The UNLF central committee issued a statement on eve of its 48th anniversary. It said “ 48 years had passed since UNLF started to fight for the restoration of the Sovereignty and Independence of our Manipuri Nation that was bequeathed to us by our gracious forefathers, and we are striving all the more to provide for our future generation a liberated, emancipated and transformed life world to enable our people to share the global processes of peace and progress. Today, sharing a journey of collective struggle for the same cause the UNLF with other like minded revolutionary parties and groups is striving for a new phase in our struggle. And herewith, presents our annual report.
1. INTRODUCTION
This year’s ‘Annual Report’, is a retrospection of all the previous issues that UNLF placed to our people time to time; to do a critical deliberation again that how far it had become relevant and true with the changing times of our struggle. Our main agenda which we have constantly put before our people is that the forced annexation of Manipur by India in 1949 is the crux of the matter i.e. the genesis of the national contradiction between Manipur and India. And the colonial bondage in which all the Manipuri people is languishing can be overthrown only by the collective struggle of our entire people. The conflict that had developed between India and Manipur could only be resolved with the restoration of Manipur’s sovereignty and Independence which cannot be compromised at all. This is the question of survival or extinction of all the indigenous people of our Manipuri nation. And this is the very reason for UNLF taking up arms for National liberation struggle.
For the GoI, their solution is to assimilate all the indigenous people of our region into their vast population, thereby obliterating our distinct ethnic identities and character. To serve this purpose and to subjugate us, they are using the massive Indian military machine, and at the same time the technique of ‘Peace talk’ to ensnare us into submission as a policy of “Hammer and Tongs”. And this speaks why UNLF refuses to Indian sponsored ‘peace talks’.
If the goal of restoring our Sovereignty and independence is not achieved, our unique identities of ethnic nationalities will go into extinction. And our common destiny of peaceful co-existence and co-development will be derailed by the evil design of India’s policy of ‘Divide and Destroy”. 63 years under ruthless Indian economic exploitation keeping Manipur as a “captive market” is subjugating the people to Indian dependency culture making the lifeworld of our common people like workers, peasants etc hard to survive, day by day, except a few who is enjoying the spoils as Indian cronies.
Shortly speaking, under the racist Indian colonial regime which is suppressing our people in all spheres, our cherished goal to safeguard our peoples’ ethnic identity and dignity is impossible. The socio-economic development as well as our human resource development will be simply futile under the failed Indian state. We the UNLF would like put this before our people for careful deliberation. The present state of condition of Manipur since the last sixty three years under Indian colonial rule makes it crystal clear.
Therefore, from the perspective of our freedom struggle UNLF appeals to our compatriots, to kindly introspect and accept the truth of the existential system which newly changing dimensions of our socio-economic life had made more clear and succinct, which our organization had placed before our people long since, that we had been forced into a colonial existence by India.
2. INDIA’S RECOGNITION OF MANIPUR’S INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE
So far, India is keeping Manipur India conflict under wraps; talking it as a law and order problem for the past many years. But today the India’s self appointed NIA (National Investigation Agency) Court is compelled to accept the truth that UNLF Chairman Sanayaima, and other leaders of UNLF is fighting for the restoration of sovereignty of Manipur.
This has become a precedence in the revolutionary history of our Manipuri nation. The tireless collective effort of UNLF with other fraternal revolutionary parties make this happen. Now from the eyes of international law the struggle by the revolutionary groups of Manipur are no longer a simple law and order problem but it is a struggle for independence by the revolutionary groups of Manipur. Therefore by building up a solid unity amongst ourselves we shall enhance our struggle and restore the lost independence of the people and the state and the UNLF has strong faith in the task. The UNLF shall devote in the collective struggle envisaged by CORCOM, and we therefore pledge before our people our faith in CORCOM and united strength of our people.
3. THE CURRENT POSITION OF WESIA AND THE POLITICAL AND MILITARY STRATEGIES OF INDIA.
Though the indigenous peoples of WESIA (Western Southeast Asia) have superficial and temporary issues of difference and petty contradictions, these people share the same social systems, long historical journey together, and mutually interdependent economic systems, and also from sheer topographic and physical geographical features which could not separate one from another, and our close kin settlements make us inseparable, and this strand of a collective life, we are now facing the urge to be united together, and we are experiencing this necessity all the more. Amongst the indigenous peoples, the differences in language, systems of worship and customary laws, may be obvious, but collectively all of us are facing the ‘divide and rule’ policy of the Indian colonial rule, and their capitalist systems of developmental violence which had brought about the conflict amongst the indigenous peoples, which the UNLF regards as the sole reason for our internal conflicts.
