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02/25/2007: "Nagaland in Myanmar – A military sponsored Festival The military junta shows off to foreigners"

Naga International Support Center, NISC www.nagalim.nl
A human rights organization

Press Release

Amsterdam, February 25 2007

Nagaland in Myanmar – A military sponsored Festival

The military junta shows off to foreigners

Lahe, Nagaland, Myanmar: Once a year in January Myanmar’s part of Nagaland can be visited by foreigners who have the funds to pay for flights and are not scared to travel over hazardous mountain trails. The rest of the year this part of Myanmar is sealed of from the outside world. For reasons unknown the military junta through a subsidiary travel, agency organizes a trip for foreigners and well to do citizens of Myanmar to attend the Naga harvest festival in January. Advertised as a highlight of culture the caravan of pick up trucks laden with excited visitors from all over the world arrived in the especially for the purpose built bamboo quarters. Relatively luxurious these quarters are due to the single rooms with mosquito nets and every day room cleaning with a battery of toilets and wash rooms, pails of hot water available too. The compound, slightly away out of the village of Lahe, was off limits for Nagas themselves. I experienced one day after a shoot in the village with members of a tribal group as I wanted to show them some digital photos on my laptop. The reception, manned by personnel of Diamond travel agency and military stopped those Nagas and I had to bring the laptop out. Their reason?
“Well Sir, this is for your own protection. We do not know what could happen in the camp, so no others than our visitors are allowed inside; orders of the high command Sir!”, came as a recurrent answer. I quote this standard answer for it was used for anything aside the festival. Lahe has a military camp overlooking the village and on the festival ground armed soldiers with were around all the time.
The festival itself, due to the well expressing Nagas of some six different tribes was astonishingly impressive, yet equally undoubtedly, orchestrated by the travel agency led by the military. High military commanders were present and the Minister of Hotels and Tourism were received like celebrities. Decorated first by lovely and traditionally dressed Naga ladies they gave the signal to for the opening procedures of the festival. They were seated center stage and announced the good policies they had promulgated for the Nagas; samples of their well meant intentions were lined up beside the stage. Guarded by soldiers on display were different goods; sacks of rice, television sets, communication devices and much more. As they received a warm applause for their efforts with pride the military presented these good to assembled Nagas.
“Quite ironical,” said a Naga in the group who invited me for a meal inside the home they were temporarily housed, “it is very difficult to talk here. The walls have ears you know! Here the military control everything, or do you think we wanted a festival organized by them? We are not free to celebrate, they arrange it all. They show off to you people, but in the villages their soldiers coerce, subdue, suppress and forcibly recruit young men for their army. They post Buddhist missionaries among us; they have this policy to make us Buddhists. I will show you a small thing about their ways, small but significant,” he whispers as the others were standing by listening but moved closer to check on what he said and showed a few pairs of black shorts. The Naga smiled and continued:
“You see these shorts were given to us by the organization. This does not belong to our traditional attire. It is alien to us, but we were asked to wear it. Can we refuse?”, he asked rhetorically, just to make sure I understood its importance. Talking to several Nagas in Lahe while sharing rice beer with the villagers, more and more it became apparent this Naga Festival was a show for tourists, a show for the military junta to impress the outside world,. Rather than a genuine harvest celebration, to an extent still the case, it was the military who once a year offered foreigners a glimpse of Naga life in Myanmar. Though heavily guarded by soldiers this military organization could not prevent the foreigners to ask questions too, questions they actually could not answer for they essentially had little or no knowledge of Naga culture; they only wanted the visitors to see what they wanted them to see. Consequently going to other villages was only possible by spending extra money on the cars which had brought us to Lahe. Since the program provided four full days at Lahe it was obvious that it was next to impossible to go around on ones own; going by car with a group of eight people was not option for me either. To me that was like a hit and run visit, without their prior knowledge it was like intruding on them. Going on foot was impossible too for provided there were willing guides available it would take a minimum of three hours to walk to the nearest one and three hours back. Instead I stayed in Lahe and witnessed the spectacle of tribes doing their dances. Despite the efforts of the military to come across as very friendly, the minister addressed several foreigners like they were his friends, it was easy to see through it all. If one was aware of the history of the Naga peoples and their aspirations to be free of both India and Myanmar, to my chagrin very few foreigners had any knowledge of that, one would wonder why there were so many soldiers on the way to Lahe and in the village itself. “For your own protection!”, the standard answer came again. Instead we were led to believe the Nagas were wonderfully peaceful and did not have a worry in the world. In the village when talking about the Nagas of India and the relation of the people here another reality unfolded. Mouths opened up to reveal a litany of severe complaints. These complaints revolved around suppression, forced labor, forced recruiting, militarization. I was struck by the policy of the military to turn the Nagas into Buddhists. When strolling through the village I met some young missionaries who when I asked about their purpose openly told me they were assigned to turn the Nagas into Buddhists:
“I studied at the university and this way I will have a better life later,” the man said, I have to do it. It is too hard to refuse what the military orders you what to do.”
Practically sealed from the outside world this was not what Lahe and the Nagas looked like, but for most of the foreigners who had embarked on this precarious journey it must have been. As they had nothing to compare they could only see what happened in front of them. They had come along for the adventure and for culture, they did not know about the five decades old conflict which, it was obvious to me now, the military junta had given some priority; they wanted the Nagas to become Burmese. Serious business for them because of the agreement with India to get rid of the Naga bases of the NSCN-Khaplang there. Was it because of the NSCN-Khaplang the soldiers were there for our own protection?
For more information visit our website www.nagalim.nl or email us nisc@nagalim.nl

An extensive report on the Myanmar Naga Festival will be published soon.