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03/07/2007: "Naga unions call 12-hour Peren bandh OUR CORRESPONDENTThe Telegraph"

Naga unions call 12-hour Peren bandh OUR CORRESPONDENTThe Telegraph
Kohima, March 6: The Zeliangrong Nagas have called a 12-hour bandh in Peren district on March 7 in protest against rampant encroachment of the Ntangki National Park. The bandh will be in effect from 6 am to 6 pm. The Zeliangrong Students’ Union, Nagaland and All Zeliangrong Students’ Union said there has been rampant encroachment of the national park by “landmongers”.
Lungchui, the Zeliangrong Students’ Union president, asked the state government for the immediate eviction of the encroachers from the park. The union has also pressed for immediate land settlement between the forest department and Beisumpuikuam village, eviction of encroachers from villages in the district and an end to government recognition of “illegal villages”.
The Zeliangrongs said Ntangki forest originally belonged to the people of Beisumpuikuam and was given to the British government in 1921. The two student unions said traffic would be at a standstill and offices, business establishments and education institutions will remain closed. However, security forces, police, the district administration and medical services have been exempted from the purview of the bandh. The state forest department officials admitted their helplessness to check the rampant encroachment, felling of trees and poaching in the national park due to acute shortage of forest personnel.
Kalam to attend convocation of Nagaland University Bureau Report Zee News
Kohima, March 06: President A P J Abdul kalam, who is the visitor of Nagaland University, will attend its second convocation ceremony on March 15. The President has consented to attend the ceremony, which will take place at 2:30 pm at the Secretariat plaza here, an official release said today.

The varsity's Vice-Chancellor Krishnamoorthy Kannan said it will be a great honour for students to receive their degree certificates during the convocation in Kalam's presence. The University's first convocation in October 2003 was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

