Human Rights Org’s Urge India to End Impunity in Manipur

Hong Kong, Mar 17  :The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Human Rights Alert (HRA) organized a protest rally today in Hong Kong calling upon the Government of India to initiate steps to end the culture of impunity in Manipur.

Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, speaking on behalf of the AHRC in the meeting said: "The ongoing violence in Manipur can end only if the culture of impunity ends in that state."

"The region, and Manipur in particular, is marred with violence committed by both state and non-state actors ... the issues in Manipur are intense and long-pending, that for several reasons Manipur could be said as the Tibet of India..." Ashrafuzzaman added.

The protesters gathered at Charter Garden at 11am today and marched to the Indian consulate. At the consulate, the protesters submitted a petition addressed to the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, to the Consul General of India.

The petition urges the government to initiate steps to end impunity in Manipur. Several persons participated in the rally. The Consul General accepted the petition and promised that he would transmit the petition to the prime minister's office in New Delhi immediately.

Contrary to the practice of their counterparts in India, and to the surprise of the participants of the rally, the Hong Kong Police department ensured that the rally does not interrupt the traffic and further informed the Indian consulate about the rally and the intension of the rally organizers to submit a petition to the Consul General.

The petition submitted to the Prime Minister of India by the AHRC and the HRA has been part of an online campaign marking the birthday of Ms. Irom Sharmila, the iron lady of Manipur. The HRA has also organized a similar campaign in India.

Speaking to the media, Ashrafuzzaman said: "Sharmila represents the voice of the voiceless in India, and in particular, the people of Manipur. Her fast is not just to pressure the government to withdraw the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 from the state, though the Act in itself is one of the major reasons for perpetual violence in the state…The protest today is a call to the government to withdraw this draconian law from Manipur."

"Sharmila's struggle is a strong call to end impunity in Manipur, for which both the state as well as non-state actors have a role to play. Unless the state ends its acts of violence, it has no morale to expect the militant groups operating in the state to stop committing violence.

The atrocious acts of violence committed by the state and its agencies with impunity have only worsened the situation in the state." "Counter militancy operations must be conducted within the framework of the Indian Constitution, and the domestic and international law that binds India.

AFSPA negates all these legal premises, which unfortunately has been receiving legal and moral support even from the Supreme Court of the country." Ashrafuzzaman added.

via srilankaguardian

Assam Rifles Personnel, Former Militants in 'Dangerous Liaison'

By Anil Anand & Josy Joseph

New Delhi, Mar 17 : The central government is looking into suspected collusion between security forces and surrendered militants in extortion and other illegal activities. Sources in the intelligence establishment say its specific focus is on the link between surrendered militants in Manipur and personnel of the Assam Rifles.

According to confidential reports accessed by DNA, some Assam Rifles personnel are in league with surrendered militants of the Lallumba faction of the Kangleipak Communist Party-Military Council (KCP-MC), and are into extortion and other illegal activities. The reports also raise questions on whether they are involved in gun-running.

What sent the alarm bells ringing among the authorities was the recent kidnapping of a joint director of the state assembly. He was let off after a hefty ransom was paid. Sources said there were clear inputs to show that personnel of the Assam Rifles were hand-in-glove with members of the KCP-MC splinter group in the entire episode.

The collusion started sometime after the militant group and the government entered into a “suspension of operations”, a kind of ceasefire, in Manipur a couple of years ago.

One report says while originally just about a dozen armed militants had surrendered with their personal weapons in Imphal in 2007, their numbers swelled to over 200 in the latest instance. During this period, the KCP-MC faction was engaged in protracted talks with the central government and the state.

“It is of grave concern…When the surrender process goes for too long, such problems arise. We are looking into the entire issue,” a senior government official said.

There are also allegations that these militants are operating in Imphal and nearby areas wearing Assam Rifles uniform; they couldn’t have done it without the tacit support of some personnel in the agency.

The Lallumba faction is one of the many splinter groups of the KCP that was founded in 1980 demanding the secession of Manipur from India.

The suspension of operations and negotiations are being supervised at various levels, including by a joint monitoring group under the chairmanship of a senior police officer of the state.

However, the conflicting power structures and several agencies that have a stake in the north-east are all leading to the entire mess, says an army source.

For example, though a paramilitary force is under the home ministry, Assam Rifles is led by officers from the army, he adds.
For almost a year now, “nobody is taking the lead” to provide the surrendered militants financial allowance and designated camps before they are brought back to mainstream. Thus the militants continue to remain within the Assam Rifles camp in Imphal, said a senior army officer. In such close proximity, the officer said, collusions are possible.

