Manipur remains the second most conflict ridden state in the NE

Civilian deaths have already increased by over 42 per cent and those of security forces by 39 per cent.

With 361 deaths till November 30, Manipur remains the second most conflict ridden state in the northeast, behind Assam with 388 fatalities, says a report of the South Asia intelligence review (SAIR).

With a month to go before the end of 2007 the figure of fatalities has already surpassed the 311 militancy-related fatalities that occurred in Manipur in 2006. While fatalities among the militants in 2007 have remained more or less comparable to the previous year, it has certainly worsened among the civilians and the security forces.

According to the currently available data, civilian deaths have already increased by over 42 per cent and those of security forces by 39 percent.

According to a report of the Institute of Conflict Management, ministry of home affairs, during the year 2007 upto November 30, out of the 361 deaths, 137 were civilians, 39 were security men  while 185 were militants of different outfits.

During 2006, the report added, out of 311 people killed, 96 were civilians, 28 were security men while the remaining 187 were militants.

Fatalities alone, however, do not reflect Manipur’s dire predicament, the reviewed note stated saying that activities of about 10,000 cadres of 15 militant groups of varying sizes and character, compound an endemic collapse of the administrative machinery, taking Manipur to the threshold of a failed ‘state’ within the Indian Union.

The entire nine districts (four in the valley and five in the hills) have been affected by the unending militant violence, severely impacting the very limited local capacities for governance, justice administration, and the provision of minimal security to citizens.

The report based on state police sources indicated that while almost all the 59 police stations have been reporting militant violence, as many as 32 of them have been slotted in the ‘high’ violence category.

The impunity with which militant outfits have carried on their activities in Manipur has been a matter of deep concern among policy makers over a number of years, and the year 2007 was no different.

Regarding the ongoing army operation at the international border with Myanmar in Chandel district, the SAIR report said that since its induction into Manipur in the late 1970s, the Army has led countless synchronized operations against the militants and their areas of domination, loosely described as ‘liberated zones’.

However, the impact of these operations on the capabilities of the militant groups has, at best, been transient. With little help coming from the state police force, the militants have regained their ‘lost’ areas once the Army withdrew to its base areas. The most recent instance of this phenomenon was the campaign to gain control over the New Somtal area in the Chandel district.

Spread over 1,000 square kilometres and located in the south-eastern corner of Chandel district along the Indo-Myanmar border, New Somtal has been a bastion of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) for the past several years.

The inaccessibility of the area and its proximity to the Myanmar border has been cited as the difficulties which have prevented the Army from securing a conclusive victory in New Somtal.

At least two major operations in 2006 (in January and December) had failed to clear the area of UNLF presence. On November 18, 2007 the Army launched a two-pronged operation in New Somtal, targeting the ‘293rd battalion’ of the UNLF. Troops moved in simultaneously from the Khengjoi and Sehlon ridges.

The Army claimed to have pushed the militants into the Myanmar side, but assertions to the contrary were made by the UNLF. Interestingly, no fatalities occurred in the continuing operation, in which the UNLF reportedly resorted to heavy 81 mm mortar shelling.

In fact, while retreating, the UNLF had strewn the area with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) forcing the Army to use bulldozers to detect and detonate these.

The Army’s operations in the state appear to be clearly handicapped by the lack of adequate support from the state police. In 2004, Manipur created the Unified Command Structure (UCS) to coordinate the activities between the Army, the CPMFs and the state police, under the command of the chief minister.

Here, mention may be made that the army launched the operation following an instruction from the Union ministry of home affairs in September this year to flush out the militants from the Somtal area so that the villagers taking shelter in the border town Moreh could return to their respective villages.

The operation was started in the middle week of November this year. So far no exact number of casualties on both the militants and security sides could not be accessed amidst claims and counter claims between the rebel UNLF and authorities of the security forces.

Separatist rebel armies continue to keep Manipur under siege, leading to a sense of hopelessness among large sections of the State’s 2.3 million people.

Manipur, bordering Myanmar, is the only state in India’s restive northeast where none of the frontline separatist groups has entered into a ceasefire with the government as a prelude to the beginning of peace talks.

‘’People’s frustration over continued violence in the State is increasingly getting reflected through plays and literature where the underlying theme is against violence and the quest for peace,’’ said Pradip Phanjoubam, editor of Imphal Free Press, a local English daily.

The analysts attribute several reasons for the growth and sustenance of insurgency in Manipur. ‘’An ineffective civil society initiative towards    brokering peace, the locational advantage that the rebels have by way of the area’s proximity to Myanmar, and a nexus between the insurgents and politicians are some of the reasons why insurgency is thriving in Manipur,’’ said       Wasbir Hussain, director of the Guwahati-based Centre for Development and Peace Studies.

Militant groups seem to be involved in violent activities with impunity. On Monday, a day after a landmine blew up a packed passenger bus near Imphal, killing seven passengers and injuring 25 others, a rebel group simply regretted the incident while admitting its fighters had planted the explosive on the road.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said in a statement the bomb was planted two days before Sunday’s incident to target security personnel. Lily Leima, a spokesman of the rebel group, said ‘enemies’ picked up two of its cadres who had planted the bomb but did not remove the explosive deliberately to defame the group.

Statements or reasoning like these are what the rebel groups make to justify their violent acts. The bus bombing was the biggest incident in Manipur involving civilians in recent years.

Major groups like the PLA, United National Liberation Front (UNLF), People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) continue to be belligerent, showing no signs of entering a peace mode as some rebel groups did in adjoining Nagaland or   Assam states.

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