous tribal communities in some Indian states walk an impossible tightrope. Caught between armed rebels, or Naxalites, on the one hand and the Salwa Judum and government security forces on the other, they are subject to the wrath of all parties. 
In its report, HRW describes widespread human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict against civilians in the Bijapur and Dantewada districts of southern Chhattisgarh, and in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. It draws on the testimony of 150 victims, many of whom provided in-depth accounts gathered during research in the region in late-2007 and early-2008, as well as interviews with officials, lawyers, local journalists, and representatives of citizens’ groups. 
Since mid-2005, government security forces and the Salwa Judum have propagated a scorched-earth policy, killing and abducting villagers and looting and razing hundreds of villages in southern Chhattisgarh in an attempt to root out the Naxalites and their support from among the population. They have forcibly evacuated and resettled villagers in makeshift camps near police stations and along highways. According to official estimates, approximately 15,000 people from 420 villages live as refugees in temporary camps. 
Naxalites too have often retaliated violently, attacking perceived supporters of the Salwa Judum. This cycle of violence has resulted in widespread human rights abuses. Naxalites continue to recruit children among their ranks and do not deny the practice. They have destroyed dozens of schools used by the government security forces for military operations, severely disrupting education in the region. 
HRW maintains that the government’s measures to maintain law and order must be in accordance with international human rights law. Instead of combining principled security measures with effective steps to address problems faced by tribal communities and resentments that have made it easier for the Naxalite movement to recruit supporters, government authorities have subverted international human rights norms.  
“The internationally recognised United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (UN Guiding Principles) state that government authorities have the primary responsibility to establish conditions, as well as provide the means, which allow displaced persons to return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country. They also state that government authorities should develop resettlement and reintegration packages in consultation with the displaced population,” says HRW. 
The Salwa Judum also faces serious charges of human rights excesses. A fact-finding committee comprising human rights organisations in New Delhi, Bangalore, Nagaland and Andhra Pradesh concluded that the recent ‘encounter killing’ of 18 tribals in Chhattisgarh was a ‘massacre’ committed by the Salwa Judum with police support. 
Indeed, the legality of the Salwa Judum is under scrutiny before the apex court of law following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by three eminent persons -- sociologist Nandini Sundar, historian Ramachandra Guha and ex-bureaucrat EAS Sarma.  
The main contention in the PIL is that the methods adopted by the Chhattisgarh government in the name of the Salwa Judum violate the fundamental rights of inhabitants of the state. The petitioners also allege that “Salwa Judum activists have become vigilantes who assert the right to control, intimidate and punish anyone they consider to be a suspected Naxalite”.  
Source: The Hindu, January 28, 2009
The international rights body also expresses concern that an auxiliary force of special police officers, intended only for civilian law enforcement, is being used in armed operations against Maoist insurgents in Orissa
Reacting sharply to plans by the Orissa government to recruit tribal youth as ‘special police officers’ (SPOs) in armed operations against Maoist insurgents, also known as Naxalites, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on India to ensure that this form of recruitment does not take place.  
In November 2008, the Orissa government announced plans to recruit an estimated 2,000 local tribal youth as SPOs to counter Naxalite insurgency in the region.   
“No matter how serious the threat, Orissa should not use children to fight the Naxalites,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. “Nor should special police officers, intended only for civilian law enforcement, be sent on paramilitary operations for which they have no training and that leave them at risk of Naxalite reprisals.” 
In the adjoining state of Chhattisgarh, SPOs, including many children under the age of 18, are deployed in armed operations against Naxalites, without adequate protection and training. Although the Chhattisgarh police claims it has now removed all children from the ranks of the Salwa Judum, a state-supported people’s movement to root out Naxalites, allegations continue that many minors still take part in armed operations. 
“Many children, including some as young as 14, were recruited and used for dangerous armed operations,” says HRW in a July 2008 report titled ‘Being Neutral Is Our Biggest Crime: Government, Vigilante, and Naxalite Abuses in India’s Chhattisgarh State’. It was also found that SPOs were routinely deployed alongside paramilitary police on anti-Naxalite combing (search) operations, putting them at risk of injury and death. 
Indigenous tribal communities in some Indian states walk an impossible tightrope. Caught between armed rebels, or Naxalites, on the one hand and the Salwa Judum and government security forces on the other, they are subject to the wrath of all parties. 
In its report, HRW describes widespread human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict against civilians in the Bijapur and Dantewada districts of southern Chhattisgarh, and in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. It draws on the testimony of 150 victims, many of whom provided in-depth accounts gathered during research in the region in late-2007 and early-2008, as well as interviews with officials, lawyers, local journalists, and representatives of citizens’ groups. 
Since mid-2005, government security forces and the Salwa Judum have propagated a scorched-earth policy, killing and abducting villagers and looting and razing hundreds of villages in southern Chhattisgarh in an attempt to root out the Naxalites and their support from among the population. They have forcibly evacuated and resettled villagers in makeshift camps near police stations and along highways. According to official estimates, approximately 15,000 people from 420 villages live as refugees in temporary camps. 
Naxalites too have often retaliated violently, attacking perceived supporters of the Salwa Judum. This cycle of violence has resulted in widespread human rights abuses. Naxalites continue to recruit children among their ranks and do not deny the practice. They have destroyed dozens of schools used by the government security forces for military operations, severely disrupting education in the region. 
HRW maintains that the government’s measures to maintain law and order must be in accordance with international human rights law. Instead of combining principled security measures with effective steps to address problems faced by tribal communities and resentments that have made it easier for the Naxalite movement to recruit supporters, government authorities have subverted international human rights norms.  
“The internationally recognised United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (UN Guiding Principles) state that government authorities have the primary responsibility to establish conditions, as well as provide the means, which allow displaced persons to return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country. They also state that government authorities should develop resettlement and reintegration packages in consultation with the displaced population,” says HRW. 
The Salwa Judum also faces serious charges of human rights excesses. A fact-finding committee comprising human rights organisations in New Delhi, Bangalore, Nagaland and Andhra Pradesh concluded that the recent ‘encounter killing’ of 18 tribals in Chhattisgarh was a ‘massacre’ committed by the Salwa Judum with police support. 
Indeed, the legality of the Salwa Judum is under scrutiny before the apex court of law following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by three eminent persons -- sociologist Nandini Sundar, historian Ramachandra Guha and ex-bureaucrat EAS Sarma.  
The main contention in the PIL is that the methods adopted by the Chhattisgarh government in the name of the Salwa Judum violate the fundamental rights of inhabitants of the state. The petitioners also allege that “Salwa Judum activists have become vigilantes who assert the right to control, intimidate and punish anyone they consider to be a suspected Naxalite”.  
Source: The Hindu, January 28, 2009