NE UGs boycott R-Day
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, January 21 2013: Several UG organisations of North East India have boycotted the 66th Republic Day Celebration of India on January 26 and called a general strike from 1 am of January 26 to 5.30 pm in the whole North East Region.

The general strike has been called jointly by Coordination Committee (CorCom) of seven UG organisations of Manipur (KCP, PREPAK, PREPAK�Pro, RPF, UNLF & UPPK), National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), National Liberation Front of Twipra (NLFT), Tripura People's Democratic Front (TPDF) and United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) .

In a joint statement, the UG organisations said that they are calling for mass boycott of India's Republic Day Celebration on January 26, 2013 as mark of resistance against Indian Occupation of the Region.

Indian State's hypocrisy and deceiving attitude and its tyranny over our people have been exposed time and again to the entire world as India continues to exploit our region in all spheres of life including the right to self-determination, it stated.

"There is a clear image of Indian colonial racism manifested in the suppression of human rights under martial and Draconian law such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 and other forms of suspension of fundamental rights.

Extra judicial killings, inhuman torture, fake encounter and sexual harassment in the Region are routinely carried out to suppress the freedom struggle of our indigenous people", the joint statement asserted.

"Silent and systematic population invasion has been instrumentalized in the Region through promotion of influx of outsiders to uproot our culture, identity, take absolute control of the economic resources and political power so that it can easily assimilate to the Indian mainland to their whims.

The Indian State, besides smuggling of illegal drugs through secret agents, is also indulging in plantation of poppy plants in the region's soil to degenerate health and morale of the people", the joint statement alleged.

It further said, "As oil becomes today's gold, exploitative projects such as oil and natural gas exploration, coal mining, etc.

are being enforced at gun point in the name of development at the cost of our own people.

The Look East Policy has been designed primarily to serve the interest of the Indian comprador at our cost.

The contradiction and the gap between the rich and poor has been widening without any restraint as this colonial ruler has been letting loose unrestraint privatization to serve the vested interest of India's rich corporate leaving our people in drudgery" .

There is heavy investment in militarization and policing as we have seen in the cases of upgraded suppressive machineries such as National Investigation Agency (NIA) and National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) which are being designed to carry out unrestraint brutality on peoples' movement and function along with enforcement of divide and rule policy among the Region's people along communal lines to tighten colonial grasp.

Repeated assertion for sovereignty in the Region by its own people has exposed all these crimes and propaganda of the Indian State under the mask of Cease Fire, SoO (Suspension of Operation), Home Coming Ceremonies, Military Civic Action Programs, etc, the joint statement maintained.

It also alleged that the GOI is indulging in criminal activities to cover up its covert military operations and put the blame on the revolutionaries.

Under such circumstances, there is no way that we, the people of the region can enjoy equality, freedom and liberty like any other Indian.

Freedom and Independence is the only solution for the conflict as we can never be a part of the Indian mainstream.

When it is becoming of paramount importance to free the Region from this colonial rule; celebrations like India's Republic Day is nothing but bowing to India's perpetual slavery system as we are standing on the line of survival or extinction.

"We, therefore, declare to boycott this day and beseech the people of the Region to support the general shut-down.

The mass boycott and general strike will be effective from 01:00 Hrs to 17:30 Hrs on January 26", the joint statement said, while appealing to all to stop any kind of trades and commercial activities.

All forms of public entertainment and all kinds of public and private transportations must not operate in our region.

However, emergency measures, essential services, media and religious activities are exempted from the purview of the boycott and the strike, it added.

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