Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08KOLKATA330
2008-12-04 13:55:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Consulate Kolkata
Cable title:  

ORISSA POST VIOLENCE - SECURITY, RECONCILIATION AND

Tags:  KIRF PGOV PHUM PREF SOCI IN 
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RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2691
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KOLKATA 000330 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/INS (SABA GHORI),DRL/IRF (JOANELLA MORALES)
NSC FOR ANISH GOEL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KIRF PGOV PHUM PREF SOCI IN
SUBJECT: ORISSA POST VIOLENCE - SECURITY, RECONCILIATION AND
ELECTIONS

REF: A. NEW DELHI 2789

B. KOLKATA 252

KOLKATA 00000330 001.2 OF 003


UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KOLKATA 000330

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/INS (SABA GHORI),DRL/IRF (JOANELLA MORALES)
NSC FOR ANISH GOEL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KIRF PGOV PHUM PREF SOCI IN
SUBJECT: ORISSA POST VIOLENCE - SECURITY, RECONCILIATION AND
ELECTIONS

REF: A. NEW DELHI 2789

B. KOLKATA 252

KOLKATA 00000330 001.2 OF 003



1. (SBU) Summary: The Orissa state government is currently
engaged in ensuring security, coordinating relief efforts and
facilitating reconciliation in Kandhamal district. The
government reports 40 deaths and 134 injuries statewide in the
violence that began on August 23 with the murder of Hindu
religious leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. The police
arrested more than 1,200 people and have opened almost 1,000
criminal cases, although the killers of the Hindu religious
leader have yet to be named. An estimated 9,500 individuals
remain in temporary camps, wary of returning to their damaged
properties and their once-friendly neighbors. The state has
improved its cooperation and outreach with non-government
organizations (NGOs) in delivering aid. Government officials,
community members and religious leaders cite the perceived abuse
of government affirmative action programs and socioeconomic
differences as explanatory causes of the violence that has
played out along ethnic and religious lines. The government's
response to the Kandhamal communal violence and its underlying
causes will be an issue in the upcoming state and national
elections anticipated for Spring 2009.


2. (U) Poloff and PolFSN traveled to Bhubaneswar, Orissa from
November 20 - 22 and met with government officials, politicians,
NGOs, religious organizations and journalists to prepare this
report. The statistics are drawn from the Orissa government's
report for the Ministers of Agriculture, Social Justice and
Tribal Affairs who visited the state from November 17 - 19 to
assess rehabilitation and reconciliation efforts.


3. (SBU) On August 23 unidentified individuals killed Hindu
religious leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in the Kandhamal
district of Orissa. The act unleashed a wave of revenge
killings, assaults and property destruction in the district,
with a few incidents located in surrounding districts.
According to widely-accepted government statistics, 40 people
died and 134 were injured - both Kandh (a tribe) and Pano (a

caste) and Christian and Hindu, although more than 80 percent of
the attacks were against Christian entities. The majority of
attacks occurred within the first week of violence when local
police were unable to control the situation and before
reinforcements from the central government, the Central Reserve
Police Force (CRPF),had arrived on the fifth day. Sporadic
violence continued until mid-October, by which time the state
government had re-established law and order in the district.
The Supreme Court has ordered the CRPF to remain in Orissa until
the end of 2008; however, state government officials suggested
that they will be asked to remain until the completion of next
spring's elections.

The State Government's Initial Delayed Response


4. (SBU) According to police and state government officials,
the state's initial law and order response was hampered by
ineffective transportation and communications and the delayed
arrival of the CRPF. Kandhamal is a remote hilly, forested
district of approximately 650,000 inhabitants with a very low
population density - one third of the state average. At times
during the violence, villagers cut down trees and established
temporary road blocks to delay the police's response. It
remains unclear why the CRPF took so long to arrive. According
to parliamentarian Jay Panda, a member of the ruling Biju Janata
Dal (BJD) party, the state requested CRPF deployment from the
Union Home Ministry on the first day of the crisis; however, it
took more than five days for the force to arrive. Furthermore,
several media contacts suggested that the former Director
General of Police had not been fully engaged on the issue due to
his pending retirement at the end of the year.

