However, the Nagas kept their hope of reconciliation alive and in early 2008, a prayer and healing programme was held in Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland, the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (body comprising members from churches and civic groups) was born in February, 2008. The FNR comprises of all the frontal Naga organisations, including the Council of Naga Baptist Churches (CNBC), and the support of the Nagaland Baptist Church council (NBCC) and the Nagaland Christian forum (NCF). Since the formation of the FNR twenty-three months ago, 28 different meetings both within and outside of Naga areas have been held, said Rev Dr Wati Aier, the convener of FNR in an interview recently.
 

“In all these meetings and gatherings, the Naga political groups and the Naga frontal organisations and the public have made solemn commitments to the process of genuine reconciliation, unity and peace among the Nagas and with confidence today, the Nagas can say, there is no turning back,” declared Rev Wati Aier in a press statement published in the dailies in Nagaland.

What is significant is that, the FNR was formed during troubled times, it was the time when election campaigning for the state legislative assembly was in full swing. There was also this tension between the rival NSCN groups at its highest, since both the factions had their designated camps quite nearby; NSCN (IM) at Hebron in Peren district and the ‘GPRN/NSCN in Vihokhu village, Dimapur. (Vihokhu camp of the GPRN/NSCN was attacked and burnt down by the rival faction on June 26, 2008. At present, the GPRN/NSCN has its designated camp at Kehoi village, which is a few kilometers away from their earlier designated camp Vihokhu). The people’s skepticism was also aroused when in 2008, the FNR initiated the first few meetings between the Naga public leaders and the underground leaders in Chiang Mai in Thailand; at that time, when the meeting was going on, the fighting between the rival NSCN factions continued in Nagaland. The death toll due to factional killings increased with each passing day in 2008.
Amidst the factional violence and skepticism about the outcome of the meetings in Chiang Mai, the only sign of reconciliation process was that, meetings were still held in Chiang Mai and the Naga public and the underground leaders attended it.
 

Small headways

Slowly, as the meetings continued, the Forum for Naga Reconciliation appealed the people to hoist white flags in their houses, vehicles carried the sticker of ‘A Journey of Common Hope’ –the FNR catchword on Naga reconciliation - on their windshields and appeal for prayers to the churches and people rang out throughout the Naga inhabited areas.

The FNR convener Rev Wati Aier, once talking with a journalist through the phone in 2008, asserted that actions like hoisting of white flags and putting a sticker of reconciliation on the windshield, though it might seem like symbol, have great significance in the reconciliation process.
 

Finally, much to the surprise of the Naga people, the Naga civil society organised a football match between the ‘Naga national groups’ leaders and functionaries representing their respective organisations representing Team Hope and the Naga civil society leaders forming the other team – Team Faith. Besides the entertainment, the message was clear to the Nagas – whatever the differences might be; there can always be a meeting point to sort out the differences. A flicker of hope and faith in reconciliation dawned.
 

Significantly, the year 2009 saw a marked climb down in the incidents of factional violence in the state, especially Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland, which bore the brunt of the factional violence in 2008. Then, in June 2009, the ‘Covenant of Reconciliation’ was signed by Isak Chishi Swu, chairman, NSCN/GPRN; SS Khaplang, chairman, GPRN/NSCN; and brig (retd) S Singnya, Kedahge (president), federal government of Nagaland after the Chiangmai-V (reconciliation meeting. The Covenant of Reconciliation declares: “We affirm our total commitment to work together in the spirit of love, non-violence, peace and respect to resolve outstanding issues amongst us. Therefore, we pledge to cease all forms of offensive activities in toto.”

“I believe it (Covenant of Reconciliation) will be the ‘Magna Carta’ of the Nagas someday,” the FNR convenor, Rev Dr Wati Aier declared while speaking at a public meeting at Mon district on February 14, 2009.

Then, a Joint Working Group, comprising of the signatories of the ‘Covenant of Reconciliation’ was formed on August 25, 2009, Dimapur, Nagaland as agreed at the Chiangmai-V, June 2009. This JWG meets from time to time and have given out a statement in the recent past rejecting ‘any conditional package’ from the Government of India to resolve the Indo-Naga political problem.

Taking reconciliation to the people starting this year, the FNR has started having public meetings in different places. Already, the Forum for Naga Reconciliation and the Joint Working Group (JWG), have organised public meetings in Ukhrul and Senapati in Manipur where the slogan for reconciliation was reiterated and strengthened. Public meetings in Zunheboto and Mon districts of Nagaland have also been held, where, as per media reports, huge number of public turned up to attend the meetings. Public meetings in Phek and Meluri, Dimapur will be held within the next few days in February and March, 2010, for which advertisements been published in the local newspapers of Nagaland. It is expected that there would be huge turnout in the meeting.

Rev Dr Wati Aier told the journalist that the FNR aims to take reconciliation to the people, since reconciliation is not the work of the FNR alone but the responsibility of each and every Naga. The aim of the public meeting is to highlight the people about how far the reconciliation process has reached, the present position it is in and also to garner more support and prayer from the people. Rev Wati Aier disclosed that the FNR aims to hold public meetings in all the districts of Nagaland by this year.

Since its inception 23 months ago, the FNR, or for that matter the Naga people have come a long way in their quest for reconciliation. Though the attainment of reconciliation and peaceful coexistence among the different Naga underground factions seems realistic at the moment, yet many people remain non-committal on the future outcome of the reconciliation process. Some Naga intellectuals opine that reconciliation would not be achieved until the next twenty to thirty years. They cite various reasons ranging from world politics to vested interests among the Naga leaders. Others say that unless, the Naga underground political leaders resolve their ideological differences and come to a meeting point, then reconciliation would be a far cry. Nagaland chief Minister Neiphiu Rio during the state road show cum Naknyulum festival in Tuensang (July 31, 2008) maintained that the over ground Nagas should unite first and then the people would be able to tell the underground Naga groups and the Government of India to come to a settlement. His words gain significance since Naga society, by and large, remains divided on tribal lines which, many opine, is the root cause for factionalism and the divisions of the society.
 

Yet, the hopes and aspiration of the people has not been dampened. Years of ceasefire with the Government of India has to some extend brought about reasonable peace in the state and citizens have seen marked changes in the society, and the rapid developmental activities in different parts of the state. The ruling DAN government in the state under the leadership of Neiphiu Rio has also been propagating peace by declaring ‘Peace for Development, Development for peace’. For those who have lived under the shadows of factional violence, the cessation of hostilities between the rival Naga underground groups is a welcome change, but the ‘Journey of common Hope’ of the Naga people still have a long way to go, and it still has to overcome many obstacles, because ‘reconciliation’ would not be the ends of solving the decades old Naga political problem. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There is no road towards peace; peace is the road”; perhaps for the Nagas too, there is no road towards reconciliation; reconciliation is the road; true reconciliation with God, with society, with fellow beings and most importantly, with oneself. Perhaps with the relentless efforts of the Forum of Naga Reconciliation and Naga people at large, the need to live in reconciliation with the truth and reality and to walk the path of peace and reconciliation would come true. For now the Naga society has only hope and faith, and perhaps that would make the people walk in peace and reconciliation.