AMSU announces indefinite class boycott from today

2009-09-09 | 08:21:50

Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, September 08: The All Manipur Student’s Union today announced class boycott infinitely starting from tomorrow (September 9) to all schools stating that there is no value of study in the prevailing lawless situation where there no life security.

AMSU took the decision to boycott classes indefinitely thinking that it would be batter to ensure life security first in the state where there is no security for the civil populace as dead is the last, a statement issued by the AMSU signed by its general secretary, Md Alamgir expressed.

The boycott is part of the solidarity to the people agitation demanding resignation of chief minister O Ibobi, befitting punishment to the police commando personnel involved in the July 23, shooting incident, total elimination of state terrorism, repeal of AFSPA and unconditional release of the volunteers of Apunba Lup spearheading the agitations.

The class boycott stir will continue till the demands are fulfilled, the statement said citing that when there is no security for life and state actors committed in extra judicial killing, it is meaningless to go to school for study.

The prevailing situation where people are living under a government enforcing “marital law” and “dictatorship”, where people are killing by the state actors and no one could tell when will die, there is no meaning of remaining in the class. What is the value of education when people are killing whenever they like, the statement asked.

AMSU well understand the loss to be suffered by the class boycott and also the impact of bandh, blockade etc. to the people. But considering for the security of the students in particular and for the people of the state in general, the decision has been taken, said the statement appealing the parents, guardians and other to bear with the body and extend support.

In the state, in the last around 30 years, spree of killing may be by the underground or security forces are continue unchecked. Thousands of people lost their life while many more had been hurt. Government forces have killed so many people after picked up, many picked up by them were missing apart from raping, molesting many women.

The state following democracy is not like having no people government but rule by dictator by in forcing martial law. Every body who thing of the land know what the state of condition prevailing in the state.

Since the beginning of the regime of the Ibobi as chief minister of the state in 2002, in the name of counter insurgency operation, people are killing in fake encounter without a day break. The reports published in the print and electronic media had evidenced how many people have lost their life in the hand of the security forces, the statement said.

'Tehelka report is fake'

2009-09-08 | 07:05:33

Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, September 07: Full hearing on the city police failure to register FIR case as per complaint lodged by the husband of the Th Rabina who was killed in a shoot out at Khwairamband Bazar on July 23 started today in the court of justice Ashok Potshangbam of Gauhati High Court, Imphal bench.

State DGP counter charged that the photographs and reports published in the Tehelka news magazine about the killing of Sanjit as fake ones and make up story in the counter affidavit submitted through his counsel advocate N Kumarjit to the court during the hearing.

In the affidavit, it also claimed that the statement given by the chief minister, O Ibobi in the floor of the state Assembly as true apart from commenting that there is no reason for registering another FIR case in the same incident as City Police has already taken an FIR case on the incident.

During the hearing, government counsel, senior advocated Th Ibohal and counsel of the DGP, N Kumarjit argued citing rulings of the Supreme Court and High Court that said that City police station had already registered an FIR case with regard to the incident. With this reason behind, no necessary arises for registering another FIR case when another complaint on the same incident comes up.

On other hand, the counsel of mother in-law of Rabina, Thokchom Mema who filed the case against non-register of FIR case, advocate Khaidem Mani while giving his argument said that objected the observation of the government and DGP counsel on the basis of other rulings of the Supreme Court and High Court and insisted that police should register FIR case based on the complaint lodged by husband of the deceased Rabina, Chinglensana.

City police taken up an FIR case on the July 23 shooting incident based on the report filed by one Herojit, a police commando personnel under section 302/326/307/536 of IPC and under section 25 (1-B) of section 17/20 of UA (P) A Act. The case was registered against the deceased Ch Sanjit who was killed in the shoot out. There was no ruling from any court that a case cannot be registered based on the complaint lodged by the husband of the killed woman in the same incident, Mani argued.
In the complaint note of husband of Rabina, it was stated in the police firing on that day Rabina died while five other injure.

In the writ petition of Mema, it can be mentioned that she prayed the court to direct the state government to investigate the case to an independent body like the CBI and award adequate compensation to the victims.

