‘Save Sharmila’ campaign

Several NGOs have decided to launch a two-month long nationwide signature campaign to support Irom Sharmila’s decade-long struggle against the controversial Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act.   The human rights activist from Manipur has been on a hunger strike since November 2, 2000 to have the act, which provides unlimited powers to security forces to shoot at sight and arrest anybody without a warrant, repealed.

She launched the indefinite hunger strike after she witnessed the killing of 10 people by armymen in Malom, on the outskirts Imphal.

The ‘Save Sharmila’ campaign will be held from October 2 to December 10.

The signatures will be handed over to President Pratibha Patil on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day on December 10, followed by a peace march in Delhi, from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Chidambaram shares activist Irom Sharmila's disappointment

Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that he shared the disappointment of Manipur activist Irom Sharmila, who has been fasting for the last 10 years demanding the repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the state.

"I too am disappointed," Chidambaram said when asked to comment on Sharmila's recent regret over the government's failure to do anything about the controversial Act even 10 years into her struggle. "MHA is trying its best to revisit AFSPA. But one needs to build consensus," he pointed out, in an apparent reference to the stiff opposition of the Defence Ministry and the armed forces to any dilution in AFSPA.

When the Home Ministry's proposal to make AFSPA more humane came up before the Union Cabinet last September, the Defence Ministry and armed forces opposed the proposal, arguing that any dilution of the Act would impair functioning of the armed forces in theatres of insurgency.

Chidambaram said MHA had also made efforts to indirectly dilute AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir by getting the Omar Abdullah government to review the application of the Disturbed Areas Act in the state, which would make AFSPA redundant in de-listed areas.

However, even a year after the Centre's suggestion, the state government is yet to review the list of disturbed areas. Though a review committee headed by the state home secretary has met several times, no consensus has emerged on which areas to de-notify. The culprit, again, is the stiff opposition from the armed forces representatives on review committee, to any dilution in their powers of search and arrest.

"We are still trying to build consensus," Chidambaram said adding that it was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's commitment that AFSPA would be reviewed and replaced with a more humane law.

As per an MHA proposal, some of the clauses in AFSPA, including one that allows an armed personnel to use force against a civilian "to the extent of causing death" was to be dropped. Secondly, the ministry proposed a grievance redressal mechanism, with the participation of a civilian officer, to address complaints of alleged misuse of the Act.

Also, the "humane" Act mooted by the MHA sought to bar the forces from searching residential dwellings without a warrant.



(source- Economic Times)