AFSPA insults the people, says Naga peace activist Niketu Iralu

Our Reporter

Dimapur, Feb. 12 (EMN): Peace activist Niketu Iralu has said that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) 1958 is hated because it ‘insults the people’.

Speaking at the virtual seminar — Asia Beyond the Headlines — on Friday evening, Iralu said the decision of the Central government to extend AFSPA in Nagaland even after the Oting incident reveals that ‘it means nothing to them’.

“If we do not have goodwill and trust, all our ideas will go to waste,” Iralu said as he called upon the people to find a way of protesting again and again, while reminding that similar incidents like Oting could happen again.

The Indian security forces killed 13 civilians in a botched ambush in Oting on December 4, 2021 and one more person was killed during a protest against the incident in Mon on the following day.

The seminar, which was  held on the topic: ‘Nagaland conflict and Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Northeast India: Is there a resolution for a peaceful end?,’ was sponsored by Harvard University Asia Centre and moderated by Professor James Robson, department of East Asian Languages and Civilisations, Harvard University.

Addressing the seminar, Advisor of Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA), Prof. Rosemary Dzuvichu stated that the AFSPA is a punishment to the Nagas and a violation of human rights.

Dzuvichu, who is also a professor in Nagaland University, said that despite the ceasefire with Naga political groups and the peace process, there is silence from the international community, from the Prime Minister of India and the Government of India in spite of recommendations and appeal to revoke AFSPA.

She reminded that it was the Oting incident on Dec. 4, 2021 that triggered the conversation and exposure of AFSPA, even though the Act was in place in Nagaland and the Northeast region for decades.

“As long as you have an Act in place, they will continue to enjoy judicial power,” she pointed out.

 The professor asserted that AFSPA has to be repealed ‘if we want an environment of peace’ and expressed hope that it will not be imposed in any other states of the country. She further said that not being able to bring incidents of AFSPA to civil code needs to be looked into. 

“Peace negotiation is going on for a long time and unless this is solved, we are going to have similar incidents in the future, and no amount of explanation by the armed forces is acceptable on the Oting incident which is filled with horror stories,” she said.

‘We’re still not known by many’

Another panellist, social activist Binalakshmi Nepram, who is also the Convener of Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, Gender Justice and Peace, said that the Northeast is ‘still living like a colony of India’ and even though the region shares boundaries with five countries, ‘we are still not known by many’. 

While lauding the Nagas for showing to the world how to fight for one’s right, she stated that ‘some of us need to speak truth to power as India is always looking at the region as the other’.

“Even with protest after protest in the Northeast region against AFSPA, the Central government turns a deaf ear and AFSPA continues to be extended, violating Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which is also racist to the low,” she lamented.

Having lost family and friends in this conflict, Nepram affirmed that those involved in the killing of the Northeast people under AFSPA will be taken to international courts.

Another panelist Zuchamo Yanthan, Assistant Professor, School of Social Sciences, IGNOU, New Delhi, said AFSPA has created a culture of violence.

The Act, he said, was a sponsored instrument for controlling and has been normalised in the region by the GOI.   Stressing on the theme of the seminar, Yanthan opined that it will be a difficult journey. “The only way to peaceful resolution is demilitarisation and repealing of AfSPA,” he stated.