Farewell to arms
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: September 10, 2013 -

Whether one may like it or not, but Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh-led Congress Government in the State definitely deserves to be given the credit for taking the lead in initiating peace process and bringing various underground groups and their factions to the table for negotiation like never before in the history of insurgency-ravaged Manipur.

Leaving aside the controversial home coming ceremonies that Central paramilitary forces have conducted from time to time within their secured battalion camps or headquarters in the past, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh has been able to convince the cadres of many underground outfits and their factions to lay down arms and join the peace process to return to the mainstream, so that peace and normalcy can return in Manipur.

In the last one year itself, KCP groups like URF, which has three factions namely KCP Lalheiba group, KCP Sunil Meitei group and KCP Chingkheinganba group, and KCP Lamphel group which has again three factions namely Lamphel group, Taibangnganba group and City Meitei group; KYKL (MDF) having two factions namely KYKL Athouba and Achouba groups as well as UPPK have been successfully brought to the negotiating table.

Moreover, numerous peace pacts have been inked with various Kuki underground outfits to bring them under the agreement of Suspension of Operation (SoO) with involvement of the Centre for lasting peace in the State.

In the latest peace initiative, in all, 155 cadres belonging to four different armed groups yielded and laid down arms and ammunition before Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh during a home coming ceremony hosted at the banquet hall of Ist Manipur Rifles on September 9.

Of the four armed outfits, memorandums of understandings (MoUs) were also signed with three, which would technically pave the way for including them under the ambit of Suspension of Operation (SoO). Surely, these are no mean achievements for any Government and by any standard.

But the question that continues to haunt the mind of the people after every such home coming ceremony, regardless of whether they are organized under the auspices of the State Government or the Central paramilitary forces, is, why the promised peace always remains elusive in Manipur?

In fact, after every home coming ceremony, the number of factions of the already surrendered underground groups and the frequency of factional clashes only increase, thereby, undermining the efforts towards restoration of peace and tranquility in the State.

All these show that something is seriously lacking in the peace initiative process of the State Government.

One should understand that lasting peace can come only through lasting solution.

Here, without the need for us to take the trouble of pin-pointing where the fault lies in the peace initiative of the State Government, the strong reservations expressed from some SoO signatory groups, on the eve of the latest home coming ceremony itself, against inclusion of faction-ridden outfits with youths picked up from here and there to pass off as cadres should be sufficed enough for anyone who has eyes and ears to see and listen.

Hope, our honourable Chief Minister is such a person.