NSCN-IM cadres perform a drill at Hebron near Dimapur on Aug 14. | Photo Credit:
PTI
https://www.thehindu.com/news/natio...an-elements/article24727420.ece?homepage=true
Myanmar-based outfit impeaches last Indian Naga leader Konyak
The Myanmar-based Shangnyu Shangwang Khaplang faction of the extremist National Socialist Council of Nagaland, or NSCN-K, has ousted the last of its ‘Indian’ leaders.
In a meeting on Friday at its council headquarters deep inside Myanmar’s Sagaing region — adjoining Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh — the NSCN-K “unanimously impeached” its chairman Khango Konyak for violating “party discipline”.
Khaplang loyalist
Mr. Konyak, 70, is a Naga of Indian origin. A China-trained rebel, he had taken over as chairman of the NSCN-K after
Khaplang died in June 2017 in a Yangon hospital after prolonged illness.
After the impeachment, the outfit has appointed Yung Aung, 45, as its acting chairman. Like his uncle Khaplang, he belongs to the Hemi Naga community, native to Myanmar. A statement issued by the NSCN-K on Friday said Mr. Konyak was found guilty of absolute control of powers and functions and trying to enforce a one-man government in violation of the constitution of the ‘party.’
It further said, “...his impeachment has become a necessity to save the party from further breakdown and confusion. Hence, all powers, functions, and privileges enjoyed by him in his position as chairman stands cancelled from today (August 17).” However, Mr. Konyak “will be allowed to leave unharmed and given safe passage” in recognition of his long service to the “cause of the nation,” the statement said.
Officials of an external intelligence agency say this means he can return to Naga areas in India, possibly to Mon district of Nagaland where Konyaks are the dominant tribe.
Mr. Konyak is believed to have left the NSCN-K domain along with other ‘Indian’ Naga leaders of the outfit.
They include the group’s military commander Niki Sumi and its publicity secretary Isaac Sumi. Both belong to the Sema tribe of Nagaland.
Taken together, these “expulsions” more or less amount to a purge.
The return of the former NSCN-K members could see them taking part in the peace talks. New Delhi has been insisting that all Naga outfits should be on board the peace process, allegedly to buy time from the NSCN-IM since its main demand is a unified Naga homeland — a demand not acceptable to Nagaland's neighbours Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur.
Stayed off peace process
The NSCN-K, which declared truce with Delhi in 2001 — four years after NSCN-IM, primarily an outfit of Manipur-based Nagas — has stayed aloof from the peace talks. This was because India seldom considered it a stakeholder, and neither did the Burmese Naga leaders of the outfit. Indian agencies had allegedly used NSCN-K against NSCN-IM before the ceasefire with the latter in 1997.
Separating the Indian Nagas in NSCN-K has been a long-term strategy and several sets of Indian Nagas have, since 2001, left to form splinter groups.
There are 54 Naga tribes on either side of the 1,643 km India-Myanmar border. But the international boundary never quite divided the ‘Indian’ and the ‘Burmese’ Nagas. The structure of the NSCN-K, which had specific roles for Naga members from both countries, underlined the pan-Naga sentiments.
With the ejection of Mr Konyak — he had been a Khaplang loyalist since 1988 when the NSCN split into the K and Isak-Muivah factions — the NSCN-K virtually has no Naga from India in a position of power. Nagas of Myanmar now control the group. Counter-insurgency experts said there are two options before Mr Konyak and fellow Indian Nagas who have left or are leaving NSCN-K. They may form a splinter group or join existing breakaway outfits. Apart from the NSCN-IM, the breakaway groups of NSCN-K are among seven Indian Naga extremist outfits bargaining with New Delhi for an “honourable” and win-win peace deal. The NSCN-IM is the oldest stakeholder in the peace process that started 21 years ago. The NSCN-K, whose primary interest lies in Myanmar, walked out of a 14-year truce agreement in 2015.
Prior to Nagaland’s Assembly election in February, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju made it clear that NSCN-K “is an insurgent group from Myanmar” when asked if the government foresaw threat from the outfit during the polls. But Indian security agencies had been liaising with the Indian Naga leaders of the outfit, leading to a peaceful election.
And while New Delhi reportedly used go-betweens for bringing the NSCN-K back to the negotiation table, Nagaland’s influential Naga Mother’s Association visited the outfit’s headquarters in Myanmar twice to talk them into taking the peace route.
Series of attacks
Soon after it abrogated the ceasefire with Delhi unilaterally in 2015, the NSCN-K and its associates launched a series of attacks on armed forces. The deadliest of them was an ambush on an Indian Army convoy in Manipur’s Chandel district that killed 18 soldiers.
But now the NSCN-K is learned to have lost interest in India, particularly with the Myanmar Naga leaders of NSCN-K coming to an understanding with the Myanmar government.