It’s an annual ritual and is done for this year. Irom Sharmila was re-arrested late yesterday night on the charge of attempt to commit suicide, two days after her release from jail. The release came when her health condition began deteriorating alarmingly following the cessation of nose feeding by which she has been kept alive in all of the 15 years and more she has been on hunger strike.
In the 15 years of her life in jail, she has been released and re-arrested 15 times just so that the law against detention without trial for more than a year is dodged. If this scenario wasn’t so tragic, it would actually have been funny.
Sharmila, who has pledged not to eat until the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is repealed from Manipur, is in custody not so much because she has committed any cognisable felony, but to keep her from dying of voluntary starvation.
Can her hunger strike be interpreted as an attempt to take her own life? Sharmila certainly does not think so. She has always maintained she loves life and if, as alleged, she is suicidal, many means to end her life have never been far from her – electrocution and hanging being the closest and simplest at hand.
The irony is unique. She is refusing food, even if this were to mean death, all for the love of life and to protect its dignity. How can her supposed crime deserving arrest be defined in legal terms? Indeed, Sharmila’s resistance, because it is so unique, has been raising enigmatic questions like this that defy easy answers. The law’s inability to find a satisfactory answer to such questions cannot have been playing out more dramatically than this annual ritual of release and re-arrest Sharmila has been compelled to go through all these years.
Disturbing thought
It is a disturbing thought that this ritual can be predicted to continue on till such a time as the AFSPA is repealed or Sharmila dies of old age. From the look of things on the ground, the latter seems more likely at this moment. One can only hope that the Indian state’s outlook to draconian laws with very definite colonial vintage, such as the AFSPA and the sedition law, changes sooner.
Sometimes, when the answer to a question becomes impossibly elusive, the way out may actually be to change the question instead. The fact is, if Sharmila is given freedom today, she will certainly die, for the iron-willed woman is not about to give up what she loves to call her Gandhian struggle.
In the present case too, in two days of her release, her health condition began showing signs of trauma and distress, prompting government doctors who were attending her to recommend re-arrest and resumption of nose feeding. After 15 years of this artificially fed diet, doctors are not sure of the condition of her immune system, and are fearful a little neglect can lead her health to plummet to a point of no return.
Arresting her in this sense is actually about saving her from certain death. What the situation therefore demands may be a law that does not incriminate the arrested person. Sharmila has said it so many times that she has not transgressed any law and therefore does not want to be treated as an outlaw.
Nobody will dispute she does have a point there. The colonial legacy of policing being what it is in India, there is always a sense of criminality associated with anybody arrested by the police. Those who have been campaigning for Sharmila’s freedom too must see things from this vantage. What every well-wisher wants and should want is Sharmila free but alive as well, but till such a time, her custody should be seen as a benign overture, even by these campaigners.
It will help if the provision of the Indian Penal Code by which she is detained is also reformed to actually say and mean goodwill custody, as for instance by making it signify hospitalisation rather than arrest.
In the meantime, it is more than evident, and with a renewed sense of urgency in the present times in the face of the JNU crisis, that draconian laws such as the AFSPA must go for they have no place in a democracy. Ways also must be found to democratically settle the insurrections which caused these laws to be conceived of in the first place. Looked at another way, the very continuance of these laws is evidence not only of the authoritarian lobby of the Indian state, but also the failure of its liberals to find democratic answers to radical dissents and challenges to the state. Release, Re-arrest, Repeat. This Has Been Irom Sharmila’s Life For 15 Years
World’s longest hunger-striker pleads for “mass support” against AFSPA legislation
Imphal, Manipur: Nov. 18, 2015 — “What I really want from the world is their voice against this draconian law,” says the Iron Lady of Manipur, Irom Sharmila, in a filmed statement delivered after the 15th anniversary of her ongoing hunger-strike against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
Speaking in a labored and fragile voice worn from fifteen years of hunger, Sharmila describes her motivation for refusing to eat for fifteen years. Her hunger-strike protest began on November 2, 2000 after she witnessed Indian paramilitary massacre 10 people waiting at a bus stop and get away with it. Since AFSPA grants security forces legal impunity to commit violence while deployed in northeastern India’s state of Manipur, preventing prosecution for the massacre, she decided to resort to a nonviolent form of protest for its repeal.
Stressing that she is hunger-striking “to turn wrong governance,” Sharmila pleads with the world to join her voice against AFSPA, warning: “The absence of mass support is certain to have me face death due to starvation without fulfilling my demands.” Noting that India is vying for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, she insists the country first “needs to show the real democracy by repealing this draconian law from the Indian Constitution.”
AFSPA, a national law selectively enacted in several supposedly “troubled” Indian states, places those areas under martial law and grants security forces the power to warrantless property searches, arbitrary arrests, and deadly force on suspicion of a person. Seven of India’s 29 states currently enforce AFSPA, including Jammu and Kashmir, a northwestern state considered the most militarized zone in the world and a flashpoint for catastrophic international conflict.
