SIPHRO

Hmar Inpui Press Statement
April 11, 2006

The Hmar Inpui, General Headquarters, Churachandpur, Manipur note with deep vexations the April 9, 2006 Press Statement of the UNLF that appeared in some sections of the local as well as national newspapers in India. In the statement, the militant organization brazenly dismissed the charges of rapes of 21 Hmar women committed by some of its cadres in January 2006 as untrue and the manipulation of some outside-based NGOs working for Indian intelligence organizations and interested in politicizing the issue with the ulterior motive of creating ethnic tension to defeat ‘our national liberation struggles’.

The UNLF also announced its preparedness to welcome an independent body of international stature like the International Committee on Red Cross (ICRC) to probe the alleged crimes. It also pledged to produce those UG cadres before the probe team and would give capital punishment of those found guilty of committing the crimes. The statement is yet, ‘another sinister attempt by the UNLF to introduce a concocted political and conspirator theory to the issue of mass rape and torture so as to confuse the issue and suppress the truth’.

While admitting the charges of torture and beating of innocent villagers, the UNLF justified the beatings as ‘a punishment to some collaborators of Indian security forces’. The Hmar Inpui deeply disdains the baseless insinuation and regards the statement as an attempt to digress the issue to hide their guilt and shame.

We also reiterates that Hmar Inpui in particular and the Hmar peoples in general has nothing to do with the political agenda of the UNLF and that it stands for the integrity of the state and the country and the maintenance of an atmosphere of traditional peaceful co-existence of all ethnic communities in the State which some of the valley-based militants have been unfortunately trying to wreck. We regards such act as anti-national and suicidal.

The Hmar Inpui is also at pains to refer to the statement made by the Chief Minister of Manipur, Shri O. Ibobi Singh when he met a team of Hmar Women Association as well as Hmar Students’ Association both in Imphal and New Delhi on March 29, 2006 and April 4, 2006 respectively. Shri Ibobi Singh categorically said in both occasion that, “of the 18 UNLF cadres involved in the mass rapes, the army had already killed 14, 2 died of starvation and 2 were still missing”. He also said that, he had strongly condemned the UNLF/KCP rapists on the floor of the Manipur Assembly and promised to do the same in public and the media. This was the first public admission of the mass rapes by an authority no less than the head of the Government of Manipur. This is self-evident.

The Hmar Inpui also appreciates the decision to conduct the hearings of the Rajkhowa Commission of inquiry into the mass rapes at Parbung, the sub-divisional headquarters of Tipaimukh sub-division. We in the mean time notes the suggestion of the UNLF to appoint an independent probe body of international stature like the International Committee on Red Cross (ICRC) as if the State/Central governments and Human Rights agencies in the country cannot handle the matter. While we have no objection to the involvement of any international organizations of repute in the eventuality of the Central/ State government’s complete apathy and inability to handle the matter, we considers the UNLF suggestion as ‘premature and a classic example of a drowning man catching a straw’. While appreciating ICRC’s role in rehabilitation and in providing assistance and succor in times of natural disasters, conflict situations etc, the Hmar Inpui holds that there are more appropriate UN investigative agencies than the ICRC who can handle crimes of rape and torture as in the present case.

We would also like clarify that the Delhi Rally on April 4, 2006 by all the tribal ethnic groups of Manipur and Mizoram was organized under the auspices of the Hmar Students’ Association, Delhi Joint Headquarters and not by outside-based NGOs as wrongly stated by the UNLF in its statement. The Rally was a clear manifestation of the unity of all ethnic groups in their fight and condemnation of the killings, atrocities and rapes committed and the indiscriminate planting of landmines by the valley-based militants which had already maimed and claimed the lives of more than 20 innocent villagers in Churachandpur District and the Government’s inability to protect the lives and properties of its citizens.

Issued on behalf of the Hmar Inpui General Headquarters by –

(H.K. Joute)
President

(V.F. Tusing)
General Secretary