FEW POINT ONE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NAGA RECENT UNREST(-WIKIPEDIA)-Road to statehood-

Road to statehood

During World War I, the British recruited several hundred Nagas and sent them to France to work as aides at the front. While in Europe, the Naga, who had always been fractured by tribal differences, began to think that they should work towards becoming unified in order to protect their common interests. On their return to their homeland in 1918, they organized, and thus began the Naga nationalist movement.[1]

After the independence of India in 1947, the area remained a part of the province of Assam. Nationalist activities arose amongst a section of the Nagas, whose Naga National Council demanded a political union of their ancestral and native groups, damaged government and civil infrastructure and attacked government officials and civilians from other states of India. The Union government sent the Indian Army in 1955, to restore order. In 1957, the Government began diplomatic talks with representatives of Naga tribes, and the Naga Hills district of Assam and the Tuensang frontier were united in a single political entity that became a Union territory, directly administered by the Central government with a large degree of autonomy. This was not satisfactory to the tribes, however, and soon agitation and violence increased across the state—included attacks on Army and government institutions, as well as civil disobedience and non-payment of taxes. In July 1960, a further political accord was reached at the Naga People's Convention to wit: that Nagaland should become a constituent and self-governing state in the Indian union. Statehood was officially granted in 1963.
[edit] Latter day unrest

The government’s initiative was vehemently condemned by the NNC which pointed out that these are measures to divide the Naga people. A ‘Peace Mission’ was formed which resulted in the signing of an Agreement for Suspension of Operation (AGSOP) with the insurgents on 6 September 1964. But violence continued and six rounds of talks between the Centre and insurgents failed. The ‘Peace Mission’ broke in 1967.

The Government of India banned the NNC in 1972 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 and launched a massive counter-insurgency operation. On 11 November 1975, the Shillong Accord was signed between NNC and the Government of India where the NNC cadres accepted “without condition, the Constitution of India”. However, a section of the NNC rebelled against the accord and formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980. Tribal differences led to a split in the NSCN in 1988 leading to the birth of Isak-Muivah faction (NSCN-IM) and the Khaplang faction (NSCN-K). Both these outfits continued their movement with an avowed objective of establishing a Nagalim (greater Nagaland) comprising Naga inhabited areas of Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Myanmar.

Insurgencies were quelled in the early 1990s. Violence had re-erupted and there was conflict between rebel group factions till the early 1990s. On 25 July 1997, Prime Minister Atal Bihari vajpayee announced that the Government after talks with Isaac group of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) declared a cease-fire or cessation of operations.On 1 August 1997, the NSCN-IM and the Union government entered into a ceasefire agreement and have since held more than 60 rounds of dialogue (until mid-2009) to resolve the conflict. A similar ceasefire agreement was signed between the NSCN-K and the government in April 2001, though both sides are yet to start a process of dialogue. The ceasefire agreements with both the outfits have been periodically extended.

The militant groups have been continuously collecting ‘tax’ from the people and business establishments. This money is collected from all sources, including from Government departments and the extortion network spreads over not only the cities like Dimapur, Kohima and various District headquarters and townships but also over almost all the 1317 villages of the state. ‘Tax’ is also collected from commercial vehicles plying on National Highway 39, en route, to Manipur. Neither the Central nor the state Government is taking any action against this ‘tax collection’ by the militants. The ceasefire rules, which stipulate that the militants stay in designated camps, ban their movement in uniform and with arms and prohibit extortion, are also not followed by the militants. The cadres of the militant outfits move freely with their arms out in open and carry out all sorts of extortion activities. The police, Army and Central Para-Military forces were unable to take any significant steps in this regard for quite sometime but things appear to have been brought under control by 2009. In spite of the twelve year old ceasefire with the NSCN-IM and the eight year old ceasefire with the rival Khaplang faction (NSCN-K), the situation in Nagaland is still volatile. With the birth of NSCN-U, the situation turned murkier. Insurgency-related fatalities have been on a rise during the last few years in the state. Between 1992 and 2009 (till July), at least 2330 insurgency related fatalities have been recorded in Nagaland. The number of fatalities in insurgency-related activities increased from 154 in 2007 to 201 in 2008 (Source: www.satp.org). Most of the fatalities are a result of clashes between the various factions of the militant groups, as there have been very few incidents of militant-security force standoffs.
[edit] Obstacles to reconciliation

