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12/12/2007: "Speech of Rh. Raising at the International Human Rights Day held at the Houses of Parliament, London, on 10 December 2007."

Speech of Rh. Raising at the International Human Rights Day held at the Houses of Parliament, London, on 10 December 2007.



Respected Chairperson and honourable members present,



I feel extremely honoured for giving me the opportunity to address this august house on the plight of the suppressed Naga people.



Nagalim is situated in the tri-junction of China on the north, India on the west and Burma on the south east. It has an area of about 120,000 sq km and a population of about four million people. Nagas have been living in their own country and running their own government independently for thousands of years. At no point of time have they ever been subjugated by any alien power.



It was in 1832 that the British colonial forces intruded into the Naga country. Nagas put up strong resistance against the aggression for forty-eight years. The British forces ultimately occupied a portion of Nagalim, leaving the rest as free as ever. However, the Nagas in the British-occupied area declared their independence on 14 August 1947 and merged themselves with the free Nagas. The declaration was intimated to the United Nations and all the embassies in Delhi.



In 1950 the Indian Constituent Assembly invited the Nagas to join the Union of India, but it was rejected outright. Nagas were not a party to the Union of Burma either. As the Government of India levelled wild allegations, stating that the rejection of Union of India was the work of a few Naga leaders and not that of the people, a plebiscite was conducted on 16 May 1951 wherein 99.9% voted in favour of Sovereign Independent Nagalim. Consequently, Indian state invaded on Nagalim with an eye to imposing its will upon the Nagas, which resulted in horrible violation of human rights – massacre, mass rape, and mass detention in concentration camps, mass torture, and destruction of villages, granaries, educational institutions, relics, churches and so on.



We have been resisting the aggression of the Indian and Burmese states since day one, because we know for sure that our national survival lies in resistance to the aggressors, never in submission to them. The Government of India, with a view to dampening the spirit of Naga nationalism and physically dividing the Nagas, created the so-called Nagaland state which is only one-seventh of the Naga area. It was, however, rejected by the Naga people.



Nagas have been placed to live in war situation for over sixty years. Most of the Nagas of the present generation were born and brought up in horrible war situations. This war has produced thousands of widows, orphans and childless parents in Nagalim. We resist this war because it has destroyed everything of us both materially and spiritually. We know war never builds anything. This war of aggression must be uprooted so that there is peace and prosperity on earth. We really want peace and we are for peace. But we do not see the meaning of peace without freedom, truth and justice. Our stand is that our long cherished peace is to be founded on the solid ground of freedom, truth and justice, never on subjugation and capitulation.



The long history of the Naga national movement for independence bears witness to the fact that we have always believed in political solution and taken every opportunity to enter into dialogue with the Government of India, but each time we have been betrayed by the Indian leaders with false promises and assurances. The Collective Leadership has explicitly made it clear to India that Nagas want to be friendly with India and resolve the issue on the basis of federal relation between India and Nagalim. India has not responded to any of the core proposals made by the Naga leaders despite holding sixty rounds of talks. Perpetual extension of the terms of ceasefire on the pretext of commitment and assurances is clearly viewed as a ploy of the Government of India to buy time in order to bury the peace process under the wrap of time.



Nagas are forcibly divided into six parts and placed them in six different administrative units (four in the Indian States and two in the Burmese States). This kind of perpetual ‘divide and rule’ policy has made the Naga brothers and sisters foreigners to each other in their own land. Since the Nagas were politically divided, they should be politically united.



India’s claim of inheriting Nagalim from the British is the greatest lie. If at all Nagalim was part of India, why did India invite the Nagas to join the Union of India? At no stage of history were the Nagas under the rule of any Indian kings. Nagas declared their independence on 14 August 1947, before India and Burma declared their independence. Ours is a case of invasion by India and Burma. Nagas do not believe in forced marriage and forced union.



Human memories are short, but the great events that shook the world in the 1st and 2nd world wars, where Nagas were deeply involved, ever linger in their minds. Four thousand Nagas were sent to France as labour corps in support of the British-led Allied Forces where a good number of them died in distant shores. In the Second World War, the Naga people extended their fullest support to the Allied Forces. However, the international community has not done anything when the Naga people are in trouble.



We look forward with renewed hope that the British in particular and the international community in general would remember the oppressed Nagas to help solve the long drawn Indo-Naga problem.