IMPHAL: In the wake of the Nagaland killings, various Naga civil and students' bodies of Manipur on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to scrap the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) as a pre-condition to the forthcoming "Indo-Naga" settlement.
Under the aegis of the three bodies - United Naga Council (UNC), All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (ANSAM) and Naga Women's Union (NWU) - the Naga people staged a sit-in at all the Naga district headquarters to condemn the killing of 14 civilians by the security forces in Nagaland's Oting village.
"The incident of such brutality is not new, and we will not be surprised by more in future, so long as the AFSPA... is not removed," the bodies said in a memorandum submitted to the PM. It added that the act was brought in force to annihilate the Naga movement, but more than six decades of deaths, tortures, rapes, detentions, burnt-down villages, groupings and unimaginable human rights atrocities under the AFSPA have only showed India in a bad light and brought to international attention its shameful records on violation of human rights and no value for human lives.
More than 24 years of peace process and political dialogue are yet to yield any result in an honourable and acceptable settlement, even though the Centre has recognised the unique history and situation of the Naga people, it added.
"Having communicated our sentiments, we would now place our demand that the undeclared war on Naga civilians by the Indian army should cease forthwith and repeal the AFSPA, 1958 as a pre-condition to the forthcoming Indo-Naga settlement," it said.
"We also reiterate what has already placed repeatedly before the Government of India by the Nagas, the earnest urging for early settlement of the Indo-Naga political issue, where from real peace, development and prosperity will be ushered in," said the memo signed by the presidents and general secretaries of UNC, ANSAM and NWU.
