Revoke AFSPA From Northeast: NEDF to PM

Shillong Oct 5 : The North East Dialogue Forum (NEDF) today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to revoke the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from North East states particularly Manipur, saying law and order situation has improved considerably in the region.

NEDF convener U Nobokishore demanded that the Act be immediately revoke in the larger interest of Indian democracy and international humanitarian laws.

Urging the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of the cabinet committee on security which deals with AFSPA, Nobokishore said, the committee should discuss and take into consideration the recommendations of the UN to repeal AFSPA.

The NEDF is a conglomeration of civil societies, religious bodies, intellectuals and academicians from the northeast working on the issues of conflict transformation and peace building, environment, health, women and children.

The AFSPA has been operative in the north eastern states, first in Manipur and Assam since 1958. It was first promulgated as an ordinance in the north east in 1958. In 1972 it was extended to Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura before it was extended to Jammu and Kashmir in 1990.

In the states which come under the Act, the armed forces are also entrusted with the right to arrest without warrant and to detain people without a time limit. It also gives legal immunity to army personnel.

According to Rev P B M Basaiawmoit, NEDF adviser, the law and order situation has improved considerably in these states and the government ought to find new ways to build the confidence of the local people so as to sustain peace and stability.

Imphal Salad Enters Limca Book of Records

By K Sarojkumar Sharma

Imphal, Oct 4 : The 100-meter-long green salad displayed at an Imphal food festival in April has entered three prominent record scripting bodies- Limca Book of Records, India Book of Records and Asia Book of Records.

Measuring 6 inches in width and weighing 781.3 kg, the vegetable salad was prepared in 1 hour 10 minutes and 51 seconds by 15 volunteers of Innovative Youth Society (IYS) and BOSS Juices, Manipur at the third Chinjak (food) festival- International held in April this year under the aegis of IYS.

Prepared with cucumber, tomato, cabbage, mint, cheese and spices, the salad was placed on dozens of banana leaves neatly arranged over 40 tables sprawling over two rows. Hundreds of visitors who had arrived at the event were in for a treat as they were allowed to get a free taste of the record-breaking salad after the show was over.

A delegation of the Manipur tourism department headed by commissioner K K Chhetry were official witnesses.

"We are so glad that our efforts got the much-deserved recognition by the three prominent record scripting bodies. We will organize a grand celebration for our success during the ensuing Sangai festival, the biggest state-sponsored annual tourism festival scheduled to begin from November 21," said Khuraijam Athouba, secretary of IYS and managing director of Chinjak festival.

Imphal: The 100-meter-long green salad displayed at an Imphal food festival in April has entered in three prominent record scripting bodies- Limca Book of Records, India Book of Records and Asia Book of Records.

Measuring 6 inches in width and weighing 781.3 kg, the vegetable salad was prepared in 1 hour 10 minutes and 51 seconds by 15 volunteers of Innovative Youth Society (IYS) and BOSS Juices, Manipur at the third Chinjak (food) festival- International held in April this year under the aegis of IYS.

Prepared with cucumber, tomato, cabbage, mint, cheese and spices, the salad was placed on dozens of banana leaves neatly arranged over 40 tables sprawling over two rows. Hundreds of visitors who had arrived at the event were in for a treat as they were allowed to get a free taste of the record-breaking salad after the show was over. A delegation of the Manipur tourism department headed by commissioner K K Chhetry were official witnesses.

"We are so glad that our efforts got the much-deserved recognition by the three prominent record scripting bodies. We will organize a grand celebration for our success during the ensuing Sangai festival, the biggest state-sponsored annual tourism festival scheduled to begin from November 21," said Khuraijam Athouba, secretary of IYS and managing director of Chinjak festival.

"We prepared the longest salad in the country not only to incorporate it in the record books but also to promote tourism in Manipur. Setting the record would attract more tourists for our next Chinjak festival and other state-sponsored tourist promotion events," Athouba said at a media conference here on Wednesday afternoon.

As many as 54 stalls including eight run by seven Southeast Asian countries- Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Hong Kong, China, Tibet and Singapore - displayed an array of 160 different mouth-watering indigenous cuisines and 40 international dishes during April's Chinjak festival.

