She’s 29, starving for 2 yrs in Manipur jail to be heard

The 1958 Act provides sweeping powers to the armed forces to arrest, search and even kill civilians on mere suspicion and provides them immunity from legal action unless prior sanction is obtained from the Union Government. Even since that incident, scores of allegations of human rights violations under the Act have been made, including the killing of 19 people when Manipur burned in reaction to the Centre’s decision to extend the ceasefire with the NSCN beyond Nagaland to Naga-inhabited areas in Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Following Sharmila’s protest, a magisterial inquiry was instituted by the state government into the Tiddim Road incident, but the armed forces swiftly moved the Gauhati High Court and obtained a stay.

Sharmila, meanwhile, was arrested on November 5, the third day of her hunger-strike, on the charge of attempted suicide. Lodged in Sajiwa Jail in judicial custody, she has been forcefully nasal fed for more than 23 months now. ‘‘Three chief ministers and one spell of President’s Rule since November 2000 have failed to bring any honourable solution to the legitimate demands raised by Sharmila on behalf of the people of Manipur, who have been dealing with the harsh consequences of the prolonged imposition of the Disturbed Areas status,’’ laments Babloo Loitongbam, Executive Director of Human Rights Alert, a leading rights group here.

‘‘Irom Sharmila is a symbol of a common man tired of atrocities. She has neither any political affiliations, nor a strong background of an activist,’’ remarks N. Vijay Lakshmi, convenor of the Manipur People’s Union for Civil Liberty.

Lakshmi says Sharmila’s condition is deteriorating and her vital organs are failing day by day. In the middle, she also refused nasal feeding when some nurses reportedly passed rude remarks about her. Manipur Chief Secretary A P Sharma, however, denies Sharmila’s health is failing. ‘‘Though she has been refusing to take any solid food, she is being looked after properly by the doctors and fed nasally by them. There has been no report of any problem about her overall health,’’ he says.

But the authorities do not allow anybody to meet her. ‘‘You will have to take a written permission from the judicial magistrate,’’ says a jail official when this correspondent seeks to meet Sharmila. A local editor says it is no use trying. ‘‘The magistrate will not permit you. We have been trying for several months.’’

Human Rights Alert has got the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission to launch a worldwide signature campaign for Sharmila and her cause.

Signatories so far include the Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Kathmandu’s South Asia Forum for Human Rights, the London-based Institute of Race Relations and the Transnational Institute

of the Netherlands, among others.

The state government can’t do much about the issue except appeal before the Centre, and in the meantime, give Sharmila promises. On August 1, Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh personally delivered one at Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital, where Sharmila was admitted. He confessed his government would not be able to fulfill her demand at the moment given the deteriorating law and order situation in the state but urged her to give up her fast unto death. Sharmila refused.