Stop violence: FNR to Naga militants
Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network

Dimapur, October 08 2013 : The Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) said that if the reconciliation process is to continue with credibility then the Naga underground organisations should immediately stop violence perpetuated in any form.

The FNR said this amidst increasing factional killings and other forms of violence in Naga areas of late.

The FNR then urges the leaders of the Naga underground groups to demonstrate their statesmanship by putting aside factional politics and work for the common Naga cause of justice and peace.

It asserts that all Naga political groups to stop building their interest-based political houses and focus on building one Naga House.

The FNR then encourages all other Naga political groups who are committed to reconciliation to join the Naga Reconciliation process; and The FNR expresses the view that the Naga de facto can be realized only with the people's active participation, and hence, all Naga political groups work together for a referendum through which the people can freely express, participate and determine the Naga future.

The Forum for Naga Reconciliation said today that it intends for the reconciliation process to be inclusive, participatory and transparent.

It is also aware that no single process is perfect or satisfactory to all circumstances and parties involved.

However, difficult choices and decisions need to be made in order to move forward in the Naga context.

"With this in mind, the Forum for Naga Reconciliation sincerely reaches out to the Naga public and welcomes your active support, guidance, suggestions and prayers," the FNR added.

According to the Forum, reconciliation is a dynamic realistic process forward for a people to become united in purpose towards achieving aspirations such as forgiveness and healing, justice and peace, democracy, dignity, and inclusive development.

It is the art of the possible and implies a fundamental shift in personal and group power relations which comes about when people can freely, safely and openly talk about their fears and hopes, hurts and responsibilities.

The Naga people's existing circumstances call out for the reconciliation of a broken people.

The FNR stated that in today's degenerating circumstances, reconciliation is more imperative than ever before.

At this given juncture of our history, Naga reconciliation provides the most realistic way out of the spiralling crisis faced from both within and without.

For the Naga people, reconciliation offers the possibility of bringing everyone into relationships of mutual trust and respect by acknowledging the responsibility for past hurt and wrongs, while also uniting through consensus for a shared future.

In the present Naga situation, there is no future without reconciliation.

However, a shared future is entirely possible, as understood by the Naga public when they expressed their support for Naga reconciliation, it added.

"The task of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation is to build one Naga House founded on Naga historical and political rights.

This allows for the Naga political groups to reconcile in the spirit of forgiveness and mutual respect; to acknowledge mistakes while also recognizing their achievements and contributions made at various stages of the political history.

The stepping stones towards a shared future emerge through this ongoing process.

Personal and group commitments are necessary in order to move forward together based on the lessons learnt from the past and by taking inspiration in the positive political steps that have sustained and strengthened the Naga movement since its inception," the FNR said.

"Leaders of the Naga political (underground) groups in the course of the Naga Reconciliation process declared that they have reconciled on the basis of Naga historical and political rights, and recognized that all Nagas must unite in the shared purpose towards achieving our Naga political aspirations," the FNR said.

It then lamented that despite this declaration, even today, factional violence in its many forms: abductions, killings, provocations, justifications and threats continue to undermine the process.

The Naga leaders are found wanting in demonstrating their statesmanship and respecting the people's desire for reconciliation.

Rather than working together to build one Naga House, the political groups are busy building their own respective houses, thereby, further fragmenting the reconciliation process.

These contradictions between commitment and action threaten the Naga people's hope for reconciliation, unity, and justice and peace, the FNR pointed out.

Formed in 2008 to reconcile among the warring Naga underground outfits, the FNR members drawn from various Naga civil bodies, activists and intellectuals had organised football matches for these various Naga underground outfits both in Nagaland and abroad.

Several reconciliation meetings were also convened under the aegis of FNR in Nagaland, Thailand and elsewhere.

Following these, the warring Naga underground organisations had ceased to fight among themselves both physically and in the media.

Numerous agreements were also signed among the Naga underground outfits to stop hostility among them.

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