Imphal, November 23 2010: Even though Dhaka's handing over its chairman Sana Yaima after arrest was a regrettable rupture, the central committee of UNLF respects Bangladesh's political choice, an e-mail statement of the proscribed outfit dispatched to the media houses in connection with its 46th birth anniversary asserted.

"The Central Committee respects Bangladesh's political choice though this marks a regrettable rupture with the legacy of Bangladesh's founding father, Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

More urgently, though, the loss of Sana Yaima's able stewardship is a sad development for the organization as well as the struggle," the statement said.

Reiterating that the chairman has been abducted recently in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and has now been handed over to the Indian government, the central committee said the keeping the matter under wraps by violating all international norms by both the governments is regrettable.

"This represents a worsening scenario in terms of the sympathy and support for liberation struggles in immediate international environment of the Indo-Burma Region due to the shoulder rubbing policy of India and its implications for the continued presence of our cadres in Bangladesh" .

In all humility, however, the Central Committee and the members of the UNLF take this opportunity to reassure our compatriots that we will not be daunted by the challenge and is ever more determined to collectively carry on the struggle to the best of our ability, it said asserting that this is a confidence that the UNLF and its Central Committee has garnered in 46 years of leading the armed struggle for liberation of Manipur.

"And this confidence will not go in vain, as the abduction of our honorable Chairman invigorates our party men to continue the fight against India with more urgency and intensity" .

The central committee of the outfit realized that it would be idle to pretend that its scoreboard in this armed struggle in over four and half decades is a long string of positive achievements.

"We have had our ups and downs.

Militarily, we take legitimate pride in the area control we established in large parts of the hill areas in Manipur by keeping the Indian occupation army at bay over an extended period starting from Feb, 1997 to March, 2008.This is an unprecedented achievement in the long history of armed struggle in the entire Indo-Burma Region" .

"We have also had our share of disappointments.

The most glaring amongst these is adventurism which manifested in diverse forms in the course of our long armed struggle.

One common link that runs through all these is the issue of centrality of the people - be they in the hill or the plain areas of Manipur - in the process of liberation both in terms of the political and mindscapes," the statement put down.

Compatriots, we appear to have glossed over the fact that liberation in the true sense of the term begins and ends in the mind of the individuals that make up the collective, and that empowering these minds ought to be the primary objective of the liberation process.

Instead, many a times our interactions with the people have tended to display a lack of respect for the people and patience with their ways.

The Central Committee regards this insight as a significant though painful learning and henceforth intends to realign all processes of our armed liberation struggle to the twin goals of empowering minds and dismantling the external colonial controls.

The statement also reiterated its commitment to plebiscite as a mechanism to resolve the ongoing conflict with India floated by their chairman Sana Yaima would need to be recalibrated in the light of the above insight.

The Central Committee, therefore, reaffirms this commitment to plebiscite as a conflict resolution mechanism in the light of this learning.

Another important learning for the Central Committee of the UNLF is that the people, both as individuals and as a collective, must take the responsibility for their political choice and that they need to decide firmly how important is the possession of a distinct sense of identity for them and their sense of self-worth, it says.

The Central Committee firmly believes that all sections of people, who hold their distinct sense of identity 'dear, including those who are waging an armed struggle for nation~ liberation, can and should join hands in addressing this issue.

True commitment to the cause of national liberation and true unity towards this end would become meaningful only on a shared basis of a people-friendly and empowerment-oriented work ethics and outlook.

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