Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 18:
Condemning the State Governments of nagaland and Manipur and the Centre for their callous attitude to suffering of the Kukis after the communal violence of 1992 Kuki national Front said it would always uphold the interest of the Kukis and strive to achieve the objectives of a separate State for the Kukis within the Indian constitutional framework.
A KNF statement by the information and publicity secretary Lh Stephen asserting that the Kukis advocate peaceful co-existence with people of all the communities demanded similar positive gesture from others instead of undermining the strength and determination of the outfit who had leaped from being a pressure group to a well armed organization.
For centuries the Kukis had lived in the vast stretch of land (hills) of the present day Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram and neighboring Burma, said the statement adding that with the advent of the British rulers areas occupied by the Kukis were divided into various political entities.
With the segregation of the Kukis the community's dignities and traditions began to be ignored by respective Governments at the Centre as well as the States, the KNF said.
From being an organization established in 1988 under the leadership of Pu (late) Nehlun Kipgen and many other prominent Kuki citizens the KNF embarked on a mission to create political boundary for the Kukis where the community can have representation and Government to protect and preserve the rich culture, tradition and interest the organization had to take up arms in order the safeguard its people from the ravaging forces of the NSCN (IM) during the ethnic clash of the early nineties, recalled the outfit.
Had the earlier Governments protected the lives and properties of the Kukis during the communal violence there would have been no compelling factor to resort to arms or any forms of violence, observed the statement while flaying Nagaland and Manipur State Governments for continuing to ignore the plight and grievances of the displaced Kuki families as an aftermath of the Kuki-Naga ethnic clashes.