Nagaland/Nagalim: a small surprise in India's northeast
 

Representatives from the Naga women's movement for human rights in Dimapur, Nagalim.

by Charles Hack

Special to the OPC

As 2005 Overseas Press Club Roy Rowan scholarship winner, I am in an Internet Cafe, in New Delhi, India having flown from Nagaland in northeast of India. A live mouse scuttles around the keyboard of the neighboring computer console.

For the last week I have traveled through the hills with Naga human rights groups and the National Student Federation, through military checkpoints -- to visit villages in Nagaland that allegedly saw human rights abuses over the last four decades. Few Western journalists have reported from these areas since the northeast, including Nagaland and neighboring Manipur, became a Restricted Area and special visas were required to go there.

Nagas, who are primarily of Indo-Mongolian decent, say that the visa restrictions, which also prevented missionaries and social workers from staying for more than one or two weeks at a time, has allowed atrocities and human rights abuses to go on unmonitored by the outside world -- since Shri Jawaharlal Nehru tried to stamp out the indepedence movement in the 60s.

The problem is compounded by Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which has provided immunity from prosecution to the soldiers who have allegedly committed war crimes.

Several English-language Nagas newspapers operate, including the Nagaland Post, Northeast Herald, the Eastern Mirror and the Nagaland Page. As well as news from greater India and the world, the papers cover local events -- but none have Web sites.

I had a rare opportunity to glimpse at the camp of a parallel – or underground -- government operated the National Social Council of Nagaland (I-M,) visiting a boot-camp style rehab-center, a their army-training center and an orphanage.

The group is hoping to unite the Nagas who were divided between states and countries by the British, and replace the existing state government with a Christian one – “Nagaland for Christ.” Some 85-95 percent of Nagas are Christian.

Since a peace accord was signed in 1997 between the NSCN (I-M) and the Indian government, the Nagas have had some respite some from human rights abuses and experience fewer search and seizures. Although rival groups occasionally clash and the cease-fire is occasionally violated, Nagas are beginning to enjoy a change of economic fortunes. New initiatives to promote industry are being created and even new California-style ranch homes are beginning to appear.

But as-well-as a greater freedom of movement of information, people and goods, the hilly north east state has a tough PR campaign ahead.

Few Americans and Europeans have heard of Nagaland, and many who have, have heard only one thing--insurgency. Even many Indians have difficulty-placing Nagalim on the map.

The area is rich in natural resources. The people are ready to see an improvement to their quality of life. But the barriers are substantial.

Joined by ace lens-man, John Houlihan, we will be reporting on these developments, including the potential for economic development, the historic problem of human rights and a peace process.