Date: Thu Jul 19, 2001 12:08 pm
Subject: EU-India round table!

Dear xxx,
I really appreciate your responding to our attempts to raise our issues in the EU's discussions with the Indian govt. Currently Manipur is in a really disturbed state and I would rate only the palestinian uprising as more serious to what is happening in our state. All that the outside world and ALSO the Indians hear about in India are the developments in Kashmir.

Kashmiris have Pakistan to champion their issues in the UN and the western countries and so get the attention of the media. Also important is the presence of a sizeable population of Kashmiris who are educated, influential, rich and resident in the developed world to be able to provide the intellectual and financial resources required to support their struggle. Unfortunately we have none.

No influential leaders, no affluent nor sizeable diaspora community resident in the developed world. So we can only look to an external source to champion our cause in our struggle against our exploitations. We have been trying to get the attention of the foreign media and other NGOs and when I came across the article about the discussions on civil societies between the UN and the Indian govt. I couldn't think of a better opportunity to present our case.

Manipur has, like the other north east states of India, several secessionist groups fighting to break away from India. Because of these secessionist movements, the indian govt has kept foreigners and hence the western media away from the north east of india by making these regions inaccessible to them by the Restricted Area Permit (RAP) fearing we would get support for the western countries. The current developments in manipur is borne of a mixture of ethnic dvision within the north east but more importantly the Indian govt's total apathy for the sentiments of the people of the north east.

But that is not the issue I want to address. It is the basic violation of civil liberties by the Indian govt in the north east that goes unnoticed by the western media and hence something we have no power to question. So when opportunities like this (EU-India discussions) present itself, we can only pray that mails like mine will hopefully present our case to the western world and people like you who can then pressure the indian govt to remove the violations of our civil liberties.

1. Currently NO non indian citizen can enter the north east area without a special visa. This visa is granted for just 14 days and the period starts from the date of issue of the visa. In Imphal the period of stay is for only 3 days. This applies even to persons born there but have taken up foreign citizenship and wishes to vist his home, parents and family !Even Kashmir does not have this blanket state wide restriction.

It is just another sign of the indian govt's total indifference to the rights and sentiments of the north east people when making their decisions. Isn't restricting a person to visit his family and home to 14 days at a time (which includes travel time) not a suppression of civil liberties ? If you see most of the indian financial regulations, there is a special provision called "non residents of Indian origin" which gets almost identical rights as that of an indian citizen resident overseas. Now if the indian govt wanted to keep the western countries out of the north east and respected the sentiments of the people, they would have made similar provisions that would exclude the visa restrictions from people who were born in the north east.

There is no way in a "civil society" that a person can be restricted from visiting his own family and home ! And they have no right to restrict the entry of any foreigner in the north east when even Kashmir, with the daily artillery battle with pakistan on its border, does not have that restriction. But unfortunately, unlike Kashmir, we do not have a political voice nor any educated, influential leaders to champion our cause against the Indian govt.

2. The culture of the north east is very different from that of the Indians. Currently there is very minimal television access for our own indigenous cultural programs on the govt channels. Television as you will agree is a very potent medium to kill off the cultures of the minority by superimposing that of the majority. That is the strategy used by the central govt for the north east states to eventually lose their separate identity through the proselytisation of their culture. With cable TV, a couple of small private operators have now mushroomed, providing a free indigenous alternative voice that most of the population tunes in to. But because of the current developments in manipur, all cable operators have been banned and their equipment confiscated and I am sure some destroyed.

Speaking out against the corrupt govt itself is a challenging and dangerous task but for a very poor people like ours, buying these equipment itself is a big ask for these operators. Because of the lack of an educated populace, our's a very corrupt local govt and bureaucracy with an even more corrupt judiciary. This independent indigenous media was all we had for any hopes to keep a check on these corrupt people. Now, even that has been denied.

I do not ask you to intervene and meddle with politics. All I ask is to pressure the indian govt. that if they are to be considered a "civil society" as they are aspiring to be, they have to first allow not only a person to be able to visit his family without any restrictions and for a media to exist freely. What more basic civil liberties can we ask than this. The RAP visa restriction should be lifted for ALL foreigners. Without access to our area by the western countries and their media, these gross violations of our rights are going to go unnoticed.

Here are a few links of manipur.

http://manipuronline.tripod.com/
http://www.e-pao.net
http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/about_manipur.htm

DGF - Information to the public
Secretariat General of the Council of the European Union



Date: Sep 21, 2002 11:36pm
Subject: Enquiry about Sharmila and Armed Forces Special Powers Act

http://www.ahrchk.net/sharmila/mainfile.php/background/
Hi ,
Can I get more information on what exactly is Special powers act and also the history of it. Can you Include if this act or something similar was there during the british rule of india. you need to get a lot more information like that than just listing the events if you want more participation from the outside world.

