![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
16-05-2023, 04:31 PM
Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi
Tue 16 May 2023 03.23 BST
......
an eruption of ethnic violence in which more than 70 were murdered and 30,000 forced to flee.
The bloodshed which began on 3 May has mostly abated, but there is little hope of a swift return to normality.
Food is scarce; a curfew is still enforced by the army and paramilitary troops; the internet remains suspended; shops, schools and offices are closed; thousands of people remain stranded in crowded and unsanitary refugee camps. And reports of fresh violence over the weekend prompted fresh displacements.
“This is a civil war situation,” said John Mamang, a lawyer and relief volunteer in the town of Churachandpur.
A villager inspects the debris of a ransacked church that was set alight during ethnic violence in Heirokland.
Shortages of food and medicine are becoming acute, said Mamang, who on Monday was unable to even find rice to donate to a nearby camp.
“People are beginning to starve. Some haven’t eaten for two to three days. When I reached the camp, a woman had just delivered a baby, with no medicines or medical help and in the clothes she’d been wearing for five days,” he said.
Most of the victims were from the mainly Christian hill tribes such as the Kukis, but members of the mostly Hindu Meitei people were also targeted.
......
Moses Varte, a Kuki in Churachandpur, said “separation is the only answer”, adding “This was ethnic cleansing of the hill people. Now we can only feel safe as a minority if we have our own state.”
......
The fact that Kukis were targeted in the city – despite the presence of security forces – has for many hill tribe members underlined a sense that they cannot be safe anywhere in the state.
......
The spark for the latest outbreak of violence in Manipur was a plan to grant the majority Meitei the status of a “scheduled tribe” which would give them access to quotas in government jobs and colleges under India’s affirmative action policy.
Tribal leaders say the Meiteis are already better off and dominate the government, police, and civil service. Granting them more privileges would be unfair, the Kukis argue, and would allow the Meiteis access to the forest lands which have been occupied by the tribes for centuries.
......
Police have been accused of favouring the majority Meitei community. The Kukis evacuated to the safety of army-run camps claimed police did not defend them, or even joined the mobs.
......
“The physical separation that’s already there will now become complete segregation. That, I think, will form the basis for a separate hill state,” said Fimsangpui. “We can no longer trust the Manipur government. It does not want to protect us. And we do not want to forget the cries of those who died. We have to keep the memory of them alive.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/m...e-in-india
Tue 16 May 2023 03.23 BST
......
an eruption of ethnic violence in which more than 70 were murdered and 30,000 forced to flee.
The bloodshed which began on 3 May has mostly abated, but there is little hope of a swift return to normality.
Food is scarce; a curfew is still enforced by the army and paramilitary troops; the internet remains suspended; shops, schools and offices are closed; thousands of people remain stranded in crowded and unsanitary refugee camps. And reports of fresh violence over the weekend prompted fresh displacements.
“This is a civil war situation,” said John Mamang, a lawyer and relief volunteer in the town of Churachandpur.
A villager inspects the debris of a ransacked church that was set alight during ethnic violence in Heirokland.
Shortages of food and medicine are becoming acute, said Mamang, who on Monday was unable to even find rice to donate to a nearby camp.
“People are beginning to starve. Some haven’t eaten for two to three days. When I reached the camp, a woman had just delivered a baby, with no medicines or medical help and in the clothes she’d been wearing for five days,” he said.
Most of the victims were from the mainly Christian hill tribes such as the Kukis, but members of the mostly Hindu Meitei people were also targeted.
......
Moses Varte, a Kuki in Churachandpur, said “separation is the only answer”, adding “This was ethnic cleansing of the hill people. Now we can only feel safe as a minority if we have our own state.”
......
The fact that Kukis were targeted in the city – despite the presence of security forces – has for many hill tribe members underlined a sense that they cannot be safe anywhere in the state.
......
The spark for the latest outbreak of violence in Manipur was a plan to grant the majority Meitei the status of a “scheduled tribe” which would give them access to quotas in government jobs and colleges under India’s affirmative action policy.
Tribal leaders say the Meiteis are already better off and dominate the government, police, and civil service. Granting them more privileges would be unfair, the Kukis argue, and would allow the Meiteis access to the forest lands which have been occupied by the tribes for centuries.
......
Police have been accused of favouring the majority Meitei community. The Kukis evacuated to the safety of army-run camps claimed police did not defend them, or even joined the mobs.
......
“The physical separation that’s already there will now become complete segregation. That, I think, will form the basis for a separate hill state,” said Fimsangpui. “We can no longer trust the Manipur government. It does not want to protect us. And we do not want to forget the cries of those who died. We have to keep the memory of them alive.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/m...e-in-india
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