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 obilisation
by the Naga separatists to establish an independent
land for the Nagas began before India’s independence.
The idea of an independent Nagaland is based on the
premise that Nagas have been historically independent,
conquered by none and therefore India has no right to
subjugate them. Naga representative organizations, during
the British rule over India, petitioned the government
to address their concerns of being subjugated to an
alien culture after the departure of the British. Though
the British made special provisions for the administration
of the hill tribes, it was clearly short of endorsing
their demand for independence. Subsequently, during
India’s independence, Nagas, under the Naga National
Council (NNC) appealed to the Indian National Congress
to set them free. Faced with a rejection, the NNC under
Angami Zapu Phizo declared independence of Nagaland
on August 14, 1947, and sought to endorse it with what
he claimed a plebiscite held on May 16, 1951 in which
99 per cent of the population had voted in favour of
independence.
A massive crackdown on NNC took place in 1953 when
troops in large numbers were moved by the Government
of India into the Naga hills. Under the initiative of
Phizo, on March 22, 1956, an underground government
called the Naga Federal Government (NFG) and a Naga
Federal Army (NFA) was created. In order to fight for
the dream of an independent Naga homeland, Phizo left
Nagaland in December 1956 and arrived London in 1960
and kept pursuing his dream from London until his death
in December 1990. His daughter Adinno Phizo, the now
NNC president, is still pursuing that dream from her
home in London.
The State of Nagaland was formed by the Government
of India on December 1, 1963. The government’s
initiative was vehemently condemned by the NNC and pointed
out that these are measures to divide the Naga people.
A ‘Peace Mission’ was formed which resulted
in the signing of an Agreement for Suspension of Operation
(AGSOP) with the insurgents on September 6, 1964. But
violence continued and six rounds of talks between the
Centre and insurgents failed. The ‘Peace Mission’
broke in 1967.
The Government of India banned the NNC in 1972 under
the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 and
launched a massive counter-insurgency operation. On
November 11, 1975, the Shillong Accord was signed between
NNC and the Government of India where the NNC cadres
accepted “without condition, the Constitution
of India”. However, a section of the NNC rebelled
against the accord and formed the National Socialist
Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980. Tribal differences
led to a split in the NSCN in 1988 leading to the birth
of Isak-Muivah faction (NSCN-IM) and the Khaplang faction
(NSCN-K). Both these outfits continued their movement
with an avowed objective of establishing a Nagalim (greater
Nagaland) comprising Naga inhabited areas of Nagaland,
Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Myanmar.
On August 1, 1997, the NSCN-IM and the Union government
entered into a ceasefire agreement and have since held
more than 60 rounds of dialogue (until May 2010) to
resolve the conflict. A similar ceasefire agreement
was signed between the NSCN-K and the government in
April 2001, though both sides are yet to start a process
of dialogue. The ceasefire agreements with both the
outfits have been periodically extended.
The NSCN-IM is the most powerful outfit in Nagaland,
though it no longer enjoys the same strength and power
it used to hold earlier. Its influence is visible over
vast stretches of Nagaland’s six to seven districts.
Despite the ceasefire, the outfit has continued with
its extortion activities and carried out attacks on
the rival outfits although the scale of violence started
declining by end 2008. The NSCN-K has managed to hold
on to its areas of influence, primarily in districts
like Mokokchung, Tuensang and pockets in Dimapur. The
outfit’s strength lies in its facilities in the
Sagaing division within Myanmar, in spite of the sporadic
operations by the Myanmarese army. The NNC, on the other
hand, remains a poor shadow of the erstwhile outfit
that initiated the Naga insurgency.
After the creation of Unification faction of the NSCN
(NSCN-U) in November 2007, the situation in Nagaland
further worsened. The NSCN-U was formed as a result
of a ‘truce agreement’ signed between senior
functionaries of both IM and K factions on November
23, 2007 at Hovishe under the Niuland sub-division in
Dimapur district. However, the NSCN-IM leadership did
not accept the truce agreement. Since then, the NSCN-U
was into continuous clashes with the IM faction and
it had the backing of the NSCN-K. However, the unification
faction of NSCN has not been involved in much incidents
since 2009.
Extortion activities in the State have been also on
a rise during the last few years. The militant groups
have been continuously collecting ‘tax’
from the people and business establishments. This money
is collected from all sources, including from Government
departments and the extortion network spreads over not
only the cities like Dimapur, Kohima and various District
headquarters and townships but also over almost all
the 1317 villages of the state. ‘Tax’ is
also collected from commercial vehicles plying on National
Highway 39, en route, to Manipur. Neither the Central
nor the state Government is taking any action against
this ‘tax collection’ by the militants.
