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Armed Forces Act : Protests continue

	October 16, 2006

The movement against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, launched by the people of Manipur is continuing unabated with protesters, largely women, expressing their resolve to fight it to the finish.



The Centre has reportedly put the onus of withdrawing the Act on the Manipur government even as human rights groups urged the United Nations to intervene.



“The law may not be actually reviewed, but if the Manipur government feels it can handle the situation and asks for its withdrawal, then that may be done,” said a Union Home Ministry source.



Apunba Lup, the conglomerate of Manipur-based NGOs campaigning against the Act, is up in arms over the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee’s recommendation to incorporate some of its thorniest provisions into the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The organisation said it would not accept the report and indicated that it would intensify its agitation against the Act.



“We won’t accept anything less than complete repeal of the Act. Scrapping it after incorporating its key provisions into another Act amounts to hoodwinking the people of Manipur,” one of its leaders said from Delhi over the phone.



On October 13, the Apunba Lup activists staged protests at Raj Bhavan (Governor’s House). The state government, however, managed to stave off one crisis by foiling an attempt by protesters to storm Raj Bhavan. Armed policemen, who had formed a ring around Raj Bhavan, pushed back slogan-shouting protesters marching towards the Governor’s House to demonstrate at the gate. They made a feeble effort to fight back when lathi-wielding policemen stopped them before they could reach the Raj Bhavan gates. The marchers’ demands included an end to “state terrorism”, repeal of the Armed Forces Act and save activist Irom Sharmila.



The organisation announced its decision to boycott President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s visit to Manipur on Monday, Oct. 16. It also issued a call for general strike from 5 a.m.to 2 p.m. on Oct. 16 throughout Manipur to boycott Kalam’s visit.



The President is scheduled to attend a convocation programme of Manipur University at 9 am.



According to reports published in a section of the media, the committee has recommended the repeal of the Act. “The Act, for whatever reason, has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness,” its report states.



The Reddy Committee’s Report notes that Article 355 of the Constitution - mentioning that it is the duty of the Centre to protect states against external aggression and internal disturbance - is adequate for the Army to be deployed by the Centre in a state, if deemed necessary.



But the report sounds a word of caution. “As soon as public order is restored or the internal disturbance is quelled, the forces have to be withdrawn to their barracks.”



The five-member committee was constituted in 2004 after the death of a Manipuri woman, Thangjam Manorama, in Assam Rifles’ custody. The Manorama case triggered an agitation that peaked with a dozen women protesting naked in front of the gate to the then Assam Rifles headquarters at Imphal’s historical Kangla Fort.



The Reddy Committee’s report identifies the lack of accountability of the armed forces under the special powers Act as the “main failure” of the legislation.



Acknowledging concern over violation of human rights by the armed forces, the committee recommends “grievance cells” in all districts where the Army is deployed for counter-insurgency duties.



Each three-member grievance cell should be headed by a subdivisional magistrate and also include an officer of the rank of a Captain or above from the forces operating in the region as well as a state police official of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police or above.



The recommended amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act include some of the most contentious clauses of the Special Powers Act. Among these is the authority given to the armed forces to open fire on a person on grounds of suspicion that he/she may be a terrorist.



The Apunba Lup is, however, loath to accept some of the provisions in another form. “Though the recommendation of the committee to repeal the Act appears to be a positive step, other recommendations, like referring the provisions of the Act to repressive laws primarily under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 are condemnable,” it said.





Demonstration at 10 Janpath



Apunba Lup leaders are in New Delhi to express solidarity with Irom Sharmila, the mascot of the campaign. They and members of the Delhi Manipuri Students’ Association are continuing a relay hungerstrike at Jantar Mantar. Sharmila, who reached the capital last week, is admitted in the AIIMS hospital under police vigil. CPI leader A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja called on her to discuss the issue.



Manipur students and local NGOs also demonstrated at 10 Janpath, in New Delhi last week, in protest against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. The protesters shouted slogans against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.



Since October 4 when Irom Sharmila shifted base from Imphal to Delhi, the issue has been on the boil. Human rights organisations and some political parties like the CPI have extended their support and have called for a repeal of the Act. The CPI has asked the UPA government to make public the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee report.



“Sonia Gandhi should go and meet Sharmila at the hospital. We have been impelled to come here because of the government’s apathy towards our plight,” Manipur Students’ Association, Delhi, president Banerjit Singh told Union Minister of State Oscar Fernandes, who had come to pacify the crowd.



It has been predicted that the Act may be withdrawn from Manipur before the Assembly polls next year. That would give the Ibobi Singh government a chance to claim victory and satisfy those demanding the Act’s repeal.



Last year, Ibobi Singh had recommended withdrawal of the Act from six areas.



The Centre did not oppose this, Home Ministry sources said. With criticism of the legislation spiralling, the Centre may not oppose the withdrawal if and when the Chief Minister wishes for it.



The law has been in force in the state since 1980 but the number of insurgent outfits has multiplied, defeating its purpose to control militancy and violence, human rights activists argue.



New Delhi is unconvinced and is in no hurry to repeal or review the Act. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is imposed in Manipur, Nagaland, parts of Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.



At the same time, a human rights group dashed off a letter to Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights based in Switzerland, appealing to the United Nations to intervene in Sharmila’s case.



“We urgently request you to use your good offices with the Government of India” to urge it to ensure that Sharmila withdraws her hungerstrike and “immediately follow up on the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,” the letter from the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre stated. This NGO is part of the Asia Pacific Human Rights Network.





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Omar Sheikh’s terror accomplice escapes from police custody



Daniel Pearl’s alleged killer Omar Sheikh’s one-time accomplice Nurul Amin, who was sentenced to life in prison for helping Sheikh abduct four Westerns in 1994, escaped from police custody while being taken to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital from the Central Jail.



Nurul Amin fled after hoodwinking the lone policeman who had escorted him to the hospital where he had been operated upon two weeks ago.



Jail officials said Amin, son of Hazrat Ali of Gorgori in Assam’s Nalbari district, was part of the Harkat-ul-Ansar group that kidnapped an American and three British nationals - Bela Joseph Naos, Paul Benjamin Rideout, Rhys Curzel Partridge and Christopher Milis Gosten - from New Delhi in 1994, to secure the release of Maulana Masood Azhar. Both Sheikh and Masood Azhar were later freed by India in Kandahar in exchange for the release of passengers of the Indian Airlines flight, IC-814.



Amin was arrested in 1999 from a hotel in Guwahati. In April 2002, a Delhi court sentenced Amin to life in prison while three Harkat-ul-Ansar militants were sentenced to death.



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