Welcome Message by Paul Pimomo Secretary, Global Naga Forum (GNF)
Good evening and Good day to you all – wherever you maybe logging in from.
I’m here on behalf of the Global Naga Forum and Naga Civil Society Organizations that are in solidarity with us, as well as of the many like-minded Nagas at home and abroad. We are united in the belief that fundamental human rights belong to ALL peoples – without exceptions. That includes us Nagas. We are committed to achieving the Naga people’s human right of self determination in an undivided ancestral homeland — no matter what anyone may say to the contrary. And we don’t expect leaders of any government functioning on democratic and human rights principles to say or do anything to the contrary. This fundamental right of the Nagas is well founded.
First, it has a historical basis going back to 1929 in the colonial era; second, a political justification and moral imperative in the postcolonial context of India and Myanmar; and it has the backing of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which both India and Myanmar are party to.
So my dear fellow Nagas in the homeland and around the world — including Nagas who may have doubts about their own full humanity or those of their brothers and sisters and don’t believe Nagas deserve or need to govern ourselves and manage our own affairs: to you and to all Nagas, a Warm Welcome to this 75th Commemoration of the Naga Declaration of Independence.
Dear International friends and well-wishers of the Naga people, near and far, those in attendance or unable to do so, a Warm and Grateful Welcome to you all. Many of you have walked with us in solidarity of spirit and action. Among our international friends are conscientious individuals, diplomats, indigenous peoples’ forums, action groups, and organizations throughout the world who continue to partner with us, together with UN-related human rights advocacy agencies. Without you, we are weak; but together with you we are strong. We can together become a global force for good: for human rights, justice, and peace in the world, starting in our home communities and countries. We are all in this together. Today’s living generation of human beings must work together for a peaceful world on a healthy Earth — the only livable planet we know of to date and which we share and hold in common trust for future generations. This is what civilization is ultimately about; it is what makes us responsible human beings.
A Special Welcome to today’s featured speakers and performers: Rev. Dr. Wati Aier, our Commemoration Speaker; to our virtual Guest of Honor Senor Dario Jose Mejia Montalvo; to Sami artist Jo Morten Kaaven; and to the Colored Keys folk band. We thank each of you for helping us commemorate the heroic Naga struggle for self-determination and justice.
I wish I could welcome you all to a peaceful and prosperous Naga Homeland — “the land of the free and the home of the brave”? But I cannot. There’s no Naga Homeland for all of us to live together freely and in peace as one people. Instead, what we have are two Naga worlds locked in an unmatched duel, supervised and referred by the powers that be.
It is in this context that tomorrow we enter an uncertain and critical 76th year of the Naga Declaration of Independence. But today is a special day, a day we have set aside to honor the rich seven-and-half-decade long history of the irresistible human need for dignity and freedom reflected in the thousands of Nagas who have sacrificed themselves to the cause. Their courage and conviction, and the sacrifices their families especially women and children are still making, continue to inspire us. They are the bright and admirable part of Naga history that we are grateful for and cherish.
Then there’s the other Naga world, the unnecessarily tragic and ugly side to the Naga story, reflected in the postcolonial Indo-Naga political problem. More than 7 decades of this problem has resulted in the deeply divided Naga society that I dare not welcome you to. Nagas are facing an existential threat to our peoplehood. Seventy-five years after the end of British colonial rule, Nagas still live separated in four states in India and a province in Myanmar. And since 1947, the year the British left, Nagas have suffered military invasion by India in the mid-1950s and have lived under military laws since 1958, the time the Indian government gave our lands the colonial label of “Disturbed Areas” — because we wanted to be left alone — and imposed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). On top of that, in 1963, a portion of the Naga territory was converted into the Indian surrogate state of Nagaland. It was engineered to checkmate the Naga freedom movement which the military campaign could not destroy.
Fast forward to now, 2022. Tomorrow, India is celebrating her 75th Independence Day. The Indian government, working through its surrogate Nagaland government, has issued orders for every household in the state to buy the Indian national flag at the cost of Rs. 20 a piece and to fly it prominently. The Indian government wants Nagas to be proud Indians. But this is in the state where, after 59 years of existence, there’s no evidence of government-led projects that have improved upon the quality of life that had existed six decades earlier. There’s not a single medical college, not one fully operational industry in the state, and many primary healthcare workers and school teachers go without pay for months at a time. Corruption is, well, rampant. Young people with college degrees cannot find jobs and are left to compete for Indian military and paramilitary careers to make a living.
This brings me to the one industry — non-existent in Naga society seven decades ago — that has grown exponentially not only in Nagaland but throughout the Naga territories and the Northeast region. Since the invasion of Naga territories in 1954, India has turned the region into a sprawling military training camp for the Indian Army. The Army has establishments everywhere: company headquarters, training centers, camps, outposts, you name it. There are 50 such establishments in Nagaland and Manipur alone, which have a combined area of just 15,022 square miles. The army occupies some of the prime real estate areas in the two states. Harassment, unwarranted searches, and civil rights abuses by the armed forces are daily occurrences. The December 2021 murder of 13 innocent Naga civilians in Oting and Mon by Indian army commandos was not an aberration. It was predictable – repeated past killings in the 3 last six decades prove this. But the perpetrators go scot-free, every time, protected by AFSPA. The end result of the Oting/Mon massacre is likely to be an appeasement of the aggrieved tribe with political arrangements that the Indian government can cater for them to further divide the Nagas.
There’s an important point to this summary narrative I’ve given of the Indo-Naga relations since 1947: The reason is, it is necessary to tell the truth because without that the veritable endless crisis that the Indo-Naga problem has become will remain such, even if Government of India (under the current contentious conditions most of it orchestrated by India’s representative and former interlocutor of the peace negotiations) decides to deliver a quick-fix settlement by Csection. Such a settlement will be dead on arrival.
Despite all this, there is one clear pathway to a peaceful resolution: Demilitarization of the region and a legally enforceable constitutional structure and a timetable for recognition and implementation of the Peoplehood of the Nagas with a self-determined governance system in an undivided ancestral homeland comprising all the Naga territories in India and Myanmar.
Let me end with a question and a request.
Question for fellow Nagas:
Faced with an existential threat to the survival of the Nagas as a people, which side are you on?
a) For Nagas as we are today, for things as they have been for over seven decades?
b) Or would you like to try something different? Perhaps join fellow Nagas and find new ways to travel together toward One People, One Destiny?
To our friends and well-wishers near and far: Please help us if you can, any way you can, to bring this unending crisis of our people to a quick and peaceful resolution.
Thank you.
Kuknalim!