“When the militants surrendered they had deposited their weapons with us, and were moved into tents in the Mantri Pokri camp. The centre is yet to implement the terms and conditions of the agreement with them. We have been asking them (the home ministry) to implement it and move the militants to designated camps,” a senior army officer said.

Dispur Asks NC Hills to Prevent Bushfires

Silchar, Mar 17 : The Assam government has put the administration and forest department in North Cachar Hills district on an alert against recurrent bushfire on the hill slopes.

A senior official in Haflong today said in two fires, one in Tinkilo village on Wednesday and another in Gujjung village on Sunday, 32 wooden houses were gutted when the blaze from the adjoining fields leapt across the jungle and engulfed the adjacent huts.

Bushfires in the 4,888-sqkm district are frequently sparked by man-made fires lit by peasants in their jhum fields every spring. The jhum cultivation, which is common in the hill areas of the Northeast, generally starts in the spring months when the first drops of rain hit the earth.

In the last two incidents, police with the help of fire tenders, fought the blaze and was able to douse the expanding inferno.

The Tinkilo village is a Nepali settlement where as many as 20 houses were razed. The blaze could not be controlled as Umrangshu, the nearest town, lacked any fire tending unit. Ultimately, a fire tender from the ASEB was requisitioned to bring the situation under control.

The age-old jhum cultivation, which has been going on in an unrelenting manner in the hill slopes, has not been replaced by the alternative settled farming as the Integrated Tribal Development Project failed to take off.

Administration sources said the district authorities have asked the forest and environment department to formulate a package of preventive measures against such forest fires every summer month. The jhum fires this year had killed seven persons in three districts of Mizoram, where such farming practice is still prevalent.

Training Law Enforcement in Northeast India to Combat Human Trafficking

By Hasina Kharbhih

In 1956, India's government passed the immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, which called for law enforcement training to prevent human trafficking.

Five decades later, Impulse conducted a needs assessment survey to study the state of human trafficking in the eight Northeast states.

The study showed that there was little training available to law enforcement officers, and that human trafficking in the Northeast was a flourishing industry that law enforcement largely ignored.

Small, homegrown NGOs like Impulse could not eradicate trafficking in persons (TIP) on their own; law enforcement is a necessary force to end TIP.

To improve law enforcement's response to TIP, Impulse partnered with the North Eastern Police Academy to design and implement effective training courses and materials for officers in the eight Northeast states.

Impulse staff traveled to all state police academies to conduct trainings on TIP prevention; create links between police, local NGOs/CBOs, and government personnel; and collaborate on the design of a training handbook on TIP. By 2007 the handbook was published.

In the four years since Impulse began working with law enforcement, it has trained hundreds of officers throughout the Northeast states, and its handbook is part of every state law enforcement agency's compulsory training curriculum for officers-in-training. Local NGOs are no longer alone in fighting TIP; Impulse's intervention has led to the creation of a network spanning the eight Northeast states.

Police officers and border security personnel are now aware of TIP, have tools to detect TIP, follow standardized reporting procedures to document TIP, and work through well-defined channels to follow up on TIP-related crimes.

Law enforcement regularly partners with civil society organizations on its anti-TIP efforts, so the impacts of police's TIP detection and prosecution are augmented by NGOs/CBOs' prevention and victim rehabilitation activities.

Their cognizance has aided in the creation of a digital TIP database to document activity and follow-up in the Northeast, which has further strengthened the Northeast regional network.

Via Changemakers

Mizoram to Implement New Land Use Policy

Aizawl, Mar 17 : The Mizoram government will introduce a New Land Use Policy (NLUP) to help farmers move away from the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation to more sustainable land-based means of livelihood, state Governor M.M. Lakhera said Wednesday.

“A Rs.2,527-crore NLUP has been taken up for sustainable land-based economic activities and to remove the age-old ‘jhum’ cultivation in the state,” the governor said in his customary speech on the opening day of the week-long budget session of the state assembly.

“The approval for the proposal is in the final stage by the Planning Commission,” he said.

The tribals in the hilly terrain of the northeastern states have for generations been carrying out the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation, locally called jhum, which has resulted in degradation of forest land and worsening of the soil condition.

According to the governor, in the first five years, the NLUP aims to support 120,000 families. He said the departments of agriculture, horticulture, veterinary, industries, forest, fisheries, sericulture and soil and water conservation would be involved in the scheme.

About 80 percent of farmers in Mizoram still depend on jhum cultivation that involves clearing of forests and burning trees, weeds and bamboos.

Every year many people die in jhum fires. Since February this year, at least seven people have died in the jhum fires in Mizoram.

The governor said the NLUP would restore ecological balance by providing the farmers sustainable and permanent land-based means of livelihood.

“The NLUP also aims to create 21,480 hectares of bamboo plantation to benefit 10,740 families.”

