Meetei CSOs stage protest in Delhi, Shillong
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, September 15 2024:
The Delhi Meetei Coordinating Committee (DMCC), along with other organisations, staged protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Sunday, calling for an end to the protracted violence in Manipur.
The protest, organised in collaboration with the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), Meitei Alliance, and Global Manipur Federation (GMF), demanded the immediate intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore peace and safeguard the cultural and historical integrity of Manipur.
The unrest in the state, which began in May 2023, has escalated in recent months, with Kuki militants carrying out aerial bombings and rocket attacks.
On September 1, an unprecedented attacks involving use of long range guns and drone strikes in Koutruk village claimed the life of 31-year-old Surbala, a mother of two.
A rocket attack on September 6 in Moirang, Bishnupur district, killed an elderly man and injured six others, including a 13-year-old girl.
The rocket fell in the compound of the residence of Manipur's first chief minister, Mairembam Koireng Singh.
The DMCC criticised both the Central and state governments for their perceived inaction and accused Kuki separatists of ethnic cleansing and violence against the Meetei community.
The protestors also highlighted international factors such as cross-border terrorism and drug trafficking fuelling the conflict.
The group submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister, demanding the dismantling of Kuki militant bunkers, an end to the government's appeasement policies, and an investigation into alleged biases in the actions of security agencies.
They called for immediate steps to restore peace and rebuild trust among the communities in the state.
In Meghalaya's capital Shillong, a civil society organisation of the Meetei community organised a sit-in protest at the Manipur Bhavan on Sunday, condemning the recent rocket and weaponized drone attacks in Manipur by "Kuki insurgents" .
The Manipuri Elders Consortium Shillong (MECS) in a statement said many members of the Meetei community including students living in Shillong participated in the sit-in protest.
"Protesters expressed strong opposition to the recent aerial attacks targeting Meetei villages along the foothills in Manipur, which involved the use of drones and rockets, resulting in numerous civilian casualties," MECS said in the statement.
MECS also raised concerns over what it called inflow of illegal immigrants, the growing threat of narco-terrorism, and propaganda campaigns against the Meetei community.
"We call on the urgent need to safeguard the indigenous communities of Manipur, with calls for immediate action to address the ongoing violence and bring immediate peace in the state," the MECS said.
Kuki civil society organisations have refuted allegations of their "defence volunteers" using weaponised drones as Manipur Police said they are considering handing over the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) .
There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meetei-dominated valley.
The clashes between the Meetei community and the nearly two dozen tribes known as Kukis - a term given by the British in colonial times - who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000 .
The general category Meeteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meeteis.
(With inputs from NDTV) .
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