The broken bonds

The Meiteis and Kukis lived as neighbours in Moreh until the clashes last week...

K hogen Singh will never be able to sleep off the terror of that afternoon on June 9. It has been a week since clashes rocked the Indo-Myanmar border town of Moreh, claiming 11 lives and deepening the rift between the Meitei and Kuki communities, but Singh still looks shaken as he recounts the events that forced him to flee his home.

8216;8216;They came down the hills bordering our locality, and began firing. 8216;Come out, all Meiteis8217;, they shouted. We lay flat on the floor of our houses, scared of getting hit by stray bullets. The gunmen started breaking down some doors. But then, the personnel of the India Reserve Battalion IRB arrived and the gunmen retreated. We left with the IRB for the town centre and took refuge in hotels there.8217;8217;

Singh and 300-odd Meitei residents of Ward No. 9 are yet to return to their homes despite a tentative peace that has been restored by state and Central security forces.

Following last Saturday8217;s violence, hundreds of Meiteis have taken refuge in Moreh8217;s hotels 8212; the small lobbies, dining halls, rooms and corridors are packed with terror-stricken Meitei men, women and children.

Many have returned to their homes in the last couple of days following assurances from security forces but Meitei residents of wards 7 and 9 8212; both Kuki dominated 8212; are still afraid, says Singh, as he lines up at a temple with his neighbours for relief supplies.

Though the Meiteis form the majority in Manipur 8212; 12 lakh as per the 2001 Census 8212; in Moreh, they are in a minority, making up only about 15 per cent of the town8217;s population. In comparison, the Kukis constitute slightly more than 50 per cent. The rest are made up of smaller communities like the Punjabis, Marwaris, Tamils, Meitei Pangals Muslims and ethnic minority tribals. Given such a varied smorgasbord of communities, Moreh has often been called Manipur8217;s 8216;mini India8217;.

But it took less than a month for that chemistry to go all wrong. It started with the killing of an alleged former militant of the People8217;s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak by unknown gunmen. The next day, suspected Kuki militants attacked two Meitei residents, killing one of them. Two Kukis were killed on May 26 and May 31. And from there, the situation spun out of control.

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Brigadier Raymond Noronha, commander, 26 Sector, Assam Rifles, who has been camping in Moreh since the killings, says the clashes are a fallout of the turf war between Meitei insurgent group United National Liberation Front UNLF and the Kuki National Army KNA. 8216;8216;Everyone wants to control the Moreh trade as it is so lucrative. Meitei militants, who have established camps in Myanmar, sneak across the border for extortion and related activities,8217;8217; says Noronha.

The others players in Moreh are the Meitei Council, Moreh MCM and the Hill Tribal Council HTC. The MCM alleges that the Assam Rifles is secretly backing the KNA in Moreh. According to MCM President L. Imobi Singh, the Kukis want Moreh all to themselves. 8216;8216;We want peace but the Kukis want to dominate us. They want HTC laws that are applied in hill districts to apply here as well.8217;8217;

However, HTC President Jangmang Haokip says the 8216;8216;wounds8217;8217; inflicted on the Kukis by the UNLF since November last year are too deep to heal. 8216;8216;Ever since the Army began operations in Chandel district against the UNLF, they have been targeting Kuki villagers and trying to hound them out of the area,8217;8217; says Haokip.

On our way back, the usually busy NH-39 is silent and empty 8212;just the way it was when we drove into Moreh. The Meitei owner of the telephone booth across our hotel walks over. 8216;8216;Can you please take my wife and children to Imphal to my sister-in-law8217;s?8217;8217; We agree. As his wife Triveni and two children pile in, she adds: 8216;8216;They are quite disturbed by the firing. In a few years, I will send them out of Moreh. This is no place for children.8217;8217;