Kaka D. Iralu
On August 1, 2015, I had an encounter with the Indian army and the Indian intelligence department at my parental home in Medziphema. Earlier on Sept. 29th, I had received a phone call from a Sema gentleman who had introduced himself as K. Zhimomi. He expressed his wishes to meet me, so after speaking in the Khonoma Riipfhiino at Punglwa, I phoned him to come to our house at Medziphema giving him directions to our house. We met at 4 pm. But five minutes into our discussion, I saw through cracks in the curtains, some uniformed personnel surrounding our house. My first suspicion was that this gentleman whom I have known only for five minutes must be from a breakaway faction who had come to abduct me for the second time. (The first abduction was by the NSCN IM in May 2004 when I was abducted and kept in their custody for four days.) My reaction therefore was: “So you have brought your soldiers with you?” When he replied that he had brought only his driver, I pulled the curtain and discovered that the uniformed personnel were in fact, Assam Rifles troops from Medziphema.As I walked out of my house to inquire what was going on, the Indian army Intelligence officer arrogantly announced that they had heard all our phone conversation directing Zhimomi to our house and asked me as to what we were discussing. I said “nothing,”because we had hardly finished introducing ourselves to one another. I was treated well by the officers and soldiers, but while our conversations were going on in our front porch, our whole house was searched to the utter consternation of my mother and all other occupants of our house. My recently acquainted Sema friend was taken to the Assam Rifles camp and interrogated though he had shown all his identity papers from my house to the intruders of our home.
Now in connection to this incident, I would like to tell a few things about Naga customs and culture to the Indian army and the Indian government.
1. In Naga customs and culture, our homes are always open to anybody and it is our duty to welcome anyone into our homes. This is more so if the visitor is from another tribe. However any armed intrusion into our private homes would be immediately met with an armed response. In such a case, we would quickly grasp our daws and confront the armed intruders.
2. If an unarmed person is in my house visiting, his security is my personal responsibility and no one can dare to harm him while he is under my roof.This protection courtesy extends even to any fellow Naga who may flee into my house after unintentionally committing a homicidal action. The moment such a person flees into my house; he immediately comes under my protection. His pursuers out for revenge can never take their revenge from under my roof. In case they did that, my whole clan or even the whole village can go to war with the offending party for desecrating my house.
Now, hustling a visitor from my house into your vehicle and taking my guest to your camp for interrogation was a serious breach of civilized conduct and also a serious insult to Naga culture and customs. But I could not do anything because I knew that under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, you government has granted you legal sanction to search without a search warrant, arrest without an arrest warrant and even shoot to death on mere suspicion. As for your tapping my private phone, I am fully aware that “in the interests of national sovereignty and integrity, state security etc”your Supreme Court had granted you legal immunity from the criminal offense of tapping private phones.
THIS, PRECISELY ARE THE REASONS, WHY NAGAS ARE FIGHTING IN DEFENSE OF THEIR DECLARED INDEPENDENCE.
We are not Indians and we do not want to live under heinous Indian laws. As for my honored Sema guest, I will express my apologies to him and his tribe in the Sema dialect.
“Isho-o K. Zhimomi, noye ikilo iqhüpüzü Kholamiko nqügha pesü povakiu iqhono amulo shiyamone. Nibolomiko nvulo niekipimi qhetsülo tishi khu ani.”
There again, you will have to seek a Sema collaborator to interpret the words as you must be doing in the case of my Angami conversations with my Angami acquaintances.Poor guys, you surely must be having a tough time listening to my phone call for 24 hours a day for all these years!
