Imphal, March 21: The All Tribal Students' Union, Manipur (ATSUM) has asserted that the facts about the "mass rape" case of Churachandpur district had already been exposed by NGOs in the newspapers including in the North East Sun magazine and "so there is no need to form a fact finding team by any element." ATSUM members while talking to Newmai News Network said that the facts about the "mass rape" case of 21 Hmar girls by the UNLF cadres had already been made public by NGOs.

The tribal students body further said that the recent visit of some human rights groups to the villages where the incidents took place would also deliver more facts on the case.

"We believe that the reports of the rights bodies/activists' findings will be made public soon," stated the ATSUM.

While reasoning its move against the formation of fact finding team, ATSUM stated enough facts about the rape incidents had already been publicised and repeated questioning of the victims would further hurt the already extremely traumatised girls and women.

The tribal students said that the proposed meeting on March 25 at Manipur Press Club to form a fact finding team to investigate the "mass rape" case is not at a welcome step and urged the concened organisations not to go ahead in forming the fact finding team.

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