KIM says NSCN (IM) is trying to distort history of Kukis
Source: IT News

Imphal, June 02 2017: The concerted propaganda made by NSCN (IM) that the Kukis are nomadic and refugees is nothing but a shallow and cheap attempt to distort history of the Kukis which will not serve any purpose, according to Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) .

The statement of NSCN (IM) also shows how desperate they are to justify the unjustifiable greed of for land of the Kuki people, KIM political affairs chairman Sominthang Doungel said in a statement on Friday.

The NSCN (IM) and their assertion that the Kukis reached the Naga territory in Manipur in the year 1885 must be based on the writings of Sir James Johnstone, who stated that the Kukis came from Southern part of Manipur between 1830 AD and 1840 A.D, the statement said.

If the history of Kukis of Manipur began only with the writings of Sir James Johnstone from 1830 AD, then, the history of Kacha Nagas of Manipur should begin from TC Hudson's Account of the ' Kacha Naga tribes of Manipur' in 1911 AD, the KIM statement said.

"So logically and historically the Kuki people have always inhabited their territories before the British and Kacha Nagas and Tangkhuls had been their subjects," it claimed.

According to the statement, the present day Kukis had settled and reigned in Manipur from the pre-historic time and the Manipuri language called Meiteilon, which is a mixture of Kuki-Chin-Mizo language is another proof that the Kukis are aboriginal race in Manipur.

It said the Kuki Inpi (The Kuki Traditional Government) had defended the entire country for its indigenous inhabitants since 1761 AD, adding that the greatest battle was fought between the year 1917 and 1919 which the colonial writers called " The Kuki Rebellion" or the " Kuki Uprisings", "The Anglo-Kuki War" .

It said the ethnic cleansing on the Kukis in 1992 � 1994 led to the death of 905 innocent Kukis, 360 Kuki villages uprooted and more than 1 lakh Kuki People were displaced.

The Th Muvah-led NSCN (IM) hijacked the politics of Nagaland to Manipur with the objectives of satiating the despicable hatred that the Tangkhul Nagas of Ukhrul District has against the Kuki people, the KIM statement further said.

It further claimed that the NSCN (IM) also exploited the Zaliangrong people of Tamenglong district to turn against the Kukis.

According to the KIM statement, most of the tribes within the Kuki Chin Mizo fold were known by the generic name of Kuki which was a nomenclature for all and the tribe wise recognition/designation came about only in 1956 � 57, when the Government of India came out with a list of Scheduled Tribes which accorded recognition of group identity.

The statement said that the refugee relief, pushed by Suisa, was in the context of internally displaced Kuki villages, whose villages had been burnt down by the Burmese Junta within Kuki territories now under Myanmar.

As an MP, as late R Suisa did, a Kuki M P would do the same for any hill people, it said.

The Kukis have never resorted to any kind of aggression on the neighbouring tribes and that the often conflicts between the Kacha Nagas and Kukis are usually caused by the Tangkhul to this day, it the statement further claimed.

The Government of India must deal with NSCN (IM) leadership as terrorists, not as legal entities of an organization, which claimed to represent the collective political aspirations of the Nagas, unfortunately in reality which is not the case, the KIM statement demanded.

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