Imphal, November 04 2010: Participants on the second day seminar, organised by Just Peace Foundation in connection with Irom Sharmila's ten years completion of fast-unto-death agitation have strongly come out against the AFSPA.

Writer and activist from Nagaland Kaka D Iralu went to the extent of saying, "India has no right to say who we are.

Houses of the Nagas have been burnt down, Naga women raped and large number of Nagas had been tortured and killed by the Indian security forces under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA),1958" .

Kaka D Iralu continued, "We took up arms as we could no longer tolerate all these atrocities meted out to us by the security forces" .

The Naga writer also said the burning problem of the North East today is the creation of India.

Iralu added that Nagas have been divided by India in collaboration with the British.

He rued that many Nagas in the interior areas are still "living in the 19th century" even today with no signs of hospitals, schools, roads and other modern facilities" .

The seminar themed, "Towards a life with dignity," is part of the Festival of Hope, Peace and Justice observed on the completion of Irom Sharmila fasting for the last ten years demanding the repeal of AFSPA,1958 .

Former police chief of Tripura and now activist Dr KS Subramaniam asserted that "our fight should not be only against AFSPA but we should also fight against the very deployment of the Army in the North East region" .

According to Dr Subramaniam, Army is to fight foreign enemies within and outside the country.

"I don't think there is a need for the deployment of the Army in the North East region," Dr Subramanam, a retired police officer with vast experience, asserted.

He also dismissed the AFSPA Review Committee instituted by the Centre as an eye-wash.

Dr Dhanabir Laishram termed the prolong imposition of AFSPA in the North East region as " localised form of indefinite emergency rule in the region." He said that the Government of India speak of promoting non-violence but in the same breath, it refuses to acknowledge the case of Irom Sharmila.

"Sharmila's case is the most democratic, non-violence and passive form of agitation," said Dr Dhanabir Laishram.

He criticised India that the country is the world's largest democracy but the people of the North East "have no A,B,C of right to life due to AFSPA" .

Prominent Nagaland human rights activist Neingulo Krome described Irom Sharmila's case as a move for the cause of humanity.

Krome called upon the people to have a joint concerted movement against rights violation.

The Nagaland activist presented a lengthy paper in the seminar detailing the suffering experienced by the Nagas under the AFSPA, 1958 .

Also speaking on the occasion was lawyer Brinda Grover who was a member of the Fact-Finding team on the recent Kashmir impasse.

She agreed with the rest of the participants that the people of Kashmir and the North East suffer under AFSPA.

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