Reports indicated that the warring Naga insurgent groups signed a joint declaration to resolve all outstanding issues among themselves at the 5th Naga Reconciliation meet, which concluded at Chiang Mai in Thailand recently. The ‘Covenant of Reconciliation’ was signed by Isak Chishi Swu, the chairman of NSCN-IM, S.S. Khaplang, the chairman of NSCN-K, and S. Singya, the president of Federal Government of Nagaland. The meet was held at the behest of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR). Disclosing this on June 15, FNR convener Wati Aier stated that the declaration would give a “new direction” to the Nagas. The leaders of the outfits on their part pledged that they would pursue Naga reconciliation and forgiveness based on the “historical and political rights of the Nagas1.”

Unidentified gunmen killed 12 persons, including 8 children and 2 women, in a gruesome attack at Michidui in Assam’s NC Hills district on June 16. Police stated that the village, inhabited by the Zeme Naga, was abandoned following the recent incidents of clashes and that the villagers had taken shelter near a camp of the Assam Rifles located three kilometers away. But only recently, they started going back to the village during day time for cultivation and the armed miscreants took advantage of the situation to attack them. With these killings, the death toll in the spate of militants’ attacks on Zeme Naga and Dimasa villages since March 18, 2009 has gone up to 472.

• 1. “Naga rebel groups take unity leap,” Telegraph, June 16, 2009, at http://telegraphindia.com/1090616/jsp/frontpage/story_11116836.jsp
• 2. “12 killed in NC Hills violence,” Assam Tribune, June 17, 2009, at http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=jun1709/at01