ZUCM against SoO camps in Naga areas
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 22 2025: The Zeliangrong United Committee Manipur (ZUCM) has categorically stated that all attempts to set up designated camps of Kuki militant groups under SoO agreement in foothill areas inhabited by Naga people should be defeated if the Kuki people are committed to peaceful co-existence.

Speaking to media persons at their Dewlahlane office today, ZUCM president Maibon Phaomei aid that the motive between the SoO agreement signed between the Government of India an the Kuki militants is worrisome.

After signing the SoO agreement, the Government of India has been creating several issues one after another thereby sowing seeds of tension and anxiety to the indigenous communities.

This is a matter of grave concern, Maibon Phaomei said.

Militants under SoO agreement have their hands in the protracted crisis besieging Manipur and this fact is known well to the Government of India.

The militant groups under SoO agreement share cordial relationships with the Government and this fact is also known well to the indigenous people of Manipur, he said.

Following the imposition of President's Rule in the State, the violence has subsided.

While some sort of semblance of normalcy has slowly returned to the State, Kuki militants have been creating fresh issues with a sinister motive to escalate tension and discord, he said.

In the meantime, the Government of India has been working to set up designated camps of Kuki militants in areas largely inhabited by Zeliangrong people.

It seems the Government of India is exploring avenues where fresh tension and violence can be ignited, Maibon Phaomei said.

Saying that the Government of India has been planning to set up two/three designated camps of Kuki militants in foothill areas inhabited by Zeliangrong people, the ZUCM president asserted that the Zeliangrong people will not accept this dangerous move of the Government of India under any circumstances.

He urged the Government of India to abort its plan of setting up SoO designated camps in Zeliangrong inhabited foothill areas as well as any attempt to create fresh tension and discord in Manipur in the guise of SoO agreement.

Zeliangrong people have no objection to the SoO agreement but they will not accept any renaming of places by newcomer Kukis and construction of road in the name of Tiger Road or German Road through areas inhabited by Zeliangrong people and other Nagas, Maibon Phaomei said.

He also vehemently condemned the claim made by outsiders who came from Myanmar, Mizoram etc that the areas originally inhabited by indigenous Zeliangrong people are their ancestral land.

Zeliangrong people will not remain silent to claim and renaming of foothill areas inhabited by Zeliangrong people as Kukiland, Kuki district or Kuki area.

The ZUCM president also decried the silence of the Government of India and the Government of Manipur to the repeated provocations made by Kukis to the Zeliangrong people.

In the name of SoO agreement, the Government of India engineered a large-scale violence between Meitei and Kuki from May 3, 2023.Now the Government of India seems to be plotting to ignite another communal violence between Naga and Kuki, Maibon Phaomei said.

He then suggested the Government to relocate all designated camps of SoO militant groups in Churachandpur, Pherzawl and Tengnoupal districts which are predominantly inhabited by Kukis if the Government of India is genuinely interested in restoring peace and normalcy in Manipur.

He said that ZUCM fully supports all the protest movements against the Government of India's attempt to set up SoO designated camps in Zeliangrong inhabited areas.

Reacting to the Chin-Kuki-Zo's advice to the UNC to persuade the Foothill Naga Coordination Committee to lift the indefinite bandh, the ZUCM president asserted that Chin-Kuki-Zo people who came to Manipur very late have no right to advise the UNC .

It is the Government of India's patronage which emboldened the Kukis to make such a call to the UNC, he said.

Categorically stating that Kangpokpi district where Zeliangrong people and other Naga people have been living for centuries is not a land of Kukis, Maibon Phaomei asked the Kukis to stop claiming Kangpokpi district as their land.

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