The Working Group on Human Rights in India and the United Nations (WGHR) has issued a statement expressing “solidarity with the coal mine labourers and protestors killed and injured during the horrific incidents at Oting, Mon district, Nagaland”. 14 civilians were killed in three incidents on December 4 and 5, 2021.

In the first incident, personnel belonging to the 21 Para Security Forces opened fire upon a convoy of coal mine workers, all members of the Konyak tribe, killing six men and injuring two. According to one of the survivors, the security forces opened fire without warning or verifying their identities. The incident took place on the road connecting Tiru and Oting villages in Mon district. Shortly afterwards, villagers who had formed a search party to look for the missing miners reached the spot, they found the security forces “hiding the bodies” of the dead in an alleged bid to whisk them away to their base camp across the border in Assam. This has also been corroborated by a joint report of the Nagaland Director General of Police (DGP) and the Commissioner. When these villagers protested, security forces opened fire again, killing seven more people.

The following day, after funeral proceedings for the miners at the Mon helipad, were cancelled suddenly, repotedly without any prior intimation, another group of protesters ransacked Assam Rifles camp 27. One more civilian was killed during this incident, thus taking the total tally of civilian deaths to 14. These deaths have enraged the entire region that has been under provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

It is the AFSPA, that is blamed for the impunity with which the army operates in the region. The AFSPA has been in effect in the North East since 1958, while Nagaland became an Indian state in 1963 and has thus remained under AFSPA for close to sixty years. AFSPA allows security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without a warrant. This power has allegedly been misused by security forces to torture locals with several allegations of gendered crimes also mode from time to time.

The WGHR draws attention to this very aspect of the law and says, “This is not the first time that gross human rights violations have been committed under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA) that grants legal immunity for all acts to armed forces when enforced. As long as impunity prevails over justice, this, tragically, may not be the last time.” It further says, “The repeal of AFSPA has been a long-standing demand of civilians, survivors, families of victims, human rights movements and activists around India, particularly those that have borne the brunt of this law in the North-East of India.”

Showcasing how AFSPA has repeatedly drawn flak from international agencies, it says, “AFSPA also continues to attract significant criticism from UN human rights mechanisms. The UN Human Rights Committee stated in 1997 that exercising power under AFSPA amounts to exercising emergency powers without resorting to the procedure laid down under section 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).”

The WGHR also lists the following instances when the human rights body has pointed out the need to closely examine and discard the draconian Act:

• The Special Rapporteur on Summary, Arbitrary and Extrajudicial Execution, in his analysis of the situation after his official visit to India in 2012, stated that the powers conferred on the armed forces of the Union under AFSPA go beyond permissible limits. He said that the right to life, which appears to be suspended under AFSPA, is a non-derogable right even in situations of emergency.

• The Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 2007 described AFSPA as racist and had urged the Government of India to repeal it within a year.

• The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 2014, also recommended the repeal of AFSPA, calling for sexual violence committed against women by armed forces to be brought under the purview of ordinary criminal law.

Noting India’s hesitancy to repeal AFSPA despite these instances, the WGHR says, “In the last three cycles of India’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), several governments recommended the repeal, review or revision of AFSPA. These recommendations also addressed the accountability of security personnel, the regulation concerning detentions as well as victims’ right to appeal in accordance with international standards. The Government of India, however, has consistently not accepted, but only noted, these recommendations.” Pointing to possible future action, it says, “Similar recommendations are likely to be repeated in the 4th UPR cycle which will begin in October 2022. India will be one of the first countries to be reviewed.”

The entire statement may be read here: 

Related:

Nagaland killings: Chorus grows for repeal of AFSPA
Army tried to hide bodies: Nagaland DGP’s report
Nagaland Killings: NHRC takes suo motu cognisance
So long as AFSPA protects soldiers from accountability, such atrocities will continue: HRW

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) a global organisation that investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world, and engages in targeted advocacy to protect and defend such people, has drawn attention to India’s draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and demanded its immediate repeal in wake of the shocking killing of 14 civilians by the Army in Nagaland.

“Pledges by India’s home minister and the army to investigate the army’s horrific killing of 14 people will come to nothing unless those responsible are prosecuted,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at HRW, adding, “So long as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act protects soldiers from accountability, such atrocities will continue.”

HRW released a statement saying, “The AFSPA gives the armed forces wide powers to shoot to kill, make arrests on flimsy pretexts, conduct warrantless searches, and demolish structures in the name of “aiding civil power,” adding, “The powers that the law extends to the armed forces come into force once an area subject to the act has been declared “disturbed” by the central or state government. This declaration is not subject to judicial review.”

