Bangalore Solidarity Protest and Candle Light Vigil to Support People’s Struggle Against Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant

Protest against the Custodial Torture and Sexual Assault of Soni Sori – 24th March 2012

Stop Custodial Violence on Women

“Giving me electric shocks, stripping me naked, shoving stones inside me… Was the abuse on me not enough?…
This is a plea from a helpless daughter…This is a mother’s plea for her children”
Soni Sori in a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

A protest against the custodual torture and sexual assault of Soni Sori and many such women was organised by various womens groups, civil society organisations and people’s movements in Bangalore on 24th March 2012, Saturday, at Town Hall Steps, at 6.PM.

 The demands are,

• Immediately transfer Soni Sori out of the custody of Chhattisgarh police and ensure the provision of appropriate health care to Soni Sori without police interference.
• Set up an independent investigation into the conduct of Chhattisgarh law enforcement officials in the custodial sexual assault and torture of Soni Sori, and the immediate suspension of the responsible officers and prosecution under the PoA Act pending this inquiry
• Ensure the speedy completion of trial of Soni Sori and Lingaram Kodopi so that they do not languish for years in custody when their guilt has not been proven.
• Show public proof of the good health and safety of Lingaram Kodopi and other prisoners in Chhattisgarh police custody.
• Set up a high-level independent investigation team to look at the condition of prisoners, especially women, including in the state of Chhattisgarh, to determine whether other women may have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and investigate the reality of prisoners’ access to health care.
• Enact the Prevention of Torture Bill and remove the need for prior state authorization to initiate criminal action against the officials implicated in custodial torture. Ratify the Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
• Ensure that the latest central government grants to states to set up police stations in Maoist areas include support for independent monitoring of detention facilities including station lockups and jails by human rights commissions and civil society groups. Consider requiring police to videotape interrogations, especially in police stations in Naxalite areas.
• Work with civil society groups to train police on proper conduct toward women in custody.
• End the use of custodial torture, lengthy custodial holding on false charges, and constant police harassment as tools of repression against the adivasi and other residents of Chhattisgarh.

Click here for Leaflet

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HUNGER FAST IN SOLIDARITY WITH IROM SHARMILA & Against AFSPA & all Repressive Laws

On 2 November 2011, on the world’s longest hunger strike, Irom Sharmila has completed 11 years of fasting over human rights abuses in Manipur and promises to continue. Silently but forcefully, she is highlighting the rarely reported decade-long insurgency in Manipur and the government’s response to it with Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), something she opposes and demands its repeal. Introduced in 1958, the AFSPA grants the Indian military special powers throughout North-East India to:

1. Arrest citizens and enter their property without warrant;                                                                                         
2. Shoot and kill anyone on mere ‘suspicion’;                                                                                                                 
3. Enjoy immunity against legal action.

Under the cover of the Act, the Indian armed forces have indulged in killing, torture, enforced disappearances and rape, bringing great shame to India and much misery to the people of Manipur and North East. The AFSPA is the use of emergency powers during peacetime on the people of the north-east and it has allowed extra-judicial executions, rape, torture and undermining the democratic institutions.

Irom Sharmila Chanu, began her hunger strike in 2000 November 2^nd, after 10 civilians were killed by soldiers at a bus stop in Imphal on November 1, 2000(Malom Massacre). On 6 November 2000 she was arrested by the police and charged with attempt to commit suicide under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code. Her health deteriorated gradually and she has not accepted even a single drop of water. On 21 November 2000 a plastic tube was inserted into her nose and liquid nutrient was inserted into her body. She has been surviving on this liquid diet and in solitary confinement as a high security prisoner for the last nearly eleven years.

In BANGALORE, on the occasion of events to commemorate the Human Rights Day, a symbolic day’s hunger fast is organsied to express the solidarity with Irom Sharmila and against AFSPA and all repressive laws.

Date: 7^th December 2011(Wednesday)

Venue: Gandhi Statue, M.G.Road

Time:10AM-6PM

Candle light vigil at 6:00PM

The struggle of Sharmila is to be defended and we need you to join hands to defend the human rights.

SICHREM, St Joseph’s College, ISI, MCC, Ananya-GCI, SCMI, APD, Peoples Solidarity Concerns, Other organizations, individuals and Movements        

Contact: R.Manohar, SICHREM: 9535037596,