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DOCUMENT: NAGA.TXT

N P M H R

NAGA PEOPLES MOVEMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

NAGA LAND

The NPMHR was formed on 9th September, 1978 in response to the Naga peoples long felt need for an organised movement to and further their human rights which have been trampled under the Military boots of Indian state for the last twenty-six years.

NPMHR attempts to give organised expression to the Naga peoples fight for their rights while exposing to the people of India and to the World, the imperialist policy that the ruling classes of India has been pursuing through the mighty state machinery against the Nagas. Nagas have throughout history fiercely maintained their political and cultural independence. The constant application of military force to crush the nationalist movement regarding it as a problem of law and order has resulted only in a senseless state of violence thereby violating Human Rights.

DECLARATION OF NPMHR

Mankind has made history through the struggle for freedom from exploitation and subjugation. And history of the Naga people has taught us that there are forces both inside and outside the society collaborating in strangulating social progress.

Our people have seen economic exploitation, political and military domination social suppression with the imposition of alien cultural and legal systems and the distortion of their history.

In the light of these experiences, the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights takes upon itself the task of initiating organised struggle for achieving the following;

To ensure and safeguard:

1. the right to life;

2. the right to work;

3. the right to live together as a people and the unification of all Naga Lands;

4. the right to hold and communicate one's beliefs;

5. the freedom of movement, assembly and association;

6. free access to all place of learning;

7. maximum participation of the people in the making of decisions affecting their lives;

8. freedom from socio-economic exploitation. Political domination and military repression;

9. against anti-democratic practices and the dismantling of institutions and social values which legitimize and perpetuate these within our society;

10. against the practices of arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and execution, and the use of unconventional weapons;

11. against the imposition of undesirable alien legal systems and socio-cultural concepts and ways of life.

NPMHR'S - A RESPONSE TO VIOLATION DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS & FORMULATION OF PRIORITIES

NPMHR since its formation has carried out a consistent struggle to expose the Indian state Violations of Naga peoples basic Human Rights. In keeping with the objectives set out above, the NPMHR activists immediately carried out an extensive study tour of villages. The activists were given a rousing welcome in all the villages they visited and public meetings were held where people gave vivid accounts of the nature and the extent of human rights violation they had suffered. When the activists returned to Kohima they were joined by prominent elders and social activists at a huge rally in Kohima on December 15, 1978. In response to the prevailing situation and bitter experiences of the past

years, the Rally unanimously passed the following Resolutions:

1. That the Armed Forces should be immediately withdrawn from all the civilian areas;

2. That all the Black Laws including;

(i) Assam Maintenance of Public Order (Autonomous District) Act, 1952;

(ii) Nagaland Security Regulation, 1962;

(iii) Armed Forces Special Power Act, 1972. Should be immediately revoked;

3. Condemn Mr. Morarji Desai's statement exterminate the (hostile) Nagas and I will not have any compunction in it;

4. Condemn all the atrocities committed on the Naga people in the past by the Armed Forces;

5. Condemn the State Government of Nagaland for its effort to prevent peaceful Rally-Procession by proclaiming Section 8 of Assam Maintenance of Public Order Act, 1953 over the entire Kohima Town for a period of one month in an obvious attempt to disrupt the NPMHR Rally at Kohima on December 15, 1978.

A report on the Study Tour and the December 15, 1978 Rally was brought out and distributed widely.

ACTIVlTIES:

1. PUBLIC CAMPAIGN: Against heavy odds. NPMHR and its sympathisers put up a sustained campaign for restoration of the Rule of law. In Order to strengthen the campaign for spreading awareness NPMHR contacted civil liberties and human rights groups in India. In 1982 an all women's fact finding team visited Ukhrul and brought out a report condemning the security forces for violation of human rights of villagers. In 1985 NPMHR organised a unique human rights conference in which Naga and Indian activists exchanged views and experiences. Christian workers from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Human rights activists from Punjab and Bihar sat together with Naga elders and discussed various aspects of democratic rights violation by the Indian state.

2. PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION:

(a) April 1982 NPMHR's Writ in the Supreme Court focusing an the army atrocities and challenging the validity by PUDR with an intervening Writ Petition challenging the constitutionality of the said Act,

(b) 1983 - Another NPMHR Writ Petition Sebastian M. Hongray vs. Union of India,

(c) 1987 - NPMHR Writ Petition in Gauhati Hight Court for punishment according to law for those guilty for committing atrocities on the villagers during Operation Bluebird,

3. COCOI: Operation Bluebird resulted in a very wide spread violation of human rights. It was impossible for NPMHR alone to villagers, collect material for the case, got affidavit of victims and also to raise funds. A meeting was called of various social organisations In October, 1987 and NPMHR All Naga Students Association, Manipur (ANSAM) Manipur Baptist Convention Women's Union (MBCWU)and the United Naga Council, Manipur came together to form the Coordinating Committee on Oinam Issue (COCOI)

PROGRAMME:

The NPMHR is a natural response to the campaign of annihilation launched by the state of India and Burma against the Indigenous communities and weaker section of the dominant societies. The concern of NPMHR is not confined to the violation of civil rights but the state structure and the development model which combined to generate the process of ecological depletion and violence in both the slate,

The Programme of NPMHR also includes awareness building, organising the struggle for protection and promotion of Human Rights, documenting and disseminating Human Rights violations which includes taking to the Supreme/High Courts of India against such violation.

Organising relief work for victims of Human Rights violations including economic programmes of rehabilitation also occupies on important aspect of NPMHR.