‘I Am One of the Top People on Their Lists to Be Killed’: Naga

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By Ariana Zarleen / Burma Link

Shapwon is a leader of the Naga. He joined the nationalist movement in 1975 and is now the Joint Secretary of Naga National Council. He is a leader who is still miraculously alive after all his colleagues have been wiped out by Indian and Burmese forces as well as Naga socialists. For decades, numerous groups have tried to assassinate Shapwon in this present day head hunt. His love for his people has caused him great suffering, but there is no other way this brave leader could have chosen to live. This is part 1 of Shapwon’s story – Nothing short of a Hollywood thriller.

[/fusion_fontawesome]Those who are doing wrong, they want to eliminate me

I’m from the Eastern part of Nagaland, Sagaing Division on the Burmese political map. I was born on December 21, 1949.

I joined the Naga National Council (NNC) because I love my people, and I don’t want our country to be dominated by other nations. I want to fight against other nations who come to dominate our people. I decided already when I was a student that when I get my education I will give back to my people. That was my decision.

Since 1967 many of our Naga soldiers went to China. That is when we came to know that our soldiers are there to defend our country. I was interested to work with them and to work for my people so I joined the nationalist movement.I started working as a civil officer for the NNC. Now I am the Joint Secretary of Naga National Council.***

I have faced a lot of danger, a lot of problems, and a lot of difficulty. I have been speaking out what is the truth. So those who are doing wrong, they want to eliminate me.

[/fusion_fontawesome]There was heavy rainfall, so they couldn’t see my footprints

In 1977, the Burmese Army carried out heavy operation in my Heimi Region to kill me or capture me alive. They made three operation groups from east, west and north to give me no escape route. They tried to kill me.

They even offered the village leaders a handsome reward to nab me and hand over to them. In Gaye village, the village leaders attempted to capture me and my two soldiers at midnight. At first in the beginning these villagers also did not know what I’m working for. So obeying this Burmese army, they attempted to capture me.

Before these village leaders had been very friendly with me. But the next time I went there they were speaking very differently from the other day. And I knew that in that area the Burmese were attempting to arrest me dead or alive. I was thinking that these people, their mood was very different from the other day, so something must have happened that day. I thought the villagers might bring the Burmese army in to capture us.

I told my boys: We should be careful tonight. Both of the village leaders are no good now. We have to sleep vigilantly. We should not take off our equipment and our guns should be loaded. And your rucksack should be kept as a pillow without opening it. They think that we are tired and maybe sleeping like dead.

At night they came to arrest us. I heard a sound crock crock crock crock, boots, like people going around in the resident. The enemy surrounded us so I woke my boys up. I looked in front of the house, where I saw two men squatted down. I thought they were Burmese Army soldiers and opened fired upon them, and jumped out from the house and took a position to fire more at them before I retreat. But then, unexpectedly, a village leader shouted villagers, villagers! After that I told the boys let’s go!

We took some rice and we ran away from that village. It took about one hour from that village to Haman village. We prepared food and again left the village before dawn. We told the village headman, we will go to Kaishan village. But if Burmese army asks you, you shouldn’t tell directly that we ran away to Kaishan side, but you should lie to them that we went to Hakhum side, right side. Don’t tell exactly where we are going, I told this headman.

After we left, like one mile after, we didn’t go right or left side, but straight to the jungle. The headman maybe told them that I went to either side, so the enemy also went there. That day there was heavy rainfall, so they couldn’t see my footprints. So I could escape from them.

But then when I approached another village, they told me: Hi! My younger brother, how did you reach here again? The Burmese army is here, in the field! Go away at once, just now! You cannot sleep in the village. So I ran away to the jungle again, at night.

[/fusion_fontawesome]The blood of Naga will run like a river

In 1978, Muivah, the General Secretary of Naga National Council at the time, wanted to form a socialist government. And he wanted to overthrow the leadership of Phizo. At that time our leader Phizo was the president of Naga National Council, and he was in London.

Muivah went to China in October 1976, after he had formed a new government on the pattern of socialism in August 1976. He called it one party, one government. Or centralized government, he said. Yet, it was still under the aegis of Naga National Council. In China, in 1977, he openly advocated to adopt socialism and to overthrow Phizo’s leadership. But most of the Naga army officers did not support Muivah’s policy to form socialist government and to overthrow the leadership of Phizo. So from there, they were divided into two; those who supported Muivah’s policy and those who did not support it.

