Why Kuki refugees in Assam still demand separate administration

All photos by the author

On his way back from Sunday Church gathering in the evening, Houzagin Howkip took a pit stop in the market corner of Howkip Punji, where he heard the prime news of the day from his fellow refugees.

“Chiinlian, tell your mother that now we have something to look forward to”, Houzagin (65), an Ex-serviceman of the Manipur Government, tells his elder daughter over the phone.

On Sunday, February 9, after almost 21 months of violent internal ethnic conflict that displaced many families like the Houzagin’s of their roots saw a long-awaited shift in the until now the sluggish political response of the Manipur assembly towards the Kuki-Hmar community.

Although Manipur CM Biren Singh’s resignation was long overdue, Kuki-Hmar refugees see it as a renewed scope for reinforcing their demands for a separate administration and reinstating their full-fledged rights in the Zale’n-gam, or the ‘land of freedom’; in Thadou-Kuki language it refers to the proposed homeland for Kuki-Zo community.

“With Biren Singh’s resignation, our hope was raised, but it can not assure our safety back in Manipur”, says Chiinlian Howkip (26), a former Kuki teacher in a Missionary School in Vengnuam village of Jiribam district of Manipur. She and her sister Gloria (12), a school student, were in Jiribam on that fateful night of June 6 2024 when their house was burnt to ashes. 

After spending a night of endless struggle hiding in the village forest, they were finally rescued by a team from Assam Rifle and crossed the Manipur border to take shelter in Howkip Punji in the Cachar District of Assam.

“Kill, kill, burn them down- I heard them shouting in chorus. I do not trust my Meitei friends anymore…the school where I worked was also burned down…I do not foresee a future there until our safety, employment, and rights are assured”, she shares, though her father is insistent on reclaiming his village land back and constantly worries about his daughters’ PRCs, jobs, and future.

Sundays were nothing different for Uniky and Soma Hmar since they settled in the refugee camps of Mirpur village in the Lakhipur subdivision along the Assam-Manipur border. On all mornings, they go to the nearby forests: Soma for cutting wood as a daily wage labourer and his wife Uniky for foraging to feed her family.

“I was preparing the night’s meal when my younger son told me the news of resignation”, shares Uniky, adding, “Though he has not been our CM for long…”

Lalrousan Hmar, the youngest son of Uniky, a teenager who was in the 9th standard, had to leave his world behind in Uchathol, a revenue village in Jiribam. On June 6, he ran away with his family when they saw the engulfing blaze in their neighbourhood.

“Initially, my friends from Uchathol called me to ensure I am okay…but then they started avoiding me”, Lalrousan recalled, “we had a football team…now lost touch with all of them”.

Uniky (52) was worried to death when her daughter Martha was in Imphal for her studies, later, she managed to escape and transfer to a college in Churachandpur. 

She shares, “I was a daily wage labourer in my village, but now I am out of work..” 

They were informed that their house was burned and all the meagre things they had were marauded in the meantime. 

“If things carry on like this then I don’t see a future for my family there…we want our jobs and lands back”, Uniky demands resolutely. “We want a permanent solution to the problem,” she tells EastMojo, after all the loss and harassment she and her family faced till now.

“I was returning from Cachar Cancer Hospital in Silchar after a doctor visit when I heard the news of CM’s resignation”, Thonzalian recalls, “that was another Sunday, on 9th June, when my neighbour sent me the video of our burned and razed home in Vengnuam.”

Guite Thonzalian (74), an ex-army man and a patient undergoing treatment for gastrointestinal cancer in Silchar, Assam, shares that his wife Nemjaniang (65) narrowly escaped death and walked through the forest patches in the pitch of the dark to cross the Jiri river on the night of 6th June and took refuge in Howkip Punji.

“I wanted to lodge an FIR in Churachandpur but could not manage to get the papers forwarded by the DC of Jiribam,” Thonzalian sighs, “they are even saying that a GPS image of the house is needed to claim the compensation…but in this health condition I can not go there and run after the officials”.

Eight months passed by, and the old couple still had not received any aid or assistance from any government authority they tried to approach. In despair, the couple declared that the fate of the state is “worrying,” adding anxiously that “this government has completely failed to resolve our issues.” 

