Dimapur, April 13 (MExN): Deeply concerned by the “continued captivity” of 14 year-old Alice Kamei by the Revolutionary Peoples Front/Peoples Liberation Army(RPF/PLA), the United Naga Council (UNC) today termed her custody as an “an utter disrespect for the institutions of family and an assault on the innocence of childhood.” “Our homes and families and our land must be defended at all cost,” the Naga organization stated.
The UNC stated that Alice, a class 9 student of Grace Reach Academy in Hiyanglam, Manipur, should be in school under the guardianship of her parents and, therefore, asserted that she “must be safely released to her parents and her people with any delay.” It further said that despite the peaceful and democratic protest that has been registered by Naga organizations, seeking her safe release, Alice has been in the custody of the RPF/PLA since March 10, 2013. This, the UNC claimed violates both natural law and established international norms.
The UNC publicity wing in a statement questioned, “Compare this with the flare up in Imphal valley in the wake of the reported incident of the manhandling of Momoko by a cadre of the NSCN (IM) at Chandel on 18 December, 2012, where the Nagas and tribals were targeted in well orchestrated moves.” The statement further cited a number of incidents that occured during this ‘episode’, wherein, 13 students from Risophung village under Senapati District were waylaid and physically assaulted by cadres of Kangleipak Communist Party at Napetpali on December 24, 2012, and a 16-year-old girl in the group was molested and nearly raped.
It cited the incident where two villagers of Kongkan village, in Ukhrul district, who were returning to their village after a hunting trip were “intentionally” gunned down by the United National Liberation Front.
The UNC claimed that “the Cabinet of the communal State Government of Manipur had 3 meetings on the Momoko issue.” The level and sense of the offence perceived and taken in the Alice Kamei and Momoko episode are markedly communal in difference, it said. “The communal responses of the State government and the non-state forces in the Imphal valley have offered further vindications for the demand of the Nagas in Manipur for an alternative arrangement outside the Government of Manipur, pending settlement of the Indo-Naga issue.”
The UNC further stated that “blatant communal omissions and commissions of the Manipur State Government and the non-state valley forces in collusion on all fronts is steering away the situation from the peaceful parting of ways.” It urged the government of India to intervene “immediately” with an alternative arrangement. “Nagas and tribals must be in continued preparedness,” it said.
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