Irom Sharmila in Custody
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
SUPPORT IROM SHARMILA
SUPPORT IROM SHARMILA
SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF MANIPUR AND CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS IN THEIR FIGHT AGAINST THE AFSPA
On 9th October 2006, Irom Sharmila refused all medical attention. Sitting in her tiny hospital room in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, Delhi), she resolutely withdrew the force-feed tube from her nose against all medical advice.
Sharmila Irom has been on a fast-to-death for over six years now. Six years without food, without even a drop of water touching her lips. Six years without meeting her mother, and rarely being allowed access to her family. Six years of being held under arrest repeatedly on charges of “attempted suicide” by the government.
Sharmila’s demand is simple – repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958. But this is a demand the Indian government is simply not prepared to listen to. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is a particularly black piece of legislation that gives the authority to India’s armed forces, to arrest, search or destroy property without warrant; to shoot – and even kill – on suspicion alone. What is more, it gives the armed forces near-total immunity against any judicial action. Sharmila’s home state of Manipur has been reeling under this act for decades now. So have large parts of North-Eastern India.
On 4th October this year, Sharmila arrived from Manipur to Delhi to continue her epic fast on the streets of Delhi. For days and nights, she camped and slept on the footpaths of Delhi, at Jantar Mantar. Thereafter, in a characteristic midnight swoop, a large force of over a 100 police personnel picked up Sharmila and detained her at AIIMS on the night of Friday the 6th. Once again, her "crime" – attempted suicide!
Sharmila is currently under arrest in Delhi, at AIIMS.
READ MORE ON THIS SUBJECT
READ KAVITA JOSHI’S INTERVIEW OF IROM SHARMILA IN TEHELKA
Young, stoic and dogged, Irom Sharmila has been on a fast-unto-death since November 2000. She wants the repressive Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act repealed. The Act gives draconian powers to the security forces http://www.tehelka.com/story_main17.asp?filename=Cr032506_Iroms_iron.asp
READ SHOMA CHAUDHURY's SEARING PORTRAIT: THE UNLIKELY OUTLAW
“How shall I explain? It is not a punishment, but my bounden duty…” A haunting phrase in a haunting voice, made slow with pain yet magnetic in its moral force...
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main23.asp?filename=Ne120906The_unlikely_CS.asp&id=1#
and page 2
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main23.asp?filename=Ne120906The_unlikely_CS.asp&id=2
READ HARSH DOBHAL IN COMBAT LAW
New private ward. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. As you enter the building, about a dozen policemen...
http://combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=835&issue_id=31
READ NANDINI SUNDAR’S ARTICLE ON SHARMILA IN TOI
When we first heard of Irom Sharmila in 2004, she had already been fasting for four years in protest against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In July that year, a young woman…
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2132074.cms
READ KARTYK VENKATARAMAN ON IROM SHARMILA’S ARRIVAL IN DELHI; INDIAN EXPRESS
Manipur's most famous protestor, Sharmila Chanu, poses a tough dilemma for the national government
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/14153.html
READ SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN ON THE AFSPA; IN THE HINDU
The question of repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act needs to be debated publicly in the light of the Justice B.P. Jeevan ReddyCommittee's report.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/10/stories/2006101002661100.htm
READ THE: BARE ACT OF THE AFSPA 1958
please follow this link
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA200252005
A pdf will open. Go to Appendix I, page 25. Or, go to:
http://kavitajoshi.blogspot.com/2006/10/afspa-1958-read-bare-act.html
JEEVAN REDDY COMMISSION REPORT IS NOW ONLINE
http://www.hindu.com/nic/afa/
FACTSHEET ON AFSPA: SAHELI AND PUDR
http://kavitajoshi.blogspot.com/2006/10/armed-forces-special-powers-act-1958.html
READ MORE ON: MANIPUR CAMPAIGN WEBSITE
http://manipurfreedom.org/
PRESS COVERAGE OF IROM SHARMILA's PROTEST IN DELHI
http://manipurfreedom.org/press/
PHOTO GALLERY OF IROM SHARMILA's DELHI FAST
please see the link on the blogroll
SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF MANIPUR AND CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS IN THEIR FIGHT AGAINST THE AFSPA
On 9th October 2006, Irom Sharmila refused all medical attention. Sitting in her tiny hospital room in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, Delhi), she resolutely withdrew the force-feed tube from her nose against all medical advice.
Sharmila Irom has been on a fast-to-death for over six years now. Six years without food, without even a drop of water touching her lips. Six years without meeting her mother, and rarely being allowed access to her family. Six years of being held under arrest repeatedly on charges of “attempted suicide” by the government.
