Strife-torn Manipur: First tripartite meeting with warring Meitei and Kuki communities remains inconclusive

New Delhi:Aiming to resolve ongoing conflict in Manipur, the Centre on Saturday held a first tripartite meeting with representatives of Manipur's warring Meitei and Kuki communities in an effort to bring lasting peace to the strife-torn state.

A six-member Meitei delegation comprising representatives from the All Manipur United Clubs' Organisation (AMUCO) and the Federation of Civil Society Organisations (FOCS) attended the meeting.

The Kuki delegation comprised about nine representatives.

Four senior officials from the government, including Union home ministry’s adviser for the Northeast region A.K. Mishra, a retired special director of the Intelligence Bureau, and joint director of the ministry Rajesh Kamble were present in the meeting.

The meeting was held as part of the Central government's initiatives to find an amicable solution to the ongoing conflict between the two communities, which began in May 2023.

The sources in the participating Kuki-Zo faction said that the meeting remained inconclusive, as there was a proposal to issue a joint peace appeal to which they (Kuki-Zo) did not agree. They also said that the Union home ministry will fix up the date and venue for the next round of the tripartite meeting.

The meeting was aimed at enhancing trust and cooperation between the Meiteis and Kukis and finding a roadmap to restore peace and normalcy in Manipur, sources said, adding that the discussions also stressed maintaining law and order and facilitating reconciliation between the two communities.

A senior official of the Manipur government at Imphal said that the first tripartite meeting was held on Saturday as part of the government's endeavour to find a mutual solution to the ethnic conflict between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities, which began on May 3, 2023, over the tribal status demand of the Meiteis.

Earlier on January 17, the leaders of the Kuki-Zo Council (KZC), a conglomerate of 13 organisations of the Kuki-Zo tribal communities in Manipur, held a meeting with senior officials of the MHA in New Delhi and discussed their demands and the prevailing situation in the northeastern state. The KZC and 10 tribal MLAs have been demanding a separate administration equivalent to a Union Territory for the Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal-dominated areas.

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella body of several Imphal valley-based civil society organisations, described Saturday's meeting between warring Meitei and Kuki communities called by the Centre in Delhi as another “symbolic gesture” to solve the state's ethnic problems.

COCOMI demanded unimpeded access to highways and vital roadways, in line with Union home minister Amit Shah's declaration, and prosecution of individuals and groups defying the peace overtures to restore public confidence in the President's Rule imposed in February.

In a statement issued at Imphal on Saturday, COCOMI accused the Centre of “repeatedly employing symbolic gestures to create a facade of resolution, with no sincere or substantive steps to address the root causes of this crisis”.

The Meitei group claimed that it declined to participate in the meeting, as it was a "ploy" to validate the statement of the Union home minister in Parliament earlier this week.

During a debate on Manipur in Lok Sabha on Thursday, Shah had said that the home ministry had held separate meetings with different organisations from both the Meitei and Kuki communities and now it will convene a joint meeting.

"The latest meeting was hastily convened with a handful of individuals from both sides,” the COCOMI claimed.

While moving a statutory resolution for confirmation of President's Rule in Manipur, the Union home minister in Rajya Sabha had said that while the government is working to find a path to end the violence, the top priority is to establish peace.

Shah said the situation in Manipur is largely under control, as there has been no death in the last four months, but it can't be considered satisfactory as the displaced people are still living in relief camps.

President's rule in Manipur was imposed on February 13 after the then chief minister N. Biren Singh resigned on February 9. The state Assembly, which has a tenure till 2027, has been put under suspended animation.

About 260 people have lost their lives ever since the ethnic violence broke out between the Imphal valley-based Meitei and neighbouring hills-based Kuki communities in May 2023.

Former Union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, who took charge as governor on January 3, has ever since been meeting a cross-section of people and taking feedback from them on how to bring back normalcy in the state.

The violence in Manipur began after a "Tribal Solidarity March" organised in the hill districts to protest against an order of the Manipur High Court on the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status.