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05/16/2011: "India urged to endorse Kashmiri, Sikh, Naga rights The nation By: Asif Mehmood"

India urged to endorse Kashmiri, Sikh, Naga rights The nation By: Asif Mehmood

LONDON - India’s current temporary UN Security Council seat should serve as an opportunity for the international community to force it to comply with its human rights obligations. That was the call from a major conference hosted by ‘Parliamentarians for National Self-Determination’ (PNSD) which also endorsed the right of Sikh, Kashmiri and Naga self-determination in their homelands, as well as calls for UN criminal courts to punish those who have directed or carried out gross rights violations by the state in those conflict zones.
Chairing the event, Member House of Lords Nazir Ahmed castigated India for its formal ‘Reservation’ lodged at the UN under which it purports to deny that the right of self-determination applies to the nations living in Indian controlled territory.
The UN’s own Human Rights Committee has demanded India withdraws its infamous ‘Reservation’ against Article 1 of the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which grants “all peoples the right to self-determination”; it goes on to provide that “by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.
Nazir said the recent cases of East Timor and South Sudan were ample evidence that the international community had accepted the application of this right as a means to end conflict; yet India seems intent on continuing the blood letting in Kashmir, Punjab, Nagalim and elsewhere, where it has opted instead for massive human rights violations as a means of crushing legitimate movements for freedom.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Chairman of the All Party Hurriet Conference participated in the event via telephone link from occupied Kashmir and detailed India’s breach of its commitment to the UN and to Kashmiris, made over 65 years ago, to allow the people of the region to decide their own destiny. He condemned India as a state drunk with military power, whose armed forces are accountable to no one in accordance with shameful black laws such as the so-called Public Safety Act, which Amnesty International has recently branded “Unlawful Law”. The Hurriet leader said there was no point to the current Indo-Pak dialogue as it omits the voice of the Kashmiri people; it was a process aimed only at diverting world opinion from the core issue of Kashmiri self-determination and deserved to fail. He demanded India withdraw its armed forces from Kashmir, involve Kashmiris in the dialogue and allow the UN to supervise a plebiscite so the people themselves can shape the outcome in a peaceful manner.
Kanwarpal Singh, spokesman for Dal Khalsa in Punjab also contributed by phone link, called for Nuremburg-type trials to punish Indian officials guilty of war crimes and genocide in Punjab, Kashmir and India’s troubled North East. He demanded a UN sponsored plebiscite in the Sikh homeland to allow the Sikhs to demonstrate, freely and fairly, their backing for the Declaration of Khalistan 25 years ago. He pledged to work with “co-travellers on the path of freedom” to promote, by peaceful and democratic means, the implementation of self-determination wherever India’s imperialism had sought to crush the birth right of freedom.
Special messages were received from several MPs. Fabian Hamiliton MP, Chair of the All Party Group for UK Sikhs, opined that “whether it is in the Punjab, in Kashmir or in the Middle East, the rights of peoples in these regions to self-determination should be strongly supported by the international community”.
Khaled Mahmood MP pointed out that, whilst self-determination as a collective human right has been long established by international law, “India, somehow, officially denies it applies to the peoples and nations in the territory controlled by it”; he said that was no way for the Indians to build a case for a permanent UN SC seat.
A titan falls & a new face enters Aonglenden politics Morungexpress Longrangty Longchar
Mokokchung | May 14 : It is the fall of a titan. The defeat of Dr SC Jamir - one of the senior most and seasoned politicians in Nagaland - in the 26th Aonglenden Assembly Constituency by the youthful NPF candidate Toshipokba Longkumer by a whopping 1320 votes comes as a great moral booster for the ruling Naga Peoples’ Front and a great humiliation to the Opposition Congress party in the state.
