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04/01/2011: "Rio justifies support to Nagas outside OUR CORRESPONDENT The Telegraph"


Rio justifies support to Nagas outside
OUR CORRESPONDENT The Telegraph
Kohima, March 29: Chief minister Neiphiu Rio today cited the Tamil Nadu example while voicing his support for rights of Nagas in Myanmar.
On the final day of the budget session today, Rio asked when the Tamil Nadu government could raise its voice for Tamils in Sri Lanka, why can’t Nagaland do the same for Nagas in Myanmar and elsewhere?
He dismissed the charges of the Opposition Congress that his Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) had claimed credit for the recognition of Nagas in Myanmar.
Rio said how his government had pursued the matter with the Centre and Myanmar government for the recognition of the Naga people there.
“Our delegation had met the Prime Minister, home minister and national security adviser and submitted a memorandum to extend financial assistance to develop Naga-inhabited areas in Myanmar,” the chief minister said.
The DAN government submitted a memorandum to the Centre last year listing the number of Naga villages, population and townships, along with maps. They also met the ambassador of Myanmar, who had pledged speedy development of Naga-inhabited areas in Myanmar.
“Why somebody should be so unhappy about the recognition of Naga people in Myanmar?” Rio asked the Opposition. The Opposition has been criticising the DAN for interfering with the internal affairs of Myanmar.
The chief minister also said his government has been in touch with Naga Hoho in Myanmar, Naga Myanmar Baptist Convention, Naga leaders and other Naga organisations to carry forward the development process.
“We do everything in a transparent manner,” he said. He said there would be cultural exchange programmes between the Nagas of Nagaland and Myanmar, which will boost emotional integration.
Rio said Naga leaders in Myanmar have appreciated the welfare initiatives taken by his government.
“You have achieved what your predecessors could not do,” a letter addressed to him by Naga leaders in Myamnar said.
“I think we should continue to support them,” the chief minister said adding that people who are criticising them do not understand the ground reality in Myanmar.
Rio urged Naga lawmakers to work together for development and to facilitate the ongoing peace process. Rio said he was aware that the state government was formed under the Constitution but the Centre had given special status to Nagas and, therefore, their unique identity, culture and tradition need to be protected.
He was reacting to Congress MLA and PCC president Sungit Jamir’s comment that the Centre had ruled out the demand of sovereignty and integration of Naga-inhabited areas.
Naga people want to unite, says Rio
Correspondent Assam Tribune
KOHIMA, March 26 – Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said today the DAN Political Affairs Committee, comprising the elected members in the Government and also the allied partners of political group, met all the faction leaders/NGOs/civil societies and came out with a clear and united view that people want to unite and reconcile.
“This is the voice of the Naga people,” affirmed Rio while replying to a supplementary by leader of opposition Tokheho and MLA Sentichuba on the floor of the House in the ongoing Budget session today.
Rio further said the DAN PAC and the people of Nagaland have done a commendable job and has contributed towards a peaceful atmosphere.
Further, replying to a starred question by Tokheho on the progress of Naga political talks, the leader of the House replied that the State Government was not in a position to state the progress of the political talks as the State Government is not a party to the talk between the NSCN-M and Government of India.
The Chief Minister also informed the House about the constitution of Political Affairs Committee of DAN, formation of Joint Parliamentary Committee as facilitators on the Naga political issue with the purpose of working for the unity of the Naga nationalist groups and strengthening the Naga political cause.
Earlier in his Budget speech on March 24, Rio appealed to the Naga nationalist groups to restrain their cadres from armed confrontations and to desist from provocative statements.
Maintaining that Nagas are at a crucial juncture of the political movement, he said “we cannot afford to let this opportunity slip away”.
Mother of insurgencies or reinvention?
M.S. Prabhakara The Hindu
Has the Naga insurgency come to terms with its unrealised and, indeed, unrealisable sovereignty aspirations?
