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01/14/2011: "Paradigm shift in Swu homecoming today NISHIT DHOLABHAI Yje Telegraph"

Paradigm shift in Swu homecoming today NISHIT DHOLABHAI Yje Telegraph

New Delhi: For Naga rebel leader Isak Chishi Swu, 81, it would be a “homecoming” of a different order tomorrow — he is travelling from Bangkok on an Indian passport.
Swu, the chairman of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), will land in the wee hours on Friday at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. He and his 22-year-old daughter will have their passports, bearing the Ashok insignia, stamped at the Indian immigration counter.
For a rebel leader who has fought the Indian government tooth and nail since the sixties and carried Bangladeshi passport for decades, this will be a paradigm shift.
Swu has lived in the Netherlands, the Philippines and Bangkok from time to time.
A few years ago, he had sneaked into India from Bangladesh via Meghalaya and reached Dimapur with state help. It is also a paradigm shift for the NSCN (I-M) whose ageing leaders — general secretary Thuingalang Muivah is also a septuagenarian — are trying to find a final and lasting solution.
Swu will join long-time associate Muivah in the national capital and jointly appear at a massive reception by the Naga community. The reception, which was earlier slated for tomorrow, is likely to be deferred because of Swu’s delay in arrival.
“The leader will stay in Delhi for about a month,” said an NSCN source. During the period, talks with the Centre will be conducted in the presence of interlocutor R.S. Pandey.
Along with Swu and his daughter, six others of a family have also been given Indian passports. Antony Shimray, the NSCN leader picked up from Nepal and later arrested in Bihar last year had his family living in Thailand. Sources said the family members are returning home on Indian passports. They, too, earlier held Bangladeshi passports.
The Bangladeshi passports have been surrendered, sources said.
Militants from the Northeast, including Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, have used Bangladeshi passports for years, to travel to the Southeast Asian countries and Pakistan.
With India’s security policy evolving, the responses from militants are changing but so have reactions of North Block. “Why should we not allow them to get Indian passports when they are Indians?” argued an official of the home ministry.
In case of Swu, the NSCN has been demanding that he be given his passport, sources said as his Bangladesh passport was due to expire soon. Security agencies are happy that Indian passports will facilitate the authorities to keep a tab on their movements.
The NSCN leader’s willingness to come on an Indian passport indicates his resolve to solve the problem for good. Flag-waving young boys and girls in traditional attire and choirs singing gospel songs will enliven the reception which is expected to be an emotional affair for the NSCN’s supporters.
NSCN-IM and KNO signed MoU in Oct 2010 to carve out Manipur Creation of Kukiland and Greater Nagalim, demarcation of boundaries agreed upon Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, January 13, 2011: The Kuki National Organisation (KNO) demanding a separate state to be carved out of Manipur is understood to have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN)-IM regarding the boundary of “Nagalim” and “Kuki-state”.

The NSCN-IM has also been seeking to integrate Naga inhabited areas in Manipur to Nagaland to form Greater Nagaland.

A highly placed source said that the MoU was signed between the KNO and NSCN-IM in October last year and it was witnessed by leaders of civil and students organisations of both Kukis and Nagas.

Leaders of Kuki Inpi, Kuki Nampi Palai, Kuki Students' Organisation represented the Kuki people and the Naga people was represented by leaders of United Naga Council (UNC), All Naga Students' Association of Manipur (ANSAM), Naga Students' Federation (NSF) and Naga Peoples' Movement for Human Rights, the source disclosed.

The MoU was signed with the objective of ending the decade old conflict over the lands inhabited by the Kukis and the Nagas in the hills of Manipur.

“The Kuki and Naga people shall maintain the best of fraternal relations and work together to preserve peace in the land and usher in progress and human welfare in the Kuki and Naga states and the rest of the world,' the fourth and last point of the MoU stated.

The first point of the MoU stated that history is witness to the fact that the present hill districts of Manipur have been inhabited exclusively by the indigenous Kuki and Naga peoples prior to any recorded historiography of the region and the lands form their ancestral territory.

“We had our own established systems of governing these lands until the British placed our lands under the Manipur Durbar.

The Meitei Kingdom always consisted of the valley areas which today form the valley districts of Manipur,” it added.

The hill areas presently demarcated as Churachandpur and Chandel districts of Manipur, the autonomous Sadar Hills Region of Senapati district and all Kuki villages in Ukhrul, Senapati and Tamenglong districts contiguous to Chandel, Sadar hills and Churachandpur belong to the Kuki people and shall form the Kuki state.

