We are ready for peace talks, says Manipur activist

Philem Rohan Singh, a traveller and activist from Manipur, called for peace talks to end the four-month communal unrest between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo tribes in the north-eastern State. He urged both sides to stop the blame game and seek a middle ground. He requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and for all political parties to visit the State for reconciliation and peace measures. He also highlighted the atrocities against women and the burning of 45 homes and shops belonging to Tamils in Moreh.

“We are ready for peace talks... awaiting a response...,” said Philem Rohan Singh, a traveller and activist from Manipur, in Chennai on Friday, in a bid to put an end to the four-month communal unrest between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo tribes in the north-eastern State.

Pitching to be a representative of both sides being a Christian by religion and Meitei by ethnicity, he told presspersons that both sides -- Kuki-Zo blaming the Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh who is of the Meitei community for inaction, and the Meitei, the 10 MLAs, of the other community, who are demanding a separate administration, were indulging in a blame game.

The press conference was held by an organisation called the Chennai Manipuri Community. He claimed that there had been no history of wars or clashes waged by the Meitei community since 1892. Before that, there was the Anglo-Manipur War or Manipuri Rebellion of 1891, he said.

The cyclist claimed that roughly 250 churches of the Meitei community and about 80 of Kuki-Zho; and 393 Hindu temples were either looted, burnt or vandalised by mobs, some even by those belonging to the same communities.

According to him: “The blame game has to stop and the minority card cannot be played. We are ready for peace talks — even be it as a prayer meeting through pastors or evangelists. We are awaiting a response from the brothers and sisters of the Kuki-Zho community. The meeting can be in Delhi, Guwahati or Kolkata. A mutual understanding or middle ground has to be achieved. We request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in this. All [political] parties visiting the State must come for reconciliation and peace measures and not with any political agenda or seek mileage through this issue.”

He told The Hindu that atrocities against women took place on both sides and women of either community could not enter the territories where the opposite tribe was the majority at present.

“There are many narratives from the boundaries of Moreh and Churchandpur towns of women belonging to both tribes. Once a middle ground is achieved, women’s safety at the community level in all areas could fall in place too,” he said. The sexual violence incident in Kangpokpei district was highly condemnable, he said.