Mizoram Highest Prevalence Of Pancreatic Cancer

Aizawl, Oct 7 : Death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs due to pancreatic cancer has brought into focus this rare and aggressive form of cancer, which is causing concern in India following a rise in incidences of the disease, especially in Mizoram.

According to Delhi Cancer registry, Mizoram in India has the highest prevalence of pancreatic cancer. In Aizawl, Mizoram, prevalence rate is 2.3 per 100,000 people per year against the global rate of 1 per 100,000 people per year. Majority of cases in Mizoram are reported in women, he said.

Jobs, who led a mobile-computing revolution with wildly popular devices such as the iPhone, died Wednesday in California, US, after battling cancer for years.

According to medical experts, pancreatic cancer, with a negligible survival rate, is ranked fourth in cancer-related deaths in the US. The cancer form has seen a rise in India.

The global prevalence rate of pancreatic cancer is 1 per 100,000 people per year against the 80 per 100,000 people per year cases of breast cancer - one of the most prevalent cancers among women.

According to global figures, of the 232,000 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2002, 227,000 died by 2010.

Shyam Aggarwal, Chairman Department of Medical Oncology, Sir Gangaram Hospital, says that pancreatic cancer is an aggressive, fast growing disease which kills its victims within five years after diagnosis.

There are two known types of pancreatic cancer - adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine tumour. Jobs was affected by the latter, an extremely rare form reported in just five percent of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Aggarwal told IANS.

The tumours are usually located on the head of the pancreas - an organ that helps break down food so it can be absorbed into the body - where they can block the bile duct and cause jaundice.

Pancreatic cancer is less common in India compared to western countries but now incidences of pancreatic cancer are increasing, and since the last two-three years we get one-two cases every month, P.K. Julka, clinical oncologist, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), told IANS.

Julka says that most of the cases that come to them are in an advanced stage and chances of survival are nil. It is generally seen in old people.

Standard treatment for pancreatic cancer includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and, most recently, targeted anticancer drugs that may slightly extend patients' lives.

Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed at a later stage in 89-90 percent cases and in such cases we provide chemotherapy, targeted therapy and few other procedures. But patient can survive only 18-24 months, said Julka.

Although there are no specific studies about causes of pancreatic cancer, doctors blame it on sedentary lifestyle, smoking and high alcohol intake. People suffering from diabetes and chronic pancreatic inflammation are also at risk.

There is also a lack of oncologists specialised in treating pancreatic cancer in India and the cost of treatment is very high.

Aggarwal, who is also a member of Pancreatic Cancer India, a group working to spread awareness about the less-known disease, says that this years Nobel Prize winner in medicine Ralph Steinman died of pancreatic cancer in September this year.

Pune FC Prodigy Jeje Not Intimidated By Blackburn Rovers Power

By Vivek Ajinkya

Pune FC's Arata Izumi (left), Jeje Lalpekhlua and Shanmugham
Venkatesh

Pune, Oct 7 : Jeje Lalpekhlua, Arata Izumi and Shanmugham Venkatesh are confident of putting up a good show against English Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, when the sides meet at Balewadi Stadium here today.

Experienced India and Pune midfielder Venkatesh, named skipper in place of the injured Subrata Paul, warns Blackburn that they won't have it easy as his team will play knowing they have a reputation to protect. "Blackburn is a big team. It is a very good opportunity for us. 

As a senior player, my advice to the team is to play freely and without fear. Also what is more important is that we have to think of our fans. We have a reputation to protect in front of home support. We are not focussing on the result. We are more interested in playing well," said the 32-year-old.

Pune FC's Japanese star Izumi knows all about performing in pressure situations, thanks to his experience in the J League. And he thinks his team are well poised in today's game because they have nothing to lose. "We have prepared well for Blackburn. We have studied their players. We just have to perform to our best now. We have to play without fear, without letting the occasion get to us," said the 29-year-old midfielder.