This by-election was by no means a simple one. There has been much hype over the whole election, and the people’s imagination was revved up when Jamir declared his candidature on April 8, 2011 at Ungma village. It was a political comeback of a veteran Congress leader who ruled the state as a chief minister for five times, and was even the Governor of Goa and Maharashtra. Toshipokba Longkumer, as compared to Jamir in his political stature, is a new face who had lost to a Congress candidate Late Nungshizenba Longkumer in 2008 election.
The battle was seemingly uneven – Jamir the Goliath and Toshipokba a little David – be it in experience or in wealth. However, the tables were turned as the election campaign took heat. For Jamir, Congress leaders from the mainland, one even a Union Minister of State, campaigned for him at different places. Toshipokba Longkumer had the full DAN MLAs and the NPF party rallying behind him.
Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio while campaigning for Longkumer at Mokokchung declared that this is a fight between the ‘Government versus Opposition’ and declared that the NPF would do its best to win the election. He kept his words, and today, the prestigious 26th Aonglenden Assembly Constituency has a regional party representative after nearly thirty years of being represented by a Congress MLA and being considered as a Congress bastion.
The winning of Toshipokba Longkumer has not come as a surprise for many citizens here. Rough personal assessment by citizens here has already concluded that Toshipokba would win. The general assessment was that NPF would be winning by a huge margin to the tune of 2000 votes. They were right in one way; NPF did win by a huge margin. However, some stubborn Jamir supporters, till last night, still harbored some hope of winning, taking into account some sympathy votes from the NPF voters in favour of Jamir. It cannot be ruled out whether Jamir had gained some sympathy votes, it has been quite a talk among Congress workers.
For now, it is sadness for one party and jubilation for another. Some NPF supporters moved around the town even bursting one or two fire-crackers in the middle of the town. Dr Jamir is said to be in Dimapur, resting after a heavy election campaign.
What next?
It is not known what the next plan of Jamir might be, but giving his words ‘there is no retirement in politics’, there are chances that he might contest again. Somehow Congress workers are not deterred. A Congress worker asserted that in the next general election, the DAN ministers and MLAs will be fighting in their own constituencies, and would not be able to give time for Aonglenden A/C.
But then, when it comes to the just concluded by-election, it is a fact that the NPF party deserves to win this election given the effort that they have put in from almost all the DAN Ministers and legislators. Some though allege open involvement by underground cadres in the election. Popular social networking site facebook is rave with members posting something about the election.
Interestingly, in Ao tradition there is a saying that there is a wind of change after every one ‘putu’ (one putu equals to thirty years, and this was the twenty-ninth year of Congress dominance in Aonglenden, and now the NPF has coincidently came to power in a Congress bastion). Call it superstition or coincidence, NPF party workers love that Ao folk saying; even NPF Mokokchung division president Aolepden once asserted that the Congress dominance will lose in Aonglenden, since ‘a putu is changing’. Young educated people do not believe in such saying, but for now, it is celebration for NPF and frustration for Congress. While NPF is asserting that the people’s mindset have changed towards the regional party, Congress workers still maintain their cool and say that the 2013 state assembly election would be different and Congress will definitely come back to power. Well, elections are hard to predict, but surely a giant has fallen for now, and time will bring whether he will rise again.
NPF hails Longkumer's success over SC Jamir Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network
Imphal, May 15 2011: The Manipur unit of Naga Peoples' Front (NPF), a regional political party has said the victory of NPF candidate Toshipokba Longkumer over SC Jamir in the just concluded Nagaland by-poll was in the interest of the Naga people.

