CM-Kuki talks spur hope for Manipur breakthrough

Guwahati: For small trader Laithangbam Noren, the Central government's decision to withdraw President's Rule and restore a government led by a new chief minister, Yumbam Khemchand Singh, on February 4 raised hopes of returning home to Churachandpur, a Kuki-dominated district in strife-torn Manipur.

However, the new government's inability to thaw relations between the Meiteis and the Kukis over the past 1.5 months has left Noren upset again. "We hope the conflict ends, the highways re-opened so that we can go back to our home," said the 49-year-old, who has been taking shelter with his family, including aged parents, in a relief camp on the outskirts of Meitei-dominated Imphal, the state capital.

Hope, however, again flickered when the CM and leaders of the Kuki-Zo Council (KZC) — the apex body of the Kuki-Zo communities — met for the first time on Saturday since the restoration of the government.

The meeting, however, could not be held in Manipur, as the Meiteis and the Kukis remained firm on refusing to allow movement between their territories until a solution was reached. It was held in Assam’s Guwahati.

Amid efforts by the new government to reach out to the communities, the clamour for a National Register of Citizens (NRC) has grown in the Valley, with Meitei women even clashing with security forces recently for it.

The Meiteis demand that "illegal migrants" — mainly Kuki-Zo — be detected with 1951 as the cut-off date. The Kukis, on the other hand, are firm on the demand for a "separate administration" in the form of a Union Territory, comprising Manipur’s Kuki-dominated areas.

"The KZC has not changed its demand, but we are keeping an open mind,” KZC spokesperson Ginza Vualzong told DH hours before the meeting with the CM. The KZC has also been engaged in talks with the Central government.

The root of the prevailing discontent, according to Vualzong, lies primarily in unresolved land issues. "Unless these disputes are meaningfully addressed, unrest will persist and continue to resurface. The Kuki, Naga, and Meitei communities all have competing claims and concerns over land, making it a deeply complex and sensitive issue. Equally pressing is the continued marginalisation of tribal communities, which has further deepened divisions and grievances," he explained.

He said both the land conflicts and the issue of tribal marginalisation must be addressed with sincerity, fairness, and urgency for the restoration of peace in Manipur.

Outreach efforts

By appointing Nemcha Kipgen, a Kuki, and Lossii Dikho, a Naga, as deputy CMs, the Central government and the BJP tried to reach out to the communities to break the ice over the demands, including the restoration of free movement in Manipur.

However, the CM — a Meitei — was not allowed to even visit displaced persons in Kuki-dominated districts like Churachandpur and Kangpokpi, leaving him with no option but to virtually address them from Imphal on February 19. Kipgen and Dikho, too, spoke to the displaced persons virtually.

Kipgen had to even take her oath virtually, while six Kuki MLAs attended the Assembly session on March 9 — the first since the Meitei-Kuki conflict erupted on May 3, 2023 — virtually.

The Khemchand government received a jolt on February 22 when Vungzagin Valte, a senior Kuki MLA, passed away nearly three years after he was critically injured in an attack — allegedly by the Meiteis — while returning after meeting the then-CM N Biren Singh in Imphal.

Khemchand had facilitated airlifting Valte from Churachandpur to New Delhi from Imphal airport. Khemchand also met Valte inside an ambulance before he was airlifted.

Valte's death was a blow to the new government's efforts to restore free movement and come up with a solution for the conflict. Valte's body has not yet been accepted by his family for burial, who say that a solution must be reached. This has led the KZC and the Kukis in Manipur to reiterate that the Kukis could no longer live under a government led by the Meiteis, and hence, a "separate administration" was a must.

Fresh conflict

The Nagas had stayed out of the Meitei-Kuki conflict. Fresh tensions, however, surfaced earlier this month due to violence between them in Ukhrul, a Naga-dominated district. It was an additional worry, given the history of large-scale Naga-Kuki violence from 1992 to 1998, when more than 1,000 people died.

Matters escalated on March 12, when the bodies of two Kuki men were found with bullet wounds. They had been missing since a firing took place between the Nagas and the Kukis a day earlier.

Amid all these, however, there was a silver lining: Manipur government sources said the Centre was trying to get Kuki-Zo organisations, including the armed groups, in a suspension-of-operations agreement for the formation of an autonomous council.

However, the United Kuki National Army — an armed Kuki group not in truce — stressed on March 20 that meaningful and lasting peace must be preceded by justice to the victims and their families and accountability.