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07/08/2007: "10 years is too long a decade Thannganing Hungyo The Morung Express"

10 years is too long a decade Thannganing Hungyo The Morung Express
Dimapur JULY 31, 2007. The day the ceasefire between New Delhi and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) expires. The day the pact between both sides is branded with 10 years of existence. The question – How much longer?
From ‘mainland’ India, some who have been following the events of the peace process make their observations and deduce the shortfalls in the course of dialogue.
Prominent and senior journalist, Bharat Bhushan, has been keenly trailing the developments. The Centre has not shown ‘political imagination’ in resolving the issue and, analogously, the Nagas have to set aside their ritualistic ways, he says.
“The Government of India has become complacent. When you are not losing anything, you do not know what you stand to gain.”
Equally, he thinks NSCN cadres have become accustomed to the negotiating period. “Ceasefire has become a state of being. It’s a very difficult situation.” His advice to the Naga negotiators is that old or initial positions do not help; advantages and disadvantages have to be scoured.
“The Constitution of India is extremely flexible.” That flexibility, according to Bhushan, depends on political will. By the same token, he suggests, the Nagas could have a separate constitution within the constitution by incorporating their proposals in a separate schedule. “I personally think both sides should show some flexibility.”
Bhushan, who has heard Oscar Fernandes, the Centre’s key man for the negotiations, play ‘We Shall Overcome’ on his harmonica on quite a few occasions, and also in tune with Muivah’s love of singing, and the guitar, is of the view that a “close relationship” between the two entities is possible. “If nothing happens this time, even many Indians will be disappointed.”
Kumar Sanjay Singh, a faculty of Delhi University, feels there has been a “complete lack of movement” on the part of the Centre. “It is unfortunate that the government has not made use of the negotiating period.” If things take a turn similar to the ‘60s which saw the breakdown of ceasefire, “it would be quite sad.”
On the part of the Nagas, he says, not adequate people to people contact was made with others in the country, especially with rights group who “would understand the pain” and those who have undergone “similar but not the same” ordeals.
Deepak Dewan, executive editor of the North East Sun magazine, says this is a time when both parties to the talks are using pressure tactics “all in the name of negotiations.” The talks are poised at a stratum where the Nagas should not talk ‘sovereignty’ and India should not impose her constitution, he supplements.
News writers should not go by “wild guesses”, he advises, and brings into focus the need for quoting relevant sources since the issue is “very sensitive”.
Director of the Centre for Development and Peace Studies located at Guwahati, Wasbir Hussein, reiterates what he has been continuously advocating – transparency in negotiations. Both the Centre and the NSCN (I-M) have to reveal outcomes after every round of talks, according to him. In today’s new-world-order, the Nagas engaged in the talks have to seek a diplomatic solution, he says, and adds that the road ahead is “not going to be simple.”
He questions if the NSCN (I-M) is the only representative of the Naga people. “If not, there is a problem.” Unless the Naga people sort out differences among themselves, it would be too naïve to say that a solution is at hand, he ponders.
Thus far, while the government of India has shown its resolve to keep the ceasefire at status quo, it has however failed to provide any credible indication which demonstrates its will in progressing from ceasefire to solution.
AASU chokes Naga lifelines The Telegraph
- Tit-for-tat act a day after Naga raid on three border villages of Assam A STAFF REPORTER


