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

eat us, and burned the village. I got beaten severely. They beat me
and broke my ribs and fingers. They also hit me on my head and I got
many stitches. Even now my fingers hurt and I can no longer lift
weights and do manual labor because my ribs are weak. After they
beat me, they dragged me to [village name withheld] and left me there.
My brother found me there and took me to Chinturu [for medical help].
They hit women and children also with lathis [wooden sticks]. They
showed no mercy and even little children—two- and three-year-olds—
were beaten. 285
A local activist from Warangal district described to us how he found a group of
displaced persons who had been forcibly relocated from their hamlet in February
2006:
I was walking past the forest checkpost and I found these people [IDPs]
looking very scared and asked them what happened. Then they told
me that the forest department officials had brought them from
Domada and left them here. So I told them to come with me and
helped them. 286
These evictions are particularly traumatic because the forest department forcibly
relocates displaced persons without previous warnings or consultations. The
Bhadrachalam divisional forest officer claimed that they “give notices—both written
and oral” and “follow due procedure under section 20 of the Andhra Pradesh Forest
Act.” 287 Displaced persons, however, say that they were not consulted to explore
feasible alternatives to eviction and were given no warnings, written or oral. 288
In fact, many displaced persons say that they repeatedly have sought protection and
assistance from government authorities, but their pleas have been ignored or have
285 Human Rights Watch interview with IDP-3 from Nendra (who chose to remain anonymous), village K7, Khammam district,
December 5, 2007.
286 Human Rights Watch interview with a local activist (name withheld), village W7, Warangal district, December 1, 2007.
287 Human Rights Watch interview with B. Shafiullah, December 7, 2007.
288 None of the IDPs who were evicted reported any notice by government, written or oral.
89
Human Rights Watch July 2008