EGI report connects dots of Manipur violence; blames 'partisan state'

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, September 2: Editors Guild of India (EGI) in a report has built the chronology of events that led to the raging violence in Manipur, which continues to take a heavy toll on the people, while accounting for more than 160 deaths, and forced migration of thousands of the people/

“The EGI received several representations that the media in Manipur was playing a partisan role in the ongoing ethnic conflict between the majority Meitei community and the Kuki-Chin minority. On July 12, 2023, when the conflict had already been going on for a little over two months, the EGI also received a written complaint from the Indian Army’s 3rd Corps headquarters citing specific examples of the media in Manipur suggesting that it may be playing ‘a major role in arousing passion and not letting sustainable peace to come in,” stated the EGI on the backdrop of sending a fact-finding team to the strife-torn state.

A three-member team comprising Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor was sent to Manipur to examine the media reportage in the state. The team visited Manipur from August 7 to 10.

Much before the violence erupted on May 3, Manipur’s tribal tensions, especially between the majority Meitei community and the minority Kuki-Chin-Zo community, were already reaching their boiling point, concurred the EGI team, adding that the “state government seems to have facilitated the majority’s anger against the Kukis through several seemingly partisan statements and policy measures”.

“For example, the leadership of the state labelled the entire community of Kuki-Zo tribals as illegal immigrants and foreigners without any reliable data or evidence. This was despite the fact that the decadal census from 1901 to 2011 has not shown any unusual growth of the non-Naga (the other minority tribal community) tribal population,” added the EGI team’s report, which added that “40,000 refugees from Myanmar to Mizoram and reportedly about 4,000 to Manipur were branded all Kuki-Zo as illegal immigrant and presented as pressure on resources but was also a war for political space, with the Meitei leadership of the government using the fear of the majority community”.

In addition, without following proper procedure, added the report, as laid down in the Hills Area Committee Act of 1972, the N. Biren Singh government declared parts of Hills as “reserved” and “protected” forests and “wetland reserves”. “All land ownership documents within these areas were cancelled and a drive started to evict them in December 2022. This led to violent confrontation between the state authorities and the Kuki-Zo community which had been living in these villages,” noted the EGI report, which was released on Saturday.

Demolition drive which began in the Kangpokpi district, a Kuki-dominated area, extended by February 2023 to Churachandpur and Tengnoupal districts which also had a preponderance of the Kuki-Zo community, noted the report, while adding that “what is significant is that the forest surveys, inquiries, evictions and demolitions were carried out only in the non-Naga inhabited tribal areas, once again leading the Kuki community to believe that it was being singled out”.

The committee also said in its report that on March 10, 2023, the Biren Singh government took a Cabinet decision to withdraw from the tripartite Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement (a kind of a ceasere agreement) with the Kuki insurgent groups, Kuki National, the Zomi Revolutionary and the Kuki Revolutionary, with whom the Union government wanted a peaceful negotiation.

“Two weeks later, on March 24, the state government removed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) selectively, only from the Imphal Valley even though the Kuki insurgent groups were in peace talks with the Centre while the Meitei insurgents active in the Imphal Valley were outside any process of negotiation for peace. In retrospect, this was seen by the Kuki-Zo tribals as a partisan move in preparation for violence against the Kukis, which came a few weeks later,” added the report.

Simultaneously, a state government committee headed by the Chief Secretary on April 3, 2023, cancelled all land/property deeds and recognition of villages within the designated reserved and protected forest areas, said the EGI report, adding that “all this was done without any rehabilitation plan for the evicted tribal population”.