New Personnel - New Direction


5. (SBU) Since the religious violence began, the government has
accepted the early retirement of the Director General of Police,
transferred the district police superintendent and collector and
appointed a special civil servant advisor to reside in Kandhamal
and coordinate reconstruction and address improper land
acquisition. Relief organizations and media sources generally
regard the new officials as "impartial, honest and effective."
In a November 20 meeting with Poloff, the new Director General
of Police, Manmohan Praharaj, credited a strategy focusing on
"mobility and communications" in helping him to re-establish law
and order in the district. After assuming charge on September
30, he ordered a police presence, outfitted with radios and
motorbikes, every 10 kilometers along the road to ensure that
police were informed and could respond to any incident.

KOLKATA 00000330 002.2 OF 003




6. (SBU) After halting the violence, Praharaj's focus turned
towards arresting the perpetrators of violence, facilitating
residential return and preventing future civil unrest.
According to him, the police have detained more than 800
individuals; but it is unclear to what degree they are involved
with criminal acts. The state government has yet to name
Laxmanananda's killers, a key demand of the Hindu religious
organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its coalition
partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Noting the sensitive
nature of the killers' identity the then Home Secretary refused
to provide Poloff with any information on the arrested persons,
including any potential group affiliation whether Maoists,
Christian or possibly both.

NGOs Work with Government to Deliver Relief


7. (SBU) The state government has allocated funds to compensate
next of kin and repair damaged houses, businesses and places of
worship. However, relief organizations would like to see a more
robust housing compensation program, to include a cash-for-work
allocation. While the state government originally prevented
relief organizations from working in the district due to
security concerns, they resumed their work in November.
Archbishop of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Raphael Cheenath told Poloff
that several relief organizations are currently discussing with
the state government a public-private partnership to supplement
the government-provided home relief compensation plan.

Residents Reluctant to Return


8. (SBU) While the government cites declining camp population
figures in Kandhamal, currently 9,500 down from a high of
24,000, as proof that residents are returning, several relief
and Christian organizations allege former residents have simply
left the district and/or state. Politicians hold out promise
for village "peace committees" that will allow villagers to
reconcile with one another but some relief workers note that the
reconciliation process will require time and additional
resources. One NGO, Catholic Relief Services, is preparing such
a project proposal for donor consideration.

Affirmative Action, Class and Identity in Kandhamal


9. (SBU) Mainstream interlocutors were quick to identify the
existence and possible abuse of affirmative action policies as
an underlying explanation for the violence. The district's
population are divided into two ethnic groups: the Kandhas and
the Panas. Both the Kandhas, as a scheduled tribe, and the
Panas, as a scheduled caste, enjoy privileged positions
according to the Indian constitution. One's scheduled tribe or
caste designation may affect one's economic rights, for instance
only tribals can buy tribal land without special permission.
Political rights are also affected as a portion of parliamentary
and assembly seats are reserved for scheduled castes or tribes.
The Kandhamal parliamentary seat had been reserved for scheduled
caste, i.e. a Pana, in the majority Kandh district; however,
according to BJD party and media contacts, it will be changed to
an open seat for the upcoming election as a result of a
unrelated national nonpartisan review and redistricting process.


10. (SBU) Under the Indian constitution, when one converts to
Christianity, they lose their right to claim scheduled caste
status and are no longer eligible for scheduled caste economic
and political benefits, as Christianity does not recognize a
caste system. While most Kandhas are Hindus who follow their
own indigenous culture, a majority of Panas are Christians. As
missionaries have increased their work in the district, in the
last forty years the Christian population in Kandhamal has grown
from five to twenty percent, mostly among the Panas. To
complicate the matter further, some Panas who converted to
Christianity continue to claim to be tribal Kandhas, as they
speak the language Kui - thereby reaping the political and
economic benefits from both government affirmative action
schemes.


