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INDIA: Tribals tortured by police in Sonebhadra, Uttar Pradesh

November 24, 2005

URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

24 November 2005
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UA-218-2005: INDIA: Tribals tortured by police in Sonebhadra, Uttar Pradesh

INDIA: Police torture, impunity, rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Social Development Foundation, Delhi, India about the torture of some tribals in Palhari Village, Nauganwa Block, Sonebhadra, eastern Uttar Pradesh.

On 1 November 2005, an unidentified man came to Palhari looking for labourers to help him build a dam. The news soon spread and many villagers showed interest in order to earn some money. As soon as the man left, about thirty policemen descended on the village without any notice and started abusing the villagers. They were tortured, beaten mercilessly and the police even behaved inappropriately with the women. Some of the villagers were also arrested by these police personnel.

Due to the stark discrimination amongst classes, the naxalite movement is gaining a considerable foothold in Sonebhadra. Under the guise of anti-naxal operations, the police have been victimising innocent villagers especially the dalits and tribals.

We thereby call for your urgent intervention. Please ask the Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh to order an impartial investigation into this incident so that the perpetrators are duly punished and ensure that steps are taken such that innocent villagers are not targeted by the police under the pretext of anti-naxal operations.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission
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DETAILED INFORMATION:

Victims:
(Villagers arrested)
1. Jagesar, son of Dwarika
2. Bhola, son of Thakur Prasad
3. Tulsi, son of Devnath
4. Sitaram, son of Dharmdas and seven others.
(Villagers beaten)
1. Jagesar
2. Bhola
3. Tulasi
4. Kunwar Prasad
5. Rajendra, son of Hira
6. Baliram
7. Jaglal Thakur Prasad
8. Shiv Prasad
9. Shanti
10. Prabhawati
11. Durgawati
12. Budhani
13. Sukhani
Complainants:
1. Parvati
2. Durgawati
3. Prabhawati
4. Sukhani
5. Shiv Prasad
Place of incident: Palhari Village, Sonebhadra District, Nauganwa Block, East Uttar Pradesh
Alleged perpetrators: Police personnel
Date and Time of Incident: 1 November 2005, 4:00 pm

Case Details:

On 1 November 2005 around 4 p.m, an unidentified man arrived on a motorcycle at Palhari saying that he needed some villagers as labourers to help him construct a dam. In the face of the drought and adverse poverty that Sonebhadra is reeling under, this aroused a lot of interest amongst the unemployed villagers. After asking the villagers to cooperate with him, the man left.

Soon after that, about 30 policemen came to the village and started attacking the villagers. They were beaten, hung on trees and tortured and the police also behaved inappropriately with the women. Bhola, Tulasi and Jagesar, tribals and involved in community work were arrested and beaten mercilessly. According to the villagers, these three men were committed to bridging a gap between the tribals and the police. The police also raided their houses and destroyed their belongings. It is alleged that during this raid they recovered about five thousand rupees and three boxes of medicines.

Jagesar’s wife Shanti was ill-treated by the police but fortunately, the villagers were able to rescue her. Sukhani, a 70 year old woman was also beaten up mercilessly. Sukhani’s 12-year-old grandson, a student of class six, who was caught, was hung upside down after his legs were tied. Unable to even walk properly, he was then taken to the hospital.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Like in most places in India, Uttar Pradesh suffers from the class caste divide with a stark discrimination between the upper and lower castes. Due to this severe inequality and extreme poverty the latter suffers, the naxalite movement, which is a movement of landless peasants against the upper class landlords, is gaining ground in Sonebhadra. The naxalites do have supporters in the villagers but also target others and often ask them for food and shelter. It is a great dilemma for these villagers for denying them help would mean abuse and victimisation by these armed groups while cooperating with them would mean incurring the wrath of the police and torture at their hands.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the Director General of Police and others to order an impartial inquiry into this incident and see that the perpetrators are duly punished.

Sample letter:
------------------
Dear

Re: Tribals tortured by police in Sonebhadra, Uttar Pradesh

Victims:
(Villagers arrested)
1. Jagesar, son of Dwarika
2. Bhola, son of Thakur Prasad
3. Tulsi, son of Devnath
4. Sitaram, son of Dharmdas and seven others.
(Villagers beaten)
14. Jagesar
15. Bhola
16. Tulasi
17. Kunwar Prasad
18. Rajendra, son of Hira
19. Baliram
20. Jaglal Thakur Prasad
21. Shiv Prasad
22. Shanti
23. Prabhawati
24. Durgawati
25. Budhani
26. Sukhani
Complainants:
6. Parvati
7. Durgawati
8. Prabhawati
9. Sukhani
10. Shiv Prasad
Place of incident: Palhari Village, Sonebhadra District, Nauganwa Block, East Uttar Pradesh
Alleged perpetrators: Police personnel
Date and Time of Incident: 1 November 2005, 4:00 pm

I am deeply concerned to hear about the torture of some tribals in Palhari Village, Nauganwa Block, Sonebhadra, eastern Uttar Pradesh.

On 1 November 2005, an unidentified man came to Palhari looking for labourers to help him build a dam. The news soon spread and many villagers showed interest in order to earn some money. As soon as the man left, about thirty policemen descended on the village without any notice and started abusing the villagers. They were tortured, beaten mercilessly and the police even behaved inappropriately with the women. Some of the villagers were also arrested by these police personnel.

Due to the stark discrimination that exists within this area, the naxalite movement is gaining considerable foothold in Sonebhadra. Under the guise of anti-naxal operations, the police have been victimising innocent villagers especially the dalits and tribals.

I thereby call for your urgent intervention. Please order an impartial investigation into this incident so that the perpetrators are duly punished and steps are taken such that innocent villagers are not targeted by the police under the pretext of anti-naxal operations.

Yours sincerely,
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PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Yashpal Singh, IPS
Director General of Police
Tilak Marg, Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh
INDIA
Tel : +91 52 2220 6104
Fax :+91 52 2220 6120, 2220 6174.
E-mail : police@up.nic.in 

2. Mr Alok Kumar
District Magistrate
Sonebhadra
Collecotrate
Robertsganj
Uttar Pradesh
INDIA

3. Justice A.P. Mishra
Chairperson
Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission
6-A Kalidass Marg
Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh
INDIA
Tel: + 91 52 2272 6742
Fax: + 91 52 2272 6743

4. Prof. Manfred Nowak
Special Rapporteur on the question of torture
Attn: Mr. Safir Syed
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9230
Fax: +41 22 917 9016 (general)
E-mail: ssyed@ohchr.org

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-218-2005
Countries :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.