Congratulating Longkumer, NPF Manipur unit general secretary S Kho John said the people of Aonglenden A/C have upheld the party leadership vision which is laudable by every Naga.

S Kho John also expressed his deep appreciation on behalf of the Manipur unit of NPF to Naga chief minister Neiphiu Rio and NPF president Dr Shurhozelie Lizietsu and all their collegues for the progress of the NPF.

the Naga Peoples' Front (NPF) has been active in Manipur since March 31 as one of the regional political parties, according to its general secretary (Manipur unit) S.Kho John.

Mentionably, NPF led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government is in its second term in Nagaland under the leadership of Neiphiu Rio, the chief minister of Nagaland.

Meanwhile, S.Kho John informed NNN today that any political party, group or individual in Manipur are welcome in the fold of the NPF.

The party general secretary said that enrolment of names in the party is underway and that further information can be had from its temporary office at Deulahland, Imphal.
Cong gives Rio, Imchen hard questions morungexpress
Dimapur, May 14(MExN): The Congress today hit out at the chief minister and Home minister for being ‘hypocritical’ and attempting to divert attention from issues raised by the Nagaland Congress party recently. The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) reminded both Neiphiu Rio and Imkong Imchen that they were Congress leaders, nurtured by the Congress before usurping their mentors for power.
NPCC chief SI Jamir issued a statement today questioning recent statements of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and Home Minister Imkong Imchen contextualizing the recent by-polls held in Aonglenden constituency in Mokokchung. The Congress noted Rio’s remark that the “contest was not against the Congress but against the policies and programs of the political party contesting the by-poll. Likewise, the NPCC noted another one of Imkong Imchen’s uncomfortable remarks, this time that the NPF “won the by-election because of the Naga issue.” The NPCC also reminded the Rio-led government that it has to ‘come up with one or other explanation’ to the questions of the Chief Election Commission of India for the State’s deployment of Central paramilitary forces in places away from the place of the by-polls.
The statement of Neiphiu Rio that the “contest was not against the Congress but against the policies and programs of the political party contesting the by-poll” is like trying to separate the soul from the body, the NPCC remarked. The CM should spell out clearly what those policies and programs of the Congress were. “He should also tell the people of Nagaland as to what made him remain in Congress for so long if he thought the policies and programs of the Congress were antithesis to him. Public memory is not very short as to forget that the number two Cabinet minister in the erstwhile Congress regime had usurped his mentor and deserted the party that had groomed him on the eve of 2003 general election only because he coveted the chief minister’s chair,” the NPCC reminded Rio.
‘Safe passage given to one group’
Back to the statement of Home Minister Imkong L Imchen, a self-professed ‘foot in the mouth syndrome’ sufferer, the NPCC noted his claim that the NPF “won the by-election because of the Naga issue.” Imchen has made a mockery of the Naga political issue, the Congress said.
“What is the difference between the NPF and other political parties on Naga political party? He should spell out clearly in what ways the Congress has been always against the Naga political issue. Did he mean that the other Nagas affiliated to the Congress party had not contributed anything to the Naga cause? He should not forget that there are many Nagas who had joined the Congress party after many years of national service because of political compulsion and there are also other Congressmen whose fathers and brothers had fought and died for the Naga cause.”
The NPCC challenged the minister to say, “How many from his bloodline were in the national service during the turbulent times? Which Naga political party and leaders are not concerned with the problem that has remained unresolved till today? Did he mean Naga political issue is minus the members of Congress party? Then, what was the need for the Joint Legislators Forum on Naga political issue?”
Imchen “should stop or at least the chief minister should stop him from double-talk,” the Congress advised the Home minister.
On the allegation of the chief minister that the Congress did not trust the State’s own forces, the opposition said the statement was simply an alibi to cover nefarious designs. “The State government had to come up with one or other explanation to the Chief Election Commission (ECI) which had questioned the illogical deployment of central paramilitary forces in those places. What had the Intangki forest got to do with the by-election?” the Congress asked the DAN government.
The Congress termed “farce” other companies of CRPF were deployed in neighboring districts to prevent so-stated “infiltration of underground elements”. It was a farce when safe passage was already given to one group, the Congress said. “On being directed by ECI, the CRPF companies from Tuensang, Wokha, Zunheboto and Peren were brought to Mokokchung on the morning of 6th May only,” the NPCC reiterated.
“The Chief Minister and the Home Minister were Congressmen for many years and in Congress they groomed their leaderships. Now, they are talking as if the Congress is untouchable. Such hypocrisy has no place in the eyes of the intellectual Naga public. It looks like the winning syndrome has confused the NPF leaders,” the NPCC remarked.

‘Cong should not blame NPF for defeat’

Dimapur, May 14 (MExN): The Naga People’s Front (NPF) today mocked the Congress party in Nagaland for ‘championing the political morality of the Nagas’ only to lose out in the Aonglenden elections. The NPF sniped at the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) and the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) saying whether they should take responsibility for the defeat.
“From day one, since the approval of the Congress candidate by their party high command which was duly recommended by the NPCC, the Congress party in Nagaland has been trying to champion the political morality of the Nagas. The NPF observed that their recent struggle to be politically relevant was just an attempt of publicity stunt,” the NPF’s media cell stated in a note today.
The Congress party’s “trademark exercise to blame their political adversaries in all fronts has been spectacularly incompetent”, according to the NPF. In the recent Aonglenden by-election episode, the cell added, whether the NPCC president and the CLP leader should shoulder the responsibility of the defeat of their party candidate or throw the blame only to the NPF. “It is perhaps their decision for the heads to roll,” the NPF media note added.