We are currently trying to get the facts together To start a campaign against the foreigner restriction To the north east of india and we could use the facts And history of the special powers act in our campaign. The collective punishment of an entire minority populace for actions that were not committed by the entire population is a gross violation of civil liberties. If we continue to fight only in isolation or worse still do not stand up against such atrocities like our generations before us, we will continue to be exploited.

India or for that matter any country suppressing a minority does so by shielding such violations from the outside developed world that now demands human rights and civil liberties to be protected for all citizens. We just have to knock down this "mother of all shield" of the foreigner restriction to the region and then we will see how India can continue its sham of projecting itself as A country upholding civil liberties to the rest of The world. Then you do not even need to campaign much For the removal of special powers act as the foreigners that come into the region will be there to champion our cause. It is no more a question of fighting to be heard then !

Look forward to hearing from you with the facts and good luck ....

p.s. I saw a documentary about a year ago about hunger striking kurds protesting again human rights violations by turkey and how they died because the process of not eating does irreparable damage to the body. I thought about Sharmila then and saddens me even today knowing that.



Date: Tue Sep 24, 2002 4:32 pm
Subject: more info on special powers act

I got this mail from the Human Rights School and have since been reading up on the Manipur update link he sent. I had stumbled onto this site through an e-pao link years ago but had not read it because I did not have time then. I read it this time and was amazed at some of the things I learnt. Please make sure you read these selected pages - they are very short and should not take too much time but will give a very clear picture of the history of the act.

Initially when the special powers act came to my attention I was debating with my conscience as the insurgency movement is a big impediment to our economic development (let's ignore the corrupt politicians) and our society is getting taken over by vigilantes enforcing their own version of morals and codes. But if you read the pages I have selected for you, you will realize that there is an evil there that we just cannot ignore - That of a weak helpless minority being bullied in a dark corner away from sight of the western media.

I don't know if it was shown in india but in most of the western media there was a recent episode where a mother in the US was caught bundling her kid in a car and then after a few furtive glances to confirm that no one was watching , she went on to clobber her kid inside the car. That is exactly the treatment the indian central govt is meting out to the north east. Unfortunately for us there will be no possibility of a saviour that will record the violations to be shown by the media as foreigners are restricted from entering the area.

So it is not a question of supporting the separatist movement when we say we have to get rid of the Special powers act. But just like a kid that has now grown up and confronts an abusive parent, it is time for us to standup and say NO MORE ABUSE ! NO MORE BULLYING ! The foreigner access restriction too has to be lifted so that the western world can witness these exploitation of human rights.

http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/december_document_1.htm
The british version of the act formulated during the indian revolt in 1942 during World War II after 85 long years of rule. India escaped it when it got independence in 1947 after 5 years.

http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/december_document_2.htm
India imposes the same act with a more diabolical twist on the North East in 1958 after just 11 years when separatist movements began. Kashmir was not included then !! Why ? Unforunately the NE unlike Kashmir is the helpless voiceless kid that can be bundled into the car and flogged with no one watching ! The act remains in place even after 4 decades and there are more recent acts like POTA being added further !

http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/december_feature_1.htm
History of the act.

http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/december_feature_2.htm
Indian opposition faces the wrath of political persecution during the 3 emergencies imposed by the congress. When the non congress party comes to power for the first time, it ratifies the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1979 and revamps the judicial system. Thereafter, no formal Emergency has been promulgated so far in India. But the indians have no conscience when a much heinous act like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has been imposed in the north east for all these years

The manipur update site has a lot more articles stating the atrocities and the UN and Supreme court verdicts and I recommend reading them too if you are interested to find out more. But the above 4 articles are a must read.

Date: Sat Mar 6, 2004 2:12 am
Subject: RAP/PAP and foreigner skills exchange program

This is the official site.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english

A friend of mine just quit her job to teach english in china through this organisation and actually paying a fee ! for that opportunity http://www.teachinchina.cn/en/

WE HAVE TO GET RID OF THE FOREIGNER ENTRY RESTRICTION for the North East ! Attracting foreigners voluntaring to disseminate various skillsets is very easy after that. The strategy is to initially mount pressure by our various organisations on our politicians to demand compensation from the central govt in the state budgets for lost foreign tourism earnings and also for the deprivation of intellectual development opportunities if they are going to retain this "COLLECTIVE punishment for ALL" policy.

To me, more than the foreign tourism economic input, this opening up of our people to the advance knowledge and ideas of the developed world, is more invaluable and important. It is a sign of our intellectual and political weakness that we are letting the indian central govt impose such a debilitating and discriminatory policy on the north east.

This is from a related previous post from the archives …..



