POLITICS-INDIA: Government Gets Ultimatum on Naga Ceasefire

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jun 25 2001 (IPS) - Politicians from north-eastern Manipur state have given Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee a Jul. 31 deadline to withdraw a ceasefire he offered to Naga tribal militants in the volatile state 10 days ago.

During a Sunday night sitting in New Delhi, Vajpayee failed to convince state legislators and members of Parliament from the state that the ceasefire would not result in the creation of a “Greater Nagaland” homeland carved out from Manipur and other territories that adjoin the present Nagaland state.

The ceasefire, applicable in Nagaland state for the last four years, was extended on Jun. 14 by Vajpayee’s government to cover Naga-dominated areas in the adjoining states of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Political leaders in the neighbouring states reacted angrily to the ceasefire, saying they were not consulted on the agreement signed in Bangkok, where top Naga leader Thuingaleng Muivah faces trial for entry into Thailand on false documents.

Vajpayee offered on Sunday a “review of issues arising from the ceasefire,” but made no firm commitments on a rollback as demanded by the politicians from Manipur, mostly from the dominant Meiteis community which professes Hinduism as opposed to the mainly Christian Naga tribals.

“The Prime Minister stated that the review is under way and the process would be expedited,” a bland official statement said Sunday night.

At least 14 people were killed and hundreds injured after police in Manipur’s capital city of Imphal opened fire to disperse Meitei mobs, which set the state assembly building on fire and proceeded to attack the residence of Manipur governor Ved Marwah.

Naga tribals were also reported to be fleeing from the Metei- dominated Imphal valley to the surrounding hills in Manipur state where they have exclusive land rights.

Manipur was placed under governor’s rule and the assembly suspended earlier this month after the year-old Samata party-led coalition government of Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam lost majority in the state assembly.

The ceasefire agreement, as originally signed between the central government and Naga leaders seeking a separate homeland in July 1997, was silent on the areas where it would be valid.

However, then Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral clarified in Parliament that it would be confined to Nagaland.

Koijam said the ceasefire was objectionable because it gave undue advantage to Muivah’s powerful National Socialist Council of Nagaland, Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM), which signed the 1997 truce, to the detriment of other militant groups in Manipur and the north- east.

While in office, Koijam had announced a unilateral ceasefire with 16 different militant groups that were operating in Manipur but was overruled by the central government.

Militant groups in the north-east survive by extracting regular taxes on businessmen and government employees and run parallel administrations in their respective areas of operation.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, the NSCN-IM would stop extortion and extend greater cooperation with the army and police and also stop providing support and training to other militant groups in the region.

Not surprisingly, major militant groups in the region such as United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), which has been fighting for an independent Assam, have opposed the extension of the ceasefire to parts of the state dominated by the Nagas such as the North Cachar hills.

Assam’s elected Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has already announced that his government would ignore the central government ceasefire and deal with NSCN-IM cadres as it thought fit.

Meanwhile, news reports from Bangkok quoted Muivah as saying that the Nagas were currently living in their own territories and had no intention of claiming new territories.

“If our brothers, Meities and Assamese, interpret ceasefire as more than ceasefire, it is their own creation out of apprehension. We will not be responsible for anything that may arise therefrom,” Muivah was quoted as saying Sunday.

But the avowed aim of the NSCN-IM is the creation of the hypothetical Nagalim, or Greater Nagaland, from large chunks of Assam, Manipur, Arunchal Pradesh and parts of adjoining Burma.

The Nagas are themselves divided into 20 major tribes of Indo- Burmese, several of which had reputations for headhunting until the advent of British rule in 19th century when they discarded animism for the Christian faith.

The extension of the ceasefire to areas outside Nagaland state caught most people in the region by surprise and even Manipur’s governor, Ved Marwah, a distinguished, retired police officer, has claimed that he was not informed.

The ceasefire has drawn flak from other experts on the region such as Marwah’s predecessor, Lt Gen (retired) S K Sinha, who said Monday that the centre had made a mistake by agreeing to geographical limits for the ceasefire with NSCN(IM).

“Ceasefire without geographical boundaries is not the same thing as its being extended (only) to Naga inhabited areas,” Sinha said.