China, India and RAP!

Contd from the Google Post...

But do we also know that India also indulges in such acts though in small portions. Yes, our very country India. Some people might find it corny, because I keep repeating the same, but Giving the Police and the army absolute power over the citizens of certains regions of the country is no less an evil act than the erstwhile Gestapo, the KGB and.... the Chinese. But I will repeat until everybody hears. If Violation of Human rights sounds corny to you, so be it. Maybe there are lots of people like you out there, otherwise it wouldn't have happened in the first place.

Google "Armed forces Special Powers act" and read. Even Journalists think twice before writing a news in some parts of India. Why, because the army can pick you up, arrest you and be shot without an arrest warrant. Why? Because some people who looks similar to you are militants. BTW, Is that racism? I never thought about that, but think of it. Their enemity is because of the fact that I look same as the next guy but different from them.

The Armymen can arrest you without a warrant and even a constable can shoot you just because some people who looks similar to you and who speak similar language to you are Terrorists, even if they are citizens of the same country.

News about torture and inhuman acts seldom come out on the press, and even if they do in the local papers, major papers and news agency fails to pick them up for reason unknown. And how would people believe a two bit local paper? have a peek at this old documents from the US department of State.

Regarding why news don't get carried in international news agencies, read this line from the same report above

However, researchers for international human rights organizations like Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) were not permitted to visit Jammu and Kashmir or the northeast.

These are just Human rights Organizations, Did you know that India Don't allow foreign nationals in most of the North eastern states. Which is, but censoring foreign news agency from gathering news. This is done through an act called the Restricted Area Permit Act, RAP. Of course, a foreign national can enter, but after getting a special visa for just 3 days, and by the time the visa is processed, 3 days are over. Nice, isn't it? And people keep asking me, Manipur is so beautiful, why is tourism industry not developed? RAP! Restricted Area Permit act! You won't even find many sites referring to the same. And there are lots more that are not found in google.

I was lucky I found the above document, for even if I know many events have occured, it is futile if I can't link. Even the internet can't do much.

Anyway read on...

There were many allegations that military and paramilitary forces in the northeast engage in arbitrary detention, abduction, torture, and extrajudicial execution of militants, as well as rape (see Sections 1.c. and 1.g.). The Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958 and the Disturbed Areas Act remained in effect in several states, i.e., in Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and parts of Tripura. Human rights activists remain concerned about the reports of deaths that are described as having occurred during "encounters" between insurgent groups and security forces. Several activists allege that the "encounters" are staged and that those insurgents reported dead were killed after being detained by security forces. In March an Amnesty International report concluded that the pattern of killings in the Northeast point to an official policy sanctioning extrajudicial killing. It noted that "a pattern of apparently unlawful killings of suspected members of armed opposition groups (in Manipur) has resulted from the systemic use of lethal force as an alternative to arrest by the security forces." The report, Official Sanction for Killings in Manipur, cited the following examples of killings carried out with impunity by police and security forces in Manipur: the killing of Mayanglambam Ibotombi and Thondam Muhindro, two forest officers, on 26 December 1996; the killing of Ms. Kshtrumayum Ongbi Prabhahmi Devi and injury to her daughter on 3 May 1996; the killing of Ms. Oinam Ongbi Amina Devi and injury to her baby on 5 April 1996;
the killing of Netaji on 28 February 1996; and the killing of nine civilians at the regional medical college hospital in the state capital, Imphal, on 7 January 1995. However, precise information on human rights violations in this relatively remote region is rare. [more]

Now these are news from reliable source, though they are old. It is not better now, if not worse.

In the north eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur members of the security forces commit extra-judicial killings and make use of torture and illegal detention to suppress political, and often violent, dissent by members of independence organisations. Civilians are often caught in the crossfire and other human rights defenders are subjected to violence and threats due to their perceived political activities. [source]

This of course you know,

On July 11, Manorama Devi, an alleged member of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the northeastern state of Manipur, died while in the custody of the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary unit in the state. Officials initially denied that Devi was killed, tortured, or raped, but the postmortem found that she died of multiple gunshot wounds, was bleeding from the vagina, and had a perforated liver and gall bladder, among other injuries, and forensic tests detected semen stains on her clothes. [source]

I am not asking you to do everything. I just want to inform you. To let you know, and maybe you will tell your friends. I just want you to know your country.
And tell Menaka that people are being treated worse than animals, but of course we must first protect the Animals.

Remember that word from Hotel Rwanda, " How many Acts of Genocide must happen to call it Genocide?".

How many acts of Human Rights Violation?
But I live in constant hope... We live in constant Hope!

Phew, writing a post till late in the night and it all was started because of google? Anyway what could google have done. China Afterall is the No. 2 internet market. Google alone couldn't have done anything. If anything could be done, then it must be done by Google and Yahoo amd MSN together. If all of the internet majors refuse to enter the market then perhaps google wouldn't have been compelled to enter there with a compromise. Google is still my favorite.

China, Censorship, AFSPA, Manipur