Therefore as we envision our future, all indigenous peoples of Western Southeast Asia, we have entered an age where we cannot but see things collectively, in our future historical development. This sole aspect of our collective vision UNLF had always placed before the indigenous communities of the region. So the collective of indigenous people who are suffering the alien subjugation of India should, instead of fighting for independence of separate communities, should struggle together for our collective freedom in order to defeat the Indian Colonial power. This very struggle is necessitated by the objective conditions of the true realities of the region. In order to achieve victory we need to build up the Regional Unity Thesis collectively, all of us in WESIA should altogether have a collective struggle on the path of self-determination of WESIA which should be true to the soil of the region, with sheer respect to the culture and traditions of the communities and we shall design collectively the approaches and systems of understanding to enable us to envision and join in the United Struggle much more effectively for our common goal of self-determination.
From the nature of the emerging and ensuing unity of the revolutionary groups of these regions, India had realized the necessity to suppress the revolutionary groups all the more in order to meet the supposed threat of Chinese expansion in the Northeast. Now China had used the ‘String of Pearls Theory’ to surround India on all fronts, and the fact of the non ending nature of the independence struggles, which they came to see in the Northeast, they are therefore attempting to make Northeast a permanent fortress of occupation in this WESIA. Eight Indian military divisions are spread in the mountain topography of Arunachal Pradesh, more are ready to be reinforced. The Arunachalis had been made into India’s defence scouts. Manipur also had been transformed into another fortress, like the ones during the Second World War, and more than those of the early times a political-military complex had been established at Tipaimukh. The small Imphal Airport had been enlarged beyond necessity by driving out innocent villagers nearby. In the name of an International Airport the area had been made into a defence zone of the Indian Occupation Forces. In all the nook and corners of the hills and villages in Manipur, military and police outposts had been placed. In order to identify and monitor the people of this region, “Unique Identification Systems” had been introduced, that can make them check exactly what these indigenous peoples are doing. In the so called military civic action programmes all our academic persons, the people in the media and our Imas are being wooed to become their pawns in this conflict propaganda. The culture of Leimakhong had infiltrated the Manipur University. All these influences and intrusions, the people may kindly discuss these issues and prepare for safeguarding our peoples identity, integrity and lives.
4. THE COLONIAL SYSTEMS AND THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PROBLEMS.
For the oppressed peoples throughout the world, the oppressed can take up arms to fight for their right to self-determination, and this had been the accepted international law. From India’s increasing influence, today’s state government is such that will suppress the rise of the peoples energy and power independently and the struggle for self-determination which they evoke would be subjugated, and a false image of development would be built in the processes of peoples lives, where there would be more differences between the rich and the poor, and a few of the nouveau-riches would be foisted upon the people as rulers of the land. Because of this trap of falsehood, our people had not been able to let themselves be free from. The gradual inducement to slavery, and the regression into slave-hood and critical dependency to India that has developed into our system has made us into an oppressed class. Our own economy, our social systems, our political life and our culture had been transformed in such a way that we feel it as our own, but it had been under the control and design of the oppressor India, that has kept us as slaves of the Indian colonial system.
Since we became India’s colony, there had been a non-stopping influx of outsiders which had become a demographic and economic threat to the existence of the indigenous peoples.
This syndrome is affecting not only Manipur but the whole Western Southeast Asia (WESIA). This has become a life or death matter of the indigenous peoples. Before India’s takeover of Tripura, the original autochthons of Tripura were 80% of the population of the state. But after India’s takeover of the control of Tripura, the percentage of Tripuris as against the influx population had been reduced to 30%. The foreign immigrants had taken control of the polity and economy of the state. Now the Tripuris had been transformed into foreigners in their own homeland, and they had become beggars to the foreign masters for their survival. In Assam the influx of populations had exceeded 50% of Assam’s original population. All Assamese together and other communities combined had been over laden with over-increasing population of the outsiders.