Date: Tue Sep 9, 2003 4:25 pm
Subject: foreigner skills exchange program

The program to setup knowledge and information dissemination and training has been discussed over the years and I am going to expand on that knowing fully well, these are not going to progress beyond the drawing board for sometime. The lifting of the foreigner entry restriction has been my goal for many years now but unfortunately we still have many amongst our people who feel that it is counter productive and some even have reservations about the embarrassment that might be caused by the abduction of foreigners ! I have expressed my views on religion and the Christian proselytizing plans of the meiteis in my posts before. Being an agnost turned atheist, the only issue I have about Christianity besides the threat of an ethnic and social upheaval is the religious angle of "dumbing down" vulnerable and uneducated people (of which we have plenty in an underdeveloped minority mindset of our people) which happens when religion is pushed beyond the spiritual and moral needs of society and starts challenging the knowledge of science like evolution theory ! I wont ramble on again as they are in the previous posts.

"The imminent religious challenge facing the meiteis"

http://www.e-pao.net/epPageExtractor.asp?src=news_section.Manipur_Diaspora.html..

So if these missionaries do come, I hope it is not SOLELY the blind myopic "EVERYTHING by the bible" teachings but also the western culture, knowledge, music, art, cuisine, freedom and interaction with the developed nations on which a more closer intellectual interaction can be established. I dont think we have a single piano or any traditional classical western instrument other than the rock music introduced instruments amongst the closeted meiteis whose only available source of influence is india ! I would love to e.g. see western classical, jazz, chamber music, etc being taught and performed in manipur. And the best strategy is linked to the removal of the foreigner entry restriction and the free flow of foreign tourists. WE can set up an institute for teaching such skills like music, acting, film making, cooking, crafts, furniture making, ANYTHING and we can offer free accommodation and food to any foreign tourist that have a skill to teach.

We screen of all applicants who apply to this program and believe me there will be plenty ! They give us their skills in exchange for an exotic cultural experience of our various ethnic groups and sight seeing tours and most important a spiritual fulfilment of helping educate the people of an underdeveloped region. They must commit about 3 months and the longer the better and no pay but we might have to accept shorter periods for more specialised skilled applicants. Accommodation too usually can be home stay in families willing to host the applicants which makes the package a more intimate and exotic cultural experience for the applicant and keeps cost down for us. Existing schools can be used for the classes if we can slot in the right time. These visitors will develop ties and go back to their countries and spread the network to provide us more assistance.

WE will have some who will marry people from our state, building an even stronger bond and the reaction of our insecure males to that is the only threat I see to introducing foreigners to manipur! But we do not have to wait for the foreigners and such schemes can be pulled off if we can get volunteers in manipur to organise this. There are plenty of unemployed skilled people in manipur whose skills and "generosity" can be tapped to help "disperse" and multiply the skills to all and specially those who cant afford that education or come from families without the guidance about the career opportunities. Of course the hurdle is that "generosity" component as it is very easy for successful people specially living overseas to preach "generosity" but for someone without a job why should he/she train someone else that will increase competition and rob his future opportunity !



Date: Fri May 28, 2004 8:14 am
Subject: Sharmila in running for Nobel Prize

This is the official site.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english

http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=17966&typeid=1&Idoc_Session=6d5a1282aecd893472c58ed74abf431e

We must all write to the Nobel Prize foundation to advance her cause even though there is no chance of her winning it. I will draft a letter soon and post it. The Special Armed Forces Act allows anyone to be shot with the perpetrator totally beyond the reach of law even if the person was innocent !

There was such an outrage over the Abu Gharaib prisoner treatment by the US from some prominent hypocritical indian journalists when that pales into insignificance compared to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act used by the indian army to kill innocent civilians with total protection from the law ! Even if most of the people killed are genuine separatist members, we cannot allow a country's army to possess such unchallengeable powers now, which the british did not even adopt many decades ago !

Whatever international publicity we can get from a body like the nobel prize will highlight the forced isolation and dumbing down of our collective population by the indian govt with the restriction of foreigners in the region.



Date: Mon May 31, 2004 3:17 am
Subject: Legal team to challenge RAP in Indian court

I have dug up an old post that might interest you. I want to know if you can advise us on whether the indian govt can be challenged in court to compensate the north east states for the loss in tourism revenues resulting from the discriminatory foreigner entry restriction. I read up on admin law and encountered how the govt is protected from most tort cases and compensation. Ofcourse the actual case will take years to materialize as the calculation for the loss will need a lot of investigation and study to build a relatively sound case.

*****************
...FROM ARCHIVES ....
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Date: Mon Sep 15, 2003 2:26 am
Subject: looking to form our legal team

India is a functioning democracy with an independent judicial system and we should be able to challenge all our grievances legally. But we currently have an intellectual bottleneck of not having a qualified team of lawyers who can challenge the discriminatory and exploitive indian laws in court. We need to build a legal team that can among other things challenge the current foreigner entry restriction. And it is not important that we win the case but that the case is filed and the awareness raised. Almost no one knows that the foreigner restriction in the north east exist.

There are many unemployed lawyers in manipur and I wonder how much of them would be willing to take on the challenge and OPPORTUNITY to be involved in a high publicity case like this. It will definitely be good for their career and since they are unemployed not getting paid for the case is not going to make them any worse off but give them a big career boost with an excellent case.