Focus on Jeje
All eyes will be on young striking sensation Jeje. The Mizoram-born forward has a very impressive goal-scoring record for both club and country. Pune FC will be praying their young prodigy comes to the fore. The 20-year-old has already earned himself a regular starting position in the national senior team, having scored five goals in eight appearances for his country. But today, the 5ft 9 inch striker will be up against a much bigger opponent in the 6ft 4inch tall Christopher Samba.

When asked if he has ever been marked by a man as huge as Samba, and if he would be intimidated by the burly defender, Jeje coolly answered: "No (never been marked by someone that huge). But, I'm not afraid, or intimidated. This match will be a great learning experience, and we will give it our best."

Winds Of Change in Myanmar

Optimism is rising in Myanmar because of a new president who seems committed to reform and opening up the economy.

By Thaung Tun

Since the new president was elected, Myanmar's economy has opened up to foreign investment [GALLO/GETTY]

When former Prime Minister Thein Sein was elected president of Myanmar earlier this year, observers saw him as a puppet of the old regime. They considered the November elections to be nothing more than window dressing and predicted that the military, which had been in the driving seat for over four decades, would still be pulling the strings and running the country in much the same old way as before - out of step with the times and its own people.
Six months into his presidency however, the new president is beginning to prove his critics wrong. Myanmar appears to be moving away from the discredited policies of the past and adopting more open policies. Recent press reports indicate growing signs of palpable change in the country.
Expectations and hopes that real change may be on the horizon have been heightened by the statements of senior European Union and United States officials who visited the country recently. The EU's humanitarian aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said she was encouraged by official pledges of greater access to troubled areas.
Derek Mitchell, US Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Myanmar, stated following his five-day visit that the US recognised and welcomed recent gestures from Nay Pyi Taw - such as President Thein Sein's meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the establishment of a national human rights commission, public emphasis on dialogue with ethnic groups and easing of media censorship.

Genuinely committed

The new president seems genuinly committed to reform [GALLO/GETTY]

The rising optimism in the country stems mainly from the fact that new president appears to be genuinely committed to reforms. He has not only made policy statements calling for political reconciliation, strengthening of democratic practices and economic reforms, but also followed them up with action.
He has taken the extraordinary step of meeting with Ms Suu Kyi and inviting her to dinner in the new presidential residence. Observers agree that the photograph that appeared in Myanmar papers, of President Thein Sein standing with Ms Suu Kyi  in front of  the official portrait of General Aung San, her father and a national hero, sends a positive signal.
Ms Suu Kyi herself has confirmed that there is a sense of spring in the air. In her speech marking the International Day of Democracy, she told her audience: "I believe we have reached a point where there is opportunity for change."  She also told AFP the new government appeared genuine in its desire for democratic reform, and that an Arab-style uprising was not the answer to the country's problems.
"There have been changes, but I don't think we're all free or completely free yet. There's still quite a way to go, but I think there have been positive developments," she said.
Derek Tonkin, the former British Ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam and current CEO of  non-profit Network Myanmar, sums up the situation when he says: "The government has gone further than many thought likely in term of its declarations of intent, and has demonstrated a keen sense of purpose on social welfare and economic issues."
Still, unsurprisingly, there are doubting Thomases who are not convinced the changes go beyond the cosmetic. Mr Mitchell alluded to this: "I think everybody who follows this country knows that there have been stops and starts, that expectations have been dashed, that things only go so far, and then they stop or they reverse themselves. And I really urged the leadership to prove the skeptics wrong."
Economic awakening
Myanmar's economy too is beginning to stir from the deep slumber of decades of stagnation brought about first by General Ne Win's misguided policies and his experiment with "The Burmese Way to Socialism" and subsequently the sanctions imposed by the US and EU.
According to reports in Xinhua and the BBC, Myanmar received a record US $20bn in foreign investment in the past year alone: $10.2bn was in the oil and gas sector, $8.2bn in electric power, $1.4bn in mining and $66.32m in manufacturing.