Within the next fifteen years there is a possibility of their coming into power over the land. The economy had already been in the control of the outsiders. This is also the incoming trend in Manipur as well. Under these conditions, it has become simply impossible for the indigenous peoples of the land to preserve and protect their identities under the Indian regime.
(to con.)
The Indian constitution that permits the freedom of settlement of Indians anywhere and everywhere they like which is thus a clear threat to the integrity of the indigenous peoples. This has made the policy of Unity and Diversity a joke, for the diversity of the indigenous peoples are systematically getting erased.
India’s colonial system had turned the indigenous peoples into morally degenerate beings, and the influence of drugs, SP tablets had produced an opiate category of youths. Violence against women and children is increasing day in and day out, and a shameless category of law makers are spawned upon the people, and this system must be fought intensely by the people. In this context, all able educated and rational citizens, peasants and workers, and other citizens who are little-known in the public sphere but who love the state truly and honestly must come forward to help the liberation struggle and dedicate their lives to the people’s cause. University and college teachers, doctors, lawyers, and educated women should bring about a change in peoples lives, and advise them on such a change. The mothers of Manipur who are struggling to safeguard the integrity of the land should be strengthened with people’s full participation.
5. UNLF’S STAND ON THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY ISSUE.
It has been the human history that the nations and peoples could live with dignity and freedom, overcoming difficulties and dangers in their history, and nations and countries are thus established in their territories. Many attempts had been made in the past to destroy Manipur and enslave its’ peoples by outside forces but the peoples of Manipur had been resilient and fought for their freedom and dignity. Many had sacrificed their lives for this cause. The indigenous peoples of this land had been interdependent, with common origins, common ancestry, and they shared this region and habitat. There may be petty squabbles amongst them, but they had lived as inseparable communities so far. Manipur is a multi-ethnic and pluralistic nation. India has utilized the divide and rule policy and helped develop the idea of ethnic exclusivism to make the ethnics think and act for their own self alone. This small and harmful ideology was encouraged to be practiced by the NSCN (IM) so as to increase the animosity and rivalry among the ethnics, which must be fought tooth and nail by the collective will of all indigenous peoples. The relationship between the territories and peoples and the inner philosophy behind territorial integrity must be understood by everybody as inseparable, for which people are not afraid to die, and they rise for the territorial integrity of the land. Our peoples had cherished the supreme value of the people, that they had given their lives for the freedom and integrity of their lands.
Therefore, the territorial integrity of a land must be understood as the relationship between the territory and the population, that the land and people are linked with an inseparable connection, that nature’s environment, the air and water, the mountains, the rivers, the lakes and forests were all organically related with the human beings, and it is also linked up with the system of law and governance or the polity of the land. There is an organic relationship between the environment and the people, and this relationship in its pristine undisturbed self is its territorial integrity. So when the GoI wants to settle their negotiations with NSCN (IM), they should not disturb the relationship of Manipur territory and its people, and the relationship between the indigenous communities and their close organic polity. The UNLF and the revolutionary groups of Manipur and the people of Manipur shall resist with all their might attempts to disturb the integrity of the state.
6. CLOSE INTER-RELATIONSHIP AMONGST INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES AND THEIR COLLECTIVE EXISTENCE.
The nature of the organic environment of the Hills and Plains had necessitated the pluralistic sharing of the habitat by the highlanders and the lowlanders since time immemorial. Though the fertility of the plains had induced greater advance in the organization of peoples lives, there had been three big trajectories of history which had created the distances amongst our indigenous communities.
Firstly, the conversion of the majority of the valley populations into the world of Hinduism had accentuated the divide amongst the peoples because of the notions of purity and pollution introduced by Hindu philosophy. Hinduism had become regressive and oppressive in the early twentieth century, but leaders like Hijam Irabot had fought for reform of Hinduism effectively, and the unity of the Hills and Plains had been emphasized by many post war leaders of all communities. Hinduism is now a very much reformed religion, able to receive secular influences in its moral and religious principles.
Secondly, the advent of the colonial empire of the British and division of rule between the hills and plains as separate entities in order to weaken the collective life of the indigenes had ushered in the ethnic divisions of today. However the organic relationship between the indigenous peoples are strong in the grassroots, whose voices had been marginalized by the use of threat and force now being encouraged by the Indian state in order to self-perpetuate its rule in the Northeast.
