DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 9 (MExN): The Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) today commemorated 40 years of its struggle against the “occupation of Naga lands” by re-iterating its commitment to the 11 Point of Declaration for “restorations of their human rights, 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 that protection and promotion of human rights anywhere is a concern of all.”
A press statement from the NPMHR stated that the “history of the Naga people has taught us that there are forces both inside and outside the society collaborating in strangulating social progress.”
“Our people have seen economic exploitation, political and military domination social suppression with the imposition of alien cultural and legal systems and the distortion of their history,” it added.
In the light of these experiences, the NPMHR reaffirmed its task of initiating organized struggle for achieving the “right to life, work, to live together as a people and the unification of all Naga Lands.”
It also reaffirmed the Naga people’s right to hold and communicate one's beliefs; freedom of movement, assembly and association; free access to all place of learning; maximum participation of the people in the making of decisions affecting their lives; and freedom from socio-economic exploitation, political domination and military repression.
The NPMHR further expressed its stand against “anti-democratic practices and the dismantling of institutions and social values which legitimize and perpetuate these within our society; against the practices of arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and execution, and the use of unconventional weapons; and against the imposition of undesirable alien legal systems and socio-cultural concepts and ways of life.”
Stating that “freedom, justice and peace are the inherent rights of every peoples,” it called upon the people of India to “recognize our rights as much as we respect their rights.” To the Nagas, it impressed upon them to “have the courage to live independently and exist fearlessly as one people without expecting other people or alien rulers to gift us our rights.”
