Mao Council issues rejoinder amid travel ban imposed by SAPO

Dimapur, Dec. 16 (EMN): The Mao Council has claimed that the Southern Angami Public Organisation (SAPO) had on December 7 issued a press release about its resolution to ban Mao people from travelling or entering the Southern Angami areas, three days after the Tenyimi People’s Organisation (TPO) called for a joint meeting of TPO/BOA (Board of Arbitration) on December 19 to discuss two agenda including the verdict/report of the BOA on the Dziiko and Koziirii (Kezoltsa) dispute.

In a rejoinder to SAPO’s press release issued last week, the Mao Council claimed that the move of the former is a disregard to the TPO notification.

It said that the venue of the joint meetings scheduled for December 18 and 19 at Kohima should be changed to a neutral venue given the ongoing travel ban on Mao people, failing which, it said the Mao apex body and its arbitrators will be compelled to abstain from the meeting.

The Mao Council went on to say that the Mao people were refraining from going to the press on the land dispute as it was decreed when the TPO intervened on the matter in 2015-16, that the contending parties should refrain from going to the media to avoid paper war. However, it said it was constrained to issue a rejoinder to nullify “misinformation propagated in the media” after informing the TPO office of the necessity.

On the land dispute, the council claimed that “Maram Khullen is a separate claimant over Koziirii (Dziiko excluded) who came in much later and was admitted by TPO as party to the dispute only in March 2016 and the dispute thereafter became an unprecedented triangular contest”. It added that the “Brotherhood Affirmation of the Southern Angami Youth Organisation and the Northern Maram Student and Youth Organisation” on December 5 this year clearly speaks about the equations.

Regarding SAPO’s claim about “undesirable aggression” of the Mao Council with the help of Manipur Government, it said the state authorities had promulgated 144 CrPC and constructed a Police base camp and connecting road in Koziirii area because of “SAPO/SAYO’s unlawful and provocative activities” in the area, while citing few instances including confrontation with DC of Senapati along with security forces when they went to control the damages caused by the wildfire in 2021. So, it said “the charge of Mao Council having brought in the GoM into the land dispute does not have any basis”.

“The Mao portion of Dziiko which is only 11.28 sq km with clear boundary marked by natural landmarks while the entire Dziiko valley is more than 55 sq km spread out between Manipur and Nagaland and falls under Southern Angami, Western Angami, Zeliang and Mao traditional lands. In terms of location, 2/3 of the total Dziiko area falls under Manipur state,” read the rejoinder.

It stated that trekking and clearing of existing footpath for the trekkers to the Mao portion of Dziiko valley, done for tourism activities as part of the recent Sangai festival “is not violative of TPO agreement” and that it has to promote festivals and tourism in its land with the Manipur government and not with governments of other states.

It went on to state ‘the Mao people have the right to roam freely, forage and live off the land in their own traditional land without being threatened and detained by unlawful armed elements roaming the Dziiko and Koziirii area’.