"Expedite political talks with UPF, KNO"
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 25 2023:
Maintaining that the only way forward to sustainable peace in the region is the creation of a separate administration (Union Territory with Legislature) for the Zo people that is detached from Manipur Government, the Zomi Coun-cil Steering Committee (ZCSC) has urged the Government to expedite political talks with the UPF and KNO.
A separate administration within the Indian Union is inevitable in view of the total separation - emotional, social, physical and geographical - already starkly exhibited between the Zo ethnic tribes and the Meitei community, said ZCSC in a statement.
The suffering of the Zo people in the conflict have drawn the attention of both the national as well as international community and resulted in several civil society organizations (CSOs) from India as well as abroad advocating the plight of Zo people on different platforms, it claimed.
While the ZCSC appreciates these CSOs for their selfless commitment, these CSOs are not always necessarily aligned with the policies and approaches of the ZCSC, or other similar Zo CSOs back home for that matter.
Sometimes, out of sheer desperation for a solution, some of them might have even resorted to taking an approach contradictory to the prevailing ones acceptable to CSOs like the ZCSC, it said.
The continuing violence in Manipur is purely an internal matter of India, and that the solution for the same lies in the wisdom of the Indian leadership, the ZCSC said.
Zo armed groups signed Suspension of Operations (SoO) with the Indian Government in 2005 and 2008 to redress their long-standing political aspirations within the constitutional framework of India, much before the current conflict started on May 3, 2023, it said.
Pointing out that Naga tribes who are also Christians are not harmed so far, the ZCSC rejected the narratives which labelled the conflict as Hindu versus Christian violence.