Naga Leader Isak Chishi Swu is no more
New Delhi
Top Naga militant leader Isak Chishi Swu died in New Delhi on June 28 following multi-organ failure. According to Nagaland government spokesperson Kuolie Mere, the 87-year-old chairman of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) had been undergoing treatment for almost a year at a private hospital in south Delhi, where he breathed his last around today’s noon. His body will be taken to his native place on June 29 for last rites. The 87-year-old NSCN leader Isak Chishi Swu is married to Khulu, and has five sons and one daughter.
Swu spent all his life for the cause of Nagas. He was born in 1929 and he is the son of Kushe Chishi Swu who belongs from the village Chishilimi Naga village. Chishilimi Naga village is a Sema (Sumi) village in the Zunheboto district of Nagaland.
He did his early education at American Mission School at Chishilimi then studied at Government High School, Kohima and graduated with Honours in Political Science from St. Anthony’s College, Shillong.
He Joined underground in late 1950’s and served as Foreign Secretary The Naga National Council (NNC) which was a political organization of Naga people, active from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. Under the leadership of Angami Zapu Phizo in the 1940s, it unsuccessfully campaigned for the secession of the Naga territory from India and creation for a sovereign Naga state after he became the foreign secretary he was later elevated to Vice President NNC.
Isak Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and S.S. Khaplang were behind the formation of The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) on 31 January 1980 opposing the Shillong Accord signed by the then Naga National Council (NNC) with the Government of India. Following a disagreement, the group split into two factions, the NSCN-K led by S S Khaplang, and the NSCN-IM, led by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah.
Over the years, the NSCN-IM had been accused of indulging in killings, extortion and other subversive activities. Its persistent demand for separation from the country led to military clamp down on the group. In 1997, the NSCN-IM entered into a truce with the Centre, for peace in Nagaland and since then had been continuing dialogue with Centre’s emissaries.
In August last year, the NSCN-IM signed a framework agreement with the government which Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as a “historic” step. The pact was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh and national security adviser Ajit Doval and government’s interlocutor R. N. Ravi at the prime minister’s residence in New Delhi.
