What lies beneath?
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 26, 2014 -

Committee on Mass Grave at Tombisana High School (COMGATS) staged a sit in protest at Keishampat on 24 Jan 2015 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

For the last one month, civil society organisations have been exerting pressure on the Government of Manipur to launch a thorough probe into the case of human skulls and other skeletal remains recovered during an excavation at the erstwhile complex of Tombisana High School on December 25.

Committee on Mass Grave at Tombisana High School (COMGATS) has already set February 3 as the deadline for the government to act.

COMGATS’ demands include constitution of a special Commission of Inquiry, comprising legal luminaries, forensic experts, human rights defenders, anthropologists, civil society leaders, etc to investigate into the case; prosecution of all those involved in the criminal act; passing of an order for stopping all construction works at Tombisana High School complex immediately; preserving the mortal remains with the involvement of representatives from Families of Involuntarily Disappeared Association, Manipur (FIDAM) and delivering justice to the family members of those who had ‘disappeared’ after being held by security forces.

Besides these, COMGATS demanded ‘an end to all extra-judicial executions’ and enforced disappearances in Manipur under the cover of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

While COMGATS’ demands were the most logical given the mystery surrounding over the shocking recovery of the human remains, the State Government’s unresponsive attitude to the issue in the last one month is symptomatic of guilt not necessarily of factual culpability.

This is indicative of continued legitimization of unaccounted violence against the State’s own citizens under the pretext of actions against armed rebels and criminals.

More than once the State Government has been told that the skeletal remains could be that of persons who ‘disappeared’ after being picked up by security forces during a particular phase in the past.

With the silence maintained by the State Government, there are chances of fueling growing suspicion and further widening the trust-gap between the civil society organisations and the government.

The simmering suspicion and fear of the people irrespective of whether or not there is concrete evidence to the claims and counter claims over the skeletal remains have been the fallout of the prolonged political violence and alleged forced ‘disappearances’ of individuals.

It is time the State Government at least consider the demands of GOMGATS so as to clear all ‘doubts and suspicions” and actually find out what lies beneath.