Police personnel patrol a deserted road in Sivasagar on Friday. (PTI)
Guwahati, July 6: Two Nagaland districts dependent on Assam for supplies are paying the price for the havoc wrought by Naga raiders on three border villages yesterday.
Mokokchung and Mon felt the first pinch of retaliation when the All Assam Students’ Union began blocking trucks and other vehicles headed for the two districts through Sivasagar and Jorhat. Kushal Dutta, president of the Sivasagar unit of the AASU, said all five routes leading to Nagaland had been “sealed” and that the economic blockade would continue indefinitely.
A 12-hour Sivasagar bandh, also declared by the AASU, brought life to a standstill across the district before the blockade took effect in the evening. Two villagers were shot, houses razed and tethered cattle charred in their burning sheds during the 45-minute raid by Nagas armed with rifles and sharp weapons.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi deputed three senior ministers to visit the villages and asked the Sivasagar administration to provide relief to the residents.
On the other hand, Mokokchung deputy commissioner Abhisekh Singh sent an SOS to his counterparts in Sivasagar and Jorhat in anticipation of a food shortage. “Since supply of essentials — from food items to fuel — to Mokokchung and Mon comes through Assam, we are sure to face a shortage,” he said. Singh said the Mokokchung administration had already instituted an inquiry into the raid on Assam villages and registered a case at Tuli police station. He promised that the guilty would be brought to book. The Sivasagar administration had yesterday asked for the masterminds of the raid to be handed to Assam for trial.
Nagaland had faced a similar crisis about a year ago when truckers did not ferry goods for over a week in protest against an assault on one of them along the Mariani-Mokokchung road.
The only support for Nagaland in the wake of the raid on Assam villages came from the banned Ulfa. The militant group urged the AASU to call off the economic blockade as a humanitarian gesture. It said the economic blockade would only divide people of the two sister states.
The boundary dispute between Assam and Nagaland has been festering since 1968, when Nagaland police attacked Assamese villagers at the Doyang reserve forest. A similar incident occurred at Rengma reserve forest of Karbi Anglong on January 5, 1979.
The worst clash was on June 4, 1985, when over 100 people died in firing between Assam and Nagaland police at Merapani. That incident led to the states signing an interim agreement to maintain status quo on the boundary.
No settlement reached with Assam public MCCI condemns border incident Morung Express News
Mokokchung, July 6 (MExN): Reports reaching here from Geeleki Town said that in a meeting held today, no settlement has been reached so far.
Highly reliable sources said that the public are not happy with the Assam police, who cold bloodedly killed one Naga villager Alemongba, early last month. However, the Assam public is also equally unhappy that innocent labourers have been killed.
However, Assam public is also saying that they want no hostility with the Naga public and that violence is not the way. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Mokokchung, Abhishek Singh has strongly appealed to both the Assamese and Naga villagers to restrain from taking any actions that may escalate the situation.
“I want to appeal to both the villagers of Assam and Nagaland at the border areas that it is a fact that we will remain neighbours. A incident like this should not come in the way of the cordial relationship we shared,” said Singh.
He also called upon the Assamese villagers that whoever has committed the crime is done by criminals and that they should not be branded to either Assamese or Naga community. “Criminals belong to criminal community, and the innocent should not be targeted because of them, and we should not brand them to that community or that community,” said Singh. The Mokokchung Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI), today strongly strongly condemned the incident that occurred at Anaki ‘C’ Village on July 5, where two persons lost their lives.
“Whoever have done this, they are subject to outright condemnations from all sections of our society. This kind of arsons and killing will never bring peace to anybody anywhere” said M Bendangnukshi Longkumer, the president of the MCCI in a press release.
The MCCI also requested the Government to take appropriate steps with right earnest in order to book the culprits and award punishment for the crime committed. The MCCI further appealed to all the people from the states of Nagaland and Assam to restrain from escalating violence, maintaining the age-old friendly relations between the people of both the states, Longkumer said.
ULFA urge NSCN to rein trouble makers The Morung Express
Guwahati, July 6 (Agencies): The proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) today urged both the factions of NSCN to retrain any such organization trying to create misunderstanding between Assamese and Naga community over boundary dispute.
Chairman of the outfit, Aurobindo Rajkhowa through a press statement informed that a Nagaland based organization has claimed Nazira town in Assam as integral part of Nagaland. The outfit pointed out that such un-historic claim is responsible for Thursday’s tragedy where two persons were killed and many houses were gutted during a raid. Citing example of century old bonhomie between the two communities, the outfit also urged organizations to restrain from economic blockade because that would put the general Naga populace in hardship. “Instead, everyone should pressurize the government to find an amicable solution to age old boundary dispute” the statement said.
Stone quarries under control of Naga militants From Our Correspondent Assam Tribune
GOLAGHAT, July 6 – During the period of peace negotiation of the NSCN with the Central Government, the Naga extremists looted the forest products unabatedly with the help of the neutral forces and forest department, it is known from the reliable sources.

The Assam government had received a large amount of revenues from 1984 to 1996 from the stone quarries of the Doyang river within Nopani of ‘C’ sector of the Assam-Nagaland border upto Pithaghat. But due to the court injunction of the Guwahati High Court, the stone quarries were banned in 1996.

