DIMAPUR, APRIL 4 (MExN): The Naga Hoho, Naga Mothers’ Association, Naga Students’ Federation, and Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights issued a joint political statement today stating that the Government of India “must honour its word” in the Framework Agreement and the “Indo-Naga political impasse must be resolved accordingly.”
The organizations stated that the “Naga People are an independent indigenous Nation in assertion to which a peaceful and prior informed Plebiscite was conducted in 1951 that resulted in 99.9% in support of our independent status as declared on August 14, 1947.”
While referring to the millitarisation of Naga areas, the organizations cited how Boutros Boutros Ghali, former Secretary General, United Nations, while still holding the office, had “officially acknowledged these violences, destruction, pain and untold sufferings of the Nagas by observing that there is human rights situation in Nagaland.”
“Nagas are peace-loving and most humane people with great respect for peaceful co-existence and we courageously defend our dignity as we respect and uphold the dignity of all people exhibited by our great hospitability,” they asserted.
The organizations informed that a “political dialogue following the Cease Fire Agreement, 1997, is in place and a Framework Agreement, 2015, has been signed by the representatives of the Government of India and the Naga People as the basis to work out the political agreement to resolve the armed confrontation.”
“Although a decade shy of two years is nearly passed, yet the political resoluteness and honorable approach and guarantee on the part of the Government of India remains a dangerous doubt,” they lamented.
The organizations implored the international community to “humanly intervene in the violations of human rights in our Naga country, recognize our legitimate political, social, economic and religious rights as enshrined in the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.”
They further urged the Government of India to “stop its militarization and military operations.” “The Indo-Naga political conflict cannot be solved militarily and must be solved politically, as admitted by no less than three Indian Army Generals and others,” they stated.
The organizations meanwhile stated that the Nagas “have agreed and committed to an enduring inclusive new relationship of peaceful co-existence of the two entities – between Nagas and Indians.”
