End peace deals with Kuki armed groups, Manipur organisations tell Centre-OxBig News Network

GUWAHATI: Four Manipur organisations representing the Meitei, Naga, and Thadou communities have appealed to the Centre not to renew the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreements with Kuki extremist groups, citing alleged repeated violations of the conditions and a failure to maintain law and order.

These organisations are the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum Manipur, Meitei Alliance, Foothill Naga Coordination Committee, and Thadou Inpi Manipur (TIM). They submitted a joint memorandum to Home Minister Amit Shah on July 3, justifying their demand for scrapping the peace deals with the Kuki groups.

A section of the Thadou tribe, represented by the TIM, resents being clubbed under the ‘Kuki’ nomenclature.

The four organisations claimed that some 25 groups under the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People’s Front (UPF), which signed the SoO agreements in 2008, were responsible for inciting violence that began on May 3, 2023, in Churachandpur, including arson in Torbung and Kanvai.

“The preamble of the SoO agreements states that KNO and UPF will completely abjure the path of violence and will not engage in violent or unlawful activities like killing, injuries, kidnappings, ambush, extortions, intimidations, carrying of arms in public and imposing of ‘tax’ or ‘fines’. Therefore, it establishes that the purpose of the SoO agreements is to maintain law and order, which is a State subject under the Constitution of India,” the joint memorandum read.

It pointed out that the agreements have a provision allowing the Manipur government to terminate and take appropriate action against the KNO and UPF if they violate the ground rules of the SoO agreements, based on the recommendation of the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG).

However, the JMG includes the very groups – KNO and UPF – responsible for violence and expected to recommend to the State government whether or not to take action against themselves, the organisations pointed out.

They said the State government has been unable to take action against the groups under the KNO and UPF because of the “flawed structure” of the SoO agreements, creating a “conflict of interest” and rendering “accountability impossible”.

The quartet of organisations highlighted that the Manipur government withdrew from the SoO agreements with groups like the Kuki National Army and the Zomi Revolutionary Army in March 2023 and formally opposed their renewal in January 2024.

Calling for peace and accountability, the memorandum suggested either an abrogation of the SoO agreements or a comprehensive overhaul of their structure. It also called for a re-election in the State to allow a popular government to decide on any future agreement and for the prosecution of any militants involved in violence, even if they are signatories to the SoO.

The groups stressed that the SoO must not become a “protector of violence”, but a genuine mechanism for ensuring non-violence and restoring normalcy in Manipur.