VZCZCXRO7920
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0256/01 2601141
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171141Z SEP 09
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2464
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/DIA FT BELVOIR
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 3053

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000256 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/INSB (BORY) AND IRF (MORALLES) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KIRF IN
SUBJECT: ONE YEAR LATER, KANDHAMAL RESIDENTS REBUILD DIVIDED 
COMMUNITIES 
 
REF: 08 KOLKATA 330 
 
KOLKATA 00000256  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
1.(SBU) Summary: One year after the killing of a popular Hindu 
religious leader sparked a wave of retaliatory violence in the 
remote, sparsely populated tribal area of Kandhamal, the 
situation remains calm, but tense.  A visible police presence in 
the district has helped prevent additional violence from 
breaking out along tribal, ethnic or religious lines. 
Ninety-five percent of the 24,000 riot victims have left the 
relief camps, but not all have been able to return to their 
villages.  The state government, with central financial 
assistance, is partnering with NGOs to distribute relief and 
rehabilitate villages.  It has also begun investigations to 
address one of the underlying causes of the violence - the abuse 
of tribal affirmative action programs to illegally purchase land 
and secure employment.  The government is promoting 
reconciliation between the tribal, primarily Hindu, Kandha and 
non-tribal, primarily Christian, Pana communities.  Local Maoist 
culpability for the Hindu leader's murder makes it all the more 
important that the government succeed in winning over the entire 
population by providing security, delivering justice and 
developing the area in order to reduce the support and success 
of Maoist overtures in this district located in the "Maoist Red 
Corridor" in Eastern India. 
 
¶2. (U) In mid-August, PolFSN traveled to Kandhamal as the first 
USG employee to visit the affected area since the August 2008 
killings (See Reftel).  The following report is based on his 
travel and conversations with district officials, NGO workers 
and community representatives. 
 
Police and Government Presence Help Prevent Additional Violence 
 
¶3. (SBU) The state government has ensured a continued police 
presence in the sensitive area ever since the initial, 
several-day delayed response to the outbreak of violence in 
August 2008.  The visible police presence in the district has 
helped prevent additional violence, including during the 
sensitive national and state elections earlier this year.  The 
state's top police official himself was encamped in the district 
headquarters to ensure that the one-year anniversary of the 
religious leader's death was marked without incident.  According 
to a senior civil servant in the state's home ministry, the 
state is working to deliver justice to those injured or 
assaulted in the violence.  It is pursuing the high profile 
cases of the religious leader's murder and the rape of the nun 
in fast track courts.  Furthermore, an additional 600 people 
have been arrested and 300 have been charged for the violence 
that took place. 
 
Re-building Homes and Lives in Kandhamal 
 
¶4. (SBU) While the state government has closed down a majority 
of its relief camps, about 500 people (down from a one-time high 
of 24,000) remain in tents.  PolFSN visited a camp in Nanda Giri 
with 52 non-tribal Christian Pana families who had fled the 
majority tribal Hindu village of Betticola about 15 km away.  In 
Nanda Giri the state government is providing food and fuel for a 
generator, while it works to re-settle the families on 
government-owned land.  The families told PolFSN that they 
cannot return to their village nor access the government's 
rehabilitation package since they lack proper title deeds for 
the property - they had apparently been living their based on 
verbal agreement. 
 
¶5. (SBU) A few kilometers away in Tangna Pathar village, 
22-year-old Mamta Digal and her mother are rebuilding their 
mob-destroyed house with national and state rehabilitation 
assistance supplemented by donations from NGOs and Christian 
organizations.  The Catholic Vicar General of Bhubaneswar told 
PolFSN that Kandhamal still needs about 5,000 houses at USD 
2,000 each.  According to the senior local administration 
official, the housing program is proceeding slower than planned, 
due to delays in securing outside financial commitments. 
 
Government Seeks to Address Underlying Cause 
 
¶6. (SBU) The government has begun to address one of the 
underlying causes of the violence - the abuse of tribal 
affirmative action programs to illegally purchase land and 
secure employment.  In this remote district, agriculture and 
government are the two largest employment sectors.  While the 
violence may have played out along Hindu/Christian lines, it was 
much more a manifestation of existing tribal/ethnic grievances 
and animosities.  Tribal Kandhas assert that ethnic Panas have 
inappropriately claimed or obtained tribal status from the local 
administration in order to purchase tribal land and apply for 
government jobs.  Non-tribals may not purchase tribal land or 
 
KOLKATA 00000256  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
serve in jobs reserved for tribals.  The senior local 
administrative official told PolFSN that his office has already 
investigated 500 of the 800 cases regarding fake tribal 
certificates.  The investigations have implicated more than 350 
people, including senior bureaucrats and politicians. 
 
Maoist Recruiting in Kandhamal 
 
¶7. (SBU) Kandhamal's discontent tribal population and forested 
location along the so-called Maoist Red Corridor stretching from 
Bihar through Andhra Pradesh make it an ideal target for Maoist 
proliferation.  According to a senior local police official, 
Kandhamal is one of the only Maoist-affected districts in India 
with no tribal support.  The subsequent police interrogation of 
the religious leader's killers revealed that he was killed by a 
local group of Maoists, but without their central leaders' 
support.  Some contacts speculate that these local Maoists, did 
so to send the tribes a message that only they, and not the 
Hindu groups, could protect tribal interests.  But in doing so, 
the group inserted itself in the Kandha-Pana/Hindu-Christian 
split.  During his trip PolFSN came across leaflets bearing the 
logos of Christian and Maoist groups exhorting Hindus and Kandha 
tribesmen to embrace Christianity or face death.  Residents 
acknowledge that there may be some small overlap between the 
local Christian and Maoist communities, but by no means is there 
an official alliance. 
 
Comment 
 
¶8. (SBU) The government of Orissa appears to be genuinely 
attempting to reconcile the tribal Kandha and ethnic Pana 
communities in Kandhamal.  The violence appears to have been 
driven less by religious differences and more by the underlying 
resentment of the ethnic Panas by the tribal Kandhas and the 
perceived abuses of the affirmative action system regulating 
jobs and property.  With national and state elections behind 
them, politicians and bureaucrats can focus their efforts, 
devoid of any election year rhetoric, on addressing their 
constituent needs.  Maoist involvement in Kandhamal makes it all 
the more important that the government succeed in winning over 
the population by providing security, strengthening the rule of 
law and developing the area in order to reduce the support and 
success of Maoist overtures in the district. 
PAYNE