IMPHAL, Mar 1: AMUCO reiterated its stand on the territorial integrity of Manipur after the central government declared to form a committee on alternative arrangement that consist two members of United Naga Council without the knowledge of people of Manipur.
Briefing media persons, adviser of AMUCO Ksh Raman said that people of Manipur had instructed to not extend the cease fire between NSCN (IN) and central government to the territories of Manipur in 1997. But in 2000, the cease fire was extended to Manipur keeping the Bangkok declaration in mind and that resulted in the death of 18 civilians in 18 June of the same year during the protests and the then Prime Minister of India withdrew the cease fire from Manipur. Similarly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also expressed that to bring a solution to the Naga problem; the territorial integrity of Manipur will not be compromised.
The Central government and United Naga Council held a meeting in Senapati to discuss about alternative arrangement but till now people of Manipur didn’t know which agendas they were discussing. UNC demanded a statute only for Nagas bypassing the Manipur government to the ministry of home affairs. The India government should clarify about the agendas discussed at the Senapati meeting to the people of Manipur, he added.
He also insisted that the state government should discuss these issues seriously in the ongoing session of Manipur assembly and failing which the government should take responsibility for another June 18 like incident.
AMUCO president Dr Y Mani Khuman said that we are not afraid to sacrifice our lives to protect the integrity of Manipur.
“AMUCO desires to unite every ethnic people of Manipur. People of India have never treated us equally and to escape this there should be a political procedure,” he said.