Guwahati : Thirty organisations of the Northeast on Thursday rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer to amend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act to make it more humane.

They demanded that the Act be repealed and vowed to build up a strong united movement till it was done.

Convention

The demand was raised after a daylong convention on the Act, organised by the Apunba Lup, a conglomerate of 23 organisations of Manipur, and hosted by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) here.

The convention also decided that AASU and Apunba Lup would interact with other organisations of the region to decide the future course of action. Individual organisation too would build up a strong movement in their respective States to pressure the Centre to repeal the Act.

Dr. Singh, during his recent visit to Manipur, announced that the Act would be amended and that the Home Ministry was working on it.

Inaugurating the convention, former Vice- Chancellor of the Gauhati University, D.P. Barooah said that the Act had "brutalised" life in the Northeast. He said after the Jeevan Reddy Committee recommendations for scrapping of the Act, there was no scope for the Prime Minister to talk of amending it. Apunba Lup coordinator Ayekpam Lengdon said a large number of people had been killed "extra judiciously" and women raped and dishonoured, under the Act.

Prakash Singh, Adviser to the All Manipur Students Union, said the autocratic nature and state repressions of the Centre were best reflected in the application of the Act.

He alleged that the Centre had always been insensitive to the suffering of the people of the region.

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