International experts on genocide, in a letter to President Droupadi Murmu, expressed concern over the Government of India’s Great Nicobar mega-project, which is said to turn Great Nicobar Island into the “Hong Kong of India”.
As per the proposed project, an international container transhipment terminal, associated port and harbour facilities, airport, power plant, defence base, industrial zones, as well as major urban development will come up on the island. This, the experts say, will be a “death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide”.
By changing the demography and allowing the population on the island to surge by 8,000%, the experts say, the proposal could prove detrimental to the Shompen people, who have lived on the island for thousands of years largely without contact with outsiders.
Below is the complete letter and list of signatories.
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Dear President Murmu,
We, as scholars with expertise on the crime of genocide, are writing to express our utmost concern that the Indigenous Shompen people of India’s Great Nicobar Island will face genocide if the plan to turn their island into the “Hong Kong of India” goes ahead.
The Shompen people have lived for hundreds if not thousands of years in harmony with the rich natural world of Great Nicobar Island, largely without contact with outsiders.
Should the government of India’s proposal to create an international container transhipment terminal, associated port and harbour facilities, airport, power plant, defence base, industrial zones, as well as major urban development, proceed, even in a limited form, we believe it will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide.
The cumulative effect of these developments and the proposed demographic shift entailing 650,000 settlers, or an 8,000% increase in population, will ensure the death knell of the Shompen. The result will be a collective psychic breakdown, leading to a devastating decline in the population.
But, even before then, simple contact between the Shompen – who have little to no immunity to infectious outside diseases – and those who come from elsewhere, is certain to result in a precipitous population collapse. The mass death of the entire Shompen tribe will ensue. The only way to avoid the obliteration of the Shompen is for the project to be abandoned.
We, therefore, call upon the government of India and all relevant authorities, to urgently cancel all plans for the Great Nicobar mega-project.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Mark Levene, Emeritus Fellow, Parkes Centre for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, University of Southampton
Professor Raz Segal, Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide, Stockton University
Professor Debórah Dwork, Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Dr. Henry Theriault, Founding Co-Editor, Genocide Studies International, and Immediate Past President, International Association of Genocide Scholars
Profesor Adrian Gallagher, Professor of Global Security and Mass Atrocity Prevention, University of Leeds
Professor Elyse Semerdjian, the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University
Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Executive Director, Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention
Professor Taner Akçam, Director of the Armenian Genocide Research Program, UCLA
Professor Nandini Sundar, Professor of Sociology, University of Delhi
Professor Thomas Kuehne, Strassler Colin Flug Professor of Holocaust History, Clark University
Professor Dirk Moses, Professor of International Relations, City College of New York
Professor Donald Bloxham, Richard Pares Professor of History, University of Edinburgh
Professor Tony Kushner, James Parkes Professor, University of Southampton
Professor Fatma Muge Gocek, Sociology Dept, University of Michigan
Dr. Alex Kay, Associate Professor of War Studies, Department of History, University of Potsdam
Dr. Alexander A. Dunlap, Institute for Global Sustainability, Boston University
Professor Philip Dwyer, Centre for the Study of Violence, University of Newcastle
Professor Olena Palko, Department of History, University of Basel
Professor Martin Shaw, Emeritus Professor, International Relations, University of Sussex
Dr. Fikret Adanır, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Sabancı, Istanbul
Professor Daniele Conversi Ikerbasque Foundation for Science & Departamento de Historia Contemporánea, University of the Basque Country
Dr. Rachel Ibreck, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr. Omar Shahabudin McDoom, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, London School of Economics
Dr. Christopher Powell, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Toronto Metropolitan University
Dr. Raul Carstocea, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Maynooth University
Professor Andrew Woolford, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba
Professor Damien Short, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Dr. Louise Wise, Lecturer in International Security, University of Sussex
Gheysa Daniele Pereira Moura, Researcher, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Amazonian Cultures (NEICAM/UEA)
Professor Cathie Carmichael, Professor Emerita, School of History, University of East Anglia
Dr. Jeff Bachman, Associate Professor, American University School of International Service
Professor Victoria Sanford, Professor of Anthropology, Lehman College, Doctoral Faculty, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Professor Geoffrey Robinson, Emeritus Professor of History, UCLA
Professor Penny Green FAcSS, Professor of Law and Globalisation, Director, International State Crime Initiative, Queen Mary University of London
Professor Michael Rothberg, Professor of Holocaust Studies, UCLA
Professor Emerita Ann Curthoys, School of History, Australian National University
Dr. Joanne Smith Finley, Reader in Chinese Studies, Newcastle University
Professor Natividad Gutiérrez Chong, Professor of Sociology, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Dr. Christin Pschichholz, Senior Lecturer, Chair of Military History, University of Potsdam
