MHA calls meeting on Tuesday to find a solution to ethnic conflicts in Manipur

Imphal: In a significant development, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has called an important meeting of MLAs of Meitei, Naga, and Kuki-Zo communities in New Delhi on Tuesday to find a solution to the protracted ethnic strife in Manipur and restore peace, sources said on Monday.

Though the officials neither denied nor confirmed the Tuesday meeting, ministers and MLAs of Meitei, Naga, and Kuki-Zo communities have separately confirmed the meeting.

Sources said that the few Ministers and MLAs of Meitei and Naga communities are likely to attend the meeting but Ministers and MLAs belonging to Kuki-Zo communities have not yet decided to participate in the crucial meeting.

Cabinet Minister Letpao Haokip, who belongs to the Kuki community, confirmed that there was a proposal from the MHA to hold the meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the prevailing ethnic situation in Manipur.

"We (Kuki-Zo MLAs) have not yet decided to participate in Tuesday's meeting. We have not even discussed the meetings among ourselves," Haokip told IANS over the phone.

Local media in Imphal reported that all the Naga, Kuki-Zo, and Meitei MLAs/Ministers, who are scheduled to take part in the talks, were personally invited by the MHA through letters and telephone calls.

Meanwhile, ten MLAs, including seven BJP legislators, since the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur in May last year, have been demanding separate administrations or a Union Territory for the tribals in Manipur.

The 10 legislators included Letpao Haokip and Nemcha Kipgen, who are ministers in Chief Minister N. Biren Singh-led 12-member ministry in Manipur.

The state and the Central governments, both of the BJP, have, on a number of occasions, rejected the demand for separate administrations or a Union Territory.

This is the first time that the MHA has called a meeting to discuss the ethnic strife between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities after violence began in Manipur over 17 months ago.

The ethnic violence between the non-tribals Meiteis and tribal Kuki-Zo broke out in the northeastern state on May 3 last year after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

So far, over 230 people have been killed in the strife. As many as 11,133 houses have been set on fire, out of which 4,569 homes have been completely destroyed. A total of 11,892 cases have been registered in different police stations in connection with the ethnic violence. The state government has established 302 relief camps to provide shelter to 59,414 internally displaced persons.