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In all, 13 civilians and a security personnel were killed when personnel of 21 Para Special Forces fired at a jeep carrying miners in Oting, Mon district on December 4 last year and in the violence that followed. The chargesheet filed by Nagaland police with regard to a botched-up security operation last year in which six civilians were killed is a welcome first step. The chargesheet, which names 30 Indian Army personnel including a Major, is based on a probe by a special investigation team set up by the Nagaland government. The Army had admitted that the killings were a case of mistaken identity and error of judgement — the Court of Inquiry has been completed and is being examined. All stakeholders — the government, state police, Army — must ensure that due process is protected in this sensitive case that had led to massive protests in Nagaland and almost derailed the peace talks between the Centre and the NSCN-IM.
In all, 13 civilians and a security personnel were killed when personnel of 21 Para Special Forces fired at a jeep carrying miners in Oting, Mon district on December 4 last year and in the violence that followed. Six miners were killed in the initial shooting while seven others and a security personnel lost their lives when a mob attacked the security forces later. The firing in Mon took place in the backdrop of the killing of a commanding officer of Assam Rifles, his wife and son, and four security personnel by militants from Manipur Naga People’s Front and People’s Liberation Army of Manipur in Churachandpur district a few days earlier. The Mon massacre, in the run-up to Assembly elections in Nagaland, gave fresh impetus to civic campaigns for repealing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The Centre promised to look at the demand favourably as public protests rocked Nagaland, where a tenuous ceasefire between the NSCN-IM and the Armed Forces has held out for over two decades despite the political deadlock over the demands of the insurgents. On April 1, the Centre withdrew AFSPA from 15 police station areas in seven of Nagaland’s 15 districts, a decision that has the potential to influence the narrative on federal relations in the region — according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, militancy in the Northeast has seen a major decline in recent years. It is necessary to nurture this positive spirit and consolidate the gains of hard-won peace in a region that has been wrecked by ethnic strife and militancy.
Action on the SIT report and the chargesheet on the Mon incident should proceed keeping in mind the complex history of the region. It should be insulated from the competing claims of regionalism and nationalism. A closure in this case will help heal the wounds of insurgency and its terrible offshoots including the AFSPA, and enable a conversation on matters of governance such as development, jobs, corruption etc. As for the armed forces, they will have to take the SIT accusation that personnel did “not follow the Standard Operating Procedure and the Rules of Engagement” and resorted to “indiscriminate and disproportionate firing” seriously, pin responsibility and take remedial action. How they respond to the chargesheet will be very significant in the discourse in the region around security and society.
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