The CM of Manipur
who was accused by the Army Chief of
contributing a sum of Rs 1.5 crore to two
'militant organizations', now goes on record
to say that all development work is stalled
because militants are 'demanding a certain
percentage of the project fund'.
There is little semblance of governmental
authority in Manipur, and, on April 23,
Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh
confirmed in public what had, in the past,
largely remained a matter of private
discussion. At a public meeting in Thoubal
district, Singh confessed,
"All development projects have been stalled
for interference by militant outfits (sic).
The construction of a flyover in Imphal (the
state capital) is delayed because the
militant outfits are demanding a certain
percentage of the project fund. The
construction of the Assembly complex has
also been similarly stalled."
The Chief Minister stated further:
"Militants are extorting money from each and
every one, including barbers, small-time
traders and low-ranking government
employees. This has become unbearable for
the people. Militant groups have sprung up
as cooperative societies in Manipur."
Ibobi Singh’s statement, apart from
reflecting the state’s impotence, is only a
part of the narrative on militancy in the
state, which accounts for just 0.23 per cent
of the country's population, and 0.68 per
cent of its total geographical area.
Violence by 15 active outfits, with a total
cadre strength of about 10,000, ensured
that, in 2005, Manipur remained the most
violent state in India’s Northeast, and the
second most violent in the country, behind
Jammu & Kashmir.
According to the Annual Report 2005-06 of
the Ministry of Home Affairs, 410 fatalities
were recorded in 2005 in militancy related
activities in Manipur, a huge leap over the
corresponding figure of 258 in 2004. While a
number of other states in the Northeast have
or are been reclaimed from protracted
insurgencies, Manipur’s rendezvous with
militancy appears to be an unending affair.
According to Institute for Conflict
Management data, sustained terrorist
violence in 2006 had already claimed 118
lives in the state by April 30. Although
terrorists constituted a little over 50 per
cent of the total fatalities, figures for
civilians (38) and security force personnel
(19) remained high. Unabated extortion and
its impact on ordinary lives, as well as
those of people at the helm of affairs are
symptomatic of the complete administrative
breakdown in the state.
Militant excesses and extortion affects
everyone, from humble school teacher to the
Chief Minister of the state. A sampling of
recent incidents reflects the pervasive
reality of terror:
On April 1, 2006, four staff members of a
private recording studio belonging to the
Hmar community are abducted by Kuki National
Front (KNF) cadres belonging to its Zougam
faction from Tuibong for their refusal to
pay extortion amount of Rupees 200,000.
On March 23, 2006, a school head master,
Thokchom MR alias Ibungochouba Meetei, who
had been served an extortion notice
amounting to Rupees 3000, is dragged away
from his residence and subsequently shot
dead by unidentified militants at Tera
Sayang Kuraou Makhong under Lamphel police
station in the Imphal West district.
In December 2005, Army Chief J.J. Singh
accused Chief Minister Ibobi Singh, of
contributing a sum of Rs.1.5 crore to two
militant organizations, Kanglei Yawol Kanna
Lup (KYKL) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA),
operating in the state.
The breakdown of administration in Manipur
has long been noted with a number of groups
undermining the very possibility of
governance. The militant KYKL, with an
avowed agenda ridding the state of endemic
corruption in the education sector, decreed,
on April 24, 2006, that it would henceforth
no longer ‘kneecap’ the ‘corrupt officials’
in the education department, but would
summarily inflict capital punishment.
Langamba Mangang, the group’s ‘publicity and
research secretary’, warned, "Corruption in
the education department will not be
tolerated anymore. Based on the gravity of
the crime, death penalty will be given
without any warning to officials found
guilty of corruption." KYKL cadres had, in
fact, shot the Director of Education, Dr. Ch
Jayenta on April 4, 2006, leaving him
critically injured. In a statement issued on
April 23, the outfit declared that it had
prescribed the death penalty for him on
account of his involvement in ‘countless
acts of corruption’.
