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Shockers never stop in Manipur,
here's another one
WSN Network
GUWAHATI: Horror
tales from Manipur are just not ending even as Manipuris fight the
atrocities virtually sanctioned by the official Indian establishment
that has been refusing to scrap the dreaded Armed Forces Special
Powers Act.
Now, it has come
to light that a Manipur Police commando team had on September 14
picked up green activist Jiten Yumnam from the Imphal airport before
he could board a flight to Delhi en route to Bangkok to attend a UN
meet on climate change.
A day later, he
had to undergo treatment at
Jawaharlal
Nehru
Hospital
in Imphal. The medical report, widely quoted in Indian media, makes
it apparent Yumnan was tortured in custody. "General weakness 1
day, pain private parts after electric shock," reads the report.
Yumnam and the
others were booked under the Official Secrets Act and Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act. They were scheduled to be produced
before the court on 29 September.
Yumnam was one
of the eight members of the All Manipur United Clubs Organisation
that had been upping the ante against the Okram Ibobi Singh
government after a series of "fake encounters".
He also happens
to be one of the strongest voices against the controversial
Tipaimukh Dam that Bangladesh is also opposed to.
Environmentalists have been opposing construction of the 1500 MW
Tipaimukh hydroelectric project on Barak and Tuivai rivers saying it
would displace tens of thousands of villagers and submerge
agricultural and forest land.
"Yumnam has been
motivating youth to engage in constructive dialogues with
governments in the backdrop of development aggression and extreme
forms of militarisation... (in) Northeast," said a spokesperson of
Asia-Pacific Indigenous Youth Network.
Kohima-based
environment rights activist Mmhonlümo Kikon said the police were
waiting for Yumnam to move out of Imphal so that they could
legitimise arrest and imply he was trying to flee.
23
September 2009
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