Date: Tue Jun 15, 2004 4:45 am
Subject: lack of political voice - lack of infrastructure - catch 22

The cause is not a specific discrimination or racial hatred of the north east by the dominant mayangs. Nor is it a colonial mindset per se. It is just the innate human nature to selfishly look after one's own greedy interest first before others. Of course race and ethnicity are the first lines to differentiate a US and a THEM. This primitive instinct in humans recede in times of affluence and is accented and brought to the fore in times of hardship and limited opportunities.

The only way to counter the majority to ride rough shod over the minority in an opportunity limited developing region like India is for the minority NE states to possess a NON inconsequential political voice specially when the other politically dominant states in the countries are not only of a different culture but a totally different race and with no previous tied history where the US and THEM is even more accented. There was a bigger discrimination in allocation of funding of our own voiceless hill minorities when manipur was an independant country. Now with their SC/ST protection, the dominant NSCN umbrella and an almost equal political voice in the state parliament, that funding disparity is almost over. Some big industries like the failed cement plant was set up in Rishang's constituency despite no long term viability of the location. Now that is what having the political clout achieves ! Jiribam actually is currently the most suitable location for setting up industries because of the train and power supply but that is ignored as it has no political voice.

All this big figures being quoted about the NE state budget is just a simplistic assessment to serve their spin to paint us as "spoilt childs". These amounts pales into insignificance compared to the amount being pumped into the various other indian states. Moreover the private sector economy is a bigger catalyst in determining the economic development of the state and this is spawned by an adequate level of infrastructure which the NE has not been given by the centre in 50 years.

The attention we now have from the centre in the formation of the NE specific development agencies formed recently are also borne MORE from their attention to suppress the ever growing separatist movements than their genuine concern for the plight of the NE. And again that neglect from the centre was not borne off a racial hatred but of a lack of political voice from the NE states to stake their claim. The other states with their big political voice can go to the centre and DEMAND and ARMTWIST the centre for big industries and infrastructure development projects while all the NE can do is WAG ITS TAIL like a pet dog and lap up happily whatever crumbs get thrown our way. That has been the system for the last 50 years. Moreover as I had mentioned long ago, the central money that comes into the state does not have a chance to boost any local economy as it rushes out of the state in a SINGLE PASS after salary being received in terms of
1. paying for children's education outside the state and books printed outside,
2. govt contracts that goes into buying equipment produced outside the state,
3. the population that buys consumable goods produced outside the state.
The only paltry portion of that money that enjoys a little time within the NE states to boost the state economies is
1. education cost of private tuition and instate school fees
2. the bribe procured in the various contracts, and
3. the population buying locally grown agricultural produce
4. other small local food and transport private sector

The key to boosting the economy is to make the money coming into the state stay for a longer number of passes within the state economy and of course to attract other ways of money coming into the state other than the central budget by means of imports and tourism.

The biggest potential, foreign tourism, which by itself has the potential to dwarf the central state budget, has been almost banned by the indian govt because they see that it suits them better to prevent the foreign media witnessing their suppressing of the separatist movements than for us to lose this huge financial potential to build our economy. I dont know about it now but tourism was the biggest foreign exchange earner for india some years ago and it is not just the developing countries but highly industrialised nations that still have their economy driven in a big way by tourism.

Tourism is an excellent example to elucidate those that still do not buy my argument how the private sector is a bigger determinant than central state budgets in developing the economy of a state - tangibly and psychologically. Tourism is going to encourage local entrepreneurs to start offering various services which will AUTOMATICALLY snowball into the development of more infrastructure - busses, boats, train, roads, hotels, electricity, water and an even more profitable service industry. The interaction with foreigners will bring more overseas humanitarian charitable funding and assistance and empower our population to interact with them, their countries and institutions directly enabling our population to grow up more self confident and assured and ambitious instead of seeing a foreigner as a martian and going overseas, a pipe dream of going to another planet!

Steve Waugh's charity foundation is not the only opportunity we miss. The indian govt procures so much developmental loan from the world bank and IMF shedding crocodile tears of developing the infrastructure starved NE region but very little of that money every reaches the region. There was a World Bank loan I posted about many years ago where the loan was primarily secured to provide telecom infrastructure for the NE with IT kiosks. I have since read that some IT kiosks exist in manipur but compare the cost of money invested in these kiosks compared to the amount they procured ! If you want to monitor siphoning off and loss of development funds, I recommend investigating this invisible huge amount than the ones that we see in the state.

Besides the equal political voice enjoyed by most minorities in developed countries that enjoy a TRULY FEDERAL system like US, Australia, EU, every unemployed youth is given a salary equivalent called dole once he reaches the beginning teenage years, single mothers paid child upbringing allowances and cheap housing, every old person above about 60 years given a pension, college education made available for all students as an interest free loan that one pays back in instalments only when he earns a salary above an upper limit, free medical given to all. So all these factors ensures that even the weakest minority can have a very decent life even if industries and job generating institutions can not be made available to those underdeveloped and infrastructure starved regions within the country. This is why we see not much social unrest and secessionist sentiments of their minorities.

