Myanmar’s plan to conscript Naga youths alarming: RPP

March 24, 2024 10 Views No Comment

Questions the 24 NPGs of Nagaland on their policy for Nagas of Burma

DIMAPUR, MARCH 24 (MExN): The Rising People’s Party (RPP) on Saturday said the claim of the NSCN-K (Yung Aung) that the Myanmar government is going to conscript Naga youths was alarming.

However, on scrutiny of the short-sighted Naga policy in Burma, the RPP said the situation was inevitable while alleging that some few NSCN groups in Burma and Nagaland have a tacit understanding with the military Junta.

“At a time when the entire ethnic peoples including the majority Burmans are with the Pro-Democracy Forces (PDF) fighting the Junta, the Nagas in Burma have lost their national vision. Instead of strengthening the PDF – like the Chins, Shans, Kachins and other ethnic groups have done, it’s alarming that the Naga armed factions in Burma have chosen to side with the Junta,” the RPP pointed out.

The danger with this short-sighted approach is that when the PDF eventually wins the civil war in Burma, the Nagas with their zero contribution – or rather anti PDF stand – will be inevitably sidelined or marginalized when the future federal structure of Burma eventually materializes, it went on to state.

The RPP said it was also aware that the Junta has already taken census of men and women in Naga Self-Administered Zone and other Naga inhabited areas, and that forced conscription is only a matter of time.

Pointing out that the Burmese Nagas are in a dire situation, the RPP termed it “imperative that Naga CSOs and armed groups formulate a national vision for Burmese Nagas against the context of civil war in that country.”

The RPP also questioned all the “24 Naga political groups stationed in Nagaland as to what is their policy as far as the Nagas of Burma are concerned.”

“The Burmese Nagas are possibly facing the worst times akin to what Nagas in India faced during the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. When the Burmese Nagas have already sacrificed so much for the Naga national struggle, what is the stand of the 24 NPGs regarding these people?”

“Should the national struggle be reduced to taxing the common man in Nagaland to the point of exhaustion, or should the NPGs do something concrete for the aspirations of a forgotten people during their time of existential crisis?” the RPP further questioned.