Sharmila’s demand is simple – repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958. But this is a demand the Indian government is simply not prepared to listen to. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is a particularly black piece of legislation that gives the authority to India’s armed forces, to arrest, search or destroy property without warrant; to shoot – and even kill – on suspicion alone. What is more, it gives the armed forces near-total immunity against any judicial action. Sharmila’s home state of Manipur has been reeling under this act for decades now. So have large parts of North-Eastern India.
On 4th October this year, Sharmila arrived from Manipur to Delhi to continue her epic fast on the streets of Delhi. For days and nights, she camped and slept on the footpaths of Delhi, at Jantar Mantar. Thereafter, in a characteristic midnight swoop, a large force of over a 100 police personnel picked up Sharmila and detained her at AIIMS on the night of Friday the 6th. Once again, her "crime" – attempted suicide!
Sharmila is currently under arrest in Delhi, at AIIMS.
READ MORE ON THIS SUBJECT
READ KAVITA JOSHI’S INTERVIEW OF IROM SHARMILA IN TEHELKA
Young, stoic and dogged, Irom Sharmila has been on a fast-unto-death since November 2000. She wants the repressive Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act repealed. The Act gives draconian powers to the security forces http://www.tehelka.com/story_main17.asp?filename=Cr032506_Iroms_iron.asp
READ SHOMA CHAUDHURY's SEARING PORTRAIT: THE UNLIKELY OUTLAW
“How shall I explain? It is not a punishment, but my bounden duty…” A haunting phrase in a haunting voice, made slow with pain yet magnetic in its moral force...
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main23.asp?filename=Ne120906The_unlikely_CS.asp&id=1#
and page 2
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main23.asp?filename=Ne120906The_unlikely_CS.asp&id=2
READ HARSH DOBHAL IN COMBAT LAW
New private ward. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. As you enter the building, about a dozen policemen...
http://combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=835&issue_id=31
READ NANDINI SUNDAR’S ARTICLE ON SHARMILA IN TOI
When we first heard of Irom Sharmila in 2004, she had already been fasting for four years in protest against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In July that year, a young woman…
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2132074.cms
READ KARTYK VENKATARAMAN ON IROM SHARMILA’S ARRIVAL IN DELHI; INDIAN EXPRESS
Manipur's most famous protestor, Sharmila Chanu, poses a tough dilemma for the national government
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/14153.html
READ SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN ON THE AFSPA; IN THE HINDU
The question of repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act needs to be debated publicly in the light of the Justice B.P. Jeevan ReddyCommittee's report.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/10/stories/2006101002661100.htm
READ THE: BARE ACT OF THE AFSPA 1958
please follow this link
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA200252005
A pdf will open. Go to Appendix I, page 25. Or, go to:
http://kavitajoshi.blogspot.com/2006/10/afspa-1958-read-bare-act.html
JEEVAN REDDY COMMISSION REPORT IS NOW ONLINE
http://www.hindu.com/nic/afa/
FACTSHEET ON AFSPA: SAHELI AND PUDR
http://kavitajoshi.blogspot.com/2006/10/armed-forces-special-powers-act-1958.html
READ MORE ON: MANIPUR CAMPAIGN WEBSITE
http://manipurfreedom.org/
PRESS COVERAGE OF IROM SHARMILA's PROTEST IN DELHI
http://manipurfreedom.org/press/
PHOTO GALLERY OF IROM SHARMILA's DELHI FAST
please see the link on the blogroll
Monday, October 09, 2006
AFSPA 1958: Read the "Bare Act"
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958
An Act to enable certain special powers to be conferred upon members of the armed forces in disturbed areas in the State of Assam and the Union Territory of Manipur.
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:
1. (i) This Act may be called [The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958].
(ii) It extends to the whole of the State of Assam and the Union Territory of Manipur.
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) "armed forces" means the military forces and the air forces of the Union so operating
(b) "disturbed area" means an area which is for the time being declared by notification under section 3, to be a disturbed area;
(c) all other words and expressions used herein, but not defined and defined in the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950), or the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950) shall have meanings respectively assigned to them in those Acts.
3. If the Governor of Assam or the Chief Commissioner of Manipur is of the opinion that the whole or any part of the State of Assam or the Union Territory of Manipur, as the case may be, is in such a disturbed or dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil powers in necessary, he may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare the whole or any part of the State or Union territory to be a disturbed area.
