UKLF clarifies on Zomi Nam Ni celebration
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 20 2013: The underground United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF) has clarified that it has been opposing the celebration of Zomi Nam Ni at Sugnu, Chandel district to prevent further disintegration and division among the CHIKIM families.

Outright rejection by ZRO/ZRA leadership to either use the nomenclature 'Zomi' or 'Kuki' for all the CHIKIM families of Manipur are also, among others, the reasons that prompted the United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF) to go against the proposed celebration of Zomi Nam Ni at Sugnu, Chandel district.

A statement issued by information and publicity secretary of UKLF, JM Thadou recalled that when the UPF was formed in 2006, a suggestion was made to the ZRO/ZRA leadership to use 'Zomi' as a nomenclature for the Chikim families of the State if the term Kuki is so allergic to them which the ZRO/ZRA did not favour it.

Again a proposal was made to them to adopt Kuki as a nomenclature which was also rejected.

The outright rejection of either of the term Kuki or Zomi shows that the ZRO/ZRA is not for unification of the Chikim families, which the UKLF also felt it hard to understand, the statement said.

Now, it is clear that the ZRO/ZRA wanted to include only some selected tribes/communities to the Zomi fold, which the UKLF sees as an intention to further disintegrate the Chikim families, according to the statement.

Asserting that the UKLF could not allow further split of the families, JM Thadou said the outfit is raising opposition to the Zomi Namni celebration supposed to be held at Sugnu while adding that the celebration would do more harm than good to the Chin-Kuki-Mizo families.

Urging like-minded groups to ponder over the matter, the UKLF also sought the support of the groups to the stand the outfit had taken in order to prevent further disintegration and division among the Chikim families.

The UKLF statement also added that Zomi is a recent terminology and has not much history in comparison to Kuki and would not be an excellent idea to adopt it as a nomenclature as far as the history goes.

Besides, Zomi is understood to be only for some selected tribes/communities which would be a source of disintegration and which should be detrimental to the community/national interest.

The statement further urged all educated and right thinking people of the Zomis not to misunderstand the stand taken by the outfit, rather to think positively for the sake of unity and oneness.

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