Tuesday, June 12, 2007

KNO REBUKES UNLF’S DUPLICITOUS STATEMENT

KUKI NATIONAL ORGANISATION
GOVERNMENT OF ZALE’N-GAM
MANMASI

ZG/PR 04-06/07
Dated Manmasi, 11 June 2007

KNO REBUKES UNLF’S DUPLICITOUS STATEMENT

Apropos to ‘Teach KNA a lesson: UNLF to Kukis’ (Imphal, The Sangai Express, 10 June 2007), KNO would like to set the record straight for all concerned men and women with any degree of integrity, self-introspection and self-respect irrespective of caste, creed and ethnicity. The unfortunate events of 9 June at Moreh in which 11 people died is a direct consequence of UNLF’s intrusive presence in Kuki territory and their indiscriminate activities.

The landmines planted by UNLF have so far killed 33 Kuki village folks in Chandel District and 25 in Churachandpur District. Besides, in January 2006, they indulged in mass-rape of Hmar women in Tipaimukh, prompting 1000-odd village people in the area to flee to Mizoram.

On March 23, 2007, a peaceful rally by students from Manipur hills at Parliament Street in New Delhi. The rally was organized to demand action from the central and Manipur government on the ‘forcible abduction’ of over 400 Kuki villagers in Chandel district to Burma on March 13. Till date 600 displaced Kuki village folks remain stranded at Moreh because their lands infested with the UNLF laid landmines have not been sanitised.

In order to save face and prevent further damming publicity regarding the landmines issue, the UNLF tried to persuade the displaced people stranded at Moreh to return to their villages. Understandably, the vulnerable village people failed to be convinced and so preferred to remain at Moreh. The next step taken by UNLF was to send their armed cadres on 2 June, intending to coerce the people. The UNLF cadres were confronted by KNA cadres, and following an encounter, the UNLF cadres, as usual, retreated to Burma, where they are provided safe haven by the Burmese military. On 3 June KNA cadres at Variety Market spotted Yumnam Roshan Meitei, of the rank of 2nd Lt of UNLF, who was involved in the previous day’s encounter with KNA. The following day, in order to make clear that KNO is not communal and do not harbour any ill-will towards the Meitei public, a clarification was issued by T Stephen Kuki, Inf & Publicity, KNO, that due action against Yumnam Roshan Meitei was taken not because he was a Meitei, but for his activities that incited communal tension (‘KNO claims Moreh killing’, Lamka, 4 June, The Sangai Express)

The ensuing step adopted by UNLF was to deploy five of their armed cadre to deal with the displaced people. On 9 June around 9: 45 AM, the five UNLF cadres entered Moreh town through the porous border between Gate No 3 and Gate No 4. They were escorted to the respective gates by the Burmese Army and received by the Indian Reserved Battalion patrolling in the locality of Ward No 5. Within minutes of their entry, they randomly fired upon innocent Kuki labourers. The three dead persons at the spot were identified as Lunkholal (21), Lunkhomang (22) both from Chavangphai village, including a Pastor Hemkhojang (40) of S. Moljol village. At the same time, auto-driver Tongkholun (20) of Canan Veng was shot dead by the UNLF at Ward No 7, while Doukhomang (30) who went to the forest to make charcoal for a living was shot dead at Twidap Pang, about 2 km south of Moreh town.

Soon after the killing spree, the IRB personnel guarded Ward No 7 to prevent attack on the Meitei locality by the Kukis. The attackers who freely escaped after the serial killings to Burma in the presence of the IRB were received by the Burmese army at Namphalong, in Burma. The 24 Assam Rifles posted at Moreh were called up for help. However, they could not come out of their outpost to nab the culprits as they were compelled to be confined to their camps for the day by the concerned authorities.

The preceding sequential facts lays bare the proceedings and developments of the unfortunate events that unfolded at Moreh. If UNLF has the audacity to suggest that they are not communal after, for example, the landmine deaths of the Kuki public they have caused, then they must be either completely deluded or lack the gumption to realise that they cannot succeed in pulling the wool over people’s eyes, whether Kuki or Meitei. There are still honest and fair citizens at large free of prejudices and who possess a keen sense of truth and reality.

For the record, KNA has not engaged in attacking camps of UNLF cadres, while the latter have repeatedly attacked our camps at Molvailup, Molcham, Samtal (to name a few) and even snatched weapons at Molvailup. For information sake, the Kuki people do not subscribe to the ideology of what the UNLF call a ‘revolutionary movement’. Presumably, the stated movement refers to ‘Kangleipak’. Kukis have their own movement called Zale’n-gam, which refers to protecting the integrity of their ancestral lands for which their forebears fought the British colonialists.

To avoid further misunderstanding, between the Kukis and Meiteis, it would be prudent for UNLF to confine their revolutionary activities, ideologically and physically to the valley called Manipur, which has been their abode from time immemorial. The Kuki Hills is Zale’n-gam.

Lastly, let there be peaceful co-existence between the Kukis and Meiteis by promoting mutual respect for each others territory and human rights of the two peoples.

Sd/-
T Stephen Kuki
Under Secretary, KNO Inf & Publicity
Zale’n-gam
MANMASI

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