A brief backgrounder on the works of NPMHR on AFSPA

Let me begin by saying that NPMHR as a human rights organization right from its formation started to protest against and to fight for the removalof the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958, the Nagaland Security Regulation of 1962, Assam Maintenance of Public Order, 1953, and others which were earlier called “Black Laws” but wasre-phrased to “draconian laws”. And the first task NPMHR took upon itself was to organize a Human Rights Week at Kohima from December 10 – 15, 1978, commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations, and organized a huge Public Rally, inspite of disapproval by the Government of Nagaland and the imposition of 144 CrPCin Kohima town, prohibiting the assembly of 5 or more people in any part of Kohima town.  

This was followed by documentations of human rights violations, touring and visiting places where human rights violations were being committed at that very point in time. NPMHR then submitted a Memorandum to the President of India on the 24th of October 1979, which was signed and endorsed by 12 other organizations. And on the 14th of April 1982, NPMHR submitted a letter of complaint to Justice Chinnappa Reddy of the Supreme of India asking for a sympathetic hearing to the grievances and helplessness of the ordinary Naga villagers with an opening letter that says; “It is with profound grief and anger that we are writing to you of the mass atrocities which are being committed on our ordinary Naga people by the armed forces of the government of India. Genocide, rape, illegal detention, desecration of our churches, educational institutions, insult and torture of our respected elected and religious leaders, women and youth, collective fines, forced labour, looting of villages have been going on over the last thirty years because of the stationing of armed forces inside our villages and countryside by the Government of India thus virtually making us prisoners of the military”, which continued with a long list of cases of Sexual Assault on Women, Desecration of Religious Institutions, violations of Educational Institutions, Forced Labour and collective fines, Abductions etc.

The Supreme Court then converted this Complain letter into a Writ Petition and immediately notified both the state Governments of Nagaland, Manipur and the Union of India on the 19th of April itself, to explain to the court, specially on the para of Abduction and to immediately furnish the whereabouts of the missing person with the hearings fixed on the 19th of July 1982. And when the respective Governments could not provide any clue to the whereabouts of the abducted and missing persons, namely; C. Paul of Huining Village, who was an Assistant Pastor and C. Daniel also of Huining Village, who was the Village School Headmaster, the Supreme Court of India penalized Government of India with imposition of fines and directed the Government to pay a sum of Rs. 1 lac each to the families of Paul and Daniel.   Again in 1987, NPMHR filed and Writ Petition in the Guwahati High Court challenging the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and demanding justice for the death and destruction of so many innocent lives, properties and villages under “Operation Bluebird” following the Oinam incident. The hearings of the Petition took five years to complete which went through a 10,000 pages of evidences, testimonies and other documents from 1987 to 1992. But shockingly, after the completion of the hearing and before aJudgement could be pronounced, the Government of India transferred both the two Judges out of Guwahati High Court in a first of its kind which was never heard before nor after that. Thereafter, the case has been lying in cold storage ever since.  

However, in 1991, the Attorney-General of India was questioned for two days, i.e. on the 26th& 27th of March at the United Nations Headquarters in New York by an 18 - Expert Members of the Human Rights Committee, on the question of the promulgation of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in some parts of North East India, when India submitted its 2nd Periodical report under Article 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, where NPMHR could attend as an observer. This was yet another moral victory after the 1984 Supreme Court verdict where Government of India was punished with fines.  During the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, which was held in Vienna, Austria, at the United Nations, Human Rights activists from all over world demonstrated against 10 worst countries with bad human rights record by writing the names of those countries in big chart papers, laid them on the ground and shouting slogans, trampled on the names of those countries, which included India, and NPMHR again was a witness to this event.  

Following these events and in the subsequent years, NPMHR went on to attend United Nations Meetings such as the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Permanent Forumon Indigenous Issues, Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Human Rights Council, besides the many other International, Regional, Sub-regional and other meetings where the issues of AFSPA were raised repeatedly. India will again be subjected to its 3rd Cycle of Universal Periodical Review in early part of 2017, under the United Nation’s Human Rights Council at Geneva, for which human rights organizations of North East India have also prepared a joint submission where many issues of common concerns are raised including the promulgation of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in North East India. On the other hand, following complaints, protests, resentments and so many anger against this AFSPA, the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary killings have also visited some of the AFSPA affected areas in North East India in 2012 and strongly recommended for the repealing of this Act. Government of India’s own Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee have submitted its report 11 years ago and recommended for the repeal of AFSPA with concluding remarks that says; “this Act for whatever reason, has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness”. It added that a procedure “established by Law” that claims to be fair, just and reasonable should not have become a symbol of oppression”. These views were further substantiated by UN bodies such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, etc. who opined that only by repealing the Act can such violations be put to an end. Merely amending the Act is not enough.  

I want to conclude by saying that we as civil society organizations have exhausted almost every means of peaceful and democratic protest. And on the part of the Government of India, trying on the patience of the civilian population beyond its limits may not be the best answer. Mahatma Gandhi said many years ago that; “an eye for an eye will make the whole world go blind”. But will it not be better for the whole world to go blind rather than watch innocent people vanish slowly under the piercing killing eyes of the Indian military?I also wonder if the Government of India is aware that AFSPA is not only killing the victims but is also taking away the very humanity of all Indian soldiers who are serving under the provisions of the Act. May God help us !  

Neingulo Krome, Secretary General, Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights