DIMAPUR, May 17: The North East Dialogue Forum (NEDF) convened a press meet on Armed Forces Special Powers Act at Conference Hall of the Bethesda Youth Welfare Society in Dimapur. The Forum made up of various civil society groups of the region include the Borok People Human rights Organization, Tripura; People`s Movement for Subansiri, Assam; Indigenous Bio-diversity and Social Welfare Organization, Meghalaya; People`s Action for Development, Manipur; North East Youth Foundation, Assam; Social Upliftment Centre, Manipur; Resource Uplifttment Center for Human Interest, Manipur; Jana Jagriti Nari Manch, Assam also submitted a charter to the Government urging the Chief Minister and the Governor of Nagaland to take leadership to repeal AFSPA from the North Eastern states of India. The NEDF also urged the leaders to establish 20 Special Investigation Team to investigate all AFSPA related crimes like extrajudicial killings, rapes and forced disappearances and called for all those involved to be punished according to the rule of law.
The members of the Forum also urged for establishing a Special Commission to find out the victims of the AFSPA and provide psycho-social and emotional support/counseling, economic support and health care support and pointed out that Human Rights and Gender training should be provided to all the members of the security forces of India. Calling for the initiating political, economic, social and cultural dialogue with Armed Political opposition for an amicable political settlement in the region, the members of the NEDF called on the Government of India not to allow the armed forces deployed in North East India to serve in the UN Peace Keeping Missions in others countries.