After they came back in 1978, Muivah again openly advocated to form socialist government and to overthrow Phizo’s leadership. We said no, you are a leader, you have to think twice. If we form socialist government then there will be division among the Naga people and maybe they will fight each other. Then the blood of Naga will run like a river. So, you should consider all these things, we told Muivah openly in the meeting. But Muivah did not take our advice.

[/fusion_fontawesome]I am one of the top people on their lists to be killed

In August 1978, Muivah adopted a resolution to overthrow Phizo’s leadership. After that the army officers who didn’t support Muivah’s policy declared martial law and they put Muivah and Isak under house arrest. After Muivah and Isak were released in May 1979, they came to our headquarters. After that Muivah and Isak convinced some Naga army officers to join them, in the last part of 1979, they started killing all those who did not support socialism.

At that time I was lucky because I was sent to go to Kohima in Western Nagaland to meet with veteran Naga national leaders. In August 1979, when I was on my way to Kohima, the Indian police arrested me. I was in the lockup when my friends were killed by Muivah and Isak in Eastern Nagaland.

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When the Indian intelligence came to interrogate us, he shouted: You thank God! You thank God! Because you came here! Because you are in our hands, your lives are saved, he told us. We didn’t understand. But he told us, in Eastern Nagaland, Isak and Muivah killed all your friends. They are no more. That is when we found out that killing had started in Eastern Nagaland.

In the last part of 1979, Isak and Muivah eliminated all NNC leaders, 18 in total, who refused to support their socialist political ideology. After the elimination of their opponents, they formed the so-called National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) on January 31, 1980. Since then they have been killing their own people, anyone who refuses to support them. I am one of the top people in their lists to be killed, because I am strongly against their dictatorship and socialism.

I was in jail for two years and more than seven months. I was badly tortured by the Indian police. I was released in March 1982. And then I returned to Eastern Nagaland to serve my nation again.

Since then Isak and Muivah’s people have attempted to kill me many times, such as in in March 1983, in May 1984, and in April 1985. In 1986, they especially assigned Lt. Solomon Tangkhul to assassinate me. But I could escape from all of their attempts. By the grace of God, I could escape from their hands.

[/fusion_fontawesome]I would have been killed the next day

In October 1987, we noticed that they were planning something to arrest us. So I also went to another village with my bodyguard. From there these Singnya people, manipulated by the enemy, five of them came and arrested me. Singnya group is from the Western part of Nagaland. We knew they were planning something, so I had already informed the first and second battalion: Do not follow with these people’s policy, you should be alert, keep alert. I already told them.

When I was arrested by them I came to know they will kill me tomorrow. So I was shocked and thinking how I will die. I was thinking that if these things will happen in this area, then a lot of bloodshed will be taking place in this area again. So to stop all these things from happening, I started praying: God please save my life. Please rescue me from their hands. After I prayed my mind was calm, I was no more afraid. So I understood that my prayer was answered by God. Then I slept peacefully.

Those who arrested me they thought that if I escape and run away then they will be punished by their officers. Don’t sleep anyone! You should all stand guarding this man, the Commander said. So they didn’t sleep. Singing, telling stories and humming, till midnight. But after 12, they couldn’t stand up anymore. They were falling asleep, like dead people. At the time I woke up seeing all these things happening. Alright, they are all asleep, so it is a chance God is giving me. So I loosened the rope from my hands, easily! All rope, gone. I could loosen it and flee away from their hands. After departing the village they said aaaaw he fled, he fled! So I could escape from their hands. If God didn’t rescue me, I would have been killed the next day.

After that I tried to organise my people again. The Naga army stood by me to defend me, and we could start working together again.

[/fusion_fontawesome]No one knows the fate of my mother

In April 1988, Singnya group attempted to kill me again, but some of my comrades who love me saved my life. We wouldn’t have any benefit by killing him, instead let him go away from Khiamniungan Region, they said. I therefore left Khiamniungan Region and went away.

The Burmese Army sensed all these incidents and thought that I might have reached my own village in Heimi Region. Hence they carried out an operation in my village areas in May 1988. When Burmese Army reached my village they threatened my mother and as she was terribly frightened, she fled to the jungle to hide. But my family members and relatives could not trace her anymore even though they searched for her for three weeks. To date, no one knows the fate of my mother.

Shapwon escaped many close calls in the years that followed.

In February 1991, I was with three of my compatriots at Thang Village in the corner of Noklak Town while we were going to Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. In the evening our host Mr. Pakhung told us to shift to another place because Indian Army might have sensed our presence at his residence. We therefore immediately shifted to an unknown place. Next morning he told us that at midnight the Indian Army surrounded his house and checked the room where we were sleeping. If we did not shift we might have been caught by the Indian Army that night.

