Manipur’s displaced pray for stronger Mizoram to help them go back
The Hindu
Displaced Kuki-Zo people from Manipur seek a Mizoram govt that is considerate and strong enough to help them return home. 65-yr-old Teresa Manhau and Elisabeth Vungkhanching pray for safety and peace, while John Zo, a camp leader, hopes the next govt is sympathetic. MNF, ZPM, Congress, and BJP are vying for seats in the State Assembly, with MNF claiming to be most vocal about the displaced people's cause.
AIZAWL
Teresa Manhau used to pray twice a day until May 3 when the fire of ethnic violence engulfed Sugnu Zoveng, her village on the border between Chandel and Kakching districts in Manipur.
She added a prayer specifically for the safety of her community as she and other Kuki-Zo people kept moving through the hills to reach Mizoram’s capital Aizawl a fortnight later.
The 65-year-old has now added a fourth prayer – for the next Mizoram government to be as considerate as the current one headed by the Mizo National Front (MNF) but stronger to help them return home.
Elisabeth Vungkhanching, displaced from a Zo tribal village on the periphery of Manipur’s Imphal Valley dominated by the non-tribal Meitei people, has the same prayers on her lips.
“We have been made to feel at home in Mizoram but I cannot find peace until I return to our ancestral land. It has been almost five months since we left the home that was reduced to ashes,” she said, the pain of being separated from her siblings and eight of her nine children writ large on her face.
Ms. Manhau and Ms. Vungkhanching are among more than 300 people belonging to 56 Kuki-Zo families displaced from Manipur living in a Mizoram government residential block at Falkland on the outskirts of Aizawl.