The festival gave thousands of youths the opportunity to taste the rare indigenous food items like Kongreng Bora, Chakhao Tan, Phola, Fried Naoshek, fermented passion fruit drinks and the rest, Athouba said.

Visitors also enjoyed varieties of Asian cuisines like Korean Kimchi-fermented vegetables, Chinese Shark soup, chicken stew, chicken fried with ginger and golden brown egg boiled with herbs and Thai-noodle dried fry, fish fried rice, fish salad and so on.

"In the fourth Chinjak festival likely to be held in January next year here, we will try to cover more countries," Athouba said.

Mizos Organize Peace Festival

Bangalore, Oct 3 : It was not too long ago that hundreds of people of northeastern states headed home in the wake of threats to the community . Many of them later returned to their adopted home. But memories of the exodus loomed large over the Vangpui Kut festival organized by the Bangalore Mizo Association.

The mood, though, was one of healing. Determined to set things right, the community earnestly threw open its doors to other communities at the event organized in Baldwin Boys High School Auditorium on Tuesday.

Over 2,000 Mizos are currently based in Bangalore and most of them are students . Vangpui Kut was held to spread the message of peace, unity and friendship among all communities of Bangalore.

PC Zoran Sangliana, minister for art and culture, government of Mizoram, said India's success story is in spite of its diversities and differences of communities. He observed that the exodus has only strengthened the resolve of the people of Mizo community and Bangalore to remain united. "We will not let those vested interests to spoil our relationship with Karnataka," he said.

As a gesture of goodwill, he invited the Karnataka government to send a delegation during the Chapchar Kut organized in Mizoram in March.

Chapchar Kut is celebrated in March to herald the arrival of spring. The seven-day festival is a celebration of fecundity.

DG and IGP of police Karnataka, Lalrokhuma Pachuau, assured the gathering that the government and his department will be all prepared to prevent any recurrence of the exodus.

The evening was a melange of cultural heritage of Mizos and Kannadigas. The Bangalore Mizo band, Mizoram cultural troupes, Mizo band 'boomaranag' , Dollu Kunitha and Veeragase troupes performed during the evening.

Frequent Floods: Plans to Rehaul Brahmaputra Board

A girl wades through flood waters in the flood affected Morigaon district of Assam last month. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar

Against the backdrop of frequent floods in Assam and allegations of its failures to deal with the situation, the Centre has decided to restructure the Brahmaputra Board and turn it into a body to develop and manage water resources of the entire Northeastern region.

The Water Resources Ministry has sought feedback of Chief Ministers of the seven northeastern States on the draft proposal to restructure the Board which came into being 32 years ago.

The Government may bring in a new legislation to transform the Brahmaputra Board into the Brahmaputra River Valley Authority and replace the current Brahmaputra Board 1980 Act.

“A review of the functioning of the Brahmaputra Board reveals that it did not have a mandate to provide a strong framework for the holistic development of the Brahmaputra river,” said the draft.

It also said the Board failed to build up competent engineering cadre to support its activities which remained largely concentrated in the state of Assam.

According to the draft, the proposed Authority will be mandated to coordinate development and management of water, land and related sources to maximise economic and social welfare without compromising the ecosystem of the Brahmaputra valley.

It will have two parts — a policy making apex council and an executive wing.

The Council will be headed by the Water Resources Minister as Chairman and include the Chief Ministers and Ministers for water resources of the NE states.

The Executive Board will be responsible for implementing the decisions of the council.

After the Authority is set up, the Centre will create a fund called the Brahmaputra Fund. The fund will be used to finance the water resources activities in the member states.

The Centre will be the custodian of the fund which will be controlled by the Authority, the draft said.

Assam Sends Elite Force To Kaziranga To Protect Rhinos

Eleven rhinos were killed by poachers, including six inside the park and five in neighbouring Karbi Anglong district where the animals migrated due to floods. Another 28 rhinos drowned in the floods that hit the state this year.

