DESAM opposes KSO claim
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 17 2014:
Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) has opposed the recent statememt of KSO-Hqs on the status of Moreh town.
In a press statement, DESAM said that KSO should not misinterpret the history of Manipur.
Saying that the issue has become very controversial, DESAM urged the intellectuals to come forward and bring about
a clear solution.
Moreh was a village of Kom tribe, who were regarded as an Old Kuki tribe by the British though they maintained equidistance from both the Kuki and the Naga.
The tendency of the New Kuki to rope in the Old Kuki in their claim is unjustified, the press statement said.
Only after the Naga-Kuki clash in the early '90s, the major Kuki tribes started settling in Moreh.
Besides this, Kuki population in Moreh increased due to migration of Thadou-Chin people of Myanmar to the border town, it added.
DESAM alleged that migrant Kukis had encoarched many areas including even reserved forest areas near Moreh and settled there.
The tendency of the Kukis to claim Moreh as their land is totally unjustified as different communities have been residing in Moreh since pre-independence time.
DESAM further claimed that the Tamils formely known as Madrassis settled in Moreh even before the New Kukis came to the border town.
Majority of the New Kukis settled in Moreh only after the ethnic violence between Nagas and Kukis, it added.
DESAM claimed that Moreh is a cosmopolitan town and it does not belong to any community.
As there is a dispute, it would be proper to undertake a research by historians to find out the exact status of Moreh before the situation goes out of hand, DESAM said.
As the importance of Moreh increases, there is a tendency to grab it as their own by the New Kukis (albeit citing the Old Kukis) through various methods.
Kukis had claimed that they were referred in the Chietharol Kumpaba, but the refernce is of the Old Kukis by the name of the tribe, DESAM said and added that the reference of the New Kukis came only after 1850s.