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08/17/2005: "KOHIMA, AUG 17 (EMN) Eastern Mirror"
KOHIMA, AUG 17 (EMN) Eastern Mirror
Prof. GD Sharma, harangued Vice Chancellor of Nagaland University (NU) appears to be headed for another controversy, this time for taking an academic trip to militarily ruled Myanmar (erstwhile Burma) reportedly to help build a university there. “He cannot represent the Nagas,” Phushika Aomi, president, NSF told Eastern Mirror over the current boss of NU taking such an official trip considering, what he called, the ‘highly sensitive’ nature of the Indian and Burmese diplomatic and military collaboration vis-à-vis the numerous struggling groups, including that of the Nagas.
He declared the NSF would not have any problem if Prof. Sharma was in Myanmar as a “good Indian”.
But, he said, there are a number of pointers that have led Nagas to believe he has been placed in Nagaland with a purpose and recalled the controversy of the human genome studies by collecting blood samples from three Naga tribes. He was the one who sanctioned the project, he went on.
Another senior Naga leader, preferring not to be identified, said he believed there was a covert move by forces and that the VC’ship is only a cover. Such revelations only lend legitimacy to the allegations of the student and teaching community, he said. He said it is something when a VC can resign three times and still come back. Last year, Federation of Central University Teachers Association (FEDCUTA) during it general meeting held for the first time in Kohima, demanded that Prof. G.D. Sharma step down pending an impartial inquiry.
Acting Vice Chancellor Prof. RP Kachhara told this correspondent that he knew about the trip only a few days before the scheduled trip, though it is confirmed that the project was in process even before the fact finding committee of the UGC and MHRD last visited Nagaland.
A senior member from the teaching community who has raised the issue of VC earlier too, queried how he could leave the University at such a crucial time. He said examinations were taking place, discrepancies in the results declaration have surfaced and Prof. Sharma has left everything to develop another university in a country that is feared for its military stranglehold.
Sources say there is a section of the university fraternity that has won the confidence of Prof. Sharma.
Vice Chancellor of a Central University enjoying enormous clout in securing funds for developmental works, he has initiated quite a few significant moves to stabilise and strengthen the infrastructural base of NU. Prof. Sharma expected back in August end and is bound to face uncomfortable questions here, as the Indian team would have confronted the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the supreme military command.
NSCN-IM calls for referendum if talks fail Indo-Asian News Service Dimapur (Nagaland), Aug 17 (IANS) The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) has expressed doubts over New Delhi's intentions to integrate tribal Naga inhabited areas in the northeast and called for a referendum if peace talks fail.
"In case the government of India cannot take concrete steps, the matter (integration) cannot be stopped there. It should be referred back to the Naga people for a referendum," chairman of the rebel outfit Isak Chishi Swu said in a statement.
Both Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the NSCN-IM, have lived in self-imposed exile in Southeast Asian cities for the past 38 years.
NSCN-IM, a rebel group in Nagaland state, is engaged in peace talks after entering into a ceasefire with New Delhi in August 1997.
The oldest and the most powerful of around 30 rebel groups in India's northeast, it wants the creation of a Greater Nagaland by slicing off parts of neighbouring states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh that have sizeable Naga tribal populations.
The three regional governments of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have already rejected the NSCN demand for unification of Naga dominated areas.
"The suppression of rights of the Nagas is similar to planting a time bomb and the prolonged and forced disintegration is dangerous," Swu warned in the statement.
NSCN-IM leaders said the patience of Nagas was being tested with New Delhi unable to take bold steps.
A rival NSCN faction headed by guerrilla leader S.S. Khaplang is meeting senior union home ministry officials in New Delhi next week to redraft ceasefire ground rules.
The NSCN-Khaplang has been operating a ceasefire with the Indian government since 2001 although the two sides are yet to begin peace talks.
