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Mission to the Misty
North-East - II
By Lipika Bansal
Anyway when we arrived in Imphal, Zaw Zaw’s foster father had been waiting for us 3 hours at the bus-station, in the terrible monsoon rains. Because we were supposed to arrive at 12.00 p.m. But of course in India we can never be sure and rely on these time tables. He brought us to the Burmese student organization. We were staying at the opposite house, with the Burmese Women Union. Imphal is a very confusing place, but which makes it extra interesting. It is built in the valley, surrounded by hills in every direction. There are too many internal problems, which makes it a very sensitive location. Everybody is extremely nationalistic, so when talking to people one gets to hear many prejudiced stories. You don’t know what to believe and whom to believe. The only thing you can do is just listen; it is very hard to make any conclusion as there are hardly any objective views. There are about 13 underground ethnic armed groups. You have to be very careful, with what you say to whom, because many people are enemies of each other. So on our first day in Imphal we were dropped at the Burmese student organization, where Dr. Thura welcomed us warmly. He helped us in every possible way for one whole week. Two Manipuri lawyers came to visit the Burmese students. We were also introduced to them.
We had already understood a little bit, that Nagas and Manipuris are very big enemies of each other, because of their story. They started to explain why the Nagas are named Nagas. The Nagas didn’t have a particular group name, they were headhunters (they hunt(ed) heads of other Naga tribes) and every tribe had its own chief/ king. As the Naga people are little scarcely dressed in comparison maybe to the Indian dresses, the Indians used to call these people ‘Nanga’, which means naked in Hindi. During the British occupation the British couldn’t pronounce ‘Nanga’, so called them Naga. So according to the Manipuri the Naga people got their name like this. But I cannot say whether this is fabricated or a fact. I found few different stories, saying otherwise: one story, saying that the Nagas get their name from the Burmese word Naka, meaning people with perforated ears; they used to decorate their ears with wooden plugs and other ornaments. Another story says that the Nagas didn’t call themselves like this, but had other names until the British came. Yet another theory says that some people believed that the Nagas were a sub-tribe of the Kiratas, and that the plain people, named the hill people Nagas.
For years the Nagas have been fighting the Indian central government, for their own independent land. Now the Nagas and the Indian government have signed a cease-fire agreement. The reason for the Manipuris' animosity is that in many Manipuri hills Naga people live, and now in return for the cease-fire the Naga people claim those Manipuri hills to become a part of Nagaland territory. So of course the Manipuris are against this agreement. Because of this I understood that the Manipuris maybe feel that the Nagas are uncivilized people and look down on them. Anyway Jang joked, that she was Naga, because before we had said at the bus-station, that she was a Naga. But here of course it wasn’t very suitable to say that she was Naga. But no problem. On the 18th of June we were witness to a big Manipuri mourning day.
Exactly one year before, 18 Manipuri people were killed by Indian government, because they stood up against this treaty between the Nagas and the Indian central government. We were given the local mourning dresses, (a pink lungi, and a white ‘dupatta’, scarf) so that we wouldn’t stand out in the crowd. There were thousands of people, showing their respect to the martyrs. That night I was playing some games on the roof with the children of the Burmese student groups. At around 9.00 p.m. the police came and told everybody to go in. I didn’t really realize, but the children apparently quite used to these kinds of things, said lets go to bed, we are tired. So ok, we went inside. Than they told me that there was a curfew and that the underground groups might come out to search for their enemies.
The next few days would be filled with interesting, confusing, new, exciting and with sad sights. Manipur is one of the highest HIV affected areas in the world, with a population of 2.3 million people, 13,000 is affected with HIV. There are about 23.000 drug users. Here we had especially been going to de-addiction centers, and AIDS-clinics. It is hard to say whether de-addiction centers are really effective. As for many drug addicts, when they return to their community, they easily relapse, and fall into the same vicious circle, especially because it is difficult for most people to change friends. Also from research it seems that most people when starting drugs usually start smoking, but in Manipur strangely enough the first time most people use drugs, they inject, and than they share needles. At first it was especially the drug addicts who were infected with HIV, but now their wives are also infected, and then their future babies.
At the aids hospital we were allowed to shoot a video, but I felt terrible. I felt extremely uncomfortable, as I was intruding on their privacy and their dignity. Maybe also, because I have no experience at all with the video camera. I had never seen Aids patients before, knowing that they had Aids. Some had covered their faces, and some hadn’t, it is not an easy sight seeing so many people suffering. The de-addiction centers have a very full program, the addicts have to get up at 5.00 am and they have many talking sessions. There is one week of drug treatment, so that the body doesn’t need drugs physically anymore. And next they have so stay on an average 3 months in the center. But they say it is a daily process. We talked to one drug addict, he had been clean from heroin for 8 years, but suddenly he fell back to his drug addiction. But now the state government has a very strong awareness program. Everywhere on the roads you can see AIDS slogans, the only add campaigns you see in Manipur are AIDS campaigns. This awareness program has reached almost everyone. Each one in Manipur knows how you can get AIDS.
Than of course we were still interested to know about the refugees from Burma, so we met with Burmese Naga groups.
to
be continued......
(The author attends the University of Amsterdam in Holland majoring in International Communications)
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