Brexitwatch: a lesson from history - the Great Chinese Famine

From 1959 to 1961, tens of millions died in a terrible famine in Chairman Mao’s China. There was bad weather, but foolish government policies, such as ordering peasants to abandon their fields and concentrate on making steel instead, were also to blame.

Anyone watching the mainstream media or listening to politicians would have had no idea that millions were starving to death. The State Statistical Bureau had been shut down and replaced by ‘good news reporting stations’, and there was fierce competition between local activists to be the most Maoist by announcing the best news.

So the smaller the real harvests became, the bigger the phantom ones reported. The New China News Agency said peasants were growing pumpkins weighing 10 stones, cows were supposed to have been successfully crossed with pigs. There seemed to be more than enough food to go round, so Mao cut imports and increased exports.

He refused to hand out food from the official granaries, and party activists tortured peasants they believed were hoarding non-existent grain. This was perhaps the first famine in history that devastated the whole of China, but the areas that suffered most were those run by the most fanatical Maoists.

*For more, see A Disastrous History of the World.

Two Khmer Rouge convicted of mass murder

Almost 40 years after the mass murder by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia that left perhaps a quarter of the population dead, two of the regime’s leading lights have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

88 year old Nuon Chea (pictured) served as the notorious Pol Pot's deputy, while Khieu Samphan, now aged 83, was head of state. The judge said they were guilty of ‘extermination encompassing murder, political persecution, and other inhumane acts.’

The Maoist regime’s speciality was to drive people out of the cities and force into the countryside, where they were worked or starved to death. Many in Cambodia have criticised the slow pace at which justice has proceeded, and a judge resigned in 2012, complaining that investigations into suspects were being blocked.

The convicted pair deny the offences and say they will appeal, though they will remain in gaol. They could also face a further trial on charges of genocide.

Mao's great famine

A new book on the great Chinese famine of 1958-62 confirms the figure I use in A Disastrous History of the World – that chairman Mao was responsible for at least 50 million deaths. In Mao’s Great Famine, Prof Frank Dikotter concludes that the famine itself killed at least 45 million, and on top of that, of course, there was the Cultural Revolution, the reign of terror that established Communist rule in the first place etc.

Prof Dikotter battled tenaciously for access to Chinese archives, and exposes how the party ruthlessly used food as a weapon, punishing with starvation anyone who stood in its way. He says that the state terror was imposed so efficiently that no photographs are known to exist of the famine.

The disaster had its origins in two of Mao’s doctrines – the forced collectivisation of agriculture, even though this had been clearly shown to reduce food production, and the ‘Great Leap Forward’ – designed to catapult China into the big league of industrial nations.

It involved getting peasants to abandon the land to construct gerry-built dams (which often collapsed with catastrophic results) or make useless steel by melting down agricultural implements in backyard furnaces. While his people starved, Mao cut food imports and doubled exports – handing out free gain to North Korea, Vietnam and Albania. (See also my blogs of 6 Jan and 27 March 2009.)

Train terrorist attack?

More than 100 people have now died following the train crash in West Bengal which the Indian authorities are blaming on Maoist rebels (see also my blogs of Oct 5, 2009 and May 19, 2010). The Maoists have denied involvement, but the crash happened in an area where they are strong and police say they found pro-Maoist posters close to the scene.

An 18 inch section of track was missing. This derailed the Gyaneshwar Express passenger train in the Jhargram area about 90 miles west of Calcutta, causing five coaches to fall onto another track where they were rammed by a goods train.

The railways have often been selected as targets by terrorists in India. The most deadly attack came in Mumbai on July 11, 2006 when seven bombs exploded on trains during the evening rush hour. Islamic terrorists were blamed for the resulting deaths of 209 people.

Maoist terrorists were blamed for the derailment of the Rajdhani Express as it crossed a bridge near the town of Rafiganj in Bihar on September 10, 2002. At least 130 people were killed. An inquiry found the track had been sabotaged, but the rebels themselves denied being involved and some experts have cast doubt on the official explanation.

*Thanks for mentions on the following sites:-
http://www.myspace.com/martiarenax
http://www.belt.es/noticias/especial/Sistemas_emergencia/index.asp
http://www.para-web.org/viewthread.php?tid=903&page=3

India - Maoist rebels strike again

India’s Maoist rebels (see my blog of Oct 5) have carried out three bloody attacks this week. On Monday, they detonated a mine under a bus in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, killing more than 30, including some police officers. (76 people died in another attack in the same area last month.) On the same day, six villagers in Chhattisgarh were found with their throats cut, after the rebels had branded them government spies.

Then today, the rebels killed four paramilitary troops with a mine in West Bengal. Last October, the government deployed 50,000 troops in what it described as a “massive offensive” against them.

The Maoists are also known as "Naxalites" because they launched their uprising in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari in 1967. Today they have up to 20,000 fighters, and are active in eight states.

They claim to be fighting for the rights of indigenous tribespeople and the rural poor, and the length of time for which they have been able to maintain their rebellion is seen as proof that they enjoy a good deal of local support. It’s estimated that more than 6,000 people have been killed in the rebellion so far.

India - forgotten terrorism

We are used to hearing about Islamic terrorism in India, but another bloody insurgency has attracted relatively little attention. Over the last 20 years, Maoist rebels have fought a campaign in which more than 6,000 people have been killed.

The Maoists want to establish their own state and are active across large parts of central and eastern India. In their latest attack, they killed 16 people at a village in Bihar. A survivor, whose son died, said the assailants tied up the victims – labourers and poor farmers - then shot them. India’s Prime Minister has said the Maoists are now the most serious security problem facing the country.

Last month, one of their leaders, Kobad Ghandy, was arrested in Delhi. From a prosperous background, he was educated at one of India’s most exclusive schools and then trained as an accountant in London. According to friends, it was there that he became radicalised, denouncing India as "semi-feudal, semi-colonial".