KERALA COMMUNISTS SLAM HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT

UNCLAS CHENNAI 000103

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM PREL PINR IN
SUBJECT: KERALA COMMUNISTS SLAM HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The recently released Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices for 2007 (Human Rights Report) drew sharp rebukes
from leftists in the South Indian state of Kerala. The state's
ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) described the
report as an "imperialist strategy to sabotage" the communist
governments in Kerala and West Bengal. The leftists focused on
references to deaths in police custody in the state, but also took
issue with the report's mention of the violence in CPI(M)-controlled
Nandigram, West-Bengal. The anguished protest against the Human
Rights Report's rather straightforward discussion of events in
Kerala demonstrates that any comment from the United States can be
perceived as an all-out attack by the state's leftists. END
SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) Indian media reports after the March 14 release of the
Human Rights Report focused on references to the violence in
Nandigram, West Bengal (reftels) and, to a lesser degree, on
custodial deaths in Kerala. The emphasis on West Bengal and Kerala
led to suggestions that U.S. antipathy to the communist parties that
govern the two states, especially in light of their opposition to
U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation, had played a role in the
drafting of the report. Kerala-based leftists quickly took to
spinning the story. According to media reports, CPI(M) State
Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said that the report's objective was to

SIPDIS
isolate Kerala and West Bengal and to tarnish the image of their
CPI(M)-led governments. Communist Party of India (CPI) State
Secretary Veliyam Bhargavan reportedly described the document as an

SIPDIS
attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the country and
suggested that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was at work,
mentioning the oft-discussed in Kerala question of the Agency's role
in undermining the state's first elected Communist government in

1957.


3. (SBU) The Human Rights Report's reference to custodial deaths in
Kerala was quite straightforward: "the Kerala State Human Rights
Commission (KSHRC) registered 25 cases of custodial deaths from
January to June, compared with 39 cases in 2005. According to KSHRC,
46 persons died in state custody throughout the year. The
commission-led investigation of these deaths was ongoing at year's
end." Kerala's Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan disavowed the
Human Rights Commission's own figures, telling reporters that "the
references about custodial deaths in Kerala in the report are
totally untrue as no custodial death had taken place in the state in
2007." (NOTE: We believe that in denying the story Home Minister
Balakrishnan was conflating the issue of custodial deaths with
deaths attributable to torture. We take him to be claiming that
nobody died in policy custody as a result of torture, not that that
there were no deaths at all of people in custody. Post stands by
the accuracy of the Human Rights Report's information on custodial
deaths in Kerala, which we received from the state's own Human
Rights Commission. END NOTE.)


4. (SBU) COMMENT: The leftist ire at the Human Rights Reports'
straightforward discussion of Kerala shows the depth of their
suspicion -- which rises to paranoia -- about U.S. intentions here.
In addition to Balakrishnan's disavowing the reports of custodial
deaths, leftist leaders were quick to throw out the well worn
accusations of a shadowy U.S. plot to interfere in India's internal
politics and of CIA operations in Kerala. Although Kerala's
communist leaders have been quite willing to talk to us in the
recent years, we expect they will be reluctant to do so until the
temperature over the Human Rights Report cools down. On the
national scene, furor over the CPI(M)-sponsored violence last year
in Nandigram had faded but the CPI(M)'s shrill reaction to the
Human Rights Report has served only to shine the spotlight once
again on the party's brutal tactics to protect its turf. END
COMMENT.


5. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy New Delhi.

HOPPER