Sir,
The Naga Club the oldest foundation of the Naga’s which gave a vision to the Naga’s a common platform to assert their rights brings forth this representation with utmost urgency for immediate repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act AFSPA. The recent massacre committed by the Para commandos of the Indian Army in Oting Village of Mon district in Nagaland on 4th December 2021 thereby killing 14 innocent persons and injuring many other has sparked civil unrest among the Naga’s bringing back memories of the decades of hardship, pain and humiliation endured by the Naga’s on our quest for self-determination and live as a free nation.
AFSPA has earned notoriety for endangering a culture of immunity to forces operating in conflict areas; it is a symbol of abuse, oppression and discrimination. This Act is an inheritance of the British colonial era, armed forces special powers ordinance 1942 was promulgated by the British colonial government to suppress the quit India movement. A new ordinance was adopted by the Indian government and then endorsed by parliament and received the accent of the president on 11th September 1958.
The AFSPA gives the armed forces wide power to shoot, to kill, arrest, conduct warrantless searches and demolish structures in the name of “aiding civil power”. Equipped with this special powers soldiers have raped, tortured the Naga’s for five decades without fear of being held accountable. The Act violates international human rights law including the right to life, the right to be
protected from arbitrary arrest and detention and the right to be free from torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment. It also denies the victim of abuse the right to seek remedy.
Some Instances of AFSPA Violations on Human rights.
The Indian Government in her quest to exterminate the Naga’s and weaken their spirit and resolve to bring them to a forceful political union, had left the Naga’s felt the brunt of some of the most unimaginable human rights atrocities in free India’s history even before AFSPA came into force.
The most atrocious and inhuman genocide was committed in September 6th 1960 in Matikhru Village of Pochury area, where the whole male population of the village numbering to 40 was massacred by the Indian Army.
In 1971 Yenkeli a village in wokha Armies committed a sacrilege and raped three young women inside the alter of the church, for the Naga’s the church is a sacred institution and such profanity was not tolerated and till today the same church is abandoned. In 1956 before AFSPA came into force this same village was burned down to ashes and the whole villagers were made to hide in the jungles till 1959.
The reign of terror of 9th July 1987 Operation Blue Bird in Oinam Village and its surrounding areas could not be summed up in a few words. Around 30 villages were affected, 125 houses burned down several hundred houses dismantled, several schools and Churches dismantled, arson and looting committed, 27 persons allegedly killed in encounters several women raped and molested and several hundred tortured and traumatized.
In 27th December 1994 just one day following the chief of Indian army General Shankar Roy’s visit to Kohima to discuss the law and order in Nagaland. At around 10.20 in the morning a few rounds of gunfire were heard in Mokochung town, and what followed was regarded as an unforgettable action of genocide committed by the Indian army, In the melee hundreds of shops and houses and vehicles were burned down and 7 civilians were gunned down and another 5 burned alive including a child and more than a dozen gone missing. The Maratha Light Infantry MLI assisted by the Assam Rifles entered Mokokchung Town and carried out indiscriminate arson and many women were raped. Later the Commanding officer of the 16 MLI on January 3 1995 admitted to the public of Mokokchung that they were guilty of the 27th December Massacre.
A particular disturbing example of the volatile environment in places militarized under AFSPA is the March 5 1995 killings in Kohima Town. The Rashtriya Rifles began shooting indiscriminately mistaking the sound of a tyre bursting in their convoy for a bomb attack. In the hour long firing that ensued many two- inch mortars and sophisticated weapons were fired into a civilian inhibited population killing 7 civilians including a girl aged three and eight. While 22 persons were seriously injured, including seven children.
The recent Genocide committed by the Indian Army by massacring innocent daily wage earner on 4th of December 2021 in Oting village of Mon district, Nagaland has brought back the dark memories the Naga’s has been enduring for decades.
Chief of Indian Intelligence B M Mulik in his book” My years with Nehru” on page 308 writes “Troops moved into Tuensang by October 1955 and the war with the Naga’s started from thence” This is a proof of the offensive nature of their invasion into the territory of the Naga’s. In their barbaric war with the Naga;s the Indian army has massacred thousands of Naga’s including women and children unarmed civilians and subjugated them to the most inhuman treatment mostly unknown to the outside world.
There are hundreds of instances of AFSPA being forcefully used in the guise of quelling the separatist movement which were gone unnoticed to the outside world because it was ignored by the media and went unreported.
The AFPA is certainly a specific area-targeted draconian law that forces the people to the dictum of the armed forces controlled by the political leadership. AFSPA is nothing but a racial law, the apparent disregard for the constitutionally granted rights to the life of those in a conflict areas, the conflation of a civilians and the militants, the use of human shields, fake encounters and extra judicial killings, sexual abuse, rape and murder of women have all been painstakingly documented in various quasi- official narratives, as well as by Amnesty international, human rights watch, among others but have not seen the light of the day. According to the Indian constitution the armed force cannot be deployed internally against the Indian citizens unless the government ask the Army to do so. This clearly proves that using a military force against its citizens is not permissible under the Indian constitution. Therefore taking this perspective into account Naga’s are a separate entity.
Nation needs laws to counter separatist movements but while deciding on the continuance of a certain law must review the situation in which it is being exerted. The situation in Nagaland has changed from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Since the ceasefire and the negotiation started in 1997. The public has witnessed peaceful atmosphere however fractured the long running peace process has been dragging on. Sensing the danger of the Act In 2005 a high level committee headed by Justice B.P Jeevan Reddy of the Supreme Court, tasked with reviewing the AFSPA unambiguously, recommended its repeal. The committee said “The Act is too sketchy, too bald and quite inadequate in several particulars. The Act for whatever reasons has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high handedness”.
Therefore we appeal before the Indian leadership, that many women have been widowed, many sons and daughters have been lost, many rivers of tears have been shed and it is time to live in a new day without the fear of our voices being stifled, tortured, arrested and shot. AFSPA is not the answer to the decades old problem of the Naga’s. Political will is the answer to this longstanding Indo- Naga issue. The Act which was passed by independent India to suppress the Freedom movement of the Naga people should be repealed and ended with the Liberation of the Naga People.
“Leave us alone to determine by ourselves “
President, Naga Club, Kuolachalie Seyie,
General Secretary,
Naga Club,
K N Mhonthung Lotha
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