Imphal, March 20, 2006: The All Tribal Students Union, Manipur (ATSUM) has affirmed that the facts about the “mass rape” case of Churachandpur district had already been exposed by various NGOs in the newspapers including in the Northest Sun magazine and “so there is no need to form a fact finding team by any element.”
ATSUM members stated while talking to Newmai News Network that the facts about the “mass rape” of 21 Hmar girls by cadres of the underground UNLF have already been made public by NGOs.
The tribal students body further said that the recent visit of some human rights groups to the villages where the incidents took place would also deliver more facts on the case.
“We believe that the reports of the rights bodies/activists` findings be made public soon,” stated the ATSUM.
While reasoning its opposition to the formation of a fact finding team to look into the allegations the tribal student representatives stated that enough facts about the rape incidents had already publicised and repeated questioning on the victims would further hurt the already extremely traumatised girls and women.
The ATSUM representatives said that the proposed meeting on March 25 at Manipur Press Club to form a fact finding team to investigate the “mass rape” case is not at all a welcome step and urged the concerned organisations not to go ahead in forming the fact finding team.
“We are very much concerned about the incidents and we do not want that the victims to be subjected to such difficult position and state of mind,” said the ATSUM.
Source: Newmai News Network