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10/13/2005: "PRESS STATEMENT NAGA PEOPLES MOVEMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS"
NAGA PEOPLES MOVEMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
DELHI
08-10-2005
PRESS STATEMENT
The brutal killing of two civilians and three NSCN cadres by the Meghalaya police deserves more than the mere lip-service of condemnation. The issue stands at the core of our engagement with the Indian State and the selective and discriminatory response of the Government of India in its “sincere” approach to the Indo-Naga Peace Process.
The violation of basic Human rights notwithstanding, it should have been the mandatory duty of any force in India, and especially so for a police force from the Northeast, to at least understand the fact that the road to peace is a costly affair and we need not make it costlier by our mercenary attitude towards others whose cry for justice and peace have taken nearly sixty years of blood and pain.
This is one of the many reasons why we can no longer inject pain-killing doses of promises into the Indo-Naga peace Process and remain limited by the ceasefire to lay helplessly as lambs meant for slaughter.
Our cry has been for justice and justice has also meant honor.
We appeal to the Government of India to kindly honor the preliminary understanding that have been made with the Nagas and to resist unleashing your trigger happy military, paramilitary and police forces on the Nagas.
The so called anti-insurgency training camp at Vairengte, Aizawl have been conducting exercises with various foreign armies to emphasize once again the Government of India’s policy to deal resistance of any sort with brute military force. Also the continuing threat to the lives of civilians in the Northeast which the existence of laws like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act reinforces only goes to expose the lack of civil and political space in the region.
We appeal to the Government of India to give us some very good reasons to believe in your sincerity to the cause of “Peace and development” as you would want us to think.
In memory of the departed sons of the Nagas,
M Kikon
Convenor, NPMHR
