Al called on the Indian government to curb extraordinary security force powers which have led to extreme violations of human nights in the northeast province of Manipur.
Ina report published in October AI details a pattern of arbitrary arrests detention and torture of hundreds of people in Oinam village in Manipur province over a period of several months in 1987 Villagers were beaten hung upside-down or given electric shocks. At least 11 men were apparently extra judicially executed after being tortured. In two of those deaths the courts have ruled that the killings were illegal.
The violations were committed by the security forces in a counterinsurgency operation following an attack by armed secessionists on one of their outposts in which nine soldiers were killed. The powers granted the security forces to deal with insurrection allow them to arbitrarily arrest people and shoot to kill on sight all with legal immunity from prosecution.
Both the previous and current governments have failed to investigate the incidents despite repeated calls from AI and other organizations. A number of people who complained to the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the time were arrested and in some cases tortured. Several witnesses in an ongoing civil court case to get compensation for victims were again tortured in December 1988 after giving testimony and pressurized to sign statements clearing the security forces.
The security forces still have the extraordinary powers that led to these violations and recent reports indicate that the abuses in Manipur continue There have been reports of torture and deaths in custody including that of a 17-yrold who reportedly died in March this year after being beaten.
On 20 July Al wrote to Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh asking for the governments comments on its report and requesting to visit Manipur to discuss it but at the time of writing had not received a reply to either request.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 8, 1991
