New Delhi: The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) and Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF)-the two different influential tribal bodies representing Meiteis and Kukis in Manipur on Monday reached Delhi Durbar to get a permanent settlement of more than three months long conflict.
The COCOMI has lodged a formal protest to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against any move to create a separate administration for Kukis in the State. A two-member delegation from COCOMI, a tribal body representing Meiteis, submitted a resolution to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) highlighting their demands. The resolution was adopted following their July 29 rally against narco-terrorism in the State.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, COCOMI spokesperson Athouba said that their resolution highlighted three major issues, including ending the present conflict-foreign (illegal immigrants) Chin-Kuki Narco-Terrorism, must be totally exterminated, no separate administrative arrangement in Manipur and National Register of Citizens (NRC) must be fully implemented in the State.
“The present conflict is not a religious or a tribal and non-tribal issue. As per the 2011 Census, in Manipur Hindus constitute 41.39 per cent while Christians constitute 41.29 per cent of the population and it was forecasted that by now Christianity will be the dominant religion in the state. It is also not a tribal-non-tribal issue as in many areas of the state dominated by the tribals, there is no tension. It is a manifestation of the simmering tension over deforestation, opium poppy cultivation and large-scale change in the demography in specific areas of the state mainly caused by illegal immigrants from Myanmar in specific areas,” said Athouba.
Then COCOMI through their memorandum told Modi that there was simmering tension between the state government and some leaders of the Kuki-Zomi Group over several issues and the Meiteis were reluctantly drawn into the conflict by the action of the latter. “The present conflict started after the Tribal Solidarity March on May 3, 2023, organised by the All Tribal Students Union, Manipur (ATSUM) against the so-called demand for inclusion of Meitei in the Scheduled Tribe List.
The rally elsewhere ended peacefully by noon or so, though in Churachandpur town the rally was accompanied by armed Kuki-Zomi militants. In Churachandpur, violence started in the afternoon and the houses of the Meiteis there and in other Kuki-dominated areas, including Moreh, were torched forcing them to flee to save their lives; even some lives were lost. Four Meitei villages in Imphal East were also subjected to arson on the same evening. It was a pure and simple act of ethnic cleansing,” Athouba said, quoting the memorandum.
They alleged that the conflict can only be inferred to be pre-planned as the tension started building up on April 27 after an open gym to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister was vandalised. “The involvement of those in Mizoram can be seen by the press handouts of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl, Aizawl of April 30, regarding the eviction of unauthorised encroachers from Reserved and Protected Forest. Furthermore, the involvement of cadres of the Chin Defence Force (CDF) in the present conflict can’t be denied and even the National Unity Government of Myanmar had appealed to all its units not to be involved in affairs of neighbouring countries,” the COCOMI alleged.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) will meet Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday over their demand seeking a separate administration for the Kukis in Manipur as well as the legalisation of the burial site at Boljang in Churachandupr district, which was earlier deferred for five days following an appeal from the Home Ministry. The ITLP is another tribal body from Manipur that represents Kukis in the State.
The ITLP spokesperson Ginza Vualzong told ETV Bharat that the security personnel from the Meitei community should not be deployed in all hill districts for the safety of the Kuki-Zo communities. “We will also demand that the tribal jail inmates should be transferred to other States for their safety,” Vualzong said.