PROMOTION OF LOCAL DEFENCE GROUPS Press Information Bureau RAJYA SABHA
Village defence groups are active in various States. As per information available, in Assam, there are 11298 village defence parties to assist the police. In Nagaland, the number of village guards is 8232. The number of Village Defence Committees in Jammu and Kashmir is 3742. The members of these committees are local volunteers. The Government encourages the State Governments affected by terrorism, insurgency and naxalism to promote local defence committees/village defence committees. This information was given by the Minister of State for Home, Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today. OK/SAK
Tension in Peren district Nagaland Post
Dimapur, March 6 (NPN): Tension in Peren district further heightened, following the reported abduction of a mother and her two sons by ten unidentified armed men while the three were clearing jhum at Jalukielo, some seven kilometers from Jalukie town Tuesday.
The mother was released while the two sons were taken away after their hands were tied and blindlofed.
Official sources said the two, identified as Kelinglung and Jameson, were first taken to Nihoi village in the district and later to Zhutovi village under Dimapur and handed over to the area GBs union.
A source later told Nagaland Post that the two boys were also released unharmed. However, there was no confirmation of the report. It may be recalled that the ZSU-N and AZSU have called for a one-day district wide bandh on March 7 in protest against illegal encroachment and demanding that the state government evict all the encroachers.
Meanwhile , MLA representing Peren assembly constituency Vatsu Meru asked of the "underground government" which purportedly declared Ntanki as a "national property", whether it was also not its moral duty and obligation to preserve and protect the national property?
Further, he said in the quest was for higher goal, "let no vested interests show its ugly face to cause dissensions" that would ultimately be only counter productive. Expressing fears that the "unwarranted land grabbing will surely obscure greater visions" Vatsu said the answer to the Naga political settlement "does not lie in forcibly land occupation of Ntanki."
Vatsu said while the Zeliangrong people are known for their "simplicity and mildness", the forcible land grabbing threatens changes in demography of the area and therefore the resistance of the people to "external aggression is natural" and hoped all Nagas would understand and appreciate the stand taken by the Zeliangrong people.(Full text of Vatsu’s statement on page 4)
KIM’s plea on atrocities Correspondent Nagaland Post
IMPHAL, Mar 6: Even as NSCN (I-M) general secretary Th.Muivah's trip to New Delhi was to hold further talks with the Centre, Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) a powerful
decision making body of the Kuki-Chin group of Manipur has reminded the Prime Minister of India of its long time demand to try the NSCN (I-M) for various criminal acts of murdering, uprooting and displacing of the Kukis in the region. KIM has alleged that the NCSN (I-M) murdered over 900 innocent Kukis, uprooted over 360 Kuki villages apart from displacing over 100,000 Kukis during the Naga-Kuki clash spearheaded by the NSCN (I-M). The KIM memorandum reminded Dr Manmohan Singh that sixty six representations have been submitted to successive Prime Ministers, namely- PV Naramsimha Rao,
HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. The KIM has demanded that any settlement should be preceded with the issue of inhuman atrocities committed against innocent Kukis in particular and humanity in general by the NSCN (I-M). KIM's secretary information and publicity said the Kukis insist that settlement between the Government of India and the NSCN (I-M) must come only after addressing the issue of NSCN (I-M) atrocities.
"The guilty must be booked and judgment be passed in a proper court
Of law," he demanded.The memorandum also warned that failure to accede to its demand could lead to unwanted situation and for which the Government of India would be held responsible.
‘DAN has failed miserably’ The Morung Express
DIMAPUR, MARCH 6 (MExN): In its bid to romp home to victory in the two assembly constituencies which go to polls on March 8, the Congress in Nagaland is harping on the ‘failure’ of the NPF-led DAN government on political, economic and administration fronts.
Addressing a press conference at the DCC office in Dimapur today, Congress Legislature Party leader, I Imkong, made a scathing attack on the ruling government by accusing those in office of indulging in “rampant corruption.” Accompanied by AICC Observer, Major Ved Prakash, and the party’s Convenor of the Election Campaign Committee for Dimapur-1 A/C, Nuzota Swuro, Imkong said the DAN had incurred a “miserable failure” on the political front. “They asked people to vote for them in 2003 promising quick fix of the Naga issue.” However, over the years, the sitting government has ended up in confusion, the CLP leader said.
Sonia Gandhi beams in a poster as AICC Observer Major Ved Prakash, CLP Leader I Imkong and Congress Campaign Convenor Nuzota Swuro address a press conference at Dimapur on March 6. (MExPix) On the economic platform, the Congress stalwart put up a challenge in the form of a question: “We want to ask DAN what has happened to four-laning of Dimapur-Kohima road.” He enquired where the Rs 400 Crore given by the previous NDA government had disappeared and also wished to know where Rs 650 Crore for employment of 25,000 youth had evaporated. Besides the 1000 youth employed outside the State through the government’s initiative, “I do not see self-employment programmes,” he added.
Besides the ‘Years of Farmers’ and the Bamboo Mission, completion of no new programmes, whether funded by the Centre, NEC or the State can be observed, Imkong said. Giving his party credit, he said all completed projects were those that were initiated when the Congress was in rule. Terming every department as corrupt, he laid blame on Home Minister Thenucho for pocketing Rs 37 Crore from the Police modernization scheme.
On the functioning of the State’s administration, he said, “All rules are being flouted.” Bringing Thenucho under another barrage of attacks, he asked the minister to explain how 59 Police officers were recruited without their being interviewed. Reminding of the fake gun licence racket, he inquired what had happened to the responsible officers and people involved in the scam.

“How many were charged and penalized?” He also dug up the textbook, NPSC and fraudulent pension withdrawal scams by saying that though the Government established a Special Task Force to investigate the irregularities, no tangible results have been produced.
On his part, Major Ved Prakash harped on what the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre “is going in a very well-planned manner, carrying out various developments.” He dwelt at length on the various schemes and projects Delhi is undertaking for both rural and urban areas, not forgetting to mention that special emphasis is also being placed on the North East. Mincing no words, he said, “The present government (in Nagaland) is not functioning well.” He said the bye-polls were turning points for the people to install a Congress government.

For Cong, bye-polls ‘warm-up’, not ‘semi-finals’ According to AICC Observer, Major Ved Prakash, if the NPF loses in the ‘semi-finals’ it will not be able to enter the finals in 2008. Prakash, also AICC Secretary, was supplementing CLP Leader I Imkong’s statement that for the Congress, the bye-polls in Dimapur-1 and Tuensang Sadar-II is a “warm-up” exercise. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had yesterday said the polls would serve as a “semi-final” as a run-up to the assembly elections next year for the NPF. Imkong, displaying puzzlement over Rio’s usage of vocabulary, said he did not know on what grounds the Chief Minister had said “semi-finals.”

