POLICE IN WEST BENGAL ASSERT PRESENCE IN ALLEGED MAOIST

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000194

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/INSB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER ASEC CASC IN
SUBJECT: POLICE IN WEST BENGAL ASSERT PRESENCE IN ALLEGED MAOIST
STRONGHOLD

REF: A. MUMBAI 291

B. KOLKATA 167

KOLKATA 00000194 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) Summary: Joint operations by state and central police
have brought more areas under control in and around West
Bengal's rural Lalgarh without any significant opposition from
the armed groups of the Communist Party of India - Maoist
(hereinafter referred to as Maoists, also known as Naxalites).
The true extent of the Maoist presence and threat it poses to
the central and state governments remains unknown and suspected
Maoist presence remains largely confined to rural, forested
areas. Civil rights activists and independent observers
reported no major incidents of human rights violation from the
police action. Differences exist between the state and the
central government over application of anti-terror statutes and
banning the CPI - Maoists organization.

Police Re-assert Control Over Lalgarh and Surrounding Area


2. (SBU) State and central police have continued their police
action against the Maoists in West Bengal's West Midnapur
district (Reftel B). On site journalists told PolFSN that apart
from a few landmine explosions and small skirmishes involving
sporadic gun fights, the police contingent faced no significant
resistance or large attacks from the Maoist groups such as that
which recently occurred in Chhattisgarh (Reftel A). No large
Maoist strongholds or supplies have been discovered. In the
absence of any large scale fighting, villagers have begun
returning to their homes. According to press reports,
individual party workers or affiliates of the ruling state
government, the Communist Party of India - Marxist, are being
intimidated, assaulted and killed by unknown assailants, who may
possibly be Maoists, political rivals or individuals with
grudges to bear. Suspected Maoist presence remains largely
confined to rural, forested areas in which there is little known
American physical presence.

No Evidence of Human Rights Violations


3. (SBU) A human rights activist, who recently returned from
Lalgarh, saw no evidence of police atrocities or other human
rights violation in the villages. He said the police were very
cautious, especially after India's National Human Rights
Commission had publicly expressed concern over reports of police
deploying local residents to retrieve land mines. However,
another activist contended that villagers continue to be
reluctant to speak out against police atrocities to maintain
impartial and outside of the conflict between the police and the
Maoists.

The State Government Views Civil Society Mediation Attempt as
Interference


4. (SBU) The state government has discouraged civil society
mediation during the Lalgarh operation. Despite a general
prohibitive ban on travel to Lalgarh, a group of intellectuals
from Kolkata traveled to the area and spoke with the leader of
one of the local groups protesting alleged police abuse. Post
was unable to verify a senior journalist's claim that the group
went at the behest of opposition leader and current federal
Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee who wanted the group to
distance itself from the Maoists so that she could support them
and attempt to address their grievances against the state.
According to the same journalist, the state government viewed
the civil society mediation attempt as political interference in
an ongoing law and order operation.

State Government Prefers Anti-Criminal Rather than Anti-Terror
Statutes


5. (SBU) The state government has preferred charging suspected
Maoists with anti-criminal rather than anti-terror statutes.
For example, only one individual, the Maoist spokesman Gour
Chakraborty, has been charged under the anti-terrorism statute
the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) while dozens have
been arrested under anti-criminal statutes. The state
government has also differed with the central government in its
refusal to ban the political party CPI-Maoist, claiming it
prefers to challenge it openly within the democratic political
system rather than driving it underground.

Comment


6. (SBU) The absence of police and Maoist encounters and the
lack of evidence of Maoist strongholds or supplies have raised
questions about the actual Maoist threat in the district. It
appears that the state government reluctantly re-asserted a

KOLKATA 00000194 002.2 OF 002


police presence in the area only after prompting from the
central government, which has taken a more pro-active approach
in addressing the Maoist challenge. The state government,
weakened by a disastrous parliamentary poll showing and wary of
the effects on the 2011 state assembly elections were any police
action to go wrong, is unlikely to have the political will
necessary to address the security, development and political
challenges posed by Maoists -- whoever and wherever they might
be -- in the rural, undeveloped areas of West Bengal. Since
state, rather than the federal, governments bear the primary
responsibility for law and order in India, the central
government's success in addressing the Maoist challenge will
depend on its ability to work with and through states such as
West Bengal.
PAYNE