Obviously a developing and over populated country like India can not ever provide these services. So the minorities like the NE with no political voice in an underdeveloped and infrastructure starved region will remain dependant on central govt handouts with a growing unemployed population resulting in a social unrest that will stir up separatist sentiments. Corruption and bribery in the political and bureaucratic layers exist in every state of the country and is not just endemic in the NE. Of course we do not have the intellectual pool in our population for both better governance and also for better monitoring of the governance.

The NE and all other similar voiceless minorities in every country of the world has these drawbacks -
1. lack of infrastructure
2. inability and non viability to set up local industries to compete within the free market forces within a country to generate jobs locally and boost the economy
3. lack of intellectual pool to lead and monitor

But all these are a direct result of being in a voiceless underdeveloped minority status within a country. As an independent country in the last 50 years we would have none of the above drawbacks. Now obviously it is brainless to interpret this as a call to take up arms and secede from india as obviously India will not allow it, as the rule in this world is that the mighty makes the rules for its selfish benefit.

But this awareness is what we need to spread and use the public to pressure our politicians to inturn pressure the indian govt for better assistance and not left to struggle in the free market forces to compete with the rest of the infrastructure rich states. And this debunks their propaganda that it is purely our "spoilt child" attitude that is the sole cause for our underdevelopment. Also the reasoning behind some sections of our population taking up arms has to be understood fully and honestly and not dismissed off as a disillusioned brainwashed terrorist if we are to solve this crucial social problem.

Now again it is brainless to interpret this as totally absolving our own people and leaders of any misgovernance and wastage of development opportunities. It is a big factor not because we are more corrupt than other states but because we have less money to be siphoned off in bribes. And we must continue to pressure our inept leaders. However it is the lack of local intellectual development opportunities and institutions that has left us this handicapped, unable to effectively censure and monitor our leaders and provide alternative viable solutions.

But the argument here is that this is not the main impediment to our underdevelopment and social unrest but the lack of infrastructure investments by the centre to make us equally competitive as we need job generating industries and private sector as we are no longer a population of subsistence farmers but need jobs to survive. The central govt is more guilty for our underdevelopment in the state by not providing us critical development catalysing infrastructure :
- train service in 50 years while the british gave them one 150 years ago,
- preventing the lucrative foreign tourism,
- denying mobile phone communication infrastructure till only months ago and that too with inadequate transmitters,
- denying broadband internet

And these crucial infrastructure development will not happen if we do not posses a non insignificant political voice of merely 3 MPS out of almost 800 to make such MAJOR demands from the centre. In our current state we just have to continue wagging our tail and wait for the centre to throw us some crumbs and leftovers every now and then when we catch their attention. So dont ago about absolving the central govt and blaming the state as the sole reason for the underdevelopment. And this lack of political voice to demand infrastructure development is the catch 22 we have to solve.



Date: Tue Jul 13, 2004 2:50 am
Subject: Removal of Special Powers Act using Sharmila nobel Prize nomination

http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=1.08.120704.jul04
Arrested woman Th Manorama found brutally killed

There could be many members who has total apathy to this story giving the extortion demands back home. But such torture and killing by the indian armed forces happens more as a rule than an exception. It is amazing that the indian journalists and media that voiced their utter shock at the iraqi prison abuse incident sees nothing wrong in such indian armed forces torture killings that are not only far worse but happen a lot more frequent.

I have still been unable to draft up the letter to take advantage of the opportunity to solicit pressure from international bodies to remove the special powers act presented by the nomination of Sharmila for the nobel peace prize I mentioned earlier. But if anyone can help me compile the links to such written web based articles to strengthen our case, it will help me a lot as this is the best opportunity we have to get international attention.

I have been struggling with the mail because since some months ago I found that the following geocities manipurupdate site which had the background information on sharmila and the specials power act have been deactivated.

http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/december_document_1.htm
http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/december_document_2.htm
http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/december_feature_1.htm
http://www.geocities.com/manipurupdate/december_feature_2.htm

I had tried to retrieve as much as I could from the cached links on google but still need to have it uploaded somewhere as I would much rather have it as links than to clutter the mail with all these information as that way no one will even bother to read the mail. Let me know if anyone knows of any new site that has these information.



Date: Mon Jul 19, 2004 3:04 am
Subject: our state voters are to be blamed - petition to state politicians

India is a functioning democracy. The people must use their political voice to pressure the state politicians to not renew the Armed Forces Special Power Act. It is after all the state govt that passes the law for the renewal of AFSPA. Each leikai group, meira paibis, NGOs, student unions and other bodies that can organise grass root level participation must make it known to each voter in an electorate, to make it known to their MLAs, that they will not get elected if they renew the AFSPA after the 6 month extension expires in Nov. Ideally if possible they should be forced to pass a new bill now to cancel the AFSPA extension passed in May as in some months time, when the current heat of the moment subsides, all will be forgotten.

