Amid Manipur violence, Meitei Alliance calls for scrapping of 2008 SoO agreement with Kuki groups

Suspension of Operations requires insurgent groups to stop operations & stay within designated camps, but Meitei groups claim agreement is being exploited to 'undermine' India’s security.

Panellists releasing ‘Ghosts of Peace' at Delhi’s India International Centre Saturday | By special arrangement

DEBDUTTA CHAKRABORT, The Print, 25 February, 2024, New Delhi: With ethnic clashes between Manipur’s tribal Kuki-Zo and dominant Meitei communities showing no signs of abating, a coalition of Meitei civil society groups has called for a 2008 ceasefire pact with Kuki-Zo insurgent groups to be scrapped. 

A meeting and a panel discussion held Saturday at Delhi’s India International Centre (IIC) saw the Meitei Alliance call for the 2008 Suspension of Operations (SoO) Agreement with over two dozen Kuki-Zo insurgent groups in Manipur to be suspended in light of the ongoing violence.

The panel discussion was held for the release of an 80-page booklet titled Ghosts of Peace: Why Not Abrogate Suspension of Operations Agreements with Kuki Armed Groups to Prevent Destabilization in India?

Singed on 22 August, 2008, the ‘Suspension of Operations (SoO)’ was a pact between the Kuki militant groups and the central and Manipur governments that required insurgent groups to suspend their operation and stay within designated camps with their weapons securely stored in safe zones under a double-locking system.

Under the agreement, which came on the back of Kuki-Naga clashes of the ’90s, the cadres were prohibited from opening fire and the security forces from launching operations against them.

However, Meitei groups who attended the Saturday meeting claimed that the state’s Kuki-Zo insurgents were “exploiting the pact” to “act against India’s national security”. Malem Ningthouja, spokesperson for Meitei Alliance, said armed groups are using the SoO as a weapon.

On 21 February, the alliance submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah asking for the agreement to be scrapped.

Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) Centre for the Study of Social Systems, called for a review of the agreement. 

“Suspension of operations with any armed group is, technically speaking, meant to restore law and order and to ensure security in the country. But when it is used to mask privatisation of violence, it poses a threat to the security of the state,” he said at the panel discussion.

He further said: “State must not monopolise the legitimacy of violence. An agreement like SoO validates state agenda because armed groups are non-state entities that are used by the state itself, instead of official institutions like the Army or Police”.

The meeting and discussion came on a day when there were reports of an explosion, vandalism, and arson from the state’s capital city of Imphal. One person was reported killed and another wounded in the incidents. 

On 3 May last year, decades of festering tensions between the state’s valley-majority Meiteis and hill-majority Kukis-Zos erupted into full-blown violence over the former’s demand to be included in the state’s scheduled tribes (ST) list. 

Incidents of violence have continued in the state since then, killing over 200 and displacing over 50,000.  

Some 25 of the state’s 32 recorded insurgent groups were part of the tripartite SoO. A Joint Monitoring Group (JMG), which included representatives from all signatories, was constituted to oversee its implementation and review the agreement annually. The next review is scheduled for 29 February. 

However, in March 2023 — two months before violence erupted in the state — the Manipur government under Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, a Meitei leader himself, withdrew from the SoO with two hill-based tribal militant groups, the Kuki National Army (KNA) and the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA). The government claimed the two groups were instigating people against a government drive against “illegal encroachments”. 

When asked by ThePrint about the calls for scrapping SoO, Zo United, a civil society organisation of Kuki-Zo ethnic communities in Manipur, said it was a matter between the government and the armed groups. But the group also said it endorses the Kuki groups’ demand for a separate administrative unit.

While armed Kuki groups previously fought for a separate ‘Kukiland’, the groups engaged in the tripartite talks have long since given that up, instead seeking a separate administrative unit for all tribes except the Nagas. Earlier this month, Zo United put forth this demand before the ministry of home affairs in New Delhi.

“We feel very unsafe now. Tribals have, since time immemorial, dealt with disparities,” Zo United convenor Albert L. Renthlei said. “We no longer want to live under them. They have exaggerated their claims of ethnic cleansing, when they did not even spare infants and handicapped people. Through the SoO groups, we endorse the claim for a separate administration under Article 239A of the Constitution.

Article 239A deals with the creation of local legislatures, council of ministers, or both for certain Union territories.

What is the Meitei Alliance

Founded in November 2023, the Meitei Alliance is a network of Meitei diaspora. In a statement released Saturday, the group expressed concerns that the Kuki-Zo insurgents are using the SoO agreement as a cover to “undermine” India’s stability.

Akoijam said that the Manipur government’s decision to withdraw from the SoO is still not valid because it needs to be reviewed by the Joint Monitoring Committee.

“If the Union government and the Monitoring Group have not yet agreed, then how did the state government withdraw the agreement? If so, then the state is complicit,” he said. 

The booklet, written by various Meitei writers and released Saturday, accuses Kuki-Zo insurgent groups of further violating the SoO in a bid to create a sovereign territory.

The alliance, during the discussion, also voiced concerns that armed Kuki groups may become proxies for external expansionist forces. Since the violence broke out, Meitiei politicians have been voicing concerns about the involvement of foreign insurgents operating out of Myanmar. However, so far, these allegations have yet to be proven. 

However, some panellists called for changes to the SoO agreement instead of its cancellation. Among these is Major Md Ali Shah (retired), an ex-army officer previously posted with Assam Rifles.

Similarly, Lieutenant General (retired) Konsam Himalay Singh also highlighted the potential for improvement of the SoO, suggesting measures like biometric identification of inmates and stricter enforcement of ground rules to prevent further deterioration of the situation.