Public rally denounces crime against humanity
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 13, 2013:
Protesting crimes against humanity, Conflict Widow's Forum, Manipur in association with several other organisations took out a rally on the streets of Imphal today.
Prior to the rally, a public meeting was convened at the complex of Lainingthou Awangba Thougal Lup, Khurai.
The gathering then took out a rally from the meeting venue to Iboyaima Shumang Leela Shanglen.
Speaking at the meeting, Lecturer of Maharaja Bodhachandra College, Homen Thangjam said, after neglecting the North East region for many years, India started opening its eastern corridor during 1990s as the country was compelled to have economic ties with the South East Asian countries.
In addition to continuous exploitation of natural resources of the region, the Government of India is now planning to construct big dams at various parts of the region on the pretext of producing more electricity without caring much about the environmental impact, he alleged.
Coming down heavily on controversial AFSPA, Homen questioned why the Act has not been repealed although it is known to everybody that it is inhuman.
He observed that the future generation would question why the people of current generation do not put in enough effort to scrap the Act.
NEDF Member Rebati Raman said, AFSPA was passed by the Parliament in 1958 in order to empower armed forces in counter insurgency operations.
However, the Act has given adverse impact, Rebati observed and added that numerous cases of fake encounters, harassments and rape cases started happening after the imposition of the Act.
Under the controversial Act, nobody at the AFSPA imposed area can complain regarding any crime committed by the armed forces without taking due approval from the Union Home Ministry.
Although, many Central political leaders have opined that peace has returned in Manipur, the State Cabinet extended the period for remaining Manipur as a Disturbed Area for six more months again on July 11. Th Shamungou while speaking at the meeting opined that human greed is the root cause for most of the crimes.
As such, he suggested the gathering to shun greed in order to bring down the number of crimes.
He pointed out that criminals would get God's punishment which is more severe than the penalty awarded by the law.
COWF Imphal East Co-Convenor L Brojeshori said, number of crimes is increasing day after day in Manipur.
She said that the rally was organised to alert the Government in this regard.
According to the incidents reported in the newspapers, Brojeshori said, a total of 982 cases of crime against women happened between January 2005 and July 2013 in Manipur.