Imphal, November 24 (NNN): While condemning the editorial of The Sangai Express in the November 15 edition, the United Naga Council (UNC) has said that the no one has the right to decide the fate and future of the Nagas.

In a statement issued to Newmai News Network, UNC information and publicity secretary S Milan said that the Naga organisation critically condemned the editorial of the said Imphal based daily newspaper of November 15 and stated that that the demand of the Nagas for the �unification of all the Naga inhabited areas under a single administrative unit is a political demand of all the Nagas and it is not of any particular tribe or organisation�, and added, �we have a say and a right to live together with our brothers and sisters of Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh�.

The UNC pledged to pursue the demands of the Nagas politically based on the Naga history to the finish.

The statement then justified the Nagas� desire for the extension of the cease-fire in all the Naga inhabited areas saying that it was to settle the long pending Naga issue and that bringing cease-fire was only to create a conducive atmosphere for the talks for which reason cease-fire agreement was signed between the NSCN-IM and the Government of India on August 1, 1997.The opposition to the extension of cease-fire to Manipur by some sections of people �living in the present State of Manipur was nothing but directly challenging the Naga peace process,� claimed UNC.

�Unlike others, there was no Maharaja type of governance in the land of the Nagas.

Every Naga village was independent, self-sufficient and was ruled by hereditary kings.

No outside power or administrative authority had ever intruded or dictated the Nagas.

History will tell us accordingly,� asserted UNC.

�Naga inhabited areas were excluded from the administration of British India by the Act of 1935, Government of India.

Thus, the question of options offered by the Independence Act of 1947 to princely States does not arise to the Nagas.

Again, the Nagas are not a party to Merger Agreement with the Union of India,� it added.

The UNC further said that inclusion of Naga inhabited areas into the map of India was not done through consent or by conquest.

Since then, the Nagas have been fighting unceasingly for the injustice done upon the Nagas.

�Under the domain ruler of the majority, Disturb Areas act was imposed only in Naga inhabited areas during the Chief Ministership of late Moirang Koireng.

The Act had caused killing of thousands of innocent Nagas, inprisonments, torture in various forms, burning down of villages to ashes, destruction of crops & properties etc.

The Nagas will not tolerate anyone trying to misinterpret the good intention of the Nagas.

The Naga problem is a political issue and not communal in structure or approaches.

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