Guwahati, Oct 3 : Days after Assam's Kaziranga National Park hit the headlines following a spate in poaching of the one-horned rhinos, the Assam government has decided to rush a 100-member team of the elite Assam Forest Protection Force (AFPF) for the protection of the rare animal.

Assam forest minister Rockybul Hussain on Tuesday said a 50-member team of the AFPF had already been dispatched to the national park, which is a Unesco World Heritage site. He added that another 50 personnel of the elite force will be sent to the park within this week.

Hussain also confirmed that a 39 rhinos have died in the state this year either due to floods or poaching.

Eleven rhinos were killed by poachers, including six inside the park and five in neighbouring Karbi Anglong district where the animals migrated due to floods. Another 28 rhinos drowned in the floods that hit the state this year.

The deaths of one-horned rhinos in Assam came to the forefront recently after suspected poachers killed seven rhinos last week in and around the park and chopped off their horns. At least two rhinos were alive when their horns were chopped off.

The spate in rhino killings had forced the Assam government to call for a CBI probe into all the cases of rhino poaching over the last three years. The Assam government had also announced that the army and central para military forces will be deployed in areas adjoining the national park to foil the attempts of poachers.

Hussain also said the rhino population had increased and they have been taken off the "endangered" list. "Due to better forest management and protection, the number of rhinos has risen to 2,505 in the state and 2,290 in Kaziranga alone," he said.

Hussain also slammed allegations of opposition parties like the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said they were trying to rake up the issue of bad forest management.

He also refuted the charges levelled by the AGP and the BJP that the state government is helping illegal migrants to settle inside the buffer zone of the park to increase the Congress vote bank.

"In fact, the erstwhile AGP government under the leadership of then chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in 1996 had issued an order to settle 96 landless families in those areas," Hussain said.

He added that the forest department had been working with the Indian Air Force (IAF) to airlift a rhino, which had strayed into the Rani Chapori area after being washed downstream in the Brahmaputra river.

"Bad weather prevented the IAF chopper from lifting the animal. The IAF had also tried to lift the animal yesterday (Monday)," Hussain said, adding that the forest department is providing the rhino with food and a team of doctors is monitoring its health.

Agartala-Dhaka Bus Service Resumes

Agartala, Oct 2 : The Agartala-Dhaka bus service, which was temporarily suspended in the wake of torching of the 'Moitree' bus of Tripura Road Transport Corporation (TRTC) by a mob at Narsingdi in Bangladesh on September 21 last resumed on Monday, official sources said.

Another bus left for Dhaka from Agartala international bus terminus today, the sources said.

The 'Moitree' bus had faced mob wrath during a political clash in the area.

A two-member team of TRTC visited Narsingdi, 70 km from Agartala, on September 25 to lodge a formal complaint with the police there and to conduct an inquiry into the incident, sources said.
'Moitree' is insured and an inquiry was necessary to make a claim for the insurance.

The team brought back the damaged bus.

'Moitree' plies from Agartala to Dhaka on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while 'Shyamoli' from Bangladesh side, shuttles during rest of the week, excepting Sundays.

The authorities had to discontinue the service of 'Moitree' due to lack of spare parts as the only other spare bus was being  repaired, the sources said.

Moitree, with 12 Indians and 10 Bangladeshis on board, was torched by a mob who could not make out it was the bus from the neighbouring country, Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pankaj Saran had informed Tripura Chief Secretary Sanjoy Kumar Panda.

The Agartala-Dhaka bus service started in September 2003.

Supreme Court Demands Answers Over Manipur Killings

By Penny MacRae

New Delhi, Oct 2 : India's top court Monday ordered the federal government to respond to allegations that more than 1,500 people have been killed by security forces in an insurgency-hit northeastern state since 1978.

The Supreme Court, which has also ordered the Manipur state government to respond, was acting on a petition filed by a group representing families of 1,528 men, women and children allegedly "executed" by security forces.

The 410-page petition asks for the setting up of a special investigation team comprising of police officers "of integrity" to probe the killings in the tiny state that "should shock the conscience of the entire nation".

"The governments have to respond to the allegations in the petition," Colin Gonsalves, lawyer for the group, told AFP, adding the case would come up again before the Supreme Court on November 4.

