DIMAPUR, DEC 21 (MExN): The issue of landmines being planted in remote areas of Manipur’s Churachandpur district to contain villagers from straying has become a serious concern. Individuals and organizations have voiced their concern over the deaths and injuries caused by landmines planted in the interior hill areas of Manipur by the State’s valley-based armed groups. Lok Sabha MP Mani Charenamai had impressed upon the Prime Minister on the need to address the predicament. A human rights organization had earlier said in a release: “Landmines have been planted in a vast tract of civilian inhabited areas of Manipur Hills. We express our shock and revulsion at the blame-game being played out by the underground United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and the Indian Army on who planted the landmines. While the two are trading charges at each other, innocent civilians continue to die in the interior areas of Manipur hill.” Operation Tornado carried out by the army recently has resulted in the recovery of six claymore mines besides other explosives, weapons, ammunition and sophisticated electronic gadgets.
The Manipur government has come under the scanner in this regard. Several organizatons have voiced their discontentment over the policy of the state government’s policy in reneging on its undertaking to sanitise the hill areas and its deliberate hijacking of the logical process of extending the right to self-determination to the hill areas of Manipur. “The Government should, therefore, address this “democratic deficit” immediately,” said a release issued by the Zomi Human Rights Foundation, Delhi Cell. Groups who have planted landmines have been asked to remove the same immediately.
The NSCN (IM) has signed a Geneva document, initiated by an international organization Geneva Call, banning use of anti-personnel landmines and has appealed to other armed groups of North-East India to follow its lead.
NSCN (IM) general secretary, Th Muivah, signed the “Geneva Call Deed of Commitment” on October 17 in a ceremony in the Swiss capital, according to a press release issued by the organization ‘Geneva Call’ which is pursuing a ban on use of antipersonnel landmines the world over.
It was earlier claimed that the NSCN (IM) became the first armed group in the Indian sub-continent to desist from using anti-personnel landmines.
Muivah was quoted as saying, “We NSCN has (sic) never used anti-personnel mines. The slaughtering of innocent people by using anti-personnel mines is a crime against humanity and we are totally against it”. Incidentally, India is a non-signatory country that has not joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. It is also a user and producer of antipersonnel mines.
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