Manipur Panel Began Identifying Immigrants 5 Weeks Before Clashes Began In May 2023

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Five weeks before the Manipur ethnic clashes began in May 2023, a cabinet subcommittee comprising ministers from the three major communities visited three villages to make an assessment of the situation on “identification of Myanmarese immigrants/refugees”, reports submitted by the subcommittee show.

Tribal Affairs and Hills Minister Letpao Haokip, who belongs to the Kuki tribes, headed the subcommittee, with Water Resources Minister Awangbow Newmai, a Naga, and Law Minister Th Basanta Kumar Singh, a Meitei, as the two other members.

They visited the three villages between March 26, 2023 and April 1, 2023, and met Myanmar nationals – including a Member of Parliament from the neighbouring country – living in community halls under the watch of the village chiefs.

The Kuki tribes in Manipur still follow the archaic hereditary chieftainship system – blamed for power struggles among siblings and mushrooming of villages – which has been abolished even in neighbouring Mizoram where kindred tribes live.

The subcommittee never made subsequent visits after clashes broke out on May 3, 2023 between the Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur.

Letpao Haokip later joined the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs who went on to demand a separate administration carved out from Manipur. Kuki groups had raised the same demand in 2015 after nine people from their community were killed in police firing during a protest against three controversial bills tabled by the state government, then under the Congress party led by former chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

Meitei leaders say claims by the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs and frontal groups that they raised the demand for a separate administration only after the May 3 violence erupted, was a blatant lie.

By the time the subcommittee began their survey in late March 2023, tension had already permeated Kuki-dominated areas in southern Manipur after the government carried out an eviction drive in Churachandpur’s K Songjang village just a month ago. The subcommittee’s visits to the three villages also coincided with sporadic protests by Kuki groups against what they called illegal eviction from forests.

An NDTV report on June 21, 2023 citing preliminary documents filed by the subcommittee said over 2,000 Myanmar nationals have set up settlements inside Manipur and refused to be moved to designated shelters. They fled from the war between the ruling junta and ethnic insurgent groups claiming to fight for democracy.

The final copies of the subcommittee’s reports complete with visuals of the visit, which NDTV accessed now, show the three leaders repeatedly appealed to the village chiefs to persuade Myanmar nationals to live in designated shelter camps once the structures were ready.

The subcommittee visited Holenphai village in Tengnoupal district on March 26, Gamphazol village in Chandel district on March 29, and Singhat in Churachandpur district on April 1, 2023.

“Shri Letpao Haokip… highlighted the issue of illegal Myanmar nationals into Indian side which cause apprehension amongst general public as there is high chance of getting such immigrants getting naturalised amongst common native population because of similarity in culture and dialect. He further highlighted that even though such cases are not reported, there is apprehension that many of them had already resided in the main Churachandpur town area in rented houses,” the report of the visit to Singhat said.

“Shri Th. Basanta Kumar Singh also appeals to all illegal immigrants to come forward and join the shelter homes, not hiding amongst locals, supporting the humanitarian goodwill gesture extended by the government,” the report of the subcommittee’s visit to Holenphai – the first village they went to on March 26, 2023 – said.

Chandel district’s Gamphazol village presented a unique problem. The district commissioner said the IMB (Indo-Myanmar Border) falling in Chandel district “is different from other neighbouring districts” as it has a sparsely populated, vast stretch of forest covering 60-75 km between Border Pillar No. 72 and 49.

“It was also suggested that only one temporary shelter may not be feasible to cater [to] all such immigrants along the stretch and as such temporary shelters at Gamphazol in the northern side and Somdal in the Southern side [were proposed],” the report of the subcommittee’s visit to this border village on March 29, 2023 said. The district commissioner said they found 628 “illegal immigrants” along the stretch of IMB falling in Chandel district, out of which 250 were at Gamphazol village.

In Holenphai, the three ministers met Thamsei Haokip, a Myanmar Member of Parliament before the junta overthrew the government, who told the subcommittee that he would follow all rules and regulations while being a refugee in India and would return to Myanmar once the issue there is “over/settled”, the report said.

