Yaikongpao meet resolves to defend land rights
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 19 2016: With Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang as chief guest, a conference of the Naga village authorities of Manipur was held today at Yaikongpao Ground, Sadar Hills, Senapati district.

The conference resolved that Naga village headmen/chiefs/chairmen and the Naga people should defend and safeguard their rights over ancestral land.

A large number of Naga leaders including UNC president Gaidon Kamei, Naga Hoho president Chuba Ozukum, NPO president T Moseo Kamba, Naga Women Union president LM Tabitha and ANSAM president Seth Shatsang were present at the conference.

The conference also resolved to urge the Government of India and NSCN-IM to finalise the Framework Agreement signed between the two entities on August 3, 20015 at New Delhi at the earliest based on the unique history of the Nagas and its situation, "for it has become impossible to live under the present hegemonic and oppressive political system of the communal Government of Manipur" .

Yaikongpao meet resolves to defend land rights

To appeal to all Naga political groups to support the ongoing Indo-Naga peace process by forgiving all the past rancour and mistrust for a common political goal was another resolution of the conference.

It was agreed to form a common platform of Naga village headmen/chiefs/chairmen of Manipur (South Nagalim) at the earliest in order to protect traditional institutions and for bringing better understanding, peace, unity, communal harmony and progress.

The fifth resolution says that they would reaffirm the decision of the UNC Council Assembly of January 2, 2012 to support the Naga People's Front (NPF) .

As a part of the conference, TR Zeliang laid the foundation stone of a 'Solidarity Pillar' at Yaikongpao (Tagaramphung) Ground.

Speaking at the conference, TR Zeliang said that Naga people have been living in 'village republics' free from internal and external interference since time immemorial.

The Nagas, as one people and one Nation are bound together by common contiguous and compact ancestral land, history, identities, beliefs, cultures, traditions, customs and heritages.

TR Zeliang said that Nagas should derecognise artificial boundaries drawn across their ancestral land.

According to history, the areas inhabited by Nagas were never parts of the Meitei kingdom.

The Naga inhabited areas were brought within the geographical boundary of Manipur after the entire region was brought under British colonial occupation, Zeliang said.

For their administrative convenience, the British colonial rulers drew boundaries which divided Nagas among different States.

Even as State boundaries divided Nagas, Nagas have been administrating their areas.

Once the divided Nagas are unified, no authority/Government can ever divide them again, asserted the Nagaland Chief Minister.

Many people are inquisitive about the Framework Agreement, but its contents have not been officially divulged yet.

The Framework Agreement is like a preamble and is a tool to resolve the protracted Indo-Naga political issue through non-violent means, he said.

Exuding confidence that a final solution would be hammered out soon based on the Framework Agreement, Zeliang said that the Naga issue cannot drag on forever.

The present generation of Nagas should resolve the issue and the next generation should be spared from its burden.

He went on to ask why the Government of Mani-pur is so displeased with the Indo-Naga peace process.

The Indo-Naga political dialogue would never suppress the political rights of Meiteis, he asserted.

He further remarked that NSCN-K and other Naga groups ought to join the ongoing peace process.

Village chiefs ought to endorse the final Framework Agreement and they must work collectively to bring a final solution.

The Nagaland Chief Minister further decried the passage of three alleged 'anti-tribal' Bills by the Government of Manipur when the Indo-Naga peace process is going on in full swing.

The death of nine persons in Churachandpur, two in Ukhrul and two in Mao in connection with Th Muivah's proposed visit to Ukhrul testified that Chief Minister Okram Ibobi is communal, he charged.