This website is hosted to express solidarity to the people of Manipur who are on an ongoing struggle against the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) imposed in Manipur continuously since 1958 equips both commissioned and non-commissioned security forces with unrestricted powers.
These include:
The website is also a forum to express support to the Manipuri activist poet, Irom Sharmila Chanu who was on an indefinite hunger strike as a spontaneous reaction of outrage to the police firings in Malom district on November 2nd, 2000, which killed 10 innocent and unarmed civilians, has now entered its fifth year. The protest has but one demand: the withdrawal of the AFSPA and the withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (1958) from Manipur.
About Irom Sharmila Channu
Young, stoic and dogged, Irom Sharmila has been on a fast-unto-death since November, 2000. She wants the repressive Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act repealed. The Act gives draconian powers to the security forces and has repeatedly been used with brazen brutality in the Northeast. For five years, she has been imprisoned and force-fed by the State for her 'crime'.
Irom Sharmila is a peacewoman from the troubled North Eastern State Manipur in India. She has not eaten for over five years now. November 2, 2006 will be the sixth year of her fast. For this, she has been locked up in jail by the government under very dubious charges and is being forcibly nose fed. Since November 2000, Sharmila has been on a fast-unto-death, demanding the removal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA). AFSPA is a law that can come into force in any part of India declared as "disturbed". The act allows anyone of any rank in the army or a paramilitary force under its operational command to shoot, arrest or search without warrant; and to kill on suspicion alone. Furthermore, there is little scope for judicial remedy. The whole of Sharmila's state - Manipur - has continuously been under this law since 1980 (with minor exceptions in recent times).
It’s been five years since that day which changed her life. November 2, 2000 was just another Thursday. Till, that is, a convoy of Assam Rifles was bombed by insurgents near Malom in Manipur. In retaliation the men in uniform went berserk: 10 civilians were shot dead. You could say that neither the killings nor the brutal combing operation that followed were new to the people. Manipur had been ravaged by umpteen number of such incidents in the past. But for Sharmila, Malom was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. "There was no means to stop further violations by the armed forces," she says. She began her epic fast.
From then to now, Sharmila’s frail body has become a battlefield. Within days of her fast, she was arrested on charges of ‘attempted suicide’ and put in jail. She refused bail; she refused to break her fast. For five years now, she has been in custody, being forcibly nose-fed. Time and again, the courts have - rightly - released her. But she resumes her fast and is invariably re-arrested each time.
In the five years that she hasn't eaten, Sharmila's body has begun to get damaged severely. She lives with the nagging pain of a tube thrust into her nose. She is 37 but has become feeble and looks older. What’s more, for five years, Sharmila has not seen her ageing mother. In her mother’s own words, "I am weak-hearted. If I see her, I will cry. I do not want to erode her determination, so I have resolved not to meet Sharmila till she reaches her goal."
Sharmila shifted her crusade to New Delhi mid October. She reached the Capital just after an Imphal court released her from judicial custody. Accompanied by two human rights activists, Sharmila offered floral tributes at Rajghat before resuming her fast at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. After a few days in Jantar Mantar, she is again arrested and is in the hospital in Delhi.
The AFSPA role in Manipur
Ostensibly deployed to contain insurgency, the AFSPA empowers security forces with overarching authority along with protection against prosecution. This dangerous mix of supreme power with supreme non-accountability in the hands of armed security forces actively encourages the abuse of power and completely undermines the democratic framework of the Indian state.
Not surprisingly, the enforcement of the AFSPA has resulted in innumerable incidents of arbitrary detention, “disappearancesâ€, torture, rape, loot and killings by security forces. It has created an atmosphere of siege for the Manipuri people causing them to lose all confidence and faith in the Indian State and security forces.
The State-sponsored violence has had a devastating impact on women. Women have been subjected to horrific rape and sexual violence. The custodial rape and murder of the Manipuri activist,Thangjam Manorama, that shamed the nation and provoked mothers in Manipur to stage a desperate protest against security forces is just one instance of the complete violation of human rights being committed in the name of law enforcement.
When people are abducted and detained by security forces or shot in the streets in the name of law enforcement, women face untold suffering as they attempt often single-handedly to reconstruct their lives and nurture their families. When disillusioned youth abandon their dreams, and instead embrace guns, drugs, alcohol or prostitution, easily succumbing to HIV/AIDS, peace is taken away from the communities that women struggle so hard to hold together. The State-sponsored violence, legitimated by the imposition of the AFSPA, has bequeathed to the people of Manipur a legacy of terror and despair.
On 3rd October, Irom Sharmila, arrested for attempted suicide, is force-fed in judicial custody by a nasal tube. Her condition is rapidly deteriorating. However, far from giving up the struggle, she continues to campaign through poems and newspaper articles for the lifting of the black law. Her non-violent protest won international recognition when she was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize in 2005 by women’s groups in north east India.
By ignoring Irom Sharmila’s voice of conscience and by opting for a military solution to what is a political problem, the Indian government is further alienating the hearts and minds of the Manipuri people. The mushrooming of insurgency groups in Manipur in recent times proves that the AFSPA is not merely failing miserably in its primary objective but creating a climate of repression where innocent people are the victims of the crossfire between the State on the one hand and on the other,
increasing numbers of armed oppositional movements.
