The Hindu : 'People's voices' and tales of woe

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

National

National

'People's voices' and tales of woe

By K. Venkateshwarlu

HYDERABAD Jan. 6. In the post Pol Pot Cambodia, the killing fields might have slipped into history. But life still is not a bed of roses. Cambodians are struggling hard to lead a life of dignity.

In a graphic account at the ``people's voices'' session of the Asian Social Forum here on Monday, Youeng Yorn, a slum dweller of Phnom Penh, brought out the sub-human conditions in slums, the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and how the Government had no qualms in adopting dubious means to raze to the ground two of the biggest squatter settlements.

These were not bulldozed but a ``mysterious fire'' ensured that hundreds of poor squatters lost their home and hearth overnight.

As is usual, the Government claimed it to be an accident but the inhabitants knew who was behind it. ``We are now involved in a struggle for existence and fighting the Government,'' Yorn, who has come to be recognised as a symbol of the struggle, said.

From Cambodia to Sri Lanka, Mamanladawala Piyaratne Thero, a charismatic Buddhist monk, demonstrated how, through a novel non-violent movement, people of Eppawala fought back attempts to set up a gigantic phosphate strip mine by an U.S.-based multinational in an ecologically fragile area.

The monk said it was not just an agreement to exploit, mine, refine and export 40,000 metric tonnes of the high-grade phosphate fertilizers. The U.S. Government negotiated to purchase rights over a 50 square km region around Eppawala and a 675 sq km buffer zone. Home to 12,000 farmer families, pristine forests, countless endangered species, 2000 year-old archaeological monuments, irrigation tanks and canals, the entire area was sought to be converted into a mine.

The novel protest included fasting by 20,000 people under a sacred Bodhi tree, silent rallies and court battles that finally came in their favour. Upholding the fundamental right of the people, the court reminded the Government that ``rulers are appointed to protect the wealth of the country''.

From a distant nation to the streets of Hyderabad, Mangamma brought alive the people's struggle against power tariff hike in August 2000, in which she lost her husband, Ramakrishna, in police brutality. He mobilised people from his village in Khammam to participate in the ``chalo Assembly'' rally against the tariff hike.

The last story was that of Hamida Bee. She brought back the blood-curdling images of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Her daughter was running for life when she fell unconscious with her two-month-old baby. She later found her daughter and son-in-law in an unconscious state in a hospital and the grand child, who was wrapped in a wet cloth. Even as she tried to take the baby into her arms, it vomited and died. Eighteen years later, the horror continues to haunt the survivors who are diseased, disabled and live in penury.

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