Imphal, Dec 10: Meghalaya Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) national president, Conrad K Sangma, on Friday stressed that there is no space for draconian laws like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 or AFSPA if the region of the North East has to move forward.

I stand together with our NPP family and in solidarity with our brothers from Nagaland to demand #AFSPA to be repealed from the entire North East. pic.twitter.com/63F4q0mSta

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) December 10, 2021

Referring to the incident of killing of 14 civilians in Oting in Mon District of Nagaland on Dec 4, 2021 by armed forces, he said by using armed forces and armed action against its own citizens, the government is making enemies out of its own people. He also stated that the use of force and other kinds of violent means will only make things worse. He further urged for using armed forces as per humanitarian laws.

“We need a will to move forward…. as a party we are with the people. We want to ensure that these kinds of draconian Acts (AFSFA) are no longer there, there is no space for this,” he said while speaking at the Youth Conclave titled “Our Future in our Hands”, organised by National People’s Youth Front (NPYF) at Imphal West, Manipur on Friday.

Sangma added that “if you use force and other kinds of violent means, it will only make things worse. Use the forces as per requirement, as per humanitarian laws…”

Although he agreed that some youth have gone astray and taken the wrong path, he reminded that the enforcement agencies must remember that they are still Indian citizens.

“They are sill our citizens, they are somebody brother or somebody’s sister. By using armed forces, though they are not enemies… we are making them enemies. This is not a war. This is a problem we are facing in our nation. By using the armed forces, you are making it a war,” he stated.

He urged that as government, they need to realize that force cannot achieve the goals of a forward moving state.

“As a govt we need to be sensitive, we need to realize that by force we cannot achieve our goals. This is not the way. These are our citizens. Yes, some may not be doing the right thing… some may be following the wrong path… yes we will have to fight in certain circumstances but not the way in which the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has been put… it is not a solution or our way forward. It is only through the socio-economic measures that we will be able to ultimately find a solution to this,” he said.

Armed conflict damaging youth 

He also pointed out that the state is again damaging its youth by using forces.

“By using forces we are again damaging our youth. We are allowing different forces to manipulate our youth… Emotions come out… even now a lot of youth sentiments are coming out… It is important to realize that we as a party, because we (NPYF) are a youth wing of a political party and our youth wing also needs to realise that these kinds of policies and these kinds of laws only make things worse,” he said.

AFSPA repealed from Meghalaya

He also informed that while AFSPA has mostly been removed from Meghalaya, it was still there along the Assam-Meghalaya interstate boundary, covering a raidus of 10 km from the border. However, NPP-led government ensured that it is repealed from the 10 km radius as well.

“Within months of NPP taking over the government, we repealed the AFSPA from parts of Meghalaya, which otherwise was still applicable to within 10 km of border with Assam,” he informed.

NPP mourns killing of civilians in Nagaland and death of Gen. Bipin Rawat

Meanwhile, the NPP also observed a one-minute silence for the 14 civilians killed in Oting under Mon District of Nagaland and Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat in a chopper crash in Tamil Nadu.

“For the country and the region, these last two weeks have been very challenging and difficult. But what is important to understand is how we as a nation, how we as a region and how as a state do we move forward. Given the situations we have faced in the last weeks, given the kind of future that we expect, we strive for and are working for to take our state of Manipur and to take our region of North East forward, I think it is very important that we learn and we make necessary changes so that we can move forward in a progressive manner,” Sangma said.