Koodankulam Alert March 20 2012

Koodankulam
Update
March 20,
2012
7:30 AM

Police have arrested 18 men more at Koodankulam last night
but nothing happened here at Idinthakarai at night. Some 5,000 women, men and
children slept around St. Lourdes Church. Some 185 men and women and their
Parish Priest Fr. Suseelan were arrested at Koottapuli village when they sat
down by the side of the road protesting against the police peacefully. They are
being held at Tirunelveli armed reserve camp. The other group of 9 people
including our Struggle Committee members Adv. Sivasubramanian and
Rajalingom, arrested
yesterday and now charged with sedition including Sections 121, 121A
and 153A, has
been taken to Tirunelveli also and we do not know where they are being held. In
the meantime, Muhilan, another leading activist of PMANE  was arrested
on his way to Idinthakarai  and he is kept at the police headquarters
in Tirunelveli.
Police have clamped down Section 144 in our area prohibiting
people from congregating in any manner. So no one can walk or move around.
Despite this curfew, people keep coming to Idinthakarai by boats and on foot.
There is an unprecedented
deployment of police around Koodankulam and it is highly condemnable that the
police are harassing the peaceful protesters to this extent. Some 15
of us (8 men
and 7 women) including Pushparayan and myself are on indefinite hunger
strike here
at Idinthakarai demanding:
[1] the immediate
release of our comrades,
[2] the withdrawal
of the Tamil Nadu cabinet resolution,
[3] a
thorough and complete probe of geologists, hydrologists and oceanographers into
the safety issues of the Koodankulam nuclear power plant,
[4] release
of the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) signed secretly by the governments of
India and Russia on liability in February 2008, and
[5] conduct
safety drills and evacuation drills in the 30-km radius of the Koodankulam
project.

There could
be public health problems and food shortage in a few days here at
Idinthakarai.  We appeal to the people of
Tamil Nadu to be aware of this assault on the Tamil community. We appeal to the
people of India to be mindful of impending nuclear nightmares in our highly and
densely populated country such as ours. We appeal to the people of the world to
keep a watchful eye on the forceful implementation of a mega-nuclear project on
our people without giving us any basic information about the project
or conducting
any public hearing. They are preparing to load uranium fuel rods into the
reactor without conducting any safety or evacuation drills. This kind of
Fascist development is taking our country to another round of New East
India Companies
and Neo-colonialism. God Save India!

Please do everything
you possibly can to condemn this police harassment and nuclear madness and to
express your solidarity.

Struggle
Committee
People's
Movement Against Nuclear Energy