Kuki groups oppose Assembly resolution to revoke ceasefire, conducting NRC in Manipur

Days after 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs wrote to Amit Shah about the Manipur Assembly resolutions, members of the Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), a forum of Kuki groups in Tengnoupal, took to the streets on Monday with slogans.

Guwahati: From MLAs to NGOs and citizens, many prominent voices in Kuki hills are coming out in protest against Manipur Assembly's recent resolutions seeking the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement with Kuki insurgent groups and having a NRC in the conflict-hit state.

Days after 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah against the resolutions, members of Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), a forum of Kuki groups in Tengnoupal, one of the Kuki-dominated districts, took to the streets on Monday with slogans against the Assembly resolutions.

They urged the Centre not to pay heed to the resolutions as the same were endorsed only by the MLAs belonging to the Meitei community. They said that the ceasefire agreement, called Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement, which was signed with at least 25 Kuki rebel groups in 2008 and was renewed several times, had brought peace in the Kuki hills, which had witnessed conflict in the past.

"The resolution was adopted to defame the Kuki National Organisation and United People's Front (Kuki armed groups in ceasefire) and further alienate Kuki-Zomi-Hmar community as part of the continuous hate campaign," said the letter submitted by 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs recently to Shah.

The term of the Suspension of Operation Agreement ended on February 29 but the Centre is yet to renew the same this time. This has left the Kuki groups worried.

What were the Manipur Assembly resolutions?

Manipur Assembly on February 29 "unanimously" adopted a resolution urging the Centre for abrogation of the Suspension of Operations Agreement claiming that the Kuki rebel groups violated the "ground rules" of the agreement by indulging in the conflict with the Meiteis.

But Kuki groups rejected the allegation and instead said that the Manipur government was not acting against the Meitei armed groups who were involved in the attacks on the Kukis.

The Kuki groups also protested against another resolution of the Manipur Assembly that urged the Centre to implement NRC in Manipur in order to detect "foreigners."

Meiteis claim that Kukis provided shelters to large numbers of "illegal migrants" from neighbouring Myanmar, which have posed a threat to identity and land rights of the indigenous Meiteis.

All 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs, however, did not attend the Assembly session when the two resolutions were adopted last week, citing “security reasons”.