UTKAL ALUMINA & ALCAN Agitation Subdued

From: vinod raja
To: chhattisgarh-net@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 10:15 PM
Subject: [chhattisgarh-net] POLICE ATTACK on Filmmaker

Dear friends,

I was attacked by the Orissa police while covering a peaceful rally on 25th May.

Please find the details-

As you probably know, the Kue Kondhs of Kuchepadhar and near by villages in Kashipur block , Orissa are stuggling to prevent UTKAL ALUMINA & ALCAN , Canada from mining their sacred mountain Baplimal and set up a Alumina plant at Doraguda . This struggle has been on since the last 13 years!

Since December 2004 many illegal arrests were made without charges. Basudev, a young Kondh is a university graduate. He was picked up by the police when he went to attend an interview in Rayagada and jailed for four months..On instructions from the CM Navin Patnaik , the police are working hard to suppress the movement.

On the 25th May,I was filming a peaceful rally of Kue Kondhs from Kuchepadhar and near by villages who marched to Tikiri a small town with a major police outpost specially created for repressing the moment.The rally was in protest against the police attrocities and repression . The rally started from Kuchepadhar at 12 noon and i kept tracking the rally and filming. Lots of women participated in the rally, in fact more women than men, some of them were carrying their babies along in the blazing heat as they marched 12 kilometres to Tikiri!!!.

The rally reached the outskirts of Tikiri at about 4 pm.The police had put up Barricades to stop the Adivasis from entering Tikiri. I moved a little ahead to film the Barricade,just as I completd the shot and turned back, about 5 police officers and some police pounced on me, trying to grab my camera. In the ensuing scuffle, I managed to hold on to the camera for a couple of minutes before they snatched it.

Failing to remove the cassette from the camera , they thumped the camera to the ground destroying it. I did manage to save the filmed material. There were cameras from the company side that was filming the rally , mine was the only one that was filming from the peoples side. They tried to make a second attack by then the Adivasis had formed a cordon around me and kept the police away.

Now I am in Raigarh undergoing tratment for high fever and exhaustion.

Thanks , best regards
vinod Raja