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Human rights defenders / Statements / India / 2016 / December

India: Babloo Loitongbam: Fighting deep-rooted impunity and ethnically discriminatory laws

© point-of-views.ch

13 December 2016 (OMCT) - The rule of thumb in the state of Manipur, in the north east of India, is that the powerful can get away with anything – from arresting people and searching their homes without a warrant to killing people. 

 

That’s because six decades ago, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) granted the paramilitary forces and armed state police with special powers to combat insurgency and ensure security in this “disturbed area”, mostly inhabited by indigenous peoples of Tibetan-Burman and Sino-Tibetan descent. 

 

This legal framework has licensed a catalogue of human rights abuses within a “complete climate of impunity,” as explained by Babloo Loitongbam, Executive Director of Human Rights Alert, an organization that documents human rights abuses by the Indian Security Forces in the region and seeks justice for the victims. “Suspicion is enough for you to be shot by the military,” he said. 

 

Members of the armed forces may not be prosecuted, and an investigation cannot take place without the central Government granting its permission, which, needless to say, has never happened in the past 60 years. Yet Mr. Loitongbam’s team has had some wins. In 2007, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination called upon India to repeal the AFSPA and to replace it “by a more humane Act” for it is discriminatory against the indigenous peoples of the region. 

 

Small steps can make a difference 

 

Yet with the Act still in place, between 2012 and 2013 alone, the insurgency in Manipur has led to the death of about one civilian per 100,000 people a year.

 

In this difficult context, Loitongbam’s organization can only take small steps to uncover the gross violations and eventually trigger change on a larger scale. One such victory occurred when it found evidence reaching back to May 1979 of 1,528 cases of extrajudicial killings of civilians by security forces, pushing India’s Supreme Court to appoint a fact-finding committee to investigate six of these cases. 

 

Despite the State’s claims that the people were killed in so called “encounters”, or that they were “hardcore terrorists”, the Supreme Court in 2016 found that no prior criminal charges had been filed against any of them. It also ruled that “the use of excessive force or retaliatory force” by the police or armed forces is not permissible, despite the AFSPA. 

 

“This was the first time the Indian Supreme Court was confronted with this mass of atrocities over this prolonged period of time,” said Loitongbam. “After much courtroom drama, they were able to come with a judgment.” 

 

Even though the Court did not consider all the cases presented to it, the ruling sent a message to potential perpetrators that there is a limit to legally admissible behavior even with the AFSPA. Since then, the number of extrajudicial killings has dropped dramatically, raising hopes for a more peaceful future. 

 

The ruling also allowed the public to learn what had been happening in this remote part of the world. Until two years ago, the world had been unaware of the extent and pervasiveness of the human rights violations in Manipur because foreigners were not allowed to enter the area. A government push to boost the local economy, which has been at the crossroads of exchange with Asia for more than 2,500 years, has slightly relaxed this ban. 

 

Using the law to help the faceless

 

Loitongbam, a lawyer who is also a Fulbright Scholar and an Ashoka Life Fellow, believes that the power of the legal system to end impunity. 

 

“These institutions, which are meant to protect the rights of democracy, have to stand up and assert themselves. This is what we saw when the Supreme Court actually came out with the truth,” he said. 

 

He recalled a story that explains his motivation for what he does. One day while walking down the street a young man called out to him and asked him to come home with him for a cup of coffee. Loitongbam was skeptical at first, but was won over by the young man’s honest eyes.

 

“He said to me, ‘I have heard about you and had it not been for you and your team I would not have been able to come home.’” 

 

The young man had been involved in an insurgency movement and was blacklisted by the military. He feared that instead of a trial and conviction he would end up as yet another victim of an extrajudicial killing. So he fled. But after this year’s Supreme Court ruling, a new climate had emerged and the young man felt safe enough to return home. 

 

“And he said even if they arrest me, at least I’ll be able to make my case in the court, but two years ago I would have been killed,” Loitongbam continued recounting the young man’s words. 

 

“That evening I slept so well,” Loitongbam said. “These are just faceless people, people whom you don’t know, but they have benefitted from your work. You get so much satisfaction that you say to yourself that all of this sacrifice is worth it.” 


This article is part of a series of 10 profiles to commemorate International Human Rights Day, 10 December, and to recognize the vital role of human rights defenders worldwide.

 

To see the campaign video, please click here.

 

OMCT wishes to thank the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the OAK Foundation for their support. Its content is the sole responsibility of OMCT and should in no way be interpreted as reflecting the view(s) of the supporting institutions.

Properties

Date: December 13, 2016
Activity: Human Rights Defenders
Type: Statements
Country: India
Subjects: Arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, Discrimination, Indigenous peoples, Inequality, Minorities and marginalised communities, Police, Military and Paramilitary, Summary executions, extrajudicial killings, Torture and violence

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