In the early 1980s (when this correspondent returned to Guwahati as working journalist after an eight-year absence), insurgency in the northeast was limited to Nagaland, parts of Manipur and what was then the Union Territory of Mizo Hills. In Nagaland, the Naga National Council (NNC), political face of the oldest of the insurgencies in the region, was led by Angami Zapu Phizo, then in exile in Britain. Despite the challenge posed by a faction of the NNC that had recently split after much rancour on both sides and formed itself into the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), the NNC remained the dominant voice of Naga nationalistic assertion. In Manipur, Naga insurgency was active those days in the Naga-inhabited hill districts mainly in Tamenglong, while in the Imphal Valley, several outfits, some of them fighting one another as much as the Indian state, were active: the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA), the People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP). In the Union Territory of Mizo Hills, the Mizo National Front (MNF) arrived at the Talk-Talk-Fight-Fight stage, and was on the way to give up its secessionist agenda, sign a peace accord and become a legitimate party of the government. Insurgency had not become a generalised fact of life in the region including Assam, though formally the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) had been founded in April 1979.
The objectives of all these organisations, including the nascent ULFA, were broadly the same: independence and sovereignty, the restoration of sovereignty that ‘lapsed' to the people these organisations claimed to represent when the British left India but which India refused to concede.
The undeniable historical fact underlying this idea of ‘restoration of sovereignty' as against the ‘demand for sovereignty' is that beginning with the British annexation of Assam following the defeat of Burma in 1826 in the First Anglo-Burmese War, the colonial government had embarked on consolidating the boundaries of these newly acquired vast territories, progressively annexing more of these borderlands and extending its own boundaries. The annexation process was neither painless nor fair; nor even conclusive, the last most evident in the description of some of the ‘new' territories in the old maps as “excluded,” “partially excluded” and “unadministered” areas. The bland bureaucratic prose of the introductory chapter of the Assam Land Revenue Manual says it all.
However, received wisdom had it even those days that the resolution of Naga insurgency was central to resolving other insurgencies, actual and incipient. Long before such disaffection manifested itself among other people of the region, tribal and non-tribal, Phizo himself had tried on the eve of Independence to enlist the support of the largest and most advanced of the people, the Assamese, as well as other tribal people who, in course of time, were to form the core of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram — the last two then politically and administratively part of Assam — for realising his plan for an Independent Nagaland. He also urged them to seek an independent status outside India.
Being the oldest insurgency in the region, which had also lent some material support to other disaffected elements, this perception was somewhat justified. This has been especially so since the NNC split and the formation of the NSCN in early 1980. Even though the NSCN in due course also split into two factions, and the NNC has refused to fade away, the NSCN (I-M) bearing the initials of chairman Isak Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah remains the dominant voice of the sovereignty aspirations of the Naga people.
However, all these insist that settlement of the “Naga political issue,” that is restoration of Naga sovereignty and independence — the resolution of what has come to be known in the Naga nationalist rhetoric as “the mother of all insurgencies” in the region — is central to resolving the other problems in the region.
This perspective has been expressed several times by Muivah since the NSCN (I-M) began talking directly to the Government of India nearly 15 years ago. During this period, the NSCN (I-M) leaders have met several Prime Ministers in foreign lands and in India, and have had prolonged dialogue with ‘interlocutors,' initially in cities in Europe and South East Asia, and later in Delhi. Peace of a kind has prevailed in Nagaland and in the Naga inhabited areas of Manipur, though the “Naga political issue” remains unresolved. The other side of this peace is the parallel administration of the NSCN (I-M), which is evident to the most casual visitor to Nagaland and the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur. Perhaps one can see this as the Naga people's unique way of reconciling the irreconcilable, the “resolution of the Naga political issue” without actually getting the lost sovereignty restored. By simply putting these tricky issues on the back burner, the State government and the Government of the People's Republic of Nagalim coexist in Kohima and near Dimapur. Situations where legitimately constituted State governments face challenges far more dire prevail in many parts of eastern and central India.
How has this unique “resolution of the Naga political issue” impinged on the ferment in the rest of the region? Has the “mother of all insurgencies” in the region, whose leaders now travel on Indian passports with all implications of securing such a document, come to terms with its unrealised and indeed unrealisable sovereignty aspirations and injected a dose of realism into the sovereignty aspirations of other groups with far less legitimate claims than the Naga people who, under Phizo, formally declared Independence on August 14, 1947?
