Irom Sharmila, center, who has been on a decade-long hunger strike protesting an anti-terror law is escorted by police for an appearance at Patiala House court in New Delhi, India, Monday, March 4, 2013.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Irom Sharmila has not eaten a meal in 12 years. The 40-year-old woman has been on a hunger strike _ and force fed through a tube by authorities _ to protest an Indian law that suspends many human rights protections in areas of conflict. 
 
 Sharmila was charged Monday with attempted suicide in a case likely to bring major attention to her quiet protest in the tiny northeastern state of Manipur against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. 
 
 Under the law, in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and parts of the country's northeast, troops have the right to shoot to kill suspected rebels without fear of possible prosecution and to arrest suspected militants without a warrant. It also gives police wide-ranging powers of search and seizure. 
 
 Dubbed the "Iron Lady" by her supporters, Sharmila has become a rallying point for those demanding the law's repeal. 
 
 Sharmila had her last voluntary meal on Nov. 4, 2000, in Imphal, the capital of Manipur, one of several northeastern states facing insurgencies. She was arrested three days later and has been force fed through a tube in her nose ever since. Under law, she has to be released once a year to see if she will start eating. When she doesn't, she is taken back into custody and force fed. 
 
 The current charges stem from a 2006 protest she attended in New Delhi. Police took her from the protest venue, hospitalized her and registered a case of attempted suicide against her. 
 
 Magistrate Akash Jain charged her Monday with attempted suicide. Appearing in court with her nose tube in place, she pleaded not guilty. 
 
 "I love life. I do not want to take my life, but I want justice and peace," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted her as saying in court, which she attended after flying in from Manipur over the weekend. 
 
 Jain set her trial for May 22. If convicted, she faces one year in prison. 
 
 She remained unbowed as she left the courtroom. 
 
 "I will continue my fast until the special powers act is withdrawn," she said. 
 
 Sharmila's supporters held a demonstration outside the court demanding the repeal of the act. 
 
 "The Indian army should leave Manipur state and authorities should withdraw all the cases against her," said one protester, Sucheta Dey. 
 
 Human rights workers have accused Indian troops of using the law to detain, torture and kill rebel suspects, sometimes even staging gun battles as pretexts to kill. 
 
 The army opposes any weakening of the act, saying it needs extraordinary powers to deal with insurgents. 
 
 Indian Law Minister Ashwini Kumar defended the act, saying it is needed for conflict zones where the onus and burden of proof were not easy to resolve. 
 
 "Therefore, the opinion of the defense establishment and intelligence agencies was critical in such matters," Kumar was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper on Monday. 
 
 Student activists in Manipur said they disagree and complain the Indian army misuses the extraordinary powers and treats civilians as insurgents. 
 
 Kennedy Sanabam, a member of the Manipur Students Association, said the military has failed to contain the insurgency despite its powers, and instead "the number of insurgents has gone up." 
 
 The arrest last week of an army officer with illegal drugs worth millions of dollars in Manipur suggests the special powers are misused to carry out extortion and drug trafficking, said Pranshu Prakash, a research scholar at a New Delhi university. 
 
 The law has come under fire amid India's re-evaluation of its sexual violence laws following the gang rape and killing of a student on a bus in New Delhi in December. Women's rights activists have said the law allows troops to rape women without fear of arrest or punishment. 
 
 A panel appointed by the government recommended in January that the law be re-examined and that protections be removed for soldiers accused of sexual violence. The government declined to amend the law when it approved new measures to protect women. 
 
 The law prohibits soldiers from being prosecuted for alleged rights violations unless granted express permission from the federal government. According to official documents, the state government in Indian-ruled Kashmir has sought permission to try soldiers in 50 cases in the last two decades. The federal government has refused every one. ||||| Irom Sharmila: World's longest running hunger striker charged with trying to commit suicide BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Activist Irom Sharmila, a woman from India’s north-east who has been force-fed for the past 12 years, was flown to Delhi so that a judge could charge her with trying to commit suicide. The 40-year-old declined to play along. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/irom-sharmila-worlds-longest-running-hunger-striker-charged-with-trying-to-commit-suicide-29108429.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article29108430.ece/ab182/AUTOCROP/h342/Irom-Sharmila.jpg 
 
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 Activist Irom Sharmila, a woman from India’s north-east who has been force-fed for the past 12 years, was flown to Delhi so that a judge could charge her with trying to commit suicide. The 40-year-old declined to play along. 
 
