Families of people from the Meitei community who went missing in the Manipur violence

New Delhi:

Families of 31 missing people from Manipur’s valley areas have once again appealed to the Centre and the state government to help bring closure by tracing them. While some have quietly accepted it, others said they will never accept their loved ones have died. Their appeal comes as Manipur sees a year of ethnic violence that began on May 3, 2023, between the hill-dominant Kuki tribes and the valley-dominant Meiteis.

Atom Kavita, 47, is the wife of Atom Samarendra, a journalist missing since May 6 last year along with another individual, Yumkhaibam Kiran Kumar.

“My husband was among the first people to go missing. I have performed the last rites as per our tradition by using pangong tree leaves in place of his body,” Ms Kavita told reporters in Delhi on Thursday.

“But the bitter truth is there is no closure and I can’t find peace. Deep in the corner of my heart, I still believe my husband is alive somewhere, and I still long for his return. He had helped the Kukis during the COVID-19 pandemic and the villagers had deep respect and love for him,” she said. “I can’t believe they would kill a person who helped them when they were in dire need of help,” said Ms Kavita, and broke down on camera.

The Meiteis and the Kukis have been fighting for a year now, with both communities sharply divided on ethnic lines, and each not going to areas where the other is dominant. The “neutral” central forces stand between them in what is now known as “sensitive zones”, mostly in the foothills.

The father of a 20-year-old man who went missing along with a 17-year-old teen in September last year was among the families who came to Delhi to narrate their ordeal. Phijam Ibungobi, 63, told reporters that his son Phijam Hemanjit and the other teen Hijam Linthoungambi went missing on June 6, but the photos of their bodies lying in a grassy pit on a hill surfaced on social media three months later.

Yaikhom Bidya, 13, whose mother died when she was two, is now an orphan. Her father, Yaikhom Nanao, was murdered by an armed mob in the now Kuki-dominated border town Moreh, walking distance from the Myanmar border.

“We were hiding in a bush. It was night and dark. I have never seen anything like it,” a teary eyed Ms Bidya said in the hall packed with people. They lived in ward No. 9 in Moreh, a tiny Meitei colony.

Another woman, Ninghthoujam Premlata, 47, whose 19- year-old son went missing in November last year after he crossed the “sensitive area” that divides the Meitei- and Kuki-dominated areas, said it breaks her heart every time she thinks about how her son, Ningthoujam Anthony, would have endured torture before he was killed.

“… He was not a security personnel or a village volunteer or involved in any violence. He was just a young boy who unknowingly crossed the buffer zone during a joyride. Had the police and central security manned the sensitive zone, he would have been with me today. Even today, I hope that someone would call me saying my son is found alive and that is why I always keep my mobile with me so that I don’t miss a call,” said Premlata.

The families said tracing the remains or whereabouts of their missing loved ones must be done actively by the security forces. They want to perform the last rites, bring closure, and ensure the killers get punished.

“If the missing people are untraceable, there is an immediate need for the authorities to declare them as untraceable officially, and issue certificates accordingly,” said RK Bijyalakshmi, chief of the Imphal-based civil society group SOULS, or Souls Offered Unitedly for a Lustrated Society.

Both the Meitei and the Kuki communities in cities across the country including Delhi and Bengaluru have planned gatherings on Friday to observe a year of loss since the clashes began on May 3 last year.

The hill-dominated Kuki tribes and the valley-dominant Meiteis have been fighting over cataclysmic disagreements on sharing land, resources, affirmative action policies, and political representation, mainly with the ‘general’ category Meiteis seeking to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category.

Over 210 have died in the ethnic conflict; nearly 50,000 internally displaced people are still living in relief camps.

On the request of the family members, many civil society groups came together and helped them reach out to share their grief and appeal to end the violence, said the organisers, which comprise Delhi Manipur Society (DeMaS), Delhi Meitei Coordinating Committee (DMCC), Global Manipur Federation, Karnataka Meitei Association, Meitei Yaipha Lup, Meitei Alliance, Meitei Diaspora in America, Meitei Heritage Society (MHS), NUPI, Souls Offered United for a Lustrated Society, Team Meitei Personalities (TMP), and the World Meitei Council (WMC).