Protester begins tenth year of hunger strike over Indian Army Act

Alone in her isolation cell in a high security ward of an Indian hospital, a peaceful protestor will mark an extraordinary anniversary this weekend: the start of the tenth year of what is thought to be the world’s longest hunger strike.

Since November 2, 2000, Irom Sharmila, 37, has refused to eat. She is protesting against a law that she says has allowed the Indian military to kill innocent civilians with impunity for decades as it has battled separatist insurgencies in the northeast states of Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and the Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh.

Convicted of attempting to commit suicide, Sharmila has been held in solitary confinement – most recently in Imphal, the capital of her home state of Manipur – since the first week of her fast. In the confines of her sparse room, she is force fed by Government doctors through a nasal tube. A kind of gruel is pumped into her stomach – a mixture of vitamins, protein, laxatives and lentil soup that has kept her alive for nearly a decade.

Her brother Irom Singhjit Singh told The Times: “Mentally she is very strong, one of the strongest women on this Earth. Even as a child she was different to her siblings – stronger. But physically she is getting weaker every day.”

Ms Sharmila stopped eating on the day that soldiers of the Indian Army's 8 Assam Rifles opened fire on a bus shelter in Malom, a village near Imphal, killing ten civilians. The attack was apparently made in retaliation for the bombing of an Army patrol a day before — a failed militant plot that killed nobody.

She has said that she will end her hunger strike only if the Government repeals the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) of 1958, which grants the military special powers in northeast India. As well as allowing troops to arrest civilians without warrants and to use lethal force on the mere suspicion of militant activity, it gives the Army immunity against legal action.

Activists say that the military has used the Act, which was based on legislation first framed by the British to quash Gandhi's calls for independence, to cover up scores of extrajudicial killings, abductions, and rapes. A report commissioned by the Indian Government said it “has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness”. The United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination has called for it to be scrapped.

By contrast, the Army claims the Act is needed to fight more than 25 militant groups operating across the northeast. Inspector-General of the Assam Rifles (South) Maj Gen A K Choudhary said last month: “You need extraordinary powers to deal with an extraordinary situation.”

Meanwhile, Ms Sharmila is caught in her own personal legal web. Her crime carries a one year sentence. In a now familiar ritual, she is released every year, only to be arrested again hours later when she refuses to eat.

She told one recent visitor that life in the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital, Imphal, is “simple and boring”. She practices yoga for four hours a day. She is allowed to walk in the corridors close to her room, but is barred from going any further by her guards.

She does not think about her family. She has not met her mother for nine years. Her brother says he does not like to go and see her because it is too distressing.

Remarkably, considering all this, the start of her tenth year of protest is being celebrated. Her supporters say that Ms Sharmila, known also as the “Iron Lady of Manipur” has succeeded in a large part of her mission: by capturing the attention of the world. Next week, her supporters will mark her resilience through a "festival of hope, justice and peace".

Ms Sharmila dismisses suggestions that her struggle is extraordinary. “It hasn't been difficult,” she said recently. “I am doing it for the sake of justice ... This single-minded focus gives me strength … I am crying for freedom.”

Rhys Blakely (The Times, London)
Back to top Back to Home Page