Release all Naga Political Prisoners of War: NSCN (IM)

Mokokchung, March 7 (MTNews): The NSCN (IM) on Tuesday has called for the immediate release of all Naga Political Prisoners of War (NPPoW), who have been detained by the Indian and Myanmar governments. It has also called upon the international community to uphold and defend international fairness and justice, promote an equal and uniform application of international law and reject double standards.

The NSCN (IM) through a press release issued by its Ministry of Information and Publicity on Tuesday said that India and Myanmar have systematically framed the conflict as an internal issue, viewing the Nagas defending their own country as a security threat to their respective countries. The detention of numerous Nagas by the Indian and Myanmar governments has resulted in them being labelled as “insurgents,” “terrorists,” or arrested under “terror funding,” it said.

As an example, it cited the arrest of Alemla Jamir, a cabinet minister in the NSCN/GPRN, who was detained by India on December 17, 2019, at Domestic Airport (T-1) in New Delhi and later arrested in a “terror funding case” and remains in Indian custody.

The NSCN (IM) also posed several questions to India and the international community in this perspective. It asked why India has been in political negotiations with the NSCN (IM) for more than two decades and why the negotiations have taken place at the highest political levels in India and other countries if the NSCN (IM) was a terrorist organization.

“India’s commitment to the November 18, 2002, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Milan, Italy, which clearly stated and understood that the NSCN/GPRN is not a terrorist organization. If this is the case, why are members of the NSCN/GPRN or Nagas being held on terror funding charges?” it asked.

It also questioned why India signed the Framework Agreement on August 3, 2015, which recognized the issue as an Indo-Naga “political conflict” and was signed as two entities.

“The political conflict between India, Nagalim, and Myanmar has lasted more than seven (7) decades, making it one of modern history’s oldest international conflicts,” the NSCN (IM) said.

It was stated that the perspectives of India and Myanmar shaped how the international community viewed the conflict. “However, for the Nagas, we are defending our own country against forces that are purely an invasion and illegal occupation by India and Myanmar after the colonial British Empire left the Naga homeland,” it said.

The NSCN (IM) stated that there were no official or informal treaties between the Naga people and the British during the colonial British Empire’s occupation of the Free Naga country. “Similarly, on August 14, 1947, as the British were about to leave the region, the Nagas declared independence,” it added.

“Under these conditions, all countries’ sovereignty must be respected. International law, including the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, must be strictly followed. The occupying forces, India, and Myanmar must recognize that all countries, large or small, powerful, or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community,” it maintained.

The NSCN (IM) further said that the international community should remain committed to the right approach of promoting peace talks, assisting India, Nagalim, and Myanmar in the conflict, and creating conditions and platforms for the three entities to resume negotiations or call for an immediate withdrawal of occupying forces from Nagalim. “The occupying countries, India and Myanmar, must immediately release all Naga Political Prisoners of War (NPPoW),” the NSCN (IM) demanded.

Saying that it is opposed to the occupation of Nagalim, the NSCN (IM) appealed to the international community to immediately call India and Myanmar’s illegal occupation into question.