Despite the slash-and-burn system of cultivation, Mizoram has a large forest cover area with 75.77 percent of the total land.

“The NLUP intends to keep 60 percent of the state’s total geographical area under forest cover and the remaining 40 percent for land-based development,” Lakhera said.

The state government has also endorsed the draft approach to the 11th Five Year Plan, especially in agriculture sector for sustainable development as well as self-sufficiency in food grain production.

“The main strategies would include accelerating the GDP (gross state domestic product) growth in agriculture sector to around 4 percent and larger investment of private sector through farming,” the governor said.

Financial Assistance For Manipur Raised by 30 Percent

New Delhi, Mar 17 : Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said that India raised financial assistance for Manipur by 30 percent to 26 billion rupees.

The annual plan was finalised at a meeting held between Ahluwalia and Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

Ahluwalia said that the total size of Manipur Annual Plan for the FY 2010-11 amounted to 26 billion rupees for various schemes launched by the state government in areas of education, power, road, and health services.

"We have also come to a resolution on the size of a plan, there is a 30 percent increase over the previous year total plan is of 26 billion rupees. We have noted that the state government has pointed out that delayed releases of funds by some ministries in the past have made it difficult to achieve a higher level of plan size and I think he has assured us that the progress of work has now gaining momentum," said Ahluwalia.

Manipur is home to over 200 tribes and ethnic groups and is wrecked by separatist insurgencies.

Zakiya Khatou-Chevassus, Wyclef's Mistress, Received $105,000 Haiti Fund

Wyclef Jean tearing up at his January press conference.

Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti, a nonprofit organization that has delivered water and supplies to the earthquake-ravaged country, is under fire yet again for alleged misappropriation of funds.

Back in late January, shortly after the 7.0 earthquake hit, Yéle Haiti was criticized for spending money on production crews in previous years, and Jean himself was accused of using money from the organization for his personal use. Jean admitted mistakes in the past, but denied wrongdoing and said he'd never take money from the organization, during an emotional press conference.

On Thursday, March 11, The Smoking Gun printed Yéle Haiti's 2009 tax return, showing that $105,000 was paid to Zakiya Khatou-Chevassus, a woman several sources say is the rapper's mistress.

From Gawker.com:

Khatou-Chevassus is currently listed on Yele's web site as the organization's vice president. But according to five sources familiar with Yele's operations, in 2008 she served as Jean's personal assistant--working on his commercial endeavors as well as his charitable ones--and was involved romantically with the former Fugees star.

"She worked for Wyclef on all Wyclef matters," says one source who has worked with Jean in the past. "She did whatever Wyclef needed that day, whether it was related to Yele or not. She would do things like book flights, and she wasn't very good at it. It's a shame that she made that much money." The source said Khatou-Chevassus' salary amounted to more than three times what Suzie Sylvain, Yele Haiti's dedicated program director who is credited by many Yele Haiti insiders with actually keeping the organization running, was paid.

Jean has again come to his defense, this time on Twitter. Some of his tweets from Monday, March 15, include:

•When Donkeys spread rumors about me I dont Respond cause I'm the master that leads them to the Well to drink the Water. Yele haiti 4 life!
•I have been spending money n my country since I was a Fugees! why is it now after the Quake I am being Excuse! They fear I'm gaining ground
•And don't get it twisted! My Garage could fit half of the people on twitter why would I steal Charity Money! Your gotta come better den dat.

Tiger Woods Masters COMEBACK: Golfer Will Return In April

Tiger Woods will return to play in the Masters, he said in a statement today. It will be Woods' first golf tournament and second public appearance since his post-Thanksgiving car crash and ensuing sex scandal.

In a statement Woods said, "The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta." He also said he has "undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy," but "I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life."

The world's preeminent golfer has not played since he won the Australian Masters on November 15, 2009. Woods was not seen for months until Getty captured pictures of him running in mid-February, several days before his public apology.

The 2010 Masters run from April 8-11 in Augusta, Ga. The sports betting website Bodog has placed Woods' odds of winning at 3:1.

Woods' full statement:

"The Masters is where I won my first major, and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta.

The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it's been awhile since I last played.

I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy, and I am continuing my treatment. Although I'm returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.

When I finally got into a position to think about competitive golf again, it became apparent to me that the Masters would be the earliest I could play. I called both Joe Lewis and Arnold Palmer and expressed my regrets for not attending the Tavistock Cup and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I again want to thank them both for their support and their understanding. Those are fantastic tournaments, and I look forward to competing in them again.

I would also like to thank the Augusta National members and staff for their support. I have deep appreciation for everything that they do to create a wonderful event for the benefit of the game.