COCOMI suspects Centre's role
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, May 11 2023:
Expressing deep concern over government's inability to take firm actions against Kuki militants who are openly targeting civilians as well as security forces, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) suspected government of In-dia's covert assistance to the Kuki in waging war against innocent people of Manipur.
In a statement, COCOMI said an unexpected and unpleasant communal riot erupted in Ma-nipur on May 3 between two communities and entire peo-ple of the state and the global communities condemned the riot and subsequent vandalism in the strongest terms.
In the aftermath of the riot, COCOMI entered Torbung and Kangvai area in Churachandpur where the riot originated.
Apart from rescuing people, COCOMI facilitated return of stranded people both from Imphal and Chura-chandpur and vice versa to their respective homes.
With slight improvement in law and order situation and violence almost ceased, COCOMI has been commu-nicating with Kuki leaders and working collectively to lessen tension on both sides.
The collective efforts yielded result as there is no report of communal violence in Imphal and Churachandpur since the past few days.
Un-fortunately, Kuki militants armed with sophisticated weapons including AK47 and sniper rifles repeatedly attacked Meetei people in remote areas particularly at foothill villages inhabited by the Meetei community.
Apart from apprising the matter to Assam Rifles, Indian Army and govern-ment authority including the Governor, COCOMI had made it clear that continu-ous attacks on valley people by SoO militants would not only hamper peace process but also hinder efforts to end the violence.
Amidst the peace building process, some Kuki militants suspected to be KRA came down from nearby hills up to Pukhao Terapur in Imphal East district on Wednesday and attempted to target Meetei villagers.
Howev-er, an encounter occurred between the militants and newly opened Assam Rifles post in Dolaithabi area and one AR soldier suffered bul-let injury.
On Thursday too, an encounter between Kuki militants and Manipur police commandos occurred when the militants attempted to target innocent Meetei vil-lagers at Tera Khongsangbi in Bishnupur district.
One police commando was killed and four others sustained injuries in the encounter, COCOMI said and asked as to why the state government is unable to take specific action even as Kuki militants are openly targeting innocent people.
According to COCOMI, it is suspicious if the Govern-ment of India is indirectly supporting the Kukis in its internal policy to wage war against innocent people of Manipur in view of govern-ment's inability to take up necessary action.
In view of the emerging situation, it has been made clearer that the incident of May 3 was not a communal clash between the Meetei and Kuki but a policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by Kuki militants in collusion with some vested interest people so that Meetei vil-lages close to Kuki inhabited areas could be evicted.
This suspicion has been validated by continuous attacks on Meetei villagers by Kuki mil-itants even as peace building process had already been initiated by leaders of both the sides, the COCOMI said.
It further expressed re-morse that prominent Kuki leader and MLA Paolienlal Haokip presented only one sided version and insists on blame game theory in-stead of finding solution for the present problem when interviewed by na-tional media, the report of which was published in local media on Thursday.
Even though Paolienlal mentioned damages and loss of lives on the side of the Kuki, he never mentioned about the death toll and damages on the Meetei side and even skipped the report on re-ducing to ashes many Meetei villages lying close to his constituency, the COCOMI said termed the incumbent Saikot MLA as endorser of communal policy.
Reacting to the state-ment of ATSUM published by local dailies on Thursday, COCOMI said ATSUM's accusation against one of the warring communities for origin of the violence was not only ill-timed but would also incite the community towards further violence.
It would be better for ATSUM to concentrate towards helping the riot victims of both the sides as of now while keeping aside for some time the rally organised by it which was the main cause of the present restive situation.
ATSUM being a joint body of students of Kuki and Naga, it is important for Naga stu-dent leaders to look close-ly into steps taken under the banner of ATSUM and shoulder responsibility, the COCOMI said adding that it is important for ANSAM and UNC to work sincerely and openly on steps taken by ATSUM regarding the present crisis.
COCOMI further said that there is no communal riot now as only stray incidents reported since the past few days are related to attacks carried out by Kuki mili-tants on innocent civilians.
People have to respond to such attacks for defending their villages, the COCOMI said adding that voices of dissent against Indian secu-rity forces for their inability to control the situation and deliver justice is being raised from the people now.
While maintaining that there is enough evidence of violation of So0 ground rules by Kuki militants and they should be declared terrorist after withdrawing from the peace talk, CO-COMI said time has come for both the civilians and secu-rity forces to launch a joint fight against So0 militants.
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