The Global Naga Forum has extended support to NSO Myanmar and condemned the abductions and forced conscription of Naga youths by KIA and ENDA.
DIMAPUR — The Global Naga Forum (GNF) has extended solidarity to the Naga Students’ Organisation (NSO) Myanmar, following the recent abductions and forced conscription of Naga youths in Shinbwiyang by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and its allied group, the Eastern Naga Defence Army (ENDA).
In a statement issued on Monday, the GNF lauded the NSO for its “measured and dignified response” to the crisis.
The forum noted that the Kachin and Naga peoples have long shared a deep fraternity forged through common struggles against marginalisation and aspirations for self-determination. It, however, expressed pain and disappointment at the recent actions of the KIA.
The GNF suggested that the shift in the KIA’s approach could be influenced by larger geopolitical forces in the Indo-Myanmar region. It pointed to the roles of Myanmar’s military junta, the government of India, China, and the United States in shaping regional dynamics, warning that ethnic movements were at risk of being divided or co-opted under the guise of strategic cooperation.
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“We question whether the KIA's recent actions may be linked to shifting alliances and covert strategies employed by the GoI to weaken Naga unity and resistance, especially in the context of the Indo-Naga political negotiations and the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR),” the forum stated.
The GNF urged the KIA to return to its founding revolutionary principles based on empathy and the will of the people, and to immediately cease forced conscription and intimidation. “Let history not remember the KIA as an oppressor of fellow oppressed peoples, but as a principled ally in the collective struggle for dignity, justice, and freedom,” it added.
Reaffirming its commitment to peace and indigenous solidarity, the GNF called upon all regional movements to resist being used as pawns in the power games of dominant regimes.