Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 31:
Kuki National Organisation (KNO) has corrected that the reference to Nagas as a whole, in Zale'ngam: The Kuki Nation published in 1998, in connection with the act of genocide perpetrated against Kuki people by NSCN-IM from 1992 to 1997 was an error.
The National Socialist Council of NagalandIsak and Muivah (NSCN-IM) was the group specially responsible for the Kuki genocide which left a total of over 900 Kukis death, 350 villages destroyed and more than Kukis rendered homeless, a statement signed by Stephen, assistant secretary of information and publicity, KNO, Zale'ngam, Manmasi said today.
Dating back to the petition submitted to the Simon Commission in 1929 and through the non-communal leadership of AZ Phizo, the Kuki people have been recognised as indigenous people of the region and an integral part of Nagaland, the statement said.
In the modern ear, the statement added, Kukis and Nagas have enjoyed cordial and mutually respectful relations.
It is regrettable that the communally motivated leadership of NSCNIM's general secretary Th Muivah, a Tangkhul, cast such an ugly and gloomy shadow over the amicable Kuki-Naga relationship.