Imphal, May 05 2010: Kuki National Organisation (KNO) has deplored the proposed visit of NSCN (IM) general secretary Th Muivah to Manipur and said that it is astonishing on the part of the Government of the day to give a green signal to the visit of a 'ruthless criminal'.

In a statement, secretary of information and publicity of the Kuki outfit, Lenin H Kuki asserted that it is due to Muivah's Machiavellian and nihilistic design that Manipur valley witnessed a bloodbath in 2001 in which more than a dozen Manipuri lives were lost.

''What is more gory is that Muivah's so-called rhetorical 'Nagaland for Christ' and 'Ethnic Cleansing' pogrom against the Kukis that claimed thousands of innocent Kuki lives, uprooted thousands of houses, let alone those maimed, orphaned and widowed, remains the most tragic catastrophe in the history of peace loving Kukis of the Northeast region'', Lenin said.

Recalling that Kuki people, in defence of their forefathers' land had sacrificed their precious lives against the aggressors-the British during the 'Great Invasion of 1860s', the Anglo-Kuki War/Kuki Rising of 1917-1919, et al for no faults of theirs, but for the cause of their inherent land and freedom (Zalenna), Lenin pointed out that in recent past various Kuki civil society groups, particularly human rights group, have been demanding the prosecution of Muivah at the UN's War Crimes Tribunal for his genocidal campaign against the Kukis from the 1960s till the mid 1990s.However, the perpetrators of the pogrom remains scot-free till today.

This clearly indicates the callous and apathetic attitude of both the State and Central government vis-�-vis the Kukis, Lenin said.

He further said that the NSCN (IM)'s brutal and systematic murder of the Kuki people and prominent Naga leaders and nationalists must focus both the government's and peace-loving citizens' attention on the horror of genocide, thereby delivering justice to the victims must be a top priority.

The KNO is of the opinion that until and unless justice is meted out to the victimized Kukis in the form of political dialogue to solve the Kuki issue, any sort of peace and security initiatives/measures taken by the Government in the North-East India would be futile.

As such, before venturing into any final elusive peaceful settlement with Muivah-led NSCN (IM), it is pertinent on the part of the Government to find a lasting solution to the Kuki problem, Lenin observed.