Famously used by Mohandas Gandhi before the country’s independence in 1947, hunger-striking is a common form of peaceful political protest in India. Sharmila, after fifteen years, is the world’s longest hunger-striker. Nine days after Sharmila’s hunger-strike anniversary, another activist in India passed 300 days of fasting for justice. In India’s northwestern state of Punjab, the world’s oldest hunger-striker is an 83-year-old Sikh man, Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa, who has refused to eat since January 16, 2015 in demand for the release of political prisoners.
Striking a forelorn figure, Sharmila, who has spent the last 15 years caught in a repeated cycle of arrests, force-feeding, and isolation, expresses her desire to “resume my past normal life.” Condemning the arrest of her fiancé, Desmond Coutinho, a resident of Ireland who was arrested while visiting her in 2014, she says his detention “kept him in jail for 77 days under physical and mental harassment.”
Everything, Sharmila states, “has its beginning and ending,” and so she says her struggle also should have its end. “I really am tired of this way of life,” she mourns, indicating her strong desire to conclude the hunger-strike. She says local Manipuris “want me to remain a deity,” but that she is “a human being who has all desires of life.” Yet she remains committed to continuing her struggle until AFSPA is repealed.
“If my demand is fulfilled,” says Sharmila, “after I am getting married to my fiancé, Desmond, I will never stop [being] committed to social works…. I want to commit to him, with my life partner, just like a couple of peace birds to give message of hope to the world.”
In correspondence with Organization for Minorities of India, Coutinho reports that his fianceé, who is charged with attempted suicide by a Delhi court, is scheduled for a final court appearance from December 14 to 16. “It would be helpful to gather some momentum, if possible,” appeals Coutinho. Imploring unity among India’s human rights activists, he says: “I would certainly try to reach out to Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa’s family, requesting them to stand beside Sharmila in Delhi when she is sent.”
Last year, Amnesty International called for “dropping all charges of attempted suicide against Prisoner of Conscience Irom Sharmila and releasing her immediately and unconditionally.”
In her statement, however, Sharmila objects to calls for her unconditional release, saying: “The world seems to be think of me as if I am demanding for my right to death so they are just campaigning for my release without condition. They don’t bother to touch on my cause, my real hopes, which is to repeal AFSPA.”
Transcription:
Hello. Good morning. Thank you for giving me this chance to express myself. It is certain that I am resolved to get married after my demand is fulfilled. I think our local people want me remain as a deity, their own view, but not as a human being.
Right now, my trial is going on, and last year also. And [when] my first trial was going on, my fiancé Desmond, who is right now in Ireland, tried to assist me as my spokesperson at my trial at the court, but the defense lawyer, Khaidem, denied his intervention in my cause so strongly that he prodded local meira paibee imas to prevent him from intervening. And, with the incitement of the defence lawyer to provoke their annoyance, [Desmond] was beaten just outside the court campus by the meira paibee imas. They had him arrested on the next day on false charges. That was arrestation kept him in jail for 77 days under physical and mental harassment. Still he is planning to come this time also while my trial is still going on in Manipur’s Cheirap Court Uripok at my invitation to assist me as my spokesman at my trial. I really don’t [want] the verdict of the world about my personal life as a humanity.
What I am doing [with my hunger-strike] is just to turn the wrong governance. I just did challenge the long imposition of our law. Laws which are meant to serve us a democratic people turn against us. Why should we remain contented with wrong implication of rules?
In that sense I did step in as an interested stand but me too is a humanity, a human being who has all desires of life. And I can’t avoid, I can’t escape these senses of mine. Why should our people remain contented just seeing me as a symbol of resistance?
We also are part of the society, and society is made up of families, and I want — after getting success in my struggle — I want to resume my normal, resume my past normal life. Resume just to a simple woman. Want to taste the beauties of life. I just want to gain success — which is so rightful — with the intervention of the public. And I am really in need of their joining hands.
I know that everything has its beginning and ending. As to my struggle also, I should have ending also. One day it’s beginning. And, if my demand is fulfilled, after I am getting married to my fiancé Desmond, I will never stop [being] committed to social works which are so earnestly expected. My life partner has social problems… I want to commit to him, with my life partner, just like a couple of peace birds to give message of hope to the world [with] my experience as a long fighter for justice.
And I really want to influence the whole world against discrimination, especially against human trafficking. I really want to [be] useful to the whole world till my demand is fulfilled also.
And yet I think that the present mindset of our people continues as before. The absence of mass support is certain to have me face death due to starvation without fulfilling my demands just after my trial is finished with the verdict of the judge to release me without condition. But I really want to get success after struggling for so long. Fifteen years!
Yet the world seems to be think of me as if I am demanding for my right to death so they are just campaigning for my release without condition. They don’t bother to touch on my cause, my real hopes, which is to repeal AFSPA. [What] I really want from the world is their voice against this draconian law.
The present Indian government is so hardly trying to [get] permanent membership of the UN Security Council, but just ahead of placing this title — I mean for membership — the Indian government needs to show the real democracy by repealing this draconian law from the Indian Constitution to suit the respect[ed] terms of human rights for its people.
And I really want the world to see the real being of me. Just as if humanity has bodily witness — daily, physically, its limit — I really am tired of this way of life. Really tired. So please intervene.
I really want the verdict of the people, yes or no as to my fasting because me also is a part of the society. I am deserving of getting this verdict, and, accordingly, their reaction to the concerned government will create some positive acts to my present situation to end up my fast with my victory. Without the support of the masses how can I be fruitful in my demands? It is a mass cause. I want them to see me as a humanity not just as a tool for society’s problems.
And I [am] really worried about my fiancé’s future in case I have to die, in absence of people’s support, after the judgment of the judge at my trial. Since our people, women, [are] criticizing him in their own views since they don’t want our relationship. My personal life’s status they sometimes said that they never even in their dreams also [thought] about my turning into a romantic affair. In such a situation of me too, [I] can’t escape human love, human emotion, and him demonstrating his love, his care for me as a humanity.
How can I avoid it? So natural, we are all mortal. We come into this earth so nakedly and alone, and we will pass away alone, nakedly, without companion, any property, any title. All these material issues, titles, persons, all these things are man-made and impermanent. While we’re living in this world, what we really need to do is try in our ways to connect with each other, to depend on each other with a social personal being to prove that we are the most civilized creatures of the world. We are every source of peace and every source of changes. We are the source of happiness and beauties. I should like to control other’s lives, but until ourselves, others intervention to our personal being.
I really want the world to awake to birth and joy. I’m really displeased with the insensitiveness of the world. Our local society. Humanly. I really want to thank for giving a chance to express myself, my inner thoughts and this: to say, help the world as a temporary of this generation. Thank you very much.
REPEAL OF Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) FROM ALL REGIONS OF MANIPUR, OTHER NORTH EAST AREAS AND J&K
RELEASE OF IROM SHARMILA
We are petitioning to Prime Minister of India for his urgent and immediate intervention to start process of Repeal AFSPA from all regions. This petition is to offer our respect towards Anti AFSPA crusader and world’s longest hunger striker Ms. Irom Sharmila Chanu, who is completing her 15 years of hunger strike on 2nd Nov. Along with the petition, we are jointly organizing nationwide protest to demand above points and activists, individuals and organizations are registering their voice in various states of India for these demands. We hope that Prime Minister will also listen these voices and he will do the needful to recognize and to respect human rights and dignity of life of common people.
Govt’s own committees have recommended to repeal this act. Even many fake killings, rapes and cases of disappearances were not only reported but even proved, but till now govt has not repealed this act. Many national and international human rights organizations also raising their voice to demand to repeal this act. State leadership of BJP in Manipur and PDP in J&K had favored to repeal of this act, but now they are silent.
Irom Sharmila, a woman from Manipur is completing 15 years of her hunger protest on 2nd Nov. She is observing fast as a form of protest since the year 2000 (when she was about 28 years old), and she had started it just after Malom massacre where Assam rifles had fired upon local civilians who were waiting at a bus stand in Malom, Imphal (Manipur) and all were killed. Irom decided to register her protest because incidents of torture and killings were common in Manipur and in the veil of the powers under AFSPA, nothing could be done against culprit security personals. Irom sharmila started her fast and did not leave it since then. She has only demand, Repeal AFSPA, as it is AFSPA that is main culprit , because it provides extra ordinary powers to security personals to operate in Manipur and other such areas and these powers have been misused widely.
AFSPA has provisions of shoot to kill mere on probability, but it does not stop here, instead it goes beyond and says that no case can be lodged against any security personals without pre sanction from central government. Sadly, in all such years, no approval was given by central government and despite hundreds of reported cases of fake killings, torture and rapes, nothing could be done to punish culprits.
As, Irom Sharmila did not leave her fast, Manipur police registered a case against her under section 309 of ‘attempt to suicide’ and put her in jail. During her release from jail for a day in 2006, Irom Sharmila came to Delhi, paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and later joined a fast at Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police also registered another case under same section of attempt to suicide here in Delhi and matter went to court. Presently, Irom Sharmila is under arrest by Manipur police and living her life in security ward of JLN hospital of Manipur. The case in Delhi also, is still going on and Irom Sharmila appears before Delhi court on court notices and when Manipur government becomes ready to produce her at Delhi.
Despite her fast since last 15 years and government’s ignorance, even suppression through lodging her behind bars, did not break her faith in democracy or non violence. She always smiles, and tells , ‘I have faith in democracy. Government will listen one day’
Sadly, government is not listening, and even one of her demand to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not been accepted yet. She thinks Prime Minister does not want to meet her as probably government has no reply for all her demands and questions about suppression of people through AFSPA.
