GUWAHATI: Amidst reports that the Centre is keen on settling the “Naga issue” by this September, the Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) has insisted on the settlement of the “genocidal act” of extremist group National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) before the signing of any deal with the outfit.
“The Kuki Inpi Manipur while appreciating the reported directive of the PMO for finalization of peace talks between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM hereby firmly reiterates that the genocidal act of Thuingaleng Muivah-led NSCN-IM should be settled before inking any deal with the outfit,” the KIM, which is the apex organisation of tribal Kukis, insisted in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On a single day in the winter of 1993, scores of Kukis, including women and children, were massacred in two districts of Manipur. It is now known as “Joupi Massacre”.
The KIM cautioned PM: “…Of the 16 districts of Manipur, the Kukis dominate five districts – Chandel, Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Pherzawl, and Churachandpur. As such, any attempt to pamper the NSCN-IM at the cost of Kuki ancestral land and without settling Kuki political demands will be considered a betrayal of the Kuki aspirations and is likely to fuel violent reprisals”.
The organisation urged Modi to seriously consider simultaneous settlement of Kuki and Naga aspirations for self-governance within the Union of India in order to rule out imminent adverse repercussions of a settlement between the Centre and the NSCN-IM that affects Kuki-inhabited areas.
In its several memoranda submitted to him earlier, the KIM had made it amply clear that the Framework Agreement, which the Centre had signed with the NSCN-IM in 2015, should not infringe upon the Kuki-inhabited lands.
The Kukis will accept any agreement between the Centre and the NSCN-IM if it does not infringe upon the Kuki-inhabited areas and a similar political arrangement for self-governance of the Kukis is accorded, the organisation categorically stated.
“The KIM requests your kind benevolence to consider the rightful political aspirations of the Kukis alongside the finalization of the Framework Agreement and to establish an autonomous political institution so that we, the Kukis, as an indigenous people of India, can govern our own affairs within our traditional territory, protect our ancestral land and identity which our forefathers have jealously defended from the British imperial Raj and grow equally with other communities,” the letter to Modi further reads.