Thirdly in 1949 India annexed Manipur through the use of force and deceit and continued the British rule through more sophisticated use of Indian cunning and diplomacy. They built up wedges between the indigenous communities, encouraged division of the people in ethnic lines, and inter-ethnic clashes and violence against one another helps the Indian state to prolong its colonial rule. India had been playing this policy to encourage division amongst the ethnicities as a principle of counter-insurgency and statecraft since the seventies. The advent of the exclusivist Naga identity was thus encouraged to grow against the collective struggle of the Northeasterners. Also the idea of a Greater Mizoram was instilled into the Kuki-Chin Mizo communities with its centre at Aizawl. All these are ploys by the Indian state arousing the passions and identity conscious indigenous populations against one another, so as to prolong Indian rule over divided autochthons of the region.
So in order to suppress the revolutionary movements in Manipur and other parts of WESIA the GoI is deftly engaged in the real politik of split amongst the indigenous communities. The Indian constitution helps to provide this division, through the scheduling of tribes and other communities as ST, SC, OBC and others within the framework of this constitution. There shall be no opportunity to oppose or fight this system of division. The policies of GoI in the current practice of split or divide and rule can only be fought by the collective will of the indigenous communities, and the communities must be free to design their own plural and equal relationships between themselves without being advised by the Brahministic, racist Indian rulers. Unless the indigenous communities rise together as equals against the oppressive rule of the Indian state, the indigenous peoples have no future. This is the firm belief of the UNLF.
7. MANIPUR – THE CAPTIVE MARKET OF INDIA
In order to repress the indigenous peoples collective consciousness, and in order to destroy the identity and united vision of the indigenous peoples of Manipur, the most important step of India is to control and subordinate the economic livelihood of Manipur people. Instead of releasing the creative productive forces of the indigenes of the state, India had turned the lakhs of indigenous peoples into consumers of goods produced elsewhere in India and make Manipur a captive market. Manipur people had no choice to produce local economic goods, but had to consume whatever India provides. So far whatever natural resources the people had, had been extracted by the Indian government without benefit to the owners of the soil. Many hidden and undeclared mineral resources had been already extracted by the ruling classes of India. The Loktak Project is a glaring example. Promises of an illuminated land had been turned into a dark environment. Thousands of fishing communities had been deprived of livelihood through the exploitation of its resources. Corruption and scandals had erupted to signal to the people that they must strengthen their collective will to develop their own resources their own way. Other colonies of outsiders are striking roots in the virgin lands of the region, remember the Project labourers for Loktak had been settled in a large and new alien village called Jibon Nagar at Leimatak.
India will stop nowhere to exploit the virgin resources of our land. That the Tipaimukh Dam shall generate 60,000 megawatts of power is a blatant lie. More than eighty thousand precious timber shall be uprooted, some 3,500 square kilometres of dry land shall be submerged under the water. Many indigenous natives shall be displaced from their homes. New outsider colonies of labourers, protected by Indian military shall mushroom up engulfing the Jiri valley. Complete environmental disaster envisaged by our indigenous mystics and wisdom teachers like Chingoo Khongnangthaba shall come true. It has already come true. No natural development energies shall be encouraged to grow in tune with our environment.
The issue of power generation, and implementation of correct policy would have been to utilize the natural river systems in the interior highlands and use the water resources for development of micro and mini hydel projects for energy generation. They could use the system ‘to develop a Manipur grid’ to supply all villages, urban areas and other industrial and semi-industrial enterprises. The excess energy could be sold to neighbouring power scarcity regions. No big dams like Tipaimukh should be allowed to be built in Manipur. We need to enhance the anti-Tipaimukh Dam movement. Tipaimukh is only a symbol of India’s colonial exploitation of the land. Again India is also attempting to extract whatever oil and natural gas resources of our virgin land. Multinational companies are being allowed to explore these resources. Two blocks of oil and natural gas resources had already been sold to foreign companies. One block shall cover 3,500 square kilometres of areas. Altogether 7,000 square kilometres spread of natural gas producing areas are sold off. The entire area covered is about the size of this valley. If oil is being explored, the produce shall not belong to the sons of the soil. This is the enhancement of the colonial subjugation of the people. All people should remind themselves of this abject exploitation of our future resources and fight collectively with the indigenous communities of the Zeliangroung and Hmars etc. and we must fight with them for protection of our natural resources.