In another dramatic development, on April
16, 2006, the City Meitei faction of the
Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) detained
editors of six newspapers published from
Imphal overnight on the grounds that the
newspapers had failed to publish a statement
issued by the outfit on the occasion of its
‘raising day’. The editors were set free
only after these newspapers published the
statement verbatim. A two-year ban was also
imposed by the outfit on the Imphal Free
Press, one of the prominent English language
dailies published from the state capital.
The ban was revoked only after newspapers in
Imphal went off the stands on April 19 in
protest against such interference. In the
context of a completely ‘hands off’ approach
on the part of the Administration, such rare
demonstrations of solidarity among the
victims have been a source of a modicum of
order in the state.
In a particularly appalling action, on
January 16, 2006, United National Liberation
Front (UNLF) and KCP militants went on
rampage in the Lungthulien and Parbung
villages of Churachandpur District, raping
21 women of the Hmar tribe. The incident was
reported only in the first week of March, as
the victims had chosen to remain silent
fearing reprisals from the militants. After
prolonged demonstrations the state
government constituted the Justice S.P.
Rajkhowa Commission to inquire into the
incident. Irrespective of the findings of
the Commission, however, bringing the
militants to justice remains outside the
current capacities of the government.
Continuing
militant excesses underline this point, and
reports on April 28 indicated that
atrocities by UNLF militants had forced
about 200 Hmar tribals from villages like
Damdiai to flee into bordering Mizoram.
Similar incidents of militant atrocities
have also been reported in the past from
Lungthulien, Parbung, Taithu and Tualbung
villages. Further, an unidentified militant
outfit forced people out of three villages
in Kangpokpi sub-division of Senapati
District following a factional clash on
April 23. Armed militants astride
motorcycles affected large-scale
displacement from the Sipichang, Saitu and
Songlung villages, located barely 70
kilometers away from the state capital,
Imphal. A portion of National Highway 39,
connecting Imphal to Kohima, the capital of
Nagaland, has been taken over by militants,
who have declared a ‘curfew’ in the area.
A number of high profile attacks have been
executed periodically by the militants, and
the current year already accounts for the
following:
April 11: Militants of the Zomi
Revolutionary National Front (ZRNF) attack
the Imphal residence of Member of
Parliament, Mani Charenamai.
March 15: Militants opened fire at the house
of Chief Minister, O. Ibobi Singh, at
Thoubal Athokpam in the Imphal city.
February 8: A senior journalist and General
Secretary of the All Manipur Working
Journalist Union, Ratan Luwangcha, was shot
at and wounded by three unidentified
militants at his residence in the Imphal
West District.
The state’s paralysis is inexplicable from a
purely security perspective. Apart from high
level deployment of the Army and
Para-military Forces, Manipur actually
boasts of a dramatically higher
police-population ratio, at 531 per 100,000
population, than the national average at
123. Apart from a comparatively top heavy
structure – the ratio of Police officials
from Director General to Assistant
Sub-Inspector level to that of Head
constables and constables is 1.9 compared to
the national average of 1.7 – the Police
remain peripheral to the counter-insurgency
effort, largely confined to the role of
passive spectator. Thus, despite the grossly
exaggerated police-population ratio, central
forces account for a bulk of terrorist
fatalities in the state. According to the
Annual Report of the Manipur Police, its
personnel were responsible for the death of
55 terrorists in 2005. A total of 202
militants were killed in that year,
according to the Union Ministry of Home
Affairs.
At the meeting in Thoubal on April 23, where
Chief Minister Singh confessed his
predicament, the state’s Governor S.S. Sidhu
spoke of "our disgruntled brothers" and
mildly suggested that the path they were
following was "not the right one". This
tentative and morally ambiguous position is
precisely what has undermined the authority
of the state and of law in Manipur for years
now. There is an acute disinclination to
take strong action against the mounting
excesses of "our brothers", and as long as
such attitudes persist, Manipur will remain
a living hell for a majority of its people.
*** Bibhu Prasad Routray is Research
Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management.
*** The article has been published with due
permission from the Institute for Conflict
Management (ICM).
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