C
LOSE to midnight on July 10, 2004, a group of
Assam Rifles personnel barged into the house
of Thangjam Monorama, the second of six
children in a Meitei family in Manipur’s Imphal
East. She was 32. She was dragged out of her
house, “interrogated” under a drizzling sky and later
taken into custody. That was the last her family
members saw her alive. Monorama’s bullet-riddled
body was found about 3 km away the next morning.
Assam Rifles, which accused Monorama of being
a cadre of the proscribed PLA, claimed that she was
shot while trying to flee. Rights activists and
fact-finding teams found many loopholes in the
“story”. Injury marks on her body pointed to torture,
forensic tests on her clothes found semen stains,
suggesting she was raped, possibly multiple times.
But no one has been indicted so far, the case never
went very far as the Assam Rifles took refuge
under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
(AFSPA), a controversial law that gives immunity
to security personnel.
Manipur erupted in anger over the killing, as
pent-up public anger against security forces spilled
onto the streets. But one protest made the country
stand up and take notice. A dozen women stripped
naked in front of the historic Kangla Fort, which
then housed the headquarters of the 17 Assam
Rifles. The women carried banners denouncing the
force. One of the banners read, “Indian Army, Rape
Us”. It was also the beginning of a never-ending
quest for justice for the family of Monorama; it’s a
wait without end for a distraught mother, for the
brothers who doted upon their sister. “I feel suffo-
cated whenever I recount the events. I don’t know
what to say,” says Thangjam Ongbi Khumanlei, 70,
Monorama’s mother. Her eyes well up at the very
mention of her daughter.
Monorama’s younger brother Thangjam Dolendro,42, says he still remembers the fateful night. “It
must be around 11 pm when we heard voices out-
side. It was drizzling that night...The security per-
sonnel barged in and dragged out my sister,” he
says. Dolendro recalls her “interrogation” which
lasted for more than an hour. “Her reply to every
question was ‘I don’t know’. I saw them gagging her
and then water -boarding her... It was a heartbreak-
ing sight.” The family rejected the state govern-
ment’s offer for financial compensation. “We could
have been earning enough to run the family if we
accepted the offer. Justice is what we want, not
ex-gratia nor job...but justice,” says Dolendro.
Formerly an independent kingdom, Manipur bec-
ame a princely state under British rule and joined
India in 1949. Many Manipuris, however, say that
their king was forced to sign a merger pact by New
Delhi. Several armed groups have been battling for
“freedom” in Manipur for years. The Centre declared
the state “disturbed” and sent in troops to curb the
rebellion. Over the years, hundreds of civilians have
been killed by both security forces and rebels,
scores have “disappeared”, allegations of extra judi-
cial killings by security forces are rife. One such inc-
ident, the infamous Malom Massacre on November
2, 2000—when 10 civilians were shot dead by secu-
rity forces while waiting at a bus stop in Malom
town—led to a 16-year-long hunger strike by Irom
Sharmila demanding scrapping of the AFSPA.
More than 15 years have passed but the family
of Monoroma clings on to the last bit of hope for
justice. “Justice will not be delivered as long as the
culprits are not given befitting punishment,” says
Dolendro. In the killing fields of Manipur, caught
between rebels and security forces, hope still
burns, however feeble, in the hearts of an
oppressed populace. O
Donald Sairem in ImphalIn Manipur’s Killing Fields, Death Becomes Her
Thangjam Monorama
COVER STORY
52 OUTLOOK 29 July 2019
Injury marks
on her body
pointed to
torture,
forensic
tests found
semen on her
clothes,
suggesting
gang rapeFACES OF ANGER
Monorama’s mother
(left); women
protesters in front
of Kangla FortDONALD SAIREM.
.
.