One significant development in the insurgency scenario is the “arrest” of senior leaders of ULFA and their resolve to hold talks with the Government of India without any precondition. Another is the “arrest” of UNLF chairman Rajkumar Sanayaima, who maintains that he was abducted by Indian agents in Dhaka and brought to India. Unlike ULFA leaders who are on bail, Sanayaima remains in prison, defiant about not talking to the Government of India except on four preconditions being accepted, the core of which is a plebiscite under U.N. supervision to ascertain if the people of Manipur want to remain part of the country. The differences in the government's approach to the NSCN (I-M), the ULFA and the UNLF are as striking as is the relatively realistic approach of the first two which too were insisting that the core issue in any talks with the government had to be sovereignty. Like the lady in the song, the NSCN (I-M) and ULFA leaders kept saying they would never consent, and yet consented. Will the UNLF follow suit?
There are other interesting developments on the insurgency front. Since the mother of all insurgencies began speaking to the government, other insurgent or terrorist groups have become active; these outfits have survived and even prospered by their capacity to reinvent themselves, though not their stated aims and objectives, and are carrying on. The most curious instance of such reinvention is the path taken by Dima Halong Daoga (DHD), based in the North Cachar hills of Assam, one of the two Autonomous Hills Districts of the State, the other being Karbi Anglong where too the United Peoples Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), like almost every similar outfit, split into pro-talks and anti-talks factions. The DHD's reinvention of itself by using a section of the Indian state, in this case, the administration of the North Cachar Autonomous District Council, a constitutional body, to channel development funds meant for the district to itself, an outlawed outfit, is indeed breathtaking. The charge sheet by the National Investigative Agency available on http://nia.gov.in/niacases.aspx provides the most salutary education on the reinvention of insurgencies.
NPF backs AGP, Bodo parties
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Kohima, March 31: The Nagaland People’s Front, the main constituent of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), which is part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre said it is supporting the AGP and Bodo parties in the ensuing Assam elections.
“I am constantly in touch with Prafulla Kumar Mahanta,” chief minister and NPF leader Neiphiu Rio told The Telegraph. “I extend support to the AGP and all the Bodo parties. We are very friendly parties. We want to work for the protection of the minorities,” he added.
He said a Northeast Regional Forum consisting of like-minded regional parties would be formed after the elections in Assam. This forum will be vocal about the welfare of the region. However, the launch of the forum has been deferred because of the elections in Assam. The new forum will include the NCP.
The NPF today was formally launched in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh with the formation of ad hoc executive committees.
After launching the party in two states, the chief minister said their intention was never to create problem in other states but to work for the Nagas who have been discriminated against and suppressed. He said the decision to launch the NPF in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh was taken after series of consultations and discussions with the people and leaders of the two states.
“Our intention is never to create problems but to work for the interest of our Naga people there,” the chief minister said. When asked about the prospect of his party particularly in Manipur because of the volatile situation, Rio said it would be too early to comment but added that NPF would take up issues confronting Naga people there.
Be it in Manipur or Arunachal Pradesh, Nagas have become a minority and are discriminated against and suppressed. “We will fight for justice and see that it is delivered to them. We will fight for unity and reconciliation of our people,” the chief minister said.
NPF president, Shurhozelie Liezietsu will soon write letters to political parties in these two states to recognise his party as a political party.
Members of the ad hoc executive committee for Manipur are G. Gaingam (president), Solomon Veino (working president), Kho John (general secretary), Ningreigam Ruivah (secretary), K. Lianpibou (joint secretary), Somi Keishing (spokesperson) and Samuel Risom (treasurer). The advisory committee comprised Soso Lorho, Prof. Gangmumei Kamei and Prof. M. Horam, all former ministers of Manipur.
NWHD submits memo to Naga Political Leaders Morungexpress
Dimapur, March 31 (MExN): Expressing appreciation, support and concerns to the Government of the Peoples Republic of Nagalim, The Naga Women Hoho, Dimapur submitted a memorandum to the Naga Political leaders: NSCN /GPRN & GPRN/NSCN on March 28, 2011 stating “Support for Naga Reconciliation and Peace Process at the Highest Level Meeting”. Through the memorandum, appended by Hukheli T. Wotsa, president, and Liangsi Niumai John, general secretary, Naga Women Hoho, The NWHD has earnestly appealed to all the Naga political groups, that the Naga peace process initiated by GPRN and FNR must reach the highest level talks and accomplish the mission of ‘Journey of Common Hope’ with an honorable solution.
