IMPHAL, February 11: The proscribed Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) in a press release has said that recent the statement of the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram stating that the continued opposition of the Army to the government’s step to amend the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 defeats the very existence of a civilian government needs a collective discussion.
The statement has said that the statement by P Chidambaram means that under the shadow of the AFSPA, the Army has been violating human rights.It continued that even though the Indian government has no desire to repeal or lift the law, it has decided to amend it due to the collective call from the general public for its removal and with a desire to transform the act to suit its interest which resulted in the debate among them.
It has further said that the RFP considers the Indian Army Chief’s address during the 65th Army Day at New Delhi that the Indian Army is one of the best followers of the “Ethics of Warfare” and believes in safeguarding the human dignity and human rights to be a total lie.
The statement said that in 2008, Indian forces who were posted at Congo as UN peace keeping forces were charged of raping local women following which, the UN had ordered the Indian Government to take legal action and punish all those found involved.
The statement continued that when the Indian Army was charged of raping Tamil women during the LTTE operations, Brigadier Kahlon had replied that the Indian Army is not an angel and that cases of rape occurs in the Western country too.
The statement further cited several other cases of Human Rights abuse in Sri Lanka by the Indian forces and further added that in April, 2011, the North East Secretariat on Human Rights in collaboration with the Delhi Tamil Student Union had released a book entitled “In the name of peace: IPKF Massacres of Tamil Civilians in Sri Lanka”.
The statement of the proscribed outfit has also said that since 1989, the Indian Army has been involved in several crimes in Jammu and Kashmir under the AFSPA and said that according to reports, there are 3658 missing after arrest cases and 75 cases of rapes and molestations against the Indian Army in between 1989 to 1999.
It also added that in 2000, the CRPF had killed 35 individuals during an operation which is known as Chittisingpora massacre.
The statement also continued that in 1994, a report published by the UN had said that from 1990 to 1996, around 882 Kashmiri women were raped by the Indian army.
It further cited several human rights violation in J&K by the Indian Army and listed several other human rights violation in several states by the Indian Army including at Operation Blue Bird conducted at the Golden Temple, Punjab on June 3-4, 1984.
In Manipur, after the implementation of the AFSPA, there has been several violation of human rights by the force, it said while citing several examples including Heirangoithong Massacre (1984), Oinam Massacre (1987 Operation Blue Bird in Senapati), Tera Massacre (1993), RMC Massacre (1996), Tousem Lamkhai Massacre (1999), Malom Massacre (2000) and Manorama incident, the statement said.
It said even after all these happenings, the Army Chief’s declaration that the Indian Army believes and exercises safeguarding of human rights is a lie. It also said that the fact that the Army Chief has opposed the repeal of the AFSPA from Manipur shows that the army wants to continue the violation of human rights in places like Manipur.
The statement continued that India is now one of the powerful countries in the world and as such it is trying to achieve a permanent seat in the Security Council of the United Nations Organizations for which India needs to improve its human rights records. And in order to improve its human rights record, India is trying to amend the AFSPA and the Supreme Court has decided to open cases on Extra Judicial Killings and Fake Encounters, it added.