Deaths, destruction & race for dominance turns Manipur's Moreh into a 'war zone'

Beyond the ethnic clashes, Meiteis and Kukis are trying to assert dominance here as Moreh is a major trade centre and India's gateway to Southeast Asia.

Moreh (Manipur): Statues of a tribal hero and a king stand face-to-face across a road in Moreh, a border town in the restive state of Manipur. 

The statues are a silent testimony to the stark ethnic divisions that have ripped apart the Meitei and Kuki communities in the Northeastern state.  

While the Kuki hero Changjapao Doungel is known for fighting valiantly in the Anglo-Kuki War (1917-1919), the King Nara Singh ruled the erstwhile Meitei kingdom between 1844 and 1850.

Moreh being a stronghold of the Kuki tribe, the presence of a Meitei king's statue in the town, adjoining Myanmar, would have been an unusual sight. However, the blaze and bloodshed that erupted last year have redrawn the contours of social harmony across the state. 

The sudden appearance of King Nara Singh's statue in Moreh is more than a symbolic act, feel Kuki leaders.

"The statue was installed in a hurry a few months ago. It has not yet been formally inaugurated. By installing the statue, the Manipur government is trying to assert the dominance of Meiteis over Moreh," Sasang Hmar, president of the Moreh district unit of the Kuki Students' Organisation told DH.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of the state's population and reside mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals, who include Nagas and Kukis, account for around 40 per cent of the population and inhabit mostly the hill districts which surround the Valley.

Both Meities and Kukis have been blaming each other for the violence which has claimed more than 200 lives and rendered thousands homeless.

The flashpoint

Rains poured heavily in Moreh on Easter Sunday as the Kuki-Zo people remained busy in prayers; not an occasion for celebration for most of them as an uneasy calm prevails over the town. Moreover, since the eruption of violence in May last year, many members of the tribal community have fled from Meitei strongholds and taken refuge in Kuki Hills. 

Moreh is strewn with charred remnants of houses belonging to Meitei residents who fled to the Valley. Shops and houses were burnt, vehicles set on fire and properties allegedly looted by angry Kuki miscreants first on the night of May 3 last year, hours after a riot between the Kukis and the Meiteis broke out in the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district, about 180km away.

As violence broke out in the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur, Kukis were attacked in the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley.

"All these happened as a repercussion of the attack on the Kukis in the Valley on May 3," the Kuki leader Hmar says.

Among the approximately 25,000 inhabitants of Moreh, the Meiteis constituted around 7,000 to 8,000. Non-Manipuri population includes about 5,000 to 6,000 Tamils who had migrated from Myanmar during 1964-1965, Sikhs and Hindi-speaking persons, who depend mainly on business activities at Moreh. 

Imprint of violence 

Salons in Moreh are witnessing long queues these days as most of the barbers, who used to be from outside Manipur, fled the town. There are only three barbers and a cobbler left now due to the closure of markets for a long.

"Today the market is shut due to Easter Sunday but long queues are seen in the salon when the markets remain open. Now that most barbers have quit, a few tribals are taking up the job," said a barber from Bihar, who requested anonymity out of fear.

"Although Kuki protesters did not target the non-Meiteis, several houses and shops were burnt as fire spread from the adjacent burning houses of Meiteis," KBS Maniam, a teacher belonging to the Tamil community, told DH at Moreh.

"Now only about 1,500 to 2,000 Tamils are left here. Most of them shifted to other places for livelihood and for the education of their children. Schools here remained shut for months," he said.  

Indo-Myanmar border gate at Moreh. 

Prem Nagar, one of the Meitei-majority areas in Moreh, perhaps bore the maximum brunt. Shops, almost touching the Indo-Myanmar border gate, were reduced into rubble. Houses were fully or half-burnt and vehicles reduced into burnt scrap.

"This was the house of a local leader of the Meiteis. That was of a big trader," pointed out Abdul Karim, whose house remained untouched amid the burnt houses around.

"The crowd was so large and angry that we had to remain inside our camp. They kept on burning houses and shops despite our repeated requests through loudspeakers. It was on May 4 evening," an army jawan, posted on the Indo-Myanmar border gate, said. 

Dominance over Moreh 

Situation in Moreh turned volatile and Manipur police commandos were rushed in from Imphal after Chingtham Anand Kumar, a DSP of Manipur police, a Meitei, was killed in a sniper attack allegedly by armed Kuki persons in September last year.

At least two Manipuri commandos were also killed and a few others were injured in another attack, allegedly by the Kukis, in January this year.

Kuki organisations claimed that the commandos targeted and harassed the Kuki villages frequently, triggering anger among the villagers. Barricades of wooden logs, bamboo or barbed wire can be seen in most Kuki villages around Moreh, which according to a Kuki leader, were put up to prevent entry of commando vehicles.

Commandos are still there in Moreh despite objections by the Kukis while the central security forces including the army, Assam Rifles and Rapid Action Force keep a constant vigil over the nooks and corners to prevent any further escalation of violence. 

A young army officer posted near Moreh told DH that both the Meiteis and the Kukis are trying to assert their dominance as Moreh is the biggest trade centre and is India's gateway to Southeast Asian nations such as Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

"It's a fight for money and business, both legal and illegal," said the officer. Vehicles are stopped, frisked and identity and other details are collected in at least 10 places on the Trans-Asian Highway that connects Imphal with Moreh, Myanmar and beyond.

The frisking is done along the "buffer zone" that separates Meitei-dominated Imphal West and Kuki-majority Tengnoupal district. The gates of the Indo-Myanmar have remained shut since the Covid-19 pandemic and the Centre recently suspended the Free Movement Regime that allowed local tribes to visit within 16kms on both sides of the border without a visa and passport. The FMR was ended following strong demands from the Meiteis and Manipur government.