By Anil Bhat
Manipur was the last of the kingdoms in India to surrender to the British after a bloody war that ended only with the defeat and death of General Paona Brajabashi and the public hanging of Generals Bir Tikendrajit and Thangal at Imphal’s historic Kangjeibung (polo ground).
The Sangai Express in Imphal reported that on 13 August the Manipur government observed the 116th Patriots’ Day, paying tributes to all the martyrs who laid down their lives for the motherland. On the occasion, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh exhorted the present generation to cherish and protect the legacy of freedom left behind by the departed martyrs. “Today, just like the Britishers, some anti-social elements have also been trying to drive a wedge between the hill and the valley people of Manipur and disturb the territorial integrity of the state. So people should stay alert and join hands to defeat such disintegrating forces,” he said.
The irony is that the United National Liberation Front, one of the leading insurgent-turned-terrorist outfits, headed by the great grandson of Tikendrajit, is the one that allegedly set the precedent of laying landmines and indulging in gang-rapes, torture, abduction and murder of Hmar and Kuki tribals of Manipur’s Churachandpur and Chandel districts over the past three years.
The findings of the Landmine Monitor Report, 2005, are indeed alarming. “In Mizoram state, bordering Burma, media reported in June 2005 that the Indian Army had forced ‘Myanmarese guerrillas’ from their remote base camp back across the border into Burma, and had subsequently found an estimated 2,500 landmines ‘planted all over the camp’. The rebels were believed to be from the Chin National Army of Burma.
“In Manipur, on the border with Burma, there were reports in November 2004 of Indian Army casualties from landmines during a month-long offensive against rebels from the People’s Liberation Army, UNLF and other smaller armed groups. The Union ministry of home afairs noted 114 incidents of the use of explosive devices in the North-east states during 2004, but the type of devices was not revealed. The ministry stated that there had been a steady increase in Manipur, where the main target remained the security forces.”
The dangers of non-state actors using landmines are that, unlike armies, they are not laid according to any pattern, no cartographic record is kept, nor are they marked. As such, their removal becomes very difficult, slow and dangerous. Also, citing the home ministry in the above report that the main target was security forces, the main victims are innocent locals who, apart from death or maiming, further suffer because their cultivated land becomes inaccessible for harvesting, further cultivation and even collecting firewood, till the mines are removed.
While the act of laying mines in civilian populated areas is heinous enough, the perpetrators have gone even further. Recently, Phalam Kongsai of Semol village and Thaneo of Songdap village, both of whom lost their limbs, were given timely assistance by Assam Rifles. But when one woman, Itling Keithing, of Kannasi village in Myanmar lost both her legs in a mine blast, the locals who were assisting her were prevented from doing so at gunpoint, as a result of which she died.
However, within Indian territory in Manipur, Assam Rifles and Army units have been conducting the painstaking and extremely risky task of removing these haphazardly laid anti-personnel mines. In less than two months recently, over 100 mines have been removed and destroyed. This task continues, weather permitting and will take months depending on how many have been laid.
Besides this unenviable duty, the Assam Rifles and Army are also involved in flood relief and related assistance, as they have been doing every year for decades. The Assam Rifles, in fact, has increased the ambit of its traditional role of civic assistance by setting up vocational training centres and, most important, medical camps, and providing veterinary assistance in remote areas.
There is little to feel happy about, though. The UNLF and other Meitei underground outfits, reportedly under the influence of Pakistan’s ISI, have deteriorated the quality of life for the people and the local media and, worst of all, created a crisis of life-saving medical supplies because of continued extortion demands on pharmaceutical companies. They have been holding the state to ransom with sheer terror, largescale extortion, frequent bandhs and bans on various public activities.
Political expediency, vested interests and rank corruption are depriving a culturally steeped people in a geostrategically important part of the country of long overdue peace and progress.
The Statesman
Manipur was the last of the kingdoms in India to surrender to the British after a bloody war that ended only with the defeat and death of General Paona Brajabashi and the public hanging of Generals Bir Tikendrajit and Thangal at Imphal’s historic Kangjeibung (polo ground).
The Sangai Express in Imphal reported that on 13 August the Manipur government observed the 116th Patriots’ Day, paying tributes to all the martyrs who laid down their lives for the motherland. On the occasion, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh exhorted the present generation to cherish and protect the legacy of freedom left behind by the departed martyrs. “Today, just like the Britishers, some anti-social elements have also been trying to drive a wedge between the hill and the valley people of Manipur and disturb the territorial integrity of the state. So people should stay alert and join hands to defeat such disintegrating forces,” he said.
The irony is that the United National Liberation Front, one of the leading insurgent-turned-terrorist outfits, headed by the great grandson of Tikendrajit, is the one that allegedly set the precedent of laying landmines and indulging in gang-rapes, torture, abduction and murder of Hmar and Kuki tribals of Manipur’s Churachandpur and Chandel districts over the past three years.
The findings of the Landmine Monitor Report, 2005, are indeed alarming. “In Mizoram state, bordering Burma, media reported in June 2005 that the Indian Army had forced ‘Myanmarese guerrillas’ from their remote base camp back across the border into Burma, and had subsequently found an estimated 2,500 landmines ‘planted all over the camp’. The rebels were believed to be from the Chin National Army of Burma.
“In Manipur, on the border with Burma, there were reports in November 2004 of Indian Army casualties from landmines during a month-long offensive against rebels from the People’s Liberation Army, UNLF and other smaller armed groups. The Union ministry of home afairs noted 114 incidents of the use of explosive devices in the North-east states during 2004, but the type of devices was not revealed. The ministry stated that there had been a steady increase in Manipur, where the main target remained the security forces.”
The dangers of non-state actors using landmines are that, unlike armies, they are not laid according to any pattern, no cartographic record is kept, nor are they marked. As such, their removal becomes very difficult, slow and dangerous. Also, citing the home ministry in the above report that the main target was security forces, the main victims are innocent locals who, apart from death or maiming, further suffer because their cultivated land becomes inaccessible for harvesting, further cultivation and even collecting firewood, till the mines are removed.
While the act of laying mines in civilian populated areas is heinous enough, the perpetrators have gone even further. Recently, Phalam Kongsai of Semol village and Thaneo of Songdap village, both of whom lost their limbs, were given timely assistance by Assam Rifles. But when one woman, Itling Keithing, of Kannasi village in Myanmar lost both her legs in a mine blast, the locals who were assisting her were prevented from doing so at gunpoint, as a result of which she died.
However, within Indian territory in Manipur, Assam Rifles and Army units have been conducting the painstaking and extremely risky task of removing these haphazardly laid anti-personnel mines. In less than two months recently, over 100 mines have been removed and destroyed. This task continues, weather permitting and will take months depending on how many have been laid.
Besides this unenviable duty, the Assam Rifles and Army are also involved in flood relief and related assistance, as they have been doing every year for decades. The Assam Rifles, in fact, has increased the ambit of its traditional role of civic assistance by setting up vocational training centres and, most important, medical camps, and providing veterinary assistance in remote areas.
There is little to feel happy about, though. The UNLF and other Meitei underground outfits, reportedly under the influence of Pakistan’s ISI, have deteriorated the quality of life for the people and the local media and, worst of all, created a crisis of life-saving medical supplies because of continued extortion demands on pharmaceutical companies. They have been holding the state to ransom with sheer terror, largescale extortion, frequent bandhs and bans on various public activities.
Political expediency, vested interests and rank corruption are depriving a culturally steeped people in a geostrategically important part of the country of long overdue peace and progress.
The Statesman