NWHD in the memo further stated “Our prayers, support, voice and our will are the strength we can contribute to ‘our Naga Political groups’ and it is for you now to carry the peace and reconciliation process forward without any further delay. The time has come for the collective leaders to meet and explore together the possibilities of joint working mechanism to pursue our historical and political right.”
Concerning collection of tax by the groups, the ‘hoho’ said that while respecting and having deep faith to all the Naga Political Groups, it stated in the memo, “we would like to draw your kind attention to the practice of collecting multiple taxes from the public beyond what is to be collected and collecting even from the disabled and unemployed entrepreneurs. Please encourage our promising young Naga Entrepreneurs by exempting tax from them. We strongly urge you that having concern in this kind of issue would give you remarkable strength and support in our ‘Journey of Common Hope’”.
The memo further said “Today is the golden opportunity for the Naga Women of Dimapur District to interact with you and to hear from you the present Status of the Peace Process which the Collective Leadership could do after signing the Covenant of Reconciliation in June 2009. Thus, we pledge with solidarity as citizens and civil society women organization to work for the right and welfare of our communities and to address issue concerning our historical right and political right. We, therefore, earnestly plead with your Excellency to take up the Seal of Courage from God and go forward without any delay such opportunity comes only once. Only with Sincerity, Strong Determination and through the spirit of Reconciliation, we can secure and defend our National Right which was given by God.”
‘India listened to us only when we took up arms’ Tehelka
The Naga rebellion has spawned many groups in the past 60 years. NSCN-IM’s Maj Gen Phunthing Shimray tells AVALOK LANGER that his outfit wants to bring all Nagas under one administrative umbrella



Nestled in the dense jungles of the Naga Hills, the Naga people’s movement simmers, ignored and unresolved. Since 1946, the Naga National Council (NNC) had championed the cause, but today, a new generation of separatists hold the reins of the movement.
Dissatisfied and unwilling to accept the controversial Shillong Accord, by which members of the NNC came overground and surrendered, Isak Chisi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and SS Khaplang broke away from the group and formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980. With external support, the NSCN pushed towards self-reliance and sustainability. As it grew into a modern, organised and lethal movement, it lent support to other rebel outfits.
In 1988, the NSCN split into NSCN-IM (Isak Chisi Swu and Th. Muivah) and NSCN-K (SS Khaplang). Today, 10 years into the ceasefire, Nagaland’s demand for freedom remains intact. Excerpts from an interview with Maj Gen Phunthing Shimray, one of the new generation leaders, in Mokokchung:


Free spirit Money and development won’t solve our problems, says Shimray
PHOTO: AVALOK LANGER

What is keeping the Naga movement going?
When I go to India, they tell me, ‘You are a part of India, you should be happy that you have everything.’ But I want to be free, I want my right to choose. India’s claim to Nagaland is a legal one, because Nagaland was handed over to them by the British. But nations aren’t just born, they are created by people coming together. It is not about having a legal right, it is about the aspirations of the people and their right to choose. We never chose India. If the aspirations of a people are not met, there will always be conflict. For 200 years, the British ignored the aspirations of India and this gave rise to the Indian freedom struggle. Today, India is ignoring the aspirations of the Nagas and we are fighting for our right to self-determination.
The NSCN has been described as ‘the mother of insurgencies’ in the Northeast. Did it offer support to other movements?
If you are beaten up every now and then, won’t you raise your voice? Won’t you seek legal recourse? If the law fails you, then what, won’t you take it up yourself? It is not a question of helping them; it is about struggling people aspiring for their rights. India talks about 8 percent growth, but who is growing, my friend? Not the common man. India’s democracy is only benefiting the privileged few. Earlier, the Northeast was considered untouchable, it was ignored, a taboo of sorts. No one looked at us or heard our problems when we used the democratic process. But now that we have taken up arms, the Indians listen. We may have helped some of the organisations, but all of them have their own source: the people.
