Sham to legitimize misleading narrative: COCOMI
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 05 2025: The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has categorically stated that the orchestrated meeting between the so-called representatives of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi-Hmar groups and the Meetei, facilitated by officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi is nothing but a strategic ploy to validate the misleading narrative advanced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament, that the Manipur crisis is merely an "ethnic conflict" between Meetei and Kuki communities, allegedly triggered by the High Court's direction on Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for Meeteis.

But this narrative is a gross distortion of facts and conveniently ignores the far more dangerous and deep-rooted realities that COCOMI has consistently highlighted since the beginning of this crisis, the ongoing proxy war, enabled and perpetuated by the Government of India through the patronage of Chin-Kuki narco-terrorist mercenary forces or groups.

A statement issued by the COCOMI also alleged that the Government has been nurturing these groups since 2005 under the guise of the Suspension of Operations (SoO) Agreement.

In the previous engagements with MHA officials, including the meeting at Imphal, COCOMI made it explicitly clear that the people of Manipur regard the Government of India not as a neutral mediator but as an active party to this conflict.

Without acknowledging this fundamental truth, any so-called "peace initiative" is a hollow exercise designed solely for political optics, it said.

The Government of India has repeatedly employed symbolic gestures to create a fa�ade of resolution, with no sincere or substantive steps to address the root causes of this crisis.

The latest meeting, hastily convened with a handful of individuals from both sides, is yet another tactical manoeuvre to fabricate an illusion of progress, conveniently timed to furnish talking points for the Union Home Minister's parliamentary address.

Since the eruption of violence, the Government of India has not undertaken a single genuine measure to resolve the crisis.

Instead, it has persistently evaded responsibility, refused to confront the actual drivers of conflict, and continues to embolden separatist elements through false hopes and covert support, it said.

COCOMI then reiterated eight demands to establish conditions for meaningful dialogue:
1.Enforce the rule of law across the entire State, ensuring safety and order.

2.Neutralize all hostile elements in the hill areas, including the SoO groups operating with impunity.

3.Hold accountable those who openly defy peace initiatives, including the unlawful occupation of territories and blockade of highways by Chin-Kuki militant groups.

4.Immediately abrogate the SoO Agreement and end the harbouring of foreign-origin armed mercenaries on Manipur soil.

5.Ensure unimpeded access to highways and vital roadways, in line with the Home Minister's declaration, which failed disastrously on 8th March 2025 .

6.Prosecute individuals and groups defying the peace overtures of both the Union Home Minister and the Governor, to restore public confidence in the President's Rule.

7.Acknowledge the real causes of the crisis including unchecked cross-border illegal immigration, Chin-Kuki narco-terrorism networks, and separatist agendas such as Zalengam with a Lebensraum for the Kukis/Zogam, and Kukiland.

8.Engage directly with SoO group leadership, particularly as their own spokespersons and MLAs have openly declared that decisions regarding the conflict rest solely with the SoO groups, bypassing civilian representatives altogether.

It said that the prolonged crisis is the direct result of false assurances and covert encouragement extended to Chin-Kuki separatist elements by the Government of India.

This must end immediately, COCOMI demanded.

Genuine engagement with the civilian populations of Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi-Hmar and Thadou communities can only occur once the Government restores a terror-free environment, free from narco-terrorist coercion and armed oppression, it asserted.

It then pointed out that civil society organisations (CSOs) do not possess the capacity to disarm militant factions or enforce the rule of law.

It is the Government of India's sole and inescapable responsibility to create the conditions necessary for meaningful civilian dialogue.

By attempting to offload the burden of peace onto civilian shoulders while deliberately shielding narco-terrorist armed militant groups and suppressing the truth, the Government of India is actively pursuing a divisive and dangerous agenda which includes the weaponizing of ethnic identities to advance a covert policy of divide and rule, exploiting the crisis for counterinsurgency operations and geo-political manoeuvring in the Indo-Myanmar frontier and crafting an international narrative to obscure State complicity while furthering their strategic designs, it said.

COCOMI called upon the people to see through this deceptive game.

"While we remain open to all avenues that can restore peace and stability within the co-existing ethnic communities in the region, we stand unwavering in our commitment to genuine justice, enduring peace, and the preservation of Manipur's territorial integrity and indigenous heritage", it added.

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