The leading investors are China with $7.8bn, Hong Kong with $5.8bn, South Korea with $2.7bn, Thailand with $2.1bn, Britain with $799m and Singapore with $226m.
The statistics are a reflection of the fact that Myanmar is a resource-rich country and that it can attract investors despite Western sanctions, which have clearly been a failure on all fronts. A pro-business approach could have provided the West an opportunity to promote more political, civil and economic freedom in Myanmar.

After decades of military rule, there is rising optimism among the people of Myanmar [GALLO/GETTY]

With the West staying away, China's hand has been strengthened. A number of Chinese corporations are involved in huge hydropower, mining  and oil and gas projects across the country. The projects include construction of dams as well as a major pipeline and rail projects across Myanmar aimed at transporting gas and oil to China's landlocked western provinces.
China has also started work on a deepwater seaport and oil terminal on Ramree Island on the west coast of Myanmar. Once completed, oil from the Middle East and Africa will be off-loaded there and transported to Kunming via a 1,100km-long pipeline, which would eliminate the need for tankers to pass through the  Malacca Strait.
Myanmar's other large neighbours, India and Thailand, have jumped on the bandwagon to benefit from the opening up of the country. The $110m Kaladan project will connect Myanmar's western coast with India's land-locked northeast states, giving the latter access to the sea and an opportunity to develop greater economic linkages with South-east Asia. The project involves upgrading the Sittwe port and developing a 225km-long waterway between Sittwe and Setpyitpyin in Myanmar along the Kaladan River. It also includes construction of a 62km road from Setpyitpyin to Lawngtlai in Mizoram, where it will merge with India's national highway 54.
Myanmar and Thailand have signed a framework agreement on building a massive deep seaport in Dawei in the south of Myanmar coupled with a road and rail link to Bangkok. The project, which includes a special economic zone, is estimated to cost $13bn.

Seeking the Asean chair
The gigantic infrastructure projects will connect Myanmar to its neighbours and create openings like never before. Other South-east Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam that have experienced similar situations have been able to leap-frog to greater prosperity.
As the world watches with anticipation the evolving situation in Myanmar, it would be in the interest of the international community to see that the reform process does not go awry.
The international community should ensure that President Thein Sein's tentative steps at reforms will grow into larger strides. One way might be for ASEAN to accede to Myanmar's request to assume the chairmanship of the organisation in 2014.
The fact that Myanmar is actively seeking to chair ASEAN's Standing Committee shows that it has come a long way from the time it decided to forgo its turn to chair ASEAN in 2006. It reflects the increasing confidence the new Myanmar government has in its ability to set its house in order and its readiness to undertake the steps necessary to earn the approbation of fellow ASEAN members and dialogue partners.
Under the circumstances, ASEAN may be in the best position to promote more freedoms and openness in Myanmar.

Thaung Tun, a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at ISEAS, is a former Ambassador of Myanmar to the Philippines. He also served in Brussels as Ambassador to Belgium, the Netherlands and the EU. A version of this article was previously published by www.todayonline.com

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Roads To Peace

By Esha Roy

Into the third month of Manipur’s economic blockade, the state government has hit an impasse in its resolve to bring the issue of a separate Sadar Hills district to a quick and relatively painless end. Manipur spokesperson and cabinet minister N. Biren recently pointed out that while the state government is in favour of declaring the Sadar Hills a separate revenue district, the problem is more complicated than administrative convenience.

While administrative convenience is important, the issue is mired in the complexities of ethnic identity. Decades of conflict between the Nagas and Kukis — two of the most prominent tribes in Manipur — lie at the heart of the fracas. It’s the Kukis who have been demanding a separate district, and while many members of the tribe say the district will be heterogeneous — for Kukis, Nagas and Nepalis in the area — the man behind the blockade and the president of the Sadar Hills District Demand committee, Ngamkhohao Haokip, admits that the fulcrum of the issue is one of “belonging and identity” for the Kukis.