Economic development of our land had never been the agenda of the Indian colonial masters. In the twelfth five year plan, no proposals are envisaged. For the last sixty years all plans that are decided at the centre, are being implemented on paper at the local government level. Whatever cooked up in New Delhi has never been conducive to the local nature of indigenous growth. This has also impelled the indigenous highlanders to get extremely suspicious of the actions and behaviours of the legislators and bureaucrats at the state capital at the valley, and the hill brothers are prone to believe that all developmental efforts had been concentrated in the valley alone. Corruption and exploitation of spoil system by both local rulers and their masters at New Delhi had created this myth, which resulted to the Hill people blaming the plain people. But it is a fact that both Hills and Plains are made to suffer in the development models of the Indian state. Manipur so far has no energy policy. Small and medium enterprises are dying off because of energy scarcity. There are plenty of skill and energy amongst our entrepreneurs but they have not been empowered to grow. Thus this kind of repressive, indifferent attitude towards economic development in tune with the needs of the people has been confirmed for the last sixty three years. Thus true economic development is absent under the colonial policy. All funds that are generated towards development are to help suppress the revolutionary movements, and the sycophants and slaves of the Indian masters eat off major sections of the developmental funds. Blame were given to the revolutionary movement in order to wean the people away from the movement for self-determination. They will not succeed. Only the agricultural economy and the works of peasants and labourers had given us reasons to be proud of them.
Apart from the production economy based on agriculture, we have no other worthy industrial enterprises. A few brickfields, and production of small scale mineral water efforts shall not be able to give us enough economic sustenance. All basic necessities for existence including salt and oil are all imported from India. All manufactured and produced goods from India are compulsorily to be purchased by the indigenous peoples. The fact of the captive market is undebatable. The so called budgetary grants are always already siphoned off outside Manipur under the system. Whatever agricultural produce that gives us some profits and funds, are thus spent on purchases of consumer goods and other essential commodities. This is like filling the hollow pipe with water. The UNLF had earlier stated this fact of our life, which is becoming truer and truer as time passes. Thus without noticeable capital accumulation in the state the plight of our existence become deeper and deeper engrossed in misery. Only those who had benefitted from this syndrome is the business and political class spawned by the Indian system. The poor and deprived many are reduced to a state of existence that to get a square meal a day had in fact become a severe battle for.
In order to provide some relive to this state of affairs of deprivation, the UNLF had started the Phunga Marup, a sort of indigenous micro-financing systems to help the poor. This measure is to enable the deprived families of both valley and hills and their womenfolk especially to engage in productive activities to support the families’ income. The UNLF promises to help out every section of our plural society under this scheme. Also the UNLF’s declared policy of ‘Chinjakta Meepan Tangdaba’ is an attempt to have self-sufficiency with regards to food, and this movement for self-reliance and self-liberation from this dependency syndrome is for creation of a free, independent spirit amongst the people to get rid of this colonial bondage. To work honestly and to earn through the sweat of our own brow is the emphasis on the dignity of indigenous peoples labour which UNLF salutes those who are in this movement. This principle of honest labour is for saving this highly degraded system of corruption and mutual exploitation which is so prevalent under India’s colonial system.
One silver lining in this gloomy situation is the honest sacrifice of the sons of the soil who had worked outside Manipur coming back home and starting a software development company and its related IT enabled services in Medical Transcription (MT), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and other job oriented enterprises to help the native economy to grow. A few medical professionals who had worked outside have also returned to help their brethren in their homeland. These are in fact praiseworthy efforts by our people who had led diasporic lives for jobs, coming back and helping their kind. Many patriots who are working outside are also ready to lend a helping hand to have our people grow in the way of our visions and goals conducive to indigenous creativity.
8. MANIPUR’S HUMAN RESOURCE.
Under India’s colonial rule, the deep malaise which the people is experiencing is the anarchic system of education. In fact the National Education Policy of the Indian state and its relevance with the conditions of Manipur should be questioned. Under this system, there is nothing suitable for the conditions of Manipur. There is no possibility for development of Manipur human resources under these conditions.
