Why peace and stability remain elusive in Manipur

Merely calling a special session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, a demand by both Meitei civil society organisations and the Congress Party, is unlikely to chart a path to peace in Manipur

Merely calling a special session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, a demand by both Meitei civil society organisations and the Opposition Congress Party, is unlikely to chart a path to peace in Manipur. The frailty of the legislative process, problems in the government's proposed resettlement programme and its failure to discipline armed Meiti groups are issues that must be addressed first.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance has a brute majority – 52 seats out of 60 -- in the legislative assembly. The Meitei civil society organisations are one with Chief Minister N Biren Singh in arguing that the "integrity of Manipur" is non-negotiable. With the majority community opposing the creation of an autonomous self-governing council under the Indian Constitution for the Kuki-Zo tribes, there is every possibility that legislative measures by the assembly will confirm continued Meitei dominance over the politics and finances of the state.

Not surprisingly, all 10 Kuki-Zo legislators of Manipur have announced their intention to boycott the legislature's special session called to discuss the recent violence beginning on August 29. Seven of the ten tribal MLAs boycotting the assembly are from the ruling BJP, and two of them -- Letpao Haokip and Nemcha Kipgen -- are ministers in the government. If the chief minister cannot convince his cabinet colleagues and his party MLAs to attend the special session of the legislature, what can such an assembly session achieve?

Personal safety is another concern for the MLAs in not travelling from their hill constituencies to Imphal. "Buffer zones" – often with triple-layer security provided by the Assam Rifles, Central Reserve Police Force and Manipur Police – have been created to prevent the movement of Kukis and Meiteis to areas inhabited by other ethnicities. The "buffer zone" is also patrolled by Meitei vigilantes who have not allowed any essential supplies – grain, fuel or medicines -- to be transported from Imphal Valley to the hill districts since early May.

The situation in the valley can be illustrated by the fact that when representatives of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum from Churachandpur district came to meet Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi, they travelled nearly 400 km by road from Churachandpur to Aizawl in Mizoram to catch a flight rather than flying from Imphal Airport. The memory of Kuki BJP MLA Vungzagin Valte, being nearly beaten to death by Meitei mobs during the ethnic clashes, is still fresh.

An entirely new set of problems might arise from Chief Minister Biren Singh's plan to construct pre-fabricated houses for those whose homes have been destroyed in the arson. While shelter homes were handed over to 300 displaced families in relief camps in Imphal East, further plans to provide pre-fabricated houses to displaced Kuki-Zos are proposed to be located in areas in the hill districts. By moving displaced persons from their former valley residences into the hill areas and vice versa, not only will the Manipur government's rehabilitation plans give a "semi-permanent" stamp to the ethnic cleansing of the Imphal Valley, it will also open up other ethnic divides, now dormant.

In the tribal hill districts, identity is also formed by land rights. The government's attempt to create "semi-permanent" villages for Kuki-Zo tribals around 12 designated Naga villages in the foothills of Ukhrul has already disturbed the Nagas. Given an earlier bloody history of Naga-Kuki rivalry, the Naga groups are wary of being set up for future conflict with the Kukis.

However, for the present, both the Nagas and the Kukis are aware of this danger. The United Naga Council, a local Naga organisation (Tangkhul Naga Long), its Kuki counterpart (Kuki Inpi Ukhrul) and the Kuki Chiefs of Litan (one of the areas chosen for a resettlement camp) have come together to demand that no "semi-permanent relief camp" should be set up in Naga-dominated Ukhrul district and that the "permanent resettlement" of the displaced Kukis should be planned in their places of origin.

Although the Nagas have consciously kept away from the Meitei-Kuki conflict till now, the proposed contours of a Kuki homeland, "Zalengham", might yet draw them into Manipur's turbulent politics. The Kuki State Demand Committee claims 12,958 square km of Manipur as Kuki Homeland, more than 60 per cent of the entire state's 22,000 square km area. The maps of Kukiland include the Sadar Hills (which surround the Imphal valley on three sides), the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district, Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Chandel, which has a mix of Kuki and Naga populations, and parts of Naga-dominated Tamenglong and Ukhrul.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isaac-Muivah) has made it clear that while it is not opposed to creating a "separate administration" for the Kukis, it must not encompass any Naga area. The NSCN(IM) has expressed solidarity with the Kuki-Zo community on the issue of "crimes against humanity" (recent killings) but also warned that "they should tread very carefully and never overdo and avoid pandering in the name of "Zalengham" and that "a political risk assessment is critically important for the Kuki-Zo community as the Nagas would not allow war-mongering intrusion/provocation into their ancestral domain."

Apart from these obstacles to reaching a peaceful resolution, the state government has not done its essential duty of disarming the civilians who looted arms and ammunition from police armouries. The weapons are apparently finding their way into the hands of Meitei insurgent outfits. They are now a sizable presence in the valley as the ethnic violence has brought them back from their hideouts in Myanmar.

Neither the state government nor the Centre has banned the new Meitei militant groups Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, which were at the forefront of the recent violence and arson. Nor has the state government taken any initiative to start an inter-ethnic dialogue. With the state government almost complicit with the majority community and the Centre's hands-off policy (except for pouring in paramilitary forces), it is difficult to see how stability and peace will return to Manipur. Without addressing these issues first, the political process will not revive and create a climate for legislative resolution of ethnic conflict in Manipur.