11. (SBU) Socioeconomic inequities also explain the violence.
The Panas have traditionally been the interlocutors for the
Kandhas with the outside world serving as their traders,
servants and slaves. The Panas' increased share of economic
activity is correlated with their educational advances, thanks
in part to the role of Christian missionary organizations. The
Kandhas resent the economic rise and empowerment of this
traditional servant class and alleged misappropriation of tribal
lands.


KOLKATA 00000330 003.2 OF 003



12. (SBU) Hindu religious leader Laxmanananda began working with
the tribal community in Kandhamal district in 1967. He aroused
the ire of some of the Pana community as he empowered the
tribals, who represent a majority of the population, to assert
their political and economic rights - at the expense of the Pana
community. Critics contend that he was personally not
interested in the plight of the tribals as such, but more
concerned about traditional Hindutva policies - dampening the
spread of Christianity in the district and maintaining a Hindu
majority state. There is a general perception in the population
that while Maoists may have assassinated Laxmanananda, some
Christians may have been involved in the planning as they had
been previously implicated in several of the nine attempts on
his life. Christian leaders privately admitted to Poloff that
they cannot rule out a Christian/Maoist linkage, as the Maoists
have made inroads amongst some of the Christian population in
the inland laying districts. As the President of the YMCA
Bhubaneswar noted to Poloff, "some Christian youth have gone off
to the jungles" and they are not there to scavenge for food.

The BJD - Caught in the Middle


13. (SBU) The senior coalition partner in the state government,
the BJD, has had to delicately balance the needs of various
local stakeholders for justice, security, rehabilitation and
reconciliation - against the backdrop of the upcoming state and
national elections, scheduled together for Spring 2009.
Elements of the Christian community are upset about the
government's failure to provide for their security in the
immediate aftermath of the attacks; however, they are now
encouraged by the government's recent good-faith rehabilitation
efforts. The Hindu religious organization VHP would like to see
their religious leader's killers brought to justice and the
alleged abuses of the affirmative action programs curbed. Even
the BJP has distanced itself from its coalition partner and
supported a large VHP rally on November 15 in Bhubaneswar
calling for the identification of Laxmanananda's murderers and
endorsing the VHP's call for a general December 25 strike.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has publicly spoken out against
the strike and parliamentarian Panda and the former Home
Secretary T. K. Mishra privately told Poloff that the state
government would not allow it to proceed.

Comment


14. (SBU) The state government's initial response to the
communal violence in Kandhamal was insufficient in addressing
the law and order situation in the district. Prompted by the
central government's discussion of President's Rule, the
unfavorable international media attention and the Supreme
Court's October 22nd ruling, the state government beefed up
security personnel, announced rehabilitation schemes and worked
with NGOs to deliver relief. The state government's limited
police presence, especially its lack of mobility and
communications, was quickly overwhelmed by the events. Its
dependency on the central government to restore civil order has
also prompted state officials to consider strengthening state
resources in other areas, such as the establishment of a
paramilitary unit of tribals to combat the Maoist threat. In
this election year the BJD, while favored to return to
government, is engaged in a delicate dance. It wants to
demonstrate its secular appeal by addressing the needs of the
displaced victims who are mostly Christian Pana, but is also
eager to maintain its wide populist appeal in a state that is 95
percent Hindu. Its coalition partner, the BJP, will continue to
politicize the communal violence in Kandhamal to mobilize its
Hindu base. Interlocutors were unanimous that Kandhamal would
remain an issue up until the elections and perhaps longer. The
moderate voter turnout (50 percent) for the December 2nd
Kandhamal municipal elections and lack of associated violence is
one encouraging sign for reconciliation efforts in the state and
the district.
PAYNE