‘NPF attempting to disrupt polls’ It also expressed apprehension over the possibility that NPF-sponsored youth and anti-socials might engage in booth-capturing and poll-rigging during the bye-elections to the Dimapur-1 constituency. Nuzota Swuro, Convenor of the Congress campaign for the constituency, said, “NPF Party has booked all hotels in Dimapur” to lodge “thousands” of persons from outside the constituency, who are not voters, with a view to disrupt free and fair elections. “Their (NPF’s) only hope is money and power,” he said. If and when a situation arises because of the developments, the Congress’ formula is that it will use “legal means” to counter “illegal forces.” The party said it hopes genuine voters will come out to protect their franchising rights.
International Women’s Day Daring to Dream Dreams Shiluinla Jamir

While causally speaking about an issue in a small group in one of my recent visit to one of the remote areas in Nagaland a dobashi pointing at me remarked, “though you are a women you can also say something (he wanted my wisdom to be pooled in to the subject about which they were discussing). Yes, I understand the time has come for us, Naga women to speak, to talk. Talk of the realities in which we live as young girls, as women. For behind the façade of education, jobs and other income opportunities that we have had the privilege of attaining, an under current politics of discrimination exist at all levels. Be it in the society, the church or our very own community based organizations. We can no longer afford to remain silent but reclaim the politics of speaking so that silence becomes history as much as making poverty history, or making affluence history.
Any visit to a village would be greeted by small girls washing clothes by the stream, elderly women carrying loads of firewood on their back, girls and young women carrying water. Besides that, the roads are in deplorable conditions making it extremely time consuming, when women have to travel for immediate medical attention or other urgent purposes. Coupled with that, infrastructures like primary health centers and other government institutions that is suppose to make women’s life easier remain almost non existent . You might ask why am I trying to connect these issues to women issue or rights? Well, conditions like this affects women more that any one else. For example no proper water supply means she spends extra time fetching water, walking for longer hours, time that can be spent on other income generating activity is spent on collecting water. Girls who participate in household activity like collecting water and firewood, babysitting often drop out of school since time that has to be spent on studying is being spent on doing household activities. Unavailability of water means poor hygienic conditions giving rise to a lot of diseases. When a child falls sick, it is normally the mother, after a day long hours of work she stays awake to nurse the child, coupled with that she is often pressed with the constant dilemma of whether to buy medicine for the sick child or to buy a kilo of rice to feed the rest of the family since even basic antibiotics are unaffordable/ available for the poor. Conditions like this calls us therefore to speak! And it is with this burden I come to you sisters seeking you solidarity and your action in hammering out alternatives to our present deplorable living conditions, daring you all to dreams with passion and compassion!

Thank you so much sisterhood network for initiating and hosting this gathering, in solidarity with women both successful and ordinary women across the globe. To me, this gathering is a dreaming of dreams and a resolution to speak and the reselinec to move forward. It is an act of courage to reject all that impoverishes us, as women created in God’s image, be it culturally handed down views on women, or any other forms of discriminations. This gathering that you have initiated in this corner of the world, is a re-representation of our women’s powers, potentialities, capabilities, and competencies and of the rights and opportunities for all round development in all spheres of life. It is about speaking for us to have access and control for economic independence, political participation, and social development.
It is about daring to overcome several challenges both at the individual and collective level. It is about weaving again and again that our journey that we have started is a journey characterized by struggle. It is winging beyond subsidies, beneficiaries’ and other economic packages. It is about acknowledging our own selves as equals.
Dear Sisters, Many of you here this morning are from the margins of the society, some of you school dropouts, and many of you experiencing poverty at various levels. Inspite of the context you represent, your strength and faith in you as young Naga women in the context of disparity and unequal ness reminds me this morning of what Eleanor Roosevelt has said, “in small places, close to home, so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. It is in these small places- homes and schools, health clinics, markets that women are lifting their lives and the lives of their families”. Yes, indeed!. In your own small ways within your limited spaces and confines you have lifted your life and is involved in lifting the lives of others. And that is the beauty of women’s movement. Your coming together this morning to mark the International Women’s Day itself is the beginning of that movement.
Yes, we have come together on this day to mark the International Womens’ Day in order to look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. International Women’s Day is rooted in the struggle of women to participate in society on equal footing with men. The objective of this day is to: celebrate the struggle for women’s rights in socio-economic political and cultural domain, to reaffirm women’s solidarity in the struggle for peace and to show what women have achieved.

On this day it is only appropriate that we bring to remembrance, Lysistrata, who in ancient Greece, initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war. We also remember the spirit of the Parisian women who calling for “liberty, equality, fraternity” marched to Versailles to demand women’s suffrage during the French revolution.
We remember individuals like Maria Weston Chapman whose act of defying the “given” paved way towards a new understanding of “humans beings being created in God’s image” thus making it possible for blacks to sit with the whites. We remember Wangari Maathai, whose single-handed act of caring for mother nature resulted in making food available for the poor African women for whom life was about survival and not about living. We remember many other faceless and nameless women whose smallest acts of search for justice and equality and rights – in their hearts, minds who as women, as human beings reenacted. Whose acts have truly mapped the extent of our capacity to live with one another, and to lift one another.