After the takeover of the best private schools and colleges by the government which were earlier regarded as models of learning institutions, which had produced good students in the past, those very institutions became the home of corruption and sleaze. Nowadays thousands and thousands of teachers are there in the schools, but no students are there. In the condition of the schools, private systems of teaching and running of private schools had become the norm, and those who cannot afford to pay fees are no longer in the process of study. In the college levels, the parents who are well off can afford to send their children outside. Those who do not have the means are now becoming astray, unable to have appropriate resources for further education.
Since many schools are without students, the government is gradually merging the empty schools with one another, which therefore is inducing a trend of abolition of the schools. The emptied schools had become the residential places for the police commandos. Later on the empty schools developing into shopping complexes for taking percentage by the ministers will not be a surprise. As for the hill region, school premises are rare, few and far between. But even these few schools had become the abode of the Indian occupation forces. The unfortunate parents of the children had made alternative arrangements to have rickety rooms for their children’s education, unable to oppose such forces as the Assam Rifles. This is an event which the people must resist. The basic foundation to develop our human resource which should have been given utmost priority is now completely undermined. Many of our educational institution campuses have turned into camps of the Indian occupation forces. The Indian state is violating its own laws of preventing the use of school campuses as areas for security establishments. The Indian self proclaimed principle of the right to education is therefore a mockery of itself. This is an insult to the Manipur people. This kind of alien subjugation of Manipur is making havoc of our human resource development efforts. We shall experience this system as long as Manipur remains India’s colony.
Unless the system changes, there will no emergence of students who know and love Manipur. Unless one understands and loves Manipur, there shall no more be Manipuri patriots who could sacrifice their lives for the land. We shall then be reduced to a collective of morons who do not possess Manipur national character. This is what India is attempting to create. Inequalities in educational opportunities have created big differences in the social fabric. It therefore becomes an impediment to the development of human resources which is conducive to our social and cultural traditions.
9. GLOBALIZATION AND MANIPUR.
Along with the introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the changes through the digital revolution, peoples lives had changed, since the world had turned into a global village. The internet had speeded up information and communication between peoples. Other social media networks like Facebook, Twitter had facilitated the sharing of ideas between peoples unknown to each other. There is then the possibilities of our lives being digitalized. A digital generation had also emerged in Manipur. The role of this generation for the sake of Manipur is huge. One should use these technologies to attract global attention to the oppression faced by the people of Manipur. The new generation should learn to love their own motherland, and the UNLF trusts that people should emerge who can contribute to Manipur’s independence struggle. These generations should also be aware of the social and economic transformations that are taking place, and help shape these transformations towards the peoples struggle for freedom.
10. INDIA’S LOOK EAST POLICY
India’s much hyped ‘Look East Policy’ is still a wish list and the general perception is that India should use the land bridge of the Northeast to effect connectivity and trade with the East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Its unstated, silent agenda is to suppress our freedom struggle, and to wean away the people to a false dream, to disconnect our people from the revolutionary movement. The measures of inter-regional trade shall not empower local entrepreneurs and local produces to the other parts of the world, and it shall only benefit India’s business and political classes, and corporate Mughals who are now in control of the strategic policies of the state.
LEP has its negative and positive aspects. Tourism encourages the people to be object of gaze and it does not help our people to be pro-active towards developmental endeavour, and to enable ourselves to design our lives what we will show to the global fraternity? It does not empower the natives to design our lives like the Southeast Asian peoples.
The current tourism policy of India is only to use the natives for display of exotic life of indigenous people, but it does not help the indigenous people to design the growth and develop their own communities, and to share the fruits of global citizenship. What is good from the current policy is to bring the Northeasterners/West South West Asians to refresh their age old ties. The current schemes of the Indian rulers is to make the indigenous peoples to watch and wonder at the phenomenon of corporate money making, without being able to share the profits. No local produce is encouraged in the current border trade. India only wants to produce a chain of brothels around the highways, and increase the crime in the highways which we are experiencing on the National Highway 39.
