The brutal killing of a seventeen year old student of Class XI Shimmei Shingnaisui at Kohima on Gandhi Jayanti and the incident at Zunheboto on September 29 when a four year old boy, Inato, fell victim to the bullet of a factional feud, all deserves the strongest condemnation. Such acts of violence against children are shocking and cannot be justified at all. The continuing spate of killings is taking its toll on the sensibility of the ordinary people who are as much alarmed by the vicious cycle of violence that we are witnessing today. The bouts of internecine clashes on a daily basis also goes to show that as far as the two factions are concerned, they are law unto themselves and that even an act of killing is a matter of right beyond reproach and blame. This is a dangerous mindset to construct and better sense should prevail over the UG groups. On their part, the Naga national leaders need to be questioned as to why infighting is taking place’ to such an extent and whether there are no more sensible leaders left amongst them who have the authority and moral conscience to stop the killings.
In all this madness the government and the enforcement agencies are being made to look helpless. This failure to uphold and protect the law poses a serious question mark over the viability of the present ceasefire ground rules between the government of India and the NSCNs. The public grievance raised at different times from various quarters over the violation of ceasefire ground rules by the different Naga Underground Groups is a genuine one and needs immediate attention from the concerned factions, civil society, church and state government. To add to this, the complete silence on the part of the Government of India has now put serious doubts in the minds of people on whether there is an altogether sinister design to derail the peace and reconciliation process being addressed on various fronts. There is an urgent need for overhauling the monitoring mechanism and also a complete review of the ground rules. The modality of the current ceasefire is working to the disadvantage of civilians as it is unable to guarantee them peace and security as was hoped for when the ceasefire agreements were first signed.
It goes without saying that the repeated violations of the ceasefire, the absence of a transparent and an impartial ceasefire monitoring mechanism, have all shaken the faith of the people in the success of the current peace process. The continuous record of ceasefire violations by the NSCN factions remains a matter of serious concern as it invariably ends up in internecine violence which in turn creates fear psychosis on the general public. The State government would have to take its own set of initiative so that the security of its citizen is not compromised under any circumstance. While it is true that the present internal disturbances have a political dimension, it also requires that the political management of the situation must be a priority for the State government. Or else the factional crisis will soon blow out of proportion for anyone to do anything.
