AFSPA : Time to ink its epitaph

Ideally this question should not have come up in the first place, especially in the land of the Buddha and Gandhi and which has the distinction of being the largest democracy in the world. Not only this, India is also one of the few countries of the erstwhile British Empire, where democracy has succeeded, with no tin pot dictators dictating terms, a la Pakistan. Given such a background and the present political climate, why should there be a heated debate over the imposition or revocation/repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act ? Why should a democracy like India feel the need to adopt an Act framed by her former ruler (the slight modifications here and there should not fool us), which was a manifestation of the divide between a colonial power and a colonised people ? The answer is both simple and at the same time extremely difficult and dicey. It is only expected that Delhi should keep National integrity as its first priority but simultaneously democracy should also have no room for any provisions that give unbridled powers to the military to deal with internal issues. Okay there are some who belong to the school of thought that the armed movement in the North East should not be viewed as an internal matter, but an issue between two distinct entities, with Delhi taking on the role of the coloniser, after the British left. We will deal with this issue when the time comes, but for the moment, let's concentrate on the imposition of the remnants of an Act which was primarily formed to keep the colonised people collared and tethered. At the moment the focus is on Kashmir, following the civil unrest for over two months which has claimed the lives of more than 60 people, mostly teenagers. Normalcy is far from over and it is against this backdrop that AFSPA has once again come to the forefront triggering off a debate. Kashmir is the centre of attention and according to what we have been hearing and reading as well as listening, the debate seems to be tilting towards some adhoc measures, such as repealing it from some parts of Kashmir, like it was done in the seven Assembly segments lying within the Imphal Municipal Council. We do not know how the Kashmiris will respond to this, but we are firm in our belief that such piecemeal approach cannot bring any solution. By this we are not saying that Kashmir should burn and the kids should go out on the streets again to engage the security personnel with catapults and other ingenious ‘weapons’, but voicing our stand that a thorough discussion and debate, without any strings attached and with no political vote banks in mind, is urgently needed. The only point is, is Delhi or India ready for this ? Also let's not forget that in the enthusiasm to defuse the crisis in Kashmir, the same Act has been enforced in the North East region since the armed insurrection was launched by the Naga National Council way back in the 50s.
The Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission, which was instituted to look into the provisions of the Act and see what can be done to make it more humane, is understood to have put in certain suggestions and points. This is one part of the story and the other part of the story is that the Government of India has been sitting on it all these years. The Commission was instituted following the prolonged agitation after the arrest, ‘rape’ and brutal murder of Th Manorama, way back in 2005. That the Manorama case is back in the public domain, thanks to the ruling of the Principal seat of the Gauhati High Court on August 31, at this juncture may be dismissed as a co-incidence, but no one can write off the significance of not only the ruling of the High Court but also the time and situation under which it was pronounced. As we had said, it is now left to the State Government to go through the report submitted by the C Upendra Commission and accordingly take appropriate action. This is not an attempt to link the present Nation wide debate over AFSPA following the civil unrest in Kashmir, with the case of Th Manorama, but there is no denying the fact that the common thread that runs through these two cases is the said Army Act. The question, which everybody should be asking and which should be the focus of everyone is whether AFSPA is indispensable for the integrity of the country or not. Is it really important to give the license to shoot and even kill a suspect by an official of the rank of a Non-Commissioned Officer, in areas that come under the protective umbrella of the said Act ? From Delhi's viewpoint, these provisions are necessary and hence its enforcement in States or areas, which come under the Disturbed Area Act. That the provisions of AFSPA are there primarily to enable the soldiers to carry out their duties, cannot jell with the civilised world today, is a given. It would have been more appropriate if the said Act had been associated with radical groups like the Taliban. Mass massacre, women raped and killed, forcing expecting mothers to give birth in the open fields, custodial killings, disappearing after being picked up by security personnel under the immunity granted to them under AFSPA. These are facts, which the people of the North East and Kashmir have been forced to face in their daily lives for decades. The question is, are all the examples, which we have just quoted, really connected to the security and integrity of the country ? By itself, AFSPA, if used judiciously may be turned into a trump card for the security personnel, but history and the present tell us that far from being the trump card, it has become a source of embarassment to the military establishment. In short, the time is ripe to write the epitaph of AFSPA or else the epitaph may be written for the Indian Union, if not in the sense of its real disintegration but at least at the mental level, where the disconnect between peoples and regions will be loudly pronounced.

