Manipur's Kukis Hold Rallies For Separate Administration, Reports Of Skirmishes And Arson

Members of the Kuki tribes held rallies and protests in parts of Manipur today, demanding a separate administration carved out of the ethnic violence-hit state bordering Myanmar.

There were reports of skirmishes at the district border between protesters in Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi and volunteers who formed a human chain to prevent the protests in Naga-dominated Senapati, officials said.

The Kuki tribes have been asking the Centre to create a Union Territory with legislature for them. They held the rallies in Churachandpur's Leishang, Kangpokpi's Keithelmanbi, and Tengnoupal's Moreh.

In Delhi, Members of the Kuki tribes held a protest at Jantar Mantar, demanding action against Chief Minister N Biren Singh. Some 500 people, most of them in black clothes, joined the protest called by the Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO) Delhi and National Capital Region.

In a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the KSO alleged the Kuki-Zo tribes have endured an "ethnic cleansing campaign and constant attacks" by the Meitei community since May 2023.

Many shouted slogans against the Manipur Chief Minister, who belongs to the BJP. Posters called for action against the Chief Minister over a purported leaked tape, which the Kukis alleged proved Mr Singh engineered the Manipur crisis.

The Biren Singh government has called the tape "doctored". The purported tape has been given to a commission of inquiry formed by the Home Ministry, along with affidavits by some people who claimed the tape was genuine, according to reports in the news website The Wire.

In the Meitei-dominated Imphal valley, businesses responded to an appeal by the women civil society group Meitei Leima and pulled down shutters. Public transport also didn't run in protest against the rallies by the Kuki tribes.

BJP Spokesperson's House Attacked Again

While the Kuki rallies and protests were going on, Manipur BJP spokesperson and Thadou tribe leader T Michael Lamjathang Haokip's house was vandalised and set on fire in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district today. This was the third attack at his house since the Meitei-Kuki ethnic violence began in May 2023. The Chief Minister in a post on X condemned the attack.

"The burning of my home will not make me disown my Thadou identity. Pure Thadou, who disowns Kuki, segregation games from ultra Kuki extremists and supremacists begin; follow me or not. We begin," Mr Haokip said in a post on X.

Mr Haokip has said he has been raising awareness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately referred to as a Kuki tribe amid the ethnic tension in Manipur. This has angered "Kuki supremacists" as they do not want to accept the Thadou tribe's distinct identity, Mr Haokip said.

Many other recognised tribes in Manipur did not participate in the Kuki-led protests today, and communicated their decisions through public statements -- unlike on May 3, 2023 when under the banner of the All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) some non-Kuki tribes participated.

Just days after the clashes on May 3 last year, 10 Kuki MLAs (from the 60-member assembly) had raised the demand for a separate administration. Since then, Kuki leaders and civil society groups have said the violence has necessitated their demand and there can be no going back.

Separate Administration Demand

However, Kuki civil society organisations, the 10 MLAs, and 25-odd Kuki-Zo insurgent groups that have signed the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement (a ceasefire of sorts, yet to be renewed) - all of them have been demanding nothing less than a separate administration, bringing them together on a common platform.

The SoO groups have been in talks for a separate administration - a political settlement - for many years before May 2023, and so the claim by some Kuki leaders that the violence led to their call to break away from Manipur was a lie, since the intention for separation was always there, sources in the Manipur government had told NDTV.

The clashes between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the nearly two dozen tribes under the Kukis nomenclature - a term given by the British in colonial times - who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, has killed over 220 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.