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11/23/2011: "Zbto killing: Imchen appeals for calm morungexpress"

Zbto killing: Imchen appeals for calm morungexpress

Dimapur, (MExN): As a first statement from the Nagaland government since the November 19 killing of a youth by underground cadres in Zunheboto, Home Minister of Nagaland Imkong Imchen today said the perpetrators of the shocking crime must be tried “according to the law of the land.”
On November 19, one Daniel Yeptho of Viyilho village in Zunheboto district was allegedly shot dead reportedly by cadres of the GPRN/NSCN. The Government of Nagaland has so far yet to officially address the death of a citizen at the hands of underground cadres. There are also no indications that any concrete headway has been made to break the case.
In a hurried interaction with The Morung Express, Tuesday night, November 22, Imchen said what happened in Zunheboto on Saturday night must never reoccur. “It is a specific crime; we are booking the culprit according to the law of the land,” the Home Minister said over phone.
Queried whether his statement suggested that the State has already caught the perpetrators, he responded in the negative. Queried on the action the State government has taken so far he simply said “the police, administration are on the job; they are on the job.” The minister did not elaborate.
The Home minister then appealed to the groups that the current situation amongst the Naga people and their land is “not a time to kill” and called for peace. “I want to reiterate that it is not a time to kill each other; it should not be repeated especially in the current Naga context; it is my appeal to all to stop the killings and I appeal to the people to maintain peace.”
All attempts to contact leaders of the Nagaland Government including the Chief Minister’s Office, Chief Secretary of Nagaland and Nagaland state Cabinet members, were made. However, except for the Home Minister, they either refused to take calls or had switched off their phones. Likewise, neither the district administration nor the police administration of Zunheboto could be reached at the time of filing this news report.

Myanmar window for Delhi The Telegraph |

Bali, Myanmar has broken out as an open secret from a closed conspiracy, to what should be two cheers from New Delhi and three for Calcutta and Imphal in India’s east and Northeast. Myanmar has been nominated to head a multi-national body — the Asean — for the first time despite being ruled by a military junta because America and Asia think it is curing itself.

India can dream of sailing goods and people down the Brahmaputra and the Imphal rivers and transferring them to Mandalay just as Myanmar can envisage sailing its sampans down the Irrawaddy so that they may reach the people of blockaded Manipur. Even more, Myanmar can actually expect India to look at it as a neighbour with friendship benefits and not just a haven for insurgents that harass the northeastern states.

India physically touches the Asean with Myanmar. The states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh share a border with Myanmar that is probably easier to negotiate for bootleggers than armies. Indeed, bootleggers can find the India-Myanmar border more porous than inter-provincial boundaries For Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura, Myanmar and Bangladesh are the two key countries for New Delhi’s “Look East” policy to translate from rhetoric to action
So who cares for human rights in Tibet? Or Manipur? First Post | Rajeev Srinivasan
A number of monks and nuns in the Tibetan monastery in Kirti, Chinese-Occupied Tibet, have immolated themselves in the recent past, to protest their genocide and cultural extinction by the Chinese. But this news has been underplayed by the media everywhere, which is either trying to cozy up to the Chinese totalitarians or is bullied into submission.

Similarly, the Indian state is completely absent when the rights of the people of Manipur are trampled on due to an illegal blockade (with religious and ethnic intolerance the prime force), driving prices up to stratospheric levels – Rs 300 for a litre of petrol, for instance. The Indian state is not willing to stand up to the perpetrators of the blockade, a bunch of thuggish separatists from nearby states.

But the Indian state is quick to want to remove the Armed Forces Special Powers Act(AFPSA) from J&K based on agitations. There is a failure to ask the question: why is there the need for the AFPSA in the first place? Why is it appropriate to remove it when the situation that called for draconian rules has continued to worsen? Why not fine-tune it, instead of, like with Pota, acting in haste and regretting at leisure?

Thus it appears that India’s soft state is as uncaring about the rights of its people (well, to be precise, it is uncaring about the rights of some of its people: it has been known to weep excessive crocodile tears about the rights of some of its other people) as is China’s hard state. In both cases, self-preservation and self-aggrandisement, one might argue, are the primary objectives of the state.
The AFSPA - A famine of peace and justice Asian Affairs | Kuldip Nayar |
Hunger-striker Irom Sharmila symbolises the struggle against the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which the Indian government seems unwilling to tackle,
There is no governance worth the name in the area. However, it is part of India because the armed forces are there in full strength, often blurring the demarcation lines between the military and the civil. Not only that, the army has forced New Delhi to frame the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which enables even an ordinary soldier to kill a person on suspicion. The soldier, meanwhile, is protected under the AFSPA. There has been uproar against this draconian measure throughout the country, yet still New Delhi remains unmoved.

