Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights
seeks urgent intervention of Prime Minister
DIMAPUR, JULY 21 (MExN): The Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights (KWOHR) has sought the urgent intervention of the Prime Minister of India to address and redress the plight and suffering of Kuki women and children in the ongoing crisis in Manipur.
In a memorandum addressed to PM Narendra Modi, the KWOHR highlighted on the unabated crimes and gross violation of human rights perpetrated by the Meiteis, particularly on the Kuki women and children, which it alleged was a “State-sponsored ethnic cleansing pogrom.”
It condemned the May 4 incident at B Phainom, under Nongpok Sekmai police station, wherein the modesty of two Kuki women were outraged when they were paraded naked, dragged and gang raped in broad daylight. The KWOHR said that such grave “human rights violation and cruelty on humanity is unheard of even in the Taliban-ruled states.”
Equally reprehensible was the manner in which the Nongpok Sekmai police station, under the Thoubal Superintendent of Police, concealed the FIR lodged, it added.
Stating that the May 4 incident was one case out of many, the KWOHR sought to highlight some of the glaring cases of the numerous instances of the “gravest human rights violations and untold hardships and sufferings undergone by the women and children” in the hand of its perpetrators.
The incidents it cited in the memorandum included the alleged rape and murder of a woman of K Lhangnom; the gang rape and killings of two women at Porompat, Imphal East; Meena Hangshing and her son, who were burnt to death in an ambulance at Iroisemba, Imphal West, Manipur; the rape of a woman at Khongsai Veng, Imphal.
It further recalled the case of Thiandam Vaiphei, of Pheitaiching village, who was charred to death; Issac, a two-year old child, who was bludgeoned to death; the shooting death of two women namely, Nianghoihching and Kim Malsawm at Lanika; the killing of Lamkhohoi at Khoken village; shooting of Domngaihching at Lamphel, Imphal and the post-partum death of a woman, fleeing the violence, in Thingkangphai, Chandel district.
The KWOHR in its memorandum to the Prime Minister alleged that “even the elderly, the aged and the infants were not spared” by the Arambai Tenggol and the Meitei Leepun, which it claimed was “patronised by Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Maharaja Leisemba Sanajaoba, a Rajya Sabha MP from Manipur, respectively.”
Alarmed that sexual violence and rape as a method or tactic of warfare is being widely perpetrated against hapless Kuki women in Manipur, the KWOHR said crimes against humanity entails for central government's urgent intervention in the investigation process to deliver justice to the victims.
The KWOHR also pointed out that shutdown of internet services in Manipur has hindered revelation of truth and facts of human rights abuses and sexual violence being committed with impunity upon the Kukis by the Meiteis.
For an Indian society, which places great emphasis on the rights, liberties and modesty of women, the KWOHR demanded that the Government of India must urgently constitute an inquiry commission to remedy the plight of the victims, as per the relevant legal provisions and Acts.
It maintained that such cases of atrocities on women and gross human rights violations upon the Kukis would continue to happen until the Kukis have separate administration of their own. It urged the Government to expedite the process of a separate state.
