annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Tripura
and housewives. Before leaving, the
marauders also looted the belongings of
the villagers. As soon as the gunmen left
Baisyaram karbaripara, panicked villagers
rushed to Chawmanu police station and
sought shelter from the police. They were
later housed at Chawmanu government
rest house. 59 On 22 March 2004,
Chawmanu police arrested Baranda
Tripura, the alleged prime accused of
Paisharam Karbari para gang rape from his
house at Gandhiram Colony. Barnada is a
student of class X of Chawmanu school.
Police has taken him in their custody on a
remand of ten days. He was allegedly
instigated to commit the crime along with
some other local youths by Ratnajoy
Tripura, a leader of a newly formed
outfit. 60 The gang rape forced 753 persons
including minors belonging to the Chakma
community to take shelter in three
different schools of Chawmanu following
the incident. They have neither been
rehabilitated nor given any assistance. 61
On 22 November 2004, members of
the NLFT allegedly raped two daughters
of Gachhindra Reang and ransacked the
entire Rajkandi village under Kumarghat
police station of North Tripura. In a
written complaint to the police on 28
November 2004, the villagers said that a
17-member group raided the village on 22
November 2004 and indulged in an orgy of
loot and plunder. The residents were
forced to cook food for them and then
collected Rs 100 each from 19 of the 40odd
families staying in the village. The
village chief, Kumbharam Reang, was
forced to part with Rs 22,000. Those who
did not have money were thrashed
severely. After the looting spree, the NLFT
cadres broke into the house of Gachhindra
Reang and raped his two daughters. The
NLFT cadres allegedly warned the
residents of dire consequences if they
brought the incident to the notice of the
police. 62
V. Economic status of the
indigenous peoples
The economic status of the tribals who
constitute about 30.95% of the total
population of the state according to the
2001 census 63 remained deplorable.
About 50,000 tribals who are victims
of insurgency in remote areas have been
deprived of civic amenities. Development
activities in these areas have collapsed.
The State government ultimately proposed
94 “cluster villages” in all the four districts
covering at least 30,000 families and
37,000 hectares of land with the intention
of bringing the remote and undeveloped
hamlets nearer to mainstream society
along the national highways. The Centre
had implemented similar counterinsurgency
programmes against the MNF
in 1960s in Mizoram. 64 The Supreme
Court, however, stayed the conversion of
forest areas.
The death of tribal people due to
enteric problems each year is a ritual. In
May 2004, the Tripura government
admitted in the state Assembly that
altogether 165 people - almost all of them
tribals -died of enteric diseases in 2004 in
239