Currently located in the Naga-dominated Senapati district, the hills-dwelling Kukis complain of centuries of discrimination by the Valley people (the Hindu Meiteis who dominate in Manipur and live in the Imphal valley). Apart from discrimination in terms of development, education and health facilities, the Kukis point out that valley people have traditionally called them “Hao” or untouchables.

Kuki nationalism goes as far back as the 1980s, when the Kuki National Front was formed under the leadership of Ranco Thangboi Kuki in 1988 — primarily to counter the so-called hegemony of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) in Kuki inhabited and dominated areas. The primary objective of the group was to secure a separate state or Union territory for the Kukis, which they called “Kukiland”. Sadar Hills was one of its main bases. According to some Kuki scholars, the separatist movement emerged because of the long economic deprivation and the fact that the educated class was not getting a share in the power structure. Kuki nationalism in Manipur could now impact Manipuri politics.

Spanning an area of 1,685 sq km and with a population of roughly 180,000, the Sadar Hills will be the second largest district in Manipur — that is, if the Kuki demands are met. Whichever stance the government takes, the ruling Congress risks losing a chunk of its votebank in the coming assembly elections early next year.

On paper, the Sadar Hills already exist as a separate district passed by an act of Parliament in 1972. The Kukis say that, after 39 years, the state government has been unable to implement its own law.

It’s an unprecedented no-give resolution in this year’s blockade — apparent all along National Highway 39, which is dotted with charred trucks and goods carriers. Every village along the highway has pickets of boulders lined across the road where the villagers check incoming vehicles for goods. If any commodity is found, passengers are made to get off and the vehicle is burnt. Alongside the pickets are makeshift tents with women protesters and, in trademark Irom Sharmila-style, Manipuri mothers — or Ima, as they are called in the state — on relay hunger strikes. They have been on hunger strikes since August 16.

Amar Yumnan, a professor of economics at Manipur University, says the issue is more of political supremacy between the tribes. Even within the Sadar Hills, there are two assembly constituencies which have seen strong and very close contests between the Nagas and Kukis — both are equally powerful. Potentially an extremely dangerous trend, Yumnam says that it is the result of increasing ethnicisation of politics in the state, seen in the emergence of new political parties such as the Kuki National Assembly.

Meanwhile, the United Naga Council has already written to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram protesting the formation of this new district, claiming that most of the Sadar Hills traditionally belong to the Nagas.

The government’s answer to these problems is the reorganisation of the boundaries of various districts, giving the Kukis a separate Sadar Hills, while ensuring that the Nagas continue to retain most of their claimed lands. While both demands will have to be balanced, a lot of dexterous manoeuvring will be required by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s government to convince both tribes that they have indeed been accommodated. If the government does at all manage to achieve a resolution between its two main tribes, it may be the first time in decades that such a conflict will be put to rest — a conflict which has in the past led to various secessionist movements on the part of both Nagas and Kukis. The handling of this one conflict alone may be a landmark on Manipur’s path to being declared a non-disturbed state in the future.

esha.roy@expressindia.com

Won’t Withdraw Manipur Blockade if No Separate District, Says Sadar Hills Panel

By Bijay Sankar Bora

Guwahati, Oct 7 : Even while an unrelenting economic blockade has crippled life in Manipur, the agitating Sadar Hills District Demand Committee (SHDDC) has told Union Home Minister P Chidambaram that it would not withdraw the blockade unless its demand for a separate district is met.

In a memorandum to Chidambaram, the SHDDC has alleged that the state government of Manipur had failed to respond to the instructions of the Home Minister for an early settlement to the Sadar Hills issue.

Chidambaram had stated that the issue should be solved by the state government and that the Manipur Government had constituted a district re-organisation commission to look into the issue.

However, the SHDDC has stated that Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has constituted a Committee on Re-organisation of Administrative and Police District Boundaries (CRA&PDB) in total disregard to the demand of the people of the Sadar Hills.

It said that the Manipur administrative boundaries had never been an issue or under question during the past 39 years, but a committee on the re-organisation of district boundaries was constituted as soon as demand for a separate Sadar Hills district was raised.