Likewise, the hill areas presently demarcated as Ukhrul and Tamenglong districts of Manipur, the areas of Senapati district other than the Sadar Hills Autonomous region, and all Naga villages in the Sadar Hills region of Senapati, Chandel and Churachandpur districts belong to the Naga people and shall be integrated into greater Nagalim, the second point of the MoU declared.

The third point states, the Kuki villages in the interior of Ukhrul, Tamenglong and areas of Senapati district other than the "Autonomous District Region of Sadar Hills" will remain within greater Nagalim and the Naga government will endeavour to protect, promote and develop these villages and the people with equality, a spirit of fraternity and fairness.

The Naga villages in the interiors of Sadar Hills Autonomous Region in Senapati district, Chandel and Churachandpur districts shall remain within the Kuki state and the Kuki government shall endeavour to protect, promote and develop these villages and the people with equality, a spirit of fraternity and fairness.

The MoU was signed between KNO president PS Haokip and general secretary NSCN(IM) Th Muivah, disclosed the source.

The MoU was signed with full regard for the aspirations of the people for self-determination, peace, development, progress and peaceful co-existence, and so that people can join the rest of the country and the world in the march into the 21st century and beyond, and the signatories have mutually resolved to commit the peoples to the declaration, the source said.
Nagaland NCP legislators join NPF OUR CORRESPONDENT The Telegraph
Kohima, Jan. 14: Two NCP legislators, Chumben Murry and Pangnyu Phom, have joined the Naga Peoples Front (NPF), the leading partner in the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government.
Murry, minister for agriculture in the Neiphiu Rio cabinet and president of the Nagaland unit of the NCP, and Phom, parliamentary secretary for rural development, stated in a release that they had “merged” with the NPF.
The press secretary of the NPF, Abu Metha, said the NCP’s state unit and its legislators had decided to “merge” with the NPF as they were satisfied with the development in the state under Rio’s leadership.
He said with the resignation of Murry, NCP no longer existed in Nagaland. “We have welcomed them to our fold.” He claimed that NCP officials would resign en block very soon to strengthen Rio’s hands in running the government. “It is a shot in the arm for Rio,” he added.
The NCP rubbished the claim, saying the Murray and Phom had “defected” to the NPF and that the Nagaland unit of the party was still intact. It criticised the statement of its two former legislators and termed them “defectors” for “their own selfish interests”.
The NCP general secretary in-charge of the Northeast, Neiba Ndang, said it was a clear case of defection and not a merger.
The Congress said Murry and Phom were uncomfortable and had joined the NPF to secure their seats in the government.
Sources in the NPF said Murry had submitted his resignation to party president Sharad Pawar. They also said Speaker Kiyanilie Peseyie had accepted the merger.
Murry and Phom could not be contacted. The DAN is now an alliance of only the NPF and six Independents as two BJP legislators had also defected to the NPF in 2009. With the latest defection, the number of NPF legislators has now gone upto 41 in the House, which had 59 members at present. One seat has remained vacant since the death of Congress MLA Nunshizungba Ao last year.
God-Land-People- An Ethnic Naga Identity’ book launched morungexpress


(Left) Michael Harvey, Executive Director of Conference of Baptist Minister in Massachusetts, USA formally launches the book “God-Land-People- An Ethnic Naga Identity” written by (Right) Mar Imsong at Lotha Baptist Church Dimapur.

Dimapur, January 9 (MExN): “God-Land-People- An Ethnic Naga Identity,” written by Mar Imsong was released today at the Lotha Baptist Church, Dimapur. Michael Harvey, Executive Director of Conference of Baptist Minister in Massachusetts, USA formally launched the book during a rejoicing worship service led by Lotha Baptist Church Dimapur. Harvey introduced the book as a model for the whole world, saying that even though it mainly addresses Naga issues; it can serve as an example to the whole world. He felt that people need to start taking care of the earth that God has given and that the triad, i.e God-Land- People should be respected. “God-Land-People- An Ethnic Naga Identity, should be published widely,” he said.
Michael Harvey was also the key speaker at the service. The author is also founder of Nagaland Mercy Mission, a society that works towards full inclusion of people living with disabilities led a candle lighting service in dedication to all people living with disabilities. Special numbers were presented by DABA, Venutolu Tetseo and Illitoli. The book is published by Heritage Publishing House and priced at Rs. 380. It will be available at Heritage Publishing House for the time-being and later made available at major bookstores and outlets.

