GUWAHATI
A Naga village in Manipur’s Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi district has set a four-day deadline for the State government to take action against armed encroachers growing poppy for opium.
In a public statement on Saturday (November 24, 2024), the authority of Makhan village said “some Kuki groups and individuals” have been giving the Liangmai Naga landowners a difficult time through “pervasive encroachment”.
The village authority said residents accompanied a team of some 30 police personnel led by an Additional Superintendent of Police to destroy illegal poppy plantations on November 20.
“Poppy planters wielding guns and other weapons confronted our village volunteers and the police team,” the authority said, adding that aggressive poppy growers had damaged implements to destroy poppy plants, and forced the volunteers and police to retreat.
The operation to destroy the poppy plantation was in line with the government’s “war on drugs”, said to be one of the factors behind the prolonged ethnic conflict in Manipur that has left more than 260 people dead since May 2023.
The authority said the villagers had tried in vain to make the poppy planters leave the land peacefully but they had chosen the path of confrontation, which “shall not be tolerated”.
“We give the government four days (from November 23)... to destroy the poppy plants from our Makhan Liangmai Naga land and arrest those Kuki poppy cartel groups and individuals who brandished their arms and weapons on the young volunteers and damaged the equipment,” the village authority said.
It threatened to drive the encroachers out if the government failed to take any action against them.
Memos to global agencies
Seven Imphal Valley-based organisations have submitted a memorandum to the United Nations Secretary General, international human rights bodies, and the Government of India, demanding immediate action over the “massacre” of women and children in the Jakuradhor area of Manipur’s Jiribam district.
The organisations described the massacre as a deliberate and calculated act targeting vulnerable women and children, including an eight-month-old infant, who had sought refuge in a police station.
They argued that the incident was part of a larger pattern of violence by Kuki-Zo militias reportedly operating with impunity under the Suspension of Operations agreement with the Centre since 2005.
“This agreement enabled these militias to regroup and carry out acts of extortion, kidnapping, looting, and murder, particularly along Manipur’s national highways,” they said, highlighting New Delhi’s “failure to protect civilians and prevent such atrocities despite its commitment to upholding internal and international humanitarian laws.”
Pointing out that the massacre violated the Geneva Conventions of 1949 that provides minimum guarantees of human dignity during conflicts, the groups criticised the reimposition of the “undemocratic” Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in a sensitive part of Manipur.
Published - November 24, 2024 07:28 pm IST
