Exiled from No Man's Land

By Lunneo Zou *

With anger depressed and emotional out-burst, I lie down in my bed, take a deep breath and dream of a land-my Motherland, where I can spread my wings to exercise liberty without any hindrances and discriminations.

Weary of being called duplicate foreigners or second class citizen treatment meted to me even by the beggars, the illiterate auto drivers & bus conductors who consider me as barbaric & inferior to them, I decided to return to my root to live peacefully rather than living in a splendid life without honor and dignity in the metropolitan city.

Childhood memories are still a fresh like morning dew, where the Church bell is the only vibration or sound pollution, which are the music to every ear at night. The calm, breeze & cheerful night that we enjoyed, merry making & morning jogging with friends and midnight social gatherings are considered as a natural occasions.

December is the most special and blessed one where everyone in foreign's land came home like birds returning to their nest at night. I still remember, my parents calling me to spare time for the winter vacation to visit my grandpa's place in spite of tight schedule.

Thirty days of winter vacations is like spending a day, betting goodbye to see again next year.

Time fleets by, but not everyone make a positive transformation and my mother land, Manipur- Zoland/Kukiland is not exception. The day to day administration and civil society total broke down or paralyzed. State machinery & other social organization become irresponsible and tools of the malefactors.

The govt. is in chaos & law and order are tremendously deteriorated. There's not only a loss in market productions or properties, but also irrecoverable loss of human life, that can not be compensated in cash or kind.

The genocide committed in Yugoslavia, Iraq, or civil War in Somalia, Cambodia, Kenya or other African countries not only make headlines to every newspaper, we now are the daily hot topics to every media or discussions.

With the existence of Zomi-Taliban (the term coined by Pu Fidel Haupu), things turn from bad to worse.

The only motive is to crush the peace loving Zou peoples, thereby losing innocent life for the cause of Zomi 'Swaraj'. Their patience and tolerance for greater interest and unification are construed as their weaknesses. The atrocities committed by them are unfathomable.

Though the Wolf (vested interest Politicians) within the Zou community forgives, how could the Lamb forget? The British policy of 'Divide and Rule' Politics is like a peanut in comparison to the 'Divide and Crush' Politics perpetrated by the Zomi-Taliban to the Zou community.

The way the British fragmented our ancestral land into different parts/region or country, Zou community is at the dawn of fragmentation into different tribes, groups or clans. Guess, the accomplishment of minus politics of the Zou's fragmentation by the Zomi-Taliban and Zomi-Council is paramount than acquiring legitimate homeland.

Under the defacto leaders, it is mentioned that no outfit can be formed other than Zomi-Taliban within the Zomi umbrella. But the Zomi-Taliban is none other than the up gradation of 'Paite-Commando' - a resistance group against the Kukis. The formation of ZRA does not get the mandate of all the community who accepted Zomi as their imposed nomenclature.

As a result various outfits like ZDV, USRA, & ZRF are the products of the maltreatment and minus politics perpetrated by their mother. They neither get the right to rule the other community nor authority or license to kill whosoever against their self centred policies and programme.

Since the wise or learned persons are the soft target causing the strong survive and weak/wise perish, the Zomi-Taliban transformed one of the most elevated and beautiful Zo-Hills into a 'state of nature'.

With the passage of time, the Zou peoples who are suppressed, tortured, rape, persecuted and made subservient to the Zomi-Taliban are now conscious and pledge to pay blood to blood and life to life.

People wary of the grave consequences, though the corrupt surveyor claims it as extinct, sooner or later, the dormant Zomi volcano will be erupted and the construction of Taliban's Babel Monument will cease their work. Some will shed tears glad fully, do others mournfully, for they will show what the Zomi-Taliban sowed.

The constant meddling in Zou internal affairs is the last nail in the coffin of the Zomi politics. No constitutional/political term can defined the untimely election of the United Zou Organization. It's neither mid-term nor by-election, as the elected leaders are physically & mentally sound and some more years left for the expiry of their tenure.

It is none other than a political coup or self style ordinance pass by the Songtal Court (SC). The elected UZO leaders who got the mandate of the Zou peoples are dethroned by the selected leaders. They now enjoyed their powers and office during the pleasure of the Zomi-Taliban by pleasing and praising them in their den, negating the plight and grievances of their people.

The blood of the Zou peoples, innocent lives and its ancestral land are the dowry in marriage to the Zomi-Taliban. Money tics are the rule of law, where justice is like a commodity which the 'haves' and sympathizers of the Zomi-Taliban can only possess.

Who authorize them to determine the election of UZO? Who made them to rule and judge over the Zou peoples? They need to learn from their past experience that the maltreatment or torturing by other UGs to the Paites is not different than what they did to the Zou peoples. To avoid explosion of the Zomi Volcano they should completely abstain from interfering in the affairs of the Zou politics.

In general, minority bore the brunt of the sectarian and vested politics, which have no constant position but flexible decision to bend to the tune of the changing wind. Though no visa is required, whosoever cross the artificial boundary are under constant vigil or suspicion.

Guess, anybody who believes in re-incarnation will pray that he will not be re-incarnated in a minority group. They are the victims of power game politics, every mother shed their tears to mourn their near and dear ones. To live and lead a peaceful life in a buffer zone-No Man's Land is next to hell.

With all these intolerable situations I now realized and woke up bursting No..! No..! No human beings have spare life. How can I dream even in my wildest dream to return back to my root where my rights or liberty are curtailed- the right to speak the truth or exercise liberty under the surveillance of the gun.

I'm exile from No Man's Land- a land where the law of jungle prevails. I'm a citizen of this country enjoying equal rights & freedom, so I'll try to make the best used of it.

No matter what comes, I'll take each day as it comes, serve my master with humility and live a secure life in dignity rather than drowning in Zomi-Taliban's trouble water.