Surrogate Wars, Surrogate Governments

For almost a week last fortnight, after clashes between twounderground militant organizations, the United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF) and the United National LiberationFront (UNLF) in theChakpikarong sub-division of the Chandel district, in Manipur, residents of a number of villages were subjectto widespread fear, forcing many to flee their homes. 

Although the exact numbers are not known or disclosed,both the underground organizations acknowledged having suffered casualties. Clashes between undergroundorganizations are not altogether new in this area, but the tragedy has been not so much theirs, as it has beenfor the unarmed and hapless public, most often impoverished villagers in sparsely populated peripheries of theState.

But the Chakpikarong clashes have other very strong undercurrents of old tensions running below the obvioussurface. Although the physical clashes were between the UKLF and the UNLF, in spirit it was between two oldtime antagonists, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim -- Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM)and the UNLF. The latter, drawing its strongest support from amongst the Meitei community in the ImphalValley, is the only Meitei militant organization that has come out openly to challenge the NSCN-IM's demandfor a 'Greater Nagaland', which the Naga militants aspire to create by splintering Manipur and otherneighbouring states. Others too are opposed to the move, but none of them have demonstrated their oppositionpublicly, unwilling to risk their relationship with the NSCN-IM -- by far the most well-armed and powerfulinsurgent organization in the region. 

Most Kuki underground organizations, particularly the Kuki NationalFront (KNF), and the Kuki National Army (KNA), are also opposed to the NSCN-IM's vision of an integrated Nagahomeland carved out of land that is also home to the Kukis. It is to the credit of the military strategists ofthe NSCN-IM that, amidst this open and emotive opposition to their homeland move, they have been able to setup their own satellites deep within communities that are hostile to its political ambitions. 

The UKLF, arelatively new Kuki militant group in the Chandel district bordering Myanmar, is one such, and came into beingnot long after the bloody Kuki-Naga feud in the mid 1990s. The NSCN-IM has also set up another Kuki extremistgroup, the Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) in another Kuki stronghold -- the Sadar Hills Autonomous DistrictCouncil (ADC), in the Senapati district in the north of the State -- and likewise has also been patronizingsimilar organizations among other communities, both in the Manipur Hills and the Meitei dominated Valley.

The recent Chakpikarong clashes must be seen against this background. The Chandel district is within the areasthat the NSCN-IM considers as Naga contiguous territories, and hence part of its vision of the contentiousGreater Nagaland. In reality, it is a mixed-population district, with many small communities, most of them nowpolitically aligned to the Naga identity, although many among them share close ethnic affinity with the Kukis,their immediate neighbours in the district. 

Much to the chagrin of the Nagas, Kuki intellectuals refer to theNaga tribes in this district as 'Old Kukis' who have switched identity affiliation. This dichotomy betweenpolitical and ethnic identities throws up a number of obvious social tensions and it is no coincidence thatsome of the worst clashes between the Kukis and Nagas during the feud in the 1990s occurred in the Chandeldistrict. 

Further, valley based underground organizations, particularly the UNLF have been making deep inroadsinto the Kuki inhabited areas of the district, a fact viewed with resentment and suspicion by the NSCN-IM.Before the Naga ceasefire, clashes in the area used to be directly between the NSCN-IM and the UNLF - NSCN-K(the rival Khaplang faction of the NSCN) combine. 

Ever since the Naga ceasefire in 1997, however, the NSCN-INcan no longer risk open encounters, as these would violate the 'Ground Rules' of their agreement with theUnion Government. Its satellite organizations are, consequently, pressed into action under direct or indirectgoading. In the present instance, the UKLF became the instrument in an attempt to neutralize the presence ofthe UNLF in the Chakpikarong area. 

What is unfolding is thus a war for the control of territory and, in adistant way, one prompted by the unresolved and explosive question of the NSCN-IM's Greater Nagaland dream - awar in which one of the parties is fighting by proxy.

The proxy war aside, one other player is conspicuous by its absence -- the law. The entire Chakpikarong area,as in much of the rest of Chandel district, as well as the adjoining Sugnu subdivision of the valley districtof Thoubal, have become virtually a 'liberated zone', where the writs of many different rebel organizationsare the only law. At present, unless overwhelming numbers of Central Forces are brought in, it is difficultfor the government to bring the situation under control. 

It is not very far from here, in the Sajik Tampak,that underground forces of the UNLF repelled advancing Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers after a pitchedthree-day battle in January 2003. In these areas, the Government has, as a policy, even disarmed its policeforces, since it had become routine for police stations, most of them under-manned and ill-equipped, to beoverpowered and robbed of weapons by militants who were vastly superior in numbers and armament. 

Thus, theChakpikarong police station, for instance, has only about three unarmed policemen. Three times the number ofunarmed policemen is present at the Sugnu police station, and they -- for obvious reasons -- have not been ableto make a difference in the situation. 

Not only are the law enforcement agencies absent, there are also nosigns of direct government presence. The fair-weather roads in the area remain in a pathetic state ofdisrepair for years together; the public health centers are without doctors; the sub-divisional offices arewithout officers; general scarcities are endemic, and the only things not in short supply are diseases andepidemics of malaria, cholera and dysentery. 

In such a vacuum, it is only natural for parallel structures ofgovernment to sprout up and assert themselves. It is a situation, as T.S. Chonghring, an Anal tribal chief inChakpikarong, told Imphal Free Press, a case of the government abandoning the people, driving them intothe hands of laws and forces other than the government's own.

Pradip Phanjoubam is Editor, Imphal Free Press. This article appears here courtesy SouthAsia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal