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North East : Home Minister’s visit

	September 06, 2004

Concerned over the deteriorating political situation in this strife-torn region, particularly in Manipur where people have launched a mass civil disobedience movement against central security forces who are equipped with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to check insurgency, the UPA Government finally sent its Home Minister Shivraj Patil on a three-day visit to the region last week for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

The Home Minister who visited the region from Sept. 4 to Sept. 6, addressed a meeting of state Chief Ministers in Shillong on Sept. 4 and discussed with them prevailing law and order conditions with special reference to insurgency.

The Union Home Ministry, in collaboration with the Meghalaya government, organised the meeting. Apart from the chief ministers, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs and DONER P.R. Kyndiah and a team of Home Ministry officials attended the meeting.

According to media reports, internal security, particularly the situation in Manipur, dominated the proceedings. The Home Minister also sought the opinion of the Chief Ministers on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Reports quoting sources close to the Director-General of Assam Rifles, Bophinder Singh, said the Manipur government would discuss the proposal to review the Act on Saturday, a day before Patil’s visit to Imphal. The Union Home Ministry has reportedly asked the Assam Rifles Director-General, who is also security advisor to the North Eastern Council (NEC), to prepare a report on the uproar over the act in Manipur following the alleged rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama in custody. An Assam Rifles officer said a lot of time would be devoted to discuss the recent controversies over the Act.

Manipur Chief Minister Ibobi Singh and his Assam and Nagaland counterparts, Tarun Gogoi and Neiphiu Rio, are said to have made elaborate plans to convince Patil to call for a review of the act and other laws like the Disturbed Areas Act in the Northeast. Sources said several organisations, including the National Council of Churches in India, have sent representations to the Centre, demanding the withdrawal of the act from Manipur and Nagaland.



Manipur battalion to check insurgency

According to some media reports, the Home Minister is expected to offer an option to the Manipur Government to raise its own battalion for tackling insurgency. The proposed force which would largely comprise of local unemployed youth, would replace Assam Rifles that has triggered off a spate of violent incidents in the state.

Sources say, the new force for Manipur would be raised under the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) scheme of the Union Government. While the Centre would pay for its upkeep, the force would function under state government. “It is a way of placating the local population. Not only will the adventurous Manipuri youth get employment, the state will get a force that the people will be willing to trust”, a senior Home Ministry official said.

“A large number of youth of the state are anyway carrying arms, sympathetic to the insurgent outfits , with jobs not easy to come by. Moreover, it will be a clear message to the local population that if they are not happy with the presence of the Assam Rifles, they can have their own force”, he added.

The cost of raising the battalion, training its personnel and arming them with modern weapons will be borne by the Centre. Even the salaries will be taken care of by the Centre. However, the overall control would remain with the state. If the Centre wants to deploy its personnel in some other state, it would have to seek Manipur’s permission, and pay for its services. “This would make the state independent and it would not have to ask the Centre for additional forces time and again”, the official said.

According to one report, the Central Government is prepared to withdraw the Assam Rifles, but not the controversial Army Act.



Army Chief’s visit

In another significant decision which is likely to bring down the violent temperature in Manipur, the Union Government has decided to hand over the historic Kangla Fort, the seat of Manipur kings, to the state government. The fort presently houses the divisional headquarters of the Assam Rifles, which is in the thick of a storm over the killing of Th. Manorama Devi.

The decision to vacate the fort was taken by the Army Chief Gen. N.C. Vij, who visited the region in advance apparently to apprise the Home Minister of the ground realities.

The Army Chief assured the people that security forces were “very keen” to establish the truth behind the death of Th. Manorama Devi. During his day-long visit, Gen. Vij met Manipur chief minister Ibobi Singh and said the Army had on its own initiative taken blood samples of 31 Assam Rifles personnel for conducting DNA tests.

During his talks with Singh, the Army Chief assured him that if any culpability was established, the guilty would be most severely dealt with in keeping with the ethos and discipline of the Army.

Gen. Vij, who is the first high-ranking security official to tour Manipur since the recent outbreak of violence, made the gesture of handing over the fort after meeting chief minister Ibobi Singh.



Agitations continue

Meanwhile, schoolchildren burnt textbooks and women set up roadblocks in Manipur on Friday at the start of a three-day strike against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

“There are groups of women and children protesting, they are burning tyres and books,” a police officer told a news agency. Shops, offices and schools were closed in Imphal in response to the strike call. “It is a complete shutdown,” Bimal Singh, a resident of Imphal, said.

“This is a people’s movement, an uprising against a draconian legislation. We will continue our agitation until the act is removed,” said a statement by Apunba Lup, an umbrella group representing the strikers.

A spokesman of the 32 organisations leading the anti-AFSPA stir said they were prepared for talks with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. The talks, they said, should centre on withdrawal of the Act and the organisations will not compromise on it. Also those involved in the killing of Th. Manorama Devi and pastor Jamkholet Khongsai should not be spared.

After clamouring for the resignation of all MLAs and MPs, the organisations leading the agitation in Manipur are demanding an indefinite postponement of the byelection to the Konthoujam Assembly seat.

This is not the time for election, a joint committee of the 32 organisations said.

Thokchom Meinya Singh of the Congress vacated the Konthoujam Assembly seat after his election to the Lok Sabha. The bypoll is slated for October 13. The last date for filing nominations is September 22.

The committee warned political parties and prospective candidates against participating in any kind of electoral activity as long as the movement against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act continued.

The 32 organisations had set August 25 as the deadline for all 59 legislators and 3 MPs of the state to resign as a sign of atonement for their failure to withdraw the armed forces act.

Students continued to hold demonstrations in front of Raj Bhavan. One of them was wounded when a teargas shell hurled by the police landed on his chest. Life in parts of East and West Imphal districts was paralysed by a bandh.