Pambei-led UNLF extends greeting on 60th Raising Day
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, November 23 2024:
On the occasion of the 60th Raising Day of the organisation which falls on November 24, the Pambei-led United National Liberation Front (UNLF) has extended revolutionary greetings to all the indigenous people of Manipur and also to all its friendly revolutionary groups of Western South East Asia (WESEA) .
On the occasion, the party also paid its highest honour to founder leaders, late leaders, party cadres, MPA officers, NCOs, and privates.
The same honour is also extended to all the people who suffered due to torture by colonial powers.
The organisation also sent out its annual statement of the Central Committee on the occasion and placed the same before the people for discussion and deliberation.
The annual statement said that the UNLF has been waging an armed revolution to restore the lost right to self-determination of the people of the WE-SEA region.
The continuing revolution is not due to the UNLF's likes or dislikes but by the conditions set by the Government of India, and the party is proud to continue the armed revolution for 60 years, the annual statement of the Central Committee said and renewed revolutionary honour to comrades for their dedication, courage, and visionary thoughts.
While recalling how the UNLF grew up as a full-fledged armed group of the WESEA region from the unarmed organisation established in 1964, the statement said the UNLF since its inception has been launching a movement for the restoration of the lost sovereignty of Manipur.
To achieve its revolutionary goal, UNLF utilised both unarmed and armed means, and the mode of the movement changes from time to time based on the reality of the movement.
From the 1970s until the mid-1980s, the party concentrated on unarmed propaganda and established open institutions and published journals to achieve its revolutionary goal.
During this period, the party clearly showcased the relationship between Manipur and India, the undermining of democracy by India, and the torture of people in the name of countering the revolutionary movement.
With the emergence of many armed revolutionary groups in the late 1970s, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA), was imposed to enable Indian security forces to uproot revolutionary thought and torture innocent people in the name of counter-insurgency operations.
The situation brought by AFSPA's imposition compelled the UNLF to raise its own military wing called the Manipur People's Army (MPA), which was raised on February 9, 1987.After some years of intense training, particularly in guerrilla and combat fighting, the MPA started targeting IOF from December 1990.At the same time, the party also started armed propaganda as part of the campaign to discipline society, and the campaign gave a new taste of revolution to the people.
Though armed propaganda and armed action are complementary to each other, the goals of the campaigns are different.
While armed propaganda aims to awaken people and empower them to make political decisions against alien rule, armed action aims to showcase that the enemy's strength could be defeated in battles, the annual statement said, adding that the objectives of both campaigns were to build confidence among the people about the success of the revolution.
From 2000, the UNLF started launching large-scale armed offensives against India, and accordingly, more than 50 battles were fought between the MPA and IOF from 2003 to 2009, particularly in Sajik Tampak, Khengjoy, and Samtal in Chandel district, and in many areas in Churachandpur district.
The MPA achieved huge success in those battles and accordingly managed to develop 'Liberated Zones'.
As battles between the MPA and IOF in Chandel and Churachandpur districts continued for six years, the party managed to clearly convey to the global audience that the conflict between Manipur and India is a 'national contradiction' and not a mere law and order issue.
In other words, the armed movement in Manipur is not an internal matter of India but a political conflict between two legitimate political entities.
As a result of this, the UNLF received immense help and support from the people.
(To be continued) .
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