Naga
purge benefits New Delhi By
Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - A recent
split in the National Socialist Council of
Nagaland (Khaplang) (NSCN-K), one of the most
powerful insurgent groups operating in India's
conflict-ridden northeast, has injected
uncertainty into an already complex ongoing Naga
peace process. But it has the potential of putting
in place an inclusive peace.
Less than a
fortnight ago, the NSCN-K's hardline
founder-chief, the Myanmar-based S S Khaplang, was
expelled by his India-based commander-in-chief
Khole Konyak on charges of acting in a "unilateral
and dictatorial manner". Khaplang is reported to
have removed Khole from his post, prompting the
latter to have him "impeached" by the "national
assembly" of the outfit's
underground "government".
Khaplang's ouster has resulted in a
vertical split in the NSCN-K between the outfit's
India-based leaders and cadres and those operating
from Myanmar. Coming close on the heels of a rift
between the United Liberation Front of Assam's
(ULFA's) Myanmar-based military chief Paresh Barua
and its pro-talks leaders based in Assam in India,
the tensions in the NSCN-K between its India and
Myanmar-based leaders is being quietly welcomed in
New Delhi.
Khaplang, a Hemi Naga from
Myanmar's Sagaing Division (Naga nationalists
consider Sagaing to be Eastern Nagaland), is a
benefactor of several anti-India insurgent groups
such as Barua's faction of the ULFA and the
Manipur-based United National Liberation Front
(UNLF), having allowed their cadres to train in
his camps. If these groups continue to draw on
Khaplang's support in Myanmar, they will not be
able to count on cooperating with Khole's men in
India. The impact of the NSCN-K's split will
therefore be felt across the region on other
insurgent groups and their equations.
The
Naga insurgency is India's longest running
insurgency, dating back to 1946. On August 14,
1947, the eve of Indian independence from colonial
rule, the Naga National Council (NNC) declared its
independence. Subsequently, the movement went
underground and armed struggle against the Indian
security forces followed. In 1975, the NNC
leadership signed the Shillong Accord with the
Indian government and accepted the Indian
constitution "without conditions".
Rebelling against this "sellout of the
Naga cause", Thuingaleng Muivah, Isak Chishi Swu
and Khaplang left the NNC to form the National
Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980.
Eight years later, the NSCN was plunged in
internal bloodletting that culminated in Isak and
Muivah forming the NSCN-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) and
Khaplang giving his name to the other faction, the
NSCN-Khaplang.
In 1997, the Indian
government and the NSCN-IM entered into a
ceasefire agreement and have engaged in around 70
rounds of talks since. In 2001, the government
entered into a ceasefire with NSCN-K too but it
did not lead to initiation of a dialogue process.
The prospects of that happening appear to
have brightened now.
Khole recently said
that the "process would be expedited that would
lead towards a peaceful resolution of the Naga
political issue," the Morung Express, an English
daily from Nagaland, reported. He has also
expressed support for the ongoing reconciliation
process among various Naga armed outfits.
Although the ceasefires with the Indian
government have held over the past decade,
Nagaland has been convulsed in violence with
militant groups training their guns at each other.
Much of this violence is driven by turf wars over
the drug trade, extortion and other "businesses"
that the insurgent groups are involved in.
Various tribal, civil society and church
groups are working to reconcile the feuding Naga
groups. It appears that Khaplang was opposed to
any reconciliation with the NSCN-IM and forbade
his India-based leaders from attending
reconciliation meetings initiated by the Forum for
Naga Reconciliation.
Reconciliation was an
important issue driving the rift between the
NSCN-K's Indian-based leaders and Khaplang. Khole
and his supporters felt that Khaplang was out of
touch with the ground situation in India.
"The mood among the Naga public is in
favor of the insurgent groups uniting and engaging
in talks with the Indian government," an
insurgent-turned-social activist told Asia Times
Online. "Unlike Khaplang, Khole saw the writing on
the wall and is keen to respond to this
sentiment," he says.
If Khole is indeed in
favor of reconciliation with other Naga insurgent
groups, the split in the NSCN-K could pave the way
for his faction to move closer, if not, join hands
with the NSCN-IM. Reconciliation could result in
New Delhi having "to listen to a broader Naga
voice," writes Wasbir Hussain, director of the
Guwahati-based Center for Development & Peace
Studies, and member of India's National Security
Advisory Board.
As for the Khole faction's
participation in talks with New Delhi, much will
depend on how the NSCN-IM leadership will respond.
Will they allow Khole into a process they have
monopolized for 13 years? More importantly, will
India risk disturbing the equilibrium it has
managed to establish with the NSCN-IM?
Talks between the Indian government and
the NSCN-IM have been criticized for their slow
pace. Besides, it is not a transparent process.
Little is known about what has transpired at the
table; so thick is the shroud of secrecy under
which India has conducted the negotiations with
the NSCN-IM leadership. This has fed suspicion
that a deal rather than a solution is in the
pipeline.
The process has been a narrow
and exclusive one with only the NSCN-IM at the
high table. Other stakeholders like the NNC and
the Naga HoHo have been kept out. Important tribes
like the Angamis who support the NNC and the
Konyaks who back the NSCN-K feel left out.
If a settlement has been slow in coming it
is because of the huge gap in the positions of the
two sides. While the NSCN-IM demands an
independent homeland for the Nagas and lays claim
to territory that includes not only the state of
Nagaland but Naga-inhabited areas of neighboring
states like Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh
in India as well as Myanmar's Sagaing Division,
India is firm that a solution must be within the
framework of the Indian constitution. It is
opposed to redrawing of state borders too as it
will inflame an already restive region.
Despite the cynicism, there have been
positive developments, pointing to softening
positions. After years of travelling abroad under
fake names and foreign passports, NSCN-IM leaders
Isak and Muivah have taken Indian passports, a
sign of their willingness to be Naga and Indian,
and also of a new flexible approach.
Earlier this year, Hussain wrote that "New
New Delhi was toying with the idea of a
'boundaryless' Naga superstructure where Naga
representatives from around the northeast,
including, of course, Nagaland, would run Naga
affairs in the region related to their development
and uplift." This suggests a solution wherein the
Nagas would get maximum autonomy within the Indian
constitution. There would be no redrawing of
boundaries although a politico-administrative
superstructure would be set up that would involve
and provide for development of Nagas in Nagaland
and beyond.
Just when it seems that a
solution to the vexed Naga conflict could be
within grasp, an organization called the Eastern
Nagaland People's Organization (ENPO) has raised
the demand for a separate "frontier state"
comprising four districts in Nagaland - Mon,
Tuensang, Kiphire and Longleng. The Chang, Konyak,
Phom, Sangtam, Khiamniungan and Yimchunger
communities in these four districts are
complaining of isolation within Nagaland and are
demanding statehood.
It is important that
India includes representation of these districts
and tribes to help calm rising separatist tensions
here.
Khole is a Konyak from the Mon
district. Both the NSCN-IM and the Indian
government would be well-advised to reach out to
his faction of the NSCN.
Khole has
indicated that he is keen on reconciliation and
talks. The split from Khaplang will allow him to
engage in these.
New Delhi looks upon the
split in the NSCN-K as a blow to the once
formidable outfit. It is much more than that. The
split has opened up space for a more inclusive
peace process that could result in a more
sustainable peace agreement.
The question
is whether the Indian government and the NSCN-IM
have the foresight to grab the opportunity that
has opened up.
Sudha
Ramachandran is an independent
journalist/researcher based in Bangalore. She can
be reached at sudha98@hotmail.com
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