Meanwhile, various organisations of Manipur have submitted their representations to the CRA&PDB which will be brought up during the third round of the committee’s public hearing to be held tomorrow.

According to an official source, the organisations which have submitted their representations include Tonjei Marin District Demand Committee, Naga Peoples Organisation, United Committee Manipur, Committee on Protection of Tribal Areas, Manipur and Saikul Area Naga Peoples Organisation.

The CRA&PDB headed by the state Chief Secretary was constituted following a Cabinet decision in order to bring an amicable solution to the various demands for separate districts in the state, including the demands for separate Sadar Hills district, Tonjei Marin district and Jiribam district.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Centre and the Manipur Government of failing to check the spiralling prices of essential commodities precipitated by the economic blockade and demanded an explanation in this regard. 

Source: Tribune News Service

Laptop Reveals Maoists Trained in Burma

By JOSEPH ALLCHIN

Maoist leader Kishenji speaks to the media in Bholagara village, northeastern India (Reuters)

Maoist rebels in northeastern India were trained at camps across the border in Burma, according to police in New Delhi who claim the details were discovered on a laptop belonging to an arrested member of the group.

Two men from the group, commonly known as the Naxalites, were detained by police on Saturday last week on suspicion of smuggling arms. According to the Times of India, the men, identified only as Dilip and Arun, were carrying a laptop that contained files on joint training operations with the outlawed People’s Liberation Army (PLA), an ethnic separatist group from Manipur.

Naxalite rebels have been described by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country’s “greatest security threat”. They are active in a belt that runs from the Nepalese border south through nine Indian states.

“Crucial details related to Naxal operations and some maps of Myanmar [Burma] showing the place where a joint training camp is to be held in a few weeks were recovered from their laptop,” a policeman told the Times of India.

The group is composed largely of disaffected tribal villagers who inhabit states such as Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand. In response New Delhi created the Salwa Judum militia, which is blamed for brutal reprisals and forced relocation of communities to stem the support network of the rebels.

The PLA was recently accused of receiving Chinese help, with Beijing ostensibly supporting its fight for an independent state in a bid to assume control over the northeast Indian states it claims as its own. The PLA is also linked with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).

The timing of the news about training camps in Burma, and China’s role in the insurgency, may not be a coincidence: President Thein Sein is set to make his first visit to the world’s largest democracy since being elected to office, and India has been stringently pressuring the Burmese to do more to combat groups who shelter along the remote shared border between the two countries.

The supposed common ambition of both governments to eliminate these groups resulted in an allegation from the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) that the Indians had been supplying artillery to the Burmese to help fight the rebel outfits. Able to hit targets from over 40 kilometers away, these weapons give the Burmese a significant advantage over their foe.

But the commitment of the Burmese to rooting out Indian separatist insurgents has been questioned by some, including journalist and author Bertil Lintner. He described an alleged recent assault on the ULFA as a “phantom operation”.

Indian requests for Burmese action, including those made by Foreign Minister S M Krishna on a visit to Naypyidaw in June, have persisted for years, but with little tangible effect.

The Naxal struggle was born in May 1967 and named after the village of Naxalbariin northern West Bengal state. The insurrection began when police opened fire on protesting landless farmers, sparking outrage.

Their struggle is synonymous with the failure of the Indian government to combat the ravishes of poverty in rural areas. States such as Bihar are renowned for feudal caste ridden politics in which tribal or Adivasi communities bear the brunt, with the World Bank noting that over 56 percent of tribal children are clinically underweight. It has also stated that “inequalities in nutritional status widened” during the 1990s, a period of rapid economic liberalisation.

Nationwide, the World Bank notes that the “prevalence of underweight among children in India is amongst the highest in the world, and nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Tribal lands in states such as Chhatisgarh are also rich in minerals. The state produces some 15 percent of India’s steel, with companies such as South Korea’s POSCO involved in mining that has displaced tribal communities.

