Irom Award Shot in Arm For Anti-AFSPA Campaigners

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

A prestigious peace award to activist Irom Sharmila and a Gauhati High Court order to Manipur to re-open the Manorama fake encounter case have put new life into the campaign against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the state.

Sharmila, who will soon complete 10 years of fast-unto-death demanding repeal of AFSPA, has been conferred the Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM). The award carries a cash prize of Rs 51 lakh, a gold medal, a citation and a shawl.

Sharmila, 40, began her hunger strike in December 2000 after 10 villagers were shot dead by security forces. She is currently being treated in a special security ward of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal under custodial remand.

Last week, the Gauhati High Court ordered Manipur to act on an inquiry report on the rape and killing of Manorama Devi, a woman militant, by Assam Rifles men in July 2004. The killing had sparked massive protests in Manipur.

Assam Rifles had challenged Manipur’s jurisdiction to institute an inquiry against its men, contending that it enjoyed immunity under the AFSPA, but the High Court ruled that the state government could institute an inquiry into such incidents.

The ruling and the award to Sharmila have fired up the activists campaigning for repeal of the draconian law. Manipur Senior Citizens’ Society Sunday asked the Centre to scrap the law as it was “a constant threat to human rights” and “violates the right to life of a citizen”. Several other human rights organisations have also stepped up their campaign against the Act.

Nearly 52 years after the AFSPA came into force in the Northeast, security forces have killed at least 500 persons “on the basis of mere suspicion”, according to Babloo Loitongbam, Executive Director of the Imphal-based Human Rights Alert.

In fact,the National Human Rights Commission had last year asked the Manipur government to make its stand clear on the 111 alleged fake encounters by security forces and police in the state in recent years.