US State Department’s Annual Report Highlights ‘Significant’ Human Rights Abuses in Manipur

The US State Department’s annual human rights assessment found “significant” abuses in India’s northeastern Manipur state last year and attacks on minorities, journalists and dissenting voices in the rest of the country.

Robert Gilchrist, senior bureau official in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, part of the State Department, spoke on the occasion of the release of 48th Annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices on Monday, 22 April. The report was submitted to the US Congress.

There was no immediate comment on the report from the Indian embassy in Washington, news agency Reuters reported.

On the Manipur crisis, the report noted: “The outbreak of ethnic conflict between the Kuki and Meitei ethnic groups during the year in India’s northeastern state of Manipur resulted in significant human rights abuses.”

“Media reported at least 175 persons were killed and more than 60,000 displaced between May 3 and November 15. Activists and journalists reported armed conflict, rapes, and assaults in addition to the destruction of homes, businesses, and places of worship,” the US State Department report said.

It said that the government took “minimal credible steps or action to identify and punish” officials who may have committed human rights abuses and that the Supreme Court even “criticized” the central government for failing to halt the violence in Manipur.

Titled ‘2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: India’, the report said India records “significant human rights issues” in terms of arbitrary or unlawful killings, privacy rights, “serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom”, including “unjustified” arrests of journalists, censorship, corruption and discrimination against LGBTQ persons.

Under seven sections – including on civil liberties, freedom to participate in political process, corruption in government, discrimination and workers rights – the report detailed several instances of human rights abuse in India.
The report also mentioned the killing of Muslims and Dalits by “militant groups” for transporting or slaughtering cattle.

On human rights abuses by the state officials, it said India has registered 813 cases of extrajudicial killings between 2016 and 2022, with the most reported in Chhattisgarh, and then Uttar Pradesh. However, there was only one conviction of an army officer in Jammu and Kashmir.

The anti-terror law UAPA accounted for more than 8,000 arrests between 2015 and 2020, said the report citing the People’s Union for Civil Liberties.

“Civil society organizations expressed concern that the central government used the UAPA to target and arbitrarily detain human rights activists, members of minority groups, and journalists under the guise of national security.”

The report said as per the National Crime Records Bureau data, as many as 4,27,165 prisoners or 77 percent of the country’s total prison population were awaiting trial, while the prisons were “underfunded and understaffed, and they lacked sufficient infrastructure”.

It also noted “several acquittals in cases of killings of Muslims associated with communal violence” in Gujarat in 2002.

The Modi government or “actors considered close to the government” allegedly pressured or harassed media outlets critical of the government, including through online trolling, said the report.

“We strongly encourage, urge India to uphold its human rights obligations and commitments,” stated Robert S Gilchrist.

AFSPA, Nagaland finds mention
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Nagaland also found mention int he US State Department ‘s report.

It said: Under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the central government could designate a state or union territory or a part of any region as a disturbed area, authorizing security forces in the state to use deadly force to maintain law and order and to arrest any person against whom reasonable suspicion existed, without informing the detainee of the grounds for arrest. The law also provided security forces immunity from civilian prosecution for acts committed in regions under the AFSPA. Human rights organizations asserted the law violated the country’s constitution and continued to call for its repeal. The Ministry of Home Affairs reduced the jurisdiction of the AFSPA in districts of Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland in April after it claimed improvements in the security situation in the northeast. The designation as a disturbed area under the AFSPA remained in effect in other parts of Nagaland, parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Assam, and a version of the law was in effect in J&K.

MTNews Desk