Dimapur, December 4 (MExN): Strongly asserting that the Kuki National Organisation has begun the process of unifying the Kuki people to preserve the territorial integrity of Zale’n-gam, the ancestral Kuki lands, the united old Kuki army, comprising the Maring people, today solemnly pledged to align with the Kuki national organisation.
A press statement e-mailed by the “united old Kuki army”, said that the Maring people, belong to the categorization ‘old Kuki’, coined by the British to divide Zale’n-gam, between British India and British Burma; as a means to carry out ‘divide and rule’ policy among the indigenous ethnic Kuki people.
The asserted that the same policy of the British was carried out by the “Tangkhul missionaries”, who, instead of being faithful to preaching the gospel of Christ among the ‘old Kuki’ groups in Chandel, focused on dividing the Kukis and influenced the ‘old Kuki’ people to be identified as Naga after converting them to Christianity.
The release asserted that after the role of the “Tangkhul missionaries”, the NSCN (IM) created further division among the Kukis through the use of gun-power. “They threatened the people of Chandel to identify as Naga or else face their guns. Their policy is to divide the Kukis so that their ancestral lands can be included to ‘Nagalim’,” the release maintained.
The release stated that since Chandel is populated one hundred per cent by the Kukis, the Tangkhul missionaries and NSCN (IM) have been determined to perpetuate division among them. The release in this regard, said that, instigated by false propaganda and use of force to make the Kukis say that they are Naga; many Kuki youths, women and children and many more have died from 1992-1997, ‘when NSCN (IM) carried out the Kuki genocide’.
In this connection the release stated that just like the British, who dividied the Kukis to rule over them, the Tangkhuls and NSCN (IM) have done the same.
In the same vein, the release said that the valley based militants, such as UNLF, plans to include our ancestral lands to Kangleipak so that they may continue to dominate the Kukis.
In this connection, the release expressed strong supported the KNO in their quest to unite the Kuki people under one umbrella.
“A new dawn is upon us because the Kuki National Organisation has begun the process of unifying our people, which will also preserve the territorial integrity of Zale’n-gam, our ancestral lands,” the release stated.
The release therefore said that in their determination to achieve the political ideology of Zale’-gam to create Kuki statehood; one in India and another in Burma, the united old Kuki army, comprising the Maring people, solemnly pledge allegiance to the Kuki national organisation. The united old Kuki army comprises the eleventh armed wing of the Kuki national organisation, the release stated.
In this regard, the united old Kuki army, strongly urged each and every ethnic brethren in Chandel, such as anal, Moyon and Monshang, Chothe, Chiru, and Lamkang to return to their Kuki roots and join the noble task of preserving the unity and territorial integrity of Zale’n-gam, the ancestral lands of the Kukis.
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