AFSPA : Prescribing Colas for cold

It cannot get clearer than this. The Principal Seat of the Gauhati High Court with Justice Amitabh Roy and Justice BS Agarwal on the bench, in their August 31, 2010, ruling has clearly stated that the State Government can go ahead and peruse the report submitted by the C Upendra Commission and accordingly take action in the case pertaining to the arrest, ‘rape’ and custodial killing of Th Manorama way back in the month of July in 2004. Though the details and the legal terminologies which encase the Armed Forces Special Powers Act may be Greek to the common people, not lettered with the proceedings of the Court or the language used in legal proceedings, the implication of AFSPA is more than clear to the 25 odd lakh population of the State. This specifically means that the Gauhati High Court has refused to buy the argument of the Assam Rifles that since their men acted under the legal immunity granted by the said Act, the State Government is not authorised to institute the Judicial Inquiry, much less act on it, and hence the Commission's report should not be entertained at all. The argument of the Assam Rifles rests on two premises, one on the legal and the other on the successful indoctrination of the idea that human casualties or to put it in a more sophisticated term, made popular by the Indian Army, collateral damages which are inevitable during any CI Ops. The long years of such indoctrination obviously gave the security personnel a sense of immunity from the laws of the land and the inevitability of the collateral damages came to be understood as the license to shoot indiscriminately and kill indiscriminately, pick up suspected targets and act as the police, judge and executioner, all rolled into one. The timing of the Court's ruling has also come at the opportune moment, if we take a look at what is happening in the other trouble spot of India, Kashmir. Ever since the civil unrest started in Kashmir more than two months back, it has snuffed out the lives of a number of youngsters, who are at the most in their late teens. Boys as young as 13 or 14 coming out to the street to engage the security personnel who are armed not only with their guns, but also AFSPA, says something very significant and it is but natural that a debate should start on whether AFSPA is the wrong prescription for the situation in the North East and Kashmir. The ruling of the Gauhati High Court on August 31 is sure to set a precedent and give a dose of booster shot in the arms of all those who feel they have been wronged by the wrong side of the law under AFSPA. As we have said, the ruling of the Gauhati High Court is clear and we can also predict clearly that the military establishment, maybe backed by the Union Home Ministry, will move the Supreme Court for a hearing of the said case and we can be rest assured that it would consume so much time that the relevance of the issue may lose their sting. Kashmir is hot right now, Sharmila is still on her fast unto death agitation demanding revocation or repeal of the Act and is set to complete ten years of her fast in November this year and of course seminars and discourses, such as the one which is lined up on September 8 at New Delhi where Parliamentarians, scholars, members of the armed forces and representatives from Indian civil societies will meet to discuss the said Act under the topic, “We need to need to break the deadlock in the debate on AFSPA.”
All the points we have mentioned are clear, this much is certain. What is uncertain is, of course, how the Supreme Court will view the judgement passed by the Gauhati High Court. Despite the din and ruckus created over AFSPA and the propaganda that runs along the line that it is not only discriminatory but is a perfect tool to keep the people of the North East under subjugation, through the barrel of the guns, we do understand the spirit of AFSPA. That National integrity is paramount to Delhi is under- standable and we leave it to the contending parties to come to a negotiated settlement on the question of whether a group of people or territory should remain within the Indian Union or not. However while the spirit of AFSPA is understandable, what is unacceptable and will not pass the test of a free and democratic country is the abuse of the said Act. The clear lack of any guilt or remorse on the part of the military officers, who, besides getting trained in warfare, have been taught to be gentlemen and officers, only add to the rabid stand against this Act. The clauses contained in AFSPA harks back to the days of the British Raj, meaning it was intended to keep under control a colonised people and region, and adding to the satanic side of the Act is the very conduct of some security personnel, including officers, who are supposed to lead by example. Why, even the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court more than three decades back are not adhered to at all. If the directives of the Supreme Court had been taken as the soul or the conscience keeper of the Act, then such a hue and cry against the said Act may not have arisen. We may not have witnessed an Oinam, a Manora-ma, a Ngaprum Rose, Malom, Heirangoithong, RIMS, Tonsen Lamkhai etc. These instances are but just a fraction of all the cases of excesses committed by the men in uniform that come to mind and Nagaland, too will have many similar tales to tell. In Manorama's death, the State Government has at last been given the opportunity to prove its mettle and demonstrate how it can stand up to the mighty Indian military establishment. This is one extremely uneasy and uncertain point in the whole story that is unfolding before our eyes. That a definite date for the Cabinet to meet and discuss the reports of the C Upendra Commission has not yet been set, rings out an uncomfortable thought and we hope it is not a precursor of the things to come.

