The Delhi Meetei Coordinating Committee (DMCC) on Friday strongly rejected the findings of the Independent People’s Tribunal on Manipur’s ongoing ethnic conflict, released by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) on August 20.
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, accused the report of being “biased, politically motivated and one-sided.” They alleged that it projected the Meetei community solely as perpetrators while portraying the Kuki-Chin community as victims. The committee demanded an immediate withdrawal of the report and a public apology from PUCL.
According to DMCC, the tribunal failed to acknowledge testimonies of Meetei victims and overlooked attacks on Meetei villages that began on May 3, 2023. They maintained that the violence erupted in Torbung and Kangvai, where armed Kuki groups allegedly attacked Meetei homes, contrary to the report’s version that the conflict began in the Imphal Valley. “The sequence of events has been distorted, with crucial facts overlooked or misrepresented,” Dr. Rojesh said.
The DMCC further criticized the report for attributing the burning of a controversial gate in Churachandpur to Meeteis without, they claimed, credible evidence. They alleged that the tribunal’s narrative effectively justified retaliatory attacks on Meetei villages in Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, and Tengnoupal.
Speakers at the press meet also accused the report of ignoring what they described as the longstanding separatist agenda of Kuki armed groups, who they alleged have carried out repeated attacks on Meetei villages and religious sites since 2015. They cited the burning of Umang Lai temples and desecration of sacred sites such as Koubru and Thangjing, calling it a “systematic attempt to erase Meetei faith and identity.”
On gender-based violence, the DMCC alleged selective documentation by the tribunal, which highlighted sexual assaults on Kuki women while dismissing testimonies of similar atrocities against Meetei women.
