New Delhi: Days after the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Commissioner David Curry attended a congressional hearing organised by NAMTA on the Manipur crisis, the global Meitei Alliance asked UN resources to investigate satellite imagery revealing extensive poppy fields controlled by the Kukis and the repercussions of western aid in supplying cheap arms to Kuki armed groups.
The North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA), a Kuki-Zo outreach group, organised a congressional hearing on the Manipur crisis in Washington DC on Monday last.
The Meitei Alliance also asked US Congressman Adriano Espaillat and former US Special Rapporteur Fernand De Varennes to scrutinise the financial resources of Kuki groups, including funds raised within the US by Christian institutions and scrutinise the use of US Congress-authorised aids.
The Meitei Alliance suggested to the Western entities to authenticate the information rigorously to avoid intentionally spreading false propaganda from NAMTA, “which has a history of distorting truth for personal gains.”
“Meitei Alliance strongly condemned the blatant distortion of facts and deceitful narratives surrounding the ongoing mayhem in Manipur. The misrepresentation of the situation “as persecution of religious (Christian) minorities” is categorically false and must be rectified by institutions like USCIRF. They must exercise utmost diligence and refrain from endorsing false propaganda perpetuated by fringe Kuki groups such as NAMTA that falsely project itself as representing the entire scheduled tribes of Manipur,” the Meitei Alliance stated.
It said that the ongoing mayhem is orchestrated and perpetuated by cross-border Kuki armed groups, funded through various illicit means of drug cartels and Western aid authorised by the US Congress Burma Act of 2023.
“The objective is to establish a Kuki expansionist territory called Zale’n-gam, by balkansing the established territories India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, with Manipur as the epicentre,” the Meitei Alliance stated.
It is worth mentioning that NAMTA in the congressional hearing strongly condemned the Manipur government’s alleged complicity in the violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribes, who are dominant in southern Manipur’s hill districts and a few other areas. However, it's not only NAMTA, the Association of Meiteis in the Americas (AMA) has also organised congressional hearings to inform US lea`ders about the situation in Manipur.
Read more: In Strife-Torn Manipur, Youngsters Take Up Arms To 'Protect' Villages