Sharmila’s date with AFSPA

The timing is right and so are the circumstances. The debate over the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act is not something new and it has been there since the late 70s or early 80s, when the Naga People's Movement for Human Rights filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India challenging the validity or legality of the said Act. The Court ruled in favour of the said Act, but in the process it laid down a certain set of dos and don'ts for the security personnel, who operate under the legal protection provided by this Act. At the moment, the debate over the continued imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has reached a crescendo, with the focus on the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, which has so far claimed the lives of nearly 70 or more civilians in the last 60 days or so. Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has already made his position clear and that is AFSPA needs to be repealed as it has only succeeded in alienating the people of Kashmir further. This point has also been brought to the notice of the Centre numerous times, by several human rights groups from the North East and perhaps, the year 2004 will go down as a water shed in the protest against the continued imposition of the said Act. The nude protest by women folk in front of Kangla, the self immolation of Pebam Chittaranjan, the over two months long agitation which ultimately led Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh to fly down to Imphal in November , 2004 wherein the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission was constituted to look into the finer details of the said Act and see what can be done. As things have turned out, the Centre has been sleeping over the recommendations of the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission, but the significance of the Prime Minister's observation that a humane Act is needed, cannot be lost on anyone, especially the policy framers of the country as well as the military establishment. At that point of time, in 2004, Kashmir did not figure prominently in the debate, but today, the focus on the said Act, which is a remnant of the British Raj, has come into focus following the turmoil in Kashmir for more than two months, which has seen teenagers coming out on the streets to engage the security personnel in a battle of stone pelting or catapult war. There is something different in the present turmoil, for the security forces are not engaged by any armed or banned organisations, but by the ordinary folks, mostly comprising of young people, some of whom must have just stepped into their teens. With the body bags increasing, it took Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to admit that proposals to amend the said Act, which gives sweeping powers to the military, have met with stiff opposition from some quarters and we do not need rocket science technology to work out who are the ones opposing any move to dilute the said Act and make it more humane or make the security forces more accountable to the law of the land. The fact that the Supreme Court deemed it necessary to issue a certain set of guidelines or dos and don'ts to the security forces, operating under this Act, is a tacit acceptance of the fact that the said Act contains provisions for misuse of power, that do nothing except victimise the people.
While AFSPA has come to occupy centre stage in Delhi and elsewhere due to the turmoil in Kashmir, in Manipur too, this Act has resurfaced to occupy precious newspapers columns for two entirely different reasons. Wittingly or unwittingly, it was Chief Minister O Ibobi who raked up the AFSPA issue while addressing the people while paying tributes to late Major Laishram Jyotin, who died fighting terrorists, who had stormed the Indian Embassy at Kabul in the early part of this year. Perhaps it was over enthusiasm or perhaps it was the failure to grasp the heart beats of the people, or perhaps it was a deliberate attempt to add more punch to the questions posed against the numerous women activists, who have been crying hoarse about human rights violations, but have been keeping a deafening silence, over the increasing cases of bomb attacks and violence in Imphal area. Whatever the case, Chief Minister O Ibobi managed to rake up the AFSPA issue, when he opted for the carrot and stick policy, by hinting or subtly threatening that AFSPA may be re-imposed in the seven Assembly segments of the Indian Municipal Council, if things do not improve. That the carrot and stick policy no longer impresses an adult audience, seems to have blown over the head of the Chief Minister, but in one stroke he has been able to bring the focus back on AFSPA, while this issue is being hotly debated in other parts of the country, following the unprecedented public turmoil in Kashmir. On a more sombre but dignified manner, this said Act has come back to the consciousness of the people of Manipur, as Irom Sharmila Chanu is set to complete ten years of hunger strike, demanding the total revocation of the said Act. The lone crusader has in the last ten years or so, demonstrated to the whole world, how an issue can be kept alive or a target pursued by steering clear of threatrics and indulging in lung power or street politics, where everything is noise and din with little substance. It has been a dignified and silent protest, far removed from the type of protests that we have seen in this part of the world. So in Kashmir, it is the turmoil during the last 60 days or so of public protest, while in Manipur, it was the ‘slip of the tongue’ of the Chief Minister and the dignified and silent protest launched by Sharmila which have brought the said controversial Act into the consciousness of the people. The important and critical question lying before us, as former Health Director Dr Th Suresh pointed out in a letter to the Editor and published some days back in this newspaper is, what would be the fate of Sharmila, if everyone accepts some cuts and amendments in AFSPA instead of its total repeal ? The answer can only be provided by Sharmila herself, but let's also not forget that constructive counselling is important and that she has done more than what all the other champions of human rights have done till date.

