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A six-year hunger strike by Irom Sharmila Chanu against the repressive Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur moved to the Indian capital New Delhi this week. But in a repeat of the Manipur government's actions, the Delhi government too has arrested and is force-feeding the activist
Even after being forcibly removed to a hospital by the New Delhi police on October 6, human rights activist Irom Sharmila Chanu is continuing her six-year old indefinite hunger strike against rights abuses by the Indian armed forces in the northeastern state of Manipur and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
Her supporters who have accused the police of illegal detention are also continuing their protests at the Jantar Mantar square near Parliament. While the police have not formally charged Sharmila, she is not being allowed to leave the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), claim activists. However, a police official said the activist was being detained in hospital for her own well-being. "Since her condition was deteriorating, we decided to arrest her and put her under medical supervision."
Sharmila, 34, began her fast to seek the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers (Assam and Manipur) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) way back on November 2, 2000. She was soon arrested by the state police and charged with attempted suicide. She has since been force-fed via a nasal tube in a government-run hospital in Manipur's capital Imphal.
Since the maximum jail term for her offence is one year, police have been releasing her each year and then rearresting her. However, this year, a small group of supporters and human rights activists used her day of freedom to smuggle her through Imphal's high security airport and onto a plane to New Delhi
Sharmila arrived in the capital on October 5 where she continued her fast but two days later police moved her to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. "They (the police) forcibly took her away," said Babloo Loitongbam. "We were only 10 and they were 200. We could do nothing. I have visited her in the hospital today where she is being guarded by police. She is refusing to be nasal-fed."
Sharmila has become an iconic figure for the people of the northeastern state of Manipur since launching her hunger strike. Her protest was not triggered by any political agenda but by a gruesome massacre -- after soldiers shot at and killed 10 young men at a bus stop in Malom near Imphal. Aged twenty-eight at the time, she was just another young Manipuri who had wearied of the violence that impinged on every aspect of her life. "It was too much for me, beyond my capacity of tolerance", she had said a few years ago.
Repeated appeals from the Manipur government, including personal appeals from the Manipur Chief Minster O Ibobi Singh have not dented Sharmila's resolve. Even after the infamous Manorama incident in 2004, when paramilitary forces allegedly raped and killed the young woman and the AFSPA was lifted from Imphal municipal limits, Sharmila refused to end her hunger strike. Despite the Indian prime minster's promise that further relaxations would follow. "The AFSPA has to be totally lifted from Manipur. Till then, my fast continues."
Perhaps the highest recognition for her non-violent protest came when she was included in the list of 1,000 women jointly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
An armed separatist rebellion in Manipur -- a tiny northeastern state with a population of about 2 million -- that began in the 1960s and has resulted in the deaths of around 20,000 people. Under the AFSPA, security forces are given unrestricted power to carry out their operations once an area is declared disturbed.
Now, the activists say they will approach the courts this week to protest against Sharmila's "illegal detention". Widespread dharnas were also held in the Manipuri capital Imphal against Sharmila's arrest on October 9. Several women wearing traditional mourning garb also joined the protests with placards agitating for Sharmila's release from AIIMS.
Source: PTI, October 10,
2006
Reuters, October 9,
2006
Indo-Asian news Service, October 9,
2006
The Hindu, October 8, 2006
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