So dont blame the central govt but blame ourselves first for not taking responsibilities of our voting rights. Everybody happily votes for a politician that hands out money on voting day, applying no political pressure on the politicians who know that whatever political storm they encounter, it is all a matter of taking cover momentarily and on voting day all will be forgotten if they hand out cash again ! So it is OUR voters and not the central govt that authorises the indian armed forces to run amuck with their unstoppable and unchallengeable powers bestowed upon them by the AFSPA.

So the petition for the immediate passing of a bill to remove the AFSPA should be signed by each electorate member and sent to their MLA with a threat that next elections you are out if you do not act to remove the AFSPA now. The current state politicians rely heavily on the funding from their indian political parties to finance their election campaigns and so they are mere puppets in their hands selling out the causes of the state in their bid to please their central handlers as our voters exert no pressure on our politician. The politician KNOWS that if they can keep their indian central govt politicians happy and get their funding and support, that money easily silences their electorate at election time and will be elected again.

That is why indigenous political parties and independents with a more indigenous agenda but with limited finances find it almost impossible to compete in our elections now. One has to belong to a central political party and receive their funding to be able to buy the voters on election day. WE have to turn that thinking around and make them realize that we are an educated electorate and from now on you put our local issues ahead in priority to what your central govt minders ask of you. OUR STATE POLITITICANS SHOULD REPRESENT THE WISHES OF MANIPUR AND NOT THAT OF THE CENTRAL GOVT MINDERS ! This is something I wrote about years ago too but will any member pursue the dissemination of this to the rest of our population ? I doubt it, but when a similar incident of an indian army atrocity happens again, we will go through another cycle of passionate outburst that serves no purpose. This group primarily play a thinktank role coming up with ideas as we do not have the grassroot reach nor the finances to pursue any concrete program. So all that we can hope for is for the adoption of the ideas by those organisation that have the funding and the capacity to translate the ideas into actions.

Now instead of shouting and screaming in this forum, members should use their brains and intellect to come up with an explanation of how the state govt and defence forces can continue to pursue their insurgency suppressing activities even without the AFSPA. That is the current argument that the state govt has to continue declaring the state a disturbed area. There is no denying that the state needs to fight insurgency but can it be done without the AFSPA ? WE have to answer that question for us to progress to the next step. So instead of just penning your outburst, do some internet research and nail this argument which is critical in the removal of the AFSPA !

Even the US and israel gets so many stinky amnesty reports and as I mentioned long ago india is going to ignore it like every other country. It is only economic pressure like sanctions that work on a country. I had written about the strategy for asking travel books like the lonely planet to mention a section on human rights records for each country to inform conscientious travellers that may not want to give that tourist dollars to such countries. That if possible could be something that can pressure india from outside. This can only succeed if more foreigners can visit our region and highlight our causes. So the foreigner entry restriction (RAP) is a bigger contributor to our exploitation and isolation and I find it amazing that till now NO ONE HAS ADDRESSED THE REMOVAL OF THE RAP YET !

We have to let the outside world know that we have to rely on the foreign media as the NE region has REMAINED RESTRICTED FOR FOREIGNERS FOR OVER 50 YEARS since it became part of india after the british left. So the jingoistic indian media will naturally side with their armed forces and not cover any such atrocities committed by their armed forces in these secessionist regions.



Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 10:09 AM
Subject: More info on Manorama killing in manipur by indian army

I really appreciate your concern for our plight and it is critical for people like you to highlight what is going on in the north east of india as it is a region that is politically voiceless, racially and culturally different and india has kept it away from foreigners since it became part of india after the british left. Due to the resulting secessionist movements in this region, India has imposed a restriction on foreigners so that the atrocities committed by its armed forces are not exposed to the international media.

India continues to collectively punish the entire population, isolating and keeping it dumb, in connivance with the indian jingoistic media. The major mainstream indian newspapers still have not made any mention of the developments of this ENTIRE STATE of a country that has been brought to a standstill for a few days now !

It is luckily the pervasive internet revolution, that was granted reluctantly and cautiously only a few years ago in our north east region of india, that has allowed our population to circumvent this indian govt imposed cage from foreigners and reach out to people like you for your assistance. Even a person born in this region and has taken up foreign citizenship, needs to apply for this RAP (Restricted Area Permit) valid for 14 days from the date the visa is stamped ( this was recently extended !) even to visit his home, parents and family !

So though the manorama killing and the armed forces Special Power Act needs highlighting, the main issue is to highlight this closely kept indian policy secret of gagging the north east people by completely shielding it from the international media. We need this lifted if the western media is to be able to monitor future atrocities by the indian army on a hapless silenced and isolated population of the north east. There is a woman called sharmila who has been on hunger strike for 4 years but has been arrested and forcibly kept alive on injected fluids, demanding the removal of the AFSPA law after an indian army massacre of innocent civilians.

