Dear friends,
Please find below the case of an enforced disappearance from Manipur. Mr. Leimakhujam Kokulo Singh was illegally arrested by the personnel of 12 Maratha Light Infantry on 3 August 2010 at the check point near Patsoi Lai Umang along the Imphal-Sangaithel Road while returning home with his wife and sister in a passenger Diesel Auto Rickshaw.
Since July 2003 the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong (AHRC) has reported more than two dozen cases of illegal arrests and executions carried out by security personnel who claim the deceased were killed in self defence during armed ‘encounters.’ None of the cases offer credible proofs and no impartial inquiry been conducted to determine the whereabouts of the disappeared. As far as AHRC have been able to gather, none of the perpetrators have ever been held accountable for their actions.
The militarization of the Indian State of Manipur, backed by laws such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, has lead to systematic and widespread abuses being perpetrated with relative impunity by security force personnels. Most of these go largely unaddressed despite the best efforts of victims and their families.
Please sign the Urgent Appeal petition for Kokulo at http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2010/3518/ and feel free to pass the message around to your contacts.
In Peace & Solidarity,
~Jyotilal Longjam
Having clicked on the links and sent off my letter of protest and modifying the subject header to lessen its chances of being sent to spam folders I thought I’d look up the 12 Maratha Light Infantry just to discover who the commander-in-chief might be. Crimes against Humanity or War crimes have to be against named individuals who are at the time of the issuing of an arrest warrant are physically in the country where the court is. Basically you’d need a list of Senior Army and Paramilitary officers and politicians associated with abuses under AF(SP)A, then when one of them enters the UK for a holiday or conference I will wait for them with an arrest warrant.
But when I got to the Maratha Light Infantry facebook pages I found it sparse. In response to the dearth of activities an old soldier had commented about the apparent lack of activity; We are active son but in the battlefield, the field of honour, at home and abroad doing our duty with dignity and pride hmm.
The MLI or Ganpats are soldiers of crack regiments. They are like the paratroopers back home. We use paratroopers when democratic and peaceful means have failed to kill people. They are in a sense very limited. Now within killing people they pride themselves of knowing myriads of ways and means but essentially they kill people, that’s it. They don’t form discussion groups. They don’t do peacekeeping. They don’t do riot control. Unless by any of the above you mean kill people. And since Bloody Sunday they are never used for any purpose within the borders of the United Kingdom.
The Indian Government have to decide whether they are at war with the people of Manipur in which case as the army say do not tie their hands. Send them in with orders to kill the enemy as they see fit. It will also make my war crimes/crimes against humanity arrest warrants far easier to obtain. The other option is for the politicians to understand that you cannot maintain peace with paramilitaries or the army. Perhaps if they concentrate on aiming for a competent police force. Repeal AF(SP)A it’s not relevant to policing. I am not a masochist. If insurgents shoot me in the legs because I won’t pay them taxes I shall expect the police to arrest them and have them brought to trial.
I am sure one day a descendant of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty will in response to a definitive inquiry led by Australasian Judges apologize. Who care’s what for. I hope whoever runs this country authorizes the repeal of AF(SP)A and though I am less confident in the efficacity of sataygraha having achieved objective one I will join Irom Sharmila chanu for phase II.
But confine the MLI to barracks until an actual war is declared and then give the civilians and non-combatants an opportunity to leave their field of operation.
I have yet to receive a reply to the letter of concern generated by the link I assume they are all going to a spam box.