The Kuki Women’s Organisation for Human Rights (KWOHR) has appealed to all concerned to maintain calm over the issue of human rights activist Mark Thangmang Haokip. Let the law of the land to take its course and contribute to foster brotherhood and harmony, it said.
The KWOHR said that provocative speeches associated with the arrest of Mark Haokip have become more toxic, thereby posing a threat to the plural ethos of the State. Some fringe elements have resorted to unrestraint bashing and branding of Kukis as ‘foreigners, refugees’, etc. not only on social media platforms but also in mainstream Manipur media, it stated.
KWOHR stated that it does not believe in resorting to such hate mongering and name callings which are detrimental to society as a whole.
It stated that cases of branding Mark Haokip as ‘Myanmarese’ and generalization of Kuki-Zomi-Mizos as migrants have been rising under the present dispensation and it is very unfortunate to observe that an unprecedented level of ethnic polarization has also been witnessed.
KWOHR is observing every move of the present dominant political party and we have already enough evidences that the restlessness now has been abetted by the dominant political party, it claimed.
Expressing shock over the demand of capital punishment by the Kabui Mothers’ Association, it said Mark Haokip had already tendered an apology, as demanded by various CSOs, for his remark against Rani Gaidinliu last year. It said the demand of KAMA smacks of racial prejudice and reflects their immaturity.
It then stated that the perpetrators of “orchestrated genocide” against innocent Kukis, the mass rape of Kuki women in present day Pherzawl district in the past decade, and human rights violation and abuse on Kukis, including planting of landmines by various armed secessionist groups, deserve capital punishment.
It also said that apart from the increasing hate speeches against Kukis, some even go to the extent of demanding ‘deportation’ of Mark Haokip despite their miserable attempts to prove his Myanmar origin and these derisive talks do not augur well for the future of Manipur which is a home to many ethnic groups.
It is very unfortunate that majority community of Manipur deliberately spared no efforts to alienate one particular community without even thinking of the consequences instead of trying to strengthen the social fabric that weaves the ties of the multi-ethnic people that adorn Manipur, it added.
