DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 18 (MExN): The Eastern Konyak Union (Myanmar) today issued a statement pointing out the suffering faced by the eastern Konyak people in the Myanmar border areas and the violence in their villages.
A press release from K Akham Honwang, General Secretary, Eastern Konyak Union (Myanmar) called for an end to the harassment and “torture” from Indian and Myanmar military forces “and even by our own Naga national workers.”
It said that while the eastern Nagas in Myanmar have sacrificed working for the cause of a Naga nation, innocent lives have been lost. While detailing the history of the Naga movement in Myanmar and the series of military operations carried out in the area, it reminded that the people there have had to endure untold suffering caught between the Indian and Myanmar militaries and the NSCN.
“The Myanmar and Indian military troops have been waging battle against Naga national movements,” the press statement stated and informed that the innocent public has been targets “without any valid reason.”
“The two countries’ militaries have been launching intolerable torture, killing, destroying public properties, burning down granaries and houses, forcing people to vacate the village, threatening to kill and kidnapping public and putting them in jail without any proof,” the EKU (Myanmar) said.
“In such ugly situation, we have been facing merciless conditions in the name of Naga sovereignty,” it added. The union said that now the Konyak people in Myanmar are appealing to the Naga national leaders to respond to their concerns and called for real action.
While, affirming the they stand for Naga sovereign rights, the EKU (Myanmar) noted that over the decades, the condition of the Naga people in Myanmar has not changed even as the NNC/FGN splintered to become the NSCN/GPRN and many others on the promise of Naga sovereignty.
It said, “While serving for the Naga national leaders from NNC to NSCN till today, our lives have been under dilemma, living homeless in our own land due to heavy operation by the Myanmar and Indian militaries against the NSCN.”
It informed that operations have been conducted “even when there were no undergrounds” present and that the people have been forced to act as porters carrying “ammunition and war ration,” while also being subjected to assault.
The EKU (Myanmar) said that that the border areas have been neglected without any facilities and the people “ordered to live confined in their soil.” It further questioned the judgment of the “Naga national workers” of forbidding the Nagas in Myanmar from accepting Indian and Myanmarese help all through the decades. As a result, it said that the people in the area have been forced to live without education or any sort of development. However, today, it said that the NSCN is blaming the public for disregarding Indian and Myanmar development aid.
The union asked the Naga political leaders to recall the time when Naga national leaders had to take refuge in the land of the eastern Nagas of Myanmar.
It also stated that the people in the border areas of Myanmar are disconcerted by the Nagas on the Indian side labeling them as “outside Naga people.” It lamented, “When the Naga national leaders leave Eastern Naga soil they consider us as Myanmar Nagas.”
“They should recollect the place where they (were) sheltered, where they lived (to continue the Naga struggle),” it reminded.
