Indian woman on 12-year hunger strike charged

[truthseer]

NEW DELHI (AP) — Irom Sharmila has not eaten a meal in 12 years. The 40-year-old woman has been on a hunger strike — and force fed through a tube by authorities — to protest an Indian law that suspends many human rights protections in areas of conflict.
Sharmila was charged Monday with attempted suicide in a case likely to bring major attention to her quiet protest in the tiny northeastern state of Manipur against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
Under the law, in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and parts of the country's northeast, troops have the right to shoot to kill suspected rebels without fear of possible prosecution and to arrest suspected militants without a warrant. It also gives police wide-ranging powers of search and seizure.
Dubbed the "Iron Lady" by her supporters, Sharmila has become a rallying point for those demanding the law's repeal.
Sharmila had her last voluntary meal on Nov. 4, 2000, in Imphal, the capital of Manipur, one of several northeastern states facing insurgencies. She was arrested three days later and has been force fed through a tube in her nose ever since. Under law, she has to be released once a year to see if she will start eating. When she doesn't, she is taken back into custody and force fed.
The current charges stem from a 2006 protest she attended in New Delhi. Police took her from the protest venue, hospitalized her and registered a case of attempted suicide against her.
Magistrate Akash Jain charged her Monday with attempted suicide. Appearing in court with her nose tube in place, she pleaded not guilty.
"I love life. I do not want to take my life, but I want justice and peace," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted her as saying in court, which she attended after flying in from Manipur over the weekend.
Jain set her trial for May 22. If convicted, she faces one year in prison.
She remained unbowed as she left the courtroom.
"I will continue my fast until the special powers act is withdrawn," she said.
Sharmila's supporters held a demonstration outside the court demanding the repeal of the act.
"The Indian army should leave Manipur state and authorities should withdraw all the cases against her," said one protester, Sucheta Dey.
Human rights workers have accused Indian troops of using the law to detain, torture and kill rebel suspects, sometimes even staging gun battles as pretexts to kill.
The army opposes any weakening of the act, saying it needs extraordinary powers to deal with insurgents.
Indian Law Minister Ashwini Kumar defended the act, saying it is needed for conflict zones where the onus and burden of proof were not easy to resolve.
"Therefore, the opinion of the defense establishment and intelligence agencies was critical in such matters," Kumar was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper on Monday.
Student activists in Manipur said they disagree and complain the Indian army misuses the extraordinary powers and treats civilians as insurgents.
Kennedy Sanabam, a member of the Manipur Students Association, said the military has failed to contain the insurgency despite its powers, and instead "the number of insurgents has gone up."
The arrest last week of an army officer with illegal drugs worth millions of dollars in Manipur suggests the special powers are misused to carry out extortion and drug trafficking, said Pranshu Prakash, a research scholar at a New Delhi university.
The law has come under fire amid India's re-evaluation of its sexual violence laws following the gang rape and killing of a student on a bus in New Delhi in December. Women's rights activists have said the law allows troops to rape women without fear of arrest or punishment.
A panel appointed by the government recommended in January that the law be re-examined and that protections be removed for soldiers accused of sexual violence. The government declined to amend the law when it approved new measures to protect women.
The law prohibits soldiers from being prosecuted for alleged rights violations unless granted express permission from the federal government. According to official documents, the state government in Indian-ruled Kashmir has sought permission to try soldiers in 50 cases in the last two decades. The federal government has refused every one.

How sad! In India, those who want to live starve to death and those who want to starve are force fed. Poor woman, poor governance. So sad, so pitiful

 

[truthseer]

No Indian cares for her struggle? How heartless

 

[Marshmallow]

How sad! In India, those who want to live starve to death and those who want to starve are force fed. Poor woman, poor governance. So sad, so pitiful

it has been postd b4 by @arp2041 yestrday....

 

[truthseer]

it has been postd b4 by @arp2041 yestrday....

