Guwahati: The Zomi Students’ Federation, in response to the recent unanimous resolution adopted by the Manipur Legislative Assembly urging the Central Government to abrogate the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement signed in 2008 with the United People’s Front (UPF) and the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), has voiced its concerns.
The resolution, they said, is yet another example of the failure of legislators and leading figures of the State Government belonging to the majority community to think beyond their own community and testifies to their aversion to peaceful coexistence, not only in the state, but in the Northern Eastern Region in general.
“The grounds often cited for the abrogation of SoO are based on fabrications and
conveniently fit into the false narratives framed by the Meiteis against the ‘Zo’ people.
The fabricated grounds for the resolution – that SoO is detrimental to peace in the
state, that SoO ground rules are being violated and the like are nothing short of an
attempt to disrupt ongoing talks and form an integral part of the nefarious designs
of the ongoing state sponsored ethnic cleansing,” a statement from its Information & Publicity Wing said.
The baseless allegations by the state government in the absence of any such reports by the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG), it said, is a means to fault the SoO groups and a means to evade accountability.
Since the State Government unilaterally withdrew from the SoO agreement on March 10, 2023, they argued that it no longer holds the authority to interfere in this matter. They stress that SoO has evolved into a bipartite negotiation between the Central Government and the UPF and KNO, with issues related to SoO now considered within the purview of Valley Based Insurgent Groups (VBIGs).
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The student body highlighted that SoO remains a representation of the desire for peace and negotiations for a political settlement under the Constitution of India, unlike the SoO signed recently with a VBIG, namely, UNLF (P) which has only resulted in more violence in the valley districts.
“We urge the Central Government Leadership to rise above party politics and political calculations and re-impose AFSPA in the 19 police stations of the valley districts,” the student body said.
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These shameless kuki-zo people have the audacity to claim that their 24 Terrorists groups are peaceful when they are the ones who are attacking and firing at meitei civilians and farmers. Also these kuki-zo terrorists have violated the SOO agreement by leaving their designated camps and attacking meitei civilians with their sophisticated weapons. A big evidence is the fact that a police officer in command in Moreh was shot dead by a sniper while he was inspecting a helipad. Now these kuki-zos regularly lie that they only have hunting single barrel guns for defending themselves then how do they explain the snipers. Also daily meitei farmers are being fired upon by snipers from the hills towards the valley. These kuki-zo hypocrites can lie to their teeth. Cunning hyenas acting all innocent while committing atrocities daily upon the meitei civilians.