Kohima, July 21 (MExN): The Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) has called upon the Government of India to “recall its military from all Naga areas for the sake of humanity.”
It has, additionally, expressed solidarity with the family of Sepoy Vezota Vasa who died while working for the Jat Regiment.
On June 23 this year, the NPMHR stated that “right in the heart of India, the world’s biggest democracy, at Bareilly in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, a young Naga boy in his 20s, in the person of Vezota Vasa, who was enlisted and serving as an Indian Sepoy of the Jat Regiment” was found dead.
His family has recently asked for a fresh probe into the incident—suspicion arose around Late Vasa’s death after the Jat Regiment termed it ‘suicide’ but his family was not allowed to see the whole body of the deceased, a post-mortem was carried out in the absence of the family, and his body cleaned in the absence of the family prior to the agreed time of cleaning.
“We express solidarity with the family in their search for truth and justice,” said Neingulo Krome, Secretary General of the NPMHR, while speaking to The Morung Express. He expressed shock at how the Jat Regiment of the Indian Army has not yet ordered a separate enquiry into the case, or even court martialled the officer under whose supervision the death occurred.
In a press release, the NPMHR stressed how the Indian army continues to “bulldoze and bully” the Naga population through “checking and frisking, raid houses, arrests people, even enforce liquor prohibition on highways etc.” under the protection of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, and side by side, “conduct tours, contribute computers worth measly amounts and pose for photographs, conduct medical camps, all for cheap publicity and to say that they are the ‘friends of the hill people’.”
It reminded that Indian soldiers, who are supposed to be know all over the world “for their excellent behavior and discipline” (sic) were allegedly responsible for the “recent killing” of two young school children in Phek district in July 2015, which came to be known as ‘Wuzu Firing.’
In the past too, the NPMHR stated, in the same district of Phek, “we had the 14 Assam Rifles waging war on school children at Bible Hill Phek town for speaking in English while coming from school through the main road that passes through their camp, which was established after the Reverend in Charge of the Bible Hill was buried alive.”
The NPMHR stated that in the “backdrop of ongoing Ceasefire agreements and political negotiations” and the “various efforts of Reconciliation amongst the Naga political groups in particular,” as also to maintain “silent efforts to reconcile with our past history of human sufferings,” the rights body had made an effort to “stay away from provocative issues and elements.”
However, the NPMHR maintained that “the constant recurrence of acts with utter disregards for human life where Nagas are concerned, at the hands of Indian military personnel, one is left with choice but to express its resentments with pain and anger.”