In May 1992, I went to Longsok village, and we were staying at a house on the northern side of the village so that we could easily sneak into the jungle if anything happened. As Burmese army noticed I was in the village, they unexpectedly appeared. But a small boy of around five years old ran to us and reported us that the Burmese army was coming. So we could sneak into the jungle before they reached us. But we couldn’t pick up some of our boots which were found by the Burmese army, and the village leaders were badly beaten up by the Burmese. We gave the boy five hundred Kyats.

[/fusion_fontawesome]The soldiers kicked him to death

Again in March 1993, I went to Taungkung Tha village, where my brother in-law Satok was the village headman. I just appeared in the village in the day time but as we couldn’t stay in the village, we rested in the jungle for one night. After we left, we heard the Burmese Army had come to the village.

They came to Satok’s residence asking for porters. They came to ask because they heard I had visited there. My brother-in-law had fever from malaria, so he said I cannot go here and there because I have fever of this malaria and I cannot move around, he said. But the soldiers kicked him to death.

They

[Burma Army] often come to the villages, to collect porters. In Taungkung Tha village, and in Aung Mye also they come to collect porters. One time a pastor in Aung Mye village also had fever because of malaria. Burmese army forced him to follow them as a porter. He said: No, I cannot follow you because I have fever, I cannot go for porter. But he was taken away forcefully. After reaching one village, he couldn’t sit because he got fever. He lied down. In our village, the houses are five feet or more than six feet from the ground, like that. So he was lying down there and he got this serious fever. The soldiers came and kicked him down from the house, and… he died on the spot.

[/fusion_fontawesome]We were made to sign on a blank paper

In the last week of February 1995, I went to Kohima along with two Naga boys. I took them for carpenter training. On 5^th of March 1995, Sunday, we paid a visit to our aunty at Chandmari Colony. And while we were still at the aunt’s residence, the Indian Army started firing randomly on Kohima town at around 1 pm, shelling mortars and bombing the whole town. What had happened we didn’t know, but we were thinking it might be fighting between Naga soldiers and Indian Army.

That was unbelievable… Later we heard Indian army convoy had come back from Manipuri. I think that convoy was more than 100 vehicles maybe, a long convoy. But in the middle of the convoy, a tire punctured. This tire puncture sounded like a bomb exploding. The other soldiers take that their convoy was attacked by Naga army. So shelling, bombing the whole town! Till 4 pm. It is a wonder such mad soldiers can be found in the world.

During such heavy firing we couldn’t go out from the residence. Then the Indian Army started searching from house to house and the three of us were taken to their camp. Indian army lied to the army at the camp that these people are the persons who are trying to bomb this thing. They beat us black and blue. They tried to break my wrists. Among us, many people were beaten and arrested. Seven people women and children were killed by bombing. Many people were tortured. So many people hospitalized. Two of my friends maimed for life.

We were released at around 7 pm after we were made to sign on a blank paper. They released us only after they all come to know that it was not attacked by the enemy, but it was a tire puncture. We didn’t know, what they will write, but we were made to sign on a blank paper.

END OF PART 1

*** Notes about Naga history:

The origin of Naga freedom struggle is traced back to the founding of the Naga Club, in Kohima in 1918 by a group of educated Nagas. They submitted a memorandum to the British to exclude the Nagas from any constitutional framework of India.

With the coming of Angami Zapu Phizo, popularly known as Phizo, the Naga Movement gained momentum in the late 1940s. In 1946, the Naga Club became the Naga National Council (NNC). The NNC under Phizo’s leadership declared Independence of Nagaland on the 14th of August 1947. Phizo was arrested in 1948 by the Indian Government on charges of rebellion. On his release, Phizo was made the President of the NNC in 1950.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) was formed on January 31, 1980 by Isak Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and S.S. Khaplang opposing Phizo’s leadership and NNC. According to them, the Shillong Accord was a surrendered accord to India, although the document clearly seems to have been invalid from the start. On April 30, 1988, the NSCN split into two fractions; the NSCN-K led by S S Khaplang, and the NSCN-IM, led by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah. The split was due to Khaplang rejecting Isak and Muivah’s plan to hold political talks with Indian Government for an autonomous State based on Suisa’s proposal. The split triggered a wave of violence and clashes between the factions and different Naga groups.

The violence in Western and Eastern Nagaland continues between different Naga groups as well as between the Naga and Indian and Burmese forces.

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This story is based on Shapwon’s voice as he tells Burma Link about his experiences, struggles, successes, and dreams.

READ PART 2