Book all culprits, expedite SA process: CoTU
Source: Chronicle News Service
Kangpokpi, July 20 2023:
Expressing pain and agony, people of Kangpokpi district under the aegis of Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), Sadar Hills staged a sit-in protest at Leikop village in Champhai Sub Division on Thursday against the shocking act of molestation and gang- rape of Kuki-Zo women.
CoTU served a 48-hour ultimatum to the Government with effect from 6 pm of July 20 to book all the culprits.
the sit-in-protest was held to condemn the video of parading Kuki-Zo women naked, and molesting them, and to demand the central government to expedite the process of a Separate Administration SA) during the Kuki-Zo political talks to be held on July 26 with the UPF and KNO.
The protestors also shouted and held placards that read "We Want Justice", "Book the Culprits", "We Want Separate Administration", "Punishment for Rape should be nothing but death", "Rapists are nothing but monsters in a human face", 'The world s most horrific crime committed against women", "Barbaric acts never witness before", "Worse than Vietnam War", "Address the Kuki-Zo problems", "No Solution, No Rest ', etc.
One of the women's organisation leaders attending the protest said that every woman's heart is bleeding and broken, and filled with pain and agony to witness the barbaric and inhumane act committed on our sisters.
She then said that Kuki-Zo women will not remain silent unless justice is done to our sisters and the perpetrators and rapists are all booked and punished, while seeking the support and cooperation of all women across the country in their commitment to upholding the principles of justice.
Meanwhile, CoTU general secretary Larnminlun Singsit warned that if all the culprits are not booked within 48 hours with effect from 6pm of July 20, CoTU will be compelled to launch a series of intense agitations.
He then urged the central government to take cognizance of the gravity of the crime committed against Kuki-Zo community and expedite the process of "Separate Administration" .
CoTU also submitted a memorandum to the union home minister Amit Shah through Deputy Commissioner Kangpokpi later on Thursday afternoon.
The memorandum demanded a Separate Administration for Kuki-Zo Tribal and stringent punishment as per the law against the culprits involved in the outrageous act of molestation and gang- rape of Kuki Zo Women.
It continued that there is a conspiracy to annihilate the entire ethnic Kuki-Zo communities in Manipur, as is being known and supported through the innumerable number of documents, video footages, and other mass media evidence, substantiating that a group of politicians helming the present Manipur government had conspired and executed against Kuki- Zo communities by using all available machineries at the state's disposal.
These blatant truths are also known by the union home ministjy and entire government agencies.
To wipe out the entire Kuki-Zo populace in Manipur, plans had also been executed politically and administratively for decades.
The majority Meiteis have now set the stage for separation by drawing political and administrative boundaries via ethnic cleansing and forced dislocation of Kuki- Zo communities from Imphal valley.
The memorandum further stated that there shall be no better conductive time than now to separate the backward tribal and the advanced Meiteis permanently.
This shall be the only lasting solution for Kuki-Zo ethnic groups for peace and development in the northeastern region of India, it added.