"We shall not start formal talks until and unless the ongoing negotiations with the NSCN-IM come to an end," NSCN-Khaplang leader K. Mulatonu told IANS over the phone from the Nagaland capital Kohima.
The two NSCN groups have been waging a bitter turf war for territorial supremacy since their split in 1988.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphio Rio, meanwhile, has called for patience and urged the Naga civil societies and militant groups not to take any hasty steps. "The gun is not a solution to the Naga political problem," Rio said.
Nagaland, where more than 25,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency since India's independence from Britain in 1947, is a majority Christian state of two million people.
--Indo-Asian News Service
Governor, CM to leave for New Delhi today The Imphal Free Press
Imphal, Aug 16: The state Governor Dr. SS Sidhu and chief minister O Ibobi Singh will leave for the national capital tomorrow after the centre intimated them to come to New Delhi to discuss the law and order situation in the state arising out of the economic blockade of ANSAM which is now under temporary suspension.
An unconfirmed source said that during his stay at New Delhi the state chief minister is likely to have talks with the representatives of ANSAM in connection with the declaration of June 18 as “state integrity day” thereby a general holiday.
The ANSAM is demanding revocation of the same arguing that by declaring the day as a holiday, the government hurt the sentiments of the nagas in the state who are demanding integration of the naga inhabited areas of the state into Nagaland.
The chief minister had called on the governor this evening at the latter’s bungalow. A reliable source said that during the meeting the two heads of state discussed matters relating to the prevailing situation in the aftermath of the long economic blockade in the state were discussed.
It may be noted that the Union ministry of home affairs has sent a communiqué on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office to the state Governor to come to New Delhi to discuss the security situation prevailing in the state. The state chief minister has also been reportedly informed to come to the national capital.
The Governor is scheduled to leave for Delhi on August 17 along with the team of the ministry of home affairs and National Security Guards which will be visiting the state to review the law and order situation in the state in the wake of the recent economic blockade by ANSAM.
The chief minister will also accompany the visiting team on their return journey to New Delhi, an official source added.
11 vehicles defying UGs’I-Day boycott burnt down The Imphal Free Press
IMPHAL,Aug. 16: At least eleven vehicles were set on fire by some unknown persons dressed in camouflage suspected to be cadres of KNF (P) at various locations along national highway 39 for defying the general strike called by various underground organisations operating in the state as a part of their boycott of the Independence Day yesterday.
Out of the eleven vehicles set on fire yesterday seven were loaded trucks coming from Dimapur side yesterday morning towards Imphal, two were empty trucks going towards Dimapur from Imphal, one tata sumo with goods from Imphal for Mao and one NV scooter.
According to eyewitness accounts from the spot, at around 6 am yesterday morning, the miscreants forced the goods carrying trucks towards the Keithelmanbi river bank at Keithelmanbi Khunjao. After reaching the river bank, the truckers were called out from their respective vehicles and fuel siphoned off from their oil tanks. The miscreants then poured the fuel on the vehicles and set the vehicles on fire without saying anything except disclosing that they were burning the vehicles for violating their warning not to ply on the Independence day.
Among the trucks burnt down, three bearing registration no. MN01-6276, MN01-5831 and AS 01M-8328 were loaded with fertilizers, one with no. NL01A-9816 was cement loaded, two with nos. NL01A-3819 and NL01A-4740 loaded with pulses, and another one with no. NL07A-0135 with sintex brand water tanks coming from Dimapur side.
The two empty trucks bearing registration no. NL0A-4575 and NL07A-0695 were coming from Imphal side. The tata sumo and the NV scooter bearing registration no. MN01K 5727 registration no. MN01-2924 respectively were also going from Imphal towards Mao.
The report also said that all the goods carrying trucks were burnt down in Keithelmanbi area except the sintex carrying truck which was burnt down by the miscreants in Gopibung area. All the documents of the vehicles like the RC books were also turned to ashes.