India has recently set a target of doubling trade with Burma to $US3 billion over the next five years and is keen to compete with China for influence over Naypyidaw. Given its proximity to both Burma and China, suppressing insurgency in India’s volatile northeast is an essential component of this goal.

Source: dvb.no

Delhi Immobilized By Manipur Blockade

By Sudha Ramachandran

India's northeastern state of Manipur is under siege. A blockade of two vital highways for over two months now by rival ethnic groups pressing territorial claims has resulted in a serious shortage of essential commodities, causing immense hardship to the Manipuri people.

On August 1, the Kukis began their blockade of National Highway (NH) 39 and NH 53, to press their demand for a Kuki district in the Sadar Hills region of Manipur's Senapati district. An ethnic group that is scattered across India's northeast, the Kukis are a majority in the Sadar Hills.

Nagas, who form the majority in the Senapati district, are opposed to a Kuki district being carved out of Senapati. They claim the Sadar Hills region as part of a Greater Nagaland or Nagalim, their traditional homeland. Nagas have been waging an

armed struggle to integrate into Nagaland the Naga-dominated areas of neighboring Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh as well as Myanmar under one administrative unit.

Anxious over a division of the Senapati district proposed by Manipur's Meitei-dominated government, the United Naga Council, the main organization of the Nagas in Manipur, responded by blockading the two highways from August 21.

The Kuki-Naga conflict over the Sadar Hills region goes back at least two decades. They have engaged in bitter fighting, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people.

The two blockaded highways are Manipur's only road links with the rest of India. The third highway, NH 150, connects Manipur through Mizoram with the rest of India is in a decrepit condition and unfit for trucks and other heavy vehicles.

Manipur is not new to economic blockades. Militant outfits, civil society organizations and political groups blockade roads routinely. The state has been wracked by insurgency for almost four decades and counter-insurgency operations have fueled the violence.

In April last year, Naga student bodies and nationalist civil society organizations blocked NH 39 to protest against the Manipur government's decision to hold elections to the Manipur Hill Areas Autonomous District Councils. Smelling opportunity in the mounting crisis, Naga leader Thuingaleng Muivah announced in May that he was going to visit his birthplace in Manipur's Ukhrul district.

Fearing that Muivah's entry into Manipur would provide a spurt to the Naga campaign for incorporating parts of Manipur into the proposed Nagalim, the Manipur government denied him permission to visit the state, prompting Muivah's National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) to join the blockade. The 2010 blockade, which lasted for 67 days dealt a severe blow to Manipur's already fragile economy and brought administration to a grinding halt. The ongoing blockade is the longest experienced by Manipur.

Violence by militants and security forces, strikes and bandhs (closures) have made daily life hell for Manipuris.

The controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which confers extraordinary powers on the armed forces, has been in effect in all of Manipur since 1980. Scores of innocent civilians have been killed or arrested under this draconian legislation. There are frequent mass protests calling for the repeal of the AFSPA. In 2009, bandhs over the cold-blooded killing of 27-year-old Chongkham Sanjit, a former militant, stretched over several months halting education and economic activity.

According to Open magazine, between 2004 and 2007, Manipur experienced 110 bandhs and 234 economic blockades, the total loss of which was around US$ 268 million - 40% of Manipur's budget for 2006-07. Over the past 15 years, NH 39 has been blockaded an average of six times per year and each of the blockades have lasted around five days.

The losses due to the ongoing economic blockades have been pegged at around $51 million so far. The impact of blocking roads would not have been as crushing if road infrastructure in the northeast was better. Not only is Manipur geographically distant from Delhi but also its people like others in the northeast have felt alienated, neglected and discriminated against by "mainland India".

Protests elsewhere in India capture media attention and usually evoke a response from the federal government. Not so the protests in Manipur. Activist Irom Sharmila has been on a hunger strike for 11 years but Delhi has remained unmoved by her protest against the AFSPA. A nasal drip administered to her by the Indian armed forces in a prison hospital keeps her alive.