Rumour has it that the NSCN-IM actively helped the Naxal movement. Is there any truth in this?
Yes, we helped them, but not since the commencement of the ceasefire (10 years ago). For us, it is not about left, right, capitalist or communist. It is about the people, about their rights and aspirations.
What is your reply to those who believe that development will end the Naga insurgency?
It has been 60 years, if it had to, it would have died out by now. The Indian government pumps in crores every year but nationalism can’t be bought, it comes from the heart. Even if Dimapur and Kohima become like Kolkata, the movement will not die. Yes, there may be some who are taken in by development, but the numbers are with the movement. It is not about money, it is not about development. It is about our rights, our freedom and the uniqueness of the Naga people who can’t be bought.
The NSCN-IM leaders visited Delhi in March and submitted a list of 30 confidential demands. Some media reports said they had given up the demand for sovereignty and only want greater autonomy...
What does greater autonomy mean to you? To me, it means sovereignty. We cannot compromise on that, it is the right of the people, the will of the Nagas. In a democratic set-up, the will of the people is supreme. We also asked for separate passports. If I have a separate identity from you, wouldn’t I want my own passport? Nagalim (Greater Nagaland) has always been our goal, we have always wanted to bring all Nagas under one administrative umbrella. There is nothing new about that.


A view of Mokokchung
PHOTO: ESTHER KEMP

Like Jammu and Kashmir was given its own constitution, flag and special provisions, would you be willing to go down that path?
That is not an option. We don’t want a Naga version of Article 370. It has done nothing for the Kashmiris. It gave them all the power to run their state, but at the same time India took it all back. So, what’s the use? You need a home, a place you call your own, a place you can go back to. Once you have that, you can travel the world. Without that, you are a man without a country. For example, where do you originally come from? (I try to explain my confusing mixture of pre-Partition North West Frontier and Kashmiri lineage. He smiled and continued...) See, you didn’t fight for your homeland and now you have lost it. You are a man without a nation and that is a future we won’t settle for.
How do you react when people say that the Naga people’s movement is an insurgency? Does that bother you?
Bhagat Singh was called a terrorist once. People said he was just an angry man acting out of frustration, but he was not afraid to die for his beliefs. He was a one-man army battling the British, but he fought for his cause, his people. The British labelled him a terrorist, an underground element, but today, he is revered as a freedom fighter, a national hero.
When I was young, I saw my people struggling. That is why I wanted to help my people. I am pushed to lead my people by my conviction. I am who I am and you are who you are, but we must learn to accept each other for our differences. Then we can move forward, that is what I want.
Nagaland minus an old defect Indian Express
Nagaland appeared to have sprung a surprise by registering a negative population growth - minus 0.47 per cent , implying its population has decreased since last count.
This was, however, easily explained from the fact that the base figure was unreliable. Nagaland had already rejected Census 2001, with the state government having called it defective.
“The 2001 Census data, which had put Nagaland’s decadal growth in 1991-2001 at 64 per cent, was rejected as defective. This time we made a tremendous effort to arrive at accurate data. In fact we roped in various civil society groups, student unions and others, who in turn carried out a massive awareness campaign during the run-up to the actual Census,” Hekhali Zhimomi, director of Census operations, Nagaland, told The Indian Express from
Kohima.
Census 2001 had put Nagaland’s population at 1,990,036 and the decadal growth rate at 64.41 per cent. During 1981-91, too, it was abnormally high, 56.08 per cent. This time, the total population of the state has come down to 1,980,602, which is 9,434 less than in 2001.

Interestingly, the decadal growth rate of 1981-91 did not cause any major concern in the hill state. It was the 2001 Census data that triggered a major controversy with Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio declaring it defective on several occasions. The state cabinet in fact passed a resolution rejecting it three years ago.
On September 30, 2009, the state government convened a consultative meeting involving people from various fields, which rejected Census 2001 and called for an intensive campaign for Census 2011. That meeting, chaired by the chief secretary, passed a resolution to this effect, which was signed by, among others, the Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition Chingwang Konyak, and leaders of the Church, student bodies and all major civil society groups.



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