4. Any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the Armed Forces may, in a disturbed area,
(a) if he is of opinion that it is necessary so to do for the maintenance of public order, after giving such due warning as he may consider necessary, fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons or of things capable of being used as weapons or of fire-arms, ammunition or explosive substances;
(b) if he is of opinion that it is necessary so to do, destroy any arms dump, prepared or fortified position or shelter from which armed attacks are made or are likely to be made or are attempted to be made, or any structure used as a training camp for armed volunteers or utilised as a hide-out by armed gangs or absconders wanted for any offence;
(c) arrest, without warrant, any person who has committed a cognisable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognisable offence and may use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest;
(d) enter and search without warrant any premises to make any such arrest as aforesaid or to recover any person believed to be wrongfully restrained or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances believed to be unlawfully kept in such premises and may for that purpose use such force as may be necessary.
5. Any person arrested and taken into custody under this Act shall be made over to the officer-in-charge of the nearest police station with the least possible delay, together with a report of the circumstances occasioning the arrest.
6. No prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Central Government against any person in respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.
7. (1) The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance 1958 is hereby repealed.
(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything done or any action taken under the said Ordinance shall be deemed to have done or taken under this Act, as if this Act had commenced on the 22nd day of May, 1958.
Source: Extraordinary Laws in India. Indian Social Institute. New Delhi: 2002.
Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers (Amendment) Act 1972
An Act to amend the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958.
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Twenty-Third Year of the Republic of India as follows:
1. This Act may be called the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers (Amendment) Act 1972.
2. In the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), in the long title, for the words "in the State of Assam and the Union Territory of Manipur" the words "in the States of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram" shall be substituted.
3. In section1 of the principal Act(a) in sub-section (1) for the words, brackets and figures "the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act 1958" the words, brackets and figures "the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958" shall be substituted:(b) for sub-section (2) the following sub section shall be substituted, namely:
(2) It extends to the whole of the States of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and the Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
4. For section 3 of the principal Act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:
[5] If in relation to any State or Union Territory to which this Act extends, the Governor of the State or the Administrator of the Union Territory, as the case may be, is in such a disturbed or dangerous condition that the use of Armed Forces in aid of civil power is necessary, the Governor of the State of the Administrator of that Union Territory or the Central Government, as the case may be, may, by notification in the Official Gazetter, declare the whole or such State of Union Territory to be a disturbed area.
5. As from the Commencement of this Act, the principal Act, as extended by notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs No GSR 1970, dated 25th November 1970 to the then existing Union Territory of Tripura, shall cease to operate in the State of Tripura.
Source: Extraordinary Laws in India. Indian Social Institute. New Delhi: 2002.
An Act to enable certain special powers to be conferred upon members of the armed forces in disturbed areas in the State of Assam and the Union Territory of Manipur.
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:
1. (i) This Act may be called [The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958].
(ii) It extends to the whole of the State of Assam and the Union Territory of Manipur.
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) "armed forces" means the military forces and the air forces of the Union so operating
(b) "disturbed area" means an area which is for the time being declared by notification under section 3, to be a disturbed area;
(c) all other words and expressions used herein, but not defined and defined in the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950), or the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950) shall have meanings respectively assigned to them in those Acts.
3. If the Governor of Assam or the Chief Commissioner of Manipur is of the opinion that the whole or any part of the State of Assam or the Union Territory of Manipur, as the case may be, is in such a disturbed or dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil powers in necessary, he may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare the whole or any part of the State or Union territory to be a disturbed area.
4. Any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the Armed Forces may, in a disturbed area,
(a) if he is of opinion that it is necessary so to do for the maintenance of public order, after giving such due warning as he may consider necessary, fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons or of things capable of being used as weapons or of fire-arms, ammunition or explosive substances;
(b) if he is of opinion that it is necessary so to do, destroy any arms dump, prepared or fortified position or shelter from which armed attacks are made or are likely to be made or are attempted to be made, or any structure used as a training camp for armed volunteers or utilised as a hide-out by armed gangs or absconders wanted for any offence;
(c) arrest, without warrant, any person who has committed a cognisable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognisable offence and may use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest;
(d) enter and search without warrant any premises to make any such arrest as aforesaid or to recover any person believed to be wrongfully restrained or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances believed to be unlawfully kept in such premises and may for that purpose use such force as may be necessary.
5. Any person arrested and taken into custody under this Act shall be made over to the officer-in-charge of the nearest police station with the least possible delay, together with a report of the circumstances occasioning the arrest.
6. No prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Central Government against any person in respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.
7. (1) The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance 1958 is hereby repealed.
