Mungpi
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
January 29, 2007 - The City Sessions Court, Kolkata today framed charges against 34 Arakanese and Karen rebels, who were arrested in Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1998 by the Indian Navy,
The Court charged the ethnic rebels from Burma with the Arms Act, the Explosive Substances act and the Foreigners Act.
"If found guilty, they [the rebels] could face a lifetime in prison." Akshay Sharma, the defence lawyer told Mizzima.
The rebels, identified as members of the National United Party of Arakan, an ethnic armed rebel group fighting against the Burmese military dictators, were arrested in February 1998 by the Indian Navy during "Operation Leech" in Landfall Island of Nicobar.
The rebels were detained and put on trial in a Port Blair court in the Andaman-Nicobar archipelago.
However, following appeals by human rights organizations that the alleged rebels had no consular access in Port Blair, the Supreme Court in October 2006 ordered the trial to be shifted to Kolkata.
Sharma said the court today also fixed the trial of witnesses to be held on March 21, 22, 23, on a witness per day basis.
According to the Indian Army, a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives were reportedly seized from the rebels when they were arrested.
But the rebels claimed they were betrayed by Indian Military Intelligence after being used by them for several years to monitor Chinese naval activity. The rebels also accused the Indian Military Intelligence of killing six of their leaders in cold blood.
"The Court has also directed that all the arms and ammunitions which are alleged to have been recovered from these persons [the rebels], should be brought to the Court," said Sharma.
The rebels said they were brought to Landfall Island by an Indian Military Intelligence officer Lt-Colonel Vijay Singh Grewal, a Burmese speaking officer in 1997, on the promise that they would be allowed to set up their operational base on the Island.
But on reaching the Island, Indian Military Intelligence betrayed the rebels and killed six of their key leaders, who had reached an agreement with the Indian Military intelligence, the rebels said.
The rebels, who are currently in Presidency Jail in Kolkata, said they faced harassment and pressure by jail authorities. In December 2006, jail authorities and some other convicts together attacked the rebels, when they complained about the food being served.
Following the brawl, which resulted in three of the rebels being hospitalized, the Home Department of the West Bengal Government issued an order that the concerned "accused persons shall not be removed from the prison in which they are now confined."
This order necessarily results in conducting the trial inside the jail precincts, away from media glare and the outside world.
However, appeals from concerned civilians and intellectuals made the state government withdrew the order on January 3, allowing the trial to continue to be held in open court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation in their first information report (FIR) had charged the rebels with the National Security Act and Indian Territorial Authority Act.
"But in the charge-sheet they could not provide any document. So in the charge sheet they have not even alleged these sections against them [the rebels]," said Sharma.
Sharma added that technically the accused rebels now face ordinary charges and "they should not be treated as terrorists or extremists working against the sovereignty of India."
