Dimapur, May 4 (MExN): The Naga Hoho has expressed grave concern over what it termed as “the rapid deterioration of the security situation in Naga inhabited areas in the North East Region of India and North Western part of Myanmar.
In a letter to Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres, the Naga Hoho, a traditional socio-political organization representing all Naga inhabited areas, requested the former’s office to “kindly intervene to prevent the violation of ceasefire between the Naga Armies and the Indian state.”
The letter to the Secretary General came in the light of Guterres’ “appeal for immediate global ceasefire in all armed conflict areas across the world” and the call “to put armed conflicts under lockdown and to focus together on the true fight of our lives--the COVID-19 pandemic--with solidarity, unity and hope.”
Elucidating its call for an intervention, the Naga Hoho in its letter alleged that amid the pandemic, the Indian armed forces are indulging in provocative, “premeditated and systematic operations against the National Socialist Council of Nagaland/Nagalim (NSCM-IM) and other Naga armed groups in the North East region of India and Myanmar with utter disregard to the Ceasefire Ground Rules being enforced.”
“Several joint Military operations by the security forces of India and Myanmar are going on in the North Western parts of Naga Self-Administered Zone (SAZ) bordering India in Sagaing Region of Myanmar,” the Naga Hoho claimed, in the letter appended by its President HK Zhimomi and General Secretary K Elu Ndang.
Naga villagers are living in constant fear due to situations created by joint military operations and the COVID-19 pandemic and the tension is growing due to deployment of large number of armed security personnel in many of the Naga villages in border districts of India and Myanmar, it said.
“Defying the nationwide lockdown in India, the Unified Command of Manipur, consisting of the Assam Rifles, the Manipur Police and the Indian Reserve Battalions are moving in full combat gears to raid the camps and hide outs of the Naga armies in the border villages,” the Naga Hoho further stated.
The women COVID-19 vigilantes have intercepted and stopped many of these combined forces risking their own lives and security as no social distancing can be maintained in such confrontations, it maintained.
The letter further highlighted to the UN General Secretary that the NSCN-IM entered into a formal Ceasefire Agreement with the Government of India (GoI) on August 1, 1997 for political talks as two entities.
It was based on three conditions, the Naga Hoho noted - (i) Without any conditions; (ii) At the Prime Minister’s Level; and (iii) In a third country.
After several rounds of political talks during the last 22 years, despite ‘some frustrations,’ some positive outcomes such as the Framework Agreement of August 3, 2015 and the recognition of the ‘Uniqueness’ of Naga History and Situation by the Government Of India on the June 11, 2002 in Amsterdam emerged, it said.
However, the Naga Hoho alleged that the GoI “seems to be taking the extraordinary crisis of the global COVID-19 pandemic as the best opportunity to trample on the human rights of the Nagas, cut all supply lines of the NSCN, and conduct military operations to crush the Naga’s aspiration for self-determination so as to finish the inherent political rights of the Naga indigenous people through the use of its Military might.”
The Naga Hoho also impressed upon the Secretary General that the political conflict of the indigenous Nagas is one of Asia’s longest running conflicts.
Over the years, the Nagas have suffered “most humiliating and dehumanizing acts” and the then United Nations’ Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, had acknowledged these violence, destruction, pain and suffering of the Nagas by observing that, “there is human rights situation in Nagaland,” it added.
Several peace Agreements and Accords from the 9-Point Agreement, the 16-Point Agreement to the infamous Shillong Accord of 1975 have not yielded the desired result for peace, it added.
Accusing the GoI of using “delaying tactics’ as its strategy with no sincerity and political will,” the Naga Hoho further maintained that the former has had been resorting to ‘divide and rule’ policy “to split the ranks and files of the leaders of the Naga political groups by constructing and implanting divisive narratives” and “manufacturing consent.”
As “it has not worked thus far, the GOI seems to be thinking of reverting back to solutions through Military operations by exploiting the situations created by the Global Covid-19 crisis to its advantage,” it added.
In this connection, expressing apprehension that the situation in Naga areas is likely to “deteriorate and descend into complete chaos,” the Naga Hoho implored the Secretary General to “intervene against the violations of human rights in Naga areas amidst the Global COVID-19 pandemic.”
It also called for recognising the Nagas as Indigenous People under the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People and directing the GoI “to stop its Military operations and settle the Naga political issue by honoring the hard earned agreement of the Framework Agreement of the 3rd August, 2015 for an honorable and acceptable political solution.”
