[Reader-list] afspa

[Yengkhom Jilangamba]

REPEAL ARMED FORCES SPECIAL POWERS ACT, 1958
A CALL FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION



Miss Irom Sharmila has been on hunger strike since Nov
2006 demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act 2000. This was her immediate response to
the Malom Massacre (Manipur) of 2nd Nov 2000 when the
Assam Rifles massacred 10 innocent civilians,
including women and children, and brutally assaulted
more than 64 civilians in the name of counter
insurgency. She was arrested on the charge of
attempted homicide and has been forced fed in custody.
After her escape she reached Delhi on 4th October and
continued her hunger strike at Janter Manter, Delhi.
She was arrested by the police on 6th October 2006.

The people’s movement against Armed Forces Special
Powers Act, 1958, (AFSPA) has been continuing since
the time of its very imposition in 1958. The movement
has been historically fought by many struggling
communities. It is important to remember that when the
Act was enacted for the first time in 1958, many
regions where the Act was imposed did not have a
manifestation of armed struggle. Moreover, this Act of
1958 is the continuation of a colonial law (to
suppress Quit India Movement-1942) in ‘post-colonial’
India. The inherent colonial character of independent
India is manifested in the ‘continuance’ defining the
frontiers as politico-military regions only. 
 The resistance against AFSPA is imminent in the wake
of prolonged experiences of involuntary
disappearances, rape, killings on mere suspicion,
protest, self-immolation, nude protest, ceaseless
hunger strikes and street protests. The rape and
killing of Thangjam Monarama by paramilitary, nude
protest of Manipuri women, self-immolation of Pebam
Chitranjan against AFSPA and continuing hunger strike
of Irom Sharmila against AFSPA since November 2000 are
some of the accounts that explain the existential
state of the people in Manipur and elsewhere. This
shared experience of existential deprivation of many
societies is well reflected in some of the Clauses of
the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, as the most
fundamental question of Right to life itself is
suspended.  To cite, under the Article 4 Clause (a) of
the AFSPA, the security forces can use force “even
causing death” on mere grounds of suspicion and
‘arrest any person without warrant’ and Article 6
further implicates a total derailing of the autonomy
of federal/constituting units of India as it says that
without a prior approval of the Central government no
commissions or prosecutions or other legal proceedings
be constituted against the issues concerning the Act.
Such tendencies of the Act spell out the politics of
defining how specific communities are suspected
historically by the Indian State which is aptly seen
in the Article 4 (a) of AFSPA.  
The struggle against AFSPA has been successful in
initiating a wider demand for repealing the Act at the
mass level. Today, the presence of Irom Sharmila in
Delhi (arrested by Delhi police on 6th Oct 06)
continuing her hunger strike at AIIMS and not being
responded to the demand for repeal by the Government
has in turn strengthened the collective struggle
against the Act. It is important to remember that when
the movement against the AFSPA in 2004 reached a
significant height, the GOI set up the Justice Reddy
Committee to review the Act. This Committee report has
still not been made public by the GOI. Ironically, the
leaked copy of the report has nothing substantial for
the people despite its recommendation for the ‘Repeal
of the Act’. For, it recommends the incorporation of
AFSPA in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,
1967 which will be operable all over India. The
‘collective’ will always fight against any form of
re-appropriation of the Act. We demand:  

* Immediate Repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers
Act, 1958. 
* Make the Justice Reddy Review Committee Report on
AFSPA, 1958, public.
* Do not retain AFSPA in any form.
JOIN US
Mass Demonstration against AFSPA, 1958
ITO, Delhi
11 October 2006
Time: 11:00 AM. (Bring your protest Banners)

Issued by: MSAD, NPMHR, LRS, SAHELI, DMMSA, JNUSU,
AISA, DSU, FDI, MRFD, JAGORI, PSU, Other Media, PUDR,
PUCL, PLS, HRA, HRLN, Oxfam, Amnesty I, SANGAT, CG P
I, MPO, ISI-Delhi, New Democracy. KJS,  SAD, KYSV,
JKLF, Yuba Bharat, Justice for worker, NTUI, SPDPR.
Mail: msad_manipur at yahoo.com/ adissent at yahoo.co.in/
mningthouja at yahoo.com
Date: 08-10-2006. Contacts: 9899925345 (Malem),
9312314339 (Rojesh), 9811352626 (Banerjit).




		
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