Neingulo Krome
The Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) was formed on the 9th of September 1978 during the post-Emergency period, when the whole Indian sub-continent saw the containment of severe restrictions of civil and political rights. It was also formed as a response to the Naga people’s long felt need for an organised movement to protect and further their basic human rights which were trampled under the boots and guns of the Indian Military for the last 25 years at that time. NPMHR was also formed based on the universal belief that “violation of human rights in any part of the world is a threat to the human race as a whole and protection and promotion of human rights anywhere is a concern of all”.
Based on these understanding, NPMHR declared that; “Mankind has made history through the struggle for freedom from exploitation and subjugation and the history of the Naga peoples has taught us that there are forces both inside and outside the society collaborating in strangulating social progress. It has been the experience of history that a people can be subjected to economic exploitation, political and military domination, social suppression with the imposition of alien culture and legal systems and distortions of their objective history. In the light of the above, the Naga peoples Movement for Human Rights takes upon itself the task of initiating effort to protect and maintain the following :--
To ensure and safe-guard:
1. the right to life;
2. the right to work;
3. the right to live together as a people and the unification of all Naga lands;
4. the right to hold and communicate one’s belief;
5. the freedom of movement, assembly and associations;
6. free access to all places of learning;
7. maximum participation of the people in the making of decisions affecting their lives;
8. freedom from socio-economic exploitation, political domination and military repression;
9. Against anti-democratic practices and the dismantling of institutions and social values which legitimize and perpetuate these within our society;
10. Against the practices of arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, execution, and the use of unconventional weapons; and
11. Against the imposition of undesirable alien legal systems and socio-cultural concepts and ways of life.
Towards these endeavours, and in observing and commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, NPMHR organized a Human Rights Week in Nagaland from 10th to 15th December, 1978, despite aggressive disapproval from the State Government of Nagaland. And in the back-drop of threats to arrest NPMHR workers, villagers gave rousing welcome to NPMHR workers wherever they went. Public meetings were held, where for the first time in 25 years, people were able to narrate their stories of losses, pains and agonies and people were often found lost with words to describe their sufferings. However, some of the common types and forms of repression used by the Indian Military in all Naga areas which NPMHR recorded were; (i) Execution in public (ii) Mass raping (iii) Deforming sex organs (iv) Mutilating limbs and body (v) Electric shocks (vi) Puncturing eyes (vii) Hanging people upside-down (viii) Putting people in smoke-filled rooms (ix) Burning down of villages, granaries and crops (x) Concentration Camps (xi) Forced labour and starvation etc.
Nevertheless, even before the dusts of Human Rights Week and the testimonies of human sufferings have settled, immediately in the next few months in 1979, the Indian Military through the 14th Assam Rifles started waging war on school going children in Phek, and in Kohima personnel of 99 BSF raped a 60 years old woman. This was followed by the State Government of Nagaland arresting activists and leaders of Naga Youth Movement ostensibly for their so-called “anti-government activities”. All this happened in with legal immunity under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, assisted with the Assam maintenance of Public Order, Nagaland Security Regulation etc.
Therefore, after collecting records of gross violations of human rights through fact- finding teams and other means, NPMHR submitted a Petition to the Supreme Court of India in 1982, which was later transformed into a Writ Petition in 1984, whereby NPMHR with the support of PUCL and PUDR challenged the extra-ordinary and unlimited powers of the Indian Army and questioned the democratic and constitutional validity of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, with demand for immediate withdrawal. But sadly, after 15 years of silence the Supreme Court took it up for hearing only in 1997 just to uphold the Act with the active support of the National Human Rights Commission of India, saying; “the Act in itself is good”.
Similarly, in 1987 when Oinam incident took place and the Indian Army launched the “Operation Bluebird”, the details of which are best not repeated, NPMHR collected testimonies and cases of human rights violations which ran into exactly 10,000 (ten thousand) pages. NPMHR then filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Gauhati High Court for which hearings were conducted for 5 (five) years. At the end of the five years when the Judgement was to be passed, the Government of India in an abnormal order transferred both the two Judges. Till today the judgement lie in cold storage and awaits fresh hearings. There are also other several hundreds of petitions in the form of Habeas Corpus and PILs in the Judicial Courts of Nagaland and Manipur which needs no elaborations.
On the other hand, ever since the Government of India entered into a “Ceasefire” with leaders of the Naga Political Movement in 1997 and also in 2001, NPMHR has been pro-actively engaged in sustaining the space for a broad consensus of a political solution in an over 60 years of political conflict which has been the main cause of all human sufferings. In this effort, realising that people themselves must be well informed about the nature of the problems, NPMHR has been at the fore-front in engaging people to people conversations between the Nagas and various communities of the Indian sub-continent. To kick start this people to people dialogue, NPMHR first launched the “Journey of Conscience” to Delhi in January 2000 leading a 66 Naga civil society leaders from all walks of life and paraded New Delhi in various manners and forms in reaching out to the hearts and souls of India after 50 years of animosity for 3 days. In the same year, NPMHR also led a cultural troupe to the “World Festival of sacred Music” at Chiang Mai, Thailand to share the political history of our people and showcase our culture which in itself is distinct and different. And likewise, NPMHR participated in many endless interactions of various dialogues of track II or III diplomacies, besides its own initiatives. NPMHR continued to engage the people of India through dialogues and awareness campaigns even in 2004 and 2007 again at Delhi, and also in November 2007 to the South Indian cities of Hyderbad, Vishakapatnam and Chennai.
In our effort to promote Peace not only for ourselves but also for the global community, NPMHR along with the Naga Students’ Federation, toured the Capital City of Thailand, Bangkok in 2002 with another Cultural troupe under the slogan “Nagas Call for Peace”- to create a vision of Hope for our Nation and the World, at various theatres and democratic institutions including the Thai Parliament. This journey also covered Guwahati the capital city of Assam and the heart of North East India.
All said and done, NPMHR along with other Naga civil society and frontal organizations, church leaders and others is now a participant in the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) since 2008 to which many of you may be familiar with even without going into the details of FNR’s commitments and works. NPMHR will also be observing its 32 years of movement on September 9, 2010 at Tahamzam (erstwhile Senapati) to retrospect and commit more vigorously on issues affecting the people. I would therefore take this opportunity to express NPMHR’s gratitude to the AIPP and all its member organization and also the Indigenous peoples of India for your kind understanding and support to the Naga people’s political struggle all this years and to impress upon you too, to continue extending your solidarity as we envisages to secure a dignified peaceful political settlement.
Neingulo Krome is an Executive Member and former Secretary General NPMHR and this paper was presented at the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) Sub-Regional (South Asia) Meeting held at Ranchi, Jharkhand – India on 5th September 2010.