“He [Thamsei Haokip] pointed out that due to the military junta in their country, they have come to Manipur being the nearest state of the world’s largest democratic country expecting humanitarian support [to] them at this juncture when civilians cannot stay in Myanmar out of the issue. He appeals to the state government to provide identification cards and to allow/facilitate earning livelihood. He also asserted that they will go back once the issue in Myanmar is settled…”

The foreign MP asked the subcommittee to shift Myanmar nationals earlier detained as illegal immigrants to the proposed shelter homes, and requested not to treat them as illegal immigrants since they fled from the junta rule, where “civilians are being killed”.

An activist from one of the Kuki tribes, who claims to know the Myanmar MP personally, told NDTV that the foreign politician has deep links with the Kuki National Army (Burma), or KNA(B). Thamsei Haokip has taken shelter in a relatively safe, forested area along the India-Myanmar border, the source said, adding it will be a big ask for the Meitei community to trust the likes of Thamsei Haokip due to the precedent set by another Myanmar-origin leader, Thanglianpau Guite.

The Manipur government has blamed unchecked entry of illegal immigrants from Myanmar as one of the factors responsible for the violence. It has also cited “unnatural growth of villages” owing to illegal immigrants being allegedly accommodated by village chiefs because of the archaic hereditary chieftainship system, which has been abolished even in neighbouring Mizoram where people have ethnic ties with Manipur’s Kuki tribes.

Meitei civil society groups are sensitive to any mention of Myanmar-origin leaders in the context of Manipur. Chief Minister N Biren Singh has said this sensitivity is due to the manner in which how Thanglianpau Guite – the “Myanmar-born” politician who contested the MP election in his country and who later became the chairman of the militant group Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) – was welcomed by the then Congress government when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

The ZRA is a signatory to the controversial suspension of operations (SoO) agreement, which lapsed in February this year.

Over two dozen Kuki-Zo insurgent groups come under two umbrella groups – the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), and the United People’s Front (UPF). These two representing the others have signed the SoO agreement, which says the insurgents are to stay at designated camps with weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly.

Meitei leaders have alleged the SoO groups have been working to strengthen themselves over the years by taking advantage of the ceasefire, until a time came to engineer a violent attack for a separate land. Geopolitical analysts have speculated the Kuki armed groups were used as mercenaries to fight Meitei and Naga militants operating in the India-Myanmar border.

Myanmar’s government-in-exile in a statement in June 2023 – a month into the Manipur clashes – asked its nationals who are “temporarily sheltering” in India “to refrain from any acts that are prejudicial to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.”

The National Unity Government (NUG) in the statement told Myanmar nationals “sheltering” in India and their organisations to avoid unnecessary involvement in India’s politics and administrative activity, and asked them to live in harmony with the host communities. The NUG also appealed to the Myanmar nationals to not get involved in drug trafficking.

The Manipur government on January 18, 2023 announced it would form the subcommittee to identify “Myanmarese immigrants/refugees”; the state government on February 16 announced the composition of the three-member panel, and on March 24 it ordered the police to check the number of Myanmarese immigrants in five districts – Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur, Pherzawl, and Kamjong.

While the February 16 announcement referred to the subcommittee as one that would work on identifying “Myanmarese immigrants/refugees” in the state, the reports of the subcommittee’s visits referred to them as “illegal immigrants”.

Neighbouring Mizoram has taken in over 40,000 Myanmar refugees. Mizoram government sources told NDTV on November 10 that it has been nearly three years since the coup in Myanmar, and feeding and taking care of all the displaced people and refugees in a small state as Mizoram remained a huge challenge. There were also concerns over a rise in drug trafficking. The sources said the Mizoram government can’t thank the central government enough for the massive help it has been giving to ensure enough resources are available with the state to tide over the refugee crisis.

“The people of Mizoram are not immune to the strain that all these efforts bring. There is especially a growing dissatisfaction even in our own community, especially from the intellectual circle. Yes, we are welcoming them as brothers and sisters, but what are we getting back in return? We are getting drugs, this and that. So the frustration is growing, obviously,” the source told NDTV.

The Kuki tribes have criticised the Manipur government over not treating Myanmar refugees in a humane way as Mizoram has done.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes have killed over 250 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000. The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kuki tribes want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.