Selective Justice: More Reasons for Separate Administration

The recent abduction of 6 individuals ( 4 arrested and 2 dentained) from the Kuki-Zo community by the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI), suspected of involvement in the tragic murder of a Meitei couple, shines a stark spotlight on the harsh treatment meted out by both the Central and state governments towards the Kuki-Zo people. These events are emblematic of a wider pattern of alleged Meitei atrocities and the apparent complicity of the authorities.

The Kuki-Zo community has endured a litany of horrors, including ruthless killings, brutal acts of violence, public humiliation, rape, beheadings, and mutilation.

Shockingly, justice has remained an elusive concept, with the perpetrators continuing to evade punishment for their heinous deeds. The Kuki-Zo people were ruthlessly uprooted from their homes in Imphal, a Meitei-dominated region, forcing them to flee for their very lives.

Right from the outset, Manipur’s Chief Minister, N. Biren Singh, has been embroiled in allegations of shielding those responsible for these grotesque acts of violence against the Kuki-Zo people. The aftermath of the May 3 incident has further divided Manipur emotionally and geographically. It appears that the Meitei community, alongside their government, was resolutely united in their mission to displace and conquer the Kuki-Zo people and their ancestral homelands. Shockingly, reports suggest that the government provided arms, ammunition, and even state commandos to bolster the Meitei’s campaigns against Kuki-Zo villages. It is absolutely astounding that one of the accused in the murder of David Thiek is purportedly the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of a Meitei Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). This individual is said to have committed an atrocious act by brutally murdering David Thiek, decapitating him, and then parading his severed head as a gruesome display of victory – yet, remains at large.

The gravity of the crimes committed by the Meitei community cannot, and should not, be swept under the rug. The deeply disturbing incident on May 4, where Kuki-Zo women were shockingly paraded naked in broad daylight, is an indelible stain on humanity’s conscience.

To save face, the Meitei Chief Minister arrested seven individuals linked to this incident, but shockingly, many other perpetrators have escaped justice. Numerous other crimes perpetrated by the Meiteis in the Imphal valley have been conveniently overlooked or shamelessly justified as wartime incidents. Shockingly, even though the faces of these perpetrators were clearly captured in viral videos, their actions were dismissed as merely part and parcel of war. Astonishingly, the leaders of Meira Paibis, a women’s group, shamelessly justified the public humiliation of Kuki-Zo women, while a professor astonishingly justified the beheading of David Thiek as a routine wartime act. Even the majority government appears to have exhibited a callous disregard for the immense suffering endured by the Kuki-Zo people during these traumatic ethnic clashes.

A recent viral photograph depicting a Meitei couple has exacerbated existing tensions, with fingers pointed squarely at Kuki-Zo village volunteers as the alleged culprits. However, it is deeply troubling that no concrete evidence has been presented linking them to the tragic deaths of the Meitei couple in question. The Meiteis and their Chief Minister have insisted that the couple was killed in Kuki-Zo territory, raising uncomfortable questions about their presence there during a period of heightened ethnic violence between two communities. The actions of the Meitei community in the past provide a grim indication that they would not have shown clemency had the Kuki-Zo couple been caught within Meitei territory. The cold-blooded murders of Kuki-Zos, the grotesque acts of torture they endured before their deaths, and the shocking abuse of young girls by the Meira Paibis all serve as chilling reminders of the horrors that unfolded.

Regrettably, it appears that the Meitei government has spared no effort in protecting its own, all the while branding the Kuki-Zo people as the aggressors and conveniently ignoring the crimes perpetrated by the Meitei community. This glaring double standard, with swift action taken in the case of the Meitei couple’s murder, while justice is denied to the Kuki-Zo community, only adds fuel to the Kuki-Zo demand for a separate administration.