India orders crackdown on 'human safaris' in the Andaman Islands
As outrage over exploitation of Jarawa tribe spreads, minister flies in for talks
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 14 January 2012 13.27 GMT
Tourist vehicles wait on the Andaman Trunk Road for the start of a daily safari through a reserve belonging to the Jarawa tribe. Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain
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Embarrassed officials in the Andaman Islands are desperately attempting to deal with the fallout from reported abuse of tribal women, afterrevelations in the Observer that they were being exploited for the benefit of paying tourists.
Video footage capturing the so-called "human safaris" which run on a daily basis through the forest home of the islands' recently contacted Jarawa tribe has provoked worldwide outrage. In the footage an off-camera police officer orders partly naked Jarawa women to dance for tourists in return for food, was described in India as a "national disgrace".
The video has been viewed by more than half a million people on theObserver website alone – and millions more in India, where excerpts led bulletins on news channels and prompted a national debate over the treatment of the tribe. Some Indian television news channels were notified that they would face legal action from the Andaman administration if they continued to show the video. The notices were widely ignored.
India's home minister, P Chidambaram, ordered the Andaman administration to arrest whoever had filmed the video and the tour operator involved. The Indian government had earlier demanded a swift explanation from the authorities in Port Blair, the Andaman capital. Chidambaram was due to fly to the islands this weekend to discuss the matter.
The scale of the problem is reflected by a statement from the Andaman police, in which they said that they had arrested almost 1,000 people for interacting with the Jarawa in the last five years, including 15 last week.
Police are understood to have already questioned a tour operator who was recorded by the Observer explaining how police could be bribed for 15,000 rupees (about £190), as well as a tour driver mentioned in the report, but both men were released without charge.
In a statement and subsequent interviews given by the director-general of police, SB Deol, the force claimed that the video was 10 years old, and accused the Observer of inciting the women to dance. But according to the home minister, an analysis of the video – believed to have been shot by a tourist – showed that it could not possibly be more than four years old. Academics who have worked with the Jarawa say they believe it is more recent. Other sources in the Andamans suggest it was shot two years ago.
Other recent footage has also surfaced on video-sharing websites, including one supplied to the Observer by a tour operator in which a voice, believed to be that of a policeman, tells semi-naked girls: "Nacho, nacho" – "dance, dance".
Police registered a case under several Indian laws, including the Information Technology Act, the Prevention of Atrocities Act and the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Act. Andaman police claim that the women shown in the video had been induced to dance through the offer of food and other items, and publication of the video was a deliberate insult intended to humiliate them in public.
The police force also turned its fire on two campaigning groups, Survival International and Search, who have championed the rights of the Jarawa. The groups were accused by the director-general of making money out of the tribe and paying themselves large salaries from funds intended to help the tribe.
"We have been campaigning for the Jarawa tribe in spite of many threats from different sections of society. It is sad that, instead of supporting the organisation, the A&N (Andaman & Nicobar) police is trying to malign our image", the director of Search, Denis Giles, said in a statement.
Survival's director, Stephen Corry, said the police should accept that safaris were continuing to operate on the Andaman Trunk Road, which runs through the Jarawa reserve, and tackle the problem of instead of trying to discredit the reports. "The only reason that they are still occurring is because of the Andaman Trunk Road through the Jarawa reserve. Ten years after the Indian supreme court ordered the road to be closed, it's shocking that the Andaman administration is defying this order by keeping it open. The government could end human safaris today – by closing the road," he said.
Officials in the Andamans say they are investigating the possibility of opening an alternative sea route, which would go around the reserve.
As outrage over exploitation of Jarawa tribe spreads, minister flies in for talks
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 14 January 2012 13.27 GMT
Tourist vehicles wait on the Andaman Trunk Road for the start of a daily safari through a reserve belonging to the Jarawa tribe. Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain
=====================================================
Embarrassed officials in the Andaman Islands are desperately attempting to deal with the fallout from reported abuse of tribal women, afterrevelations in the Observer that they were being exploited for the benefit of paying tourists.
Video footage capturing the so-called "human safaris" which run on a daily basis through the forest home of the islands' recently contacted Jarawa tribe has provoked worldwide outrage. In the footage an off-camera police officer orders partly naked Jarawa women to dance for tourists in return for food, was described in India as a "national disgrace".
The video has been viewed by more than half a million people on theObserver website alone – and millions more in India, where excerpts led bulletins on news channels and prompted a national debate over the treatment of the tribe. Some Indian television news channels were notified that they would face legal action from the Andaman administration if they continued to show the video. The notices were widely ignored.
India's home minister, P Chidambaram, ordered the Andaman administration to arrest whoever had filmed the video and the tour operator involved. The Indian government had earlier demanded a swift explanation from the authorities in Port Blair, the Andaman capital. Chidambaram was due to fly to the islands this weekend to discuss the matter.
The scale of the problem is reflected by a statement from the Andaman police, in which they said that they had arrested almost 1,000 people for interacting with the Jarawa in the last five years, including 15 last week.
Police are understood to have already questioned a tour operator who was recorded by the Observer explaining how police could be bribed for 15,000 rupees (about £190), as well as a tour driver mentioned in the report, but both men were released without charge.
In a statement and subsequent interviews given by the director-general of police, SB Deol, the force claimed that the video was 10 years old, and accused the Observer of inciting the women to dance. But according to the home minister, an analysis of the video – believed to have been shot by a tourist – showed that it could not possibly be more than four years old. Academics who have worked with the Jarawa say they believe it is more recent. Other sources in the Andamans suggest it was shot two years ago.
Other recent footage has also surfaced on video-sharing websites, including one supplied to the Observer by a tour operator in which a voice, believed to be that of a policeman, tells semi-naked girls: "Nacho, nacho" – "dance, dance".
Police registered a case under several Indian laws, including the Information Technology Act, the Prevention of Atrocities Act and the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Act. Andaman police claim that the women shown in the video had been induced to dance through the offer of food and other items, and publication of the video was a deliberate insult intended to humiliate them in public.
The police force also turned its fire on two campaigning groups, Survival International and Search, who have championed the rights of the Jarawa. The groups were accused by the director-general of making money out of the tribe and paying themselves large salaries from funds intended to help the tribe.
"We have been campaigning for the Jarawa tribe in spite of many threats from different sections of society. It is sad that, instead of supporting the organisation, the A&N (Andaman & Nicobar) police is trying to malign our image", the director of Search, Denis Giles, said in a statement.
Survival's director, Stephen Corry, said the police should accept that safaris were continuing to operate on the Andaman Trunk Road, which runs through the Jarawa reserve, and tackle the problem of instead of trying to discredit the reports. "The only reason that they are still occurring is because of the Andaman Trunk Road through the Jarawa reserve. Ten years after the Indian supreme court ordered the road to be closed, it's shocking that the Andaman administration is defying this order by keeping it open. The government could end human safaris today – by closing the road," he said.
Officials in the Andamans say they are investigating the possibility of opening an alternative sea route, which would go around the reserve.
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