India: Accountability still missing for human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir

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India: Accountability still missing for human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir

Twenty-five years after the introduction of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Jammu and Kashmir, the law continues to feed a cycle of impunity for human rights violations, Amnesty International said in a new report published today.


The report, “Denied: Failures in accountability for human rights violations by security force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir”, documents the obstacles to justice faced in several cases of human rights violations believed to have been committed by Indian security force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir. It focuses particularly on Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA), which grants virtual immunity to members of the security forces from prosecution for alleged human rights violations.

Minar Pimple, Senior Director of Global Operations at Amnesty International

“5 July 2015 will mark 25 years since the AFSPA in effect came into force in Jammu and Kashmir. Till now, not a single member of the security forces deployed in the state has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court. This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses,” said Minar Pimple, Senior Director of Global Operations at Amnesty International.

“The current Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, was the Union Minister for Home Affairs when the AFSPA was enacted by the Indian Parliament in 1990. He now has a historic opportunity to work to remove this oppressive law,” said Minar Pimple.

The report is based on in-depth research in Jammu and Kashmir, including interviews with 58 family members of victims of alleged human rights violations by security forces, Right to Information applications, examination of police and court records, and interviews with civil society groups, lawyers, and government officials.

The report reveals that the central government has denied permission, or ‘sanction’, to prosecute under section 7 of the AFSPA in every case brought against members of the army or paramilitary, or in a small number of cases, has kept the decision pending for years. It also documents a lack of transparency in the sanction process.

“Not a single family interviewed for the report had been informed by the authorities of the status or outcome of a sanction request in relation to their case,” said Divya Iyer, Research Manager at Amnesty International India.

Mohammad Amin Magray, uncle of 17-year-old Javaid Ahmad Magray, who was killed in April 2003 by security force personnel, told Amnesty International India, “If the Army knew they would be charged, and will have to go to court and be prosecuted, they will think ten times before they pull their triggers on an innocent…The AFSPA is a like a blank cheque from the government of India to kill innocents like my nephew”.

Many families interviewed said that the AFSPA also provides immunity for security force personnel indirectly.

“Police and court records pertaining to nearly 100 cases of human rights violations filed by families of victims between 1990 and 2012 showed that the Jammu and Kashmir police often failed to register complaints or take action on registered complaints until they were compelled,” said Divya Iyer. “In some cases, army personnel have been reluctant or refused to cooperate with police investigations.”

The army has dismissed more than 96 per cent of all allegations of human rights violations against its personnel in Jammu & Kashmir as “false or baseless”. However the evidence for finding the majority of allegations false is not publicly available. Few details of the investigations or military trials conducted by the security forces are available to the public.

In a rare exception, in November 2014, the army had revealed that a court martial had convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment five soldiers for shooting and killing three men in a ‘fake encounter’ – a staged extrajudicial execution - in Machil, Jammu and Kashmir, in 2010.

“The convictions in the Machil case were a welcome measure. But for justice to be consistently delivered, security force personnel accused of human rights violations should be prosecuted in civilian courts,” said Divya Iyer.

There is growing acceptance internationally that military courts should not have jurisdiction to try security forces for human rights violations. Military courts in India also suffer from particular structural flaws related to their competence, independence and impartiality, which render them unsuitable for prosecuting human rights violations.

“By not addressing human rights violations committed by security force personnel in the name of national security, India has not only failed to uphold its international obligations, but has also failed its own Constitution,” said Minar Pimple.

Classified Evidence: US Soldiers Raped Boys In Front Of Their Mothers

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Classified Evidence: US Soldiers Raped Boys In Front Of Their Mothers

Now, over a decade later the evidence of these events are beginning to surface, but the Department of Defense is still doing their best to keep it under the radar

(TheAntiMedia) According to a number of global mainstream media sources, the Pentagon is

covering up a disturbing video that was never made public with the rest of the recent torture report.

According to various well respected journalists, including Seymour Hersh, the appalling video was recorded at Abu Ghraib, the notorious US torture dungeon in Iraq that made headlines roughly a decade ago, when the inhumane tactics being used at the prison were exposed.

Sadly, it seems that the evidence released years ago was only scratching the surface.

While the video has remained under wraps thus far, Hersh says it is only a matter of time before it comes out.

Giving a speech at the ACLU last week after the senate torture report was initially released, Hersh gave some insight into what was on the Pentagon’s secret tape.

In the most revealing portion of his speech he said that:

“Debating about it, ummm … Some of the worst things that happened you don’t know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib … The women were passing messages out saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened’ and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It’s going to come out.”

“It’s impossible to say to yourself how did we get there? Who are we? Who are these people that sent us there? When I did My Lai I was very troubled like anybody in his right mind would be about what happened. I ended up in something I wrote saying in the end I said that the people who did the killing were as much victims as the people they killed because of the scars they had, I can tell you some of the personal stories by some of the people who were in these units witnessed this. I can also tell you written complaints were made to the highest officers and so we’re dealing with a enormous massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there and higher, and we have to get to it and we will. We will. You know there’s enough out there, they can’t (Applause). …. So it’s going to be an interesting election year.”

Put into context with another speech that Hersh gave earlier this year, it becomes clear that the women who witnessed these young boys being raped were actually their mothers.

At a speech in Chicago this past June Hersh was quoted as saying:

“You haven’t begun to see evil… horrible things done to children of women prisoners, as the cameras run.”

Other stories at the London Guardian also talked of young Iraqi detainees getting violently raped by US soldiers.

Ten years ago when the initial Abu Ghraib scandal was in the news, the Guardian published the testimony of an Abu Ghraib detainee who allegedly witnessed one of these brutal attacks.

Former detainee Kasim Hilas said in their testimony that:

“I saw [name blacked out] fucking a kid, his age would be about 15-18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard the screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [blacked out], who was wearing the military uniform putting his dick in the little kid’s ass, I couldn’t see the face of the kid because his face wasn’t in front of the door. And the female soldier was taking pictures.”

Now, over a decade later the evidence of these events are beginning to surface, but the Department of Defense is still doing their best to keep it under the radar. That is why now more than ever, it is important to keep the pressure on and force the release of this evidence, while the torture report is fresh in the minds of the general population.

John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war. In addition to his writing and activist work he is also the owner of a successful music promotion company. In 2013, he became one of the organizers of the Free Your Mind Conference, which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled “Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance” at bookpatch.com.