Source: The Imphal Free Press
Imphal, July 16:
The Kuki Defence Force, Manipur, has called a 13-hour bandh in hill areas of Manipur on July 18 from 5 a.m.to 6 p.m.protesting the proposed ceasefire extension to Manipur and commemorating the June 18 firing victims as well as the Kuki victims of the �United Naga Council-sponsored ethnic cleansing campaign� launched by the NSCN (IM) in 1993.The underground organization appealed that no vehicular traffic should play on NH-39 (Imphal to Mao and Imphal to Moreh), NH-53 (Imphal to Jiribam), Tiddim Road (Imphal to Churachandpur), IT road, Imphal to Ukhrul road, Imphal to Sugunu Chapikarong and Imphal to Saikul road during the bandh hours.
The organization also appealed to the consanguineous communities of Meiteis, Nagas, Kukis and Meitei Pangals who have been living together from time immemorial in Manipur to return to their normal lives, to shun communal feelings and sentiments among themselves, and come forward to live congenially as one Manipuri community.
A statement issued by R Zouramthang, president of the KDF, said the Meitei and other tribes belonging to the Sino-Tibeto-Burmese groups had been living peacefully together in Manipur which had been an independent kingdom in the South-East Asia.
The terms �Nagas� and �Kuki� were created and being used by the British in 1840 to broadly classify the tribes in hills.
The statement said that in 1992, with an attempt to form the �South Naga Union of Nagaland State�, the United Naga Council served �quit notices� to the Kukis evenly inhabiting in the hills.
As per the call of the UNC, the NSCN (IM) launched the �ethnic cleansing campaign� in Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel district by massacring hundreds of Kukis and setting ablaze and dismantling Kuki houses.
On a single day, the NSCN (IM) massacred 87 Kuki civilians, it claimed.