New Delhi, May 16, 2023: Calling the ongoing communal backlash that broke out in Churachandpur district on 3rd May a pre-meditated pogrom against the Kuki tribes, 10 Kuki MLA called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi and apprised the present state of safety and security situation in the State.
The communal crisis that entered 13 days have left several people dead, misplaced and injured from both the communities.
After initially asking for separate administration, Kuki legislators yesterday met with Amit Shah and placed their demand for Separation from the State of Manipur saying they “have lost faith in the Manipur Government and can no longer imagine resettling in the valley where their lives are no longer safe.” The memorandum also accused Manipur CM and Rajya Sabha Member Sanajaoba of patronizing the “radicalised meitei stormtroopers now revealed as Arambai tenggol and Meetei Leepun.”
The memorandum submitted to Amit Shah detailed the state of affair of Kuki tribal people calling the backlash “institutionalized ethnic cleansing”. The memorandum reads; “As you are fully aware, the recent institutionalized ethnic cleansing and atrocities committed by the majority Meitei Community against the ethnic Kuki-Chin-Mizo-Zomi-Hmar minority community has left everyone aghast. That Manipur is now partitioned is the Ground reality. Huge population transfers between the valley and the hills inhabited by the Kuki-Chin-Mizo-Zomi-Hmar had occurred. There are no tribals left in the Imphal valley. There are no Meiteis left in the hills. The Government of Manipur and its police machinery were communalised and used in the pogrom against the Kuki tribals.
Kuki colonies and houses were marked and attacked with precision in Imphal city. The survey and mapping had been done a couple of years earlier by radicalised meitei stormtroopers now revealed as Arambai tenggol and Meetei Leepun. There are photo-evidences of such regiments being patronised by the Chief Minister Shri N. Biren and the Meitei ‘Maharaja’ and Member of Parliament of Manipur, Shri Leishemba Sanajaoba.
While slogans during the Tribal solidarity march against the Manipur High Court’s order for inclusion of Meitei in the list of Scheduled Tribe, on 3rd May, 2023 were directed against the Covernment of Manipur, the meitei mobs were shouting communal and ethnic slogans against the Kuki tribes. The spark was ignited in the afternoon of 3d May when Meitei miscreants set fire to the Anglo-Kuki war memorial gate at Leisang, Churachandpur, Manipur.
As it was pre-meditated, all Kuki Police officers from the DG Addl DG Jt DG down to the constables were stripped of all powers, disarmed and rendered inactive much prior to the 3rd of May, while Meitei police were let loose upon Kuki residents of the city as well as of the foothill villages on the 3rd of May and thereafter.
As a result of the backlash in the hill areas, all meitei police staff have abandoned their posts in all the hill stations. Thus with no option left, ten Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi-Hmar legislators made a unanimous press statement on 12″ May 2023 urging the Union Government for a separate administration for their people.
There is thus a clear cut partition of the state between the tribal/Kuki hills and the meitei valley. Our people have lost faith in the Manipur Government and can no longer imagine resettling in the valley where their lives are no longer safe. The Meiteis hate us and does not respect us. The need now is a formalization of the separation through the setting up of a separation of administration for the hills inhabited by our people. We cannot live together anymore. The only logical way forward is to live separately and with time perhaps some semblance of peace and mutual regard and respect for each other on equal terms may return.
In view of the above force of circumstances, it is prayed that the esteemed Hon’ble Home Minister may seriously consider an appropriate mechanism for administrative separation of the two communities.”