Meet the Author:
While interacting with The Morung Express, the author shared that ‘God-Land-People’ was born when he started questioning himself ‘who am I.’ The author points that Nagas had to live with military atrocities and recollects how he had to carry an Id even though he was living in his own land. Also, he says the stories he had heard about people who suffered from the hands of the military people got him thinking. He says that the book eventually started in 2007 as a theoretical idea when he tried to connect the ethnic-Naga history with the British, ethnic-Naga relation with Indians and ethnic-Naga relation to Christianity.
He explains that Land is not just a piece of property for Nagas and includes everything including the spiritual and material world, which thus shaped the traditional Naga identity and ethos, the triad of God-Land-People. Mar says that his book is just the beginning and through it he has tried to capture the Naga identity. “The problem that we are facing today is really an issue of identity,” he says. He also says that the problems faced by Nagas today, some people have tried to term it as an economy problem, while other has said it’s a problem of Sexitisation. “But it is not true,” he says.
Mar also believes that many of the Naga problems can be solved if we try to relate it to a relational aspect. He also stated that many of our political struggles can be solved. “It is only when our true identity is discovered, and then there can be a solution,” he says. Defining identity in relational aspect can solve a problem. It is not in exclusivity that we define our Naganess but it is in the inclusivity of all tribes, he says.
His books, he says is ultimately targeted towards the academic community, Theology students, social workers, and other Indian scholars. He also assures that through the book, he has not defined the Naga identity but merely shown the starting point, and hopes that maybe some scholar can even take the idea forward. I have just laid down a conceptual framework he says, and adds “I don’t claim to have a final definition on Naga identity.”
The only critique, he has strongly received, he reveals that is that today we are all living in a global world. But Mar says that in order for ‘me’ to be introduced to the global world ‘I’ need to have an identity.
Mar Imsong is a native of Yaongyimsen village of Mokokchung district in Nagaland. He worked in the Student Christian Movement of India and taught in seminaries in India prior to going to US in 1997. A passionate preacher, social worker, and an activist for justice, peace and inclusive ministry, he is currently working for the Massachusetts Baptist Multicultural Ministries. He is also the founder of Nagaland Mercy Mission, an organization formed to provide help, guidance and hope for persons with developmental and physical disabilities in Dimapur.

District demand counters Nagalim NISHIT DHOLABHAI Morungexpress
New Delhi, Jan. 10: A fresh demand from the districts of Nagaland is benign for the security establishment, which will use the issue to checkmate Naga rebel leader Thuingalang Muivah’s demand for integration of Naga areas.
Last month, a group of leaders from the Eastern Naga People’s Organisation (ENPO) submitted a memorandum to the Union ministry of home affairs on the formation of a new state out of Tuensang, Mon, Kiphire and Longleng districts in Nagaland. The tribes here — Konyak, Khiamniungan, Sangtam, Phom, Chang and Yimchungru — have felt neglected, as “elite tribes” from the state have been politically powerful since its statehood in 1963.
A memorandum raising a similar demand but with inclusion of tribal areas in Arunachal Pradesh was also submitted to Vice-President Hamid Ansari, when he visited Nagaland last year.
The demand for a new state and its name, Nagaland Frontier, perhaps has a connection in political historical and social relations besides political engineering.
The Tuensang Frontier Division was a part of the reconstituted North East Frontier Area reconstituted under North-East Frontier Areas (Administration) Regulation of 1954. Comprising the present four districts, the division was later separated in 1957 and merged with Naga Hills.
A rift between the economically and educationally backward “eastern areas” — literacy hovers around 35 per cent in Mon district opposed to 80 per cent in Kohima — and so-called “forward” tribes was reason good enough to offer political opportunities. Delhi will use this opportunity to counter Muivah.
“The new demand of these four districts completely demolishes the demand for an integrated Nagalim by NSCN (I-M),” said a government source. “Every villager from 680 villages in this area and every village chief, has signed the memorandum,” a senior home ministry official said.
The demand has already gained momentum.
Nagaland Garos appeal to end clash Correspondent Assam tribune
DIMAPUR, Jan 10 – The Nagaland Garo Tribal Council (NGTC) and the Garo Students’ Union, Nagaland Zone at an emergency meeting has appealed for immediate stop to the ongoing clashes between the Garos and Rabhas along Assam-Meghalaya border for the sake of future generations of both the communities.
The meeting held at Naharbari village here on Saturday described the clash as “most unfortunate and mutually damaging” and said both the Garos and Rabhas are of same ethnic origin who can march forward unitedly and with cooperation in every field of development, be it educational, economic and political.
“At this juncture, we should not pay any heed to any instigation against each other from any quarter, as it will be harmful and self degrading to both the tribes,” NGTC said in a release.
The Garo community, Dimapur has also fervently urged all the elders, student leaders and intellectuals of both the tribes to take prompt steps to bring about normalcy and permanent peace between the two tribes.
The meeting further resolved to make an appeal through the media to the State Governments of Assam and Meghalaya to make all out efforts to contain this ‘shameful and self-degrading ethnic clashes’ between the two same ethnic origin tribes immediately.