KUM says India forgot Framework Agreement, now dividing Nagas

DIMAPUR — The Konyak Union Myanmar (KUM) said on Thursday that the Government of India appears to have forgotten about the Framework Agreement of 2015, as it is now trying to divide the Naga people by fencing the Indo-Myanmar border.

In a press release on Thursday, the union highlighted the Naga people’s historical ownership of the land, which predates the formation of India and Myanmar, and asserted that the Nagas in Myanmar reject the idea of a fence in their ancestral land.

The KUM stated that while the eastern Naga area was ‘ignored’ in the Framework Agreement that was signed between the NSCN (IM) and the government of India, the latter’s decision to abolish the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and fence the borders would affect the Nagas in Myanmar.

It said that the Indian government’s decision was contrary to the fact that the NSCN (IM) and the Naga people, excluding those in Myanmar, have been eagerly awaiting the consequences of the Framework Agreement, hoping for an honourable solution as agreed upon.

The KUM also maintained that the Indo-Myanmar border, which was demarcated only in the 1970s after aerial measurements, was not ‘legal demarcation.’

“We have been living neither in India nor Myanmar since time immemorial. We live on the land which was conquered by our own ancestors, and not in Indian land or Myanmar land,” it asserted.

Reiterating that the Naga people in Myanmar reject the border fencing, the KUM leader said that the responsibility is on the Naga national workers to recognise the implications of abolishing the FMR and “work towards a solution that respects the historical rights and independence of the Naga people.”

The KUM alleged that India has been making ‘differing offers’ to Naga leaders as a way of testing whether the various Naga political groups are fighting for the entire Naga  people of working for their own group’s benefit. It called on the Naga leaders, be it in NGOs or political groups, to recognise that India is posing a threat to the Naga people, testing their unity and willingness to live together. 

“The ideology of the founding fathers of the Naga national movement was to bring all Naga land and people together and create a Naga country. If Nagas are living in different administrative areas and using names like Indian Naga, Myanmar Naga, it is the Naga people dividing ourselves,” it maintained.

Further, it asserted that neither India nor Myanmar is ‘hiding’ Naga independence, and it is the sole responsibility of the Naga leaders to decide if Nagas should work and live together or continue to be underestimated by others.

Also read: Fencing along Indo-Myanmar border will never be accepted, says Konyak Union Myanmar