3 years on, Govt at sea over 36 Burmese
The Indian Express
Rebels held under Operation Leech remain under house arrest for alleged gun-running, no chargesheet filed
Ritu Sarin
ew Delhi, April 28: A three-storeyed house to themselves in picturesque Port Blair, a game of volleyball in the morning and karate lessons in the evening. A picture of young men unwinding in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands? Far from it. This group of 36 Myanmarese nationals has spent over three years in detention at Port Blair and now everyone — including the Army — seems to be apprehensive about the sordid details that may spill out once they are set free.
The men kept under house arrest are Burmese detenues nabbed after a tri-service encounter codenamed ''Operation Leech'' on February 11, 1998. That day 73 alleged gun-runners were detained in a Port Blair prison under the National Security Act. The investigation was then handed over to the CBI, and in October 1999, 37 of these men identified as fishermen were released on bail and deported to Burma.
The remaining 36, who were said to be members of the National United Party of Arakan (NUPA) and the Karen National Union (KNU) — rebel groups fighting the Burmese junta continue to be under house arrest despite the CBI failing to confirm any charges.
The imminent threat of their deportation to Burma has led to a flurry of activity. Human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar, who has just returned from Port Blair, says she now has sworn affidavits from each detenue alleging that while they had actually been promised safe passage in Landfall Islands by the Military Intelligence (MI), six of their top leaders were killed in cold blood.
Haksar, who is the lawyer on record for these Burmese, says she will soon file a writ petition in court annexing the affidavits. She asserts that despite all the intimidation she has faced (at the hands of the local CID), she is determined to expose the guilty. She claims to have evidence to expose the links of NUPA and MI. ''If things carry on like this, the detention of these men can last forever,'' she asserts.
CBI officials in New Delhi admit they are nowhere near filing a chargesheet but insist they will also not file a closure report since there was more to Operation Leech than meets the eye. These officials admit that the main handicap has been getting evidence and witnesses from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) without which their investigation would remain incomplete. They say many reminders have been sent to the MoD but hardly any sensitive document has been submitted or a single important witness produced.
The Army spokesman, contacted by The Indian Express, said since the case was being handled by the CBI, they had no comments to make. Court papers show the CBI has repeatedly asked for adjournments and often admitted before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) that no help was coming from the MoD. At one hearing held on May 2000, the CBI's Deputy Superintendent admitted that ''the CBI has kept pressing with Interpol of Yangon and Bangkok but as the required information/documents/witnesses are yet to come, hence the delay in the investigations.''
Two years after they took up the case, the human rights lawyers, led by Haksar, had managed to get a breakthrough. A few months ago, the 36 detenues approached the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and five of them were subsequently granted permission by the court to give interviews to the UNHCR representatives. On April 11 this year, the CBI filed a revision petition and said the UNHCR should take permission of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and if at all such interviews are allowed, these should be conducted in Port Blair. The CJM admitted the CBI's petition and stayed the UNHCR's intervention.
Haksar says this case has raised crucial human rights issues like denial of a speedy trial. She points out that while the original FIR in the case showed 138 weapons being recovered, the CBI recently admitted only seven have been given to them as part of evidence. ''What has happened to the rest of the weapons? Why have the four Army officials, including an identified MI Colonel, not been punished so far?'' she asks.
''For two years we kept the case away from public eye and gave the Government a chance to quietly release the detenues. Since this has not been done, we are determined to build up public pressure and get them out,'' she says. And till then, the 36 men will continue to live in detention, surviving on a daily subsistence allowance of Rs 45 which the Indian Government grants to each of them.