Natives were offered food or money, officials say. This photo: Indian Govt website, Pankaj Seksaria
Posted on 01/14/2005 8:35:07 PM PST by CarrotAndStick
The administration in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands has threatened legal action against media personnel who take photographs of aboriginals. Chief secretary VV Bhatt said some journalists had entered reserves without permission, harassing natives and taking illegal photographs.
He said some natives had been offered money or food to pose for cameras.
Meanwhile, the general who headed the relief operation in the islands has now left, saying the worst is over.
More than 10,000 people were killed by the tsunami in India, with more than 5,500 missing presumed dead. Nearly all of the missing are from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
'Unacceptable'
The BBC's Subir Bhaumik says the administration now requires journalists to deposit relevant pictures with the government before leaving the islands.
Mr Bhatt said the journalists' actions were unacceptable and punishable under the Andaman and Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulations.
The executive secretary of the Aboriginal Tribes Development Committee, KC Ghoshal, said no journalist would be spared from enforcement, however influential.
"I know many of them have played hell with our regulations," said Mr Ghoshal.
Earlier in the week, the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology had strongly complained to the administration about unwanted media intrusions into the aboriginal reserves.
Its convenor, Samir Acharya, blamed a section of military officials for carrying the journalists into reserves in helicopters or jeeps.
'Tougher than Kargil'
Meanwhile, Lt Gen Bhupinder Singh Thakur, who has led India's relief mission in the Andamans, left on Friday, saying: "We've stabilised the situation, we're now over the hump."
Gen Thakur oversaw the rescue of more than 40,000 people in the archipelago and the distribution of thousands of tonnes of aid.
The general said the rescue mission was a far tougher task than the Kargil conflict with Pakistan in 1999, in which he was a key strategist.
"Kargil was war in a limited area and we had the might of India behind us but here the main constraints were logistics which were an outcome of the geographical dimensions and the tsunami," he said.
Natives were offered food or money, officials say. This photo: Indian Govt website, Pankaj Seksaria
So they were offered food for photos? So freakin what? We are not reponsible for their paranoid superstitions.
Looks like they took the food in exchange for they're souls to be "captured".
media whores --- hang 'em when they break the laws --- couldn't happen to a more deserving group - except for maybe the lawyers.
If they have digital cameras, that will be pretty hard to enforce.
From Crocodile Dundee:
"Hey you can't take our picture."
"You mean it will take away your spirits, right?"
"No, you got the cap still on the lens."
You want to take photographs of aboriginals? Take a ride on the NYC Subway!
It's the height of liberal arrogance to try to keep "aboriginals" as some kind of freak-show exhibit. They talk about human rights but then want to preserve stone age culture by keeping people trapped in it. It's one thing to treat animals this way, have giant game preserves. But they are treating humans this way. As far as I'm concerned each and every aboriginal has a right to be fully exposed to the very best the 21st century has to offer and have it explained to them. Jets, cars, immunization, the internet and In'n Out Burgers. Then, and only then, can they make a rational decision about how they want to live.
Aren't reserves kinda like natural zoos? I find this very disconcerting.
BTTT!!!!!!
I want my two-cents back.
No, Reserves are what other nations refer to as "Reservations", including our neighbor Canada...
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