The Oinam Incident: Summary of Events
Oinam is a small village in the Senapati district of the state of Manipur, bordering Nagaland. It is inhabited by Poumai Nagas, who are mostly Christians. Oinam people speak different language from the Poumai Nagas.
On 9 July 1987 a group of insurgents believed to belong to the NSCN attacked the Oinam Assam Rifles post, next to Oinam village. The insurgents left with a large quantity of arms and ammunition. Nine soldiers were killed in the attack and three were seriously injured.
The Assam Rifles sealed off the area and on 11 July began an extensive combing operation, code named "Operation Bluebird", in an attempt to recover the arms.
Major General Kukrety, General of the Assam Rifles and General Officer in Command of the Manipur section of the Assam Inspector Rifles, supervised the operation, which covered twenty Naga villages including. Oinam, Chingmai Khullen, Khongdei Khuinan, Khongdei Shimpung, Lakhmai, Ngamju, Ngari Leishang, Phaibung Khullen, Purul Akutpa, Phuba Thapham, Phubung Khunou and Thingba Khullen. Wide scale human rights abuses were reported during the combing operation, including torture and extrajudicial. executions. In the course of these operations at least eleven men were killed in the custody of the security forces, apparently after torture.
Amnesty International has Eye-witness accounts that the eleven men - whose bodies were returned to the village by the Assam Rifles claiming that they had died in "armed encounters" or "while trying to escape" - were first detained by them and tortured until they were hardly able to walk. More than three hundred villagers claimed they were beaten, some of them so severely that their limbs were broken.
The victims include several children and boys of 15 and 16 years old. Pregnant women were also beaten, some aborting afterwards. Some torture victims were left for dead, one of whom survived. Others were reportedly subjected to other forms of torture including inserting chili powder into sensitive parts of the body, being given electric shocks by means of a hand operated dynamo (there is no other source of electricity in the villages), or being buried up to the neck in apparent mock executions. The victims included senior villagers and leaders of the community. According to the headman of Oinam village:
"I was called out and interrogated throughout the day repeatedly demanding to restore the lost weapons along with questions and demands I was beaten by the officers and jawans (soldiers). I was blindfolded my hands tied to a post and was threatened that they would burn me alive or shoot me if I fail to meet their demands. They also indiscriminately attack the villagers - hitting with poles, kicking down and pulling them up by their hair and repeating the kicking and hitting while at the same tine abusing... chili powder dissolve in water were rubbed into the nostrils, eyes and soft parts of the body and took sadistic pleasure from the cries of pain by the victims."
Whole village populations were held in the open or in the churches for up to twelve hours at a tine, day after day over a period of several weeks. Villagers were illegally detained without being told the reasons for their arrest. None were brought before a magistrate within 24 hours of the time of arrest, as Indian law requires. No exceptions were made and pregnant women were also detained.
Women say they were sexually abused. At least three women say they were raped, one woman by a commanding Officer (CO). Several other young women were sexually harassed by Assam Rifles officers whose names are known to Amnesty International. One was a captain posted at Ngamju village. Those particularly vulnerable to abuses were women whom the security forces said had relatives in the NSCN.
One victim of rape was a 17-year-old woman from Khoriqdei Khuman village. The Assam Rifles suspected that her brother was an NSCN member. She said in a sworn statement that she was summoned to the Captain of the Assam Rifles at Lakhmai (where she was at school) in July l987 and questioned as to whether her brother had visited her. When she said he had not done so, she was accused of lying and threatened with torture if she did not give information about his whereabouts. On 15 August 1987 she was again interrogated and brought before the CO, who was stationed in the army camp set up at .Khongdei village school. He also asked her whether her brother had come home. When she replied that he had not, she said the CO raped her. In a sworn statement made on 27 February 1988 to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal, she described:
"...he told the jawan (soldier) to leave the room and I followed the jawan to the door. Just after the iawan crossed the door the CO closed the door and would not let me leave the room, and got hold of me very rudely. I shivered and at the sight of his cold-blooded anger I struggled to free myself from his hand. He pulled off the shawl I was wearing and continued pulling at my clothes while keeping me under suffocating grip. I screamed and shouted for help but no one came to my rescue. The CO in full military dresses pulled out pistol and threatened to shoot me if I scream and cried out for help. He then pulled my hair and pinched my cheeks so hard and finally I was overpowered and the Co rape[d] me. It was most horrifying moment of my life and very painful. I became numb."
The Assam Rifles are accused of retaliating for the attack by the NSCN by burning and dismantling over 125 houses, looting villagers' grain stores, vegetable plots, domestic goods and livestock. Villagers say they were not allowed to tend their cattle who therefore ate up the paddy crop. As a result, the villagers claimed they suffered subsequent severe food shortages. Harassment continued for several months, and even by December 1987 the security forces were reportedly rounding up villagers for forced labour for such tasks as porter service, building new army camps, washing clothes and cutting firewood.
The Assam Rifles, according to the villagers of Oinam, forced them and their leaders to sign false affidavits denying all that had taken place under threats of torture. There was one police investigation, but no impartial and independent investigations have been ordered by either the state or central government, despite numerous requests from local organizations and individuals that they do so.
Various organizations have given legal assistance to the villagers who suffered under the combing operation, many of whom are illiterate, and have brought petitions in court on their behalf against the Assam Rifles. Among then are three habeas corpus petitions brought by the Civil Liberties and Human Rights Organization (CLHRO) and one petition brought by the Manipur Baptists' Convention, the latter specifically on abuses against women committed during the combing operation.
The most comprehensive case was brought on 5 October 19S7 by the Naga People's Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), which filed a Writ Petition in the Gawahati High Court on behalf of the villagers against the Assam Rifles. Victims detailed abuses allegedly committed by the security forces and requested damages. On 6 June 1988 the Gawahati High Court directed the Sessions Court at Imphal to record first-hand evidence from the villagers about the of fences allegedly committed by the Assam Rifles. The process of recording evidence began on 22 August 1988.
In January 1990, the Gawahati High Court ordered the, Sessions Court in Imphal to limit the number of witnesses appearing for the Assam Rifles (from 700 proposed) to 32 and to finish the examination of witnesses by 18 April 1990.
The Imphal Sessions Court concluded its hearings on 21 April 1990. The case will now reportedly be brought before the Gawahati High Court in the autumn of 1990. Throughout the hearings the security forces have reportedly attempted to intimidate witnesses and their relatives through illegal detention, torture and death threats, trying to persuade them to drop the legal action. Consequently, some of the villagers have been too afraid to return to their village. The security forces have also attempted to discredit these human rights organizations by bringing legal proceedings against some of their members; one lawyer representing the victims has been threatened.
Are we really aware what is going on about the "Operation Bluebird"
Waiting still for the right.................................when, where, how....we don’t know..........but only God knows!
With best regards,
Ngaoni Railang James
http://www.angelfire.com/nm/nagalim/oinam.htm