Sweet and bitter

It would have been a block buster or we would have been more than willing to give the five star ratings to Chief Minister O Ibobi for hitting out at the right platform amid the right audience and in the right time. However true to his characteristics, the Chief Minister did not just stop at the point that would have earned him laurels from all quarters, but went off track and in the process, his speech or address which otherwise was bang on target, received that dose of poli-speak, to coin a term, which had no relevance to the time or occasion but only had the potential to expose a confused mindset. Chief Minister O Ibobi did the right thing in going ahead and meeting the parents and family members of the late Major Jyotin, who engaged a fully armed terrorist with his bare hands to a scuffle and managed to save the lives of a number of his colleagues, before being blown apart by the vest bomb which the terrorist wore and triggered off on realising that it was a losing battle. Both died, but both will not and cannot receive the same due respect and homage due to a departed soul, as per the universal understanding of who is a protector and who is a terrorist. That the heroic deed that we are talking occurred on one of the most important dates in the history of India, January 26, Republic Day, 2010 during a terror strike at the Indian Embassy in Kabul, adds to the significance of the legacy of the late Major, the first from the Medical Corp of the Indian Army to be conferred the Ashok Chakra posthumously. The Chief Minister's visit to the natal home of the late Major at Nambol was perfectly in line with what was expected from the leader of the people of Manipur and so was the ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakhs, though in the ultimate estimation, the ex-gratia will not amount to much, whether in terms of its monetary values in the market or when put on the measuring scale with the sacrifice of Major Jyotin. It is also extremely important and significant that the Chief Minister took the opportunity to come out hammer and tongs against all the women activists, the Ima and Ibens. The Chief Minister's poser to them was direct and without malice, for pointing out the facts cannot be termed malicious in the civilised world. A dharna here and there against the threats on the civil population, such as planting bombs, gifting bullets or even firing at the residence of an official, a contractor or a trader, all for money, does not in any way reflect genuine concern of the situation. In fact such token acts of solidarity or protest exposes nothing but the hypocrisy of the people and we are not at all surprised by this if we care to recollect some instances of the past. What happened the day after the bomb attack at ISKCON during Krishna Janma in 2006, which claimed a number of innocent lives, tells a significant story. We remember correctly, the next day passed off as if everything was hunky dory, with just some token show of protest or solidarity that such terror activities will not be tolerated. That this was the reaction of the people in a land, where a hue and cry is raised even over the most of trivial issues is surprising and shocking !
The few examples we have cited will help us in getting a better understanding of the points that we are going to enumerate now. Yes, the Chief Minister was absolutely right in asking where all the Ima-Ibens have disappeared amid the rising trend of bomb attacks at the residences of anyone who has some deposits in the bank or who is perceived to belong to the moneyed class or when bullets are delivered as gifts to get the message across or when houses are fired upon. This is a question which has been doing the round amongst the people, but which has not been articulated on public platforms, for reasons we do not need to elaborate here. However question we must, oppose we must and realise we must of the fact that the man holding the gun and pointing the barrel at us could be anyone, a security personnel, a self appointed son of the soil who dons the mask of the highly romantic sounding term, revolutionaries or some goons. The romance of insurrection or taking up the gun and leading the life of a fugitive in revolt against the ruling elite, under a well defined ideology, has been muddied by some crooks, and perhaps we can say that this tryst with the romance of revolution died when Che Guevera was executed by the Bolivian army many decades back. The only living figure from such an era is Fidel Castro of Cuba, but here too, he is today no longer seen as a man waging a battle from the jungles, but more of a statesman. It is amid this historical reality that Manipur is experiencing one of its most turbulent times, with everyone free to float an outfit or two, pick up an alias, that sounds distinctly ‘ferocious‘ and radical, and then take the journey of terror to earn money by using some hand grenades and hand guns to open fire at the intended target. The Chief Minister was again bang on target in questioning where all the champions of human rights have disappeared in the face of all these acts of violence, nay terror, that are enacted in the name of the Motherland. The flip side however is, it would have been perfect or a score 9.9 out of ten if Mr Ibobi Singh had stuck to this, but in his over enthusiasm, he in a way threatened the people with the reimposition of AFSPA in the seven Assembly segments of Imphal Municipal Council. This is not only foolhardy but betrays an acute lack of understanding of the sentiments of the people. The public should not be taken as fools that the Government think that it can play around. The epitaph of the carrots and sticks policy has been written a long time back. Our advice is give the toffees to the toddlers to silence them, but do not attempt this on an adult audience. In short, the CM's address was a well served meal, but with the dessert spoiling it all in the end.

