Manipur: Tripartite talks between Meitei, Kuki-Zo, MHA remain ‘inconclusive’

In a bid to resolve the 23-month-long ethnic hostilities, the first tripartite meeting between the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the representatives of Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities was held in New Delhi on Saturday. 

However, both the MHA officials and the representatives of the Meitei community remained tight-lipped about the discussion of the meeting.

Kuki-Zo Council Chairman Henlianthang Thanglet, who led an eight-member delegation of Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities, said that Saturday’s meeting was "inconclusive". “There was a proposal to issue a joint peace appeal, but we did not agree upon this,” Thanglet told IANS over the phone from Delhi.

He said that the MHA would decide about the venue and time of the next tripartite meeting.

A senior official of the Manipur government in Imphal said that the first tripartite meeting was held on Saturday as part of the government's endeavour to find a mutual solution to the ethnic conflict between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities, which began on May 3, 2023, over the tribal status demand of the Meiteis.

A six-member Meitei community delegation comprising representatives from the All Manipur United Clubs' Organisation (AMUCO) and the Federation of Civil Society Organisations (FOCS) attended the meeting. Four senior officials from the government, including MHA advisor for the northeast region, A.K. Mishra, and Joint Director, MHA, Rajesh Kamble, were present in the meeting.

The Manipur government official said that the meeting was intended to enhance trust and cooperation between the two warring Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities and to find a roadmap to restore peace and normalcy in the northeastern state. The MHA official also stressed on maintaining law and order and facilitating understanding between the two communities, the official said.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an apex body of the Meitei Community, disowned Saturday’s meeting in the national capital between representatives of the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities, facilitated by officials of the MHA.

The statement, issued by Laikhuram Jayenta, Convenor of the publicity and information Sub-Committee of COCOMI, described the meeting as a “stage-managed spectacle” orchestrated to legitimise the “misleading narrative”. The COCOMI asserted that the portrayal of the Manipur crisis as a mere “ethnic conflict” between the Meetei and Kuki communities is a gross distortion of reality.

It argued that this narrative overlooks the deeper and more dangerous dynamics of a proxy war allegedly perpetuated by the government through its continued patronage of Chin-Kuki armed groups operating under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement since 2008.

The organisation reiterated that any peace initiative lacking acknowledgment of the government’s active role in the conflict is “a hollow exercise designed solely for political optics.”

In previous engagements with central government officials, including a meeting in Imphal, COCOMI had clarified that the people of Manipur do not see the Union government as a neutral mediator, the statement claimed.

The latest meeting in New Delhi, they said, was hastily arranged with selective participation and aimed more at furnishing talking points for the Home Minister’s parliamentary speech than at addressing the root causes of the ongoing violence. COCOMI accused the government of failing to initiate a single sincere step towards resolution, while continuing to shield separatist forces and evade accountability.

The group reiterated key demands for restoring normalcy, including the enforcement of the rule of law across Manipur, dismantling militant strongholds in the hills, ending the SoO Agreement, ensuring free access to highways, prosecuting those violating peace efforts, and directly engaging with SoO group leadership, whose own representatives have claimed decision-making powers over elected officials.

COCOMI stressed that true civilian dialogue can only begin when the government dismantles the infrastructure of narco-terrorism and armed coercion. MHA advisor for NE Mishra last month held separate meetings with various organisations of the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo in Manipur.

Leaders of the Kuki-Zo Council (KZC), a conglomerate of 13 organisations of the Kuki-Zo tribal communities in Manipur, held a meeting with senior officials of the MHA in New Delhi on January 17 and discussed their demands and the prevailing situation in the northeastern state. The KZC and 10 tribal MLAs have been demanding a separate administration equivalent to a Union Territory for the Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal-dominated areas.

The Meitei organisations have been demanding steps against militants, dismantling of the militant camps and set-ups, curbing of the drug menace, action against infiltrators from Myanmar and introduction of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Over 250 people have been killed and over 1,500 people injured in the ethnic violence between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo people since May 3, 2023. Over 60,000 people were displaced from their homes and villages while a huge number of government and private properties were destroyed in the violence.