The United Naga Council (UNC) on Sunday has made a call for solidarity from:
1. Naga Hoho
2.Global Naga Forum
3.Naga Mothers’ Association
4.Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation
5.Naga Students’ Federation
6. Eastern Naga Students Federation
7. Naga Students Organisation
“When the land of our fathers is threatened, the children of that land must rise.”
The UNC statement addressed to the esteemed leaders and members read “we write to you at a moment when the Naga people in Southern Nagalim are enduring severe hardship. The districts of Ukhrul, Chandel, Tamenglong, and undivided Senapati are confronted with direct hostility. What we face is not a breakdown of civic order, but an undeclared offensive carried out against the Naga people by armed groups under the Suspension of Operation framework, with the involvement of sections of the Assam Rifles.”
I. THE PRESENT CONDITION
Our communities are being coerced, our settlements are under pressure, and our right to exist as Nagas in our own homeland is being contested through the use of arms. This campaign targets both our physical presence and our historical identity.
II. THE ATTEMPT TO REWRITE WHO WE ARE
This offensive is also an attack on Naga history. There is a deliberate effort to distort our past, to manufacture a false narrative about the Nagas, and to undermine our standing as a people. If our history is taken from us, our claim to our land is weakened. If our land is taken, our future as a nation ends.
III. THE DANGER TO OUR HOMELAND
Our ancestral territories were entrusted to us by those who came before, secured through sacrifice and prayer. The present aggression is intended to exhaust Naga resolve so that our domains can be opened for illegal immigrants to enter and settle. To forfeit our land is to forfeit the Naga nation.
IV. OUR APPEAL TO YOU
We therefore place this appeal before your esteemed organizations, as guardians of the Naga conscience in different spheres:
1. Stand Together Across All Lines: The injury to one Naga area is an injury to all. Let the unity of the Naga family be seen in action, not only in words.
2. Give Voice to the Truth: Record what is happening. Speak of it in your assemblies, your institutions, and in the public domain. Ensure that the situation in Southern Nagalim is known and understood.
3. Uphold Our People in Prayer: Call upon all within your reach to intercede for the elders, the mothers, and the young who keep watch over our villages. Pray for discernment for those in leadership and fortitude for our people.
4. Strengthen Those Who Stand Watch: Provide prayer backing and material backing to village defenders and to families who have been displaced. See that they are not abandoned as they protect our ancestral ground.
V. THE CONSEQUENCE OF INACTION
If we remain passive today, the assault now at our threshold will reach every part of the Naga homeland tomorrow. A people who exchange their land for temporary calm will possess neither land nor calm.
Should illegal immigrants gain ground in our territory through planned violence and official complicity, future generations will ask of us: Where were the Nagas when their history was being rewritten and their land seized?
VI. OUR COMMITMENT
We affirm before God and before the Naga nation: We will not relinquish our land, and we will not abandon our history.
We will not be the generation that forfeited the inheritance of our ancestors. We will protect what is ours, for the memory of those who preserved it and for the sake of those yet to be born.
Our pledge is this: The Nagas endure together, or the Nagas perish apart.
Kuknalim!
Urra Uvie!
Issued by: Information & Publicity Cell, United Naga Council
