Welcome Home Ava Khara ~ Yambem Laba, Senior Journalist

It was in August 1994.The NSCN (I-M) had just shot dead 21 Assam Rifles personels on the Maram Peren Road.It was the 15th of August and I was present at the Independence Day 'At Tea 'event at the Raj Bhavan.

When I asked the old soldier as to whether he would be attending their last rites or farewell, Lt.Gen.VK Nayar (Retd.) didn't flinch a word and said " Sorry those Bastards" deserve to die. They were on foot march till they hoped on to a BRTF Truck to cut short to Base camp in a hurry.That was when they were cut down.

The next day BBC London called me up and took my interview and at the end asked  me as to where they can locate the NSCN(I-M) leaders.I simply told the lady on the line " try either Bangkok or the Haigh in Netherlands. That at 8.30 as I listened to the BBC I heard my name being announced first and after what I had to say was said then came the announcement "We now have Issac Chishi Swu" of the NSCN at the Haigue.So we had shared the same BBC platform on that fateful August evening in 1994.

I have not ever met the Ato Kilonser Ava Khara Thiuengaleng Muivah but I have reason to believe that at one of his consultative meetings at Camp Hebron he is said to have remarked " he writes well" but should be kept under observation.

Then I wrote a scathing article on Muivah and his _dying days and the future of the NSCN for the Statesman.

 And unlike our Meitei Patriotic groups who would immediately come and fire at your house or have you abducted and made you confess before the media , the NSCN (I-M) gave a para by para rebuttal to my story.

I did not respond to their reply but"I salute them for their maturity. 

I however had spent a week with his rival SS Khaplang of the NSCN(K) and then Chairman of the UNLF in the Thai-Laos border in 1997.And during the week I was closeted with him he never had a rude remark on Oja Muivah.All he said was that we were together once now we are separated but maybe one we will be together again.He also emphasized on the principle of forgive and forget.

For the record Oja Muivah would have lost his life on a day in August 1988 when Hemi  Nagas were closing on  him till "Kakwa" Lukhoi who was then Vice-Chief of the MPA came rushing to his Quarters upon instructions from Meghen shouting "Ava Khara Ava Khara" run they are coming to kill you and later Lukhoi told me that Oja Muivah took just two minutes to pack his things and slipped out through the back kitchen door.

Lukhoi is still alive today and so am I to live to tell the story.

 Ava Khara welcome home back again and when you leave please leave a message so that this land can survive and thrive together. 

( A piece of write-up by Yambem Laba, senior journalist)

~ via social media posts.

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