IMPHAL, March 29 � Irom Singhajit, the elder brother of human rights defender Irom Chanu Sharmila, who was detained in isolation and forced fed for 15 years for her hunger strike against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), has drawn the attention of the United Nation�s Council meeting to �the precarious human rights situation in North East India.�
Singhajit, who returned here on Friday after making a presentation at the UN council meeting in Geneva on March 12-23, conveyed this to media persons on Saturday.
Representing London- based organisation Liberation at the UN council meeting, Singhajit, in his eight minute presentation, said, �My sister resolved to fight against this draconian law following a massacre of ten civilians including women and children by the Indian para-military personnel at Malom village in Manipur on November 2, 2000. Within a few days she was falsely charged for attempting to commit suicide and kept under judicial custody.� Sharmila, 42, has been force-fed a liquid diet through a nasal tube since she began her fast-unto-death on November 4, 2000 seeking the repeal of AFSPA 1958 that gives security personnel the �license to kill�.
Singhajit said, the working group of universal periodic review of UN council, in consonance with the recommendation of almost all the major treaty bodies and relevant special procedure as well as the former High Commissioner for Human Rights has consistently recommended the repeal of AFSPA. But the Government of India has recently rejected the recommendation of its own committee to review the AFSPA.
The National Human Rights Commission of India has declared her detention as violation of both domestic as well as international human rights law in 2013. The local courts in Manipur have repeatedly ordered her release by dismissing the false charges against her in 2014 and 2015, he added. �Amnesty International has declared her a prisoner of conscience�, he said and urged the UN Council to take concrete steps to repeal AFSPA and to protect the most basic human rights of the population reeling under this colonial and racist Act.