Extending the existing ceasefire with both the outfits remains central to the government’s conflict management policy in Nagaland. Representatives of the NSCN-IM and the government continue to meet periodically to carry forward the negotiations. By far, however, little success has been achieved to break the deadlock over the outfit’s demand of integrating the ‘Naga-inhabited’ areas of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh with Nagaland. Both the government and the NSCN-IM, however, on 31 July 2007, following a round of dialogue in Dimapur, took a decision to extend the ceasefire indefinitely. A few more round of talks have taken place since then in Delhi, but there were no concrete outcome of the talks. Recently, the Central Government has decided to change the Chief Interlocutor, K. Padmanabhaiah, who had been holding the post for the last 10 years. The NSCN-IM has expressed strong reservations against this move of the Government. The NSCN-K has also, now, expressed its interest in holding peace talks with the Central Government.

The government in New Delhi has done little in terms of stopping the internecine clashes between the outfits. It insists that the clashes between the insurgent outfits are a law and order problem, to be handled by the state government. The Nagaland state government, on the contrary, has always been a marginal player in contributing to the peace process.The internecine war has claimed more than 500 lives during 2004-2008 and it still remains the biggest obstacle in establishing peace in the state.

Since 2004, the Central government, the State government and the NSCN (IM) have been raising at intervals about the talk of an interim solution to the Naga question but even in 2009 the idea of an interim solution remains fruitless. A round of talks start at Zurich in Switzerland by end of March 2009, the interim proposals are still being discussed and reworked, and the stage for a possible confrontation has been set by the declaration by NSCN (I-M) leader Isak Chisi Swu that any relationship within the ambit of the Indian Constitution will be unacceptable.
[edit] Peace efforts

Civil society movements in Nagaland have been traditionally effective. The Church has been an important player in peace making among the insurgents, almost all of whom are Christian, since the beginning of the conflict. The Baptist Church Council of Nagaland played a prominent part in the formation of the Peace Mission in 1964. In July 1997, the Baptist Church organised the Atlanta Peace meet where the NSCN leadership accepted initiatives to start an unconditional dialogue process. In the first week of November 2007, a group of Church workers from the United Kingdom arrived in Nagaland to push for “reconciliation” between the NSCN-IM and the NSCN-K. A team from the North American Baptist Church too is involved in brokering peace between both the factions.

Organisations like the Naga Hoho and the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA) have worked towards reconciliation among the warring factions. Even the tribal councils belonging to the different tribes in the state including the Ao Senden, the Sumi Hoho have tried to establish unity among the NSCN-IM and NSCN-K, albeit without much success. Organisations like the Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) that periodically highlights the alleged abuses by the security forces, are seen as placating the interests of the NSCN-IM and have no influence on either the NSCN-K or the NNC. Some leaders of the NSCN-IM and the NSCN-K met in Niuland, near Dimapur on 23 November 2007 to declare the cessation of hostility between the outfits. However, the agreement was soon repudiated by both the outfits and the clashes have continued.

The citizens of the state are also now taking initiatives for bringing peace in the state. On 20 May 2008, peace rallies were organized in all the 11 district headquarter towns by the gaon buras (village chiefs) and dubashis (chiefs of Naga customary courts), asking the warring Naga factions to stop violence. In June 2008, a reconciliation meeting of the Naga factions, mass-based Naga organisations and tribal Hohos was organised by the Naga Reconciliation Forum, headed by Baptist clergyman Wati Aier, Baptist World Alliance and a UK-based Quaker group, at Chiang Mai in Thailand. But, the NSCN-K rejected the offer made by the rival NSCN-IM for a dialogue outside the country and the move failed.

The civil society organizations in Nagaland such as the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, the Naga Hoho and many other women’s and students’ organizations have played an important role in laying the groundwork for the emergence of lasting peace in the region. These are the actors who are working as a bridge between the various regions which comprises Nagalim, in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and parts of Myanmar; and without any substantial political overtones. They have been successful in reaching out to communities, both Naga and other ethnic tribes, and promoting dialogue and understanding at the civil society level between contesting aspirations of communities in the region, which the political outfits engaged in talks have not been able to do. They have joined efforts to talk to top rebel leaders to stop fratricidal killings among Naga insurgent factions and extortions and threats, and to include more women in the peace talks.

The marginalization of civil society organizations creates conditions for increased factionalism and violence, as demonstrated by the emergence of NSCN (U) (Unification) and the resultant increase in fratricidal killings. The Forum for Naga Reconciliation recently called for turning swords into ploughshares, and for working creatively towards ensuring enduring peace and a lasting solution to the Naga question.