New Delhi, August 30: The Delhi Meetei Coordinating Committee (DMCC) on Friday strongly rejected the Independent People’s Tribunal (IPT) report on the Manipur conflict, released by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) on August 20, terming it “biased, politically motivated, and one-sided.”
At a press conference held at the Press Club of India, DMCC convenor and senior journalist Dr. Seram Rojesh, along with women’s rights activist Elizabeth, alleged that the report projected the Meetei community solely as perpetrators while portraying the Kuki-Chin community as victims. The committee demanded the immediate withdrawal of the report and a public apology from PUCL.
The DMCC accused the tribunal of failing to acknowledge testimonies of Meetei victims and overlooking attacks on Meetei villages that, they claimed, began on May 3, 2023, in Torbung and Kangvai. “The sequence of events has been distorted, with crucial facts overlooked or misrepresented,” Dr. Rojesh asserted, adding that the violence did not originate in the Imphal Valley as the report suggested.
The committee also criticized the tribunal for attributing the burning of a controversial gate in Churachandpur to Meeteis without what they called credible evidence, alleging that the report’s narrative effectively justified retaliatory attacks on Meetei settlements in Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, and Tengnoupal.
Highlighting what they described as a pattern of neglect, the DMCC alleged that the report ignored the “separatist agenda” of Kuki armed groups, who have carried out repeated assaults on Meetei villages and religious sites since 2015. They cited the burning of Umang Lai temples and desecration of Koubru and Thangjing sacred sites as part of a “systematic attempt to erase Meetei faith and identity.”
On gender-based violence, the committee accused the tribunal of selective documentation, alleging that it highlighted sexual violence against Kuki women while dismissing testimonies of similar atrocities committed against Meetei women.
The DMCC reaffirmed its stance that the report failed to present a balanced account of the ongoing ethnic conflict and insisted on a comprehensive review that includes the voices and experiences of Meetei victims.
