NE tribal to move international forum to esure rights

Aizawl, Dec 07 (UNI) At a time when the Centre has initiated move to negotiate with tribal militants of NE for restoring peace in the region, the indigenous tribals of NE have forwarded a charter of demands to the World Council of Indigenous People (WCIP) to put pressure on the union government "to resolve the oppression on them".

Association of Indigenous Rights Protection of Northeast (AIRPNE), a platfrom of tribal intellectuals of NE, recently raised the issues of alleged sufferings of the region's tribals in the international forum.

In the represention to the WCIP, AIRPNE emphasised on four issues related to rights of NE tribals, including the removal of military and para-military forces from all civilian areas and giving more autonomy to the indigenous people.

It further demanded deportation of all foreign nationals who have come since 1951 and repealing 'Black Laws' like Assam maintenance of public order (Autonomous District) Act of 1953, Armed forces (special powers) regulation of 1958 and North East Armed forces special powers Act, 1972, which are "being used as repressive measures" against the Indigenous tribals of the region.

AIRPNE officials said, the entry of foreign nationals from Bangladesh and Nepal existed since India's independence and has been more pronounced since the liberation of Bangladesh.

''Even after decades of independence a regrettable feature of Centre's negligence is that the Indo-Bangladesh border still remains to be demarcated. To add to the problem no steps whatsoever are taken to check this increasing influx,'' they said.

''Apart from these the tribals also face economic exploitations, as industries like the plywood, paper and oil are merely fronts to exploit the natural resources of the tribal region without benefiting or developing the region in any way,'' they said.

Revealing the statistics of infiltrators in NE they said it was 30,000 in Mizoram, 1.5 lakh in Meghalaya, 23 lakhs in Asom, 1 lakh in Manipur(mostly from Nepal) and about 20 lakh in Tripura. Some political parties helped them to registered as Indian voters, they added.

''Let us sit together and pool in our tribal genius to find a solution, a strategy of how to combat this colonial imperialism that force us to live as a subjected race, second-class citizens. We feel united international platform helps one another to fight for an environment of equality and justice, that our generations to come will live as free men, freely in their own land,'' they appealed.

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