AFSPA, is a legislation that contributes to the overall impunity framework in states where it is enforced. National bodies including Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee; the Second Administrative Reforms Commission; and the Prime Minister’s Working Group on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir concur with our opinion. These expert bodies have recommended your office to advice the Government of India to repeal AFSPA. The experts have categorically mentioned that a law like AFSPA will only facilitate violence and will not prevent it.
Sharmila, a woman from Manipur is completing 15 years of her hunger protest on 2nd Nov. She is observing fast as a form of protest since the year 2000 (when she was about 28 years old), and she had started it just after Malom massacre where Assam rifles had fired upon local civilians who were waiting at a bus stand in Malom, Imphal (Manipur) and all were killed. Irom decided to register her protest because incidents of torture and killings were common in Manipur and in the veil of the powers under AFSPA, nothing could be done against culprit security personals.
Irom sharmila started her fast and did not leave it since then. She has only demand, Repeal AFSPA, as it is AFSPA that is main culprit , because it provides extra ordinary powers to security personals to operate in Manipur and other such areas and these powers have been misused widely.
AFSPA has provisions of shoot to kill mere on probability, but it does not stop here, instead it goes beyond and says that no case can be lodged against any security personals without pre sanction from central government.
Sadly, in all such years, no approval was given by central government and despite hundreds of reported cases of fake killings, torture and rapes, nothing could be done to punish culprits.
As, Irom Sharmila did not leave her fast, Manipur police registered a case against her under section 309 of ‘attempt to suicide’ and put her in jail. During her release from jail for a day in 2006, Irom Sharmila came to Delhi, paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat and later joined a fast at Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police also registered another case under same section of attempt to suicide here in Delhi and matter went to court.
Presently, Irom Sharmila is under arrest by Manipur police and living her life in security ward of JLN hospital of Manipur. The case in Delhi also, is still going on and Irom Sharmila appears before Delhi court on court notices and when Manipur government becomes ready to produce her at Delhi.
AFSPA, is a legislation that contributes to the overall impunity framework in states where it is enforced. National bodies including Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee; the Second Administrative Reforms Commission; and the Prime Minister’s Working Group on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir concur with our opinion. These expert bodies have recommended your office to advice the Government of India to repeal AFSPA. The experts have categorically mentioned that a law like AFSPA will only facilitate violence and will not prevent it.
Here’s proof that poor get gallows, rich mostly escape
Himanshi Dhawan & Pradeep Thakur,TNN | Jul 21, 2015, 01.44 AM IST
Disadvantaged often can’t pay for good lawyers.
NEW DELHI: The fact that our legal system is skewed against the poor and marginalized is well-known. And to that extent, it’s only expected that they get harsher punishment than the rich. But here are figures that tell the full story.
A first of its kind study, which has analyzed data from interviews with 373 death row convicts over a 15-year period, has found three-fourths of those given the death penalty belonged to backward classes, religious minorities and 75% were from economically weaker sections.
The reason why the poor, Dalits and those from the backward castes get a rougher treatment from our courts is more often than not their inability to find a competent lawyer to contest their conviction. As many asIn
The findings are part of a study conducted by the National Law University students with the help of the Law Commission that is currently engaged in a wider consultation with different stakeholders on the issue of death penalty and whether it should be abolished.
Law panel chairman Justice A P Shah, himself a strong proponent of abolition of death penalty, is to submit a final report to the Supreme Court by next month.
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said: “It is true that there is a class bias, otherwise why would we have so many people languishing in jail because they cannot afford a lawyer to get bail?” He said only 1% of the people can afford a competent lawyer. Afzal Guru hardly had any legal representation at the trial court stage, he added.
Founder of Human Rights Law Network and senior advocate Colin Gonsalves holds similar views. “I think the finding that 75% of the death row convicts are poor is the absolute minimum. The rich mostly get away while the very poor, especially Dalits and tribals, get the short shrift.”
The NLU students have interviewed all the death sentence convicts and have documented their socio-economic background. The psychological torture these prisoners face before they are hanged are some of the observations in the study. Prisoners on death row are not allowed to attend court proceedings most of the time. In many cases, those interviewed revealed they were unable to understand proceedings even when they got an opportunity to be in the court as there was not much interaction with their lawyers.
“Gallows are only for the marginalized. The first thing when a person is arrested is his access to a lawyer. The poor don’t get that access while the well-off do and that completely changes their case,” said Suhas Chakma of Asian Centre for Human Rights. For the economically weak, legal aid or advice comes at the trial stage by which time it is too late, he added.
Within the prison, death row convicts are put in separate barracks and kept in solitary confinement. They are not allowed to work unlike other prisoners or mingle with anyone else, leading to many psychological disorders. The result is startling. Many prisoners interviewed said they wanted to die and should be hanged without delay. A few mentally strong ones said if represented well they could escape the gallows.
Between 2000 and 2015, 1,617 were sentenced to death by the trial courts – 42% of them from UP and Bihar. The conviction rate, however, at the stage of high courts and the SC was much lower at 17.5% and 4.9% respectively. Most death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment or acquitted
The discussion on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act- 1958 has been going on for more than the last 5 (five) decades. Despite recommendations by various international bodies to repeal it, the Act is still enforcing in northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir.
