SIPHRO

PRESS RELEASE
November 7, 2008

Sinlung Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organisation (SIPHRO) condemns the violent response of the Manipur police on November 3, 2008 towards the peaceful demonstrators who were protesting against the injustice that the Mapithel (Thoubal) Multipurpose Project has imposed upon them. When a peaceful rally, led by women demands for securing their community rights, the demonstrators were met with lathi-charge, tear gas and harassed by the Police. The high-handedness of the security forces under the insensitive eyes of the Government of Manipur once again affirmed the militarised character of itself. This has cultivated a culture of violence and severely negates the democratic culture, which the Mapithel Dam Affected Ching-Tam Organisation (MDACTO) upholds. SIPHRO is against the culture of violence and militarisation that the Government of Manipur is promoting to suppress the interest and aspirations of the people.

SIPHRO condemns the dam builders as well as the Government of Manipur for pursuing the project without prior informed consent of the affected people. SIPHRO is against the culture of making big elusive promises to annex the indigenous peoples land and resources, which eventually results in expelling the people from their ancestral land. In the case of the Mapithel (Thoubal) Multipurpose Project, the indigenous people affected by the inhumane project has gone to the extent of uprooting and destabilising their lives. When, in their quest to redress their plights, the affected people raised their voices, the Government forces resorted to force and employs the harshest available means to suppress them. This is a negation of their existence as human being with their fundamental democratic rights. The Government of Manipur should immediately stop inculcating the culture of violence in addressing and redressing its inefficiencies. The Government of Manipur should hold itself responsible for the Police violence that resulted in injuring more than 43 anti-dam protesters. It should immediately compensate the injuries done to the victims and address the issues raised by the protesters peacefully and responsibly. It is a shame to see the might of armed men employing brute force to suppress women-led protest rally.

The Government of Manipur should withdraw the deployment of security forces from the dam site and immediately stop, once and for all, its adoration for militarisation. Violence and militarisation that are instruments of the Government of Manipur has been ruining the State for all these time.

The Government of Manipur should immediately stop constructing the Mapithel Dam and review all its policies by upholding the rights, interest and aspirations of the affected people in whose land the project has been imposed. In all its policy and approach, the Government of Manipur should put its people first to make Mapithel Dam a people centric one. Negating the rights and aspirations of the people will only go a long way to negate itself.

Sincerely,

(LALREMLIEN NEITHAM)
Secretary, SIPHRO