A staff reporter
Imphal, April 6:
The Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE) has lamented the clarification of the proscribed outfit Revolutionary Peoples’ Front (RPF) on the issue of two school girls missing in the state.
A statement from the organization has said that the outfit`s clarification that the two students of Grace Academy, Kakching reportedly missing since March 10 are “safe and sound” in their camp as “wiling recruits” is a scandalous disgrace for an organization, which is generally viewed as progressive and disciplined, and that had unilaterally acceded to the four Geneva Conventions’ Common Article 3 in 1997 by declaration during the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Sub-Commission, at Geneva, and had at the same time called upon India to ratify the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II).
It said the two girls were claimed in the reported clarification to be 16 years old, which is contradictory to the age given by the school’s Principal and respective families as 14 and 15 years old.
“It is a relief that the girls are reportedly alive and apparently safe, but all this is only a small reprieve and a large measure of anxiety for the parents of the girls”. It said “Any claim of “willingness” by a child is always questionable” and asked “Can an adult male claim that he had consensual sex with a child because she or he was “willing”?
“On the other hand, the state government’s vague references to trace, rescue and restoring the two girls to their families clearly sets a negative precedence to the public that the democratic voices and rights of the indigenous peoples have sunk to the delayed and denied policy” the statement said, while adding that the State’s Home Minister Gaikhangam supports the recruitment of minors into armed organizations if they are “willing”.
“Fixing the minimum age of 16 years by the RPF for recruiting into its armed wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) can only lead to increase in the number of security forces atrocities with maximum impunity to commit extensive human rights violations of juveniles in the name of counterinsurgency in the state causing doom to future generations”, it continued and said it may further reinforce the state’s position that even children are terrorists and justify killing them.
The use of child soldiers is universally condemned, and is unacceptable under any circumstances, be it political or social. While the recruiting of any person below the age of 18 years into any armed organisation is against prevailing national and international standard norms, especially the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its second Optional Protocol that builds upon past standards such as ILO’s Convention 182 that defined child soldiering as the “one of the worst forms of child labour” and prohibits armed groups from any recruitment, we find a recent resurfacing of this trend in Manipur alarming.
“Documentation of 1528 cases of alleged extrajudicial executions in Manipur by the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN in 2012 revealed that almost 100 children were reportedly murdered in cold blood by security personnel and the police in Manipur. One of the six persons investigated by the CORE Centre for Organisation Research & Education Indigenous Peoples’ Centre for Policy and Human Rights in India’s Eastern Himalayan Territories”.
“Such a grim situation will prevail in Manipur if the recruitment of children is sought justification by any armed organisation on whatever grounds. In these contexts, we find the reported clarification insupportable”, it said.
“Veiled pressures to civil society organizations, students’ organizations, and other community based organizations will not calm the situation,” the statement said and said that CORE is concerned that there is an apparent lack of understanding among civil society that a child of Manipur is a child to all of us, and not to be confused by community, race, sex, religion or any other.
“Protests have consistently identified only one child of the two children who were missing since March 10 2013. Only the respect, protection and promotion of universal human rights will result in a responsible citizenry, living in peace and harmony among the diverse society in Manipur”, it said. “Indigenous children must be protected by everyone from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, taking into account their special vulnerability and the importance of education for their empowerment (Article 17