Nagaland: What brought the Konyaks to the centre of a never-ending conflict

On the first day of December, as has been the annual tradition for more than two decades now, the Naga Heritage Village in Kisama was buzzing with celebratory cries of around 12,000 people. The enthusiasm was unmistakable, also because last year everyone had to be content with a virtual celebration of the famed Hornbill festival due to Covid-19.

Celebrated around 10 km from the state capital of Kohima, the 10-day festival–to commemorate the Nagaland Statehood Day–has been drawing tourists bitten by wanderlust and in search of exotic cultural romanticism in huge numbers. Hornbill fest fitted the bill perfectly with its array of music, food, fashion and culture against the backdrop of stunning natural beauty that the hill state is famous for.

Among those present at the venue this time were 11 foreign tourists and thousands from other parts of the country. Diplomats from several nations, including the US, Germany and Australia also took part in the festival that is one of the biggest opportunities for the state government to promote Nagaland as peaceful and tourist-friendly.

Looking at the cheerful crowd, governor Jagdish Mukhi proudly announced at the inauguration day, “The day is not far when the much-awaited peace agreement with Naga rebel groups will be signed. Everyone should make up their minds to create a conducive atmosphere for welcoming the new dawn of peaceful and progressive Nagaland.”

However, a little more than 72 hours later, Mukhi’s optimism of a new “dawn of peace” received a smack on the face as a team of 21 Para commandos gunned down at least 13 civilians in a botched operation in Mon district, bordering Myanmar.

The incident has once again exposed the fragility of the peace and normalcy in the state where the armed forces still enjoy unbridled power to use force against its own citizens in the name of maintaining peace.

Incidentally, when the 13 civilians were being gunned down without provocation, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio was holding a meeting in New Delhi to expedite the peace process and bring a ‘new dawn’ which Mukhi had earlier euphorically declared was around the corner.

After over a year of stagnation, the peace process with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah faction), the biggest insurgent group in the Northeast, started rolling again recently, generating huge expectations in the state of an early solution to a long-drawn insurgency.

Peace talks, big bluffs

Saturday’s incident has put in a precarious position not just the BJP-led government at the Centre, but also CM Rio and other political parties in a state which at present doesn’t have a single opposition party. (In July, the principal opposition party, Naga People’s Front (NPF), decided to support the Rio-led People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) government in Nagaland calling for unity among all members to expedite the Naga peace process. For context, the ruling coalition PDA initially comprised Rio’s Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (21 MLAs), the Bharatiya Janata Party (12) and an Independent legislator. NPF with 25 MLAs decided to back the ruling coalition in the 60-member Assembly).

Stating that the incident was a case of “mistaken identity” Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday told the Lok Sabha that the Army had received information on the movement of extremists in Oting area of Mon. On the basis of the inputs, the 21 commandos laid an ambush in the suspected area, he said.

The commandos opened fire on a group of miners returning home after work in a vehicle mistaking them to be insurgents, killing six and injuring several others.

After hearing the news, local villagers rushed to the spot and confronted the security forces and torched a few vehicles, prompting the commandos to open fire again. Seven more civilians died and many were injured in the resultant firing. The Indian Army said one of its soldiers was also killed and a few others were injured.

'We want justice'. Loud and clear at Hornbill festival in the wake of merciless murder of civilians by Assam rifles in Mon district.#RepealAFSPA pic.twitter.com/8WubrwUNlB

— Along (@Along_Ph0m) December 5, 2021

But many in Nagaland have raised eyebrows over the elite commando unit–which in 2015 carried out a cross-border surgical strike on bases of Northeast militants in Myanmar–getting such poor intelligence inputs to mistake common civilians as militants. In fact, this is not the first time the 21 Para-commando battalion claim has been questioned. The troops’ claim of carrying out the 2015 surgical strike inside the neighbouring country was strongly refuted by the Myanmar government.

“As per some villagers’ account, the commandos were trying to put olive green fatigues on the slain civilians ostensibly in a bid to establish that they were militants. In the past also there were instances of fake encounters being carried out for gallantry awards. The army must properly investigate all these aspects to unearth the truth,” said Chingwang Konyak, president of the state’s ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).

The NDPP president was pointing at the infamous 2003 ‘Ketchup Colonel episode’ in Assam in which army colonel HS Kohli was caught faking photos of ‘slain militants’ by splashing tomato sauce on them to claim a gallantry award.

Coming back to the latest killings, as a direct fallout of army excesses an angry public went on a rampage in Mon town on Sunday and attacked an Assam Rifles camp.

“The incident that coincided with the Hornbill festival has sent a very disturbing message to the world about the grim realities in Nagaland, where the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is still in force to give protection to security personnel against excesses committed by them. The so-called peace in the state is still very fragile,” said Kohima-based political observer Hokugha Chishi.

As expected, it has cast a shadow on the festival, which was suspended for a day on Monday to mourn the civilians killed in the operation and retaliatory violence.

In protest against the killings, almost all the Naga tribes decided not to participate in the event. The Konyak Union, the apex body of the Konyak tribe which is at the centre of the current conflict, also withdrew from the festival.

In the eye of the storm

Konyaks are the largest of the Naga tribes. They inhabit the Mon district of Nagaland, Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar.

In the not very distant past, the tribe was infamous for the headhunting skills, which they displayed frequently raiding nearby villages. The decapitated heads of rival villagers were taken as trophies. A warrior’s valour and reputation was measured in the community by the number of “trophies” one possessed and would be decorated with a prized neck tattoo. The community believed that a decapitated head brought the tribe good fortune.

After adopting Christianity (Konyaks were the last of the Naga tribes to accept the Abrahamic religion), the tribesmen gave up their headhunting practices. However, they continue to hold the reputation of being the fiercest warriors.

Later, the community became a strong force in the Naga insurgency. Apart from their fighting skills, the geographic location of the Konyak territory, which gives access to Myanmar from India, also made the tribe strategically important for the Naga insurgents.

At present, the community almost forms the fulcrum of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), a conglomerate of seven insurgent groups that are holding peace talks with the Centre in parallel to the NSCN (IM). Even in the NSCN (IM), the community has a significant presence.

As such the support of the community would be essential to make the Naga peace process successful.

Ironically, the NSCN (Khaplang- Yung Aung), against whom Saturday’s operation was reportedly targeted was marginalised in the state after a prominent Konyak insurgent leader Khango Konyak broke away from the outfit in 2018 to float his own insurgent group to join the peace process with New Delhi.

NSCN (KYA) is the only Naga insurgent outfit which is yet to join the peace process. The organisation is headed by Yung Aung, the 48-year old nephew of the late Naga insurgent leader SS Khaplang. Aung is a Hemi Naga from Myanmar with little base among Naga tribes of Nagaland.

Unwittingly, the latest violence gave the faction undue attention and mileage, which it might now exploit to its advantage taking advantage of the public anger against the security forces.

“The incident has angered the people and created fresh resentment against the security forces. The militants will definitely try to take advantage of this resentment. To assuage the public anger, the Centre should immediately withdraw AFSPA from Nagaland,” Konyak said.