Indian Military personnel were waging war on the Naga including school going children and aged women

Thirty one years down the line, on the 9^th of September 1978, the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) was formed based on the universal belief that; “violation of human rights in any part of the world is a threat to the human race as a whole and protection and promotion of human rights anywhere is a concern of all”, and declared to take upon itself the task of initiating organized struggle to protect and promote the basic human rights of the Naga people.

It was at a time when Indian Military personnel were waging war on the Naga including school going children and aged women in the background of a more than 25 years of gross human rights violation on the Naga population where repressive methods such as:- Execution in public; Mass rape, Deforming sex organs; Mutilation of limbs and body; Electric shocks; Puncturing eyes; Hanging people up-side down; Putting people in smoke-filled rooms; Burning down of villages, granaries and crops; Concentration camps; Forced starvation and labor etc…. were going on indiscriminately, unknown and unreported even to the people in India let alone the rest of the world. To further prove the intention of the Government of India, the then Prime Minister of India, Mr. Morarji Desai came to Kohima and declared; “I will exterminate all the Nagas and I will not have any compunction”. The realities of India’s position on the Naga’s historical and political rights have not changed even today.

In such a situation, armed with nothing, but with sheer determination to survive as a people, NPMHR, with the support of the suffering masses and warm understanding of fellow Indian Democratic Rights and Civil Liberties movements, took up litigations in the Supreme Court of India and in High Courts, to challenge and expose these atrocities that have been perpetrated on fellow human beings by the Government of India. We won some but many more kept stalled by the judiciary of the “world’s largest democracy”. In the process the international community is no more as ignorant about the Nagas as India would have wanted. On several occasions, our leaders and elders have spoken about our situation in many international meetings and forums, including the United Nations meetings held at its various HQs of Vienna, Geneva, New York, etc. in the past decades. India was also called up and questioned by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Today, NPMHR is proud to say that it has also been a “close follower” of the 2^nd Indo-Naga Peace Process ever since it started in 1997. In this endeavor, we also responded on any given situation which demanded our presence or interventions. We also took extra steps to patch-up differences between our National leaders who were estranged in their working relationships due to reasons beyond their control. Today we are also proud partners with the many Naga civil society organizations, churches and well-meaning individuals, who have managed to narrow down the wide chasm between our Naga national groups. The end result may still be awaited… but the countdown to “our own Nation-building” may have begun.On this occasion of the 31^st Foundation day of the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), we would like to re-iterate that, human kind have made history through the struggle for freedom from exploitation and subjugation, and that NPMHR as a human rights organization stands committed for realization of this effort no matter what it takes. Towards this, we also extend our fullest support and solidarity with all struggling peoples and Nations whose rights and freedom are being suppressed by dominant communities and nation states. In this same light, we also implore upon the international communities and the various agencies of the United Nations to re-invigorate their mechanism in monitoring the over-all human rights situation in the Naga areas which have once again become vulnerable in the backdrop of a ceasefire that has continued for more than 12 years without intention to seek solutions but only to undermine the basic human rights of peoples who seek to protect and preserve their own natural identity.