Saturday, August 30, 2008

Adios to CHIKIM insurgency movement

By Donn Morgan Kipgen

It’s official, Ladies and Gentlemen, the faltering CHIKIMS revolutionary movement has been finally pinned down for good by a second decisive thrust from the State Govt. It’s also emphatically official that the optimistic ideas of Kukiland, Kukigam, Zalengam and Zougam are painfully out of question. There will be no agenda for Kuki independent homeland in upcoming “talks” (What talks for what ?) with both the Union and State Govts. A suicidal tragedy called Suspension of Operations (SoO) which was unconditionally signed between the Kuki UG outfits and Union Home and Defence Ministries about 4 years ago led to politically charged internecine factional armed clashes and bloody fightings amongst “rival” CHIKIMS UG outfits which also cost the lives and limps of hundreds innocent civilian. The game of death orchestrated by Politico-Military nexus led to shocking assassinations and brutal murders of top leaders and senior Commanders of all the misled CHIKIM UG outfits during the murky SoO. It had been a costly price to pay for almost nothing concrete in return, except the unspecified amount of money paid for SoO contract honorarium on regular basis. Ceasefire and unconditional peace bought with money power are always temporary and most liable to be followed by even greater violence. History tells us that sincere and long lasting peace cannot be bought with all the treasures on Earth in bi-partisan armed conflicts. However, with all its defects, the unconditional SoO with both the Union and State Govts is most welcome, on the hindsight.

The signing of the tripartite SoO is the beginning of the end of the 20 year-old Kuki insurgency movement. The founding leaders of well-known Kuki UG outfits would be crying their hearts out deep in their graves over this “sold-out” episode. No genuine revolutionary leaders would sign anything without seeing their primary objectives printed in any form of ceasefire or SoO, much less taking few bundles of bank notes for ceasefire’s signatures. It’s so incredible that the Heirok’s SPOs have been trained, armed and to be paid Rs 3000 monthly “stipend” whereas only Rs 2000 is officially sanctioned for each regular Kuki UG cadre; that’s as cheap as they come. As we all know, the precious life of one innocent Kuki is Rs 1 lakh, but 25% of ex-gratia money goes to “expert negotiators”. Now, the question in every intellectual’s mind is, “How much would the CHIKIMS UG outfits received for this SoO and what could possibly be ground conditions?” And how could the ground rules be enforced in this tripartite SoO drama? Will the much demanding extortions, highway taxation, percentage collection, threats and killings stop? The guestimate answer is no, very unlikely. As for the cushion money for signing of a probably one paragraph-size SoO paper, the amount given to each UG outfit would definitely differ according to the strength of each of participants. It would be mostly just in terms of lakhs, not even half a crore since there are far too many CHIKIM UG outfits. It would really be hard to memorise or recall each of the outfits’ full names and thus would be a nightmare for the Law enforcers. But the worst nightmare would most certainly be the ground rule’s Observers and armed Law enforcers since the ground-conditions would not be properly known specifically by many low-ranking veterans and uneducated cadres to the fullest as required. We have the most unwelcome honour to read and hear news reports of savage armed confrontations and gory factional killings, mass armed extortions, kidnaps for ransom, open gun-battles, etc, over the 2 1/2 years (later part of 2006 upto mid-2008) outrageously against the primary ground rules of the SoO. It could be an understatement to say that all those blatant murders, manslaughters, systematic extortions, bloody factional clashes, high profile kidnappings for ransoms, other internecine rivalries, etc, were Politically-Motivated with moral support from few local military units. The hawkish political leaders are actually the “negotiators-cum-political advisors” with almost final authorities since many Kuki UG leaders are apparently not as intellectual as Dr Ernesto Che Guevera and Fidel Castro, Mao-tse-Tung, Ho-chi-Minh or Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Some honourable CHIKIMS UG leaders and senior Commanders have already been well and truly sucked into the murky world money-ridden politics. Well, after all, they are the Bosses and no one is openly complaining but it left a crack and sense of distrust among the rank and file of all UG outfits which had been clearly recorded in world history’s revolutionary movements. This is clearly learnt by other Manipuri UG outfits who steadfastly refused to have anything to do with SoO or any form of ceasefire with the Govt.

It took about 10 years to break the “Military and Will- power” of the NSCN (IM) and downgraded the erstwhile influential status of its Leadership. At the same time, the rival NSCN (K) faction has somehow given the freedom to enlarge their rank and status with equal fire-power which now pose a great danger to IM group as a legitimate UG fighting forces for completely independent nation. The once fearful IM group has now been given a rather hard time by a breakaway NSCN (U) faction in a politically-motivated underhand coups. Now, the 12 year GoI-NSCN (IM) ceasefire has now taken a real big toll with internecine and devastating armed confrontations, all without a single advantage as far as the result their clashes were concerned. The visibly subdued NSCN (IM) Leadership would find it very difficult to keep the image and fearful status of the IM in another 10 years period or so to come, considering the nature of the peace-talk process and the sincere adherence to ground rules. But, atleast, the IM group has the Greater Nagalim agenda in their Kit-bag and more honourable conditions to stand for proudly. Unfortunately, the CHIKIMS UG outfits have no ground conditions for autonomous homeland nor promising agenda to protect the overall image of the once fearful CHIKIM Nation which gave the largest number of casualties to the British Indian Army since the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 in history of India. No other Indian princely State or Native rebels caused such fear of God and genuine professional respect since the early days of Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan. Now, the SoO with both Central and State Govts shall show the real mental, moral, intellectual and tactical prowesses in all the SoO days to come. The general public expects peaceful and safety environments in all parts of the State with honour and responsibility.

The Sangai Express

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