The ceasefire rules, which stipulate that the militants
stay in designated camps, ban their movement in uniform
and with arms and prohibit extortion, are also not followed
by the militants. The cadres of the militant outfits
move freely with their arms out in open and carry out
all sorts of extortion activities. The police, Army
and Central Para-Military forces were unable to take
any significant steps in this regard for quite sometime
but things appear to have been brought under control
by 2009 and the insurgency-related incidents are steadily
decelerating in the state compared to the previous years.
On 27 November, 2009, the Nagaland legislative assembly
decided to give legitimacy to the six-decade-long insurgency
going on in the state. The assembly resolved to “recognize”
the Naga underground movement and their leaders, saying
that they have “selflessly worked, fought and
sacrificed for the aspirations and the rights of the
Nagas, and also to those who continue to follow the
tradition of selfless sacrifices for the common cause
of the Nagas”. The resolution, moved by Chief
Minister Neiphiu Rio, was endorsed by the entire 60-member
house, including 19 opposition Congress party legislators.
In spite of the thirteen year old ceasefire with the
NSCN-IM and the nine year old ceasefire with the rival
Khaplang faction (NSCN-K), the situation in Nagaland
is still volatile. Insurgency-related fatalities have
been on a rise during the last few years in the state,
though the situation is improving after 2008. Between
1992 and 2010 (till July 31), at least 2337 insurgency
related fatalities have been recorded in Nagaland. The
number of fatalities in insurgency-related activities
fell drastically from 201 in 2008 to 17 in 2009 and
in 2010 only 3 fatalities were reported from the state.
(source: www.satp.org)
On March 2, 2010, NSCN-IM delegation, lead by its chairman
Isak Chisi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah,
met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home
Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi. The Naga leaders
also held a series of meetings with the new interlocutor
for naga peace talks, R.S Pandey during their stay in
New Delhi. The visiting NSCN (IM) delegation put forward
30 demands, which included sovereignty for Nagaland,
and unification of all Naga-dominated areas of neighbouring
states.
After the talks Muivah came to Dimapur and decided
to visit his native village Somdal in Ukhrul district
of Manipur. This was to be his first visit to his birth
place after 40 years. The union government also granted
his request and the visit was scheduled to take place
during first week of May. Muivah was also expected to
visit other Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur during the
visit. But, on April 30, 2010, Manipur government announced
that it would not allow Muivah to come to Manipur as
there are possibilities of disturbances if the NSCN-IM
leader comes to Manipur. The government also clamped
restriction under Section 144 of CrPC in Senapati district
in addition to deployment of additional forces in order
to prevent Muivah from entering Manipur. On May 6, 2010,
the situation in Mao border gate, through which Muivah
was expected to enter Manipur, turned tense. A number
of locals stormed a temporary security barrack which
lead the security personnel resort to firing leaving
two locals dead and fifty others, including women, injured.
After this incident and after requests from the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO) and some Naga civil society
organizations, Muivah postponed his visit to Somdal
and camped himself in Viswema village near the Mao gate
on the inter-state border of Nagaland and Manipur. Eventually,
on June 5, 2010, the Central Government persuaded Muivah
to leave Vishwema village where he had been camping
since May 6, 2010. The blockade of NH-39 was lifted
on June 18, 2010 after negotiations with different Naga
groups.
On October 1, 2010 security forces arrested Anthony
Shimray, a senior NSCN (IM) functionary from Kathmandu
in Nepal. Shimray was the chief arms procurer for the
outfit and had been involved in gun running for a long
time.
Civil society movements in Nagaland
have been traditionally effective. The Church has been
an important player in peace making among the insurgents,
almost all of whom are Christian, since the beginning
of the conflict. The Baptist Church Council of Nagaland
played a prominent part in the formation of the Peace
Mission in 1964. In July 1997, the Baptist Church organised
the Atlanta Peace meet where the NSCN leadership accepted
initiatives to start an unconditional dialogue process.
In the first week of November 2007, a group of Church
workers from the United Kingdom arrived in Nagaland
to push for “reconciliation” between the
NSCN-IM and the NSCN-K. A team from the North American
Baptist Church too is involved in brokering peace between
both the factions.
Organisations like the Naga Hoho and the Naga Mothers’
Association (NMA) have worked towards reconciliation
among the warring factions. Even the tribal councils
belonging to the different tribes in the state including
the Ao Senden, the Sumi Hoho have tried to establish
unity among the NSCN-IM and NSCN-K, albeit without much
success. Organisations like the Naga People’s
Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) that periodically
highlights the alleged abuses by the security forces,
are seen as placating the interests of the NSCN-IM and
have no influence on either the NSCN-K or the NNC. Some
leaders of the NSCN-IM and the NSCN-K met in Niuland,
near Dimapur on November 23, 2007 to declare the cessation
of hostility between the outfits. However, the agreement
was soon repudiated by both the outfits and the clashes
have continued.