It is strange that there is countrywide sympathy and support for Sharmila, yet at the same time very little criticism of the army or its insistence in continuing the imposition of the AFSPA. In India and, for that matter, certain developing countries, the armed forces are a sacred cow. Even the media does not write against them, or even try to probe into their affairs. This is something which is just not done.
Inside Nagaland Democratic Voice of Burma
Angami wrestlers compete during an open competition in Kohima, Nagaland
(Brennan O'Connor)

















Spectators watch an Angami open wrestling competition in Kohima, Nagaland
(Brennan O'Connor)

Lhouvitsui, Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) Speaker, holds a traditional Naga
spear at the entrance of his father's house in Kohima town, Nagaland.
The FGN are one of the oldest Naga political groups advocating sovereignty from India
(Brennan O'Connor)


The grave site of Angami Zapu Phizo - the president of the NNC from 1950 until his
death in 1990. Phizo was instrumental in unifying the Naga population to
fight for sovereignty from India (Brennan O`Connor)





Naga National Council (NNC) soldiers wait for the 56th Federal Government of
Nagaland (FGN) Republic Day at Chedema Peace Camp to begin.
Kohima, Nagaland (Brennan O'Connor)





Indians celebrate India winning the 2011 Cricket World Cup in Dimapur, Nagaland
(Brennan O'Connor)



Naga Armed Police guard the streets of Dimapur, Nagaland (Brennan O'Connor)