This hunger strike period must be a world record but it still has escaped the world media attention ! Her name was recommended for the nobel peace prize by some women body.
http://www.ahrchk.net/sharmila/mainfile.php/background
Adverse Human Rights reports mount no pressure on any govt as we see in Israel and even the US now and India is no different. Economic sanctions work but that can never be applied to a powerful country like india. So we need to highlight this secretly hidden corner of india that it is suppressing to be highlighted to conscientious travellers so they deny their powerful tourism money to pressure india financially.

These links explain the development of the story.

http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=1.08.120704.jul04
http://www.antiimperialista.com/view.shtml?category=all&id=1090144900



Date: Sat Mar 6, 2004 2:12 am
Subject: RAP removal

While discussing with someone quite influential in manipur I raised this issue of RAP removal and the damage it was doing to us and he was very eager to get it removed. Hope in the future he can get it removed but if we mount the pressure now it can go much easier and quicker than the AFSPA which the local govt themselves will be afraid and resist to remove not only from fear of angering their central govt leaders but for their own security within manipur.

But the local politicians, if educated about the damages of the RAP, will have no argument to refuse and in fact will very eagerly agree to have the RAP removed. The inner line permit is something we want but the RAP must go. I hope that with some of our local media personalities being in our MD forum currently, I hope you will please highlight this very crucial issue at this opportune moment and disseminate this thought to our intellectuals and leaders back home.

Also PLEASE HIGHLIGHT THE REAL ROOT OF OUR PROBLEM - THE RESTRICTED AREA PERMIT (RAP) TO KEEP FOREIGNERS OUT OF THE REGION WHICH NOT ONLY THE OUTSIDE WORLD BUT ALMOST ALL INDIANS DO NOT KNOW OF ! THIS ALLOWS THE INDIA GOVT TO CONTINUE RIDING ROUGH SHOD OVER the NORTH EAST HAVING BLOCKED THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA FROM THIS ISOLATED REGION. The RAP and not the AFSPA is what gives the indian govt and its army this unrestricted powers to continue committing these blatant atrocities CONTINUOUSLY despite several such protests over the decades !

Once the western foreign media reaches an area, the rules of engagement by the security forces AUTOMATICALLY cleans up as we have seen in every trouble torn corner of the world. The govt is going to argue the need for the AFSPA to continue fighting the separatist movements but they have no argument to justify the restriction of foreigners to the region. Besides keeping away the foreign media and attention, it denies the lucrative foreign tourism money to these poor regions which have almost ZERO industries and private sector.

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For Foreigner:
Individual foreigner visiting the North East require Restricted Area Permit (R.A.P) from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government.of India. Group tourists consisting of at ATLEAST 4 (four) members can obtain the R.A.P.
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Many years ago I had tried to compile a list of all countries in the world that had such foreigner access restrictions to their minority regions to compare india's restrictions on our region with that of the other countries but did not get much luck. I had intended to send the compilation to the lonely planet so they could include that information as a section on each country for the conscientious travellers. If you have access to this information or can recommend a link, please let me know.



Date: Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:29 am
Subject: govt strategy - kangla fort instead of AFSPA

It is clear from the developments below, that the strategy used by the politicians is to negotiate an end to the protests by "promising" to get the indian army to vacate Kangla by the year end. This is a clear indication that the govt. is going to refuse the removal of AFSPA and that is a line they may not budge from.

Even despite all the protest now, I am sure they know it is just a matter of time before the steam in the protests run out, like many such violent protest before, given the poverty level of the majority of our population that live a single day at a time who will eventually give in to their hunger.

Though we must continue the demand for the removal of the AFSPA we must be ready to ensure that the we get the best deal from any compromise struck and most important that the "promise" has no loop holes with penalty clauses if not kept.

1. Kangla Handover:
..."The Assam Rifles said ``total vacation of Kangla has never been contemplated nor is it practical.'' The reply reiterated that they would retain 46 acres of the area, which had been bought by the Centre from the state." >>>...

The December deadline as a New year gift is a clever spin but the realities have to be delved in to see how likely that is going to happen. Agreeing to vacate Kangla EARLY in an unrealistic timeline is not what we want but a well studied and detailed timeline that is POSSIBLE so we should allow them a completion of relocation by even next year as long as they sign and agree with the milestones and penalties. Local lawyers need to be involved in drafting a legally full proof agreement before agreeing to any compromises from the govt.

