Al Ngullie
Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 9
A number of Naga civil organizations recently joined other northeast region-based Human Rights organizations in Assam’s Guwahati to express their denouncement of the Black Law, the infamous Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 of the Government of India. The dark decades of the 1950 till the early 1980s in Nagaland under the hand of the AFSPA-empowered Indian military, was the presentation of the Naga organizations to the United Nations Special rapporteur Christof Heyns during the meeting.
Mass-based civil groups from the North Eastern Region had converged in Guwahati during March last week when Christof Heyns was in India to recommend to the Indian government to repeal the draconian law, among other repressive state laws.
From Nagaland, a number of leaders from the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) and some from the south Naga areas attended the open meeting with Christof Heyns. The meeting was held March 28, at Hotel Bhramaputra in Guwahati proper.
During the meeting, civil organizations were given a brief time to speak. NPHMR also spoke briefly on the existence of the AFPSA in Nagaland state and the history of atrocities committed by Indian armed forces under the protection of the black law in the past several decades. NPMHR leader Neingulo Krome said the Naga organizations briefed the United Nations representative about ‘what has been happening’ from the 50s down to the 70s particularly, under the AFSPA. Hundreds of villages were burned while many were killed, said Krome referring to what the Naga organization told Heyns in the brief speeches allowed to the attending civil groups.
Private interactions with the UN leader could not be held considering the many civil leaders and organizations attending the open meeting, Krome said.
Christof Heyns, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions was in India March 19-30, 2012. He visited states such as Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Kerala, Assam and West Bengal. Jammu & Kashmir and most of the North Eastern states including Nagaland are where the AFSPA is still in force since the Government of India introduced the martial law in 1958.
Heyns has told the Indian government that the AFSPA has been used by government agencies to perpetrate atrocities against “unarmed demonstrators and protestors” by the police with scant adherence to the principles of ‘proportionality and necessity’. Custodial deaths and torture are some of the acts perpetuated under the protection of the AFSPA, said Heyns in his statement.
Heyns said that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act – under which the Right to Life is in effect suspended – has become a symbol of excessive state power. “I have heard extensive evidence of action taken under this law that resulted in innocent lives being lost, in Jammu and Kashmir and in Assam, where witnesses from neighboring states also assembled,” said the UN representative. Calling the law “hated” and “draconian”, the UN Special rapporteur reminded that a law such as the AFSPA has no role to play in a democracy and should be scrapped.
“The repeal of this law will not only bring domestic law more in line with international standards, but also send out a powerful message that instead of a military approach the government is committed to respect for the right to life of all people of the country,” Heyns said.
Heyns also contextualized state power in the face of use of force by non-state actors such as “terrorists, criminals and others.” The state has a right to defend itself against ‘such aggression’, he said, provided that it abides by the international standards in this regard. “The state however cannot adopt unlawful or unconstitutional means or create a vigilante force to counter such violence.”
The recommendations Christof Heyns made included appointment of a credible commission of inquiry to probe into extrajudicial executions in India; ratification of the Convention against Torture; OP-CAT; and the Convention on Enforced Disappearances; repeal of laws such as the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act; Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, 2005, among several others.
The UN officials also sought countering the aspect of impunity for extrajudicial executions. Heyns also recommended inviting UN special procedures especially in areas where international concern has been expressed, such as torture, counter-terrorism measures, and minority rights as well as establishment of an effective witness and victim protection programme.
