The allegation in the Asian Age daily today that the current unsettled situation in the peace initiative in the Northeast is a handiwork of certain officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs, MHA, is by all standards, grave. If true, it can only be described as cynical and scary. We will have to wait to find out if the government will institute an enquiry and get to the bottom of the charge. In all likelihood, this will be a false hope, but on the other hand, if this was a conspiracy of only a few officials, as the report seems to suggest, and not one which had the support or confidence of the government of the day, things can take a dramatic turn.
The allegation is, the MHA engineered a split in the NSCN-K and patronised the faction opposed to Khaplang to ensure that the latter leaves the peace process with the Government of India. The question is why would anybody want this? The answer, if one considers it from the vantage of realpolitik may not have had any dishonourable intent, though, as it is proving now, short-sighted and therefore doomed to fail. There are two prime reasons for suspecting this. First, Khaplang being a Myanmar domicile, it would have been out of the question for the Government of India to think of reaching any final political agreement with him. Second is the fact that the NSCN has two bitterly opposed factions, one led by Isak and Muivah and the other by Khaplang. The former is the one the Government of India is holding peace talks with and is interested in coming to a settlement, and this faction, it is anybody`™s guess would have wanted the rival Khaplang faction, which too was on ceasefire but still not holding peace talks with the government, out of the way conclusively. The MHA officials may indeed have been working towards this end in the hope that a permanent settlement can be reached with the Isak-Muivah faction, by washing its hands off with the Khaplang faction, leaving it to settle its scores with the Myanmar government.
Things, it is proving now, were never so straight forward. As Rajeev Bhattarcharyya, the Assamese journalist who along with a colleague trekked to Khaplang`™s camp, surmised in a book on his adventure titled `Rendezvous with Rebels` released earlier this year, Khaplang who is referred reverentially as Baba, is a very respected leader in his home grounds in the upper Sagaing Division of Myanmar, and his territory is today virtually a liberated zone where only the writs of his `rebel government` command respect. He is now giving sanctuary to virtually all rebel groups of the Northeast, particularly those of Assam and Manipur. In an interview by Bhattarcharyya, Khaplang also revealed as a matter-of-factly that the presence of many rebel soldiers of different communities of the Northeast, also gives him security, for the size of fraternal troops on his land is a deterrent for the Myanmar Army to think of intruding. In other words, he also has his own interest in giving sanctuary to the NE militants, apart from the idea of promoting a common liberation struggle for which purpose the rebels under his sanctuary have formed a federal rebel alliance called the United Liberation Front of Western South East Asia. The MHA and the Indian intelligence should have picked up this hint long ago, if not from anywhere else, then at least from the Bhattarcharyya`™s firsthand account of the situation in Khaplang`™s camp. Had they done so, they probably would not have gone so wrong in assessing the threat potential of Khaplang and writing him off so casually.
What must the government do now is the question which must be racking the brains of many in the MHA today after the devastating June 4 ambush in Manipur claiming the lives of 18 soldiers of the 6-Dogra and injuring many more. Currently the Army is on an all out manhunt for the attackers at the ambush site, but in all likelihood the rebels would have slipped away into Myanmar territory and safety already. Although the Army top brass have announced the operations will be people friendly, it is unlikely the villagers in the area would not be terrified. There is no transparency at all too for neither the media nor the local police are allowed to enter the area of operation now, therefore all the uncertainty. This is despite the fact that counterinsurgency operations are to be conducted under a unified command of civil police and military, at the top of which is the chief minister, Okram Ibobi. Is it because the military do not trust the local police? Even if the local police were to be kept out of the actual operations, the presence of some local uniformed personnel who speak the local language will mean a lot of difference in instilling confidence and comfort amongst the ordinary innocent villagers in the area.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam