Relevance of Human Rights Day observance in state
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: December 12, 2022 -
Though there were no notable incidents of excesses committed by security forces and acts of violence perpetrated by members of outlawed outfits in the state in the past few years, the widespread observance of the International Human Rights Day on Saturday by different organisations testifies that the wounds suffered during the peak of insurgency movement and random shootouts, including the stage-managed encounters, are yet to heal.
Without any doubt, Manipur used to be considered as one of the hostile parts of the world with killings of security personnel, armed insurgent cadres and their over-ground assisters, and even innocent civilians happening almost every day.
From the 1970s till early part of year 2000, hardly any day passed without the state witnessing restive situation on account of insurgency-related incidents or civil bodies resorting to agitations in denunciation of alleged fake encounters, accusing the security personnel of indiscreetly violating human rights, charging the establishment of shielding the guilty men in uniform and staging demonstrations to condemn impulsive acts of violence involving cadres of insurgent outfits.
However, compared to the occasional killings of civilians by outlawed organisations, mostly for defying extortion demands or on the charge of being informers of security agents, majority of the bloodshed was caused by the government forces.
In fact, the Supreme Court ordering investigation into 98 cases of suspected fake encounter killings in Manipur in a decade's time out of 1528 such incidents alleged by civil and rights organisations sum up the excesses committed by security forces on both known insurgents and innocent civilians.
For the record, with exception of sporadic incidents of ambush laid on security forces in some remote parts of the state, Manipur has been relatively free from shootouts ever since the broad daylight killing Chungkham Sanjit and Thokchom Rabina Devi at Khwairamband market on july 23, 2009 was exposed widely by local and national dailies and one of the police personnel confessed that Sanjit was slain after being captured.
It may be mentioned that apart from the on-going investigation into the 98 cases of dubious shootouts, the CBI has already filed charge-sheet in the killings of Sanjit and Rabina, mentioning 240 witnesses out of whom testimonies of 117 witnesses have been recorded in the Court. The case proceedings underscore that at-least some of the security personnel accused of violating human rights will have to face the consequences under the law of the land.
However, the justice delivery system unable to live up to the public's expectation for prompt punitive action is one of the reasons for the civil societies making it a point to observe the International Human Rights Day to remind all concerned that whoever has undermined human rights must pay the price.
Manipur passing through one of the most peaceful times after decades of restive situation might have diluted significance of the observance but it's an undeniable fact that serious cases of human rights violation had taken place in the state and that the civil societies and various rights organisations wouldn't rest till the trigger-happy security personnel are suitably punished.
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