SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2225One of the suspects subsequently died, reportedly by suicide; none of the otherswere charged by year’s end. One human rights organization credibly alleged thatpolice intimidated a witness in the case in August, threatening to kill him if he testifiedagainst them. These events prompted extended public debate over the accountabilityof Punjab police for abuses committed while suppressing a violent insurgency.According to human rights monitors in Punjab, approximately 100 policeofficials either were facing charges, were prosecuted, or were under investigation forhuman rights abuses at year’s end.There are credible reports that police throughout the country often do not file requiredarrest reports. As a result, there are hundreds of unsolved disappearancesin which relatives claim that an individual was taken into police custody and neverheard from again. Police usually deny these claims, countering that there are norecords of arrest. In Manipur 14-year-old Yumlembam Sanamacha of Thoubal districthas been missing since soldiers arrested him in February 1998. The army reportedlydetained him because of his alleged links with insurgent groups. The All-Manipur Students’ Union petitioned the Guwahati High Court for Sanamacha’s release.The Court ordered the army to produce the boy, but it failed to do so andhis whereabouts remain unknown. On May 5, 1999, police in Siliguri, West Bengal,arrested 14-year-old Pinter Yadav and his 9yearold cousin. According to localhuman rights monitors, the boys were beaten and, when Pinter began to vomitblood, he was taken to a local police station. He has not been seen since, and effortsby family members to petition police for information were unsuccessful.Militants in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states continued to usekidnapings to terrorize the population, seek the release of detained comrades, andextort funds. Sometimes kidnaped persons later were killed (see Sections 1.a. and1.g.). According to government figures, there were 634 kidnapings in the northeasternstates during 1999. There were no significant new developments in the caseof the 1995 kidnapings of American, British, German, and Norwegian nationals, despitepolice cooperation with foreign diplomats.On April 15, the BNLF abducted two officials of the Mizoram Public Health EngineeringDepartment. The rebels released the captives on May 16, after the interventionof three local church leaders. On April 19, members of the Reang ethnic minorityabducted a teacher in Aizawl, Mizoram. On May 13, NLFT guerillas abductedtwo tea garden staff from Kailashahar. On May 14, NLFT militants injured threepersons and abducted three others in Udaypur (see Section 1.c.). Also on May 14,tribal guerillas abducted three persons and set a number of houses on fire inRadhakishorpur and Kanchanpur, Tripura. On May 15, NLFT militants killed fourpersons and abducted three others in west and south Tripura (see Section 1.a.).CPM sources allege that all of the victims were CPM supporters, and that the NLFTwas punishing them for voting for the CPM in the council elections. On May 17,the NLFT shot two villagers whom they had kidnaped from Manu on February 28.On May 23, NSCN(K) supporters abducted seven persons in Borduria village, Tirapdistrict, Arunachal Pradesh. On May 26, ATTF killed a tribal person and kidnapedfour other persons (see Section 1.a.). On May 31, an NLFT militant abducted CPMworker Ajit Debbarma from Jampuijala, West Tripura. On June 6, in the AndamanIslands, Tamil immigrants from Sri Lanka abducted and took hostage ManoranjanBhakta, a former Congress Party Member of Parliament, for more than 24 hourson Katchal Island. On June 14, the Manipur based Hmar People’s Conference (HPC)released the two engineers and four technicians of the Northeastern Electric PowerCorporation (NEEPCO) who were abducted on March 31 from Mizoram. On June22, NLFT rebels kidnaped a tribal family in Khowai. On June 29, tribal militantsabducted seven nontribals in Melaghar, Gandacherra and Brahmacherra. On July3, North Tripura tribal guerrillas kidnaped a nontribal youth; in retaliation a mobkilled an elderly tribal woman and burned down a number of houses. Also on July3, NLFT militants abducted the manager of Golakpur Tea estate in north Tripura.On July 4, tribal militants in Dhalai, Tripura, kidnaped a health department official.On July 14, tribals set fire to more than 150 houses, injured 3 persons, andkidnaped another in Teliamura. On July 23, NLFT militants kidnaped four tribalsfrom a Garo colony in South Tripura. On August 16, nine Tripura villagers werekidnaped in Brahmachhara Udaypur subdivision. On August 17, militants abductedthree persons from Manu and killed a villager at Panisagar (see Section 1.a.).c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.—The law prohibits torture, and confessions extracted by force generally are inadmissiblein court; however, torture is common throughout the country, and authoritiesoften use torture during interrogations. In other instances, they torture detaineesto extort money and sometimes as summary punishment.In 1997 the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture reported that the security forcessystematically torture persons in Jammu and Kashmir in order to coerce them toVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00069 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.035 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1