Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 01:
Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 denies the right of life to the people of the North East India, said the United Naga Council (UNC).
A UNC statement issued to Newmai News Network by its vice president Puni Modoli stated that the AFSPA, 1958 "allows the armed forces to work under the impression that everyone from the North-East is an insurgent and to be dealt as such�.
The UNC leader further stated that the AFSPA strikes at the core of human existence, its history and its civilization adding that "man�s struggle throughout his history had been to preserve the God given gift of life, to secure that life and to enhance the quality of that life".
The UNC leader further stated that the AFSPA was the most divisive element in the country, producing secessionist sentiments where it never existed, sustaining secessionism where it had been on the wane.
Puni Modoli also said that the AFSPA had deprived the security of the people of the North East and that it had erased "our sense of dignity and self-respect and also it has demeaned our very existence�.
"This draconian law should be repealed without further delay," stated the UNC leader.
Commenting on the recent incident in Imphal where some Manipuri women protested in naked at the Assam Rifles gate, Puni Modoli said that "the action of the Meitei ladies at the Assam Rifles gate has no parallel in the history of the non-violent agitations across the world saying that the very action of those women at the Assam Rifles manifested the deepest ex-pression of anguish and utter helplessness and recreates the dilemma in which the people of the North East find themselves today�.
"It is, at one stroke, a plaintive appeal to the collective Indian psyche and the humanity at large," said Puni Modoli.
The statement of the UNC leader then said that the recent NSF and ANSAM sponsored rally under the aegis of the UNC sought the repeal of AFSPA and the integration of the Naga Inhabited areas.
The statement also said that all mass based organizations of the North East have one common goal ie, the upliftment of their people�.
"We (people of the North East) are therefore all on the same side," said Puni Modoli.
"If we can mutually respect each others desires and aspirations and create a space to accommodate those desires and aspirations then we can rise together to strengthen each other.