The blockade on the road to peace and normalcy
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 26, 2023 -

WITH the state administration taking up a slew of measures to contain the volatile situation, there has been a semblance of peace and normalcy returning in the strife-torn northeastern state of Manipur which has been roiled by ethnic conflict between the Kuki-Chin and the Meitei/Meetei communities since May 3 evening.

Along with restoring mobile internet service for the general public that had remained suspended since the outbreak of the violence, the state administration on Saturday last asked the people to surrender the weapons that were looted from the police armouries within 15 days or face comprehensive search operation by the security forces.

It had it clear that "At the end of the 15 days, security forces, both of the Centre and the State, will undertake a strong and comprehensive search operation all over the State to recover such weapons, and all persons associated with any illegal weapons will be dealt with severely, as per the law".

As per the report furnished by the state police, out of 5668 weapons that had been looted from various police armouries both in the hills and the valley, only 1329 have been recovered as of September 13.

This is not even half of the total number of arms that had been looted.

As we have stated earlier through this column, without the recovery of these looted arms which have made Manipur a highly weaponised society today, it would be nothing but hoping against hope to expect fighting between the two warring groups would stop and normalcy would return in the strife-torn state anytime soon. So

, the presence of so many looted weapons among the general population is a serious matter and they need to be recovered by any means and then put them back in the armouries where they belong.

The efforts of the state administration to do away with the Free Movement Regime (FMR) that allows people residing close to both sides of the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km deep into each other's territory without any document for the time being, and fencing of the porous international border to curb influx of "illegal immigrants" are also appreciable as these measures would go a long way in resolving some of the issues that are intertwined in the current conflict.

But these two measures -the cancellation of FRM and fencing of the international border are something that would require time as they would need approval of the Union Home Ministry.

So, the attention of the state administration should be concentrated on rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people to their original places on priority basis with deployment of adequate security.

Instead of wasting time and money on construction of prefabricated houses for the displaced people, which could never provide the kind of comfort and happiness one could get from living in their own houses, howsoever modest it may be, resettlement of the displaced families in their own original places is essential for ensuring full control over the current crisis that has been created by some elements which are inimical to the idea of Manipur as a home to people of different communities who have been co-existing since time immemorial.

Having said this, continuous reports of firing attacks on Meitei settlements by armed Kuki miscreants in the peripheries have shown that they are not happy with the efforts being made by the Government to restore peace and normalcy in the state.

This begs the question of how the government is going to fructify its efforts without taking the Kuki leaders on board.

Let's not forget that while disarming of the warring groups to disengage from indulging in violence is important, what is even more pivotal is to facilitate dialogue between leaders of the two warring communities to iron out their differences, if there is any.

Otherwise, the blockade on the road to peace and normalcy would remain.