[Assam] Assam must stand in SOLIDARITY with Sharmila in her humanitarian resolve keeping in mind that the AFSPA(1958) is applicable on Assam too.

[Bartta Bistar]

*Manipur fight reaches Delhi
*

*http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061005/asp/nation/story_6829536.asp*

KHELEN THOKCHOM & NISHIT DHOLABHAI



Sharmila in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Oct. 4: Manipur's most persistent crusader against the Armed Forces (Special
Powers) Act, Irom Sharmila, slipped out of Imphal unnoticed barely 12 hours
after being freed from police custody and dramatically resurfaced in New
Delhi to turn her "regional" campaign into a "national" one.

Embarrassed police officials admitted that they had no inkling of the plan
to "smuggle out" Sharmila, who has been on intermittent hunger strike since
2000. Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh also pleaded ignorance.

Security personnel at Imphal airport did not recognise the crusader — sure
to be counted among the most famous faces of Manipur — when she, her elder
brother Singhajit Singh and two rights activists boarded the 9.15 am flight
to the capital.

Sharmila was freed from the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital, where she had been
forcibly fed liquids through a nose-pipe, at 5.45 pm yesterday. An Imphal
court had handed her an extended one-year jail sentence on charges of trying
to commit suicide.

On reaching New Delhi today, the poet-turned-crusader visited Rajghat to lay
a wreath at Mahatma Gandhi's *samadhi*. Sharmila then proceeded to Jantar
Mantar to continue her hunger strike.

"I want to tell the people of India that if Mahatma Gandhi were alive today,
he would have launched a movement against the armed forces act. My appeal to
the citizens of the country is to join the campaign against the army act,"
she said.

Sharmila's crusade against the act, a piece of legislation seen by many as a
licence for the army to run riot during counter-insurgency operations, began
when she was 28.

The trigger for her campaign was the death of 10 civilians in firing by
Assam Rifles personnel at a bus stop near Imphal airport on November 2,
2000. The soldiers opened fire on civilians in retaliation after an attack
by militants



Aradhana Sharma

*Watch story <http://www.ndtv.com/ndtvvideo/default.asp?id=7957>*

http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=manipurcrisis&slug=Manipur+activist+visits+Gandhi+samadhi&id=94267&callid=1

Wednesday, October 4, 2006 (New Delhi):

Sharmila Channu, the face of Manipur's struggle against the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act, has finally been released.

Sharmila has been on a hunger strike for six years except the times she was
force-fed in jail. She went on a hunger strike in November 2000 after ten
people were shot by the army in Malom, a small town in Manipur.

She was arrested and taken to a government hospital in Imphal. On Tuesday
her jail remand finally expired and she is now back to her cause.

"I want to continue to talk about justice for the people," she said.

Her fasting and her time in jail may have taken a toll on her health but not
on her resolve.

On Wednesday she visited her idol Mahatma Gandhi's *samadhi*. She is now
continuing her strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

"Gandhi*ji* taught us many things. I want to remind people and all the
corrupt politicians of all that he said," said Sharmila.

Nominated for the Nobel peace prize in 2005, Sharmila has been the crux of
Manipur's struggle to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which
gives the army sweeping powers in the state.

Even today Sharmila continues with her quiet and unequal battle against the
establishment.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.assamnet.org/pipermail/assam-assamnet.org/attachments/20061005/8fe138f6/attachment.htm>