Tribal body again urges HM Shah for political fix to Manipur strife

Imphal, Dec 6 (IANS) The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) once again urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah for an urgent political solution to the ethnic strife in Manipur and demanded a judicial enquiry into the alleged killing of ten Kuki-Zo-Hmar village volunteers by the central police force.

Demanding creation of a separate administration or a Union Territory for tribals in Manipur, the ITLF, which is an apex body of the Kuki-Zo-Hmar community, in a memorandum to the Union Home Minister said that for lasting peace, a militarily-enforced tranquility cannot bring permanent normalcy to a state that is now physically divided by buffer zones.

“A political solution that will ensure physical safety and dignity for all citizens is the only way forward,” the tribal body said.

It said that the State, which is supposed to protect its citizens and enforce peace under the terms of the country’s social contract as a functioning democracy, has failed to perform its basic duty for the past 19 months, forcing normal citizens to defend themselves.

According to the ITLF, the latest round of violence, which started with the burning of Zairawn village in Jiribam district and the horrific murder of a 31-year-old tribal woman, has resulted in the deaths of 13 Kuki-Zo people.

“What makes this episode more worrying for the minority community is that ten tribals were killed by the CRPF, which was supposed to act as a neutral force,” said the memorandum, signed by ITLF Chairman Pagin Haokip and General Secretary Muan Tombing.

Demanding a judicial enquiry into the killing of ten Kuki-Zo-Hmar volunteers by the CRPF, the tribal body said that claims of the men being militants who died while attacking Borobekra police station and a nearby CRPF camp are blatantly false.

“We have repeatedly stressed that we would never attack central forces and have been demanding President’s Rule since the beginning of the conflict so that security forces can better enforce peace. It is the Meitei community that has consistently opposed President’s Rule. None of the victims were militants, as claimed by the police. One was a painter, another a computer store owner, and the rest were masons who worked on construction sites when not on duty defending the villages,” the ITLF memorandum said.

The last rites of 12 Kuki-Zo tribals, including ten killed in the exchange of fire with the CRPF in Manipur’s Jiribam district on November 11, were performed in Churachandpur on Thursday.

Thousands of men and women joined the mass burial with tearful eyes amid a total shutdown in tribal dominated areas.

Meanwhile, all Kuki-Zo-Hmar community tribal organisations and ten tribal MLAs, including seven BJP legislators, have been demanding separate administrations or a Union Territory for the tribals in Manipur.

The Central and the ruling BJP governments have been opposing the demands.

–IANS

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