Dimapur, July 27 (MExN): The Global Naga Forum (GNF) on Wednesday issued a statement to clarify misconceptions about the Forum and the Naga Solidarity Walk from Kohima to Senapati on July 28 and 29.
At the outset, the GNF stated that its members are conscientious Naga citizens who believe in the peoplehood of the Nagas and who refuse to keep silent at this critical moment in the long history of our struggle for the human and indigenous right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland.
“We defy the arbitrary and artificial boundaries of colonial rule that divided and fragmented the Naga family and which continue to this day in 2022 under India and Myanmar,” it said, while asserting the “urgent need for a Naga Solidarity Walk to heal our spirits, to reassert our common destiny as one people, and to bridge the gaps amongst Nagas.”
Stating that like-minded people from all walks of life and from different parts of the world have come together under the GNF with the sole purpose and vision of telling the Naga Story and to facilitate the journey of the Naga people in the struggle for human and indigenous rights, it observed that “The Naga family is cracking and crumbling from stress put on us from outside and from within.” It maintained that the “Time has come to walk together as one people, despite our differences and past offenses.”
The GNF also underscored that it “does not owe loyalty to any political party nor is it a mouthpiece of any organization.”
On the Solidarity Walk, it clarified that the Walk “is organized solely to break the artificial barriers separating Nagas. GNF has no ulterior motives; it doesn’t wish to discredit any organization whatsoever.”
It appealed to every right thinking Naga, irrespective of tribe affiliations, to participate in the Solidarity Walk, while maintaining that the walk from Kohima to Senapati “is the first leg of the unity journey and shall continue in other parts of Naga Homeland in due course of time.”
The GNF also stated that the Solidarity Walk is jointly coordinated by different civil society organizations and student bodies from different parts of the Naga homeland and beyond. It further requested prayers of individuals and churches for the success of the Naga Solidarity Walk.