I couldn't find it

 

[Marshmallow]

I couldn't find it

let me find it 4 u

here

http://www.defence.pk/forums/centra...a-charged-attempting-suicide.html#post3993653

 

[Jayanta]

How sad! In India, those who want to live starve to death and those who want to starve are force fed. Poor woman, poor governance. So sad, so pitiful

This is one really sorry state of affair. After spening more than 10 years of my life in NE India I can say the the people of NE are truly Indian by heart....but unfortunately the rest of India has always treated the people of NE India as B-class citizen. One can visit the Delhi University area...people call them CHINKI...and the worst part is the way the so called Dilliwala's treat females from NE. Almost all of them are subjected to sexual abuses on a daily basis...it seems that the males of Delhi has a licence to do it. I have many friends living Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya...visited almost all corner...such lovely place and inhabitants are so humble, polite and helpful. I wish the Indian government and people of rest of India had a little bit of respect for their counterparts from NE.

Irolm Sharmila has been protesting against the Armed Forces Special Act...being implemented in the NE and J&K. The law has several loop holes which was exploited by some tainted Armed force personnel....hope the Government would finally listen to her.

As far as I see here...only brothers from Pakistan commenting on this topic...I would suggest them to think of their country especially whats happening with Hazaras, Baluch, Ahmedis.

 

[darkinsky]

WTF, not eaten a meal for 12 years? how did she survive?

 

[Parul]

Irom Chanu Sharmila: Irom Sharmila Chanu (born 14 March 1972), also known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur" or "Mengoubi" ("the fair one")[1] is a civil rights activist, political activist, and poet from the Indian state of Manipur. Since 2 November 2000, she has been on hunger strike to demand that the Indian government repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), which she blames for violence in Manipur and other parts of northeast India.[2] Having refused food and water for more than 500 weeks, she has been called "the world's longest hunger striker".[3]


Decision to fast

On 2 November 2000, in Malom, a town in the Imphal Valley of Manipur, ten civilians were allegedly shot and killed by the Assam Rifles, one of the Indian Paramilitary forces operating in the state, while waiting at a bus stop.[4][5] The incident later came to be known to activists as the "Malom Massacre".[6] The next day's local newspapers published graphic pictures of the dead bodies, including one of a 62-year old woman, Leisangbam Ibetomi, and 18-year old Sinam Chandramani, a 1988 National Child Bravery Award winner.[5]

Sharmila, the 28-year-old daughter of a Grade IV veterinary worker, began to fast in protest of the killings, taking neither food nor water.[7] As her brother Irom Singhajit Singh recalled, "The killings took place on 2 November 2000. It was a Thursday. Sharmila used to fast on Thursdays since she was a child. That day she was fasting too. She has just continued with her fast". 4 November is also given as the start day of her fast. On the Friday third of November she had her last supper of pastries and sweets then touched her mother's feet and asked permission to fulfill her bounden duty.[8] Her primary demand to the Indian government was the repeal of the AFSPA, which has been blamed by opposition and human rights groups for permitting torture, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions.[4][7]

Three days after she began her strike, she was arrested by the police and charged with an "attempt to commit suicide", which is unlawful under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, and was later transferred to judicial custody.[8] Her health deteriorated rapidly, and the police then forcibly had to use nasogastric intubation in order to keep her alive while under arrest.[3] Since then, Irom Sharmila has been regularly released and re-arrested every year since under IPC section 309, a person who "attempts to commit suicide" is punishable "with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year [or with fine, or with both]".[8][9]

[edit] Continued activism

By 2004, Sharmila had become an "icon of public resistance".[4] Following her procedural release on 2 October 2006, for around four months, Irom Sharmila Chanu went to Raj Ghat, New Delhi, which she said was "to pay floral tribute to my idol, Mahatma Gandhi." Later that evening, Sharmila headed for Jantar Mantar for a protest demonstration where she was joined by students, human rights activists and other concerned citizens.[7] On 6 October, she was re-arrested by the Delhi police for attempting suicide and was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where she wrote letters to the Prime Minister, President, and Home Minister.[7] At this time, she met and won the support of Nobel-laureate Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Laureate and human rights activist, who promised to take up Sharmila's cause at the United Nations Human Rights Council.[7] In 2011, she invited anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare to visit Manipur,[10] and Hazare sent two representatives to meet with her.[11]

