GUWAHATI, April 27— The Jadikhe Naisho Hoshom (JNH), the apex body of the Dimasas, today called upon all quarters concerned not to indulge in any activity which may provoke fresh conflicts between Dimasas and Hmars of NC Hills and Cachar districts. Meanwhile, a delegation of the All Dimasa Students’ Union (ADSU) has left for New Delhi to raise the issue of Dimasa-Hmar confict at the national-level and also to mount pressure on the Central Government to expedite the peace process between itself (Centre) and the Dima Halom Daoga (DHD). The ADSU delegation in New Delhi will also place the demand before the Union Government for a special package for rehabilitating the victims of the recent clashes between Dimasas and Hmars in the two south Assam districts.
Addressing a press conference here today, JNH adviser Rebhoshang Dimasa, its members M Bodosa and B Daula and ADSU president Sammoni Kemprai said that the recent ethnic clashes between the two groups developed from the conflict between the Dimasa extremist outfit DHD and the Hmar extremist outfit Hmar People’s Convention-Democratic (HPC-D). It is now a case of an eye for an eye, they said.
The genesis of the conflict between the two extremist outfits, they said, was such that the HPC-D cadres abducted three DHD cadres and a local guide of theirs from Harangajao Ditokcherra, a place near the Zoar Village, some time back. The DHD cadres went there to conduct a survey for setting up one of the four designated camps as provided for by the ceasefire agreement among the union Government, State Government and the DHD, the JNH and the ADSU leaders said. The Harangjao Ditokcherra point is a major inlet for infiltration of the HPC-D extremists from Bangladesh and Manipur, the JNH leaders said.
They also denied the charge that the Hmars were denied any important position in the socio-political life of NC Hills. Though the Hmars had come to NC Hills in three major waves in 1769, 1846-47 and 1851-52, “as per the admission of the Hmar intellectuals”, the JNH leaders said that the first Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the NC Hills Autonomous Council was a Hmar. He was C H Khawtlang. Since then, in every executive council of the District Council there has always been an Executive Member (EM) from amongst the Hmars despite the fact that the Hmars, because of their numerical strength in the NC Hills, can have only one member in the District Council, the JNH leaders said.
The JNH leaders also denied that there was a massive ethnic cleansing operation launched by the DHD in NC Hills. The fact is that after the abduction of the DHD cadres by the HPC-D, some DHD cadres had ‘descended on a Hmar village looking for the abducted ones’. This ‘had alarmed the Hmars of that area, who then had left for Cachar’, the JNH leaders said. Though apparently peace is restored in the Dimasa and Hmar inhabited areas now, tension is yet to simmer down in these areas. Because, though the Hmars of NC Hills are trying hard to restore normalcy by blaming the hurt sentiments and hearts, together with their Dimasa neighours, with love and amity, some Hmar leaders from Manipur, Mizoram and Guwahati are bent on widening the rift between these two peoples, the JNH leaders said.
To substantiate their claim, the JNH leaders furnished the newsmen with copies of the communication made by the Hmar Students’ Association of NC Hills and Karbi Anglong with the Deputy Commissioner of NC Hills. In their said communication, the Hmar students’ Association on April 19, 2003, denounced the Guwahati unit Hmar students’ association president’s April 17, 2003 inflammatory remarks on NC Hills and Cachar situations. The JNH leaders also described the HPC-D as the organisation of the infiltrators. They also denied that the decision of the NC Hills Autonomous District Council sometime back to rename NC Hills as Dima Halali had anything to do with the present situation in the hills district and its neighbouring Cachar district.
The said resolution was moved in the District Council by Sri T Nampui, a senior Biete leader and was seconded by noted Karbi leader Martin Teron, both Executive Members of the District Council, the JNH leaders said. Meanwhile, the Waimijing, an NGO engaged in the activities to uplift the Dimasas, met the Chief Minister and apprised him of the situation in NC Hills and Cachar Districts and demanded of the Government steps to rehabilitate the affected families there, to apprehend the culprits involved in the incidents of violence, to flush out the HPC-D extremists from the said districts, to institute judicial inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and to take all possible steps to restore normalcy and peace in the two districts.