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North East : Manipur crisis : Chief Minister meets PM

	September 20, 2004

Even as the Centre continues with its efforts to contain the two month-old mass agitation in Manipur, there appears no hope of early solution to the problem as both sides, the Government and the agitators, are reluctant to afford major concessions on the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which, the agitators say must be revoked altogether, while the Government maintains that it is necessary to tackle the chronic problem of insurgency in the region.

The problem appears to have become more complex with Army Chief N.C. Vij making a statement in Srinagar on September 16 that Manorama Devi, whose rape and murder reportedly in the custody of Assam Rifles in July last, triggered the current agitation, had “questionable credentials.”

In Imphal, the Apunba Lup erupted in anger over the Army Chief’s statement on Manorama. “The Army Chief’s statement is irresponsible. If the Army Chief is so confident that there was no rape, why this whole tamasha (fun) of an army court of inquiry, DNA test of Assam Rifles personnel etc? Is the whole drama being played out to twist facts so that no rape can be established ?” asked O. Ratan, a spokesperson of the organisation.

Earlier, on September 13, the Army Chief had also maintained that the Army was not for the withdrawal of the Special Powers Act. In his presentation to Home Minister Shivraj Patil, the Army Chief said the withdrawal of the AFSPA from Manipur could give rise to similar demands from other States in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir. He was articulating the dominant view in the security establishment about the need to have the AFSPA for fighting insurgency.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act gives wide-ranging powers to the Army and enables it to remain “aggressive in combating militancy.

Commenting on the Army Chief’s statement, observers said : “The Army Chief is entitled to his belief that troops are unable to effectively fight insurgents without the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. But, the observers ask, has anything substantial been achieved in the past 24 years that the Act has been in force in Manipur ? If Army personnel run amok in the name of counter-insurgency, ignore the norms of civility and defy the law itself - this has been happening in Manipur - the line has to be drawn somewhere.

There has been a demand for the Act’s withdrawal since the infamous July 1987 Oinam incident in which Assam Rifles personnel allegedly went berserk after rebels overran an outpost. What has outraged Manipuris is the manner in which Manorama Devi was allegedly abused and slain while in Assam Rifles’ custody.

Angered by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s statement that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act would at best be reviewed, the joint committee of the organisations leading the agitation in Manipur on Sept. 17 announced the closure of all educational institutions and a national highway blockade.

The Apunba Lup said all educational institutions, from the primary school to the university level, would remain closed till Monday. It said the Imphal-Dimapur Road and the Imphal-Jiribam Road would be closed to traffic from Sunday (Sept. 19) till October 4.

The administration reacted to the announcement immediately, warning protesters against violating law and order. Director-general of police A.K. Parashar said all possible steps would be taken to foil the blockade.

The Apunba Lup appeared equally determined not to allow movement of vehicles on the two national highways. It said Ibobi Singh again let the people down by saying he would persist with the armed forces act until militancy was rooted out.



CM summoned to New Delhi

Apparently alarmed over the deteriorating law and order situation in Manipur, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reportedly summoned the Chief Minister to New Delhi. This was Ibobi Singh’s first trip to New Delhi since Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s mission to Manipur early this month.

An official source said the Chief Minister was summoned by the Prime Minister’s Office for a review of the situation and to discuss ways to end the impasse over the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

After meeting the Prime Minister and Home Minister Shivraj Patil in New Delhi, Ibobi Singh told the media that the Centre was willing to review contentious portions of the Armed Forces Act, but asked the people not to expect the Act to be withdrawn from the entire state.

On Ibobi Singh’s claim that a semblance of normality had been restored in Manipur, the Apunba Lup said there could be ups and downs, but the agitation would continue until the people’s primary demand was met. The organisation accused the Chief Minister of pursuing political gain instead of properly conveying the people’s wishes to the central leadership.

The North East Students’ Organisation (Neso) has called a 12-hour bandh (work stoppage) across the region on October 5 in support of the demand to withdraw the Armed Forces Act. In a statement, the Neso said the decision to call a dawn-to-dusk bandh was taken by its executive council at a meeting in Aizawl on Wednesday last.

There are three schools of thought on the Act. One is against a review, another believes it should be lifted and the third argues for amendments to rid the legislation of the draconian-law tag. The primary objection of most people to the act is that it empowers security forces to arrest a suspect without a warrant and detain him/her for an indefinite period. Patil is understood to have told Ibobi Singh that New Delhi’s decision would reflect a balance between the three varying opinions.

The AFSPA which was imposed in 1980 in Manipur to contain the rising activities of the Peoples Liberation Army has failed to achieve its target. Instead militant groups have been mushrooming and there are over 20 armed factions in Manipur. According to North East watchers, if the AFSPA could not contain the rising militant activities in the 1980s when underground organisations were few and their manpower small, where is the logic in the argument that the same Act would do the job after 24 years when the number of underground fighters has soared, as has the might of the State?

Observers point out that a time has come for policy makers to rethink the relevance of this unproductive law and find out a different way of tackling insurgency, for both in the short-term and in the long-term, as Manorama’s case shows, it is the ordinary people who suffer the most.