But the NSCN extremists used to appropriate revenues regularly with the help of some corrupted officers of the Assam government. The stone quarries were managed by the Rengma unit ranger but it was seen that the chairman of the Naga Village Council of the Limairbosti had carried stones from quarries of the Doyang river in their own way defying the rules framed by the Assam government. Naga extremists have been collecting revenues from the quarries of Kherbari, Jayantipur and Khuribari areas and as a result the Assam government has had to lose a huge amount of revenues from the stone quarries.
23 incidents so far, dispute continues Our Bureau The Sentinel
GUWAHATI/JORHAT, July 6: Following the dispute over the Asom-Nagaland border, 23 incidents have taken place causing damage to the life and property of people living in bordering areas. Two persons were killed in the latest incident that took place yesterday under Geleky police station in Sivasagar district.
The Nagaland Government has been claiming the whole of North Cachar Hills district covering 1,888 sq mile, more than half of the Karbi Anglong district and a small part of Nagaon district covering 2,368 sq mile and 718 sq mile of greater Sivasagar district covering all the reserved forests adjoining Nagaland, also a number of tea estates and villages lying on the border.
All the claims made by Nagaland was looked into by the Sundaram Committee appointed by the Centre in 1971. The report, of Sundaram Committee was, how-ever, not accepted by the Nagaland Government, while it was accepted by the Asom Government.
According to Government figures, Nagaland has encroached 4,794 hectares of land in Tiru Hills Reserve Forest, 1,532 hecatres of land in Dissoi Reserve Forest and 13,322 hecatres of land in Dissoi Valley Reserve Forest in Jorhat district. In Golaghat district, Nagaland has encroached 17,500 hecatres of Diphu Reserve Forest, 10,000 hecatres of Nambar Reserve Forest, 2,000 hecatres of Rengma Reserve Forest and 1,000 hecatres of Doyang Reserve Forest.
In 1988, the Asom Government filed a case in the Supreme Court over the disputed boundary issue. On September 25, 2006, the apex court ordered the setting up of a local commission under the chairmanship of retired Justice SN Varivwa with Additional Surveyor General of India SP Goel and retired PCCF (Andhra Pradesh) Kamal Naidu as members. The Commission set up two offices in Guwahati and Dimapur. The Commission took up the first hearing in Dimapur on January 9 and 10 this year. The State Government said that it would abide by the constitutional boundary while the Nagaland Government decided to follow the historical border.
The next hearing took place in Guwahati on May 14 and 15 last. It may be mentioned here that in that hearing, no representative from Asom was present while from Nagaland there were five representatives. The next hearing would take place in Dimapur on August 6 and 7.
The killing of two Asomiyas by Nagas at Geleky yesterday brings to the fore the apathy of the State Government and district administrations in tackling the vexed border problem.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who is in London, has expressed concern over yesterday’s incident and asked three of his Cabinet colleagues to take stock of the situation in the affected areas under Geleky police station. Accordingly, Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi, Planning and Development Minister Prithvi Majhi and Handloom and Textile Minister Pranab Gogoi left for the areas.
Haven’t our community leaders failed us? DATELINE GUWAHATI/Wasbir Hussain The Sentinel
The other day, I ran into an MP from Asom at Borjhar Airport who belongs to an ethnic group and represents a vast area encompassing several western districts. The flight to Delhi was delayed and we spoke for over an hour. He claimed that all was not well in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and that some of the erstwhile leaders of the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), now in charge of administering the area, were behaving as sort of feudal lords.
I have not interacted with BTC Chief Hagrama Mohilary for long and, therefore, not aware of what he has to say about the changes his administration has been able to bring to the Bodo heartland in the past few years that they have been ruling the place. But, the fact remains that there has been no social audit, in whatever form, of money spent by the BTC leaders. The BTC, after all, came into being with the Government announcing that it would be provided with an annual allocation of Rs 100 crore, aside from other incentives.
The key question that arises is whether our own community leaders have failed us. Today, the BTC is run by Bodo leaders, with a sprinkling of people belonging to other communities who inhabit the area. Not only do these leaders run the BTC from its headquarters in Kokrajhar, they have their representatives in the Cabinet of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. In a way, these leaders, majority of whom are Bodos, are responsible for improving the lot of their own people in the BTC as well as usher in progress and development in the area. No ‘chauvinist Asomiya force’ or ‘rulers from the Delhi durbar’ are directly responsible anymore for the welfare of the Bodo areas (the feeling so long was that the area was neglected by Dispur and Delhi).
Why then are people not happy as someone like the MP would have us believe? If the BTC has failed to live up to the hopes and aspirations of the locals, why is it that influential organisations like the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) are silent? Or is it that the ABSU today has been totally neutralized by the new power wielders in Kokrajhar? If one is to speculate or analyse the possible turn of events in the coming days, answers to some of the above questions may appear to be totally unimportant. What could be the situation in the Bodo heartland once the Government reaches an agreement with the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB)? Whatever the deal might be (between the Government and the NDFB), the rebels would have to be accommodated politically. But, where is the space available in the Bodo political theatre? Can the former BLT leaders share space with the NDFB bosses? Well, the picture looks hazy to say the least and no one, not even the Bodo community leaders, seem to have any clue just yet.
Now, talking about community leaders failing their people: take the case of the assassination of Purnendu Langthasa, chief executive member of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous District Council, and his colleague Nindu Langthasa, by some rebels of the rag-tag Dima Halam Daougah faction headed by someone called Jewel Garlosa. If the killings are condemnable, the circumstances that led to the killings (the versions in the media that have been corroborated by official sources) are highly deplorable. It is said that the Langthasas had left behind their security guards and had gone to meet with the gun-toting rebels to fix a deal, possibly a financial deal, ahead of the Council polls. It is also said that they were killed after the deal went sour. If this is true, the question arises as to the source of the money that these leaders were planning to give the rebels. Were they trying to buy peace or buy support for the polls? These are uncomfortable questions that need to be clarified to the satisfaction of the stake holders, that is, the people.
In Asom today, we have come to see a heady cocktail of politics, insurgency, and business. And, communities are drawn to this game of power and wealth by none other than the community leaders themselves. The results, of course, have been far from happy.
BORN IN CHAINED By: Lemyao Shimray
'My name is Thilaw
I am ten years old.
I go to school and I am in class – III.
The name of my school is Somra Government Junior High School.'
Smile.
Those are the only common lines he and his school shares with other of the world. For him, the young boy's picture in his Social Studies book, combing hair, with smart school Uniform lives in another world. Thilaw have never seen school uniform in his life nor has he worn shoes to school.

