CHILDREN BURN BOOKS STRIKE SHUTS INDIA'S MANIPUR

September 3, 2004 - (Reuters) School children burnt textbooks and women set up roadblocks in the Indian state of Manipur on Friday at the start of a three-day strike against an unpopular anti-terror law.

More than 30 organisations, including human rights groups and teachers and students unions, have backed the strike called after Indian authorities refused to withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

The law grants soldiers the power to search and detain suspects without reference to civilian authorities in this remote and troubled region.

"There are groups of women and children protesting, they are burning tyres and books," a police officer told Reuters by telephone from Imphal, Manipur's state capital.

Shops, offices and schools were closed in Imphal in response to the strike call.

"It is a complete shutdown," Bimal Singh, a resident of Imphal, told Reuters.

Soldiers patrolled the deserted streets in armoured personnel carriers.

"This is a people's movement, an uprising against a draconian legislation. We will continue our agitation until the act is removed," said a statement by Apunba Lup, an umbrella group representing the strikers.

Manipur in India's volatile northeast has been on the boil since July when troops seized a 30-year-old woman from her house near the state capital Imphal and killed her.

A forensic report revealed semen stains on the woman's clothes and locals said she was raped by soldiers before being killed.

The army says the woman was wanted as a rebel and was shot dead while trying to escape. The army has agreed to a local court order that 33 soldiers be DNA tested to establish whether or not they raped the woman.

Army chief General N.C. Vij and federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil are expected to visit Manipur on Sunday.

The army says the anti-terror law is necessary to help soldiers keep peace in Manipur where some 20 insurgent groups operate.

From: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL79891.htm