Manipur: False narratives about Kuki militants from Myanmar
Baseless rumours are fuelling the ethnic conflict that broke out a year and a half ago in the north-eastern Indian state. The latest fake news refers to “900 militants” who allegedly came from neighbouring Myanmar to fight the Meitei. Chief of Army Staff has denied the claim, saying that people entering from Myanmar “are coming unarmed” to escape the war in that country.
Imphal (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Claims that some 900 Kuki militants from Myanmar have infiltrated the Indian state of Manipur are false, said this week General Upendra Dwivedi, “we should not allow wrong narratives to be built up,” he added.
The general, who is Chief of the Army Staff, spoke at the Chanakya Defence Dialogue, an annual forum on national and regional security.
In mid-September, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh, a member of the Hindu ultranationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), released an intelligence report according to which hundreds of militants from the mostly Christian Kuki community (also called Zo) had infiltrated Manipur to fight against the mainly Hindu Meitei.
Violence broke out between the two groups in May 2023 causing so far over 200 deaths and displacing 60,000 people.
On 25 September, Manipur’s Security Adviser Kuldiep Singh and Director General of Police Rajiv Singh said that claims about Kuki[*] infiltration “could not be substantiated on [the] ground.”
Over the past few days, Kuldiep Singh and Rajiv Singh had nevertheless placed the security forces on high alert in the Kuki-dominated hill region a series of drone attacks blamed on them.
Still, the Meitei community held large rallies and called for further military measures, because, according to the chief minister’s report, militants from Myanmar were ready to “launch multiple coordinated attacks on Meitei villages around September 28.”
However, for General Dwivedi, the “narrative of the bomb drones" was false. "There’s no bomb drone," he said.
In addition, some Kuki-Zo leaders accused the security adviser of spreading false information about their community while failing to ensure their safety.
“We no longer feel secure under his leadership...we would like to call for his resignation,” the Kuki Students' Organisation said in a statement in reference to Kuldiep Singh. Even the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum, which brings together several organisations, accused Singh of amplifying “devious propaganda”.
At the Chanakya Defence Dialogue, the chief of army staff went on to say that people entering from Myanmar "are coming unarmed" in search of refuge.
The situation in Manipur has become a "battle of narratives," with increasing polarisation between communities, General Dwivedi added. "The situation may be stable today but it is tense."
Shortly after violence began in May last year, several police stations were looted. According to estimates, about 4,000 firearms were stolen. The military recovered 25 per cent of the stolen weapons.
The general noted that the number of displaced people within the state dropped to 40,000 from 60,000.
After a period of relative calm, two people were killed and 10 were wounded on 1 September in the Koutruk area, Imphal West, a buffer zone that separates Meitei areas from the Kuki-dominated Kangpoppi district.
For some observers, the episode not only highlighted the local government's willingness to blame the violence on the Kuki minority (which admitted to having drones but using them only for surveillance, not to drop bombs), but also showed the gap between the Manipur police, the Indian military, and the Assam Rifles. The latter is a paramilitary force that, like the army, reports to the central government and has been deployed to reduce tensions.
In the past, local police, which recruits from the Meitei community, had accused the Assam Rifles of siding with the Kuki-Zo.
Some analysts assert that rebel groups closer to the Meitei returned to Manipur from Myanmar and the Arambai Tenggol, a group founded in 2020 to preserve local culture, morphed into an armed militia backed by the Meitei population and Chief Minister Biren Singh.
A local observer told Scroll that insecurity among the Meitei plays in favour of Chief Minister Biren Singh.
“The chief minister just wants to prove that he is the saviour of Meiteis. He wants to show that he and his people are fighting for the Meiteis.” But, the same tactic is also used on the Kuki-Zo side “to keep the pot boiling.”
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[*] Kuki have ethnic ties with the Chin people in Myanmar, who are fighting that country’s military in an ongoing civil war,
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07/12/2023 18:02
