The Plight Of The CHIKIMS
By Donn Morgan Kipgen
‘In this world, everything perishes but ideals, ideas and dreams do not’ — Netaji SC Bose. Of late, the CHIKIMS have come in for a big stick. Many innocent villagers found themselves standing and kneeling at the business end of automatic weapons of enraged or politically motivated SF personnel. The CHIKIMS and their UG outfits have been given a raw deal by the State and Central Governments. It seems not a single entity has thoughtfully woken up to this painful reality. Ideals, dreams and objectives cannot be realized by words and promises alone. It is all about social structure, moral values and sense of integrity and there can be no fulfillment of objectives and aspirations without totally unity, honor, respect, mass-resources, mental and moral courage. The turning point of all historical events has been associated with mass public enterprises, martyrs, explosive incidents fuelled by mental and physical courage. There are no eventful gains without heart-rending pains. The gruesome killing of Ms Th Manoroma and Pastor Jamkholet Khongsai and the subsequent mass uproars led to the lifting of the disturbed area act, thereby the AFSPA in the 7 valley A/Cs by the CM of Manipur without the authorizations of either the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) or Ministry of Defense (MoD) as officially necessary since the State Government has no direct authority over the Army and AR. However, in order to preserve a tottering Congress Government in Manipur, Sonia's Manmohan administration hurriedly pardoned O Ibobi Singh for his unconstitutional trespasses. The fear of the wrath of the majority citizens, including the media, scholars and all political parties, had outweighed the negative effects. This also applied to the deletion of the burning phrase of "...without territorial limits' in the NSCN-GOI ceasefire agreement in June 2000. But only the wrath of the general public was not the main reason behind the 900 turn around. That's exactly what the CHIKIMS and their armed organizations have to wisely ponder over and over again to realize what real political powers backed by potent forces is all about. Going by the present socio-political disaster faced by the CHIKIMs clearly show the weakness of the so called high flying politicians, the all-knowing intelligentsia, civil and police officers and most importantly the barking revolutionary or liberating UG outfits. Some of the outfits indulged only in routine kidnappings for ransom monies, some operated on the dictates of low-life politicians, some in 'sitkrietz' while some specialised in inter-clan killings. These CHIKIMS UG outfits have the resources and physical courage to indulge in full-time internecine attacks and counter-attacks but have no mental courage and confidence to carry out what they were supposed to do - their patriotic ideological duties. This is the reason why the State and Central armed forces personnel treated them with utter disdain and blasted them to Kingdom come without any fear of repercussion. Instead, these State-sponsored terminators have been given monetary award and outward praises. What the junior police officers should keep in mind is that detail records of their alleged atrocities and staged-encounters have been painted to the fullest in their ACRs and service record books. Of course, their brutal actions might be justified or protected by the Government but chances of due promotions are out of question. The State Government want them to prowl the killing fields for their 'awesome reputations and bloody experiences' to do the dirty wet job and certainly not idling in cozy office as conferred MPs officers. Actually, the so-called commandos and IRB personnel are becoming more sinister than the much feared army/ AR personnel. They are eagerly taking part in long hours of mobile patrol duties looking for prey, 'suspected' militants and innocent victims just to make some quick monies, i.e., cash, mobile phones, wrist watches, gold chains, etc. which are not done by Central armed forces personnel however brutal they might be. The best example of ultra-excessive activity of the so-called commandos was the alleged reported abduction for ransom and the brutal murder of one Mangboi, a defense secretary of the KNF, despite collecting a sum of Rs 3 lakhs from his relatives. This heinous kidnap-murder is as gruesome as the L. Elizabeth case and that of the sensational ransom-murder case of Charles Lindbergh Jr Case. Some police personnel even suggested the life of Mangboi might have been spared had the relatives arranged the original full amount of Rs 5 lakhs as demanded by IW-commandos, like they did to other high ranking UG militant leaders. However, things have drastically changed socio-politically ever since the