World's longest hunger strike ends after 16 years

The world's longest hunger strike - 16 years - ended Tuesday with a drop of honey on the tongue of a civil rights activist in northeastern India.

Known as India's "Iron Lady," Irom Chanu Sharmila said, "I will never forget this moment," having licked a drop of honey from her hand.

Since being held by police she has been force-fed through a tube in her nose. She began her fast to protest an onerous security law that gives overarching powers to security forces in the northeastern Indian state where she lives.

Her fast began just days after 10 civilians were killed by paramilitary soldiers in Manipur. The state has long been plagued by uprisings and separatist movements among militants and ethnic minorities, resulting in turn in violent government crackdowns.

Police charged her with attempting suicide, a crime in India, which allowed them to force feed her.

On Tuesday a judge had granted her bail after she promised to end her fast. A short time later she appeared at a news conference with the nasal tube already removed, and tasted the honey.

A more mainstream approach

Sharmila still wants to overturn the security law, but her new plan for achieving this is to run in the Manipur state elections early next year.

"I need power to remove this act," said Sharmila, 44. "I am the real embodiment of revolution."

Amnesty International (AI) India campaigner Abhirr VP said that Sharmila's fast was "a testament to her passion for human rights."

"The government arrested her, confined her to a hospital room and force fed her for 16 years, seemingly to break her will. There was zero dialogue. A peaceful protest was criminalized," he said.

Her hunger strike was "a testament to her passion for human rights, and her belief that a draconian law like the AFSPA has no place in any society," he added, using the initials for the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that Sharmila still hopes to overturn.

AI declared her a Prisoner of Conscience in 2013. Subsequently she has received several prestigious international honors, including a lifetime achievement award from the Asian Human Rights Commission.

It is unclear if she will return to her family home - she has expressed a desire to marry her fiance, a British national of Indian origin. They met after she started fasting.

Doctors said she will also need medical help to begin eating again.

bik/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)