Home


Support Us

Submission Policy

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

CounterSolutions

CounterImages

CounterVideos

Editor's Picks

Press Releases

Action Alert

Feed Burner

Read CC In Your
Own Language

Bradley Manning

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Financial Crisis

Iraq

AfPak War

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

About Us

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name:
E-mail:

Search Our Archive



Our Site

Web

 

 

 

 

Petition Campaign: Repeal The Armed Forces(Special Powers) Act,1958

Petition by North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC)

23 September, 2013
Countercurrents.org

Sign the petition here

As in the past once again on equinox, 21st September 2013 the world will observe the international day of peace. People who work for peace will be honoured, some of them will be recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize. But very few of those who commemorate it will recall that for the last 55 years the more anti-democratic Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA) has been in force in the Northeast.

At its introduction in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Mohanty an MP from Orissa objected even to the Bill on AFSPA being discussed because he considered it unconstitutional. The then Home Minister Mr. G. B. Pant assured him that it was a temporary measure and that it would be repealed as soon as the Naga problem was solved. The Parliament voted it into a law on 22nd May 1958 and the President signed it into an Act six months later. It was applied at first to the Naga inhabited districts that became Nagaland in 1963, was later extended to other areas in the Northeast and then to Jammu and Kashmir. In 1958 the Naga outfit was the only militant group in the Northeast. Today 55 years later one has lost count of their number. Probably they are more than 50. Manipur had two militant groups when it was extended to it in 1980. Today that State alone has more than ten times that number. By keeping it in force, the Government of India and State Governments refuse to recognize that AFSPA has not achieved its purpose. A senior Minister even stated on 6th February 2013 that the Government cannot get a consensus on its repeal or amendment because both the retired and present army generals are against even making it more humane leave alone repealing it. Many Commissions have come out clearly against AFSPA. But the Government has ignored these recommendations from official commissions. The Supreme Court has before it a public interest litigation on 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounter deaths only in Manipur in Northeast India. In February 2013 The SC asked the Justice Santosh Hegde Commission to inquire into six of the cases it chose at random. The Commission has concluded that all six were fake encounters. A retired official of the Intelligence Bureau states that according to IB records there were 6,023 cases of deaths in fake encounters in Assam alone 2001-2012, 8,923 in Manipur1991-2012 and 2,803 in Mizoram 2,803 in a decade. That comes to more than 1,000 cases per year in these three States alone. There are many more in the remaining States of the Northeast and in Jammu and Kashmir. There have been more cases of rape by the armed forces. However, but for a few exceptions of public fury or when the security persons were caught in the act by the public, no paramilitary or army person has been prosecuted for destruction of property or murder or rape.

AFSPA is an anti-democratic act. It enables a junior commissioned officer to arrest anyone without a warrant on mere suspicion that the person was planning a terrorist act. It empowers the security forces to “fire upon or otherwise use force even to the causing of death” without the permission of the civilian government. According to Section 6, no criminal prosecution can be initiated against the security persons who take action under this Act. Can a democratic country tolerate such an Act particularly since the security situation in most areas where the Act is in place has improved enormously? A result of AFSPA is a trust deficit.

Peace requires not such draconian anti-human rights acts but confidence building measures. What better measure than repeal of this anti-human act?

Your voice is invaluable ! Please Join hands in repealing this draconian Act.

To:
To the Prime Minister of India:
Subject : Repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,1958

Dear Sir

The Indian Parliament enacted the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in 1958 as an interim measure with the hope of suppressing the Naga Nationalist Struggle, the only such movement in the North East at that time. It was gradually extended to other North Eastern States and then in 1990 to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is to-date the single most direct instrument violating the democratic rights of the people of the North East and of Jammu and Kashmir. The Act is implemented when an area is declared ‘disturbed’ by either the Central or the State Government.

The Act is under much debate today on several grounds, not only in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East, but also in the rest of India. One, it enables the security forces to arrest without warrant any person on mere suspicion of planning a terrorist act. Two it enables the armed forces to “fire upon or otherwise use force even to the causing of death”. Three, according to Section 6, no criminal prosecution can be initiated against the security personnel who take action under this Act. Four, till now, but for a few exceptional cases of public fury or when the security forces were caught in the act by the public, no paramilitary officer or soldier has been prosecuted for destruction of property or murder or rape. Finally, five official commissions and committees have recommended either repeal or drastic review of the Act.

