COCOMI's student wing wants "fitting reply" to those who threaten indigenous communities
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 07 2023:
The students' wing of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has forewarned that the indigenous people of Manipur will head into an uncertain future if 'we don't give fitting reply for the threat being posed against the lives, land and resources of the indigenes.
DESAM, KSA, SUK, AIMS and one more student organisation are the constituent members of COCOMI students' wing.
Issuing a statement on the eve of International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, the students' wing said that the indigenous people of the State which has unique culture and identity will surely disappear if 'we don't analysis how we almost have been reduced to the level of a refugee in our own State and act on it.
It claimed that demographic imbalance had already taken place in Manipur after the removal of the permit system on November 18, 1950 due to an influx of illegal immigrants in different waves.
Claiming that the indigenous people of Manipur, unlike others, are not getting many rights bestowed by UNDRIP 2007, the student's wing of COCOMI continued that Meiteis are not even allowed to settle in 90 per cent of the land of Manipur.
The territorial integrity of Manipur has gone through tremendous pressure from different elements and the issue of narco-terrorist is not an exception, it said and claimed that the Centre has also failed to protect the indigenous people of Manipur.
The very survival of the indigenous people has been threatened by several factors such as drug issue, identity and economic crisis, climate change and declining population of the indigenes among others, it opined and added that it is upto the present generation to fight all these threats to save Manipur and her identity.
It further said that they will host the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples under the theme "Indigenous youth as agents for self determination" .
The students' wing of COCOMI extended its moral support to all men, women and mothers who are fighting the narco-terrorists to safeguard the State 's unity and integrity.
Paying its respect to all the Meiteis who got killed while fighting against the narco-terrorists, the student's wing appealed to all indigenous people to light candles at their respective gates on the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples in memory of the martyrs.