'Disclosure' only option to prevent continued rapes, says survivors
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Thingnam Anjulika Samom

Imphal, November 25 2014: Perhaps it was the memory of that horrifying night, or the endless visits of police, reporters and human rights activists afterwards, the suspicion was apparent.

Her phanek pulled up to her chest and a wet cotton phadi around her shoulders, 55-year old Ahanjaobi stood by the side of the house and shot off the questions hesitantly - who, why and what � before grudgingly allowing entry into the house.

Eighteen years ago, there had been other unheralded visitors to her house one night.

A group of army men had been on a search operation in the locality.

Elangbam Ahanjaobi, then 37 years old, was asleep with her elder son when they abruptly pulled back the mosquito net on her bed shouting for something in Hindi, a language that she couldn't understand well.

Then they proceeded to rape her on her own bed, in front of her son.

'Disclosure' only option to prevent continued rapes, says survivors

Seated in a small room a mattress-less bed, the mud floor wet against our feet, she opened up slowly, preferring to refer to the event as "that incident" and the accused as "that person." Her eyes darting furtively at the closed door dividing her son from us, she said, "After that incident, I felt that even if I myself have lost, I should at least talk about it so that my fate does not befall others, so that these people should not go unpunished," .

Ahanjaobi's decision to talk about the incident opened up a Pandora's box on a topic which hitherto had been cloaked by a culture of silence fearing social stigma and retaliation from a powerful state agency.

In March, 1974, a young girl named Rose from a village in Ukhrul district had committed suicide after being gang-raped by personnel of the Border Security Force.

In her suicide note, she wrote, "� I believe that justice will not prevail in my case for they are clever and powerful �".

Though there are suspicions that there could have been other instances of rape and molestations by army personnel during their many counter-insurgency operations, Ahanjaobi was the first to break the silence.

Two months after Toring from Chandel district added strength to the outcry against army atrocities on the women of Manipur.

With a few handful of vegetables spread out on a cloth in front of her, 42-year old Toring welcomes us with shy smile, making the back-breaking above 65 kilometres ride from Imphal to Japhou in Chandel worthwhile.

"I have almost sold everything.

Nothing much, just a few things that I plucked from the fields," she said, self-consciously.

Her husband is a mistry, building houses for others.

But they themselves are yet to have a house of their own.

She ushered us into her two room mud-walled house.

A portion of the front room with two beds placed side-by-side was walled off with old flex banners and patched clothes.

Another bed in the next room was visible through the doorway.

Clothes, toys and books struggled for place on a small wooden bench near the door.

A small TV placed precariously over a wooden shelf in a corner was their window to the world outside.

"Tata Sky, the Imphal networks have not reached here," she explained.

She sits down and starts her story, "It was harvesting time, just like now.

I was around 23 or 24 years old then.

Our eldest child was about one and half year old when we came to Mahamani area, thinking that we will have a better life there," she recalled.

This was in October 1996 .

Referring to the perpetrator as this person, she narrates, "It was the day after we moved in.

Earlier during the day, this person had come to the house and hanged around, trying to coax my brother-in-law, who stayed nearby to drink 'red liquor' with him.

In the evening our landlord came to visit, and sat with us till around 9 or 10 in the night.

After he went away we got ready for bed.

As was my habit I lit up a small lamp and placed it a little away from the bed.

I needed that small light in case I had to wake up in the night to tend to the child," she recalled.

"We might have dozed off a bit when suddenly I felt a presence in the room.

The room was in pitch darkness.

This person must have snuffed off the light.

I elbowed my husband and asked him to check.

Suddenly this figure came up from under the bed.

My husband tried to grab him but he was thrown aside.

He threatened my husband to stay away with a knife.

I got up but he pushed me back to bed and started groping me; I struggled and fought, shouting all the time to my husband, 'Attack him, don't let him do this.' He tried very hard to pull down my pants but I held on.

After a while he ejaculated on top of me and ran away,'" Toring continued.

The couple spent the night in fear, sleepless.

The next morning they informed their landlord and the women's group, the Anal Sinu Ruwl (ASR).

"The ASR women were enraged and came out in huge numbers demanding that this person should be handed over.

The Meira Paibi women from Imphal also came.

We moved out of the house that same day," she narrated.

"What kind of punishment was given to this person, I have no idea.

The army people told us that he was suspended from his job, and later on, they said that he was killed in an encounter with underground groups.

If I had put my knife under my mattress that night I would have killed him myself," she said.

The same person had allegedly raped another girl in the past, but the matter was hushed up.

"If only my landlord or someone else who knew of it had told me about it, I would have not stayed in that house.

Even if we did, we could have been on our guard.

He had the audacity to commit the same crime again because the people then were silent," she said.

"That is why I spoke out.

If I had kept silent like that other woman then this person would continue doing the same thing to others.

I do not want money.

I want to live with dignity, let people know that I was not at fault," Toring concludes, sweeping up her youngest daughter into her arms.

According to Basanta Wareppam of Human Rights Alert (HRA), the disclosure of both Ahanjaobi and Toring is a significant turning point.

"To speak out against such a powerful agency like the army who are protected by an act like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, and who are known for their acts of violence against the people in the name of counter-insurgency is simple admirable.

If these two women had not spoken up, then many others would not have had the courage to stand up and say, I too have been raped" .

"The statement of the raped woman given to the police and in the court are very important as the whole case hinges upon these two," says Advocate Ng.

Tejkumar, Director, Prosecution of the Government of Manipur.

"Social stigma is greatly reduced now, and people are opening up," he feels.

Tejkumar himself has been on a relentless drive to spread awareness on legal issues surrounding gender violence especially by highlighting the cases of rape and domestic violence, among others, through his popular show on local news channel ISTV named, "Wayelshangda" which started in 2002 and is still running.

He is also the main person behind another show "Gang-rape" which is dramatization of real cases.