His daily routine starts before the rooster goes for hip-hop atop the tree and ends after the owl hoots. He collects wood or work at fields for his teachers after school. He has to compete with time by kicking the early dust. With his meager lunch and books, a bit- too-tight-pants which clings to his narrow, undernourished body, slimy green snake-like fluid rubbed away from his shirt sleeve, Thilaw gets ready to face another 15 kilometer of journey by foot through the forest to attend school.

Gone is the buffoonery line- 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and strong'.

Unlike other good boys, Thilaw hates vacation because during vacation he was not allowed to play. He has to work for his teachers as a mode of payment in spite of the fees paid by his parents to the teachers. No one questions the forced labour because people like Thilaw are not supposed to ask such thing; they are destine to do it as a volunteer work. Yes! Ten years old boy performing manual labour for his teacher after school is a volunteer work inspite of the urge to play 'warlord' like in his English-I book.

No one questioned the force labour. Like Thilaw's parents, many other Burmese had accepted the law since 1962. Gen Ne Win's draconian era, where the wicked General believes in Force labour and military regime.

His says his books were brought by his parents from far-far away place and that they are very precious.

Another Irony of truth.

His parents like many parents who reside in Eastern Nagaland in a village known as Phungtiere. They have to make two days journey to a place known as Layshi (North of Burma) to collect books for their children. It's a constant struggle. The thirst to educate their children makes them seek schools in the bordering villages of neighbouring country. It was not easy task as it's a constant struggle from getting books to trying to hire teachers for an abandoned school. Children monthly mid day meals were cut off to feed the teachers, Village development schemes are deducted to pay teachers salary and above that they sacrifice their sons and daughters for THE forced labour.

In the end when their children gain education they were frisk away by junta army to get enroll in Army schools and college, where they have to work under Military regime.

Some how it's hard to sing – We don't need no EDUCATION.

This child seems to have forgotten what its like to be free. They seem to have no fear of the prowling earthlings in the forest. Thirst and quest for knowledge were implanted on them so strongly, without them knowing. Sleep and darkness, play and day...all were robbed gently without them noticing.

Come children, angels from earth!
Let me cradle you to sleep.
place you
on the lap of the thunder.
Hear its roar and be afraid for once
'cos' i saw in you
the lost of horrors.

As the schoool bell rang, Thilaw closes his books. He walks silently with a beaming smile to greet the terrace field of the Somra forest. Down below he saw what he had been seeing always - Chains and human beings, bending down, working hard, forced to please their masters.

June, 2007 Somra Village Eastern Nagaland.