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NPMHR secretary general Neingulo Krome speaking the NLSF 7th biennial conference in Kohima on Thursday.[/caption]
KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 22 : The Naga society should move ahead with every little positive development in every sphere of life instead of getting stuck with negative elements and take the present and upcoming generations of Nagas out of the shadows of the horrors of the past, Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) secretary general Neingulo Krome said.
Speaking as the resource person on the topic ‘Human rights in the Naga context’ at the Nagaland Law Students’ Federation (NLSF) 7th biennial conference today, Krome, looking back at the life our ancestors, said, “Our elders and pioneers of the Naga political movement fought for the rights of the Nagas to protect this fair Nagaland from plunder and destruction.”
“Atrocities after atrocities were the orders of the days then, where journalists, tourists and even foreign diplomats were not allowed to enter Nagaland,” recounted Krome and stated that human rights in the Naga context were then completely irrelevant and ‘peace was found only in the graves’.
Somehow, he said, the first Ceasefire Agreement was signed between the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) and the Government of India, which came into effect on September 6, 1964 and political negotiation began.
Narrating the events after the signing of the first Ceasefire Agreement, Krome said the Government of India’s target to crush the NNC, FGN and the Naga Federal army ultimately forced the signing of the ‘Shillong Accord’ on November 11, 1975, which, he felt, unfortunately crated the most bitter misunderstandings and divisions among the Nagas.
Thereby, he said, the human rights situation in the Naga context took a complete new turn with the situation turning into fratricidal killings and formation of new political groups – NSCN, which further split and killings in the 90s became uncontrollable.
And Naga civil societies, he said, were constantly occupied with issuing condemnation statements, collection of dead bodies and attending funeral services, while all kinds of elements were taking undue advantages and strangulating and suffocating the society.
Krome also stated that while the second ceasefire was announced between the Government of India and NSCN (IM) on July 25, 1997, and with NSCN (K) in 2001, the Indian armies, pretending to be peacekeepers, continued to kill, raid houses, arresting, inciting and encouraging the Nagas to fight. “What kind of human rights situation could we say we were in, in those days and years?” asked Krome.
In the midst of all these violence, suspicions, confusions and anger, Krome said the Forum for Naga Reconciliation formed in 2008 during a Peace Convention at Dimapur, has at least stopped the killings, brought the various groups to the tables and done whatever is possible on its part.
“The rest we leave it to God and to the wisdom of the various leaders of the Naga political groups,” added Krome.
Taking into accounts of the past years, Krome maintained that as far as the human rights situation is concerned, the Naga society is at least comparatively much better now than before.
At the same time, he also asserted that talking of human rights in the Naga context must also mean talking for the rights of the present and future Naga generations to live their life to the fullest and with full dignity. Therefore, he opined that the society should move ahead with every little positive development in every sphere of life rather than being stuck with the negative elements.