In our remembrance and celebration and hope, we with pain and anguish remember who this morning at the break of dawn, braving the chilly wind has gone out to fetch water so that their brothers, and other family members of her household drinks, cleans and bathes with clean water. We bring to remembrance little girls and even small boys in solidarity who work as servants in many homes, uprooted from their families for lack of food, has to forcefully swallow down cold food, wear tattered clothes and broken shoes. We remember many women this morning who have been sold to brothel owners to work as sex workers, who have been sold by their own fathers and mothers, their own uncles and aunties, and their own husbands. We remember women who have been widowed this morning due to conflict and war, who from today will bear the whole responsibility of raising the family single handedly. May we hope for these sisters of ours to have strength to overcome fear and seek solutions in their many different ways, that they may find strength to dream a new dream and hope and work for a better life.
It is also appropriate that we celebrate ourselves! In each one of us there are the seeds of strength and glory, the strength to dare to dream dreams. In each of us there is the same life, the same light, the same love. Our bodies can lovingly touch, our hearts can heal and our minds can discern faith, truth, justice and therefore we celebrate our very own being as women- women as co- creators, nurturers and life givers for our children and nation.

Since the inception of the International Women’s Day, women across the globe have come a long way. While we are not completely there yet we have made some quantum leaps. Today more than 800 million women are economically active. More women and girls are learning to read and write, for some for the first time. Nations and families, our very own Naga families are investing in girl’s education. Women are living longer and healthier lives, that more of us are surviving childbirth as we gain greater access to reproductive health, discovering new levels of economic independence.
Yet we are also gloomed by the fact that not all women have had these opportunities and majority continue to be left out. The Human Development Report 1995 vividly exposes the most serious and provocative truth about the disparities between men and women around the world. It tells a pathetic tale of women in many countries facing gender inequalities in social, economic and political spheres. It also reveals that 70 % of the world’s poor and two thirds of the world’s illiterates are women and their economic and political clout is virtually non- existent compared to men. Virtually in every country, women work more hours than men, yet share less in the economic rewards. It is also true that if women’s work were accurately reflected in national statistic, it would shatter the myth that men are the main breadwinners of the world.
Therefore what we are talking or speaking about today is about recognizing our contribution as women, as homemakers, as professionals, as human beings, as bread winners. It is about saying, “Please do acknowledge my contribution, and my back breaking hours of work as house wives, as farmers, as co partners in uplifting our society, culture and church”. It is about saying that we ought to be given a chance to decide. It is about power re-distribution and acknowledging the existence of women as equals. It is about removing some of the terms and ideas that divides our value as girls from boys or as women from men, terms that pushes us further from the circle, terms that disfigures our identities. It is about giving equal opportunities to women as men and with all humility taking her works seriously. Women will gain power only when both men and women respect each other and accept the contribution of women thus affecting changes in the ideological system, in access to resource and in institutions and structures at several levels, such as the family, the household, the village, the community, the state and the market. When Economist Amartya Sen took up issues of women’s welfare, he was accused in India of voicing “foreign concerns”. He says, “ I was told Indian women don’t like that about equality. But I would like to argue that if they don’t think like that they should be given a real opportunity to think like that”. Yes, when we talk about women issues we are talking about space and the opportunity to think and act so that our voices can be heard and our actions felt.
A nation’s progress does not rely alone on protecting the fundamental rights but on ensuring that these women have access to what we call opportunity. No nation can expect to succeed in the global economy of the 21st century when half of its population lacks the opportunity and the right to make the most of their god given potentials. Government agencies and all other involved in women empowerment should create the conditions in which women have the right to make choices in their lives for themselves. No nation can hope to move forward if its women and children are trapped in endless cycles pf poverty; when they don’t have the health care they need, when they cannot read and write and when many have to drop out of school wooing to poverty.
I wish to call upon you to dream on, that’s what women in history have done and that daring act is the beginning of our talking.
(This is an abstract of a speech delivered on International Women’s Day organized by sisterhood network, Dimapur, Nagaland, India, an organization that has been impacting indigenous women’s lives through processes of empowerment)

