Saturday, April 25, 2009
Thousands Protest Rape, Murder of Minor Girl
hainamtsi (Nagaland) Apr 25 : Thousands of people in Peren district of Nagaland on Tuesday bade a tearful adieu to six-year-old Gaipuilu Gangmei, who was raped and murdered on April 17 in Mahipalpur area of Delhi. The mortal remains of the minor reached Mhainamtsi, her native village, on Tuesday.
There was, a feeling of anger amongst the people but they were emotional too as one of their dear ones was laid to rest, after a funeral service.
The entire Jalukie subdivision in the district, on Tuesday wore a deserted look with business establishments downing shutters, schools closed and vehicles remaining off the road in more or less a spontaneous bandh to register resentment and protest at the heinous crime.
The rape and murder of Gaipuiliu had evoked strong protest and outrage amongst the North East communities residing in Delhi and the whole of the Northeastern States, particularly Nagaland.
Condemning the crime, Jalukie Valley Women Organisation (JVWO), Mhainamtsi Students Union and Zeliangrong Students’ Union organised a joint rally from Jalukie town to Mhainamtsi village demanding early justice. Thousands of people from all walks of life marched protesting against the rape and murder, carrying banners and placards demanding justice for the innocent child.
On her arrival at her village, a small placard placed on the road leading to the local ground where the funeral was held read, “Welcome home Gaipuilu”.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, President of Jalukie Village Women Organization, Dalak Nchang said that rape and murder should not be allowed to happen and demanded that the rapist allegedly one Manoj Thapa should be brought to book and punished. She said that the women will fight till justice is delivered to them.
President of Rongmei Women Organization, Peren district, Achingpui Gangmei told AT that rape of a little girl is an insult to the mothers. She was of the opinion that the law enforcing agencies should honour the Children Protection Act. “When we cannot save our own child at home, how can we ensure safety of others?” she questioned.
She also demanded that the culprits should be banished from the society and severely punished.
It may be recalled that the girl’s bruised body was found on April 16 inside a building’s empty water tank at Mahipalpur where she was staying with her mother and grandmother. Her body was flown to Guwahati on Monday evening from Delhi, accompanied by relatives. On the arrival of the mortal remains at Guwahati Airport, the Naga Students’ Union Guwahati on Monday organised a funeral service in Nagaland House.
While various Naga organizations condemned the incident, students from North East on April 18 staged a dharna outside Delhi police headquarters demanding that the culprits be booked immediately.
Martin, father of the minor victim speaking to the media, said his daughter had gone to New Delhi with her mother who is working as a nurse in Indian Spinal Injuries Hospital in the last week of January to be educated in a good metropolitan school.
“Gaipuilu was studying in Upper KG class in a Government school in Mhainamtsi before moving to New Delhi,” he said adding that her admission was due and she had been waiting for him to reach Delhi. Visibly pained at having lost his only child, he said he had booked a train ticket and was to reach New Delhi on April 20. But on the day he booked his ticket his wife called to inform that his daughter was missing.
Police yet to arrest suspect: Martin expressed dissatisfaction at the “investigation” of the Delhi police. He lamented that the police failed to arrest the main suspect named in the case, one Manoj Thapa till now. Thapa is said to be absconding; only his father is reported to have been detained by the police.
Martin also informed that the main accused Manoj used to reside in the same building and was known to the family.
The Zeliangrong Women Organization has expressed pain over the inhuman act committed upon an innocent child. The ZWO declared that the organization would not rest until the culprits involved in the crime are brought to book.
US calls for Sri Lanka ceasefire
T
he US has called for an immediate ceasefire in north-eastern Sri Lanka, to allow thousands of civilians to leave the country's combat zone.
The White House said it was "deeply concerned" by reports of human rights violations and civilian deaths.
The UN humanitarian chief, John Holmes, is travelling to Sri Lanka for talks with the government on getting aid to people trapped in the conflict.
The UN says more than 160,000 people have fled the area but 50,000 remain.
In the first official US statement on the situation, the White House said it was "deeply concerned about the plight of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers and the mounting death toll".
It called on both sides to adhere to international humanitarian law and to "stop fighting immediately and allow civilians to safely leave the combat zone".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that he was sending a humanitarian team into the heart of the fighting to monitor the situation.
The UN Security Council has called on Colombo to allow the team in.
Some 50,000 civilians are believed to be trapped with Tamil Tiger fighters in a 12 sq km (5 sq m) area in the north of the country as Sri Lanka's military closes in on the rebels.
The Sri Lankan army has said there can be no more pauses in fighting until the rebels are defeated.
UN statement Mr Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, is expected to leave for Sri Lanka on Saturday.
On Friday, he told the BBC he had called on both sides to bring the conflict to a "peaceful and orderly" end.
"Even if LTTE is destroyed as a conventional military force, that's not necessarily going to lead to the kind of generous political solution that is going to be needed ultimately," he said.
"So it's in everybody's interest to find a peaceful solution if we can."
At a meeting in New York, the Security Council president, Claude Heller of Mexico, told reporters that Sri Lanka's government must "extend all necessary support to the UN mission" so UN and Red Cross workers can help displaced people.
The BBC's UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan said that because China, Russia and other countries see Sri Lanka's crisis as an internal problem rather than a threat to international security, the call came in the form of a statement to the press rather than a formal resolution.
Humanitarian disaster
A UN document being circulated around diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka estimates that nearly 6,500 civilians have died and 14,000 have been injured since the end of January.
A government official in the war zone told AP news agency that there was a severe shortage of food and medicine in the area, and that people were dying of starvation.
Indian envoys met Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo on Friday to express their concern about civilian casualties and the plight of those who already fled.
"The president was receptive to our views and we are hopeful of a positive outcome," Indian National Security Adviser MK Narayanan told the BBC Sinhala service.
Despite the international calls to allow civilians out, the government has vowed to keep up its fight against the Tigers.