In October 2011, the Manipur Pradesh All India Trinamool Congress announced their support for Sharmila and called on party chief Mamata Banerjee to help repeal the AFSPA.[12] The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (CPI ML) also stated its support for her and for repeal of AFSPA, calling for nationwide agitation.[13] In November, at the end of the eleventh year of her fast, Sharmila again called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to repeal the law.[14] On 3 November, 100 women formed a human chain in Ambari to show support for Sharmila, while other civil society groups staged a 24-hour fast in a show of solidarity.[15]

In December 2011, Pune University announced a scholarship program for 39 female Manipuri students to take degree courses in honour of Irom Sharmila Chanu's 39 years of age.[16]

[edit] International attention

Sharmila was awarded the 2007 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, which is given to "an outstanding person or group, active in the promotion and advocacy of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights".[17] She shared the award with Lenin Raghuvanshi of People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, a northeastern Indian human rights organization.[17]

In 2009, she was awarded the first Mayillama Award of the Mayilamma Foundation "for achievement of her nonviolent struggle in Manipur".[18] In 2010, she won a lifetime achievement award from the Asian Human Rights Commission.[19] Later that year, she won the Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, which came with a cash award of 5,100,000 rupees,[20] and the Sarva Gunah Sampannah "Award for Peace and Harmony" from the Signature Training Centre.[21]

[edit] Works on her life

Deepti Priya Mehrotra's Burning Bright: Irom Sharmila and the Struggle for Peace in Manipur details Sharmila's life and the political background of her fast.[22]

Ojas S V, a theatre artist from Pune, has been performing a mono-play titled Le Mashale ("Take the Torch"), based on Irom Sharmila's life and struggle at several places in India. It is an adaptation of Meira Paibi (Women bearing torches), a drama written by Malayalam playwright Civic Chandran.[23][24]


Irom Chanu Sharmila - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[peep]

WTF, not eaten a meal for 12 years? how did she survive?

Check the other thread.. she survived since she was force fed !

 

[truthseer]

Anyways, whether it be merged or not, I'll leave it to you Indians to discuss. It seems an internal matter and no point scoring should be done on this
@KRAIT, @arp2401, @Ayush are a few who I think will contribute a lot to this thread

 

[KRAIT]

@Jayanta Agreed. Thing is people don't want to elect right leaders. For many people, all these issues don't matter to them and they treat NE like a step Child.

Having said that, kindly see the state of Dalits in India.

I don't mean you are wrong, few of the Delhites and other low life in India, don't deserve to live in a society, just in jails.

 

[Ayush]

This is one really sorry state of affair. After spening more than 10 years of my life in NE India I can say the the people of NE are truly Indian by heart....but unfortunately the rest of India has always treated the people of NE India as B-class citizen. One can visit the Delhi University area...people call them CHINKI...and the worst part is the way the so called Dilliwala's treat females from NE. Almost all of them are subjected to sexual abuses on a daily basis...it seems that the males of Delhi has a licence to do it. I have many friends living Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya...visited almost all corner...such lovely place and inhabitants are so humble, polite and helpful. I wish the Indian government and people of rest of India had a little bit of respect for their counterparts from NE.

Irolm Sharmila has been protesting against the Armed Forces Special Act...being implemented in the NE and J&K. The law has several loop holes which was exploited by some tainted Armed force personnel....hope the Government would finally listen to her.

As far as I see here...only brothers from Pakistan commenting on this topic...I would suggest them to think of their country especially whats happening with Hazaras, Baluch, Ahmedis.

i agree mate.we indians are racist.and then we act as victims too.