Oinam lest we forget

OT Ramshan *

There is no such human rights abuse as that of the Oinam incident in Senapati district in the history of human rights movement in India. It belied all the beliefs and principles enshrined in the Constitution of India. The protectors of the citizens and the peacekeepers, who were supposed to monitor the uncertain situation, had actually turned out to be the villain. Torture and repression became the language of the army. The whole scheme of Indian Nation building process was punctuated by this brutal onslaught of acrimonious attack on humanity.

The rule of law had ceased to exist. Civil administration fell into the hands of the army. There was emergency-like situation going on but the Government of India turned a blind eye to the issue. Oinam village was completely locked down. Media persons were completely shut from entering the village and the whole State of Manipur was kept in the dark about the repeated human rights violation that was taking place in Oinam.

When the Amnesty International came out with the report on Manipur entitled “Operation Bluebird: A case Study of Torture and Extrajudicial Execution in Manipur” in October 1990, the whole world came to know the undeclared emergency-like situation in the North East of India. The harrowing human rights violations committed by the Indian army in the North East in the name of counter insurgency sent the message of shame to the Indian State but regretfully there was no remorse on the part of the Indian State.

The Amnesty International Report is basically a detailed report of the pattern of torture that the Assam Rifles employed in and around Oinam village after the armed group belonging to NSCN attacked an Assam Rifles post in July 1987, in which 9 soldiers were killed and many arms and ammunition were taken away.

The bottom line of the report in regard to the case of Oinam is to remind humanity that the world we live in would be a better place if the rights and dignity of the people is respected and the saying ‘might is right’ does not bode well in today’s era of globalization. The report tries to testify the ineffectiveness and the futility of a law which does not correspond to the standard or to the tune of natural human rights convention to contain public unrest but rather that would only bring hostility, misunderstanding and turmoil in the society.

‘Operation Bluebird’ is a codename of the counter insurgency operation employed by the Assam Rifles in order to recapture all the looted arms and ammunition, wherein a reign of terror was unleashed on the civilian populace in the aftermath of the attack at the Oinam post. In the pursuit of hunting down the insurgents, many innocent lives were tortured and killed of which the Assam Rifles claimed that they were killed in ‘cross-firings’ or ‘encounters’ while trying to escape.

Women were raped while others were left to give birth in an open ground without any medical attention. Thirty four years have gone by but the harsh memory of the ordeal is just too bitter to forget. For the survivors of the ordeal, who narrated chilling testimonies, it must have been like one bad dream, really bad that they never wish to remember for the rest of their lives.

Yes it all happened in Oinam village on July 9, 1987 in the North East of Senapati district, Manipur. The Assam Rifles outpost at Oinam village was completely overrun by the NSCN and in the attack 9 soldiers lost their lives while 3 were severely wounded. The NSCN then left with huge amount of arms and ammunition.

The next to follow was a counter-insurgency operation code-named “Operation Bluebird” under the command of General PL Kukrety, General Officer in Command (GOC), of M sector headquartered at Zakhama in Nagaland but given in charge of the Assam Rifles of Manipur, where crime against humanity unfolded.

The whole of Senapati district had been declared as ‘disturbed area’ under section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act by the Governor of Manipur. In fact the whole of Manipur has been declared “disturbed area” by 1980. When the State or the Central Government declares an area as “disturbed”, the armed forces immediately begin to exercise its powers as per the guidelines of the AFSPA.

What is most shocking about this Act is the fact that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution of India under Article 21 is bluntly violated by section 4 (a) of the AFSPA. This particular section permits the armed forces to fire upon or shoot anyone if they think the people in the disturbed area are acting in contravention of any law. This is an abject violation of Human Rights.

Again the right to liberty and security of person is violated by section 4 (c) of the AFSPA because the Act permits the armed forces, as we all know, to ‘arrest, without warrant, any person who has committed a cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence and may use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest’.

The Act also provides those army officers who abuse their powers with immunity from legal proceedings. It simply implies that the perpetrators go scot-free even if they have deliberately committed crime against humanity and their actions are not held accountable by the State. The State Government cannot even initiate legal proceedings against armed forces on behalf of the people without Central Government approval.

Well, life in Oinam was brought to a standstill. Curfew was clamped. Every citizen of the village including women and children, were ordered to come out of their homes and were made to stand in the village ground. The village Church became a concentration camp. Men and women were separated. Women were raped and men were tortured to death.

The Indian army unleashed a reign of terror in and around Oinam village from July to October 1987 in which to the horror of the villagers the most blatant violation of human rights became a daily routine for almost three months. Connection with the outside world was totally cut off even as journalists were not allowed to visit at all.

Manipur woke up to the reality that the democratic principle of their right to life was in grave danger. The harrowing experience of the people during the ordeal of the Operation Bluebird made them question the very existence of civil liberties enshrined in the Indian Constitution. The story of human rights violations that took place in the span of three months from July to October 1987 as recounted by the people of Oinam was something unparallel in the history of mankind. Torture, rape, detention and looting public property including food from their granaries were the order of the day.

We all know that the political scenario of Manipur since the beginning of its political career in 1972 has not been quite rosy. The conflict situation since the gaining of the Statehood resulted in the declaration of the whole State as “disturbed area” under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) by the Central Government in 1980. And with the enforcement of AFSPA thereafter, the people of Manipur have witnessed untold miseries in terms of human rights violations.

One such brutality of human rights offences was seen at Oinam in 1987 when the Indian Army unleashed its reign of terror on the innocent people of Oinam and its surrounding villages. The Oinam incident is now a thing of the past but sure enough it is still fresh in the minds of the people of Manipur. The horrifying ordeal that the people of Oinam went through three decades ago still haunts the younger generation.

One wonders as to why so many innocent people had to suffer so much of pain and anguish for no fault of theirs. The onslaught under the code name “Operation Bluebird” saw people tortured to death, women molested and raped, children orphaned, educational institutions turned into concentration camps, Churches desecrated and villages burnt down.

A case of human rights violation, perpetrated on the people of Oinam by the Assam Rifles, filed in the Gauhati High Court by NPMHR seems to have gone into oblivion. Justice has never been delivered. The Assam Rifles were adamant in not co-operating with the enquiry and they did not care to appear before the Judge.

Do we have to blame the faulty legislation of the Parliament or the Indian federal set up ? Do we have to restructure the Indian security system if the mainstream political class still points fingers towards the security system ? Should the security forces still be shielded with such legal framework of ‘impunity’ whereby they can go on harassing the people ? The questions are unending.

It is imperative on the part of the Indian State to relook and reassess the most plausible way out before another mayhem like that of Oinam occurs in its political history. The incident of Oinam should remain a watershed in the history of human rights movement in India as an eye opener for the Indian State while engaging the people of North East whose racial metaphor seem to have been depicted to mainland India as a “fractured identity” in the scheme of their Nation building.

It will also go down in the history books that the Indian State sponsored military actions have committed the worst human rights abuse in a village called Oinam, in Senapati district of Manipur, in its quest for containing militancy in North East India.