“Being Neutral is Our Biggest Crime” - Global Coalition to Protect ...

that they rubbed small stones [gravel] all over his body till his skin
peeled off.
Then I saw Aitu getting beaten. Aitu was the elder brother [of another
villager] and he fought over his share of forest produce and beat his
younger brother. They warned him and asked him to sort it out without
beating his younger brother. But when he did not listen to their
warnings, all the sangam members beat him. 323
Naxalites imprisoned another villager for his alleged offenses. Veera Etishan
described how Sukku was locked up in a school in Nendra for a month. “The
villagers would release him and make him do work during the day, and then lock him
up in the evenings,” he said. 324
Naxalites also threaten families of those they suspect of being police informers. For
instance, they repeatedly visited Vattam Fanu’s family after he ran away from his
village to escape Naxalite recruitment. He said,
[B]ut the harassment did not stop [even after I ran away]. Naxalites
came and told my parents that I was earning well in the town. They
wanted my parents to hand over the money. They would not believe
that I was too poor to send any money home. Then they started saying
that I was working for the police. 325
His parents told him that they were constantly under threat from Naxalites who
continuously demanded money, or insisted that their son was a police informer.
Vattam Fanu was forced to intervene to prevent this harassment:
Finally, I went back to the village to show them that I was not working
for the police. This was in 2006. Then, as I was going to check on the
323 Human Rights Watch interview with Veera Etishan (pseudonym), former Naxalite, other details withheld.
324 Ibid.
325 Human Rights Watch interview with Vattam Fanu (pseudonym), SPO, other details withheld.
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