AFSPA issue raised at UN Council meeting
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, March 28 2015 :
Irom Singhajit, brother of anti-AFSPA campaigner Irom Sharmila, drew the attention of the UN Council to the precarious human rights situation of the North East India reeling under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act during a meeting held from March 2 to-27 .
Informing this to media at the Human Rights Alert (HRA) office here on Saturday, Singhajit said he talked about human rights, child rights and Irom Sharmila, who has been on a fast for more than 14 years demanding repeal of AFSPA, at the just concluded UN Council meeting.
He said he also told the UN Council that the NE region has been reeling under AFSPA for the last 57 years and that Irom Sharmila is detained in isolation and forced feed in her 15th year of hunger strike against the draconian Act.
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The UN Council was also informed by him that AFSPA grants the Indian military to operate with impunity in the seven sister States of NE India and in Kashmir, resulting to egregious human rights violations in these areas.
Raising up the issue of child rights in India, Singhajit further told the UN Council that in the context of India the UN reports as well as media have highlighted the involvement of children in the armed conflict in Naxalite affected areas and in Jammu & Kashmir.
He informed the Council that many ethnic armed groups continue to use child soldiers in Manipur and brought up the case of 16-year-old Miss Alice Kamei.
Singhajit also raised the issue of the national or ethnic minority of NE.
He told the Council that with the ambiguous "Act East Policy" of the Government of India to integrate its economy with South East Asia and Far East Asia, mega development plans are taking up without the free and prior informed consent of the indigenous population.