The inaction of governments in Delhi and Manipur to break the blockades has evoked an angry response among Manipuris. They want the government to use force to end the standoffs. An editorial titled "Govt's profound absence" in the Imphal Free Press called on the government to "crack the whip and break the blockade".

"Let the agitation carry on democratically and let an amicable settlement be reached too in the course of time, but it is time for the government to say in definitive terms that certain styles of public protest which indiscriminately hurt the people, men, women and children, cannot be allowed under any circumstance. A symbolic strike of the nature for a day or two is pardonable, but one that extends over two months is something which should not be allowed under any circumstance by any government with spine," it says.

"India doesn't hesitate to use force to quell peaceful protest by Manipuris," a Manipuri student in Bangalore told Asia Times Online. "Why is it reluctant to use the security forces to force an end to the two-month-long blockade," he asked, pointing out that "an entire state was being held hostage to bullying by Naga and Kuki groups".

India's reluctance to use force to break the blockade is widely attributed in Manipur to Delhi's "excessive sensitivity to Naga sentiments".

The federal government is engaged in talks with the NSCN-IM aimed at ending the decades-long Naga insurgency. "It fears that the 11-year-long ceasefire with the NSCN-IM will collapse if it deploys the army or paramilitary forces to break the blockades imposed by the Naga groups," the Manipuri student pointed out. "We are paying the price for ensuring the survival of Delhi's fragile ceasefire with the NSCN-IM," he said.

The federal government is trying to reduce the impact of the blockade by providing security to truck convoys carrying supplies into Manipur. Meanwhile calls for removal of Chief Minister's Ibobi Singh's government in Manipur are growing.

Manipur will remain vulnerable to economic blockades so long as it is fed by supplies brought in through just two highways. Delhi will need to accelerate its road building in the northeast, particularly in Manipur, which is vulnerable to Naga pressure.

But more importantly, India needs to show more flexibility and imagination in its approach to conflict resolution in the northeast. Hitherto it has focused on territorial solutions, which include carving out of states and districts to meet the demands of the region's multitude of ethnic and tribal groups. However, territorial solutions do not provide lasting solutions as they create unhappy minorities within the new territorial arrangements, triggering new conflicts and endless wars.

India would need to be more imaginative in its conflict resolution and consider non-territorial solutions so that clashing claims such as those between the Kukis and Nagas in Manipur do not provoke blockades that hold an entire state hostage.

"Imaginative and creative solutions are available," observes political commentator B G Varghese. "Some already exist; others can be enabled by constitutional amendment."

Delhi needs to draw on these creative solutions rather than persist with an approach that has kept the region restive.

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore. She can be reached at sudha98@hotmail.com

Mizoram Secretariat Staff Protest Suspension Of Staff Buses

Aizawl, Oct 6 : Aggrieved by the state government's decision to call off daily bus service to the New Secretariat Complex, the secretariat staff decided to walk on foot to their workplace for three days from October 5 in protest.

All the staff will walk in group from Khatla Assam Rifles gate while another group will walk from Tuikual bridge at 2100 hrs to cover the three-kilometre distance. They will leave office at 1600 hrs on foot again. They will shout slogans while walking and stage a demonstration at the secretariat premises.

''If there is no positive move from the government till the third day, October 7, the executive committee of Mizoram Civil Secretariat Employees Welfare Association will decide the next course of action,'' association general secretary K L Nikhuma said in a statement today.

When the civil secretariat was shifted to the New Secretariat Complex at Khatla, about three kilometres from the city, in 2008, the Chief Minister arranged private buses and transport department buses for more than 1000 staff and their clients. The commuters paid bus fares at same rates of city buses.

''The government's decision to suspend the bus services on grounds of financial constraints has come as a shock as it will cause a big problem to the staff and the office clients,'' the statement said.

The staff welfare association demanded the government to purchase staff buses for the secretariat, which it said would not be costlier than purchase and maintenance of a minister's official vehicle.

''Many directorates have their own buses. The civil secretariat needs at least four buses. This demand had never been made when the secretariat was located at Treasury Square, in the heart of the town,'' the communiqué said.