Essar pays protection money to Maoists: WikiLeaks

The Ruias-led Essar Group, which has mining interests in Chhattisgarh, pays protection money to Maoists to safeguard its operations in the state, a leaked US diplomatic cable said.

"A senior representative from Essar, a major industrial company with large mining and steel-related  facilities in Chhattisgarh, told Congenoff (Consul General Office) that the company pays the Maoists 'a significant amount' not to harm or interfere with their operations," a cable dated January 11, 2010, originating from the US consulate in Mumbai and released by WikiLeaks stated.

"When the Maoists occasionally break this agreement and damage Essar property or threaten personnel, Essar sets different Maoist groups against each other to suppress the situation," it said.

The cable said the Maoists pose a real threat to development and security in the region and efforts to bring these areas back  into the orbit of the government is warranted.

As the government prepared to initiate action against the Naxals in Chhattisgarh, the US consulate, based on the trip of its officials to the region, said that the potential for human rights abuses by the security forces in the state is high.

The cable "All the key ingredients are there: the state police are preventing any oversight from civil society groups; the central government has surged large numbers of paramilitary forces unfamiliar with the language, communities, and terrain of the region; state authorities have given a free hand to security forces, who are suspicious that politically-organised tribals may be Maoist sympathisers.

"The Maoists and tribals are virtually indistinguishable to outsiders, making it extremely difficult to separate friend from foe; state efforts to recruit tribals as special police officers has stoked intra-tribal conflict, raising civilian casualties; and the Maoists for their part, have proven willing to use opportunistic brutality on civilians and security forces alike, provoking even more cycles of violence."

According to the cable, Himanshu Kumar, director of Vanvasi Chetena Ashram, an NGO implementing various foreign-funded projects for social development in Bastar - one of which is with Unicef for primary education in Internally Displaced Persons camps - told Congenoff that actions by the State Police and the "Salwa Judum" over the past five years to clear tribals from their homes and move them into camps has fueled the sense that the government plans to allocate these lands for mining and industrial projects.