Skewed coverage SEVANTI NINAN Manipur, a State which sees much more daily violence than Kashmir, hardly figures in the mainstream media. Once in four or five years a stunning incident hits home and brings Manipur back into national focus. Photo: R. V. Moorthy    In Focus: Manipuri students protesting State violence in New Delhi. Manipur is in the news. That is a miracle in itself. A State accustomed to steady national amnesia is watching bemused as the media descends. CNN IBN is here, New York Times is here, says a local editor. NDTV and Times Now have come and gone, says a local reporter. Manipur is in the news and its killing fields are feeling the impact. A State that reported 225 encounter killings this year until Tehelka hit the stands on July 31 has seen hardly any killings by the State in the three weeks since. The magazine ran an unnamed photographer’s sequence of 12 shots which chronicle the straight killing of a former insurgent by police commandos. No encounter, just a plain, point blank killing in a marketplace. Given Manipur’s status on India’s news radar it did not become a cover story even then, not until a subsequent issue. But it suddenly brought home to the country and the world the chilling realities in the border State that gets the least media attention. A Congress government runs this State and no eyebrows are raised at the Centre when the Chief Minister said in the Assembly on the day of this killing, “I don’t want to kill but what is the option.” (A translation of his statement made in Meitei.) A statement he has subsequently denied, though it was made in the House. But the photographs punctured the inertia. The Home Secretary at the Centre has come visiting since, even though Mr. Chidambaram, who hot-footed it to Kashmir when the Shopian rapes engulfed the Chief Minister there, has not. The photos got national exposure because the photographer who shot them could not get them published in the Imphal newspaper he worked for. They were sent to Assam and given to Teresa Rehman, Tehelka’s correspondent in Guwahati. Once in four or five years a stunning incident hits home and brings Manipur back into national focus. The last time was in 2004 when a young woman called Manorama was killed and raped after the Assam Rifles picked her up, and anguished mothers in the State chose to demonstrate naked. Those pictures seared the national consciousness. Off the media map Manipur has the killings, Kashmir gets the coverage. For reasons difficult to fathom, it fell off the media map. Despite a level of daily violence which Kashmir has not now seen for some years, Manipur does not make news. So there is no national outrage. Over a 60-day period earlier this year (May 15 to July 15) the media in the State reported 102 civilian casualties including deaths, 72 deaths of militants including 37 “encounters”, and five of men belonging to the State forces. Over the same period, this is what got picked up by the media outside the State: The Telegraph, the paper which has a Northeast edition coming out of Guwahati, found space in its Kolkata edition for six stories. Of the four on Manipur, three related to the killing of four Bengali migrants, the fourth from New Delhi was about a Manipuri actress nabbed with a militant. In the same paper, Kashmir rated nine stories and two editorials. DNA in Mumbai found space for 25 stories from Kashmir, three from Assam, none from Manipur. The Delhi edition of Times of India which also has an edition in Guwahati, found space for two stories from New Delhi on Manipur, one of which was on the nabbed militant above. What of the 70-plus conflict-related deaths in two months? They did not make news. And Kashmir? It rated 48 stories, half of them on the rape-murders in Shopian. The Delhi editions of The Indian Express and The Hindu over this period had around 60 stories each from Kashmir, eight and 11 respectively from Imphal, and each of them reported three militant-related deaths in this benighted State. Kashmir inevitably merited an editorial or two over this period, none of the seven States which make up the Northeast, did. What was the level of violence in Kashmir over the same period? Civilians killed 18, including the rape and murder victims in Shopian, militants killed seven, troopers, four. And what of television? “If a story breaks here NDTV will have a one-minute story,” says Imphal-based journalist Ahanthem Chitra. “If something happens in Kashmir there are panel discussions. Manipur, Nagaland, no panel discussions. It is headline news for one day then it dies out.” What makes a newspaper national, asks Pradip Phanjoubam, the editor of the Imphal Free Press. “Should not coverage be a criteria if papers are classified national by DAVP (Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity) and RNI (Registrar of Newspapers for India)? Should they not have to give space to all parts of the country?” * What is the shape of the local media in a poor cousin State riddled with insurgency? One of stoicism coupled with genteel penury. Salaries for experienced journalists seldom cross Rs. 5,000 a month, editors’ salaries range between 10,000 and 30,000 a month, mostly at the lower end. Appointment letters are a rarity though the All Manipur Working Journalists Union has now begun to insist on them. How do they manage? They work at more than one job and live with their families. The local economy generates no advertising for a newspaper; corporate advertisers prefer to use outdoor media. There are other challenges. Newsprint has to be transported via Assam by train, then by road. You have to pay tax to the NSCN-IM, Rs. 7,000 per truck. It costs Rs. 10,000 per tonne more, by the time it arrives. Increased aggression The killings continue with impunity because the State feels no pressure at all from a brave and persistent local media. As it keeps up coverage of the protests following the Tehelka expose, State aggression has stepped up, says the editor of Ireibak, Irengbam Arun. Last week, police commandos lobbed a smoke bomb towards the journalists covering a sit-in-protest in Imphal East. Elsewhere, commandos stopped a vehicle carrying journalists who were coming back after covering protests and questioned them at gunpoint. He adds that some months ago, in an incident possibly unprecedented elsewhere in the country, the Director General of Police summoned editors and asked them to reveal which reporters had done a story on urea smuggling which showed complicity of the police. Keeping journalism going in Manipur then, is a daily challenge. Printer friendly page    Send this article to Friends by E-Mail