Following the legal systems opened up by the Look East Policy, the Northeast Indians should increase their productive capacity to adapt to the global economic systems of trade and commerce. Artists, musicians and drummers should educate themselves to be capable of interacting with the cultural cousins of Southeast Asia. We should orient our life world to emulate the positive aspects of Southeast Asians, become closer with them in matters of trade and commerce, health and education facilities. We must learn the languages of the Burmese, languages of the ethnic communities of Burma and Thailand, and this integration with Southeast Asians would help orient our mind and worldviews towards the Southeast Asians. Their lives should become mirrors of our enslaved lives, and we should make ourselves free like them. The mystic sages had given us the truth of closing the western door and opening of the eastern door. To effect this truth, we need an overhauling of our enslaved system of dependency to India and fight for re-fashioning of our lives as true Southeast Asians. Whatever UNLF foresaw in the past and raised our voices to look towards the east should now come into being. But history does not come by itself. The people must make new history and we must be capable of remaking our history.
11. THE VICTORY OF OUR INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE
Three things are essential for the victory to our struggle for independence. (a) To enhance our own peoples strength, (b) India’s own internal contradictions and (c) To let the International Community Support our Struggle. UNLF had placed these before the people. Again this auspicious day we are renewing our pledge before the people, for them to discuss it again and again.
a. Our strength. There are two stages open to re-invigorate our strength. The first stage is to pave the way for the collective strength of the revolutionary groups in our land. The second is to build up the collective strength of the indigenous communities.
In order to build up the collective strength of our revolutionary groups the CORCOM has been consolidated, thanks to the collective efforts of each of the constituent groups in the coordination committee. The step is to clearly understand the principles of our unity and to share the responsibilities of each and demarcate role and function of the constituent units. One step shall lead to another into a progressive enhancement of the revolutionary movement, thereby incorporating in the national struggle all other indigenous groups, thereby signifying the collective strength of the multi-ethnic nationhood in the new struggle.
The people of the valley shall initiate the historical transformation of their collective multi-ethnic revolution. Designs to hamper this united struggle is very stiff, since the Government of India, along with its military resource and strength are playing extremely important role to divide our ethnic brotherhood. It is also encouraging ethnic exclusivism to strike a wedge amongst the collective brotherhood of the indigenous communities. We must fight this Indian policy of divide and rule and we should follow the policy of mutual equality, parity of development benefits and respect for each other’s culture and traditions and principles of self-governance. A re-structuring of our polity, economy and cultural undertakings are essential for us to share respective freedom for a common and prosperous future of our indigenous peoples. Autonomy at all levels of indigenous life worlds should be our motto of co-existence.
b. India’s own internal contradictions – The nation-state of the new India had been created by deceit, force and fraud to the indigenous communities of WESIA. They had forcibly incorporated these alien peoples into their Brahministic, racist scheme of things. India, though in promise and principles pronounce a federal structure of power sharing, has been noticed to be a completely unitary form of government with centralizing power of decision making and authoritarian rule. There are attempts to continue the dynastic system of rule under the scheme of a procedural democracy which only gives its sycophants and compradors to hold onto the power structures of the state governments. The Indian National Congress was one with the vision of India. But since the days of Rajiv Gandhi, opposition to dynastic rule, and identification of the Indian National Congress had been shattered by the rise of fundamentalist, religious forces, and the rise of regional forces, along with the emergence class struggle which the ruling middle classes with business and capital resources at their command tried to suppress. The internal contradictions within the Indian polity, the rise of provincialism and coalition governments and the desire to suppress revolutionary movements through the false charge of terrorism under the syndrome of repressive acts like the establishment of ‘National Counter Terrorism Centre’ had exposed the internal weakness of the so-called democratic polity of India. What has happened to the Soviet Union post glasnost, one may conjecture the condition of India following the history of the same! India follows the use of the garb of democracy to continue dictatorial rule over the country. Why AFSPA is kept so long in the Northeast and again in Kashmir are glaring examples of racist attitudes and actions towards the Northeast and Kashmir.
Indian political system as applied to Manipur is rather to kill political leadership with vision and sense of dedication to the genuine development of the people. As long as the defence and security expenditures increases there shall be grinding poverty all around. The increase of strength of the CPI-Maoist is the glaring example of this phenomenon. India is bound to suffer the pangs of all their treacherous acts against the people when the masses rise against these rich, corporate cartels who are ruling the country now.
c. International understanding of our revolutionary causes – The international communities collective steps to bring India to book for their violation of human rights should be encouraged. India had not been able to answer to the UN Human Rights Council since 2001 onwards. Many treaty bodies of the UN system had taken to task India for their rampant violations of rights and their indifference to the protocols under the UN system.
