Need to exorcise the ghost of the early 90s : Clear stand of the Kuki Inpi
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 17 , 2014 -

The stand of the Kuki Inpi is clear. There is no ambiguity at all.

Settle the Kuki genocide of the early 1990s before any agreement is inked between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM).

All these years, the Kuki Inpi and other Kuki human rights organisations have been going to town, giving statistics of the number of innocent Kukis killed (905), 360 villages razed to the ground and in the process rendering one lakh Kuki people homeless.

Backing this stand are the gory pictures of Kuki people butchered to death including women and children.

However, the all important question is, whether the stand of Kuki Inpi, the apex body of the Kuki community would throw a spanner to the ongoing negotiation between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM).

The question also remains whether the Government of India will take up this issue with the NSCN (IM).

What however is clear is that the Kuki Inpi has got its timing right in submitting a representation to the Government of India in the backdrop of reports streaming in that formal talks between the Naga rebel group and New Delhi are likely to resume soon.

Underlining the importance of striking out at the right time, if one may add.

The Sangai Express does not exactly know the figure, but have to refer to the statistics given by the Kuki Inpi and other Kuki social organisations, but what is beyond a doubt is the point that numerous Kukis were killed in what is today being dubbed as ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the early 1990s.

If memory serves us right, in one single night over 60 Kuki villagers were butchered to death at Joupi village in Chandel district, ostensibly by cadres of the NSCN (IM).

Women and children were not spared.

Today, the NSCN (IM) seems to have come around to the idea of peace, but it is intriguing that even after more than 15 years of negotiation/cease fire with the Government of India, it has not deemed it fit to extend a hand of friendship to the Kuki people and make amends for the past atrocities.

The hills burnt in the early 1990s with the Kuki people alleging that they were served quit notices by some Naga frontal organisations, apart from the killings and razing villages to the ground.

Till date there is no indication of the NSCN (IM) showing remorse or regrets for one of worst and bloodiest killing sprees in the State and complementing this is the indifference of the Government, both at Imphal and Delhi.

At that point of time, when the hills literally burnt, the State Government more or less remained mute spectator.

The other communities, particularly the majority Meiteis, too seemed to view the conflagration as something between the NSCN (IM) and the Kuki people, not involving them. This was a shame.

All failed to realise that what was at stake was Manipur. The result is the ghost of the early 1990s continues to haunt all.

There is merit in the stand of Kuki Inpi, no doubt about this at all, but in taking a stand, the Kuki community too need to take extra care to see that this does not derail the hard earned peace between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India.

The two issues, that is the Kuki genocide and the political negotiation between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India can and should go along simultaneously.

‘Ours first’ would be too extreme a stand and rooms should be created for some give and take.

On the other hand, care should also be taken not to interpret the killings of the 1990s between two ethnic groups, but between a group, read the NSCN (IM) and the Kukis.

The wound must still be running deep but there is merit in the universal observation that time is the best healer.

This is not to say that the past should be forgotten, but more importantly the past should be a lesson and it should not throw a spanner to the later positive developments.

And the political negotiation between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India is definitely a positive development.