Imphal: Amnesty International (AI) has urged Manipur and Delhi governments to drop all charges against activist Irom Sharmila Chanu and release her immediately unconditionally.
A four-member AI team, led by G Ananthapadmanabhan, is campaigning here for her release.
AI also submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh urging him to drop all charges against ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ Irom Sharmila Chanu and release her immediately and unconditionally.
Sharmila has been on an indefinite fast since November 2, 2000, demanding repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA).
After the NHRC instructed the Manipur government to allow people to meet Sharmila, Chief Secretary Lawmkunga informed the AI team that from now Sharmila will be provided facilities as provided to other undertrials.
The AI team was given 20 minutes to meet Sharmila at the high security JN hospital on Monday.
Like Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Sharmila is also considered a ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ and was given over 100 messages by students from different parts of the country. Sharmila conveyed to the team that she wanted to meet the students but did not want to speak much on the fast with them.
The team also met deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam, MLAs and representatives of various NGOs.
In March 2013, a Delhi court also charged Ms Sharmila with attempting to commit suicide in October 2006, when she staged a protest in Delhi for two days.
Irom Sharmila has never been convicted of attempting to commit suicide. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has said she is holding a non-violent protest.
AI said Irom Sharmila is being held solely for her peaceful expression of her beliefs. Her hunger strike is a protest against human rights violations and is different from self-starvation as a way to commit suicide.
As the Supreme Court has recognised, hunger strikes have long been accepted as a legitimate form of protest in India.
Sharmila’s protest is based on principles of justice and accountability, non-violence, like those of many other Indian activists before her it was added.
In February 2012, the apex court observed in its ruling in the Ram Lila Maidan incident that a hunger strike is ‘a form of protest which has been accepted, both historically and legally in our constitutional jurisprudence’.
Several UN bodies and experts, including the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consciences; the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, have stated that the AFSPA must be repealed.
A number of Indian bodies, including the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, the Jeevan Reddy Committee and the Prime Minister’s Working Group on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir have also urged the repeal of the law.
The Justice Verma Committee, set up to review laws against sexual assault, said in January 2013 that the AFSPA legitimized impunity for sexual violence.
The Justice Santosh Hegde Commission, set up by the Supreme Court in January 2013 to investigate cases of extrajudicial executions in Manipur, described the law as a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness. (UNI)
