Many splinters of Kottacheru

Kottacheru is a village in pieces. There are fragments of it across the countryside - its anonymous, forgotten, cursed Muria people can be found everywhere but at not in their native place. Kottacheru was an Andhra Pradesh village born just 25 years ago when the adivasis from Nagaras migrated there to cultivate land. Then came the war.

"It all started with Pandu," laments Aitu (name changed), a refugee from Kottacheru in Khammam district. A few years before the Salwa Judum, 23yearold Vanjam Pandu was a wanted man by the Maoists. They told him they would kill him for some alleged corrupt dealings and he fled his village of Kottacheru and built a shack far up north, right in front of the police station at Gadiras, hoping that he would be safe. Eventually, he would be apprehended by the Maoists, then brought before the other villagers of Kottacheru and tied up. After a summary 'jan adalat', the Maoists slit his throat.  A while later, his good friend and Sarpanch of Kottacheru, Kovasi Bhime was killed by the Maoists.Then there was the infamous case of Oonga Madkam, a 35yearold who the Maoists killed in 2004. He was travelling by motorcycle between Chetti and Konta - the bordertowns of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Four assailants approached Oonga on two motorcycles and shot him in the head at Konta. Once he collapsed, an assailant crushed his head with a boulder. The assailants, young adivasi youth, then repeatedly shouted 'Laal salaam! Laal salaam!' and disappeared.

Oonga left behind four wives, one daughter, seven sons and an unknown number of mistresses. He was also a Janpath Adishak, who the Maoists also killed for alleged corruption. The current leaders of the Salwa Judum in Konta had close ties to Oonga.  Then in 2006, the Salwa Judum attacked the village of Kottacheru and killed five persons: Madkam Deva, Madkam Admaiah, Madkam Admaiah, Madvi Deva and his father Madvi Bhudra. Admaiah, father of Oonga, was killed by the Salwa Judum as he tried to save his house from burning down. Then, on February 6, 2006, the Maoists killed nine personnel of the Naga Battalion near Kottacheru, using an IED. And it still doesn't end there."Nine of our people were killed in our village," says Maala (name changed), another IDP from Kottacheru. When I ask him for the names of the killed, he only gives me five names - of those killed by the Salwa Judum. Then, another woman reservedly gives me the name of Kovasi Dhoole, a young woman who was coming home to Kottacheru. But she isn't clear about how she had died. "Did she die when the Salwa Judum raided the village?' I ask, and she says, "No." So "'Did the Maoists kill her?" The woman is quiet.Eventually, over the course of six months, after interviewing over 14 villagers of Kottacheru in three different locations in Khammam district, including Kovasi's sister, I manage to piece together the story of Kovasi and the story of Kottacheru. In 2007, Kovasi was a young woman on her way from Nagaras to her Kottacheru. She was stopped at Errabor police station and allegedly detained. She only reappeared two months later, as an SPO married to another SPO - a 'turrka' or Muslim, according to the rest of the villagers of Kottacheru. They also allege she was forced to become a SPO, and there was no consent in the marriage.

A while later, on July 9, 2007, Maoists ambushed a combing operation near the village of Gaganpalli. IEDs placed in the trees and small arms fire killed 25 security personnel. The security personnel retrea­ted out of the jungle and it would take them three whole days to recover the bodies. Kovasi was one of the injured; the Maoists found her bulletridden body. She was still conscious and breathing.

Yet there was no mercy killing. For some reason, the Maoists took her injured body and left it at the road, hoping someone would take her to the hospital. No one did. Kovasi Dhoole from the village of Kottacheru, bled to death.This is the short story of violence in the village of Kottacheru. Now what about the even shorter story of justice for the villagers of Kottacheru?  The National Human Rights Commission's Enquiry Team held a public hearing at Cherla in Andhra Pradesh in 2008 with a few villagers from Kottacheru where they alleged that their homes were burnt down and looted by the Salwa Judum. They had given three names of people killed by the Salwa Judum and the security forces.  

The NHRC team then visited Kottacheru, found the village partially destroyed and completely abandoned. It also could not find any villagers from Kottacheru in any of the Salwa Judum Camps. Thus, they could not ascertain as to who was responsible for the burnings, killings and lootings. Thus, ends the story of justice for the villagers of Kottacheru. Now what about the shortest story of story­telling for the villagers of Kottacheru?

Anthropologist Nandini Sunda, who started to realise the extent of terror and violence unleashed by the Salwa Judum in 2005, had gone to the editors of most prominent mainstream publications and channels and passed on report after report of burnings, lootings, killings and rapes that were taking place in Dantewada and Bijapur districts. "They just couldn't believe it was happening," she notes. "It is a bit unbelievable.the extent of violence."Six years after the Salwa Judum and a hundred Kottacherus later, things stillremain invisible to the mainstream media. Instead of talking about forest rights, land rights, agricultural development, malnutrition, exploitation, hunger, drought, child labour, dispossession, displacement and rehabilitation, they talk about the Maoists. Instead of talking about how the adivasis live, they talk about how the Maoists kill. Instead of attempting to understand what is really causing the violence, they're asking about the army. And, besides create a thousand more Kottacherus, what is the army really going to do?

javed@expressbuzz.ocm