Church condemns assault on anti-Posco protesters

The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) on Monday strongly condemned the ongoing assault on anti-Posco protesters opposing land acquisition for the proposed $12-billion steel project by Korean major Posco.

In a letter to the Chief Minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik, NCCI demanded that the assault on the protesters, in particular the Dalits and Adivasis in Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa, be halted as their struggle is "just and reasonable".

The Orissa police last week arrested 18 villagers including a prominent anti-POSCO leader for opposing land acquisition for the steel plant. Also 200 leaders and workers of five political parties, including the CPI and CPM, were arrested while trying to enter Orissa secretariat to demand relocation of the proposed Posco project.

NCCI said it considers the protests of the people as "struggles of the communities for life, livelihood and identity".

"Over the past several days, according to reports, more than 1000 police personnel have been deployed in the area to create a climate of intimidation and fear among communities to give up their fundamental rights of access to forests and their lands. Such strategies are unjust and undemocratic," the apex body of the Protestant and Orthodox churches said.

"We question the propriety and justness of such strategies when two cases filed by the villagers are pending in the Orissa High Court. How can the government still dare to go ahead with the project when three official committees have declared the appropriation of land to be illegal and in violation of the Forest Rights Act?"

Posco had signed a pact with the state government in 2005 for a 12 million tonne steel plant - the largest foreign investment in India near the port town of Paradip, about 120 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

The company requires about 4,004 acres of land for the project out of which 2,900 acres are forest land. The project was delayed for more than five years due to a lack of environmental clearances and protests by land owners. The state government however resumed the land acquisition recently after the environment ministry gave a final clearance to the project.

NCCI said it regretted that the actions of the Orissa State Government, with the support of the Centre, exhibited gross violation of the law, callousness about the well-being of the people and environment, and ill-conceived notions of development. "No words of condemnation are sufficient for such heinous acts," it said.