NEW DELHI: In a major setback to the peace efforts, an influential tribal organization, Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, which has been calling for imposition of President’s rule in Manipur, on Monday rejected any dialogue offer with Chief Minister N. Biren Singh or his government.
The ITLF spokesman Ginza Vualzong said that the intention of the Chief Minister to reach out to stakeholders after a meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah comes too late after the loss of so many precious lives and properties, Indian media reported.
He said that nearly 106 tribal people had been killed, 201 villages burnt, more than 5,000 houses ablaze and 355 churches destroyed, while the violence has displaced 41,425 people.
Vualzong told the media they had reached a point where the Kuki-Zo community could no longer live with the Meiteis. N. Biren Singh, the perpetrator and main character behind the current ethnic violence whose hatred resulted in the genocide of the Kuki-Zo community, could not be the harbinger of peace.
Returning from New Delhi, where he held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed the prevailing situation in the state, Singh said that efforts to restore peace would be further intensified by involving all the stakeholders.
He told journalists that restoration of peace and normalcy in the strife-hit state is the first priority of both the Central and state governments.
Comprehensive dialogue process
Civil Society Organisations of all communities, leaders of churches, different communities, and other concerned stakeholders would be involved in the peace process, he added.
The ITLF, which along with ten tribal MLA (7 of them belonging to the ruling BJP), has been calling for separate administration (equivalent to a separate state) for the tribal people, said in a statement that all tribals and a large section of Biren Singh’s own Meitei community have lost faith in his leadership and his government.