Suggest solution to Naga tangle: NISC to NSCN-K Sentinel
Kohima, March 5: The Amsterdam-based Naga International Support Center, NISC, asked the NSCN (Khaplang) to spell out their political agenda as to how they would bring solution to the Naga political issue, when they did not fight against the so-called their ‘enemy-the Indian government’.
In an open letter to the NSCN-K, the NISC explained about the contradictions of the outfit that at one point it claimed that Indian Government was their enemy, occupying the ‘land of the Nagas’, on the other they did not engage in driving out its armed forces.
Strangely, the outfit did not try to meet the Indian leaders to ‘negotiate’ for an ‘honourable settlement’ either, argued the open letter.
The Rights body also asked the outfit to come forward with ‘credible policies’ to achieve ‘sovereignty’ on behalf of all Nagas and with whom they aspired and planned to achieve their desired goal. The open letter reminded that the Nagas had been fighting against their invaders for long, while some, through money, weapons and imposition of statehood, had sided with their adversaries. They made life difficult for the ‘civil society and the Naga forces’, it stated, asking the outfit to come together as one to ‘sincerely pursue the goals of what the NNC once stood for, to stand for the sovereignty of the Naga people.’
The NISC body said it supported the right of self-determination of all Nagas, including the NSCN-K. They also said it would happily discuss matters with the outfit when the latter kindly revoked the ‘death threat’ served to them.
Kuki students rally against UNLF, landmines The Morung Express
New Delhi, March 6 (MExN): The United National Liberation Front (UNLF) came under strong attack by the Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) for alleged atrocities committed on the Kukis by the banned underground militant organisation. The KSO in its press communiqué received here revealed that till date 33 Kuki villagers have been killed and many more maimed and injured by landmines planted by UNLF cadres. It also added that 39 Kuki villages in Khengjoi Block of Chandel district are still being held hostage and innocent villagers are subjected to unimaginable atrocities by cadres of the UNLF operating in the region.
The villagers are also prevented from engaging in normal agricultural activities in the face of famine outbreak, the release added. In this regards, the release stated that a mass rally, under the aegis of the Kuki Students Organisation (KSO), General Headquarters, was held on 5 March at Parliament street, New Delhi to draw the attention of the Indian government and the national media on the plights and tragedies faced by the Kuki people at the hands of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) militants in Chandel district of Manipur. The release stated that a memorandum was also submitted to the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh by the student delegation in which the KSO demanded an immediate long-term relief and rehabilitation programmes for the displaced villagers, deactivation and sanitisation of landmines affected areas, compensating the landmine victims with at least Rs. 5 lakhs each, and immediate deliverance of innocent Kuki villagers from killings, harassment and captivity by the UNLF.
The release claimed that around 200-300 students participated in the mass rally which started at around 12:30 in the afternoon. Delegates and students from other Manipur and Mizoram based tribal student organisations also participated in the protest, the release stated. The release also stated that protesters shouted slogans demanding justice for the landmine victims and innocent villagers and demanded that the government should protect the Kuki villagers and pay compensation to the killed and injured victims. The release added that placards carried by the participants shouted “UNLF-Respect Hill Peoples Rights - Kukis are no enemy of yours”, “Don’t test our patience, it can be explosive”, “UNLF: Get out of Kuki Land”, “To hell with landmines!” A one-minute silence was also observed towards the end of the rally to pay respect and solidarise with victims of immense human rights abuses, the release further stated.
Theology in the Naga Struggle Rev. Dr. Wati Aier Column the Morung Express
Today, more than ever, the contradiction between violence and division on the one hand and the Good News of reconciliation and love on the other is pronounced in official ecclesiastical statements and in the politically and also socially conservative and liberal polemics against “factional” ideological positions among the Nagas. The mere mention of this suggests that there are several questions involved—socio-analytic, theological and ideological.
“Naga Sovereignty.” In the description of the existing situation, it is recognized as a fact. As such, nevertheless, it is not a brute fact of nature; it is a “constructive” (Richard Eaton) process through which each Naga tribe discover their identity and consciously assume the struggle. This struggle can be characterized as an instrument of liberation and freedom. To be sure, our struggle is not a permanent feature of our human existence but as the loss of political right triggered by the indifferent attitude and lack of political will of India
A theological issue that needs to be clarified in the background of such a concept or shall we say perception of peace and reconciliation as it is commonly used and the problem of “violence.” At the risk of oversimplification, I want to sketch two theological perspectives which seem to find expression in the current discussion of these issues. One of them is build upon the rationality of the universe—a conviction that a universal order penetrates the world. Everything under heaven , nature and society, moral and spiritual life seek equilibrium that corresponds to that rationality. In the most witless form, this concept simply becomes an ideological screen (Paul Ricoeur’s expression) to hide the imposition of the status quo by identifying it with such cosmic rationality. Violence is understood in the light of this order: whatever disturbs it is irrational and evil and ought to be countered through a rational use of duress, force, break, divide, and if possible conquer. This logic, albeit plagued with fallacies, nevertheless, flourishes in the political and social rhetoric of the right wingers. The will of God is made to coincide with the ordering of things, which in turn coincides with the present order, that is threatened by the “violent ones.” Therefore, the bankrupt axiom is, “To resist the threat is to obey God.”
Historically, this theological concept which came to dominate Christianity when Christianity co-opted under the sanction of the empire (Constantine-Christianity syndrome) is in itself very significant and ought to be noted.
