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North East : Movement against Armed Forces Act : Enter UN

	March 12, 2007

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has for the first time brought into its ambit problems plaguing India’s North East.



The committee made a reference to the region at its last session in Geneva this month.



It urged the Centre to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 and replace it “with a more humane Act”.



Manipur received the news about the committee’s decision days after the state government took human rights activist Irom Sharmila Chanu into custody after she reached Imphal last week.



Reports from the troubled region indicate that NGOs and human rights groups consider the committee’s reference to the North East a “moral victory” for the people of the region.



The committee expressed concern over the fact that the Centre is yet to divulge the recommendations of the Jeevan Reddy Committee to review the Army Act.



Human rights groups in Manipur, have been fighting for the repeal of the Act. Despite several instances of human rights violations, the government insists that insurgency cannot be controlled if the Army is made toothless.



Another potential setback for the Centre is the project in Tipaimukh in Churachandpur district which has continued to be the election card of the Congress.



“The UN committee is also concerned that large scale projects such as the construction of dams in Manipur and other north-eastern states on territories primarily inhabited by tribal communities are carried out without seeking the consent of the inhabitants. These projects result in forced resettlement or endanger the traditional lifestyles of the communities concerned,” the report said.



The committee has urged the government to seek the consent of the affected population before going ahead with the dam project and involve the people in decision-making.





Campaigner Sharmila back home into “preventive” police custody



A brief demonstration and an even briefer visit to the historical Kangla Fort was all that Irom Sharmila could manage in the one-and-a-half hours that she was “free” since returning to Manipur on March 4 from New Delhi.



The mascot of the troubled state’s campaign against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act found herself in police custody the moment she entered the Kangla premises in a Maruti car. As on previous occasions, police termed it “preventive arrest” and shifted her to the security ward of the government-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital.



Sharmila, who has been fasting for the past six years except during periods in judicial custody, had been prevented from returning to Imphal before the elections, lest her presence cause trouble for the Congress-led government. She spent the better part of her exactly five-month New Delhi sojourn under police watch in hospital.



The 33-year-old resident of Kongpal Kongkham Leikai, in Imphal East district, arrived at 9 am on an Indigo Air flight and headed straight to the Nupi Lal Complex, just 100 metres from Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s office. After a short sit-in demonstration against the Army Act, a feeble Sharmila whispered to her brother Singhajit that she would like to visit the temple on the Kangla Fort premises for prayers.



A police team intercepted the car that was taking Sharmila, her brother and rights activist Babloo Loitongbam to Kangla around 10.30 am. Minutes earlier, Babloo and a police officer had been involved in a heated exchange of words at the Nupi Lal Complex. Both he and Singhajit were detained for some time, sources said.



Manipur’s most determined crusader against the Army Act had slipped out of Imphal unnoticed barely 12 hours after being freed from police custody in Imphal on October 3 last year. She dramatically resurfaced at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to turn her “regional” campaign into a “national” one.



The high point of Sharmila’s stay in the capital was the support she garnered from rights activists, including Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi. Sitting beside Sharmila at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in November, she vowed to solicit global support for the campaign against the Army Act.



An aide said Sharmila would continue the campaign with “renewed vigour” and pressure the government to lift the Army Act from the state.





Chief Minister Ibobi inducts 6 in Cabinet



Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh expanded his eight-day-old Secular Progressive Front (SPF) ministry by inducting six cabinet ministers on March 9.



Governor S.S. Sidhu administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at Raj Bhavan.



The SPF, comprising the Congress and the CPI, has 33 members.



The RJD, with three members, is extending support to the coalition without any condition.



Ibobi Singh retained his old guards in the new council of ministers.



PCC president Gaikhan-gam, former Food and Civil Supplies Minister Th. Devendra Singh, former Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Phungzathang Tonsing, Art and Culture Minister Ph. Parijat Singh, former Public Health Engineering Minister T.N. Haokip and former Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Md Allauddin were sworn in on March 9.



Of the six inducted on March 9, only Parijat Singh belongs to the CPI, the rest are from the Congress.



After the swearing-in ceremony, Ibobi Singh said he had considered district and community representation while selecting the ministers, though he finalised the list only after consulting the party high command.



Most of the newly elected Congress members, who have been demanding ministerial berths, did not attend the swearing-in ceremony.



Young Turks N. Biren Singh, N. Loken, K. Bijoy Singh, for example, were conspicuous by their absence.



The three were dropped during downsizing of the previous ministry and are demanding that both the young and old should be equally represented in the ministry.





Five migrants gunned down



Five Bengali migrant labourers were shot dead by unidentified gunmen at Ningthoukhong Bazar in Manipur’s Bishenpur district on March 9 night. Four of them were from Silchar in neighbouring Assam and one from Tripura.



Police said the gunmen abducted the five from their rented houses and brought them in an auto-rickshaw to Ningthoukhong Kha Khunou Ward 4 where they forced them to lie on the ground and shot them dead from point blank range.



The police recovered the bodies of Raju Dev, 43, Pintoo, 18, Raju, 18, Babua, 18, all from Silchar, and 34-year-old Pradeep Dev from Agartala.



The victims were working in a local bakery and also hawked wares in the district to earn some extra money. The police questioned some local residents, but no arrests were made.



The incident has triggered panic among migrant labourers in the district. The market remained closed in protest against the killings.



The police, however, ruled out an Assam-type killing of migrant labourers in Manipur.





Manipuri militant outfit ‘executes’ eight of its activists



The Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), a militant outfit, has “executed” eight of its activists, including former president K.K. Mangang alias Leibakmacha, for working “against the interests of the party”.



The announcement was made in a press communiquie issued by the outfit’s president Kshetrimayum Sengoi on March 9.



The statement said the “execution” was carried out after a “court martial” conducted by the outfit found the accused guilty of a number of charges.



The slain activists were accused of being responsible for the fact that the outfit’s general secretary, Ksh. Laba, was arrested by troops of the Assam Rifles last year.



They were also held responsible for the killing of two leaders, self-styled captains M. Tombi and A. Mithai, by the Assam Rifles in separate incidents last year.



Sengoi said the KCP sought help from three other outfits - the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) and the Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (Prepak) - for investigating the arrest and killing of the militant leaders by the paramilitary force.



He said an inquiry committee constituted by the three other outfits investigated the matter for three months and found the accused guilty of the charges.



The outfit, however, did not specify where the executions were carried out.



Police sources also added that till now, the bodies of the KCP activists have not been recovered.



The slain activists were identified as self-styled Lt Sanayanba alias Bijoy, Lt Promila alias Lanchenba, Fungi alias Annuwar, Jiauddin, G. Sinsuba Sharma, S. Deban and H. Luwang alias Manibabu.