After fourteen years in “protective detention”, fasting, and being force-fed (in the name of protection), Irom Sharmila, anti-militarization and just peace activist walked away from the shackles of State protection yesterday.
On November 1, 2000, in the state of Manipur, in India, insurgents exploded a bomb as a battalion was passing by. No one was hurt, nothing was damaged. Nevertheless, the battalion retaliated, on November 2, by mowing down ten innocents standing at a bus stop in Malom. Included in what has come to be known as the Malom Massacre were “a 62-year old woman, Leisangbam Ibetomi, and 18-year old Sinam Chandramani, a 1988 National Child Bravery Award winner.” A pregnant woman was also reported as being one of the dead.
The army knew it could act with impunity. It was covered by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, or AFSPA. AFSPA was imposed in Manipur in 1961. Much of the rest of the Northeast has been under its rule since 1972. By the government’s own testimony, tens of thousands of people have been disappeared, tortured, beaten, abused. In Manipur, this began in 1961. By 2000, it had gone for almost four decades.
Irom Sharmila decided then and there that enough was too much. On November 4, 2000, she entered into an indefinite fast, a hunger strike that would continue until the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is rescinded, the soldiers withdrawn, the people restored. She was arrested almost immediately and put into “custody” for attempting to commit suicide.
This week a judge decided that there was no evidence of a suicide attempt, and the State must release Irom Sharmila, and so on Wednesday, she walked out of the hospital, a “free woman.”
Asked about her feelings, Irom Sharmila smiled and described the air outside as “refreshing.” She then got down to business: “I will not touch food or water. I want a mass uprising on the AFSPA issue. I don’t want people to glorify me. I want them to come forward and support my cause, my protest against AFSPA. It’s a draconian law that has widowed many women, robbed women of sons, husbands and fathers. It must be repealed.”
Fourteen years ago, Irom Sharmila began a hunger strike against militarization in one part of India. Today, we see a global network of supposedly democratic, ostensibly protective militarization of everyday life, a “special powers” global factory that produces only corpses and widows and mothers in mourning in the name of security, just war, and, worst of all, peace. When Irom Sharmila left the hospital, where she’d been held for fourteen years, she walked a short distance to a tin shack, where her supporters have been camping. She wanted to spend her first day of independence in the arms of solidarity, surrounded by women. The struggle for peace continues.
(Photo Credit: The IndiAgent)
About Dan Moshenberg
It was never protective custody. Technically the past thirteen years were repeated judicial remands which are illegal after the four repeat. A citizen can be held for a maximum of 60 days under judicial remand at which point she should have been indicted or released. In addition she was placed under isolation orders by a suo motu letter issued by the then Principal Secretary Manipur in response to a request by the then DG Police (Prisons) circa 2004. This was challenged only by the NHRC during their visit of October 23 2013. The previous Judicial Magistrate HH Roland Keishing had informed Sharmila that if she were to appeal to the High Court of if necessary the Supreme court the isolation order would be removed but even when he summoned the AMBA secretary to his chambers he was not able to secure any independent counsel for her. No one is entirely certain what grounds they are keeping Sharmila in for now but they are force feeding her and as she would be already be dead by now if that had not been happening I am grateful for that. Regardless of the terms of her incarceration after Mega Tamiz Prabagharan sought a judicial review of the isolation order upon her the Manipur Government introduced the norms of the Assam Prison Manual for all prisoners in their care, political protective remand or illegally detained. As Manipur is too far for you to visit and as you claim to give voice to women perhaps you could write her either to offer her support or ask her opinion instead of relying on IB outed foreign spies and corrupt NGOs who are responsible for her isolation. Her address remains Irom Sharmila Chanu, Human Rights Defender, Security Ward, Jawaharlal Nehru I M S, Porompat, Imphal East, Manipur 795005 India. Her next production warrant to appear at trial at the Delhi Patiala Court for a separate case of attempted suicide dating from October 2006 is in it’s third and fourth day of hearings (prosecution witnesses) on 30 & 31 October 20014. The Government of Manipur has not yet stated whether they will be continuing to obstruct the course of justice or whether they will abide by the laws of the Republic of India and send her as the Judge has requested them to and which right to be present at her trial Sharmila has repeatedly asserted for herself despite the comments of the Manipuri men who want her kept isolated in Imphal.
Sharmila and the forgotten genealogy of violence in Manipur http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/36/commentary/sharmila-and-forgotten-genealogy-violence-manipur.html
Tracing Irom Sharmila’s Struggle: From Years of Fasting To Seeking Votes To Repeal AFSPA
https://thewire.in/110579/tracking-irom-sharmila-fasting-seeking-votes-lift-afspa-manipur/