COCOMI highlights genesis of crisis to OHCHR
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 22 2023: The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has presented a detailed account of the genesis of the Manipur crisis to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) .

The COCOMI also submitted four recommen- dations toward bringing an end to the crisis.

Speaking to media persons at their Lamphelpat office today, COCOMI media coordinator Somorendro Thokchom said that a delegation of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights held a consultative meeting with a team of COCOMI and four Kuki representatives on September 20 at Delhi.

In addition, other Meitei representatives who belong to different professions took part in the consultation.

The OHCHR delegation was led by Asia-Pacific Section Chief Mory Mungoven.

Presenting a brief account of the history of Manipur, the COCOMI team informed the OHCHR delegations when and how Khongshais (now known as Kuki) settled in Manipur, Somorendro said.

Manipur has been witnessing a demographic aggression since 1881. The indigenous population has been outnumbered by the non-indigenous population, bringing in its wake fissiparous tendencies.

The idea of sovereign Zalengam articulated in a book entitled Zalen-Gam: The Kuki Nation (Published in 1998 by the Kuki National Organization) marked a watershed.

The path to their political aspiration was paved with political chicanery and intrigue, the COCOMI team told the UN delegates.

Stratagems used by Kukis in pursuit of their political aspiration include manipulation of historical facts, transfer and assimilation of Chin-Kuki population from Myanmar to Manipur, consolidation and rapid expansion of Kuki settlements, collaboration with militant groups of Myanmar and Bangladesh, poppy cultivation and accumulation of narco-economy, infiltration and domination of electoral politics and instigating ethnic violence and demand for separate administration, COCOMI told the UN delegates.

COCOMI legal cell advisor L Jadumani said that they also submitted a four-point recommendation to the OHCHR with the primary objective of bringing an end to the crisis.

The COCOMI recommended that the United Nations may take concrete action to protect the civilian population including the Internally Displaced Persons under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) norms.

The United Nations may assist the Government of India in effectively managing the Indo-Myanmar border to check population transfer of illegal Chin-Kuki immigrants into Manipur.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) may be given unfettered access to Manipur and Indo-Myanmar region to carry out prompt and on-the-spot refugee status determination process to give institutional protection to the deserving asylum seekers from Myanmar in order to ease the burden on the local host communities.

The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) may enter into an appropriate constructive arrangement to assist the Government of Manipur to deal with the growing menace of narco-terrorism including poppy cultivation in Manipur and the Indo-Myanmar region, COCOMI recommended the OHCHR.

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