NPRs created by the system (at start and then generated by exploration) are not controllable by the player or SM. This is due to the fairly precise AI code that Steve has created. If you were able to control the NPR you could cause them more harm than good.
You can tell if two NPRs are fighting by entering SM mode and looking at the Events window, it will say something along the lines of 'NPR Combat imminent, time-increment has been shortened'. That is the only way (short of Steve's special access) to tell what is going on 'elsewhere'.
I would suggest that having 5 NPRs at the start may be a bit excessive. I normally play with just the one at the start and have yet to have a boring game as there are other AIs out there other than NPRs
Also, 5 NPRs can slow the game down - Steve is a great programmer but since he is building on an App he has been working on for years the language doesn't scale well.