Second Manipur tripartite meet in Delhi sees Kuki-Zo groups renew UT demand

New Delhi/Imphal, Dec 13: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), representatives of Kuki-Zo groups under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) and officials of the Manipur government held the second round of a tripartite meeting in New Delhi, on Friday.

MHA’s Adviser, Northeast, A.K. Mishra, officials of the Manipur government and representatives of Kuki-Zo armed groups under SoO, namely the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People’s Front (UPF), were present at the tripartite meeting.

Post the meeting, the KNO and the UPF, in a joint statement, said that discussions focused on the demand for a Union Territory with a Legislature for the Kuki-Zo tribal people in Manipur, land-related issues and governance in the hill areas inhabited by community.

The UPF and KNO claimed that the Kuki Zo people cannot be governed by a government that has enabled its ethnic cleansing.

“Reintegration under the existing state administrative framework is no longer possible, and a separate political solution remains the only viable path to normalcy, peace and stability. It was also pointed out that the violence of 2023 was not isolated, but the culmination of decades of aggressive land policies and political bullying aimed at dispossessing tribal communities of their ancestral lands,” they said.

Creation of a Union Territory with a Legislature remains the only constitutional and viable solution for ensuring justice, security, normalcy and lasting peace, the tribal organisations said.

It said that the total physical separation of populations since the ethnic violence broke out on May 3, 2023, the overt weaponisation of state machinery against the tribal citizens and the systematic obliteration from the Imphal Valley are self-evident facts that are on record.

Article 371C failed in practice, as the Hill Areas Committee has been repeatedly bypassed and rendered ineffective in preventing either the violence or the policies that were engineered, the statement said.

The UPF and the KNO, which are a conglomerate of 23 underground militant outfits, signed the SoO with the government on August 22, 2008. Around 2,266 cadres of the militant outfits have been staying in different designated camps in Manipur’s hill regions.

The MHA, in the first round of meeting held on November 6-7 in New Delhi, had virtually rejected the demand of Kuki-Zo tribal organisations and militant groups for the creation of Union Territories with Legislature for the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur.

IANS