The petition is the latest effort in a fight by activists in revolt-racked, heavily militarised Manipur to halt what they say are extra-judicial killings under a law that gives sweeping powers and immunity to security forces.

Alleged victims named in the petition include a 19-year-old man who went to get his scooter fixed and whose body turned up at the morgue with torture marks.

It also mentions a 22-year-old who went looking for a missing cow on his bicycle and was found shot dead.

"We want a proper investigation into these deaths. We need recognition that these people were innocent -- these killings must stop," Babloo Loitongbam, head of Manipur-based Human Rights Alert, said.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act enables security forces to shoot on sight and arrest anybody without a warrant to deal with insurgencies in some northeast states and in Kashmir in the north.

The act has been attacked by human rights groups such as Amnesty International, which says it is a stain on India's democratic credentials.

Earlier this year, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Christof Heyns, called the alleged killings a matter "of serious concern".

The Indian government says it needs the special powers act to protect security forces facing heavily armed militants.

But Loitongbam, who is also a lawyer, said the act has "created an ecology that facilitates killing" in which security forces are encouraged with special awards and promotions to kill innocent people and claim they are militants.

He said the 1,528 alleged victims cited in the petition "is not an exhaustive list -- it's just those people whose details we've been able to gather".

Manipur, which borders Myanmar, is home to 2.5 million people and a myriad of separatist insurgent groups. At least 10,000 people have died during the last three decades of violence, rights groups say.

Manipur's most famous campaigner against the special powers act is Irom Sharmila, dubbed the "Iron Lady of Manipur", who went on a fast 12 years ago after soldiers shot dead 10 civilians at a bus stand.

She now is force-fed by authorities.

China and ISI Touch A RAW Nerve in NorthEast

By Abhishek Bhalla

Chinese and Pakistani intelligence agencies are working in tandem to create mayhem in India's north-eastern region.

Counter-terrorism officials have gathered intelligence that the Chinese agencies are financing and providing assistance to Pakistan's ISI to keep insurgent groups active in the North-East.

A note prepared by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) on the recent unrest in the North-East says: 'ISI is being used by Chinese intelligence agencies as a surrogate.'

China and Pakistani intelligence agencies have been accused of fomenting trouble in the North-East

The note has been forwarded to the home ministry. According to intelligence agencies, Indian insurgent groups are being provided assistance in the form of money and weapons by the Chinese agencies through the ISI.

The issue was also taken up at the conference of the director generals of police held in the Capital recently. Increasing terror incidents in the region, of late, have alarmed the security establishment.
Five blasts have occurred in different northeastern cities in the last two months. Intelligence officials also suspect that the violence in Assam in which more than 80 people were killed could have been part of a 'bigger conspiracy'.

The officials believe that the nexus between the Chinese agencies and the ISI is well organised as it serves the purposes of both sides.

'The ISI doesn't have to pump in its own resources, which are provided by the Chinese. On the other hand, the Chinese intelligence agencies can maintain deniability of any involvement at international forums as there is no direct evidence,' said a home ministry official.

The linkages of the ISI, which has a strong base in states such as Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur, with the Chinese agencies have become a major cause of concern in India.

Experts believe this is a deadly cocktail of terror that is being used to destabilse the country. 'Till the mid 1970s the Chinese were directly involved in creating trouble in North-East.

'Later the ISI started building a network. Now what we have is a deadly mix of Chinese motivation and ISI hostility that is supporting insurgent groups,' Ved Marwah, former IPS officer who also served as governor of Manipur and Mizoram, said.

'The situation is getting from bad to worse. Senior politicians in these states are also linked to insurgent groups,' he added.

Prakash Singh, former director general of the Border Security Force (BSF), said: 'The ISI has always been present there. It's possible that they (ISI and Chinese agencies) have decided to join hands.'
Another issue of concern is the porous Indo-Bangladesh border that has been a safe passage for terrorists wanting to enter North-East.

There is credible evidence that this too has been used effectively by the ISI.

A recent intelligence input about the possibility of a group of terrorists entering Assam from Bangladesh to exploit the volatile situation after the riots in the state is a case in point.