New Delhi, Aug 21 : A civil society organisation comprising several prominent personalities that visited Manipur has recommended the setting up of a Special Investigating Team (SIT) under the Supreme Court’s supervision to probe all cases of ethnic violence in the northeastern state and the role of security forces.
The ‘Independent People’s Tribunal on the Ongoing Ethnic Conflict in Manipur’, headed by Kurian Joseph, former Judge of the Supreme Court, also recommended that the “hate propaganda and inflammatory speeches” that led to “incitement and escalation” of violence need to be prosecuted along with action against the authorities who “failed to exercise their powers to prevent it”.
The recommendations were made in a report prepared after a team of jurors and experts visited the conflict-affected areas in Manipur and held sittings in different districts of Manipur, including Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Imphal East, Imphal West, Kakching, Kangpokpi, Senapati, followed by sittings in Delhi, to record testimonies and receive submissions from various stakeholders, according to a press release.
Additionally, testimonies and submissions were also received by jury members virtually. The team members also visited a number of relief camps in Manipur to talk to survivors, including children, women and elderly displaced on account of the conflict.
Survivors and victims from different communities, service organisations providing relief to affected people, and organisations representing community interests, deposed before the tribunal. The team members also met with various government functionaries and officials of security forces.
“The Supreme Court should appoint an SIT consisting of senior independent officers from states other than Manipur to monitor the cases arising out of the conflict. The SIT should be monitored by the Supreme Court, and the SIT should report to the Supreme Court every month,” the press release said.
The tribunal recommended that the Supreme Court-appointed SIT should investigate the role of the armed forces and other security forces in the conflict, and there should be a departmental enquiry as well as criminal action against those found to have violated the law in any way, not only by direct participation but also by omission to act appropriately.
The SIT should investigate the incidents of hate speeches which occurred directly prior to and during the conflict and arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, including political figures and state functionaries, and the state government should provide adequate protection to all the witnesses.
The tribunal also suggested that a permanent bench of the Manipur High Court should be established in the hill region, it said. (PTI)