Political activists and human rights defenders have been continuing various forms of protests for repeal of the draconian act to save democracy. The ‘draconian’ Act,was adapted from the Armed Forces Special Powers (Ordinance) that was imposed by the then British colonial ruler to suppress the Quit India Movement in 1942.
Even with its more than 50 years of existence, the Act- AFSPA, which empowers enormous powers to Indian army in “disturbed areas”, failed to redress armed conflicts in the states of northeastern and Jammu and Kashmir.
Imphal Times initiated a discussion with various stakeholders regarding the 50 years of AFSPA and insurgency movements.
“AFSPA targets the entire population, who are not originally Indian and merged to the Union post independence. The Act is not related with insurgency; as the British did to Indian during independence struggle it is a political and military scheme to suppress the separatist movements and to bring the these people into a single fold”, Seram Rojesh, political activist and researcher in Delhi University told this paper.
He also said that if the Act is to curb the insurgency movement than why not it had been imposed in Naxal affected areas.
While Mubasir Raji, a freelance journalist observed, “India is working hard to integrate both morally and culturally the northeastern part to mainland India. Any act or policy which antagonizes the people kills the very purpose of it. AFSPA is a draconian Act which does not have a place in any part of the world.”
About the recent spate of violence in Manipur, he added that the root cause of arm conflict is identity crisis and the cultural polarization. Acting in vengeance and discrimination towards the northeast will only create cleavages. Counter insurgency operations should not create a war like atmosphere while the Indian government is trying to bridge the huge historical and cultural gaps. The existing tendency to look things emotionally will not work for a good cause.
Jiten Ahongsangba, social worker also expressed similar opinion. “We are in conflict zone between two lethal powers; in this scenario people will be suffered. With AFSPA more anti Indian feeling will rise among the northeastern part of India. If the concern Ministry does not realize, one day India might be United States of India. It must be removed without delay. Everything will improve and prosperity when it repeal.”
Rajkumar Noni Bala, a PhD scholar in Delhi University said that we need to look at the history, why AFSPA was imposed and how it came into the present situation. Law and order imbalance due to poor government and insurgency has invited the AFSPA in the state.
“Some of us would be very disappointed to this but the truth is that we have made it so; still many of us are fighting against the Indian Government to repeal AFSPA from the state. But not anyone of us is even trying to request the insurgency organisation to stop their operation of killing people in the state,” she said.
“What the Indian army kills are only people, are not the insurgency not killing our own people. Are not the insurgency groups violating the basic human rights of all the people in Manipur? We are still looking at the very old tradition of looking at the other as guilty of everything and not our own self as the culprit.”
It is high time for all to come out of narrow mind set and looks toward an alternative solution and path which will bring peace and solidarity in the state. It is not just possible and early we realise better we can developed sooner. If not just imagine the future of Manipur, who will rule the state those with gun in their hand or the people themselves. As a common man, I have feel the pain and fear of both the two powerful force operating in the State. I could not bear any more blood and parts of bodies scatter all around the street of Manipur.
Source: http://imphaltimes.com/news/item/2992-does-afspa-have-its-purpose-of-existence
In most Indian states, undertrials make up over half the prison population. Photo: K.V. Ramana
Prison statistics for 2013 released earlier this week show that undertrials are filling India’s prisons. But how does India’s prison population compare globally?
Within India, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi have far higher incarceration rates (prisoners for every 100,000 people) than other states. Bear in mind that these are for the population as a whole, but since 96 per cent of India’s prison population is male, these rates are nearly double for the male population.
How does this compare globally? It puts India near the bottom, even its worst states. (The international data here is from the International Centre for Prison Studies.)
And how does India’s undertrial situation look in the global context?
Among Indian states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar stand out, housing over 85,000 undertrials between them. In most Indian states, undertrials make up over half the prison population.
Here, India’s worst states are worse off than the countries at the bottom of the world’s list, and India itself does worse or nearly as badly as its neighbours.
MHA officials’ conspiracy to destabilise North-East?
The sudden outbreak of violence in trouble-torn Northeastern states including the deadliest Manipur killing, have been the fallout of abrupt break down of ceasefire agreement with the Khaplang faction of the NSCN, which was provoked by a section of officials in the home ministry and military intelligence.
This is what the security agencies have reported to the Union home minister Rajnath Singh who decided to order a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in to the killings of 18 Assam Rifles soldiers in Manipur on June 4.
Disclosing that even Union home minister was kept in dark about the developments leading to break down of the cease-fire agreement with the NSCN-K, authoritative security sources in the home ministry told this newspaper that investigation of security agency has revealed that two Naga leaders, Wangtin Naga and P. Tikhak, who were expelled by none other than Mr Khaplang himself, were used by security agencies to break the ceasefire.
