GUWAHATI: The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) on Thursday said all Kuki-Zo tribals felt let down by Union home minister Amit Shah’s comment in Lok Sabha on Wednesday as he linked the ethnic violence in Manipur to the influx of Kuki-Zo refugees from Myanmar.
“Three months of violence has led to the deaths of more than 130 Kuki-Zo tribals, displacement of 41,425 tribal civilians and complete physical and emotional separation of Meiteis and tribals. And the best explanation that the home minister can come up with is the entry of refugees from Myanmar,” the ITLF said in a statement.
It pointed out that Mizoram welcomed more than 40,000 refugees from Myanmar and displaced people from Manipur, and it is still the most peaceful state in the country.
“The Scheduled Tribe demand by the majority community, the government notification on forest reserves which would usurp tribals from their lands, and the demonizing of tribals by the CM (N Biren Singh) and radical Meitei intellectuals are the reasons why the trust deficit grew between Meiteis and tribals, which culminated in the sectarian clashes,” the ITLF said.
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It said accusing refugees, who are some of the most deprived and helpless sections in any community, of starting a conflict at this scale is just plain wrong.
The ITLF expressed dismay that Shah was still defending the Manipur CM, “who we consider is the chief architect of the violence”.
“So many innocent people have died under his watch, and violence continues unabated after three months. Many of his own ministers have made submissions to the central government saying law and order has completely collapsed in the state. Despite all this, he is still being feted by the central government instead of being sacked,” the tribal organisation said.
It appealed to Shah to rise above party politics in dealing with the crisis in Manipur.
Shah had on Wednesday said: “After the military took over power in Myanmar in 2021, an organisation called Kuki Democratic Front (KDF) launched a movement for democracy. So, when the military there launched a crackdown against KDF, a lot of Kuki refugees started entering Manipur and Mizoram through the porous border. Thousands of them came. They settled down in jungles. This triggered concerns among people in other parts of Manipur about possible change in demography.”