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Rights Groups Protest India's Amnesty to Abusive Military Forces
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Human rights activists in Kashmir and the Indian northeast on Monday criticized the Indian government's proposal to grant amnesty to members of its military forces facing charges of rights violations in disputed areas of the country, news agencies reported.
Indian Home Minister, L.K. Advani, said Sunday that the federal government was seriously considering granting a "general amnesty" to Indian military personnel facing human rights abuse charges in Kashmir and the northeast, where at least 30 self-determination groups are active, Agence France-Presse (AFP), reported.
Human rights groups said the move would curtail fundamental rights by allowing police and soldiers to kill without having to face consequences, AFP said.
"If people who have indulged in grave human rights violations are spared, it will be very painful for the families who have suffered," said Parveena Ahanger, of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Kashmir, whose son disappeared in 1990 after the Indian army arrested him.
"If this happens, security forces will get license to kill innocents at will. You are straight away telling the troops 'go and kill people, you will not be accountable'," she added.
Around 400 members of India's military forces in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both, are facing prosecution for human rights offences against Kashmiri Muslims.
Kashmir's main opposition group, the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), said Advani's proposal was anti-Muslim.
"The statement is loaded with anti-Muslim sentiments," AFP quoted Abbas Ansari, acting chairman of the APHC, as saying.
"It is an open war against the Muslims of Kashmir as we have been the worst sufferers of human rights violations at the hands of security forces," Abbas added.
But, Indian military forces defended the move.
"It will certainly boost our morale," said Rudre Pal Singh, Intelligence Chief of the Border Security Force (BSF).
"Slapping of cases of rights violations acts as a big handicap in our fight against militants," he added.
Pressure groups in the northeast also criticized Advani's proposal, said AFP.
"The government's decision would allow the troops to commit excesses, with the people's basic rights bound to be affected," said Khaidem Mani Singh, a rights activist in the northeastern state of Manipur.
"No one is above the law, and troops are not supposed to be excluded from the purview of the law of the land," he added.
Singh said amnesty would only aggravate the already volatile insurgency in the northeast.
An estimated 1,000 cases of rights violations by troops were reported in the northeast during the past ten years. "The number could be even more as many cases were not reported by villagers who are ignorant of the laws," he said.
One human rights expert said the Indian government needed to consider carefully the consequences before taking a final decision.
"On the one hand, you have the fundamental rights of the people, and on the other, you have the security of the state. It is a very delicate and sensitive issue and needs proper deliberations," said Justice Moni Sena Singh, chairman of the Assam Human Rights Commission.
The demands of groups in the region range from secession, to greater autonomy, to the right to self-determination.
India's central government granted extended powers earlier this month to military forces and police in mainly Muslim Kashmir to "quell" the Islamic resistance there, according to AFP.
A security committee headed by Advani declared the districts of Jammu and Doda in southern Kashmir as "disturbed", and extended sweeping powers of arrest to law enforcing agencies there.
"The districts of Jammu and Doda have been declared as 'disturbed' under the provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act," a home ministry official said.
Indian forces now have full powers to arrest suspects without a warrant, carry out searches and cordon operations in Jammu and other regions in Kashmir, the ministry official said.
These powers were invoked in 1990 in the northern sections of Kashmir, where a resistance movement against Indian rule has left at least 70,000 people dead.
Human rights groups have criticized the laws, arguing that unfettered powers to security forces led to rampant abuse and custodial deaths of suspects.
Meanwhile, two more Muslim fighters were shot dead Monday by Indian security forces in Indian-held Kashmir, police said.
The two were killed in an early morning encounter with local police four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the airport in Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital.
The identities of the dead have not yet been revealed.
The fight for independence in Indian-occupied Kashmir has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Muslim activists and 336 security personnel since January, according to AFP.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, which is divided between them and claimed by both.
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