The antithesis of the above conceives humanity as a project of liberation that constantly emerges in the fight against objectifications found in nature, in history, in society, and in religion---the rationality of the universe. Human being is a creator, and creation is always, in some measure, a violence exerted on things as they are. This typology goes this way, “Affirmation of the new as against that which is.” Violence plays a creative role in the scheme as the “midwife” (Marx’s and Engel’s Manifesto). This conception can also be escalated to the extreme, deifying violence as principle of creation, valid in itself because it is, par excellence, the destruction of all objectifications. Only in the destruction of everything that limits nature, social order, ethical form can humanity find freedom.
Both the aforesaid positions find support in ecclesiastical and political tradition. They frequently identified respectively with the priestly and prophetic streams and it will not be difficult to trace both positions in the history of Naga Christian theology. And as such, these two positions have given rise to two different understanding of peace and reconciliation. The first one equates peace and reconciliation with order, absence of conflict, harmonious integration of nature and society. Its roots lie in the Babylonian myth of society as living organism. It has dominated the Greco-Roman conception of peace (Pax Romana) and has shaped the theological tradition since St. Augustine. The other view of peace is typically represented by the prophets in the Bible. Peace is a dynamic process through which peace is established amid the tensions and conflicts in history.
In the first position, peace and reconciliation is viewed in terms of order, in the second, in terms of struggle for justice. It seems to me that our understanding has tended to be polarized along these two theological traditions. While the two may represent a significant dimension of Christian thought, may I purpose that such approaches are seriously distorted and needs analytical theology.
If we try to underscore the two themes developed in the aforementioned pages, we can say that the issues cannot be debated abstractly, but only in relation to God in Christ of a new person and a new humanity which must be witnessed to and proleptically anticipated in history. Let us try to understand the concrete problem of the Christians in the struggle.
Struggle is a fact. This is not Marx’s discovery. Even Calvin described the social and political realms, under the sway of sin, as the battleground, in which, domination of others and injustice have destroyed the rightful place. At this point, I think social analysis is indispensable. Our thinking and theological position must be corrected and refined in the context of theory and action. Our struggle is not a general consequence of human sin alone, nor a deplorable accident. It is a struggle prompted by domination, an unresponsive and indurated stance of the concerned Government. Naga struggle is, finally, the effort of the oppressed to break out of the situation to a finite rightful place in history. It is not a mere outlet for resentment, or an instrument of revenge—although these things are by no means absent. When the fact of Naga struggle—in itself a brute fact unleashed by the apathetic status quo—is consciously assumed by the Nagas and deliberately used for our liberation, this becomes a political act. It is as such that it must be theologically evaluated.
If Naga struggle is a fact, if its dynamics is what we have, then which intends to be effective in terms of God’s Kingdom cannot avoid taking sides. Why is it, therefore, that so often Christian ethics and ecclesiastical pronouncements flounder precisely at this point? Why is it that we so stubbornly refuse to come to terms with the reality and choose instead to ignore it and to offer plans and projects that presuppose a harmony and coordination of interests and goals of the status quo which do not exist? Why is that clerical pronouncements, after recognizing the intolerable injustice of the situation, issue an appeal to the beneficiaries of the situation and a condemnation of the struggle of the oppressed to change it? There is no possibility of speaking a meaningful word to our men and women in struggle unless the facts underlying this condratiction are unmasked and overcome.
The “ideological screen” of Paul Ricoeur, which is identified as the “ideology of conciliation at any price,” is to be suspected. We have already noted the theological roots of this ideology, namely, the sacralizing of order and consequently the rejection of anything that threatens or disturbs the present balance however unsatisfactory it may be.
This ideological screen must be eliminated today. It must clearly be shown that the idea of conciliation is not compatible with biblical reconciliation in Christ. Reconciliation means in the bible not the ignoring or explaining away of the contradiction but its effective removal. Faction A , Faction B and faction C etc are not invited to minimize or sidestep their differences but to become aware that the contradiction between them has objectively been eliminated through the struggle and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They are not conciliated in the new fellowship but are overcome through repentance and conversion and the creation of the new person. The “new age” does not coexist passively with the “old age” but engages in a death struggle. Reconciliation is not achieved by some sort of compromise between the new and the old but through the defeat of the old and the victory of the new age.
I suspect, such a theological paradigm may come under the scientific scrutiny of “probability” and not a “possibility.” And to some, such a paradigm may be another pie-in-the-sky idealism. Whatever may be, Christian have not adequately tried this paradigmatic option. If we mean business, we are challenged to demonstrate the foolishness and the powerlessness of the cross to the world of the Nagas who are in most cases “Christians.” Faith in Christ is not a step beyond our Nagas rather the situation calls Nagas toward it. In truth we are not Nagas only to be Christians, but Christians to be truly Nagas. All Naga Christians are commissioned to proclaim God’s salvation in Christ. This means, the repentance and forgiveness of sins, namely, our freedom in God’s grace and the invitation to effective love and the freedom to love. The urgent task of the Church is to take this matter seriously in deed. Why not mobilize fasting and prayer by Naga Christian volunteers for an indefinite period of time around our factional camps until God’s work is accomplished.
Indo-China team to locate exact source of Brahmaputra
From Our Spl Correspondent Assam Tribune
NEW DELHI, March 6 – In a first-ever exercise of its kind, India and China would undertake a joint expedition in the Himalayas in June to trace the exact source of Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers. Confirming this, Minister of State for Water Resources, Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav said six scientists from each side and two climbers from India including supporting members are scheduled to undertake a joint expedition in June. The study area is mainly restricted in Tibet and the Brahmaputra River Valley, the Minister added.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian Mountaineering Foundation and Chinese Academy of Science was signed on December 21 last. According to the MoU called Indo-China Scientific Expedition would source the two great rivers Brahmaputra and Sutlej.

