Reachout raises AFSPA issue at UN Human Rights Council
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, September 24 2015:
The ongoing 30th Regular Session of Human Rights Council at United Nations has a series of intervention against Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA) on grounds of human rights violation, militarisation and discriminatory.
Kshetrimayum Onil of Reachout told the session that AFSPA is a cruel manifestation of racial discrimination in India as an ordinary soldier on his mere suspicion can use force to arrest anybody without warrant before committing a cognizable offence, can fire upon any person even to the causing of death, can use force to enter any premises or destroy any structure or recover any property � all in the course of so-called counter-insurgency operations.
"AFSPA has been terrorizing peoples of the north-eastern region with massive militarization for over half a century.
The victims or their families are practically helpless even when the armed forces personnel, intoxicated with their special powers, resort to fake encounters, rapes and sexual molestation of women and children" said Onil.
Irom Singhajit Singh of Just Peace Foundation requested to intervene in the arbitrary arrest and detention of his sister Irom Sharmila Chanu who is a human rights defender demanding repeal of AFSPA and urged to put pressure on the Indian authorities to put an end to her ongoing detention.
"It may be mentioned that my sister, began her hunger strike after the "Malom Massacre" of November 2, 2000, in which members of the Assam Rifles shot dead ten innocent people including women and children in Manipur, India," he said.
The AFSPA empowers soldiers to arrest, keep in detention, and shoot at any person so as to "maintain public order" if any person is suspected to be an "insurgent".
These actions can be carried out with total impunity, as the law requires the permission from the Central Government to prosecute a member of the Army.