IMPHAL, Manipur (India): Nearly two months after it was trembled by ethnic violence, Manipur is seemingly on the brink of a civil war.
Clashes between the majority Meitei and Kuki communities have left over 100 dead and over 400 injured. According to rough estimates, around 60,000 people have been displaced and they have taken shelter in some 350 camps. Around 40,000 security forces including army soldiers, paramilitaries, and police are struggling to quash the violence.
According to reports, only a quarter of the more than 4,000 weapons looted by mobs at different occasions from the police armouries have been voluntarily returned since the violence began some two months back.
The level of mistrust between the warring communities; Meitei and Kuki, has increased with both sides accusing the security forces of being partisan. Over 200 churches and around 17 temples have been destroyed by mobs. Even the homes of legislators have been attacked and set ablaze.
Night curfew continues in most of the 16 districts of the violence-hit state, schools are shut and internet services suspended as life still seems far away from normalcy. The state has seen sporadic killings and arson while on the other hand, the federal government’s proposal for a peace panel to broker a truce has received a lukewarm response.
Binalakshmi Nepram of Northeast India Women Initiative for Peace termed the situation the darkest moment in Manipur’s history. “Manipur has not seen this kind and type of violence in its modern history.”
The restive and remote north-eastern region in India is home to some 45m people belonging to over 400 communities. Nestling along the border with Myanmar, Manipur is no stranger to ethnic violence.
With some 33 ethnic tribes, Manipur state is extremely diverse and sharply divided and also a home to some 40 insurgent groups. Meitei, Kuki and Naga rebels have waged prolonged armed campaigns, regularly targeting Indian security forces, in protest against controversial anti-insurgent laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which grants search and seizure powers to the security forces. Militias from all the three Meitei, Naga and Kuki tribes have also fought one another over conflicting homeland demands.
The majority Meiteis make up more than half of Manipur’s estimated 3.3m population. Some 43% of the people are Kukis and Nagas, the two predominant tribal communities, who live in the rolling hills. Most Meiteis follow the Hindu faith, while most Kukis adhere to Christianity.
Ethnic and religious clashes in Manipur in recent past claimed hundreds of lives. “This time, the conflict is strictly rooted in ethnicity, not religion,” believes Dhiren A Sadokpam, editor of The Frontier Manipur.
