Imphal, June 27: Six organizations of Manipur spearheading the fight for protection of territorial integrity of the State today made a �Public Declaration� terming the extension of the Naga cease-fire to Manipur as the first step towards disintegration of territorial integrity of Manipur.

In the Public Declaration the AMSU, AMUCO, AMKIL, IPFSA, NIPCO and UPF said people of Manipur extended solidarity and support for a negotiated and honorable settlement to the fifty year old Naga national movement founded by AZ Phizo but said allowing opening of designated NSCN (IM) camps and free movement of its armed cadres in the territory of Manipur is a step towards disintegration of the territorial integrity of Manipur.

The �People Declaration to defend the territorial integrity of Manipur� said the extension of the cease-fire to Manipur is an act to escalate the �colonial divide and rule� policy aiming to infuse hitherto non-existent communal division to the symbiotic society of Manipur.

The eight point declaration also said any attempt and subsequent alteration to the existing boundary by the GOI would necessarily initiate the process of the disintegration of the Republic of India duly constituted in 1950.The people of Manipur call upon the GOI to immediately and unconditionally withdraw the imposition of cease-fire to Manipur.

The people of Manipur realize the imperative need of making the emotional and social bounds of all indigenous people of Manipur ever stronger by respecting and protecting each other�s economic, social and cultural rights and sharing common destiny as one people to protect the common political aspiration which will never be compromised, the declaration said.

It also reminded the GOI that nothing can disintegrate Manipur and the North Eastern region and set the people upon people and stated that it is now the time for a new dawn for a peaceful, progressive and meaningful co-existence.

The people of Manipur reaffirms that the Manipur peoples uprising on June 18 stands as a living testimony to this common aspiration of the people to preserve the unity and territorial integrity of Manipur, the declaration said.

The Peoples Declaration recalled that Manipur, which stood as a nation state with two millennia of recorded history, its own written Constitution and well defined and internationally recognized political boundary, was involuntarily merged into the then Dominion of India following the disputed Merger Agreement on 15 October1949.The declaration said that Manipur has been a party as a sovereign independent country to several international agreements, treaties and instruments in between 1470and 1949, rendering the existing territorial boundary of Manipur inviolable.

It also recalled that the Akbar Hydrari Agreement, 1974 between the then Governor of Assam Hydrari and representatives of the Naga National Council has no jurisdiction over Manipur as Manipur was then an independent country.

The 16 Point Agreement between the GOI and NNC in 1960 and then 1964 cease-fire agreement between them are null and void as far as it concerns Manipur as the people of Manipur was never consulted in the process, it said.

Accusing India of paying scant respect to its boundary the declaration said the first Prime Minister gifted away Kabaw Valley to Burma in 1953 against the will of the people of Manipur, the same Prime Minister announced abandonment of the North Eastern region to the Chinese for the defence of Calcutta in 1962 and the government�s ignorance of the continued intrusion in the eastern frontiers while going to war with Pakistan for Kargil.

It also reiterated that the Manipur State Assembly resolved four times on 28 September 1996, 14 March 1997, 11 July 1997 and in the year 2000 to preserve the territorial integrity of Manipur.

Comment