| Men in
Uniform
Every now and then we hear the security forces deployed in the State executing some really socially productive works like constructing community halls, building roads, holding free medical camps, free distribution of text books and yes peace rallies especially in the hill and remote areas of Manipur. We are sure of the sincerity on the part of the security personnel in conducting these socially productive programs and we certainly welcome it.
The mass media coverage given to such programs testifies this. However all these good works or should we say, the Samaritan Operations, as the Army christened, such programs, come to naught when security personnel give vent to their anger and let loose a reign of terror. The recent report of Assam Rifles personnel going berserk and torturing a number of villagers after the Leplen ambush on May 27 in which 11 Assam Rifles personnel were killed exposes the ugly side of the men in uniform.
However reprehensible the Leplen attack was a line needs to be drawn. The attack was carried out by armed militants who are engaged in a bush war with the security personnel and harassing and torturing innocent civilians after suffering casualties at the hands of the 'proclaimed enemy' do not show the men in uniform in good light. More than anything else the army top brass and men in position of responsibility within the armed forces need to realize that the fight against militants should not be reduced to pouring out their angst on the civil population.
And it need not be elaborated here that earning the goodwill of the people should be the number one priority of the security forces. Half the battle against militancy would be won if only the law enforcers learn to respect human rights and give dignity to the people they are supposed to provide protection. And certainly inserting sticks and sprinkling chili powder on the anuses and rectum of innocent villagers, as alleged by the victims of Leplen and its adjoining villages, is not fighting insurgency but terrorizing innocent civilians.
Leplen has so far not gone the way of the infamous Oinam incident in 1987 but the events that have unfolded since the May 27 attack has cast yet another blot on the image of the security personnel. Excesses, atrocities and targeting civil population by the men in uniform are not new and we just have to look back to the RIMS massacre, Heirangoithong outrage, Tonsen Larnkhai, Malom killings etc, to safely conclude that far from getting security the common people have had to face the angst and atrocities of the law enforcers.
Lest we forget, a day after the Malom killings, Irom Sharmila has been on a fast unto death agitation demanding the revocation, of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Add to this the cases of people vanishing without a trace after allegedly being picked up by security personnel and we have a people caught between the proverbial Devil and the Deep Sea. So even as the State Government has gone ahead and officially announced the extension of the Disturbed Area status under the provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act by another year amidst the rising demands for the revocation of the same, we have the Assam Rifles men going berserk after losing 11 of its men to militancy.
The graphic pictures of the victims submitted by the Kuki Movement for Human Rights to the Chief Minister are enough to make the stomach of any normal, sensitive individual churn. We are not prophesying doomsday but the reign of terror let loose on the villagers of Leplen and its adjoining villages by Assam Rifles personnel will not be the last. Such is the situation the people of Manipur have been living in for the past two or more decades.
(Courtesy: The Sangai Express) |
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