Manipur is in the North- Eastern region of the Indian Union. Having lost her sovereignty following her forced annexation into the Indian Union in 1949, the native people of the State have been subjected and subjugated to all possible forms of the Colonial oppression, injustice and adulteration. We are now indigenous people in our own land struggling hard for our cultural and political survival and continuity. Insurgency movements have criss-crossed the state since its forced inception into the colonial empire. In the last 50 yrs. or so, the state has suffered the death of thousands of young boys and girls facing colonial wrath and genocide. Extra-judicial killings, Fake encounters, Custodial death, Enforced disappearance, Mutilation, Massacre, Rape. Seduction, Torture, Humiliation are daily doses of life there.

Draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Power Act, 1958 Disturbed Area Act, etc. are being imposed to induce and legalize the colonial misdemeanor. Following a cruel and wild massacre of a group of 10(ten) innocent Civilians by the Indian Armed Personnel on 2nd November 2000 at Malom near Tulihal Airport, one young lady named Miss Irom Chanu Sharmila took to fast unto death from 4th of November 2000 demanding the immediate withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Power Act, 1958 from the soil of Manipur. It is now more than three and half years that she has endured the Colonial indifference and clinical forced feeding on the hospital bed, refusing to give up her fight yet.

Just on the eve of my departure for this session one lady named Miss Thangjam Monorama Henthoi aged about 30 yrs. was picked up by the 17th Assam Rifles personnel on the 11th of July 2004 at about 3:30 am from her residence after issuance of Arrest Memo. Then around 6:00 am she was left gang-raped and shot to death. (True copies of the documents are annexed as Annexure) One Baptist Pastor named Jamkholet aged 60 yrs. was allegedly arrested and left burned by the Assam Rifles Personal on July 8th of 2004. The bullet-rid dead body was recovered days after by the villagers. (Photo state copy the daily Newspaper is annexed as Annexure). I have cited only one or two incidents of human rights violation by the Law enforcing and abiding bodies of the colonial rule. These are every day occurrences in Manipur today. Manipur is now a land where mothers fear their sons to grow up and daughters curse their own births. State Government and the State Police are mere spectators to this military misadventure of the colonial tyranny Human Right abuse there has gone to the extent of threatening and incapacitating the very existence and working Human Right Bodies under the aegis of United Nation.

Right to Self-determination and fundamental Human Rights are the two sides of same coin. Where Right lo self determination is deprived of the people, the violation of Human Rights is at its highest degree and most rampant. Manipur is a land struggling hard for regaining her right to Self-determination from the Colonial crux.

Contact:
Leitanthem Umakanta Meitei (Meithei)
Gen. Secretary, TIPS. Manipur
Fbrompat Thawanthaba Leikai, Imphal (E)-10, Manipur. India Tel: 0091 385-2228850
[email protected], [email protected], Website www tipsmanipur.com