Kuki body asks NHRC to reject Manipur govt. action taken reports denying State complicity

The Kuki organisation for Human Rights Trust has written to the National Human Rights Commission, requesting that it reject the action taken reports submitted by the Manipur government in a case in which the organisation had alleged State complicity in the ethnic conflict in Manipur.

“These reports demonstrate a systematic denial of institutional failure, ethnic targetting, and state complicity,” the KOHRT said in its letter to the NHRC. It added that the action taken reports submitted earlier were “incomplete, misleading, and legally insufficient”, relying on what it called “selective data”.

In the reports, the Manipur government has said that allegations that the State “chooses to support and assist” militants/terrorist groups of the dominant community were “wrong and misconceived”.

The KOHRT is a civil society organisation that emerged in the shadow of the ethnic conflict in the State between the valley-based Meitei community and the hill-based Scheduled Tribe Kuki-Zo communities. It has also approached the Supreme Court with voice recordings, claiming that they proved erstwhile Chief Minister N. Biren Singh’s alleged complicity in fanning the ethnic conflict.

Asking the NHRC to reject the reports, the KOHRT asked the commission to issue a public censure over the reports in 15 days.

The civil society organisation once again requested the commission to order an independent judicial inquiry into alleged State complicity in the violence. The KOHRT also sought directions to “immediately protect” properties of the Kuki-Zo people in Imphal and recommend the establishment of a separate administration for the Kuki-Zo people.