Prime Time privilege

Forget about Parliament, even the mainstream media, meaning the news channels and newspapers that have a pan-India reach and outlook, have always tended to overlook the North East region, in its coverage. There could be many factors for this such as the limited market and the general lack of awareness of the region amongst the newspaper readers or news channel watchers in mainland India, or it could just be a case of “North East ? Where is that ?,” where people from this region are identified by their Mongoloid features. Chinky is the term used to identify the North East boys and girls in places such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai etc and while most of the youths from this region have managed to come to terms with it, the overt derogatory tone accompanying this term cannot miss the eye. To draw a parallel, it is like using the term Hao Macha to describe the hill men in Manipur, particularly by the Meiteis, and we have seen and experienced, how the usage of such terms can lead to deep wounds and scars that refuse to go away. Even in the West, the Blacks are no longer referred to as Negroes or the more discriminatory Niggers. Even the term Blacks now come with another more acceptable name, which is African Americans. In fact so deeply is the modern world against racism or racial discrimination, in the post Apartheid era, that any comment which is construed as racially demeaning or discriminatory, is most likely to land the person responsible in a soup ! We have just made a general observation of where the North East, including Manipur stands in the overall mental make up of the people of the so called mainland India. The fact that the term North East is used particularly to refer to the seven States, eight if Sikkim is included, is in itself some sort of a “Us and Them” syndrome. This reality that we see all around gets reflected in the manner in which the media, which have an all India audience or readership, overlooks many critical issues besetting this region. So while the marriage between Sania Mirza and a cricket player from Pakistan made it to the prominent pages of all the newspapers and occupied prime time slots in the news channels, critical issues like the humanitarian crisis arising out of the economic blockade imposed on the highways leading to Manipur, the stand off between the Government of Manipur and the NSCN (IM) over the proposed visit of Th Muivah to his birth place in Somdal, the mautam or bamboo flowering phenomena which has come back to haunt some States in the North East are stashed away in the cold storage. The mainland media or the media which has an all India reach seemed more concerned over the movements of former junior Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar ! Some years back, it took Rajdeep Sardesai of CCN IBN to personally explain the stand of the news channel why the same coverage was not given when Assam and Bihar faced floods of the same magnitude at the same time. This time too, Sardesai has anchored a show, “Is Manipur India's Forgotten State ?” These measures though welcome seem to be more like some damage control exercise rather than trying to sincerely look into the situation and bring it to the knowledge of the people, to whom North East is as alien as China or the most isolated Nation in the world North Korea.
This is the general scenario, including the coverage of the North East in the mainstream media (We are using this term for want of a better alternative, much like the term Bollywood) and merely digesting the fact that two of the leading fortnightly magazines in the country, India Today and Outlook do not have their correspondents in the North East is an exercise in itself. Yes, earlier there were correspondents of these two publications based in Guwahati, but for reasons best known to them, the job of covering the North East has now fallen on the correspondent based in Kolkata. It is amid this climate of seeming indifference, not only among the political circle and the media, not to talk about the public of