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Participants at the World War II peace rally on Monday, December 2 2019 at Kisama, some 15 km away from Kohima. Photo by Caisii Mao[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Kohima, Dec. 2 (EMN): The World War-II Peace Rally is organised every year as part of the Hornbill Festival by the Nagaland Adventure & Motor Sports Association (NAMSA) to commemorate the Battle of Kohima. The World War-II Peace Rally culminated at the WW-II Museum on December 2 at Kisama.
The director general of Nagaland police, TJ Longkumer, and Major General PC Nair of the IGAR (north) were the guests of the programme.
‘We have reached an era where war is no more an option but a matter of peace and understanding between nations,’ said Longkumer, during his address at Kisama. He was talking about the global war that took place 75 years ago. ‘Soldiers on both sides, ideologies aside, were just mere soldiers caught up in the matters of war.’
The police chief commented, “We Nagas as warriors understand and we pay respects to them all without any division as they were all warriors and fought for their fellow nations.” He asserted, ‘We must also remember all the victims and civilians who died here and pay homage to them.’
Abu Metha, the advisor to chief minister, commented that 75 years ago innocent tribal people living their own way of life had nothing to do with the war. But their way of life was disturbed due to the experience of war, violence and killing they had never seen before. ‘The very soil that we stand has changed the course of history,’ he said.
“Those great men, women and brave soldiers defended freedom and democracy and because of their courage today the history of the world and continent is different from what it was perhaps meant to be,” he said.
The WW II Peace Rally commemorates the Battle of Kohima but the underlying message of the rally is to spread peace, oneness and universal brotherhood. ‘We want the world to know through our friends who came from all over the globe that this land and this place no longer needs violence and war,’ he said.
“We want people around the world to know that we want peace and universal oneness,” Metha said, asking the tourists at the festival to be ambassadors of the Naga people. He requested them to come back with more friends and families in the future.
Also, Major General PC Nair PC Nair said in his address that ‘Now is the time for us to not just call for peace but also reach out to those souls who fought for the cause.’
“A large number of them were not martyrs but yet physically and emotionally damaged and our minds today reach out to them as well,” he said.
At the event, Craig Allen Cook, principal of Woodstock School Mussoorie, said the war impacted his upbringing and so “being here in Nagaland is close to my heart.”
A team from Thailand and Japan also took part in the rally. A seven-year-old girl dressed as a convoy nurse was the youngest participant in the event.
A driving event, the ‘Hornbill Escapade,’ is organised to be conducted for five days at various locations around the state capital town Kohima. The event started on the 2nd and will continue on December 4, 6th, 8th and the 10th. It will be covering adventure destinations such as Chesezu, Pfutsero, Khezhakeno, Pulie Badze, Khonoma, Dzuleke, Heunambe and Dzukou, the government’s Information and Public Relations stated in additional updates. Guests will be taken to picturesque locations and terrace fields of selected villages around the state capital. All the trips are an on off-road experience, the updates said.
