Don't let 'Golden Triangle' emerge in region: Manipur civil society tells EU

Imphal: The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has said the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on July 13 on the Manipur violence was guided by wrong and misleading perspective.

The Imphal Valley-based civil society organisation pointed out that the recent violence which erupted in Manipur was not on religious lines.

A letter by COCOMI to European Parliament president Roberta Metsola said, “Your resolutions were guided by wrong and misleading perspective which made you arrive at a flawed understanding of the issue in Manipur as a conflict between Christian minority and majority Meitei Hindu”.

The civil society has asked the European Parliament not to let Manipur become the “new Golden Triangle” of drug trade by projecting the violence between what it called “immigrant Chin-Kuki narco- terrorists” and Meitei people as a religious conflict.

COCOMI rejected the opinion of the members of the EU and said it was derived from a web of lies fed by vested interest groups.

COCOMI's letter to the EU comes days after the Assam Rifles registered a sedition and defamation case against the chief of COCOMI after the outfit gave a call to people “not to surrender weapons.”

“We have registered an FIR against COCOMI against Jitendra Ningomba, convener of COCOMI, at Churachandpur police station, under Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), pertaining to sedition; Section 153 A IPC, promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc,” a police officer said.

More than 160 people have lost their lives, and several have been injured since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3, when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley, while tribals, which include Nagas and Kukis, constitute 40 per cent and reside mostly in the hill districts.