JOINT
STATEMENT
OF
KAMOTAPUR
LIBERATION ORGANISATION,
MANIPUR PEOPLE’S LIBERATION FRONT
AND
TRIPURA PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC
FRONT
AGAINST INDIAN ANNEXATION OF
KAMOTAPUR, MANIPUR AND
TRIPURA
10 October
2006
This is the
fifty-seventh year of annexation by India of Kamotapur, Manipur and Tripura in
October 1949.
On this
occasion, Kamotapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), Manipur People’s Liberation
Front (MPLF) and Tripura People’s Democratic Front (TPDF), making common cause
against the annexation of our States by
India,
once again reaffirm our resolve and determination to regain the sovereignty and
independence of our respective States. Sovereign independence is a nation’s
fundamental right as is enshrined in the UN Charter. The use of any form of
struggle, including armed struggle, to achieve or restore this national right is
justified under international law.
Ever since the illegal annexations, the Government of India has been
pursuing a deliberate policy of complete Indianisation of the three States as
elsewhere in the Region by adopting measures to make indigenous peoples
minorities in their own land. This is the gravest of the threats to the
distinctive identities of the peoples of the Region. In pursuance of this
colonial policy, Kamotapur was merged with West
Bengal in January
1951 thereby making the Kamotapuris a minority community among the Bengalis of
West Bengal. The Tripuri people who constituted more than 85% of the total
population of Tripura at the time of annexation have since been swamped by
ethnic Bengali settlers who now constitute more than 70% of the total
population. In Manipur, foreign refugees having ethnic affinity with mainland
Indians have been resettled in fertile areas of the valley. This population
transfer has gravely disturbed the original demography of the Region resulting
in chronic racial, cultural, social, economic and political conflicts.
However, Indian colonial policy does not end with population transfer.
The time tested policy of ‘divide and rule’ which India has refined and
developed as ‘divide and destroy’ being pursued against the liberation struggles
of our Region is another aspect of Indian colonial occupation. This policy has
effectively exploited the multi-ethnic situation of the Region by playing up
narrow ethnic sentiments against one another thus fragmenting, in the name of
democracy, the unity of the Region. But we firmly believe that this is a
temporary phenomenon in the historical development of the Region towards ethnic
harmony and unity.
Despite India’s all-out effort to suppress our national liberation
struggles, despite all the ups and downs natural in any such national struggle,
those of our struggles with correct political line and policies have made
significant progress thereby exposing those with wrong political line and
policies, though it is still a long way to our goal of sovereignty and
independence. However, we firmly believe that despite temporary setbacks caused
by Indian ‘divide and destroy’ policy and lack of practical unity among our
liberation forces, Indian colonial rule is destined to be ultimately overthrown
from our Region.
On this occasion KLO, MPLF and TPDF jointly appeal to all the fraternal
peoples and revolutionary organisations of the Region to strengthen their
traditional brotherhood and fight together to overthrow Indian colonial rule
from the Region.
Let us build our unity through struggle!
“All for one, one for all!”
Dated
10 October 2006
KLO, MPLF and TPDF