Indicating that officials in the home ministry planted news through a news agency — Vision Communications — security sources said that the home ministry officials, instead of denying rather, floated news in media of Northeastern states that the home ministry was not going to extend the ceasefire with Khaplang faction after March 31. Though, the home ministry had not taken any decision on not extending the ceasefire with the NSCN-K. Moreover, the NSCN-K cadres were allowed to leave “designated camps” with arms and ammunitions without any resistance of the Army in Nagaland.
Referring to evidences that sleuth of military intelligence in connivance with a section of home ministry officials had lured the NSCN-K commanders, security sources said that Wangtin Naga was told that his bank account containing nearly `3 crore would defreeze if he helps in breaking the ceasefire. Though, he refused to fall in line.
In a startling revelation the report sent to Mr Singh pointed out that top home ministry official who was constantly in touch with Manipur chief minister Ibobi Singh travelled to Arunachal Pradesh to meet the NSCN-K commanders a week before Mr Khaplang announced unilaterally to break the ceasefire.
The top home ministry officials and MI sleuths in New Delhi were not happy over the decision of the Narendra Modi government to remove the Army from counter-insurgency operations in phased manner, security sources said, adding, that if Naga rebel groups are taken on board, no insurgent groups would be able to sustain their armed struggle for a long time in the Northeast.
Meanwhile, the NIA on Sunday registered a case to probe the killing of 18 Army personnel in Chandel district of Manipur, an incident which has been described as the worst ever attack. According to a NIA spokesperson, the case was registered in the agency’s Guwahati branch under various sections of the IPC, Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Asserting that breaking down of ceasefire with Khaplang faction of NSCN was the part of a larger conspiracy, security sources said that the NIA may also be asked to probe these aspects of the Manipur killing which is suspected to have the foot-print of some political conspiracy too.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN AND SIGN PETITION BELOW
Irom Sharmila appeared before the metropolitan magistrate Akash Jain in the Patiala session court of Delhi on 5th and 6th June 2015. The Court was required to record statements of the witnesses that included the doctors along with another person who had recorded the protest of Jantar Mantar when Irom Sharmila was in Delhi in 2006.
In this case, the Delhi police had lodged FIR upon Irom Sharmila under section 309 of “Attempt to suicide’. Now as doctors did not come, the next date was given by the court with the hope that it will be the final hearing.
Save sharmila solidarity campaign (SSSC) members accompanied Irom Sharmila in the Court and were present in the court in solidarity. Campaign observed that though it was a judicial requirement, but such kind of hearings are mere unnecessarily harassment on the name of section 309 upon a human rights activist. It is a clear contradiction in Irom Sharmila’s case as while she is fighting for right to life, she is being charged with the allegation of taking away the right to life.
It is also observed that despite Irom Sharmila’s desire to meet Prime minister of India, prime minister office have not called for any meeting yet. It is her demand since long time that she is hopeful with democracy and she wants to meet Prime minister. Save Sharmila Soldarity Campaign believes that not calling a meeting with her is actually a denial of state to meet this crusader of non-violence. It is a time when Irom Sharmila has global supporters to raise voice for her cause, but despite all efforts and unparalleled sacrifice and struggle, Indian state is continuously ignoring and suppressing her. It is unfortunate that the government is giving priority of talks with those who are adopting violent ways, but it is continuously ignoring the non-violence.
Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign is already involve in campaigning and will increase its activities from coming months to spread awareness and to advocate for the cause of Irom Sharmila.
SSSC also condemns the Manipur attack and the questioning of demand of repeal of AFSPA. It was reported and SSSC re-iterates the statement of Irom Sharmila who had condemned the Manipur attack. She regarded the killing of soldiers to be shocking and shameful. She has always condemned killing which is the reason for her protest. She regards killing, no matter by whom, as shameful and unacceptable. She had also said that this incident happened in a region which is under full control of AFSPA but still it happened. It shows that AFSPA has not been the solution.
SSSC agrees and fully supports her view. SSSC feels that such attacks are also failure of state itself as it seems that state has not even capable of protecting its own functionaries. Also, the fact remains that the common people are the sufferers of atrocities of both the state and anti-state groups. Through AFSPA, the state has been involved in performing extreme atrocities upon common people in past. SSSC believes that imposing hard laws like AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in civil areas are of no use and it has been used against people widely. There must be a strategy to remove AFSPA from all areas of North East and J&K as without it confidence building cannot be done. AFSPA is a failed law and it must go.
Stacked on a dining table which doubles up as a workdesk in the office of Human Rights Alert lie postcards written by schoolchildren in Manipur and addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and save democracy in India.
For years, Manipur’s people have been appealing and agitating for the removal of the act which grants immunity to military forces operating in parts of India declared as “disturbed” areas. But in the last week of May, the efforts received an unexpected boost when Tripura lifted AFSPA. “We wanted to send 25,000 cards,” said Babloo Loitongbam, the executive director of Human Rights Alert, an Imphal-based organisation, “but the post office did not have enough. We are sending 3,500 in the first batch.”
