Following an agreement with Indian authorities, Burma has turned its guns on the Naga separatist rebels it had previously sheltered–bringing the war to its own soil. Fighting is said to be raging in the jungle along the border with India as Burmese troops attack bases of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), a guerilla group which has been seeking an independent Naga state since 1980. NSCN leader Kuhalo Mulatonu pledges his fighters will resist to the end. At least 15 are already reported dead. (Times of India, Jan. 23)
Meanhile, the rival NSCN-MI (for its leaders T Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu) has opened peace talks with the Indian government. Muivah and Isak are now in Delhi for the talks, where they are demanding creation of an autonomous "Greater Nagaland" within India, inorporating parts of Assam, Manipur and other neighboring states. NSCN-MI is accused of betraying the Naga struggle by the Burmese-based branch of the movement. (Sify News, Jan. 30)
India uses anti-terror aid provided by the US to fight its dirty war in the remote northeast, while Burma seems to be seizing an opportunity to win some "legitimacy" for its brutal military junta, the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC). Its one of the many secret wars completely invisible in the West–except to fanatics like World War 4 Report.
