Guwahati, August 02 2009: The apex body of the Dimasa tribe � the Jadikhe Naisho Hoshom (JNH) � on Friday submitted a memorandum to Union Home Secretary G.K.Pillai, pressing for a change of name for the troubled North Cachar Hills district to Dima Hasao Raji.

On the other hand, the apex body of the Zeme Naga tribe of the district � Zeme Council (Assam), impressed upon Mr.Pillai the need to divide the N.C.Hills district into two districts � one comprising the Dimasa majority areas and the other comprising non-Dimasa areas and retaining the present name, with its headquarters at Haflong.

The Zeme Council said in its memorandum that the council as well as the Indigenous People's Forum of N.C.Hills opposed changing the name of the district to Dima Hasao Raji.

A JNH and a Zeme Council delegation led by their respective presidents, D.Naiding and Samsadinbe Jeme, met Mr.Pillai at the Raj Bhavan here separately, and submitted their memoranda.

The JNH alleged that even though the N.C.Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) had unanimously approved changing the name to Dima Hasao Raji and had sent the proposal to Dispur for approval, the State government had been delaying the process.

"The current mayhem of violence allegedly between the Dimasa and Zeme Nagas is believed to be a result of the effort of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council in changing the name of the district to Dima Hasao Raji.

Such an act has also been viewed as a discrimination by the majority Dimasas on the smaller minority groups.

However, the ground reality and the statistics speak contrary to such claims.

For instance, the NCHAC is the only entity that has provided opportunity of representation to smaller ethnic groups by accommodating seats in the NCHAC," the JNH memorandum stated.

The JNH alleged that the Zeme Nagas had always opposed changing the name of the district "as they see it as an impediment to the Greater Nagalim design of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland [NSCN]".

"On the other hand, the Kuki-Chin Christian communities have always fished in troubled waters.

They have time and again proved that they disapprove of anything proposed by the Hindu Dimasas.

It is religious for them to oppose the Hindu Dimasas.

Individually they are very small communities, but they form into a religious conglomeration which is communal and dangerous and succumbing to their demands will be a bad precedent," the JNH said.

The Zeme Council, on the other hand, alleged that the Dimasas have complete control over the autonomous council and all developmental works are monopolised by them while the Zeme areas are left without development.

About the current spate of clashes between the two communities, the Council said that although there was no enmity, armed groups of the Dimasas were indulging in an ethnic cleansing of the Zeme Nagas.

The JNH, in its memorandum, also urged the Centre to expedite peace talks with the Dima Halam Daogah (ceasefire group) and include the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) in the peace process.

It also wanted both factions of the NSCN to be flushed out from the district for restoration of normality.

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