Demanding Repeal of AFPSA
December 13, 2006
Dark Act: A torchlight procession in Imphal demands the repeal of the AFSPA (Photo in The Telegraph, 13 December 2006)
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The Hindu
EXPRESSING SOLIDARITY: Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi holds a poster, demanding repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur, in New Delhi on 26 November 2006
( Photo: Shanker Chakravarty)
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The Times of India
December 9, 2006
Repeal Special Armed Forces Act in N-E? Yes
Babloo Loitongbam
Executive Director
Human Rights Alert
If performance was the criteria, then AFSP Act should have long gone from the statue book. For, the Act has failed to stem insurgency in the region.
In 1958, when Parliament enacted the Act, there was only one group — the Nagas — rising up in arms against the Indian State.
Today, after half-a-century of the Act facilitating military operations, the northeast is witnessing a million mutinies embracing the entire ethnic community of the region.
If proof was at all needed, this should have been sufficient indictment of the gross inefficacy of the Act in controlling insurgencies, let alone resolving them.
The premise that flexing military muscles will eliminate insurgency is based on a total misreading of the causes of insurgency.
The official thinking seems to be that insurgency is merely a law and order problem which will vanish with the application of military might.
However, it's rooted in historical injustices and deeply felt discriminatory treatments meted out to the people. Imposition of the Act tackles only the symptoms.
It fails to tackle the source of the problem and therefore, has ended up aggravating the feeling of alienation.
In fact, the continued imposition of the Act constitutes a denial of democracy. The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has consistently expressed its concern that in imposing the Act, the Indian government is exercising emergency powers without resorting to the procedure laid down by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
And it violates a series of basic human rights listed in the Covenant.
Yet, the denial of democracy for an alien people inhabiting the space called the northeast hardly pricks the conscience of the liberal voices of India.
This is the political paradox which is embedded in the struggles of the people of the region, both armed and unarmed.
The denial of democracy is also demonstrated in the suppression of democratic struggle for the repeal of the Act. A struggle which has been enhanced powerfully by the six-year-old fasting protest by
Noble Peace Prize nominee Irom Sharmila.The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee, which was set up to review the Act, submitted its report last year. It recommended the Act should be repealed.
It's incomprehensible why instead of trying to engage with the political leadership of the insurgent groups, the government is persisting with a military approach.
India is a member of UNHRC. The denial of democracy and the continued imposition of the Act neither sits well nor carries conviction with our elevation as a full member.
posted by c-info @ 5:23 AM,
