Dimapur, December 11 (MExN): Secretary of the NSCN (IM) Steering Committee Rh. Raising has voiced out to the international community that the Collective Leadership had explicitly made it clear to India that Nagas want to be friendly with India and resolve the issue on the basis of federal relation between India and Nagalim. Raising, who was speaking at the International Human Rights Day held at the Houses of Parliament, Westminster London on December 10 however expressed regret that India has not responded to any of the core proposals made by the Naga leaders despite holding 60 rounds of talks. “Perpetual extension of the terms of ceasefire on the pretext of commitment and assurances is clearly viewed as a ploy of the government of India to buy time in order to bury the peace process under the wrap of time”, Raising told the international gathering while adding that the long history of the Naga national movement for independence was witness to the fact that Nagas have always believed in political solution and taken every opportunity to enter into dialogue with the government of India. “But each time we have been betrayed by the Indian leaders with false promises and assurances”, the NSCN (IM) leader said.
Drawing attention of the British law makers, the NSCN (IM) made a mention of Naga people’s contribution during the war and that “though human memories are short”, Nagas were deeply involved and that 4000 Nagas were sent to France as labour corps in support of the British led-Allied Forces where a good number of them died in a distant shore. “In the Second World War, the Naga people extended their fullest support to the Allied-forces. However, the international community has not done anything when the Naga people are in trouble, Raising lamented and said that the Nagas looked forward with renewed hope that the British in particular and the international communities in general would remember the oppressed Nagas to help solve the long drawn Indo-Naga problem”.
Pointing out that Nagas have been “placed to live in war situation for more than sixty years”, he said that most of the Nagas of the present generation were born and brought up in horrible war situations. “This war has, in fact, produced thousands of widows, orphans and childless parents in Nagalim. We resist this war because it has destroyed everything of us both material and spiritual”. Saying that “war never builds anything”, Raising pointed out that this war of aggression must be uprooted so that there is peace and prosperity on earth. Expressing the view that Nagas really want peace, he however said that Nagas “do not see the meaning of peace without freedom, truth and justice”. “Our stand is that our long cherished peace is to be founded on the solid ground of freedom, truth and justice, never on subjugation and capitulation”. Raising in his address also gave a brief but comprehensive update on the Naga issue while raising the point up front that Nagas have been living in their own country running their own government independently for thousands of years and that at no point of time, have they ever been subjugated by any alien power.
On the British colonial forces intruding into Naga country as early as in 1832, the NSCN (IM) leader mentioned that the Nagas put up strong resistance against the aggression for 48 years. Raising further informed the gathering that the Nagas, in the British occupied area declared their independence on August 14, 1947 and merged themselves with the free Nagas and that this declaration was intimated to the United Nations and all embassies in Delhi.
With regard to the Indian Constituent Assembly inviting the Nagas in 1950 to join the Union of India, Raising said that this was rejected outright and that the Nagas were also not a party to the Union of Burma. Stating that the government of India leveled wild allegations that the rejection of Union of India was the work of a few Naga leaders and not that of the people, the NSCN (IM) leader informed about the plebiscite conducted on May 16th 1951 pointing out that “99.9% voted in favour of Sovereign Independent Nagalim”. “Consequently, Indian state invaded on Nagalim with an eye to imposing its will upon the Nagas, which resulted in horrible violation of human rights – massacre, mass rape, and mass detention in concentration camps, mass torture, and destruction of villages, granaries, educational institutions, relics, churches and so on”, Raising informed while adding that Nagas have been resisting the aggression of the Indian and Burmese states since the day one, “because we know for sure that our national survival lies in resistance to the aggressors, never in submission to them”.
Raising said that the government of India, with a view to dampening the spirit of Naga nationalism and physically dividing the Nagas, created the so-called Nagaland state embracing only one fourth of the Naga area. “It was, however, rejected by the Naga people”, he said. The NSCN (IM) leader also informed that the Nagas were forcibly divided into six parts and placed them in six different administrative units (Four in the Indian States and two in Burmese States). “This kind of perpetual ‘divide and rule’ policy has made Naga brothers and sisters foreigners to each other in their own land. Since Nagas were politically divided, they should be politically united”, he said.
On India’s claim of inheriting “Nagalim from the British”, Raising said that this is the “greatest lie”. “If Nagalim were part of India, why did India invite the Nagas to join the Union of India? At no stage of history were Nagas under the rule of any Indian kings. The Nagas declared their independence on 14th August 1947, before India and Burma declared their independence. Ours is a case of invasion by India and Burma. The Nagas do not believe in forced marriage and forced union”, he said.
