Manipur Tribals’ Council pleads Manipur Governor

Lamka, Feb 25: Pleading on the constitutional head of the State to realize his constitutional duty in directing the State Govern- ment to initiate local self-government for the tribals, leaders from the Manipur Tribals Council today argue for the immediate intervention of His Excellency. The state government never wants to see the tribals to have their own local self-government at villa- ge levels, and the district level as well, charged the council in its representation to the governor today.

The Government gives importance only to the Panchayats and Parishads elections in the valley by conducting but failed to uphold the same for district council elections in the hills. The tribal democratic rights and constitutional safeguards were snatched away by the state government, said the council.

Article 46, 338, 339 and 340 of the Constitution require the Governor of Mani- pur to report to the President of India every ten years on the administration of the hill areas of Manipur, it adds and claimed that the President of India failed to fulfil its constitutional duties in this regard by not directing the State constitutional head to initiate election in the declared Scheduled area. Tribal chiefs rights and their lands were still as it was from time immemorial, and we did not surrender them to any Government. We only participate in Indian democracy, the memo main- tained, but the state government denied them to participate in that democratic exercise. Also sound- ing a warning note the cou-ncil warns of joining self determination movement if the Government intentionally curtails the tribals to participate in democratic exercise at the grass root level. Though specifying March 2009 as the dateline for the state government to conduct the ADC election, the Governor is understood to have told them that the upcoming Lok Sabha will impede the process but assured the leaders to do his bit after the election.

Source: The Sangai Express

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KNO dubs NSCN (IM) as killing machine

IMPHAL, Feb 26: Denouncing NSCN (IM) as killing machine, Kuki National Organisation (KNO) has stated that the recent heinous crime of butchering SDO of Kasom Khullen and his associates in Ukhrul District of Manipur is a loathsome reminder of the inhuman massacre of innocent Kuki villagers by NSCN (IM)-led killers from 1992 to 1997. Even more deplorable than the murder was the attempt to implicate innocent Kukis for the inhuman crime by dumping the butchered remains near Taphou-Kuki,

a Kuki village, with the potent objective of igniting a communal flare-up between the Meiteis and the Kukis, given the existing ethno-communal sensitivities in Manipur, information and publicity secretary of KNO Lenin H Kuki said in a statement.

He said that the writings on the wall are clear and unmistakably traceable to the unrelenting inhuman killing machine, the NSCN (IM) even before they admitted to the crime. The GPRN’s press statements about three of its officials being responsible for the crime in their supposedly individual capacities is reminiscent of the NSCN (IM)’s initial denial of involvement in the genocide of innocent Kuki villagers by propping up something called the Nagalim Guards. These kinds of instigative activity are not new to the NSCN (IM) and it is the norm rather than an exception with them to deny involvement when their plots are unveiled.

Recalling an instance, Lenin said that in 1995 two Angami men from Khozuma village of Nagaland were persuaded by Tangkhuls to go and purchase buffalo from a Kuki village in Mani-pur. This was at a time when NSCN-IM was engaged in killing innocent Kuki villagers in great numbers. The Kuki villagers were unaware of the two men’s acti- vity. However, when the people of Khozuma realised the two men had not returned they assumed Kukis had killed them. Consequently, in 1995 the Angami Peoples Organisation (APO) served quit notice to the Kukis of Nagaland, the deadline being set for 25 July. At Delhi, on 24 July 1995, the Kuki Students Organisation went on a rally and presented a memorandum to the National Human Rights Commission, appealing for intervention. Fortunately, the intervention took place in the nick of time and the Angamis, realising foul play was involved, retracted the quit notice. The KNO therefore strongly condemns such evil designs of the outfit, which claims to have as its motto Nagaland for Christ, in equal measure as it condemns the brutal murder of the SDO of Kasom Khullen and his aides who were sincerely performing their duties as employees of the State Government. Rather than tendering apology to the Kukis and humanity at large for their abominable genocide of Kuki villagers in their effort to forcibly grab Kuki territories, the NSCN (IM) has attempted to create communal tensions and potential flare-up between the Kukis and Meiteis. It is time the world recognise the true colors of the outfit and give a befitting treatment to this unprincipled and inhuman organization, the statement added.

Source: The Sangai Express

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