Press Release
The Global Naga Forum is pleased to read the public statements of the Naga Club and the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (2nd & 5th May 2022 respectively) on the latest developments in the Oting and Mon killings. We support their stand for justice, truth, and accountability: justice for the victims and their families; truth from the state government and those entrusted to investigate the killings; prosecution of the perpetrators; and accountability for the Indian Army establishment and for Government of India under whose laws the crimes were committed.
The cold-blooded massacre of fourteen Naga laborers at Oting on 4 & 5 December 2021 not only devastated a particular community or region, but has become a matter of grave concern for all Nagas. The Global Naga Forum stands in solidarity with the victims and the Konyak people in our common struggle for justice and peace in the Naga homeland.
The GNF carried out a fact-finding mission on location last December, following the killings. Our team met with the families of the killed and the injured, as well as public and civil society leaders. We made a detailed report of the facts we gathered and, with permission of the injured and the families of the victims, GNF made a formal appeal for justice to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and further submitted the case to the National Human Rights Commission, India (NHRC).
Over and above, a two day walkathon was organized by the Naga people under the aegis of GNF from 11-12 January 2022 culminating in the submission of Memorandum to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. The UN’s capacity to intervene in such cases is not assured because of India’s stubborn opposition to the UN’s intervention in human rights violations against Nagas, which have been going on for over sixty years. But GNF is keeping up the pressure and will continue to appeal for justice with the appropriate UN agencies for human and indigenous peoples’ rights.
The struggle against extra-judicial killings of Naga civilians by Indian armed forces will go on despite the challenges from India and some quarters within Naga society. Since the Oting and Mon killings last December, innocent Nagas in other parts of the Naga homeland (Arunachal Pradesh) have been shot and injured or killed by the armed forces (one killed in Kolagaon and Retto Kakho on 21st March and on 1st April four were shot at in Chasa village while returning from a fishing trip, two seriously injured and hospitalized). Predictably, there has been no justice for the victims or punishment for the criminals.
So the Naga people’s movement for justice and self-determination must go on. The Global Naga Forum is in complete agreement with FNR that “AFSPA must be decisively repealed.” Naga people have the right to live in our homeland without being harassed and killed by the Indian Army without consequence.
Media Cell, Global Naga Forum (GNF)
May 16, 2022