The Brahmaputra river, also known as river Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet in China, originates in the Jima Yangzong glacier near Mount Kailash in the Northern Himalayas. It then flows east for about 1700 Km, at an average height of 4000 m, and is therefore called the highest of the major rivers in the world, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

In India, the river enters Arunachal Pradesh, where it is called Siang and makes a very rapid descend from its original height in Tibet, and finally appears in the plains, where it is called Dihang. It flows for about 35 km and is joined by two other major rivers: Dibang and Lohit. From this point of confluence, the river becomes very wide and is called Brahmaputra. It flows through the entire stretch of Assam before entering Bangladesh, where its is known Jamuna and Padma.

Meanwhile, in a separate reply, Union Minister of Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal said in addition to the Research and Development projects, his Ministry provides financial support to various State councils for science and technology for its development and promotion. The areas identified include strengthening science education, bio-resource technology, energy, meteorology mapping, health care, bamboo processing and disaster management. The Ministry has sanctioned Rs 264.43 lakh for State Science and Technology Programmes in the North-East, last fiscal, out of which, a sum of Rs 39.30 lakh has gone to Assam. The Ministry had 112 projects running in the Region in 2003-2004, for which the Ministry had released Rs 1143.13 lakh.

India: Burma’s Dishonest Neighbor Nagarealm.com
Air traffic between India and Burma’s new capital, Naypyidaw, has been increasing recently. It has nothing to do with tourism promotion—but everything to do with the development of cozy, friendlier relations between the two neighbors.

In January, India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Naypyidaw. Other high-ranking officials followed, notably Home Secretary V K Duggal. Burma’s military leaders also paid visits to New Delhi. In December, Gen Shwe Mann, the regime’s senior ranking general, who is tipped to lead the armed forces, went to the Indian capital and made specific requests to buy military hardware, including spare parts and servicing for MiG-29 jet fighters.

India had supplied Burma with military hardware, including field guns and howitzers, Indian army vice-chief Lt-Gen S Pattabhiraman told the press in October. The Indian navy reportedly gave Burma two BN-2 “Defender” Islander maritime surveillance aircraft, deck-based air-defense guns and surveillance equipment. Mukherjee said New Delhi had decided to give a favorable response to Burma’s request for military hardware because defense cooperation between the two countries had been expanded.

In a quid pro quo, India sought Burma’s continued support in preventing Indian insurgents from taking refuge across the Burma border. A number of insurgent groups, including Naga rebels fighting in India’s Northeast, are believed to have bases inside Burma. Burma pledged to honor India’s request, and in December launched attacks on rebels along the India-Burma border. India provided support with T-55 tanks, helicopters, mortars, radar technology and other materiel ahead of the military operations. It is likely that more military cooperation and the development of special ties are on the horizon.

