10th Year of Hungerstrike

On 2 November 2009, Manipur poet and activist Irom Sharmila, will enter the 10th year of her hunger strike demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Introduced in 1958 the AFSPA grants the Indian military special powers throughout North-East India to:

• Arrest citizens and enter their property without warrant;
• Shoot and kill anyone on mere ‘suspicion’;
• Enjoy immunity against legal action.

Under the cover of the Act the Indian armed forces have indulged in killing, torture, enforced disappearances and rape, bringing great shame to India and much misery to the people of Manipur. According to the government appointed Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission ‘the Act has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness.’ The United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination has urged the Indian government to repeal the law. Chanu has been on a hunger strike demanding the repeal of the AFSPA, on November 2, 2000, after soldiers of the Indian Paramilitary Assam Rifles allegedly killed ten young Meitei men in Malom. Three days later, police arrested Sharmila on charges of “attempted suicide”, suicide or attempted suicide being unlawful under Indian laws, and she was later transferred to judicial custody. To keep her alive, she was force-fed a cocktail of vitamins, minerals, laxatives, protein supplements and lentil soup through the nose with a pipe. As part of a major set of concessions, including the transfer of the Kangla Fort to the State Government, a long-standing demand, Irom Chanu was released on October 2, 2006, on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. She immediately made her way secretly to New Delhi, visited Gandhi’smausoleum (samādhi) at Raj Ghat as her first act after being released, and immediately recommenced her fast at the Jantar Mantar monument in Delhi. She was immediately arrested once again and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ hospital (AIIMS), but her brother, Irom Singhajit Singh, has challenged the detention in the New Delhi High Court.

On December 2, 2006, Irom Chanu Sharmila rejected Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance to ‘dilute’ the AFSPA and announced her intention to continue until complete repeal.

In late November 2006, Iranian activist and Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi visited Irom Chanu at AIIMS and announced her public support for her campaign against AFSPA.

The details of Sharmila’s campaign against AFSPA can be found at Irom Chanu’s ManipurFreedom.org