Chief Minister’s resignation is not enough

Insiders claim that Biren Singh’s resignation was the outcome of constant mounting political pressure from all sides including its party MLAs, local allies, and National Democratic Alliance  (NDA) partners like Janata Dal (United), National People’s Party (NPP) that forced the BJP to finally decide on Singh’s removal. In addition, the suo-motu cognizance taken by the Supreme Court of the controversial ‘leaked audio tapes’ of Biren Singh led the Centre to take this “tactical step” auguring the loss of control over Manipur in the 2027 Assembly elections.

However, the Kuki-Zo communities living in Churachandpur, Kangpokpi as well as the Kuki-Hmar refugees living in different settlements in Assam-Manipur border areas have shown very disconcerted and lukewarm response towards the resignation.

Speaking to EastMojo, Ajang Khongsai, President of Kuki Inpi, an apex body of Kuki Tribes, said: “Biren Singh did many things wrong before his resignation that hindered the restoration of normalcy and peace in Manipur. But at this point, his resignation does not matter to us, it’s not enough. Since we can’t coexist with Meitei people, this change is inconsequential.”

Adding to that, Ginza Vualzong, the spokesperson of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) and Kuki-Zo Council told EastMojo, “Biren Singh should have resigned in the first year of violence itself. There has been too much bloodshed, I don’t think Kukis and Meiteis will be able to live in harmony again, even if the central government tells us to do so.”

President’s Rule can’t go on forever

With the imposition of the President’s Rule in Manipur, supposedly an interim break can be achieved from periodical incidences of violence and for creating a conducive environment for political dialogues, as opined by the Kuki Civil Society groups of Manipur.

“Imposing President’s rule can not change or settle the antipathy between Kuki and Meitei communities, and PR can not go on forever; with political dialogues, we must ensure that once the PR is withdrawn Kuki-Zo community doesn’t become vulnerable to attack once again,” reiterates Vualzong considering PR in furtherance of political discourse.

However, Khouraizam Athouba, the Convenor of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella group of Meitei CSOs, thinks that the sudden resignation of Chief Minister is “not a natural process” and the CM has been “forcefully made to resign”. He further told EastMojo that imposing PR without arranging an alternative leader is a “deliberate ploy” by the central government “to take over the administration” of the state and “undermine or hijack the democratic rights of the people.”

Demand for a Kuki Homeland

The nearly two-years-long persistent internal conflict, violence, and death have prompted a concomitant sense of fear and weariness among the Kuki-Hmar people against the populist administration.

Amongst the thousands of internally displaced Kuki-Hmar people, Chiinlian Howkip, Uniky Hmar, Guite Thonzalian, Isak Hmar, Limpui Hmar, Chandan Deb, and Lawkim Hmar are a handful of people whom EastMojo could talk to, and all of them in unison demanded firmly that they “won’t settle for less” than a separate administration and a Kuki homeland where their “safety and rights would be assured.”

Seilal Khongsai, the Vice President of the Kuki Students’ Organization (KSO) of Jiribam repeatedly affirmed, “At this point, our only focus is to constitute a separate administration, as we don’t want our people to face such crisis again in the future,” echoing the sentiments of Kuki-Hmar refugees.

“Since we can not live together with the Meitei community, and wherever we meet we kill each other, so there is no chance of peaceful co-existence. For this reason, we firmly stand for a separate administration in the form of a Union Territory with legislature powers under Article 239A of the Constitution,” stated Ajang Khongsai with conviction.

The peace talk

Though the Kuki-Zo people are steadfast in their objective of achieving a separate Union Territory for themselves, they are well-intentioned in exercising peace talks with the Central government, albeit reaffirming their demands.

“We appreciate that under the PR, the Governor is taking action to stop the violence. For a political dialogue to happen, the violence has to stop first, so now we can assume that we are moving ahead towards a political solution,” says Ginza Vualzong.

When spoken to EastMojo, Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, has said affirmingly, “We all Meiteis, Kuki-Zo, and other communities together form the state of Manipur,” he said, adding, “If necessary, we can sit with Kuki MLAs for a peace talk, with the consent of all the other authorities.” 

Also Read: Researchers achieve a huge breakthrough in preserving mandarins