Zo People: Zomi Council demands UT status carved out of Manipur for Zo people | India News

NEW DELHI: Demanding creation of a Union Territory with legislature for the Zo people carved out of Manipur, the Zomi Council Steering Committee (ZCSC) alleged that the Manipur violence is a systematic, pre-planned ethnic cleansing drive engineered by the State government to grab the ancestral lands and resources of the Zo people by wiping out all traces of their existence. The Council also stated that the “continuing violence” in the State is “purely an internal matter of India, and that the solution lies with the Centre.
While highlighting the civil society organisation’s outreach in India and abroad advocating the plight of the Zo tribe, the Council also made it clear that “the fact these CSOs are not always necessarily aligned with the policies and approaches of the ZCSC as it stated that “The constitutional breakdown of law and order in Manipur, and the State leadership’s direct participation in the conflict have complicated the issue in regional and international responses in various forms; yet, the issue and its ultimate political solution lies within, not outside.

Reaffirming the faith of the tribe in the Indian Constitution, it underscored the participation of thousands of Zo people for the 77th Independence Day celebrations at Lamka Mawltual and “swore to defend the nation and our God-given land and people, with all our being from all enemies, internal or external.”
The Council also pointed out that the ethnic strife is more than just “Hindu versus Christian” violence, as only the Zo people have been targeted while the Christian Naga tribal are not. “… it has become increasingly clear that the conflict is a systematic, pre-planned ethnic cleansing drive engineered by the State government using all machinery at its disposal and it solely to do with the majoritarian State government’s plan to grab the ancestral lands and resources of the Zo people by wiping all out traces of their existence wherever possible…”
Demanding a UT status for the Zo people, the Committee it trust that a solution can come only from the Centre and that it has faith in the Union government and the Constitution of India for the same
“A separate administration within the Indian Union is inevitable in view of the total separation – emotional, social, physical and geographical – already starkly exhibited between the minority Zo ethnic tribes and the majority Meitei community. Hastening the political talks with the UPF (United People’s Front) and KNO (Kuki National Army) for a sustainable solution for the Zo people in the interest of sustainable peace…”