India, that Manipur figured prominently just the other day on the floor of the Lok Sabha. It is not often that critical issues besetting the State or the North East region get prime time slots in Parliament, but this time, it was a bit heartening to see Union Home Minister P Chidambaram put to rest certain issues, by speaking bluntly and without trying to confuse the public. These issues pertain to the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the creation of a Greater Nagalim, where Naga inhabited areas from Manipur, Assam and Arunachal are sought to be brought under a single administrative unit. To the people of the North East and Manipur the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is not something new and it is perhaps this Act which propelled Manipur into one of those prime time slots in the news channels and precious column in the newspapers. This happened way back in 2004, when people rose as one to demand the revocation of the said Act, after the bullet riddled body of Th Manorama was found the day after she was whisked away by a team of Assam Rifles personnel. The nude protest in front of Kangla will remain etched in the minds of everyone and the said controversial Army Act will always be associated with this historic and never before seen demonstration by women folk in India. Yes a debate on the controversial Act is raging and Home Minister Chidambaram took pains to explain that the Government needs to consult all concerned. It should be obvious that the concerned here is the defence establishment. Ironically everyone seems to have forgotten the lone woman, who will continue to be seen as the inspiring force behind the anti-AFSPA movement, Irom Chanu Sharmila who is set to complete ten years of fasting to demand the revocation of the said Act. History will not judge India favourably, if it ignores the gutsy mission of this lone crusader, when it comes to the question of AFSPA. And for the records, Manipur too was in the limelight during the months of June and July in 2001, when the Bangkok Declaration between India and the IM group was announced.

INDIA: AFSPA promotes armed insurgency in Manipur

INDIA: AFSPA promotes armed insurgency in Manipur

On 5 November 2010, Ms. Irom Chanu Sharmila, a Manipuri poet and human rights defender, will complete ten years of her indefinite hunger strike in Imphal, Manipur state. Sharmila started her fast on 5 November 2000, three days after the Malom massacre in Manipur. On that day, the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary unit stationed in the state, killed 10 civilians including women and children in an inhuman and vengeful act of retaliation, responding to an earlier ambush staged by the armed insurgents against the Assam Rifles.

A decade since the massacre, while the justice system of India is dragging its feet and has failed to finish even a preliminary inquiry into the incident, Sharmila has become the most powerful voice of democratic dissent in the country through her silent protest against armed violence, committed by the state and non-state actors. She has been insisting that she will end her fast only when the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) is repealed, a prerequisite to end armed insurgency in Manipur.

Sharmila's unique protest follows Mahatma Gandhi's principle of non-violence. It has withstood the test of time, and exemplifies the triumph of human spirit over the unbridled power of the state machinery. During the past 10 years, the state as well as the central government has tried everything at their disposal to force Sharmila to stop the fast. When these attempts failed, the government placed Sharmila in detention, keeping her in house arrest or confined to a small hospital room in Imphal, on the excuse that an attempt to commit suicide is a crime in the Indian Penal Code, 1860. At the moment Sharmila is detained in a room in the security ward of the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Imphal. The state government has continuously denied her permission to freely meet visitors.

