Dr. Bikash: I have seen your reaction to the news. You have noted in the news that the army authorities have apologised for the incident. Why the matter is still being carried out further? Just some local leaders who are always in the look out for issued. There have been aberrations in the behaviour of the military personnel in dealing with common people, however you will also notice that whenever reported they respond very fast. For example all the army rape case cases that have been proven have been dealt very swiftly by the army, while in majority of the cases the allegations were proved to be false too. You may compare their response to the cases where politicians have misbehaved with officials or common public and have gone scot free. Also Govt officials have never been held to account. What happened to the Chief Election Commissioner of Assam who extorted in public Rs. 5000 from the local unit of Spastic Society? Few years back, Father Thomas of Donbosco was put into great embarrassment by the army and it made headlines. I wrote a very strong letter to the Divisional Commander at Rangiya and he rang me up and apart from feeling sorry he also told me how that action was necessary at that particular moment and it helped in carrying out certain operations. There are definitely black sheep and many army personnel have taken advantage of the situations prevailing. However, when reported, it is not easy for them to hide and enquiries have to be carried out. But most complaints against security forces' atrocities are motivated by interested persons. If you remember the Kakopathar incident a few years ago, where the CRPF was involved, it was the poor ignorant village folks who were instigated by some self appointed leaders who later on scooted when the goings started becoming tough, leaving the poor villagers leaderless. At the same time, there is a need for reorienting the Defence forces' outlook which is trained basically to deal with the enemy, not own people. Greater sensitisation and training is required before they are deployed for such CI and internal security duties. This has been a failure on their part. Also Army PR is very poor, it is abysmal. My son served for six months in CI operations in Assam and his tales were astounding. Their intelligence system often are better and whenever they try to raid a suspicious agency, the agencies raise a hue and cry about atrocities to divert attention. I will not be surprised if the Don Bosco in Sonari is not exactly confining itself to pious endeavours only. When I visited the area where my son had served, I found the villagers were adamant that the army should NOT move out. They were singing nothing but praise of the army and were expressing distrust of the civilian administration thoroughly. There are two sides to every thing. There needs to be a lot more to be done. Do we really have the will to solve our problems and face the basic issue which has forced the defenders of our borders to operate inside our own heartland. Regards and best wiahses.
Shantikam Hazarika Director, Assam Institute of Management PO Box 30, GUWAHATI 781001, India HOME PAGE: www.aimguwahati.edu.in > Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:06:09 +0000> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: > assam@assamnet.org; [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Assam] BRITISH RAJ EXISTS > ONLY IN ASSAM> > Friends,> Please see this:-> > http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=feb1008\State4> Army draws > flak over manhandling of school headmaster> From Our Staff Correspondent> > DIBRUGARH, Feb 9 – The teachers and students of St Joseph's School, Sonari in > Sivasagar district have demanded public apology from the Army personnel of > the 66 Field Regiment for the latter's offensive behaviour with the > headmaster of the school on Wednesday.> > A troupe of Army personnel from the > 66 Field Regiment reportedly held Fr Martin Lakra, the headmaster of the > School on his neck and also allegedly used foul language when the headmaster > denied them access to the school basketball court in view of the School's > annual sports week. > > Although the Army officials of the regiment later > asked for forgiveness from the school headmaster in presence of the police > and local SDO (Civil), the act has not healed the wounds of the agitated > teachers and students. Since the Army insulted the headmaster in presence of > school students and teachers, the apology both verbal and written should be > made in public, the students and teachers demanded while vehemently > condemning the indecent act of the Army.> > Dr.Bikash Kumar Das> Bangalore> _________________________________________________________________ Post ads for free - to sell, rent or even buy.www.yello.in http://ss1.richmedia.in/recurl.asp?pid=186 _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