The statement goes on to showcase the blatant abuse of these powers by security forces, “Equipped with these special powers, soldiers have raped, tortured, forcibly disappeared, and killed people without fear of being held accountable. The act violates international human rights law protections, including the right to life, the right to be protected from arbitrary arrest and detention, and the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. It also denies the victims and their families the right to a remedy.”

Joining the chorus demanding the Act’s immediate repeal, Ganguly said, “AFSPA has long shielded the armed forces from responsibility for grave human rights abuses and denied justice to the families harmed,” adding, “The government should ensure an independent civilian investigation into the Nagaland killings and urgently repeal AFSPA to save many more lives.”

The complete HRW statement may be read here.

Brief background of the Nagaland killings

On December 4, 2021, members of the Indian Army’s 21 Para Special Forces gunned down 6 coal mine workers returning from work on a road between Tiru and Oting villages in Nagaland’s Mon district, just about 100 kilometers from India’s international border with Myanmar. The Army later said, it had “credible intelligence report” that a convoy of National Socialist Council of Nagaland – Khaplang faction or NSCN (K), a group designated as a terrorist organisation, was travelling through the area, and that the miners had been shot dead in a case of “mistaken identity”.

However, the feeble non-apology and flimsy excuse didn’t wash with anyone, given how the Army did not make any attempt to verify the identity of the people before firing upon them. Later, a joint report by the Nagaland Director General of Police as well as the Police Commissioner made other shocking revelations – that the Army personnel were trying to hide the bodies and whisk them away to their base camp in Assam when villagers who had formed a search party when the miner did not return home on time chanced upon them. This is when the Army opened fire on these villagers and killed seven more people, taking the toll of dead civilians to 13 that night. The following day, another civilian was killed when agitated villagers attacked a camp of the Assam Rifles after they were left waiting at the helipad for bodies of the deceased, when the funeral was postponed without informing the loved ones of the dead.  

Related:

Security forces gun down 13 civilians in Nagaland

Nagaland killings: Chorus grows for repeal of AFSPA

Army tried to hide bodies: Nagaland DGP’s report

Nagaland Killings: NHRC takes suo motu cognisance

The post So long as AFSPA protects soldiers from accountability, such atrocities will continue: HRW appeared first on SabrangIndia.

To drive home the point, the Peoples’ Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA) said that there were only four insurgent groups when the draconian AFSPA was introduced in Manipur in the 1980s and the number has gone up to 32 since.
 

The PRJA, which was formed by Sharmila after she ended her 16-year-long hunger strike against the AFSPA in August last year, is making its electoral debut in this Assembly polls, fielding candidates in three of the state’s 60 seats.
“The AFSPA is not about militancy and counter-insurgency.

It is something beyond that. To deal with militancy and counter-insurgency, you may need laws and programmes but the AFSPA is not one of them.
 

“In the 1980s when the AFSPA was introduced in Manipur, there were only four insurgent groups and in 2016 there were more than 32 groups reported… The AFSPA is not the medicine for militancy. It has clearly multiplied the disease. The AFSPA is there to extract resources from Manipur,” PRJA convener Erendro Leichombam said in an email interview to PTI.

He said that his party would work towards the removal of the Act, which gives sweeping powers and immunity to the army in conflict-ridden areas, from Manipur first and “then move Parliament to repeal it from all places across India”.

Asked whether the electoral fight this time was “symbolic”, the 33-year-old leader said, “Absolutely not. I think one PRJA MLA is worth 60 other MLAs. We are going to create so much ruckus inside the Assembly and expose the lies that people are going to ask for more.”

Asked whether the party would support either the Congress of the BJP in case of a hung verdict, Leichombam just said, “We are not going to ally with the Congress.”

On the possibility of a future alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in view of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s appreciation of Sharmila, he said, “We are a very new party, we are barely five months old. We want to make sure we establish our own identity and foundation and once we are assured of the party strength, only after that we will be looking at an alliance.”

Besides removal of the AFSPA, the nascent party is fighting the election on the planks of ending corruption, reducing unemployment, implementing Lokayukta, and ensuring a harmonious and inclusive Manipur.

Manipur is going to polls in two phases on March 4 and March 8 and the counting will be held on March 11. The Okram Ibobi Singh-led Congress dispensation has been in power in Manipur since 2002.

Asked about the party’s take on the economic blockade by the United Naga Council and its impact to the economy of the state, he said, “Every day, people are struggling because of the economic blockade. The Congress and the BJP are in power in the state and at the Centre, respectively. It is their job to resolve this at the earliest but they are just taking political mileage out of this.

(With inputs from PTI)
 

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