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Manipur Naked anger

July 15, 2004 has taken a permanent place in the history of India, when a group of women in Manipur stormed the Army base at Kangla Fort in Imphal and stripped in daring protest against the rape and killing of a 32-year old Manipuri girl Thangjam Manorama. They carried a banner saying: “Come and rape us all” and shouted in a protest never seen anywhere in the country. About 40 women converged on the main entrance to Kangla Fort, the headquarters of the Assam Rifles’ 9 Sector, on the day. They shouted slogans against excesses by security forces and demanded punishment of the personnel who allegedly tortured and killed Thangjam Manorama a few days prior to that incident. A dozen of them — most middle-

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Manipur

Cover Story aged and some older — shed their clothes and tore into the campus through the western gate. The sentries did not budge from where they stood, dumbstruck by the protest. The other women in the group held banners that said “Indian army take our flesh” and “Indian army rape us”. Some of the demonstrators fainted, possibly overcome by emotion. Manipur is the worst victim of insurgency and excesses on part of security personnel, which saw such an unprecedented demonstration never e personnel, which saw such an unprecedented demonstration never experience in the country before. It also gave rise to demand for further introspection into the excesses committed by the security personnel equipped with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the abolition of which has been the main demand of the iron lady of Manipur Irom Sharmila, who has been on fast for seven years.

Irom Sharmila – a life without food

Irom Sharmila Thanu is now 34 and already completed her seven years of fast in demand for the repeal of draconian law like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). She is the only person in the entire country, who has remained without solid food

since 2000, demanding withdrawal from her state, of one of the most draconian laws in the statue books called AFSPA. The historic fast launched at Malom was no planned affair. There was a firing by security forces at Malom bus stand, which is nearly 15-16 kilometers from Imphal, on November 2, 2000. It saw blood of ten innocents spilled on the streets. The mother Irom Sakhi Devi had no inkling of what was in store of her youngest daughter Sharmila. She merely sought her mother’s blessings to work for ‘betterment of humanity’ and left. Sharmila straight away went to the very spot where the bloodbath had occurred and started her fast unto death. Irom Sharmila’s legendary struggle for human rights has become an important symbol of the resistance of the Manipuri people who are fighting their present day suffering at the hands of policy makers. Her action drew international attention to “excessive militarisation of the region” and the “promulgations of many a black laws like AFSPA at the cost of the life and liberty of the people of this region.” She wrote a new history for the entire region caught between insurgents and security forces.

Some aid for AIDS please!

HIV/AID, the most dreaded disease the mankind is suffering from, has spread its tentacles in the Northeast far and wide and the worst victim of this is the small state Manipur. Several reports blame extensive use of drugs and sharing of needles as the main reason for this disease spreading at an alarming rate. The HIV virus is by now running in the veins of scores of people in Manipur threatening to wipe out the entire population of two million populations in recent times. The threat of a looming disaster was quite palpable in the 80s but the state machinery did nothing on this front. By February 2000, a total of 9,732 HIV positive cases and 574 AIDS cases were reported of which 131 were registered AIDS victims.

Forgotten heroes (dingko sing, sports)

Three districts namely Imphal, Thoubal and Churachandpur contribute about 85 per cent of the total number of ‘positive cases’. According to some analyst from Manipur, besides other factors, the state government’s ineffective policies and programmes to combat the disease by raising awareness level among the risk groups; state’s backward economy; and the geographical proximity with Myanmar, which produces a vast chunk of the world’s opium are some of the important determinants that has added to the spectrum of AIDS in the region. The main factor of the spread of HIV in border state of Manipur lies with its close geographic proximity with the golden triangle an area that spreads between Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. The Golden Triangle is one of Asia’s two main illicit opium-producing areas. It is an area of around 350,000 square kilometers. Along with Afghanistan in the Golden Crescent (together with Iran and Pakistan), it has been one of the most important opium-producing area of Asia and of the world since the 1950s.

Manipur being close to Golden Triangle, the state has become a major route for drug smuggling and other illegal goods. Heroin worth crores of rupees have entered Moreh through the porous Indo-Myanmar border. The extensive use of Moreh route as a transit point coupled with dire economic situation have led to a large number of Manipuri youths started taking drugs and infection of the deadly HIV virus. In Manipur AIDS has emerged as a serious public health concern. In fact, it is becoming a number one killer of young people in Manipur. The rapidly increasing number of HIV positive persons in the state and the fear of the Manipuris being annihilated by the so called “deadliest disease” of the modern world has now haunted every localities, villages and towns, AIDS death has become a daily phenomenon, the wailing and groaning of bereaved families reverberated the hilly state, once known for its scenic beauty and rich culture. In this traumatic and agonizing situation, the people of Manipur have to work together more than ever before. Time has come for the people to rise to the occasion.

Thoiba Singh, Zoramthanga, Gunabir Singh, Sanamacha Chanu, Torak Khapran – the list is long and these names are only a few among the eminent sportspersons from the Northeast who have faded into oblivion. These players who represented India at the highest level and bought glory to the state and the country as a whole have been long forgotten. Not many remember T. Ao the first Indian football captain who represented India in the 1948 Olympics or Zoramthanga the first ever bronze medalist in the 1990 World Boxing Championship. The Sepak Tapkraw team, which won the world championship hailed from Manipur. Today many of them look for daily wages, Gunabir Singh and Kiron Khongsai represented India at the highest level in football but today have almost no role to play in the football associations. It is alleged that Thoiba Singh was dropped from the national team because he was in contention to captain India at the Olympics, something not acceptable to the strong Punjab lobby hence he was sidelined on flimsy ground. Long before we had Dingko Singh, the first ever winner at the world stage. But when he passed away recently, no regional or national media even reported the incident. Shocking but true: it seems that we have forgotten our heroes.

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