formal announcement of ceasefire between the Central Government and 10 CHIKIMS's UG outfits. The stout refusal of the State Government and its law enforcement agencies to accept peace in the form of ceasefire in the CHIK-IMS inhabited hill areas says it all. Only the issues of 'Plebiscite' and integration of all Naga-inhabited areas have been considered as genuine politically and the plight of the CHIKIMS comes a poor third rank outsider. In fact, the O Ibobi administration is hell bent on scuttling or sabotaging the ceasefire talks between the GOI- CHIKIMS UG outfits. This is raw politics are its best. The clinical picking up of the KNF's leader near Hotel While Palace, Paona Bazar, by swarms of IW Commando teams and the subsequent reported murder somewhere in Kangchup areas was not a random or chance arrest, forget about the 'one-shot encounter'. Even allegedly 'recovered' hand-gun could have been the worn-out 9 mm caliber Smith and Wesson or Browning pistol produced before the media personnel time and time again. The IE commandos prefer 9 mm Norinco semi-automatic pistol and rusty hand-grenades as were used as material evidences. Two rusty fragmentation hand grenades were placed near the dead body of one of the inhumane victims at the KR Lane-Golapatti junction in October 2004 wherein three innocent CHIKIMS schoolboys were murdered by IE commandos in a 'staged encounter'. In fact, similar rusty grenades were used as evidences aftermath the killings of two former Kuki militants at Golapatti a couple of years back by IE commandos in what they call a 'shout-out' whereat the executed victims had just a couple of WWII grenades to 'shoot' at the commandos. An amazing world indeed. At these ridiculous successes of the SF personnel on the basis of dead body-counts and untagged captured or recovered weaponries in almost 25 years of bloody CI Ops in Manipur have thoroughly terrorized the general public even in the capital town areas. The stunning revocation of all the suspended IE commando personnel who took part in gruesome slaughtering of three innocent CHIKIMS's students at KR Lane without the knowledge of enraged public clearly indicates the pathetic treatment of the CHIKIM community. To add stinging insult to the injury, even the findings of the bungling C Upendra Commission have not yet been released and not a single paise has been given to the victims' families as ex-gratia payments. Justice delayed is justice denied; and justice denied is obstruction of justice. A couple of months back, another three innocent CHIKIMS civilians were mercilessly gunned down by some nervous trigger-happy IRB personnel posted at the eternally constructed Khuga Dam while victimized public tried to express their plights and constitutional rights by means of mass-protest. Many other CHIKIMS' agitators received gunshot wounds and rifle butts' injuries. No rubber bullets, tear gases or dumb bombs were used as required like they did in valley areas. Till now, no fully sincere redressals and judicial inquiry have been initiated. Well, who cares about the 'politically unrepresented' CHIKIM folks!! The State Government should keep in mind that no human's life is as cheap as to be myopically visualized as physically expendable. One glaring example of political manipulation is the ongoing electoral delimitation process of the readjustment of three Assembly constituencies (A/C) on the basis of the growth-rate of population. Not surprisingly, the CHIKIMS dominated district of Churachandpur has been left out of contention for additional A/C despite being ranked third on the basis of population growth. Only the first, second and fourth Naga-dominated districts have been given the three additional A/Cs, leaving out the third place CCpur district. Call it what you may, it definitely is a farcical power-political injustice of the highest nature - a daylight robbery. To make the matter more unsecured, there has been a prolong attempt to discredit the dignity of two young CHIKIMS Central service officers on unfertilized charge with rootless origin. The so-called 'urea-scam' planted against the two young officers is based on highly contradictory information from a very highly questionable source, fuelled by personal grudge and intra-departmental shadow boxing. As for the CHIKIMS, the only forceable solution depends upon themselves by means of unity and sincere understanding. The repeated brutal forays made by the so-called commandos and IRB personnel outside their jurisdiction show the weakness of the CHIKIM's community and their UG outfits. There is no replacement to concerted-efforts and common goals. Man may come and man may go, plants may grow and die but ideological movements, ideals and practical dreams never ever perish.
(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)