Murder in Goa shakes tourist paradise

Goans are getting fed up with violence associated with the drug business in their state.

“Oh, you have moved to Goa! You must be having so much fun.” This is the first reaction from most of my friends, who instantly picture me sitting on a beach and sipping beer in my home state. This laid-back image is what draws Indians and foreigners alike to this coastal holiday destination 600 km south of Mumbai. But the casual ‘live and let live’ attitude of the state is being tested as Goa’s popularity with outsiders outstrips the patience of locals.

On Oct. 31, Obodo Uzoma Simeon, a Nigerian national, was found dead in the village of Parra in north Goa. The very same day, over 200 Nigerians took over NH-17 Highway near Porvorim, overturning vehicles, damaging the police van carrying the body to a government hospital and refusing to let the police constables take the body for an autopsy. The Nigerians contended that their countryman had been murdered by a local gang and were demanding that the autopsy be performed in the presence of the Nigerian ambassador in India.

Their protest tied up traffic for hours on the busy highway, which passes through the state. The Goan police stood among the bystanders watching the foreigners vent their anger. Goa’s chief minister, Manohar Parrikar, said Simeon was a casualty of a war between two drug gangs and announced plans for a crackdown on the Nigerian nationals who are living in the state illegally. In response, the consular attaché of Nigeria in Delhi warned that Indians living in Nigeria would be “thrown out on the streets” if Nigerians were asked to leave their rented accommodations in Goa.

This kind of negative publicity is not welcome by any tourist-dependent state, especially with the holiday season in full swing, but state tourism officials are confident that it won’t scare off visitors. According to the state’s tourism department, this year will see more charter flights to Goa from the Middle Eastern and European markets than in the previous years. The first charter flight from Russia landed on Oct. 10 with 235 tourists.

State officials expect 1,400 charter flights in total, with Russian flights making up 600 of them.“The event at Parra will not affect tourism in the state in any way,” said Ralph De Souza, spokesman of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa. “We normally have an inquiry or cancellations from tour operators overseas, if there is a state of unrest. But there has been no such incident.”

Though foreigners may not be put off by recent events, Goans are getting fed up with the violence associated with the drug business in their state, which is not restricted to trendy hot spots on Goa’s busy coastline. “Villages like Diwar, Siolim, Aldona, where there are no beaches, see a lot of drug dealings. It is an open secret,” Vivek Garca Pinto, a real estate consultant from Bardez in north Goa. “The peddlers target school children, and even use them to sell more drugs.”

A Nov. 8 editorial in the Goan newspaper O Heraldo, said, “We have seen Americans, British, Germans, Italians, Israelis and of late, the Russians and Nigerians. Foreigners come and go but the narcotics trade continues unabated. This is primarily because the major drug barons are local Goans and not the foreigners.”

Yet foreigners are often the subject of increased scrutiny in the former Portuguese colony when the drug violence spills out into the street. Local panchayats, or unelected village councils, recently instructed landlords to check for valid visas and passports of their foreign tenants. According to a news report, over 500 Nigerians live in Goa, but only 19 are registered with the Foreigner Regional Registration Office. Out of the 52 Nigerians arrested in connection with the killing in Porvorim, only 14 submitted identification in the form of residential permits, original passports or a copy of a passport.

Since the death of Simeon and the protests by Nigerians, state government officials have been quick to denounce the presence of Nigerians in Goa. “Nigerians are like cancer,” said the state’s art and culture minister, Dayanand Mandrekar of the BJP, which governs Goa. He later apologised for the remark.

Comments like these have led to accusations on social media networks and in local and international media that Goans are racist. Parrikar, speaking to the press on the sidelines of a soft launch of the newly extended Dabolim International Airport, defended the anti-Nigerian sentiment. “It is not racism,” he said. “If you see earlier history, you will see that more Nigerians are involved in drugs. So people are seeing it that way.”

Augusto Pinto, associate professor of English at the S S Dempo College of Commerce & Economics in Panjim, said racism wasn’t behind the anger of Goans at Nigerians.
“Commuters were stranded for hours and were infuriated,” he said. “They were shouting asking the police to take some action. This reaction from a Goan would have ensued had it been Russians or Israelis or Indians who had gone on the run riot, disrupting the state capital.”

Fueling Goans’ resentment of outsiders is the transformation of large swathes of the state into foreign strongholds — Mandrem and Morjim are well known as Russian localities and Arambol is home to Israelis. “There are restaurants and whole parts of beaches where locals cannot walk in,” said Vivek Pinto, the real estate agent. “Little has been done to assuage this feeling of helplessness.”

In addition to battling the drug nuisance and fending off accusations that it is racist, Goa now has to deal with an unprecedented level of tourist arrivals in January that could tax the state’s creaking infrastructure and shoddy waste-management to its fullest.

In January, Goa will be host to the Lusofonia Games, an international multisport event organized by the Association of the Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committees. In addition to the host, participating countries are Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea- Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, and Sri Lanka. About 1500 athletes from 12 countries are expected to attend the 11-day event.

The state had won the bid for hosting the third edition of the games back in 2009, but found itself floundering with the preparations. The games were initially scheduled to be held in the first week of November but had to be postponed after the state government missed the deadlines for completion of the infrastructural work.

An association meeting was held Sept. 22 in Macau to review whether Goa could indeed host the games this year. At this meeting, the Lusofonia Organizing Committee of Goa managed to convince the association that Goa would be ready soon. It asked for the games to be scheduled for Jan. 18-29, which the association approved.

With the higher number of tourists expected this year, and the Lusofonia games in their home state, residents hope that the state can manage some law and order. “Traffic will be a nuisance; we hope the roads will be better managed,” said Annie Colaco, a resident of Fatorda, in south Goa. “We hope it doesn’t get worse with the ‘foreign’ teams. Everyone will go to watch football, especially when Brazil is playing.”