(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything done or any action taken under the said Ordinance shall be deemed to have done or taken under this Act, as if this Act had commenced on the 22nd day of May, 1958.
Source: Extraordinary Laws in India. Indian Social Institute. New Delhi: 2002.
Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers (Amendment) Act 1972
An Act to amend the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958.
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Twenty-Third Year of the Republic of India as follows:
1. This Act may be called the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers (Amendment) Act 1972.
2. In the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), in the long title, for the words "in the State of Assam and the Union Territory of Manipur" the words "in the States of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram" shall be substituted.
3. In section1 of the principal Act(a) in sub-section (1) for the words, brackets and figures "the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act 1958" the words, brackets and figures "the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958" shall be substituted:(b) for sub-section (2) the following sub section shall be substituted, namely:
(2) It extends to the whole of the States of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and the Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
4. For section 3 of the principal Act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:
[5] If in relation to any State or Union Territory to which this Act extends, the Governor of the State or the Administrator of the Union Territory, as the case may be, is in such a disturbed or dangerous condition that the use of Armed Forces in aid of civil power is necessary, the Governor of the State of the Administrator of that Union Territory or the Central Government, as the case may be, may, by notification in the Official Gazetter, declare the whole or such State of Union Territory to be a disturbed area.
5. As from the Commencement of this Act, the principal Act, as extended by notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs No GSR 1970, dated 25th November 1970 to the then existing Union Territory of Tripura, shall cease to operate in the State of Tripura.
Source: Extraordinary Laws in India. Indian Social Institute. New Delhi: 2002.
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958: A Fact Sheet
[- a factsheet adapted by the SAHELI and PUDR team from earlier reports and submissions to the Jeevan Reddy Committee]
Over the last five decades, heavy militarisation in the north east has taken its toll on normal civilian life and led to innumerable instances of violations committed against the civilian populations there. Encounter deaths, extra judicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, rape and torture have been a regular feature among the relentless series of atrocities meted out to the people by the army with impunity, especially in areas where they are protected by legislation like AFSPA.
Some of the most widely known incidents of such excesses in the north east are:
• army torture and violence against the villagers of Oinam (Manipur) in 1987 who were detained in army camps, beaten mercilessly, given electric shocks. At least 3 women were raped, 15 villagers killed, and many left permanently disabled;
• the gang rape of the women of Ujanmaidan (Tripura) by security forces;
• the terror wreaked by the army in Assam during Operation Rhino in 1991;
• the shelling of the town of Ukhrul (Manipur) with mortars in May 1994 by the Assam Rifles when they violently ransacked the town, leaving many homes damaged, over a hundred men and women bleeding with serious injuries and 3 dead;
• four women raped at gunpoint, and homes and shops set on fire by the Maratha Light Infantry, killing others people in December 1994 in Mokokchung (Nagaland);
• indiscriminate firing on civilians and combing operations by the combined forces of the 16th Rashtriya Rifles, CRPF and Assam Rifles when a tyre of an army jeep burst in the Kohima town (Nagaland) in March 1995;
• torture, forced detaining, starvation, sexual assault of women and looting in the 5 villages of Namtiram (Manipur) in 1995 by the 21st Rajputana Rifles;
• the army’s reign of terror in Jesami (Manipur) in January 1996;
• the rampage of the village of Huishu (Manipur) by the Assam rifles in March 1996
• the massacre of 10 innocent civilians by the Assam Rifles in Malom (Manipur) on 2 November, 2000 by security forces
• the torture, rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama in Imphal (Manipur) in 2004
Outside the north east too, human rights violations in Jammu & Kashmir under the AFSPA are commonplace, including disappearances, torture, arbitrary killings and numerous instances of mass rape of Kashmiri women by security forces.
AFSPA : Constitutional Contradictions
The large scale violations of fundamental rights in the north eastern states is a direct consequence of the provisions of the AFSPA, of areas declared as Disturbed Areas under Section No. 3 and the simultaneous acquiring of wide powers by army personnel under Section 4 of the Act.
The AFSPA which grants armed forces personnel the power to shoot to arrest, search, seize and even shoot to kill, violate the Right to Life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India which guarantees the right to life to all people.
The AFSPA also violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Indian signed the ICCPR in 1978, taking on the responsibility of securing the rights guaranteed by the Covenant to all its citizens. In particular, the Act is in contravention of Article 6 of the ICCPR guaranteeing the right to life.
