AMA urges US Congress & India to stop conflict in Manipur
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, June 29 2023: Association of Meiteis in the Americas (AMA) on Thursday released a summary of letters sent to the United States Congress during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the USA which highlighted the joint national security interests of USA and India in Manipur Myanmar border region and potential impact of the US -Burma Act 2023 and called for action to stop the present violent conflict in Manipur.

As per a release, the US with its Burma Act, 2023 amongst other programmes and India, have direct national security and foreign policy interest in containing the blowback of their policies in the Myanmar-North-East-India Chittagong peninsula and bringing peace to the region.

The foreign policy objectives in the region cannot come at the expense of the Meitei people of Manipur.

The geo -political influence of many countries at the epicentre of the second largest drug economy in the world, 'nationhood movements' of Kuki-Chin and other ethnic groups' and the balancing power play of other military powers in the region has brought Manipur to a boil, it observed.

Ethnic Meitei people in Manipur have lived in the region for over 3000 years.

Armed Kuki-Chin groups from Myanmar with decades old movement to carve an independent country in the region, have completely dominated the socio-political aspirations of a group of tribes in some of the Manipur hill districts to the extent that Indian citizens of these tribes no longer have a voice.

These groups along with other geo-political forces have executed well funded campaigns catalysing a volatile instability into mob violence, culminating in a civil war, it claimed.

AMA also urged US to support India with its security balance concerns in its North-Eastern borders while making sure that the adverse blowbacks of the US and Western aid of hundreds of million dollars to the political arms of the Myanmar ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) are contained immediately.

Both US and India must immediately use Indian security machinery to disarm Kuki-Chin terrorists and stop their ongoing attacks on peripheral Meitei villages around Manipur and protect Indian villagers under the R2P United Nations doctrine first; remove bunkers built by Kuki-Chin militants around Meitei farmlands; bring relief to the humanitarian crisis with essential supplies and call upon GOI to urgently use state machinery to lift the NH blockade by the Kuki-Chin militants and ensure safe and unhindered passage of goods supply trucks to the Imphal valley and all tributary towns and villages.

AMA also called upon the US & India governments and all government agencies providing aid, assistance, stipend and support to National Unity Government of Myanmar & EAOs including Kuki-Chin militants to take emergency steps in using their influence and to make further assistance like those in the US Burma Act, 2023, conditional on cessation of violence against Indian citizens and non-interference in all Indian territories and a verifiable end to poppy cultivation and trafficking in drugs in the region.

India should help establish a formal refugee registration process.

Aid to refugees from the West must be contingent on using this channel and ensuring that the funds don't get diverted for lethal or political use.

US government must sanction EAO groups in Myanmar and India who have perpetrated this violence and arson, it demanded.

"We demand that the culprits be tried for crimes under Article 5 and Article 8(2)(c)(i) of the 1998 ICC," it said.

AMA further urged the US to work with GOI, to help secure Manipur s borders and stop the unchecked inflow of illegal immigrants and terror groups with sophisticated arms.

Restrict Kuki-Chin militants from conducting combat training for the EAOs on Indian soil and smuggling of sophisticated weapons from Myanmar into Manipur.

Open a dedicated national cyber cell to take down and prosecute fake news groups and funded malicious campaigns in order to contain them from inciting further violence.

Conduct a separate judiciary and intelligence inquiry uncover the truth and ensure justice to the events leading to the May 3 violence and subsequent security lapse.

Act swiftly and firmly against individuals and groups who orchestrated the violence be held responsible and punished as per the law.

Protect the rights and land resources of the Meitei people by implementing due process as enshrined in the Constitution of India and provide relief and rehabilitation for all the affected victims.

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