The most powerful Maoist attack in recent years reveals a civilian tragedy

New Delhi, 16 March 2007. - The Maoist attack that left 55 policemen in a police station of Dantewada district in the Indian region of Chatisgarh (center) has shown the power of the guerrillas, but especially the bleak situation a civilian population caught in the crossfire.
The attack came at dawn on Thursday when about 500 Naxalites (Maoists) attacked with grenades and Molotov cocktails at a position in which 80 security personnel were sleeping in an area of difficult access in the "Red Corridor", some 100,000 square kilometers in part controlled by the guerrillas.
Although the origins of the Naxalites, who took their name from a revolt of 1967 in the village of Naxalbari Bengali, appear linked to the university, later, his message became popular in rural and impoverished areas, where they often launch small attacks hidden in areas forest.
But the power of the Maoists not only their good organization, but also in its attraction for young people in the poorest regions of the country, who, frustrated by the lack of jobs and opportunities are encouraged to join the ranks of the guerrillas.
Concerned about the rise of the rebels, the government had contributed in 2005 to establishment of a movement Chatisgarh anti-Maoist called "Campaign for Peace" (Salwa Judum), which enrolled about 50,000 villagers.
And indeed, most -39 - of the 55 dead officers belong to the "special police" (SPO, acronym in English), actually a body formed by villagers who work for the security forces with a rifle, a pay monthly equivalent of 25 euros or 33 dollars and a uniform of a sticker with handwritten initials.
"The Maoists are not stronger than before, what happens is that they defend the fence to submit them, which is increasingly tight," he told Efe from Dantewada spokesman of the police force, M. Mishra.
With this background, the young impoverished Dantewada district, mostly "adivasis" (tribals), just have three options for the future: take to the mountains with the guerrillas, working with counterinsurgency forces organized by the government or try to survive in the crossfire from both sides.
In Dantewada no one is free from danger, as the Maoist attack those involved in activities and meetings of the "Campaign for Peace" while those who refuse to do so are attacked by paramilitary forces, Amnesty International reported Efe.
"We are concerned about the safety of" adivasis ", normal people in the conflict. We ask the Government to investigate the murders committed by paramilitaries and review its security laws. And the Maoists should know that violence solves nothing, "he told Efe Soumya Bhaumik, delegate of the organization.
Last year alone, the flight was the only way for more than 100,000 civilians of the "Red Corridor", resistant to pressure from both sides.
But even in the most hopeless shining lights, a Deputy Director of Police Abhyanand, the poorest region of India, Bihar, has appealed to the imagination with an initiative that can break the spiral of violence that has left hundreds of thousands of displaced and thousands dead in recent decades.
His idea is to launch a tourism circuit in the areas dominated by the Maoists, to create "job opportunities and development" and "get something positive out of a bad deed."
"If the fans and supporters of the guerrilla unemployed prove the sweetness of development, fearsome abandon their leaders," said Abhyanand.
The "Maoist tourism" is to establish tourist spots in the areas hit by the violence of the guerrillas.
"We will include some of the rebel hideouts and places where massacres were committed, police always ensuring the safety of tourists," said the agent.
But with large-scale attacks such as this week, the fact is that tourists must have a developed sense of danger in the "red corridor", the violent Maoist stronghold, counterinsurgency and suffered "adivasis", ordinary people .