North-East citizens denied right to justice, says fact-finding mission

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has disrupted life, legitimised arbitrary killings by security forces and led to illegal detention and custodial violence in the North-Eastern states. That is the gist of a report filed by a 14-member fact-finding mission, comprising lawyers, journalists and various women’s groups.

The report claimed the Act had denied citizens the right to justice from the courts, undermined the authority of the civil administration and exploited inter-community rivalries through a policy of divide and rule.

It also suggests the Centre has failed to find political solutions to problems that beset the North-East and has resorted to extensive militarisation and repressive legislation.

The mission, which visited the seven North-Eastern states last April included representatives from groups like Vimochana, Saheli, the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the Indian People’s Human Rights Tribunal, the People’s Union of Democratic Rights, the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights and the Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights.

The report claimed the Centre had distanced itself from the needs and aspirations of the people of the region and that the security forces treated everyone as militants and secessionists, to be suppressed by military power.

'Many officers even felt that outsiders like the fact-finding teams, who go to make inquiries into human rights violations, are stooges of militant groups,' it said. Inter-ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the region had led to insularity and chauvinism, often leading to killings, it said, adding, 'The militant groups which have taken up arms must bear the responsibility for their actions and the impact of their armed struggle on civilian populations, especially on communities other than their own.'

While calling upon militant groups to seek peaceful solutions, the report also called on the government to address the grievances of all kinds of groups in the north-east and find political solutions to them.

'As long as the government deals with the issues as law and order problems to be suppressed by military solutions,' it warned, 'it will only cause the escalation of armed resistance.'