Aside from combating rebels and insurgents, India is also interested in trade, infrastructure projects and the energy sector. During his visit to Naypyidaw, Mukherjee also discussed the purchase of natural gas from Burma and the construction of a pipeline from Burma. India’s state-run Gas Authority of India Ltd would like to obtain natural gas from Burma’s offshore field off Burma’s Arakan Coast, feeding it by pipeline through India’s northeast region. The Burmese regime will finally decide whether to approve such a deal in May, according to officials.

A further reason for New Delhi’s quest for better relations with Naypyidaw is its desire to counter China’s influence over Burma. China has been selling arms, frigates and other naval vessels, jet fighters and military trucks to Burma, and the Chinese have been involved in modernizing Burmese naval facilities. The scope of Chinese involvement has definitely created anxiety and concern among politicians in New Delhi. At the same time, New Delhi’s recent gestures and the flurry of mutual visits have rung alarm bells among Burmese activists and international observers. Immediately following the military crackdown in 1988, New Delhi openly and publicly supported Burma’s democracy movement, but nowadays such commitment could not be expected.

In the new Asian scenario, India is competing with China to accommodate the generals in Burma. Yet the generals are bound to win at this game. The close relations with both China and India now enjoyed by Burma have benefited the handful of military rulers who continue to commit crimes against their own people. It is easy to predict the direction in which communist China wants to steer its policy with Burma, Tibet or any neighboring countries—and even with African states. China’s support for the world’s repressive regimes is regrettable but predictable and not unexpected. New Delhi’s support for the military rulers in Burma, however, only provokes bewilderment and embarrassment. To put it bluntly, New Delhi’s policy on Burma is morally bankrupt and pitiable. Although ranking as the world’s largest democracy, India is basing its foreign policy on self-interest and national concerns.

Mukherjee told reporters who accompanied him during his recent trip to Naypyidaw that India has to deal with the governments as they exist. Democracy is an internal affair, and India is not interested in exporting its ideology to other countries, he said. That’s fine. But Indian officials and the ruling government should know that the Burmese people and the international community are dismayed about New Delhi’s position on Burma. New Delhi’s self-centered Burma policy is tarnished by seeking to prolong the dictatorship in Burma. India, the world’s largest democracy, should not be seen to be exporting repression. [Editorial irrawaddy]

Verse fest to spread message of peace Nagarealm.com
First Northeast Poetry Festival in Guwahati later this week to focus on diversity
Guwahati, MAR06 : His poetry is annealed by the sufferings of war and insurgency. His grandfather survived the horrors of World War II, fleeing native Burma (now Myanmar) to settle in Calcutta. Noel Manuel, too, has seen blood flow in insurgency-ravaged Nagaland, which prompted his wish to make the volatile region a place where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, just the way Tagore had put it.

A popular poet based in Dimapur, Manuel has used his vocation to try and achieve this objective. He has come up with the idea of the First Northeast Poetry Festival, scheduled to be held at Shilpagram here from March 21 to 23. Poetry will be used as an instrument to bring to the fore the diverse voices and aspirations of the people of a restive region. A subsidiary aim of the festival is to prove that poetry still has a market. His efforts have been supplemented by the North Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (NEZCC).

Manuel has books such as It’s Only Words (poems on love) and Recitation is Fun (a poetry anthology for children) to his credit. He said the main motivation behind the first-of-its-kind festival was to spread the message of peace. “Be it in folklore or songs, the language of poetry has always been dominant across the entire region. We have a rich tradition of poetry and many talented young poets today need a platform to showcase their talent. I am trying to use poetry as a tool to give peace a chance in the region. Moreover, poetry can be a good medium to publicise the views of young and traumatised minds,” Manuel said over telephone from Dimapur.

With nearly 100 established and aspiring poets of the region likely to congregate in Guwahati, the festival will have a special theme, Voices of the People, wherein poets will recite poems based on the various voices, aspirations and dreams of the people of the Northeast. The festival will have a special poetry and translation workshop. “A book fair will be part of the festival and discussions of various trends and styles of poetry writing in the Northeast and across the globe will be held among the participants. Though the festival will focus on poets writing in English and their poems, poets writing in regional languages will also play a central role. At the end of the festival, we will honour several poets writing in regional languages,” he added.

Manuel said his roots were in Burma but he grew up in Calcutta. He settled in Dimapur after marrying Ketholenuo Angami. “I have been writing poetry since my childhood, but it is the land in the Northeast and experiences of the region that further honed my writing skills. I have been rejected by publishers time and again and the most common response I got was that ‘poetry does not sell anymore’. I felt humiliated, but never lost hope,” Manuel