Unlike Tripura, where the act was put in place in 1997, AFSPA and its colonial precursors have been in force in Manipur since 1950. The colonial Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942 was first deployed in the state to quell popular unrest when Manipur was merged into India. It became the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act in 1958 which was put in place to help the army crack down on the violent ethnic insurgencies taking root in the state.
Sixty four years under AFSPA and its predecessor have scarred Manipur. Despite the heavy military presence, the state remains one of the most violent parts of India. Over the last decade and a half, several insurgent groups in the state have morphed into extortion rackets. There is an accompanying breakdown in the functioning of the state government. Corruption is high. Not to mention a runaway VIP culture.
Postcards written by school children.
In recent days, buoyed by the lifting of AFSPA in Tripura, the people of Manipur had intensified their campaign asking for its removal. But those hopes received a bodyblow this Thursday when militants killed 20 soldiers of the Indian army in an ambush in Chandel. Claims reaching newspaper offices in Imphal suggest the attack was carried out by the newly formed United Liberation Front of Western South East Asia, comprising a number of insurgent groups from the North East, under SS Khaplang, the head of one of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland factions.
The ambush is certain to be cited by the armed forces to make the case for the continuation of AFSPA in Manipur, even though there is overwhelming evidence on the ground that AFSPA is doing more harm than good in one of the most exquisite states of India.
A land mauled by violence
Manipur is a narrow valley surrounded by hills. This valley – more of a plateau, really – is so small – less than a tenth of the state’s area and about the size of Delhi – that no matter where you go within it, you see the hill ranges bounding it to the east and the west.
The valley used to house a large ancient lake that would swell and ebb with the rains. In recent times, that lake has receded – Manipur’s famous Loktak lake is all that is left.
Today, most of the plateau is used for growing paddy. It also houses towns like Moirang apart from the state capital of Imphal. The people who live here are the Meiteis – Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists. They account for two-thirds of the state’s 25 lakh population. The remaining one-third population that lives in the hills is almost entirely tribal – predominantly Nagas and Kukis.
The lives of Manipuris, however, contrast disturbingly with their arcadian surroundings. Violence is so commonplace that it pops up in most conversations. Every person encountered during a ten-day visit to the state – in buses, in jeeps, in hotels, homes and offices – had an incident to narrate. Incidents of post-traumatic stress disorder are high. Outsiders are frequently told to be back in their hotel rooms before dark.
The history of violence
In Manipur, shortly after India’s independence, insurgency first started in four Naga-dominated hill districts where people wanted their own country. In the sixties, the valley began to see its own insurgent groups. In an article Blue Print for Counterinsurgency, EN Rammohan, a former director general of the Border Security Force and advisor to the Manipur government, said this was a response to corruption and underdevelopment where a set of cronies close to the Indian National Congress captured most contracts in the North East and then siphoned away the money.
Insurgency spread to the non-Naga tribal districts like Churachandpur after the Nagas staked claim over a wider area called Nagalim and issued notices to other tribes like the Kukis asking them to leave. Subsequently, groups fighting for autonomous regions for Hmars and others also came up .
In the early decades, the groups raised revenues through donations. But the requests soon turned into threats, and by the early 2000s, most insurgent groups in the state had mutated into extortion gangs. They also developed links with local politicians. Rammohan writes, “In the elections of year 2000, the different groups were hired by politicians of all hues, both state and national. The groups freely used their guns to intimidate voters and the elections were completely rigged.”
Between the early 2000s and now, things have changed further. The groups continue to have links with political parties. For instance, in the autonomous council elections in the state on the first of this month, insurgent groups in the five hill districts issued diktats variously prohibiting the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party from contesting.
At the same time, the quantum of extortion – while still quite high – has come down. A Congress leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “At one time, people were scared to build houses or buy new cars. In the last five years, that has changed.”
Read more – http://www.scroll.in/article/732113/why-children-in-manipur-are-writing-postcards-to-prime-minister-narendra-modi
1. A draconian law: The AFSPA is a piece of colonial legislation that gives the armed forces of India unfettered power: (i) to use lethal force on civilians even to the extent of causing death on mere suspicion that they may cause breach of any law or order, (ii) to search any dwelling places by breaking them on mere suspicion without warrant and (ii) to arrest people without warrant and to keep them in custody for unspecified time and more importantly the Act also bars the judiciary to question any acts of the armed forces operating under the Act in areas declared disturbed under the Act.
2. Its continuance is based on lies: The Government of India took the plea that it is a temporary measure for meeting an extra-ordinary situation and it would be withdrawn as soon as possible. This plea was taken in parliament when the Act was being passed, in the Supreme Court in the Naga People s Human Rights Movement case in 1997 and in international forums including the United Nations Human Rights Committee. It is now 53 years in North East and 21 years in J & K. If a measure for this length of time is temporary than what is permanent?
