[ad_1]
GUWAHATI: Manipur’s ethnic battle lines don’t leave space for non-combatants – even for those who desperately want to stay out, even if they are neither Meitei nor Kuki.
Koms, who gave India and the boxing world Mary Come onare Manipur’s smallest community, a tribe mostly found in the foothills. When savage violence broke out between militants from valley-based Meiteis and hill-based Kukis in early May, Koms, despite strict neutrality, were targeted by both sides.
Koms, Christians by faith, number only around 20,000 (2011 Census put the figure at 14,000). Compare this to Meiteis, 53% of Manipur’s 3.2 million population, and Kukis, who are 16%.
Serto Chungjahao Kom, president, Kom Union Manipur, the apex body of the tribe, told TOI, “We are the most victimised. When gunfights take place between the valley and the hills, we at the foothills become human shields.”
The problem, Koms say, is that both Meiteis and Kukis distrust them, a result of the paranoia that conflicts breed. The week before last, Serto Thangthang Kom, an army sepoy who was on leave, was abducted from his home in Imphal West. A day later his body was recovered from a jungle in the valley. Posted at Leimakhong Military Station in the foothills, Thangthang, many Koms say, may have been a victim of the distrust.
So potent is this paranoia that Koms who flee violence can’t even take shelter in relief camps – the suspicion that they are taking sides follows them.
Chungjahao says last month a Kom village got caught in a gunbattle between militants of the two bigger communities. The village is in Kangathai, half a km away from the main road where Meiteis live and less than half km from a Kuki settlement. In another clash between the two groups in Sagang, Churachandpur district, 11 Kom villages had to be evacuated. “Around 10 to 15 of us are still there guarding the villages. The rest, 200 to 300, are all scattered…they fled either to relatives’ or to a new place.”
Koms are scattered in five districts of Manipur – Churachandpur, Chandel, Kangpokpi, Imphal East and Imphal West. “We live in the periphery between the hills and the valley. These days they call it the buffer zone,” Chungjahao says.
Buffer zones don’t just mean being in the middle of Meitei-Kuki battles. Living there also requires coming to terms with a large presence of security forces. And Koms can’t travel to either the valley or to the hills.
That Koms have been in this terrible situation before doesn’t make it better this time. The tribe was caught in the Naga-Kuki crossfire in 1992 and suffered for almost a year. In Manipur’s conflicts, origin stories often become weapons. Nagas and Kukis both claim Koms as part of their ethnic group. Koms say they belong to neither.
Patience is wearing thin in this small community. But, says Chungjahao, “we are going to remain non-violent”. The adults, in any case, don’t have the luxury of spending time thinking up revenge attacks.
“Our biggest concern is the displacement of our schoolchildren. We have brought the children to a community-run school, Grace Academy, in Imphal…but it is difficult to manage around 300 children’s education with the little money we have,” the head of the Kom union says.
A group of Koms plan to travel to Delhi and do a sit-in at Jantar Mantar. Their message – we are a peaceful group that desperately wants peace.
Koms, who gave India and the boxing world Mary Come onare Manipur’s smallest community, a tribe mostly found in the foothills. When savage violence broke out between militants from valley-based Meiteis and hill-based Kukis in early May, Koms, despite strict neutrality, were targeted by both sides.
Koms, Christians by faith, number only around 20,000 (2011 Census put the figure at 14,000). Compare this to Meiteis, 53% of Manipur’s 3.2 million population, and Kukis, who are 16%.
Serto Chungjahao Kom, president, Kom Union Manipur, the apex body of the tribe, told TOI, “We are the most victimised. When gunfights take place between the valley and the hills, we at the foothills become human shields.”
The problem, Koms say, is that both Meiteis and Kukis distrust them, a result of the paranoia that conflicts breed. The week before last, Serto Thangthang Kom, an army sepoy who was on leave, was abducted from his home in Imphal West. A day later his body was recovered from a jungle in the valley. Posted at Leimakhong Military Station in the foothills, Thangthang, many Koms say, may have been a victim of the distrust.
So potent is this paranoia that Koms who flee violence can’t even take shelter in relief camps – the suspicion that they are taking sides follows them.
Chungjahao says last month a Kom village got caught in a gunbattle between militants of the two bigger communities. The village is in Kangathai, half a km away from the main road where Meiteis live and less than half km from a Kuki settlement. In another clash between the two groups in Sagang, Churachandpur district, 11 Kom villages had to be evacuated. “Around 10 to 15 of us are still there guarding the villages. The rest, 200 to 300, are all scattered…they fled either to relatives’ or to a new place.”
Koms are scattered in five districts of Manipur – Churachandpur, Chandel, Kangpokpi, Imphal East and Imphal West. “We live in the periphery between the hills and the valley. These days they call it the buffer zone,” Chungjahao says.
Buffer zones don’t just mean being in the middle of Meitei-Kuki battles. Living there also requires coming to terms with a large presence of security forces. And Koms can’t travel to either the valley or to the hills.
That Koms have been in this terrible situation before doesn’t make it better this time. The tribe was caught in the Naga-Kuki crossfire in 1992 and suffered for almost a year. In Manipur’s conflicts, origin stories often become weapons. Nagas and Kukis both claim Koms as part of their ethnic group. Koms say they belong to neither.
Patience is wearing thin in this small community. But, says Chungjahao, “we are going to remain non-violent”. The adults, in any case, don’t have the luxury of spending time thinking up revenge attacks.
“Our biggest concern is the displacement of our schoolchildren. We have brought the children to a community-run school, Grace Academy, in Imphal…but it is difficult to manage around 300 children’s education with the little money we have,” the head of the Kom union says.
A group of Koms plan to travel to Delhi and do a sit-in at Jantar Mantar. Their message – we are a peaceful group that desperately wants peace.
[ad_2]
Source link