We the participants of these two seminars and other individuals consider this and other such acts a gross abuse of the Constitution. AFSPA has led to atrocities in the North East and Kashmir. Currently, a case concerning 1,528 deaths in alleged fake-encounters in Manipur alone is before the Supreme Court. Over and above these, one can mention the Thangjam Manorama Devi case in Manipur in July 2004. She was arrested by the security forces and was allegedly raped and killed. Amongst other cases is the attempted molestation near Kokrajhar in Assam, on 23rd December, 2005, of some university students who entered by mistake a compartment carrying Haryana Armed Police personnel. Four students died when the police opened fire on other students who blocked the train after hearing the screams of the students. No action has been taken till today against the perpetrators of these and other crimes. Also many other cases of massacres, mass rapes and torture like the destruction of Oinam village in Manipur in 1987, the killing of some innocent persons in the Pathribal case, the Sophian sexual violence case and the discovery of mass graves in different places in Jammu and Kashmir raise similar concerns.

Many commissions and committees, such as the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee (2005), the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2007), the Prime Minister’s Working Group on Confidence Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir (2007) headed by Shri Hamid Ansari, the Interlocutors’ Report on Jammu and Kashmir (2012) and Justice J S Verma Committee (2013) have recommended that the Act be repealed or amended. Even the Planning Commission in the 12th Five-year Plan document passed by the National Development Council has for the first time ever asked for not only a gendered review of the Act, but also of gendered violence in the ‘Disturbed Areas’, as women and children are the most vulnerable in conflict regions. These voices should be heard because AFSPA is symptomatic of a larger militarization. The negative impacts on human development such as health and education have been extensive so also the scars left by these acts and the negative effects on the psyche of people who live in a situation of low intensity warfare and are treated as unequal citizens

At the international level, India has been repeatedly flagged on the issue of AFSPA in the Human Rights bodies of the UN, including the Universal Periodic Review of the Council, in almost all the major human rights treaty bodies and Special Procedures,. It is clear that the Act has not served its purpose. But the Government of India has not even amended the Act for more than 50 years. A reason given by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in a speech in New Delhi on February 6, 2013 is that there is no consensus because both the retired and present army generals oppose even the idea of making it more humane.

Why does the army oppose the repeal or even amendment of this inhuman Act? Is it because they want to protect their personnel who abuse power? Surely, as the Verma Committee (2013) has remarked, the armed forces cannot expect impunity for actions such as rape, which are not in the line of duty. Can a democratic country tolerate such an anti-democratic Act? The situation in Jammu & Kashmir and the North East is complex and can be resolved only through a political process and dialogue. Those decisions cannot be taken by the army. The elected representatives have to take decisions that should include Confidence Building Measures (CBM). That is impossible when such abuses under a draconian Act continue. The rights of the people must be protected by judicial and official / administrative processes such as grievance cells that protect the right to information of relatives of detainees.

The security situation in most areas where the Act is in place has improved enormously in the last decade because of ongoing peace processes and civil society initiatives. So the stated purpose of the Act no longer exists. The security forces cannot presume that they have an unfettered right to continue using the Act in perpetuity. There has to be sunset date in these legislative measures. Continuing such Acts indefinitely would be undemocratic and violative of human rights. As a result of such violations a trust deficit has developed between the people of the North East and Jammu and Kashmir on the one hand and the rest of India on the other.

In addition, major state legislative measures exist in Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland such as the Jammu and Kashmir Public Security Act and the Nagaland Security Regulations Act which are no less arbitrary. They provide the police with impunity. Such laws no longer have a place in our democratic polity, especially after the extensive peace processes in these states. We, therefore, call on States like Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland that have been demanding the repeal of AFSPA to take a lead in changing the undemocratic tenor of the legal regime. We call upon all political parties and political candidates, including the major regional parties, to take a position on the repeal of AFSPA in the run-up to the general elections.

It is critical that a civil society alliance takes up a robust programme of advocacy and dissemination especially through the media. As a step towards it, we the 90 participants of the Seminar on AFSPA held at Indian Social Institute, New Delhi on 6th April 2013, and sponsored by ICSSR (NCR) and 160 persons present of the seminar held at Indian Social Institute, Bangalore on 13th April, 2013 demand the immediate repeal of AFSPA. We also demand that, that the armed forces be brought under the purview of the civilian government with no immunity.

Sincerely,
[Your name]

Sign the petition here



 

Share on Tumblr

 

 


Comments are moderated