Several Milestones and penalty clauses have to be defined charting the way to the December deadline -
- what is the current status of the alternate site construction.
- How long has that project continued and if that is still not over what is the likelihood of the relocation happening in Dec.
- Who is responsible for the construction of the current location and what was the budget estimate
- how much fund is left for the completion and is it sufficient
- What were the main issues faced till now and how likely are these issues going to be resolved soon.
- assam rifles responsibilities for getting the alternate location constructed and ready
- relocation estimate and proof of allocation of budget to finance this relocation
- completion of alternative location date.
- minimum conditions demanded by the assam rifles for their agreeing to initiate the relocation.
- start date of army operations from the new location
- cessation of all army operations from within Kangla
- completion of all personnel relocation date
- handover date of all non central govt area of kangla by assam rifles
- what facilities and operations will be used by the Assam rifles during that period in the central govt procured land in kangla.
- reclamation of central govt purchased land of kangla to Manipur govt by buying it back.
- What will be the cost and does the state govt have the budget for it. if not will the central govt fund this repurchase of Kangla from central govt.
- Relocation of ALL areas within Kangla by CRPF.

COMPLETE RESPONSIBILITIES for the building of the alternate site and relocation there should lie with the central govt and assam rifles AND NOT WITH THE STATE govt as with our inefficient and inept local govt with their financial and infrastructure limitations, the central govt and assam rifles will employ a clever ruse to obstruct and blame the state govt for any failure to move out by their December deadline.

Penalties should demand assam rifles and the central govt to pay a steep fine for each delayed day/week towards a "Kangla Restoration Fund" kept with some central body outside the reach of our local politicians. These fees should be high to ensure that if they renege or dilly dally, it will HURT them dearly. These are just ideas I could come up with but local organisations and media personalities must consult local lawyers and formulate the details of this when the kangla issue comes up again at a negotiation or press conference. The vacation of the Kangla Fort was initiated in 1977, another Union Minister of State for Home M.M Jacob flagged the departure of the assam rifles in 1992, and then in 1997 the Indian central government positively fixed the complete vacation of the Assam Rifles on 1st July 2000. So this promise as just another stunt to quell the ongoing public protest demanding the removal of the AFSPA which too will not be met again.

http://www.e-pao.net/epPageExtractor.asp?src=features.kangla_impasse.html..
http://www.nepsindia.com/kangla_affairs.htm


2. RAP removal:
The RAP removal to end foreigner entry restriction is an important issue that needs to be demanded as giving the international media access to the army operations will serve to clean up the Rules of engagements of the indian army thus preventing any such atrocities again. In light of the recent realisation by India of the need to economically interact with ASEAN, opening up of the region to foreign tourism and trade with our eastern countries is a must and the RAP is preventing that currently.

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Delhi already has a New Year gift for Imphal: Kangla

Home MoS says forces will empty historic fort, join Manipuri celebrations

SUBRATA NAGCHOUDHURY
Posted online: Thursday, July 22, 2004 at 0305 hours IST




Date: Sun Jul 25, 2004 3:13 am
Subject: big picture - RAP not AFSPA

Can you provide more info on the RAP so please mail me links to detailed information on it that I can research. I want to know when it was started and where all it applied to different parts of India in different years. I still see no mention of the RAP in any of the demands or article anywhere else as they are still missing the woods for the trees ..... WE always miss the big picture ! I really believe the "RAP and not the AFSPA is the cause" but I see no one else voicing any mention of the RAP. Vacation of Kangla even if it materializes will still have the army stationed there and operating from it as some areas of kangla belong to them.

Today the mayang indians because of their command of english, population and hard work ethics find themselves in very influential positions of several institutions all over the world. With the rate at which indians are succeeding in the US, in probably a few decades, I wont be surprised if the indians start playing a bigger lobbying role in US foreign affairs than even the jews. So getting any anti India message is going to be an uphill task and so we need to have as much foreign media exposure as we can get. These brute people power form of protest that explodes every now and then, though most effective is too costly and we need to engage the foreign media instead by removing this RAP shrowd around our region.

But what angers me most about the RAP is the dumbing down of our population by this indian govt policy ! There must be atleast 99 % of our population that has never seen a foreigner physically ! It is interaction with the developed world that infuses development of any region. And we are not talking about a remote village but a STATE in a country like india that is such a popular destination for foreign tourism. And it has been only a few years since a total foreigner ban on the state was lifted to the now current access to a few sites with a special visa.

We need to progress beyond just writing angry rhetoric in this forum and mature intellectually to take up projects where groups of members research to compute and model figures such as the loss to the manipur economy by the indian govt policy of denying foreign tourism over half a century, business plan to investigate viability of certain industries like VALUE ADDING to currently existing skills and industries like wood work to start venturing into musical instrument making and sports equipment.

It might require sponsoring young talented trades person into a short term course overseas in these trades to acquire the various knowledge and then procuring a loan for the person to open a school there to teach and manufacture as part of the Knowledge Dissemination Centres. I know most of the members are young with limited experience and more passion so the experienced members must lead in envisioning the big picture strategies and ideas. And with the internet now, any research and knowledge acquisition is within our reach.

Our future lies in our current crop of successful members who have gone outside and acquired various knowledge to facilitate transferring that knowledge home quickly and disseminating them instead of the current trickling rate given the indian govt imposed isolation and our own resulting lack of intellect, generosity, opportunity, capital and infrastructure.