Repeal AFSPA: experts

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) Claiming the extraordinary Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) 1958 to be draconian and illegal, experts have called for the repealing of the law.

''The AFSPA is illegal in International Law and it violates the International Convenant of Civil and Political Rights,'' the experts said at a seminar here last evening.

The seminar, titled ''Democracy, Military and Extraordinary Law'', was held here last evening. It was organised by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and Intercultural Resources and Other Media. Those present at the seminar were Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU), Dr Ujjwal Kumar Singh of Delhi University(DU), Supreme Court Advocate Rajeev Dhavan, Rahul Bedi of Jane's Defence Weekly, Dr Aditya Nigam of CSDS, Dr Nandini Sunder (DSE, DU) and Prof Peter de Souza, Senior Fellow CSDS.

The law is against the spirit and principles of democracy, as an indvidual's dignity and liberty is central to the ideals and practices of democracy, the experts said.

''AFSPA and other extraordinary laws are an assault on Indian Democarcy.'' Questioning the status of the law, they said, when AFSPA or other such 'extraordinary laws' were enacted, it was termed as 'temporary measures' to deal with certain contingency or so-called 'extraordinary' situations, but later these laws often traversed through a trajectory that made them permanent in nature.

They further said, ''Judiciary has never struck down the extraordinary laws; instead it said such laws are necessary for the security and safety of the country.'' The controversial Act, operative in ''disturbed areas'', including large parts of the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir, has facilitated grave human rights abuses, including ''extrajudicial execution, ''disappearance'', rape and torture by bestowing sweeping powers on the armed forces in these areas.'' Conducting a postmortem of AFSPA, the experts said the act empowers the security forces to arrest and enter property without warrant and gives them the power to shoot and kill in circumstances where members of the forces are not at imminent risk. It facilitates impunity because no person can start legal action against any member of the armed forces for anything done under the Act, or purported to be done under the Act, without permission of the Central Government.

''The irony is that inspite of six years of indefinite hunger strike by a lady called Irom Sharmila against the dubious act, no fruitful result has come so far and it is high time for the government to repeal the act as it did in the case of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).'' Mentionably, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which came to power in May 2004, repealed POTA, after recognising ''concerns with the manner in which POTA had been grossly misused''. However, similar concerns exist with regard to the AFSPA.

Citing the famous 'Ketchup' case and 'Siachen case' as example, the experts vindicated the present state of affairs within the Indian army saying, ''Army officers, now-a-days are seeking promotions through counter-insurgency roots by resorting to fake encounters.'' They also urged the media to be more active and go deep inside such cases in order to dig out the reality.

UNI SSC AT DB1351