SIPHRO

Aizawl, April 27, 2006: Hmars living in Churachandpur district of Manipur, bordering Mizoram, continue to flee their villages because of unabated atrocities by militants.
A report reaching here today related more such incidents.

It said the militants started their incursions immediately after the departure of the Justice S.P. Rajkhowa Commission, which had gone to Parbung village in Churachandpur to probe allegations of mass rape of tribal women and other atrocities on Hmars by Manipuri militants in the district.

According to the reports, the rebels beat up a youth, Lalsiamrema, of Damdiai village in Churachandpur district on Tuesday.

A source said the youth may have been beaten up because he had violated the militant diktat of not venturing into the nearby jungles of Vanchhawng. The villagers of Damdiai stock their rice harvest in the forest and collect it from there whenever necessary.

The same day, three other youths, who had gone to the forest to cut timber, went missing. A team of Damdiai villagers and army personnel launched a search in the jungles this morning.

The incidents have triggered fresh panic in the area, resulting in the exodus of more than 200 villagers from Damdiai to the neighbouring Hmar-dominated Parbung village where security was strengthened recently following militant atrocities.

Quoting a resident of Parbung, the source said the villagers could not even ask their panic-stricken neighbours from Damdiai to go to Mizoram. “It is very embarrassing for us to always look towards Mizoram whenever we have trouble. We will try to look after our neighbours on our own. However, when we finish our stock of rice, we will have no choice but to send them to Mizoram,” the Parbung villager is understood to have told the source.

Meanwhile, the Manipuri Hmars continue to cross over to Mizoram for refuge. They have refused to go back despite assurances from the Manipur government that the situation has returned to normal. Officials of Aizawl district have also promised to rehabilitate them in their native villages, but with the situation still volatile back home, they refuse to budge.

On the Rajkhowa Commission’s probe, the source said the panel for five days conducted interviews of those allegedly assaulted by the Manipuri insurgents in Churachandpur district. The rebels had assaulted 402 villagers in Lungthulien, 121 in Parbung, 17 in Taithu and 30 in Tualbung in December. They allegedly raped Hmar tribal women in Parbung and nearby Lungthulien villages on the night of January 16.

The source said 13 girls, and not 21 as believed, were raped. The others were molested. Except for one woman who was married, all the other girls were minors between 13 and 17 years of age. Some of these girls were gangraped.

Altogether 35 Manipuri insurgents are believed to be operating in the area at present, he added.

Source: Telegraph