The Naga’s ancestral territory extends from northeastern India to Sagaing division and Kachin state, Burma. The term Naga encompasses over 20 distinct ethnic groups. Although they vary in culture, and speak different languages, they share many common traits.
In 1826, Britain started to draw up borders which divided Naga’s ancestral territory. More than a century later, India and Burma were released from the clutches of the British, and declarations of independence by the Naga were ignored.
Under the leadership of Angami Zapu Phizo, the president of the Naga National Council (NNC) from 1950 until his death in 1990, the NNC successfully united the Naga population in the struggle for sovereignty. After a long and dirty war with the Indian army, where villages were turned into fortified prison camps, a ceasefire was brokered in 1964.
But conflict between Indian forces and Naga armed groups, as well as fratricidal fighting between local Naga groups, continued until very recently. Despite the shared resentment locals continue to feel towards India, it’s obvious that India has brought about more development for Nagas than the Burmese government did for their eastern brethren.
Secluded from the world and neglected by the government, the Naga of Burma’s northern Sagaing division live a desolate existence that few understand, let alone know anything about.
Shap Won, who served as NNC joint secretary, is the founder and elderly leader for the Eastern Naga Development Organization (ENDO). Won started the organisation one year ago to “help his people” and “inform the world how Naga are suffering under the Burmese government.”
“Many people are dying,” says Won. Persistent problems with malaria and dysentery among the Naga population of Sagaing division are compounded by the difficulty in accessing the remote and rugged mountain ranges where the Naga dwell. Moreover, with a scarcity of viable employment, opium cultivation is on the rise, and with it addiction among locals, Won warns.
Why is Meitei always against Nagas? Hopeson Shatsang
Some Meitei said we had organic relationship with the Tribals surrounding the Imphal valley.
But the organic relationship was defined as calling the Nagas as “Hao” meaning untouchable/un-civilized/polluted. For instance, when a Hao buys anything from the Meitei women in the bazaar, they would ask the former to drop the money as they were considered untouchables and fear of polluting, completely denying the human dignity.
Definition of various relationships can go on, however in the context to the Naga solution through dialogue to resolve the oldest insurgency in Asia with ceasefire signed in 1997 as two entities was stiffly opposed by the dominant Meitei community. When ceasefire was declared without territorial limit it was opposed again, orchestrated through UCM, AMUCO, Meirapaibi, and AMSU founded in the name of colonies’ club. This was well managed through propaganda by the Meitei Journalist and one sided media funded by the Dominant Govt of Manipur. Traditionally Meitei have acting skill which they call it Leela, acting craft is so convincing that tears can be shed within a few second in front of the camera. In 2001 the so called June uprising started with different stages. The Act-part I (Leela in Manipuri) started with the burning of Indian National flag, state Assembly Secretariat and Naga MLA officials’ residence. Act-part II, 18 innocent drug addicts in their youth were pushed in the front to be killed. Act-part III; quit notice issued to the Nagas staying in Imphal. Thousands of Naga families and Govt employees fled Imphal and rendered homeless in Senapati, Ukhrul, Chandel and Tamenglong.
Further insulting the Nagas, the Govt of Manipur wanted to declare June 18th as martyrs’ day (state official holiday) in 2005.This was objected by the Nagas.
The Naga Students’ Federation officials who were on their way to Oinam village under Senapati district for their Federal Assembly were not allowed to enter Mao-Gate (Naga village under Manipur state NH-39) on 2nd May 2010.
Th. Muivah, the principal negotiator of Indo-Naga peace talk wanted to visit his native village after 50 years, for which, the Government of India (GOI) had given clear order to the West Bengal, Nagaland and Manipur Govt to provide full proof security as he is entitled with Z plus category. This was objected with thousands of Police commandos, IRB deployed in Mao Gate imposing 144Crpc by the communal govt. of Manipur. In the process terror was let loose upon the civilians. When such operation was opposed by the Mao women in the form of peaceful protest rally, the Meitei Commandos reacted by killing two students Chakho and Losii and injuring hundreds of innocent women. Many of the Mao gate villagers’ properties were looted and destroyed. The entire village fled and took shelter in the neighboring Angami villages at Khuzama and Kidima in Nagaland.
Autonomous District Council (ADC) Act of 1972 which was rejected 25 years back by the tribal people in Manipur was re-imposed as constitutional obligation in the guise of Local Self Governance against the will of the people despite repeated appeal by the tribal people to postpone until consensus is arrived.
Subsequently, three women were shot at Noney, Mr. Abonmai, a theological student on picnic at Makhan was shot by commandos in civil dress to camouflage their identity. In Ukhrul Manipur IRB imposed curfew without the consent of District administration and assaulted civilians, in the process women folk came out protesting and seized 17 weapons from the personnel of IRB which was returned later when all IRB station at Ukhrul was shifted to Imphal.
Now with the media reports of “supra State” for the Naga solution, Both the Government and ruling party Congress have come out openly that Territorial integrity of Manipur will not be allowed to touch in Naga solution. Another Meitei political party MPP chief has openly declared that there will be civil war between Meitei and Nagas in his interview with North- East Television.
Implication:
Meitei’s against Naga integration clearly define their vested interest over Nagas’ land to maintain status quo of dominance rule in the present structure. Continued attempt to let Naga suffer by divide and rule policies over tribal and particularly through electoral politics by distorting Naga history through imposed fabricated Meitei history in school curriculum, forcing Meitei language as official transaction in Govt. communication, Meitei Scripts in all school and also to implement Manipur Land Revenue (MLR) Act and Land Revenue (LR) Act in the hill area. The present ruling Govt in Manipur led by Ibobi exercise on some Nagas as his agency to uphold present hegemonic rule. Fantasizing to please the Naga people in the name of New District creation, by Nagas’ name over their land and plant Meitei population from nearby Thoubal district, Bishnupur and Jiribam in the name of revenue district such as Tonji meril in Tamenglong, Phungyar in Ukhrul is nothing but a systematic grabbing Nagas’ Land.
The Indo-Naga Ceasefire declared in 1997 to the 5 decade old bloody conflict was welcomed by all people around the world. Nagas regarded it as hard earned Peace, where approximately 1, 50,000 Naga people were killed in their struggle for freedom. Ceasefire means peace therefore; Meitei opposing the ceasefire is itself opposing the Peace. The Meiteis’ hidden attitude against peace was exposed through their different level of their corrupt society in 2001 episode. Congress led Government in Manipur coming out openly opposing honorable settlement of the Indo-Naga through Chief Minister Ibobi, Manipur Congress President, Government funded NGOs, UCM, AMUCO, MEIRA Paibi and AMSU have exposed their natural chauvinist polluted society. Ironically the Nagas in the Congress party have supported Territorial Integrity of Manipur. Valley based political party, Manipur Peoples Party (MPP) leaders directly inflaming to Civil war between Meitei versus Naga is an open challenge to the civilized Human race in this region.
Naga should understand the reality of present age rather than harping on past glorious position only. We need to contextualize within the paradigm shift. Rationality should overcome the politics of survival in the present system of hegemonic dominance rule through facelift developmental politics. Though Nagas in Manipur are living hand to mouth yet their persistence and strong determination could withstand for their Rights against all odds but sadly, there are few Nagas who are puppets, swaying to the tune of dominant community Meitei for their selfish personal gain. We must realize that the legacy left behind by our wise forefather cannot be barter away by selfish attitudes to please the Meiteis. The values of our History must be assimilated for the best of present and future generation guided by correct political decisions. If at all the blood of innocent Nagas’ runs through the green Naga Hills than the selfish pseudo Naga shall be responsible for all time to come.
We can choose friends but you can’t choose neighbors. Be a good neighbor.
(Mr. Hopeson Shatsang)
Delhi University, South Ext. Delhi.