The UNLF had put faith in authentic and deeper democracy and had put into discourse the subject of ‘Manipur-India Conflict’ and proposed the solution to the same by proposing in January 2005 the issue of a Plebiscite under UN principles and jurisdiction whether Manipur should belong to India or not. The international community had recognized this proposal and it is a heartening gesture.
UNLF, with its faith in democratic principles had not wavered from this scheme for solution to Manipur-India Conflict. UNLF believes that all indigenous people loves their own freedom with a free and independent Manipur till then UNLF shall continue to struggle for this independence with more vigour.
12. OTHER OBSERVATIONS
The Party and MPA are filled with pride by the firm stand being taken together by our honorable Chairman and other functionaries who are now in Indian prison by bringing the ideals of our freedom at great levels by their unanimous and collective stand for the cause of our freedom. The great and dignified stand for the cause of freedom is not only the pride of Manipur but for all the other indigenous communities of the Region. The UNLF trusts that such courageous stand shall encourage all freedom loving peoples of the region.
In our long revolutionary struggle the Indian Occupation Forces had killed many of our comrades. But the unfortunate development is that the number of our people killed by the state police commandos are more than the number killed by the IOF. The reports by the Civil Society Coalition for Human Rights in Manipur had established documentation for extra-judicial executions of innocent people from 1979 to 2012. More are about to be added to the list. There are some 31 women and 98 children. Out the reported number the Indian occupation forces had killed 419, and the Manipur state forces had killed 481. The Manipur State Police is regarded as the killers of most number of victims. Now this is the time for the Manipur police commandos to think deep, for no single individual in Manipur and revolutionary groups shall keep silent on the matter. They should not forget that our principle not to strike back to the state forces does not mean that they shall not punish those who kill the common people.
13. CONCLUDING STATEMENT
At last, our greetings and happy messages to the indigenous peoples of Manipur – is Independence and Autonomy at all levels, and to create a democratic system in tune with our native genius, a respect for identities and traditions, and respectful co-existence of all communities, and to prosper together in equality, justice and freedom shall be our motto and let us all work together towards this end.
14. REVOLUTIONARY GREETINGS:
i) Today on the occasion of the 48th year of our Anniversary the UNLF and its Party cadres, local members officers of departments and freedom fighters, and others those are participating in the anniversary celebrations, and to our beloved people, the UNLF Central Committee extends its heartiest and respectful greetings, and we send to you the happy message of the enhancing revolutionary movement.
ii) To those comrades in the enemy prison, leaders, officers and ranks of the freedom struggle, and to those who had suffered indignities through torture by the Indian Occupation Forces, the UNLF Central Committee extends our heartiest greetings and offer our revolutionary salute.
iii) On this solemn occasion, the UNLF Central Committee extends its heartiest greetings to the fraternal member parties of the CorCom, which is fighting for the restoration of Manipur’s freedom, as well as to the other fraternal revolutionary parties of Western Southeast Asia (WESIA); National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), Tripura People’s Democratic Front (TPDF) and United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and to other likeminded ethnic revolutionary groups as well.
iv) On this occasion, the UNLF Central Committee extends its heartiest greetings to the people of Kashmiri in their fight against Indian occupation and wishes them success as well as to the CPI (Maoist) revolutionary struggle for the emancipation of the poor and oppressed communities in India.
v) And we extend our special greetings and are grateful to those countries, international communities, the CSO’s, the Human Rights Organizations, who support the Manipuri people’s struggle for National Self-Determination, and to the media (international, regional and local), for highlighting the Manipur India Conflict.
Also, the one and only Nura Temsingnabi Irom Chanu Sharmila, who is still continuing the fight to remove the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958, under whose oppression, subjugation of our people is going on, and encouraging fake encounters, tortures and involuntary disappearances, and who is solely undertaking to project the image of Manipur womanhood before the international community, and to the justice loving people and women of India, and to all those who had been oppressed in India, the UNLF Central Committee extends its highest and honoured greetings.
With all their good wishes and support, the UNLF shall not waver in its enhancing struggle and we once again pledge our vow and promise to them we shall continue the struggle till its logical end.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/unlf-central-committee-statement-on-eve-of-48th-anniversary/
