RAMSEY CLARK AND HUMAN RIGHTS TEAM VISIT NANDIGRAM,

UNCLAS KOLKATA 000367

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM IN
SUBJECT: RAMSEY CLARK AND HUMAN RIGHTS TEAM VISIT NANDIGRAM,
CRITICIZE GOWB

REF: KOLKATA 345, 351


1. (U) SUMMARY: On November 30, former U.S. Attorney General
Ramsey Clark led a three-member delegation to visit villages in
West Bengal's Nandigram district. Clark and his team came for
an on-the-spot assessment of human rights violations by
Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPM) activists and West
Bengal's police force. The W. Bengal government provided
security and support to the delegation, despite fostering the
violence in Nandigram in an effort to deflect criticism. END
SUMMARY.


2. (U) On November 30, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey
Clark, activist and Central Secretariat member of U.S.-based
Workers' World Party Sarah Flounders, and Vice-president of the
U.S. Steel Workers Association Steven Kirschbaum visited
Nandigram on a fact-finding mission. Their visit to W. Bengal
included speaking at a seminar organized by the Anti-Imperialist
Forum in Kolkata on November 30. The seminar is an annual event
sponsored by the Socialist Unity Center of India (SUCI). SUCI
had invited Clark and his International Action Center to take
part at the seminar. The trio also held a press conference at
the Kolkata Press Club.


3. (U) Clark and his team visited Gokulnagar, Sonachura,
Adhikaripara, Maheshpur and Satengabari villages in the
Nandigram district. People in these villages have born the
brunt of the violent attacks by armed cadres of the CPM since
January 2007 (reftels). Clark's delegation also went to a
relief camp housed in a local high school and spoke to the
occupants who are members of the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh
Committee (BUPC) that led the movement against acquisition of
farm land in Nandigram.


4. (U) After visiting the villages, Clark criticized the W.
Bengal government for "perpetrating atrocities" on the people of
Nandigram as part of its industrialization drive, saying, "We
have come here from the U.S. to get a first-hand report about
the exploitation in this part of the country. We can
understand your sufferings at the hands of the attackers and the
police. What is happening here is common throughout the world.
It is a government serving the rich at the cost of poor."


5. (U) Human rights activists from Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch also accompanied Clark during his Nandigram
visit. The W. Bengal government escorted Clark and his
entourage and provided security. Contacts told post that the
Anti-Imperialist Forum was backed by many of India's Left
groups.


6. (U) COMMENT: A human rights activist accompanying Clark was
surprised by the support provided by W. Bengal government for
the tour. She attributed this to the state government and CPM
leadership seeking to manage and minimize the outside scrutiny.
Preventing Clark's visit could have brought Nandigram back into
international focus, and could have aggravated schisms that
appeared over Nandigram between the CPM and its Left allies. By
supporting his visit, the CPM and the GOWB are trying to close
the chapter on the violence and reinforce a "back-to-business"
image for W. Bengal.

JARDINE