Price of Dissent: Delegation to Nandigram, Nov 2007

A joint team of Amnesty International India (AI India) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) visited West Bengal from 28 –30 November, 2007 to assess the situation on the ground following months of violence in Nandigram that has led to large-scale human rights abuses. The team, including Justice (Retd) S.N. Bhargava, former Chief Justice, High Court of Sikkim; Vrinda Grover, Advocate; Meenakshi Ganguly, Senior South Asia Researcher, Human Rights Watch; Mukul Sharma, Director, and MonAmi Banerjee, HRE Associate Coordinator, Amnesty International India, traveled to some of the affected villages, relief camps, and met with the victims of the violence in Nandigram, as well as government officials and rights activists in both Nandigram and Kolkata. While the team noted widespread violations of rights since January 2007 resulting in unlawful killings, injuries, kidnappings, sexual assault on women, loss of property and livelihood, and forced displacement of thousands of inhabitants of villages there, this diary focuses mainly on the human rights violations that occurred in the violence of November 2007 in Nandigram.

Team:
Justice S. N. Bhargava, ex-Chief Justice Sikkim High Court
Vrinda Grover, Supreme Court Lawyer
Mukul Sharma, Director, Amnesty International – India
Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch
MonAmi Banerjee, Writer, Amnesty International – India