The empty trucks, tata sumo and the scooter were set on fire at Gopibung area under Kangpokpi police station at around 9.30 am yesterday.
Villagers who witnessed the scene stated that some of the miscreants wearing camouflage dress had guns in their hands and were talking to each other in Hindi. The villagers also lamented that such kind of arson of trucks amidst the inhabited areas is condemnable.
On getting the information of burning down of the vehicles, the Kangpoki police stopped all the trucks coming from Dimapur side at Kangpokpi bazar for some time and only when a security escort team from Imphal arrived they were allowed to proceed further with the escort.
Around 126 loaded trucks reached Imphal late in the evening yesterday along with security escorts.
Govt rejects inquiry report, fresh probe likely Secret killings By a Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Aug 16: In its sitting today, Assam Cabinet has decided not to accept Justice (retd) JN Sharma’s interim report of the inquiry into the ‘secret killings’ that took place in the State during the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) regime, and is contemplating to conduct a fresh inquiry into the whole episode (secret killings) by appointing a retired Supreme Court Judge. The reason for rejection of the inquiry report, as cited by the State Government, is ‘discrepancies’ between some of the findings which are ‘self-contradictory’ in nature.
Talking to newsmen in the city today, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that it was known to all that during the AGP regime a number of people had been killed, and the commission had been set up to find out the person or persons behind those killings. "In this count, the commission failed to serve the purpose of the inquiry," he said. The Chief Minister, however, fell short of clearly stating what exact mistake the commission had committed by exonerating politicians and bureaucrats against whom Justice Sharma had found ‘no evidence of involvement’ in the killings during the course of inquiry.
"During his inquiry, Justice Sharma gave more importance to the statements police officials of that time than those of the kin of the victims," Gogoi said, and added: "Even former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had reportedly told his partymen in a meeting that the killings were because of an instruction from the then Government at the Centre." Gogoi said that the AGP and the BJP should make their stand clear on the inquiry report of the secret killings as if his Government had ordered the inquiry at the advice of the two Opposition parties.
What surprised the Chief Minister was that even before the inquiry report was thoroughly gone through by his Government, the findings of the report got leaked to the press. He accused Justice Sharma of not maintaining official secrets. He was also agitated at Justice Sharma’s statement that the Government had not provided necessary facilities during the course of inquiry. He said that Justice Sharma should have informed him of the matter of facilities during the course of the inquiry, and not while submitting the report. It may be mentioned here that inquiry had been ordered into as many as six cases of ‘secret killings’ and the report of three of them were submitted after almost four years. Now, if all the six cases are to be probed by a Supreme Court judge, it may take another six years.
Centre rejects ULFA demand for release of jailed leaders By Indo Asian News Service Guwahati, Aug 16 (IANS) The central government has rejected demands by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to release some of its jailed leaders as a precondition for holding peace talks.
'They (ULFA) have to first start the talks without preconditions and then one can consider other things. They are our own boys,' Home Secretary V.K. Duggal told reporters in Assam's main city Guwahati Tuesday. ULFA had offered to hold peace talks if the central government released at least 10 of its top leaders currently held in jails in India, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Duggal said the internal security situation in Assam had improved and there had been a qualitative change in the modus operandi of militants. 'Today there are less casualties compared to incidents in the past,' he said.
Duggal is on a visit to the northeast to review the internal security situation following a stepped up offensive by rebels in Assam and the disturbed situation in Manipur.
He will visit Manipur Wednesday. Meanwhile, Assam Chief Secretary S. Kabilan said ULFA was outsourcing terror by hiring 'agents' to carry out explosions and other attacks on vital installations and security forces. 'This is because of the sharp decline in ULFA's cadre strength in the region,' Kabilan said. Home Minister Shivraj Patil will visit Assam in the third week of September to take stock of the security situation. He will also visit the India-Bangladesh border to oversee the construction of a barbed wire fence and chalk out strategies to check the influx of illegal aliens.