 “I do not want to commit suicide. Mine is only a non-violent protest,” the activist told the judge, according to the Press Trust of India. “It is my demand to live as a human being. I love life. I do not want to take my life but I want justice and peace.” 
 
 The activist known as the Iron Lady of Manipur launched her fast in November 2000 to protest over the killing of a group of civilians by paramilitary forces and to demand the repeal of legislation that provides effective immunity to soldiers. Since then she has refused to eat, drink or even brush her teeth with water. 
 
 Refusing to end her fast until the so-called Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is withdrawn from all of Manipur, she has been repeatedly detained and fed twice a day by a tube attached to her nose. In 2006, she brought her protest to Delhi where she was arrested by police and charged under section 309 of the Indian penal code; the slow nature of the system means her case is only now reaching court. 
 
 “The magistrate said to her ‘if you plead guilty the [matter could be dropped],’’ said Svetlana Correya, from the Human Rights Law Network and a member of the activist’s defence team. “But she did not want to plead guilty. She said ‘I’m not trying to commit suicide but this is a form of protest’.” 
 
 Ms Correya said the judge said he had no option but to adjourn the case until May 22 when the court will hear evidence and Ms Irom will have to attend again. A spokesman for the Delhi police failed to respond to queries. 
 
 Ms Irom is due to be flown back to Manipur on Tuesday, escorted by four police officers and a three-strong medical team. She is kept in the secure wing of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in the city of Imphal where twice a day she is fed a liquid mixture of protein, carbohydrates and vitamins. She rarely gets to see the sunshine. 
 
 Following her court hearing, Ms Irom insisted her fast would continue and said she was following the example of Mohandas Gandhi, the “father of the nation”. Taking hold of the feeding tube attacked to her nose, she told said: “This has become a part of my body. I think it’s an integral to my struggle.” 
 
 She added: “As a human being, I am a natural phenomenon. But this is not a natural phenomenon.” 
 
 After deciding to launch her fast, she has bad barely any contact with her family, reckoning that if she were to meet her mother, Shakhi Devi, who lives little more than a mile from where Sharmila is held, she would feel tempted to end her action. “I feel that we came here alone and that we pass away alone,” she said. “I don’t want others to judge me to do this or that.” 
 
 Manipur has been rocked by five decades of violence stemming from the actions of more than 40 militant groups demanding independence from India. The state has responded by dispatching tens of thousands of security personnel, who have been repeatedly accused of human rights abuses. A government panel is currently hearing evidence regarding claims of extra-judicial killings. 
 
 The activist, who has won a number of international human rights awards, said the state’s chief minister, Okram Ibobi Singh, had done nothing to improve the situation and claimed he was only focussing on his own business interests. “Everything in Manipur is upside down,” she said. 
 
 Asked about comparisons that have been made between her and other celebrated activists such as Nelson Mandela, she added: “I don’t like to worship human beings. All human beings are two sides, good and bad, in their character. So when we worship a person, we worship the bad side of the person.” 
 
 Reflecting on the 12 years that have passed since she stopped eating, the activist said: “I never thought about [my] situation when I started. I just felt I was a foundation stone.” 
 
 Belfast Telegraph Digital
– The last time Irom Sharmila ate a meal by her own hand was Nov. 4, 2000. In the 12-plus years since, the 40-year-old Indian known as the "Iron Lady" has been on a hunger strike to protest India's Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives the military wide-ranging rights in restive regions and which human rights groups say has been used to torture and kill suspected rebels with impunity. She was arrested three days after that last meal and has been force-fed twice daily via a nose tube ever since—and yesterday, she was charged with attempted suicide, the AP reports. Since her arrest, the government has been releasing her once every year, then taking her back into custody when she continues to refuse to eat—the Belfast Telegraph notes that she won't even use water to brush her teeth. The attempted suicide charge stems from a 2006 arrest at a New Delhi protest and subsequent hospitalization. In the hands of India's slow system, the incident has finally made its way in front of the court; it carries a sentence of up to one year in prison. "I will continue my fast until the Special Powers Act is withdrawn," she said yesterday at a court appearance as supporters outside demanded the act be repealed. "I love life. I do not want to take my life, but I want justice and peace."