Sir,
I have been keeping my mouth shut and my pen down because I felt I had shouted and written enough digging up the past and pleading that reconciliation among the Naga family must precede a solution with India. But as you journey across Nagaland in your mission of reconciliation, I can no longer constrain myself to be a silent spectator. And so allow me to express a few words again as I also love our nation as much as you.
To begin with, I was deeply moved by what Jotsoma people (My maternal uncles) said and wrote to you as featured in the Nagaland Post of today’s paper. (June 22,2010) I wonder whether you know that the son of the Chairman, who wrote that statement, was killed by the NSCN IM on Sept 9, 2003. His son was then in the NSCN K and was only 17 years old when he was shot. They found his decomposed body only after three days of search by the whole Jotsoma villagers. The Chairman himself was also in the Naga Army from 1967 until his capture in 1970. He told me: “I hosted them despite the fact that my tears have still not dried. I hosted them because Naga reconciliation and the Naga cause is more important then my own tears.”
I was also deeply moved by what your Information Desk of the Ato Kilonser’s Office wrote about what you said at the Jotsoma Martyres Park extolling Jotsoma’s fallen heroes. Here again I wonder whether you know that just by the side of Zaseibeito’s grave is the grave of his only son, late Captain Kevileto Nagi. He too was shot by the NSCN in Dec 1979 in Eastern Nagaland because he stood for Phizo and the NNC. As recorded in my book The Naga Saga in p327, Captain Kevileto was also in your group of 1974 which tried to slip into China to procure more arms. Unlike you, he was arrested and imprisoned. During his imprisonment, because of his adamant refusal to raise his hand in Jai Hind salute to the Indian national flag, he was repeatedly tortured by his Indian captors. Upon his release through the Shillong Accord of 1975, he again slipped into the Eastern Nagaland to carry on the fight but was brutally murdered in the factional killings of 1979-1980.
At the time of my writing the book, though I knew the facts, I did not mention who killed him because I felt ashamed to state the horrible facts to others who might read the book. However with the reconciliation process now in progress, I feel we must face the facts in all its horrid details.
It is indeed a very sad thing that the only son of the first Naga Political martyr today lies buried besides his father- killed by his own people’s bullets.
Sir, I wish you all the best in your journey of reconciliation however painful that journey may be. May God guide every step of your journey so that true and genuine reconciliation will take place among ourselves before we seek a solution with India.
Very sincerely,
Kaka D. Iralu
June 22,2010.