The AFSPA provides special powers to arrest, detain and kill civilians on mere suspicion. The Act also empowers the armed forces to search and destroy properties on mere suspicion in 'disturbed areas'. It is widely used in the Northeastern states and in Jammu and Kashmir. Wherever AFSPA is in operation, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial executions, torture, rape and arbitrary detention are routinely reported.

In 1958 when the Union Home Minster introduced the law in the Parliament, he assured that the Act would be in operation for a mere 6 months. 52 years since then, the law is still in operation in states like Manipur. Despite the impunity provided by the law, the armed forces are not successful in reducing armed insurgency in places where AFSPA is enforced and on the contrary, it has increased. Violence committed with impunity by both the state and non-state actors have alienated the population from the state. There are compelling grounds to believe that some armed insurgent groups operate with the support of the state and central security agencies.

The people of Manipur has done everything humanely conceivable to register their protest against the AFSPA -- naked protest by mothers, self immolation by student leader, mass demonstrations, petition to the Supreme Court, complaints to the United Nations are to name a few. Similar is the case with other citizens in rest of the Northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir. Civil society groups including the media, political parties, jurists, expert groups appointed by the government and the United Nations have constantly called upon the government to withdraw AFSPA from Manipur and has held that the withdrawal of AFSPA is an essential requirement to end the culture of violence in Manipur. However the government has failed to pay heed to these considered opinions.

AFSPA provides statutory impunity to state security agencies. It negates the human rights framework envisaged in the constitution of India as well as the international human rights instruments India is party to. AFSPA is fundamentally a curse to freedom and undermines democratic values.

In 1997, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that by imposing AFSPA, the government of India is in fact using emergency powers without resorting to the procedures laid down in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. Again in 2007, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination unequivocally urged the government of India to repeal the Act within one year. During her visit to India in March 2009, the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the government of India to repeal this Act.

The Committee to Review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 setup by the Union Home Ministry led by Justice Jeevan Reddy, a former Judge of the Supreme Court; the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by the current union law minister, Mr. Veerappa Moily; and the Working Group on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir led by the present Vice President of India, Honourable Hamid Ansari, have all recommended the repealing of AFSPA. Since the last winter session of the Indian Parliament, an Armed Forces (Special Powers) Amendment Bill has been placed before the Parliament. However, the text of the Bill is not yet made public. To say the least, the people residing in the states where this draconian law is enforced are not consulted concerning this Bill.

Even though the inhuman nature of AFSPA has been exposed repeatedly proving that it is an ill-conceived law that perpetuates innumerable violence and inconsolable misery against the people, it is still enforced. On the other hand, Sharmila, the icon of protest against this law is treated like a petty criminal, charged for attempting to commit suicide. Her struggle lies not only in defending the basic and fundamental human rights of the people, but also questions the very foundations of Indian democracy which venerates Mahatma Gandhi and his principles of ahimsa or non-violence.

In Manipur, the Just Peace Foundation (JPF), in collaboration with the civil society of Manipur, is celebrating Sharmila's indomitable spirit, her courage to hope for an end of violence amidst adversities, her unwavering stand for justice and her deep yearning for peace. A simple function at the Manipur Press Club will launch today the 100 days countdown to the completion of Sharmila's decade-long fast. A series of cultural programs, literary and artistic activities, public meetings and rallies, and poster campaigns will mark the countdown which will culminate into a Festival of Hope, Justice and Peace from 2 to 6 November 2010.

The ALRC along with the JPF seeks your participation to make this noble effort a success. We request you to use this occasion to take all actions possible to collectively urge the government of India to repeal AFSPA. For your convenience the ALRC has created an online petition entitled "Repeal AFSPA NOW". By signing the petition, you can send your views to the government of India demanding the repealing of this draconian law.

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2010statements/2703/

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About the ALRC: The Asian Legal Resource Centre is an independent regional non-governmental organisation holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is the sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights Commission. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at the local and national levels throughout Asia.