Benguluru declares support to Sharmila's campaign against AFSPA
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 03, 2011:
A day long seminar on 'AFSPA and a protest' held at the concluding part of the six-day campaign demanding repeal of the Act in Bangalore to support the ongoing campaign for repeal of the Act and resist increasing militarization of democratic spaces.
With deep concern and solidarity with the 10-year-hunger-strike of Irom Sharmila and the struggle of the people of the North East and Jammu and Kashmir demanding repeal of the Act civil society organisations and concerned individuals of Benguluru organized the six day campaign in Bangalore from January 29 till today.
At the concluding part of the seminar, an unanimous decision to press government of India repeal immediately the Armed Forces (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura) Special Power Act, 1958 which was amended in 1972 and the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Forces Special Power Act, 1990 was taken.
The government must refrain from inserting any part of the Acts into any other legislation granting unbridled powers to the armed forces of the union or the state police, another demand adopted in the seminar stated.
The seminar observed that by the prolonged imposition of AFSPA, which allows the military to get involved in the 'internal administration of the democratic order of the country, in one part or the other since 1958, and its adverse impact on the democratic rights of the peoples of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
AFPSA is the most significant repressive tool of the Indian state that empowers even a non-commissioned officer of the armed forces of union to kill on mere suspicion and provides legal immunity from prosecution, thereby causing untold misery and agony among the people of the affected regions.
The media is reporting the incidents of violence in J&K and the Northeast by and large ignoring the assault on human rights by guardians of law and order and broadly endorsing these actions, in the name of 'national security' and justifying those policies of the state that militate against democratic norms and humanitarians.
Participant further asserted that the imposition of AFSPA also has severe economic, social and cultural cost including erosion of civil administration, lack of access to education, basic health care, destruction of properties and sources of livelihood, and environmental destruction.