Crucially, the AFSPA effectively undermines civil authority. For instance:
After the Oinam incident (1987) the Chief Minister, wrote to the Union Home Minister, “The civil law has, unfortunately, ceased to operate in Senapati District Manipur due to excesses committed by the Assam Rifles with complete disregard shown to the civil administration. ....the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police were wrongfully confined, humiliated and prevented from discharging their official duties by the Security Forces”. And consequent to the Kohima incident in 1995, even the Superintendent of Police, Kohima, was stopped at gun point by army personnel.
At the same time, the AFSPA is an emergency legislation that Constitutionally requires to be reviewed every 6 months. Yet it has been imposed in Manipur and other states of the north east for years on end, which contributes the misuse of unbridled and arbitrary powers by the armed forces.
END THE LAW THAT GIVES THE ARMED FORCES IMMUNITY FOR RAPE, MURDER, TORTURE AND OTHER HEINOUS CRIMES.
END THE ARMED FORCES (SPECIAL POWERS) ACT 1958
***
Over the last five decades, heavy militarisation in the north east has taken its toll on normal civilian life and led to innumerable instances of violations committed against the civilian populations there. Encounter deaths, extra judicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, rape and torture have been a regular feature among the relentless series of atrocities meted out to the people by the army with impunity, especially in areas where they are protected by legislation like AFSPA.
Some of the most widely known incidents of such excesses in the north east are:
• army torture and violence against the villagers of Oinam (Manipur) in 1987 who were detained in army camps, beaten mercilessly, given electric shocks. At least 3 women were raped, 15 villagers killed, and many left permanently disabled;
• the gang rape of the women of Ujanmaidan (Tripura) by security forces;
• the terror wreaked by the army in Assam during Operation Rhino in 1991;
• the shelling of the town of Ukhrul (Manipur) with mortars in May 1994 by the Assam Rifles when they violently ransacked the town, leaving many homes damaged, over a hundred men and women bleeding with serious injuries and 3 dead;
• four women raped at gunpoint, and homes and shops set on fire by the Maratha Light Infantry, killing others people in December 1994 in Mokokchung (Nagaland);
• indiscriminate firing on civilians and combing operations by the combined forces of the 16th Rashtriya Rifles, CRPF and Assam Rifles when a tyre of an army jeep burst in the Kohima town (Nagaland) in March 1995;
• torture, forced detaining, starvation, sexual assault of women and looting in the 5 villages of Namtiram (Manipur) in 1995 by the 21st Rajputana Rifles;
• the army’s reign of terror in Jesami (Manipur) in January 1996;
• the rampage of the village of Huishu (Manipur) by the Assam rifles in March 1996
• the massacre of 10 innocent civilians by the Assam Rifles in Malom (Manipur) on 2 November, 2000 by security forces
• the torture, rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama in Imphal (Manipur) in 2004
Outside the north east too, human rights violations in Jammu & Kashmir under the AFSPA are commonplace, including disappearances, torture, arbitrary killings and numerous instances of mass rape of Kashmiri women by security forces.
AFSPA : Constitutional Contradictions
The large scale violations of fundamental rights in the north eastern states is a direct consequence of the provisions of the AFSPA, of areas declared as Disturbed Areas under Section No. 3 and the simultaneous acquiring of wide powers by army personnel under Section 4 of the Act.
The AFSPA which grants armed forces personnel the power to shoot to arrest, search, seize and even shoot to kill, violate the Right to Life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India which guarantees the right to life to all people.
The AFSPA also violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Indian signed the ICCPR in 1978, taking on the responsibility of securing the rights guaranteed by the Covenant to all its citizens. In particular, the Act is in contravention of Article 6 of the ICCPR guaranteeing the right to life.
Crucially, the AFSPA effectively undermines civil authority. For instance:
After the Oinam incident (1987) the Chief Minister, wrote to the Union Home Minister, “The civil law has, unfortunately, ceased to operate in Senapati District Manipur due to excesses committed by the Assam Rifles with complete disregard shown to the civil administration. ....the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police were wrongfully confined, humiliated and prevented from discharging their official duties by the Security Forces”. And consequent to the Kohima incident in 1995, even the Superintendent of Police, Kohima, was stopped at gun point by army personnel.
At the same time, the AFSPA is an emergency legislation that Constitutionally requires to be reviewed every 6 months. Yet it has been imposed in Manipur and other states of the north east for years on end, which contributes the misuse of unbridled and arbitrary powers by the armed forces.
END THE LAW THAT GIVES THE ARMED FORCES IMMUNITY FOR RAPE, MURDER, TORTURE AND OTHER HEINOUS CRIMES.
END THE ARMED FORCES (SPECIAL POWERS) ACT 1958
***
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