On behalf of Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association, Manipur (EEVFAM) and Human Rights Alert (HRA), human rights activist Babloo Loitongbam raised the issues of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) 1958 and the present Manipur crisis in his briefing to the UN Human Rights Committee on Monday at Geneva.
We are reproducing a verbatim account of his speech:
“July 15th, today, is observed in Manipur as Anti-Repression Day. Exactly 20 years ago on this day, 12 mothers of Manipur staged a unique naked protest in front of the Kangla fort, the old palace compound of the erstwhile kingdom of Manipur, which was then under the occupation of the Assam Rifles. They were protesting on the rape and murder of Miss Thangjam Manorama by the Assam Rifles personnel, and the public burst into a fury of sustained protests for months. It subsided only after the then Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manamohan Singh, promised that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) “…will be replaced by the more humane act”. compound of the erstwhile kingdom of Manipur, which was then under the occupation of the Assam Rifles. They were protesting on the rape and murder of Miss Thangjam Manorama by the Assam Rifles personnel, and the public burst into a fury of sustained protests for months. It subsided only after the then Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manamohan Singh, promised that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) ‘…will be replaced by the more humane act’.
The AFSPA was closely scrutinized during the 2nd and 3rd periodic review of India by this committee. However, the Supreme Court of India upheld its constitutionality in 1997, and the Court ignored the request of this Committee to examine the Covenant compatibility of the AFSPA.
15 years later, following the first official visit of the Special Rapporteur on Summary, Arbitrary or Extrajudicial Execution, Prof. Christof Hynes observed that, “…he is unclear about how the Supreme Court reached such a conclusion… …the powers granted under AFSPA are in reality broader than that allowable under the state of emergency as the right to life may effectively be suspended under the Act and the safeguards applicable in a state of emergency are absent.”
In paragraph 83 of the present official report, it states that “In genuine instances the Government of India has accorded sanction for prosecution”. This is simply not true, as both the EEVFAM and the HRA petitioned to the Supreme Court of India to seek justice for the 1,528 cases of extrajudicial executions. As a first instance, a Special Investigation Team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (SIT/CBI) registered 39 FIRs, with 36 Final Reports submitted. While criminal trials have commenced in cases involving the police; All cases involving the Armed Forces of the Union for central government have denied prosecution sanctions, under section 6 of the AFSPA. Even when clear prosecutable evidence is laid out by the premier investigating agency, the Union Home Ministry always denies prosecution sanctions. I invite you to see the eight cases listed in our report, along with the SIT/CBI Final Reports attached as Annexure A.
We request the Committee to pronounce the AFSPA as incompatible with the Covenant both in law as well as in practice.
Issue: II
Since the 3rd of May 2023, Manipur has been consumed by unending cycles of violence, with at least 230 reported deaths and counting. 13,247 infrastructures, including residential homes and religious places of worship, have been gutted and destroyed; leaving 60,000 displaced people to be interned in cramped relief camps, without adequate aid and life support systems.
When the central government announced the direct handling of law and order in Manipur, and appointed a security advisor from the 4th of May, this was followed by the rush in substantial additional troops, which brought the hope that violence would be contained. Instead, this gave violence a new lease of life as armed militant groups, under SoO (Suspension of Operation) or outside of this arrangement, utilized the opportunity to don the role of the savior of their respective ethnic communities. The indifference of the armed forces actively increased the death toll of civilians, and the cycles of raids and counter raids against the civilian population, And therefore, this is a violation of all human rights and humanitarian norms, which has intensified this crisis.
The ensuing climate of ethnic hatred accompanied by the ghettoization of the warring communities in their areas of dominance, has practically snapped all ties of coexistence.
In the meantime, the Government of India along with the Government of Manipur, continue to promote an end to the violence, the reconciliation between warring ethnic communities, and restoration of normalcy, while taking no visible measures to stop the violent conflict or to heal festering wounds.
Individual citizens of Manipur -- irrespective of gender, age, religion or ethnicity -- have been robbed of their most basic human rights, as the Government of India systematically abdicated its Responsibility to Protect the population.
We request the Committee to formulate an appropriate recommendation in line with the State obligation under the Covenant, read with the other relevant principles of international law.”