3. The provisions of the Act militate against the purpose of the enactment: The non-state armed groups (insurgents, extremists or terrorists, whatever you may call them) need to be dealt with and contained because they violate rights of the people to live peacefully, they try to impose their will on the people and the state unlawfully and violently trampling the constitutionalism and the rule of law that are sine qua non for civilised human existence. It is the mandate of the state to maintain the reign of law and constitution and the writ of the government established by law along with ensuring security and safety of the person and property of the citizens. But when the state through its security forces and law enforcement agencies commits more atrocious acts than the acts which it professes it is fighting the difference between the non-state terrorists and the state gets blurred.The armed forces of India when operate under the AFSPA do not act for enforcement of the constitution and the law of the land or for protection of the life and property of the citizens. Because, they operate outside the constitutional and legal system of the land. The AFSPA places them above the constitution, law and human rights obligations. The AFSPA gives them the power to commit atrocities and wreak terror on the citizens which they are supposed to combat and prevent and protect the citizens from, with additional guarantee of immunity from any accountability. The mischief that is addressed in the statute is doubled by its provisions. To purportedly prevent the people from the terror of certain armed groups the sate itself has unleashed its unmatched terror upon the very people under the AFSPA. And it is not only in law but very much in practice.
4. Problematic political premises: The political premise of the Act appears to be very problematic in the sense that it seeks in essence to impose “Indian-ness” through violence on some of the people of the country who are deemed not to be adequately “Indian”. This is apparent from the facts that despite naxalism being claimed as the biggest threat to the national security the Act is not extended to the naxal affected central India. Rather, it is stated that the responsibility to deal with such problems rests with the state governments, which is very true. This discriminatory attitude can not be explained in any way other than the racial reading of the situations and believe in fascist violence. The “Indian-ness” as it was understood by our freedom fighters and for which they embraced martyrdom is not one which would needed to be or which could be imposed through violence. However, it should be more than clear that we are not seeking extension of the AFSPA to any other part of the country since we want total repeal of the Act. There are many draconian pieces of legislation in force in naxal affected areas, though not of the nature of AFSPA, such the Chhattishgarh Public Security Act etc. which are also needed to be repealed. The phenomenon called naxalism has arisen largely due to the deprivation, discrimination and exploitation of the tribal people of the area. These problems need to be addressed politically and through peaceful means.
5. A fraud on the constitution: The Act provides more than emergency powers to the armed forces fraudulently bypassing the provisions of the constitution of parliamentary oversight over the exercise of such powers. The constitution also imposes duties upon the Union Government to perform its obligations under the international treatises. India is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 (ICCPR) which provides for derogations of some the rights in times of emergency declared legally, which are nonetheless derogated by the Act without such declaration. It is to be noted that the Supreme Court did not examine the compatibility of the Act with the international human rights laws in the Naga People s Movement for Human Rights.
6. The law lacks legality: Both the procedural and substantial requirements of legality are conspicuous by their absence in this Act of the parliament. On the procedural level it is to be noted that the Act came not only as a product of a “decision” by the political executive (i.e., as an ordinance on 22nd May, 1958) but also subsequently escaped more or less unscathed from the “legislative oversight function” of a democratically constituted Parliament on 18 August, 1958. And finally, rather than returning the legislation to the Parliament again for reconsideration, the President readily gave his assent on the legislation, thus making it into a law on 11 September, 1958. On the substantial level the Act does not pass the test of precise definition as its terms are too vague and it also provides powers/measures disproportionate to the mischief it is intended to address.
7. Arbitrary application: Not only the framing of the Act and its provisions are arbitrary but also the application of the Act by declaring certain areas as disturbed is also arbitrary inasmuch as the declaration of areas which are not disturbed in the sense in which the term is contemplated in the Act. For example, the southern part of Assam comprising of the districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi that is known as Barak valley is declared as disturbed area under the Act which can not be said disturbed in any meaning of the word. There has never been any insurgency in the area. And the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi proudly declared it as Valley of Peace admitting the fact.
8. Recommendations of the government committees: Every government committee which examined the Act opined against its continuity in the present form including the Administrative Reforms Committee headed by Mr. Birappa Moily. Most importantly, the Committee to Review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 chaired by Justice Jeevan Reddy unambiguously recommended total repeal of the Act.
9. Militarisation of democracy: The ethos and practices inaugurated, nurtured and sustained by the Act has led to critical erosion of normative (norms) and institutional mechanisms of a civilized democratic life which are critically manifest as (a) the near collapse of Criminal Justice System and (b) culture of impunity of unbridled violence in peoples life. The mockery of democracy is such that it can be termed as democracy at gun point.
10. Traumatised Society: Actions taken under the Act caused hundreds of extra-judicial killings, rapes, torture, enforced disappearances forcing the people to live an uncertain terror-striken life bereft of human dignity. It has made the whole society mentally sick and traumatized.And on many other reasons.
The author is an advocate at Gauhati High Court and human rights defender with Barak Human Rights Protection Committee.
