Kezungulo-U Krome
Human Rights and Law Division, YouthNet
As citizens well-acquainted with the policing pattern of the Indian Reserve Battalion, reports of their high-handedness, sadly, does not surprise us anymore. But the latest reports emerging from Chhattisgarh has surely hit the collective conscience of the Nagas.
According to reports the killings, rapes, misconduct and debauchery of the jawans, burning of villages are common phenomenon where they have been posted in various areas of Chhattisgarh. My first reaction was disbelief, but again these stories have emerged from reports of credible and responsible citizens but still the reports were cross-checked with reliable sources so that responsible comment can be made.
Obviously the reaction and angry outburst of the Nagaland state government is understandable given that they are completely in the dark about the 9th IRB activities. In fact, the government and the Police Department maintain that their monthly reports were only complimentary and no anomalies have been brought to their notice. And when the Chhattisgarh government has already been alerted about these atrocities, it has clearly failed to act, and failed to inform the Nagaland government for reasons best known to them.
It has been documented that the IRB jawans have not even spared the dogs and cattle in looting the villages. It has also been said that the IRB personnel conniving with the Salwa Judum (believed to have been set up by the Chhattisgarh government to fight the Maoists) have jointly unleashed carnage on the people. The case of the shopkeeper came to be known because he was a non-local and not an Adivasi (as were all the earlier victims), and therefore hushed-up by the government.
As a Naga deeply conscious and ever aware of the atrocities meted on innocent Nagas by Indian security forces, the shared trauma, I assumed, would sensitize us to human experiences. But in fact, we are re-enforcing what our perpetrators have done to us, on a population already struggling under extreme hardships. To such heinous and hideous crimes let us not even try to rationalize or make excuses. This is not to say that cases of rape and killing is new to our society, but such scale of human atrocities by armed personnel who are supposed to keep the law is totally unacceptable.
The investigation, which has been directed by the State Government, to be conducted by the Commandant of the 9th IRB should run parallel to an independent Departmental Investigation from Nagaland. The government must also depute civil societies from Nagaland to make a thorough independent inquiry to verify all the reports and ascertain all the facts. Our justice system is now under close watch.
Let’s face it, to have to acknowledge this scale of moral nadir, we must own in humility that we have failed as a society, our religious institutions have failed, our Government too has failed, and sadly, even the State Police Department has failed terribly. With what face do we meet our good friends from outside Nagaland who have stood by us through our struggles all these decades.
The time for disbelief has passed and it is now time to act, so that something like this never ever happens again. The Departmental proceedings must be prompt so that the guilty personnel are immediately and appropriately punished. The Nagaland Police department must vehemently demonstrate the principles and code of conduct they abide by. It is tragic that the State Police Department is having to brandish the stick of the law, a little too often, on the IRB personnel for their notoriety. It must also, with sobering reflection, consider the human implications of the IRB training routine before it costs them even more dearly.
Moreover, the State Government must rethink its wisdom of deploying the 9th IRB to Chhattisgarh when there were already so much misgivings and protestations about it in the first place. Sometimes governments need to make unpopular decisions, if it is far-sighted, but sometimes it must also listen to the voices of those who elect them. It may also be aptly said that even though the present government has shown sincere efforts to address the problem of youth unemployment in the state, there can be no short-cuts to such pressing issues as we have also seen in the failure of the training undertaken by Naga youngsters in Chandigarh, which was initiated by the State Government.
As the reports haunt me in horror, I keep recollecting the pain, anguish and protests of weeping mothers, relatives and friends of the 9th IRB personnel, the resistance of civil society when they were dispatched to Chhattisgarh, and the heart-wrenching images of grieving near and dear ones as slain bodies of IRB jawans were brought home from Chhattisgarh. What home-coming now?
It must be conveyed to the strife-torn people of Chhattisgarh that Nagas hang their head in shame and grief for the horrifying actions and crimes of those their own. As a people who have long fought for our humane right to live in dignity, we dearly uphold and value them in every human race with whom we all share a common humanity. And any person regardless of who he/she is, what he/she is, regardless of where he/she comes from, perpetrators of such human crimes stand condemned.