The citizens of the state are also now taking initiatives
for bringing peace in the state. On May 20, 2008, peace
rallies were organized in all the 11 district headquarter
towns by the gaon buras (village chiefs) and dubashis
(chiefs of Naga customary courts), asking the warring
Naga factions to stop violence. In June 2008, a reconciliation
meeting of the Naga factions, mass-based Naga organisations
and tribal Hohos was organised by the Naga Reconciliation
Forum, headed by Baptist clergyman Wati Aier, Baptist
World Alliance and a UK-based Quaker group, at Chiang
Mai in Thailand. But, the NSCN-K rejected the offer
made by the rival NSCN-IM for a dialogue outside the
country and the move failed.
Extending the existing ceasefire with both the outfits
remains central to the government’s conflict management
policy in Nagaland. Representatives of the NSCN-IM and
the government continue to meet periodically to carry
forward the negotiations. By far, however, little success
has been achieved to break the deadlock over the outfit’s
demand of integrating the ‘Naga-inhabited’
areas of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh with Nagaland.
Both the government and the NSCN-IM, however, on 31
July 2007, following a round of dialogue in Dimapur,
took a decision to extend the ceasefire indefinitely.
A few more round of talks have taken place since then
in Delhi, but there were no concrete outcome of the
talks.
In August 2009, the Central Government wound up the
term of K Padmanabhaiah as interlocutor for talks with
NSCN-IM. Centre then appointed RS Pandey as the new
interlocutor on February 12, 2010. The new interlocutor
held talks with the NSCN-IM leadership on March 2010
in New Delhi, in which the NSCN (IM) delegation put
forward 30 demands, which included sovereignty for Nagaland,
and unification of all Naga-dominated areas of neighbouring
states. However, the demand for sovereignty for Nagaland
and its territorial claims over portions of neighbouring
states was categorically rejected.
The government in New Delhi has done little in terms
of stopping the internecine clashes between the outfits.
It insists that the clashes between the insurgent outfits
are a law and order problem, to be handled by the state
government. The Nagaland state government, on the contrary,
has always been a marginal player in contributing to
the peace process. Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio, is on
record claiming that such clashes are a part of the
‘political problem’ ‘between India
and Nagaland’, thus indicating that these would
continue as long as the ‘conflict over Nagalim’
is not resolved. The internecine war has claimed more
than 500 lives during 2004-2010 and it still remains
the biggest obstacle in establishing peace in the state.
The civil society organizations in Nagaland such as
the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, the Naga Hoho and
many other women’s and students’ organizations
have played an important role in laying the groundwork
for the emergence of lasting peace in the region. These
are the actors who are working as a bridge between the
various regions which comprises Nagalim, in Nagaland,
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and parts of Myanmar;
and without any substantial political overtones. They
have been successful in reaching out to communities,
both Naga and other ethnic tribes, and promoting dialogue
and understanding at the civil society level between
contesting aspirations of communities in the region,
which the political outfits engaged in talks have not
been able to do. They have joined efforts to talk to
top rebel leaders to stop fratricidal killings among
Naga insurgent factions and extortions and threats,
and to include more women in the peace talks.
The Church-led Forum for Naga Reconciliation, which
has representatives from 42 community groups as well
as the militant outfits, orgainsed several reconciliatory
meetings both within and outside the country. Two such
meetings were organised at Chiang Mai in Thailand in
June and September 2009. The NSCN-IM, NSCN-K and NNC
made a "declaration of commitment" in the
September meet and decided to work together for solving
the Naga issues. But still there cannot be seen any
improvement in the relation between the various militant
factions and the fratricidal clashes still continue
in Nagaland.
On June 1, 2010, Centre and NSCN (IM) held peace talks
for the first time in Nagaland at Kohima, where the
issue of integration of Naga-inhabited areas, as demanded
by the outfit, was discussed. However, the Centre ruled
out change in boundaries of states without the consensus
of political parties. Both sides came to an understanding
on some issues and expressed their commitment to explore
all possibilities to arrive at a consensus on other
sensitive issues.
On June 4, 2010 Muivah moved to Pfutsero in Phek district
on a “Goodwill mission”. In the same month
he visited Jotsoma village near Kohima, Pughoboto in
Zunheboto district, Tuensang and Peren as a part of
his peace mission where he held consultations with civil
society leaders on the Naga talks issue.
Two more rounds of talks were held in Delhi with the
Centre on July 23 and July 29, 2010 with both the sides
expressing satisfaction over the way the talks are progressing.
(Updated till 26 January, 2011)
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