Armed campaign the best option: UNLF
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 08 2014 : The proscribed UNLF has cate-gorically stated that the armed campaign is the best option in the war of liberation against India.

Conveying best New Year wishes and warm greetings to all the people of Manipur on the occasion of the MPA's 27th raising day which falls on February 9, the outfit's Military Affairs Committee (MAC) stated that UNLF and its armed wing MPA (Manipur People's Army) are able to take on the Indian mi-litary forces because of peo- ple's sincere participation and support to the liberation movement.

The greatest enemy of the liberation movement is the alleged colonial rule of India which has been occupying Manipur and repressing her people, asserted MAC Acting Chairman Khundongbam Pambei in a press statement.

Even though Manipur is an occupied territory of India which follows the political system of parliamentary democracy, there is no place for Satyagraha and people of Western South East Asia or the so called North East region are never allowed to voice their aspirations and wishes in non-violent manner.

After imposing several draconian laws, Government of India has been keeping WESEA under their military rule.

For all these reasons, it is impossible to wage the liberation movement in non-violent or peaceful manner.

To wage the liberation movement with a strong armed campaign is something determined by GoI's policy to suppress the liberation movement with mi-litary forces.

It is not an op- tion but something forced upon the people of WESEA.

Given these facts, a strong armed campaign is key to the success of the liberation mo-vement and UNLF would leave no stone unturned to make the armed campaign a successful one.

Downplaying the key importance of the armed cam- paign would erode legitimacy of the liberation movement.

In the past 27 years, MPA has fought more than 165 bat-tles with Indian military forces and in these battles a number of Indian military personnel have been killed or maimed.

Many MPA cadres too paid with their lives for the cause of the nation.

Conceding that the tempo of engaging adversary forces was not making much headway in the last 2/3 years, the MAC maintained that the MPA is, as ever, prepared to fight the alien forces with full conviction and this journey would go on until Manipur is liberated.

Saying that MPA have chalked out certain strategies for the coming years, it informed that the outfit would focus on fostering closer relationship between MPA fighters and the mass.

The second priority is facilitating better coordination among revolutionary groups of Manipur and WESEA and launching combined offensive against the alien forces.

Saying that some people have forgotten the extensive and sustained mass movements of 1980 and 2004 against AFSPA 1958, UNLF alleged that GoI has been using a carrot and stick policy.

First, a large of number of people were massacred thereby instilling a sense of fear and insecurity among the masses.

Then they (GoI) they doled out some material benefits and gave undue power to some section of people.

Gradually, people were made to accustom to a life of total dependency and thus GoI has been working to ultimately convince people of Manipur that they cannot survive without India.

As a result of the many covert and overt strategies employed by GoI, some revolutionary cadres who could not see through India's game plan surrendered to the alien rule.

Nonetheless, this is not an exception but a common experience in the history of revolutionary movements.

In another word, GoI has been implementing its counter insurgency policy quite effectively, admitted the MAC.

The recent acts of assault, apartheid and racial profiling of Northeastern people in mainland India demand collective struggle on the part of the people of WESEA.

The recent cases of murder of a student from Arunachal Pradesh and molestation of two Manipuri women at Delhi were clear manifestation of racial discrimination and racial hegemony embedded in the mindset of mainland Indians.

In the same vein, imposition of AFSPA in Manipur is extension of racial imperialism and Indian hegemony in the region, it alleged.

One common instrument being employed by GoI against people fighting against their rule is 'peace talk'.

Their secret plan is to keep the occupied territories and their people within the Indian Union at all costs, even to the extent of amending its constitution.

It is a plot to Indianise all the allegedly colonised peoples while engaging those spearheading liberation movements in a prolonged process of peace talk so as to obliterate and completely wash away identities of all the indigenous peoples.

The MAC also conveyed its best wishes to all the fraternal revolutionary groups of Manipur and WESEA.

It further paid homage to all the people who have laid down their lives in the course of the liberation movement as well as all those people who have been killed by the Indian military forces.

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