By Patricia Mukhim
Wikipedia defines Impunity as “exemption from punishment after committing violence.” In the international law of human rights, it refers to the failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, therefore a denial of the victims’ right to justice and redress. Impunity is especially common in countries that lack a tradition of the rule of law, suffer from corruption or that have entrenched systems of patronage, or where the judiciary is weak or members of the security forces are protected by special jurisdictions. We can see all the above conditions obtaining in Meghalaya’s Garo Hills. The rule of law is absent; there is rampant corruption (illegal check gates and toll gates run by militants, politicians and the DMR officials with police sharing the loot); there is an entrenched system of patronage where political patronage can buy you entitlements from jobs to contract work or a toll gate; the judiciary is weak and ineffective. The only difference is that instead of security forces being protected by special jurisdiction it is the militants who have got away with impunity.
What has happened in Chokpot, Garo Hills is shocking but not unexpected. For the last five years Garo Hills has not experienced even a visage of the rule of law. Militants are running riot and the government has responded in an ad-hoc manner. Operations against militants were not sustained thereby leaving the militants to regroup and reclaim their fire power. Whenever the security forces have been in hot pursuit of the GNLA, their cadres begin to squeak that they ‘want to talk peace.’ And we have a chief minister (Mukul Sangma) who even after all the horrifying list of criminal activities of these dozens of militant outfits is still open to talking with them. What do you talk to ruthless bandits about? What is their stated ideology? All that the GNLA and other undefined enemies of peace have done all these years is to extort, intimidate, kill at will and do a thumbs down to the law.
In the past the word “impunity” was liberally used to define the violent acts of state actors such as the police and army when they enter a conflict zone. We have deliberately not used this word to describe the barbaric acts of non-state actors such as the GNLA who do not hesitate to spill their bullets on a helpless woman right in front of her children. The GNLA have of course conveniently labeled her a police informer which is the modus operandi they use to eliminate a target of choice. State actors (police, army etc) are lectured to that they are instruments of the state and are therefore expected to act within the parameters of the law. We are also instructed by human rights activists at seminars galore that state agencies cannot mimic non-state actors. Uniformed personnel are booked under various sections of the law for ‘violating’ human rights while dealing with insurgents/combatants/ militants. These are actually hoodlums who have taken cover under some vague ideology. By the logic of human rights activists, state actors should tread on eggshells when they enter a conflict zone. They are told to avoid human casualty. This is almost like sending them to the lion’s den with their hands tied. Someone has rightly said that violence has only one antidote – counter violence.
The state police, it must be said, have been circumspect while on duty in Garo Hills. Many have lost their lives in ambushes laid out by the GNLA. No human rights groups have condemned the loss of life of police personnel. But reprimands come quick and thick when one or two militants die in an encounter. Those who dash off the press releases condemning police excesses are over-ground sympathizers of militant outfits. These sympathizers too need to be identified and questioned. Let’s not fool ourselves any longer and call the gun toting goons “our own brethren” as PA Sangma and his two sons said some years ago when the Government had launched rigorous operations against the GNLA. Politicians have always been known to do and say the wrong things. And now after the Chokpot incident Mr PA Sangma and his off-springs are in Delhi to meet with the MoS Home to brief him of the law and order situation in Garo Hills. This country has a smart, swish intelligence set-up. I am sure they have a list of names of sympathizers, particularly politicians who do deals with these militias. The Union Home Minister and his MoS would do well to be properly briefed about the ground realities in Meghalaya. Things are not so simple. In the last State Assembly election many politicians have taken the help of one or the other militant outfit. They have paid money to these Frankensteins and that money has been used to replenish their cache of fire power. We know very well that Sohan Shira the GNLA army commander is involved in the coal trade and other flourishing businesses. Let him answer where he got all the money from. Is this what he does in the name of a Garo nation? And people still support such crap?
The rot in Garo Hills was evident in the vigilantism displayed by the so-called Civil Society Women’s Organization (CSWO, a branch of which is equally active in Khasi Hills) which morphed into a moral police (Taliban of sorts). The women vigilantes abducted some sex workers and forcefully detained them at a particular place. They then extracted information from the young women who were frightened out of their wits. The sex workers were tortured and beaten up black and blue. And this with the permission of the Deputy Commissioner! Can you beat this? The DC’s excuse is that he was allowing these vigilantes to counsel the sex workers. Now, since when has counseling also included brutality and inflicting of pain on the counseled? Did the DC not know of this torture, considering that he sent a section of the media to witness what was happening everyday at that concentration camp?
This entire episode is a denouement to the Tuesday incident at Chokpot. Those in the know allege that the leader of the Garo Hills unit of the CSWO is an over-ground worker of the GNLA and she was doing what was told to her by her handlers. Things are murky now. There are at least a dozen militias splintered from their parent bodies, each operating in their little turfs. A strong central government alone can restore sanity in Garo Hills if it executes an action plan that is strategically designed. Talking to militants is certainly not good strategy. Neither is it an option. Militants offer to talk when they have no more fire power. That’s the time to break their backs. You don’t talk peace to people with guns and without an ideology. They will never surrender their arms but will use them at the first opportunity to terrorize the citizens. This needs to be clearly communicated to the Union Home Ministry. Concerned civil society groups should write to the Union Home Minister, the MoS Home, Kiren Rijiju and even to the Prime Minister and let their views be heard. Why should only politicians talk to the Government in Delhi?
Now that the coal trade has dried up courtesy the NGT ban, militant outfits are facing the heat. Do we wonder then why so many are in favour of lifting the ban on coal mining? The nexus is complete. We only have to join the dots.
