Naga Nationalists

Early this week, the Government of India signed a historic peace accord with NSCN (IM), the National Socialist Council of Nagaland’s Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muviah-led faction, one of the country’s deadliest insurgent groups. The agreement brings to an end India’s and possibly South Asia’s longest-running insurgency campaign.

There has been ceasefire between India and NSCN (IM) for 18 years, but they couldn’t arrive at a settlement and violence remained common. NSCN (IM) fighters continued to train, procure arms and get involved in turf battles with other Naga rebel factions. The main challenge for a settlement was the group’s demand for Nagalim or Greater Nagaland, made up of Naga-speaking areas in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Myanmar.

The NSCN (IM) traces its roots to the Naga National Council (NNC), a group launched in 1946 to establish a sovereign Naga state. Since then the Indian Army has been involved in a counter-insurgency programme against the NNC. In 1975, after the Government got a section of the NNC to sign a peace accord, an influential faction broke away from the group. Led by Thuingaleng Muivah, and supported by Isak Chisi Swu and SS Khaplang, the group created the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980. Eight years later, another split occurred, this time between the Muivah and Isak-led faction called NSCN (IM) and the Khaplang-led NSCN (K).

In the last few decades, the Indian Government has conducted several rounds of discussions with NSCN (IM) leaders. According to an Indian Express report, ‘Though New Delhi has been engaged in a ceasefire with the NSCN (IM) since 1997, there was little forward movement on a political settlement. The NSCN (IM) leadership, made up of Tangkhul Nagas from Manipur’s Ukhrul district, insisted that the area be included in a wider pan-Naga entity they called Nagalim — in political terms, a precondition to giving leaders like Muviah a change of holding power in the state.’

While the details of the peace accord with the NSCN (IM) has not been revealed publicly—the text will be placed before Parliament first—media reports indicate that the deal will not involve the redrawing of state boundaries. Instead, reports claim, the deal involves giving Naga tribes greater autonomy within their respective territories. It is a major concession by the NSCN (IM). Whether or not the group will give up violence entirely is another matter, as the rival Myanmar-based Khaplang-led NSCN faction could continue its attacks on the Government and rival groups.

This accord also isolates and puts pressure on the Khaplang faction to accept peace. The Indian Government had held a ceasefire since 2001 with the faction, but earlier this year, Khaplang abrogated it. There has also been a potentially dangerous move among disparate Northeastern militant outfits to unite. Some months ago, the NSCN (K), the National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit faction (NDFB-S), the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) and the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA-Independent) formed an umbrella group called the United National Liberation Front of Western South East Asia (UNLFW) with Khaplang as its head. The new group carried out its first major operation two months ago in Manipur, directed apparently from a camp in Myanmar, when it killed 18 Indian soldiers and injured another 11. This led to an Indian military cross-border operation in Myanmar. With the present accord, the region’s biggest insurgency movement might have been brought to a halt, but complete peace in the region is still some way off.

About The Author

Lhendup G Bhutia

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