ZORO meet organised at Saikul
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 29 2014: The Zo Re-unification Organisation (ZORO)'s Conference cum 122nd anniversary of the Fort William (Chin-Lushai) Conference was held today with the theme 'Together We can Ascend' at Saikul Public Ground in Sadar Hills, Senapati district.

President of ZORO General Headquarters, R Thangmawia attended the event as the chief guest.

Other dignitaries attending the event included among others Saikul AC MLA Yamthong Haokip; President of Kuki National Organisation, PS Haokip; President of Kuki Inpi, Thangsei Haokip; Kangpokpi ADC Chairman, Haokholal Hangshing.

Speaking at the occasion, R Thangmawia said that the term ZO is a nomenclature for people under the Chin-Lushai-Kuki fold.

Saying that people of Zo descendants are scattered in present day Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Tripura in India; Kachin State, Sagaing Division, Chin Hills in Myanmar and Chittagong Hill Tract in Bangladesh, Thangmawia said that the Zo population might be over 9 million.

A conference of Chin-Lushai people was held at Fort William in the then Calcutta in 1892 during the time when India and Burma were under the British rule, Thangmawia said while adding that this conference was being organised to commemorate the event.

The Fort William conference had adopted a resolution for the integration of all Chin-Lushai inhabited areas into a single administrative unit.

The demand was raised to the British authority then.

He further asserted that the Chin-Lushai inhabited areas were never a part of either India or Burma.

Asserting that to raise the demand for integration of Zo inhabited areas to the UNO level is a stand adopted by the ZORO, Thangmawia said that the demand could not be achieved by violent means.

He called upon the concerned people to maintain unity and love among themselves so as to realise the demand.

Besides delegates from Mizoram, Assam's Barak Valley, Tripura and Manipur, the conference witnessed the presence of delegates and cultural troupes from Chittagong Hill Tract of Bangladesh and Kachin State of Myanmar.

President of KNO, PS Haokip and ZORO President R Thangmawia unfurled the ZORO and UNO flags to set the meet into motion.

MLA Yamthong Haokip unveiled the commemorative stone while Haokholal Hangshing released a souvenir.

Addressing the conference, PS Haokip said that the KNO roadmap concerning the resurrection of Zo country begins with securing statehood within present day Manipur and a Kuki State in present day Sagaing Division in Myanmar.

He said that this will be followed by consolidating the territories in other parts of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar and once the objective is achieved, the Zo people together with Mizoram, Chin State and now Kachin State can aspire to be one great nation.

In order to realise the objective of uniting Zo people, it is essential that the people cooperate as Mizo in Mizoram, Chin in Chin State, Kachin in Kachin State and Kuki in the rest such as in Sagaing Division, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and the Chittagong Hill Tracts, PS Haokip posited while also citing provisions for unification under UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous People.

Presentation of cultural items also marked the conference.

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