PS Haokip, President, Kuki National Organisation
Dear Kachin brothers and sisters, dignitaries and all present to celebrate Shapong Yang Manaw, although I am not able to attend the occasion, I extend greetings and best wishes through representatives of the Kuki National Organisation, other Kuki social organisations and Zo Re-Unification Organisation. Our Kachin relatives celebrate your cultural festival Shapong Yang Manaw in the month of February; we celebrate CHAVANG KUT, a post-harvest festival on 1st November. I take the opportunity to extend a warm invitation to you to attend CHAVANG KUT this November 2014.
It is a great pleasure to learn that Kukis and the Kachins are blood relatives. Prior to this realisation, our relationship with Kachin was concerned with organisational matters only. Therefore, the recent development that establishes our kinship is much to be cherished. According to folklore, the Kachins have always maintained their link with Kukis. The folklore narrates that eons ago, Kachins and Kukis journeyed together from China. In the course of their travel, Kukis, who the Kachin regard as their elder brother advanced ahead, while they trailed on their heels following the tracks left behind by them in fields of plantain and a species of a local plant called lhanket. The plantain and lhanket were cut to leave a trail. However, the slashed plantain, in a short time sprouted and the lhanket turned dark in colour. When the Kachin reached the plantain fields and noticed the dark lhanket, they assumed the Kukis had left them far behind. Therefore, they stayed back in the land they call Kachin, whereas the Kukis continued on their eastward journey. However, Kachins kept close to them the story that Kukis have gone West, and they who have stayed behind in the East would one day witness a reunion. Therefore, a Kachin family would add an extra room to their house for the Kuki brother to stay upon return. This practice has been widely continued.
At the start of the year 2013, Rev Chomlhun received a calling from God to go to the Kachin because they are the brothers of Kukis, that they are also the descendants of Manaseh. As a measure of confirmation, I asked Col Paul Neo and Col Paosei of Kuki National Army, who were trained in Kachin state in 1989, whether they noticed any similarities between Kukis and Kachins. They said, linguistically, 40–45 per cent of Kuki and Kachin dialects are the same. Reasonably convinced, I made a modest contribution for Rev Chomlhun’s mission to Kachin state to deliver God’s revelation, once in August 2013 again in September 2013. The Kachin received Rev Chomlhun warmly and said they had been waiting for the day they would make contact with their Kuki brothers. However, owing to conflict between Kachin army and the Myanmar army, the atmosphere was not conducive for him to cover more parts of the state. Besides, Rev Chomlhun being an Assembly of God missionary, he preached only among the AG congregations. Many Kachins that belong to the Baptist Mission, therefore, would not have heard Rev Chomlhun’s message of God, particularly in relation to our kinship. God willing, this lacuna shall be covered in due course.
To consolidate our relationship and strengthen our political status, KNO has joined the Zo Re-Unification movement, which seeks to bring our entire population based on our common ethnicity. ZORO’s primary objective is to bring Kuki, Chin, Mizo under one political umbrella so that we may cease to exist as minority in the three countries that the British colonialists divided us in, i.e. India, Burma and present-day Bangladesh. In this regard, based on our common ethnicity on anthropological grounds, I would exhort our Kachin relatives to also become a member of ZORO. A common ideology spearheaded by a united Kuki, Chin, Mizo and Kachin people will enable the realisation of Zo nation, where we shall be self-determined and join the comity of nations.
ZoRO became a member of the United Nations Permanent Settlement and has been attending the UN meetings every year in New York and Geneva to redress the plight of the Zo people and ensure proper prevention of future exploitation by the countries or states they are presently in.
An excerpt from the text of the Annexe United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, General Assembly states:
‘Concerned that indigenous peoples have suffered from historic injustices as a result of, inter alia, their colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, thus preventing them from exercising, in particular, their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests….’
The UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples.
Article 26:1 states, ‘Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise occupied.’
Article 26:2 asserts, ‘Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise occupied.’
Article 28:1 clearly states, ‘Indigenous peoples have the right to redress, by means that can include restitution or, when this is not possible, just, fair and equitable compensation, for the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have been confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior and informed consent.’
Article 28:2 continues, ‘ Unless otherwise freely agreed upon by the peoples concerned, compensation shall take the form of lands, territories and resources equal in quality, size and legal status or of monetary compensation or other appropriate redress.’
At the United Nations Day celebrations held at Moreh, Manipur on 24 October 2013, a Kachin cultural troupe performed and enthralled the crowd. Most recently, on 29 January 2014, Zo Re-Unification Organisation Conference –cum- Commemoration of the 122nd Anniversary of the Fort William (Chin-Lushai) Conference was held at Saikul in Sadar Hills, Manipur. It was a heartening experience to hear the speeches of various leaders, including Langjaw Kyang Ying, a Kachin research scholar at North Eastern Hill University in Shillong, Meghalaya exhorting the crowd and observe presentations by Kuki, Chin, Mizo and Kachins cultural troupes.
According to Nu Parci, a dedicated servant of God, in Burma, the Zo people include Lahu, Akha, Yinmi Yinchia, Luci and Khaplang. In Nagaland, Zo includes the Konyak and Khimnungan; besides Kachin state, in Arunachal Pradesh, Singpho of Changlang district, where the present Kachin festival is scheduled from 12 – 14 February 2014, to which KNO is pleased to have received an invitation.
Today, we are at a stage of realising our kinship with Lahu, Akha, Jinmi, Jinchia, Luci and with Konyak, Khimnungan and Heymi of Khaplang. I exhort our researchers to study and identify our people’s commonalities in language, culture and folklore besides our shared physical and geographical unity. These will help us to get even closer, which we will need for the long journey ahead.
I, therefore, extend my best wishes to our Kachin relatives and pray that the festival would be celebrated with great zeal and gaiety our bond may be strengthened through these cultural occasions.
HAPPY SHAPONG YANG MANAW!!!
Keywords: Opinion
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