ZoRO recalls Fort William conference

Imphal, Jan 30 : Zo Reunification Organisation (ZoRO) today fondly remembered the 1892 Fort William (Chin-Lushai) conference at Saikul under Sadar Hills in Manipur's Senapati district.

ZoRO marked the 122nd anniversary of the Fort William Conference under the theme of "Together We can Ascend." About 2, 000 people, Including Zo delegates from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Mizoram, Assam, and Tripura attended the conference-cum-commemoration event.

The Chin-Lushai conference of January 29, 1892 decided to keep the Chin-Lushai Hills under one administration.

The conference opened in Calcutta on January 25 under the presidentship of Sir Charles Alfred Elliot, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.

It dealt with a variety of connected questions on the future, civil and military of the Chin-Lushai Hillls.

Saikul constituency MLA, Yamthong Haokip; ZoRO president, R Thangmawi; Autonomous District Council (ADC), Sadar Hills, chairman, Haokholal Hangshing; Kuki National Organisation (KNO) president, PS Haokip; general secretary, ZoRO, Northern Zone, and S Thangchinlal Simte, Kuki Inpi, Manipur president, Thangsei Haokip also attended the conference.

Addressing the conference, KNO president Haokip reiterated the organisation roadmap concerning the resurrection of 'Zo country' began with securing statehood and the Kuki 'ancestral land' from the British colonialists but later on it was included into the present-day Manipur state and a Kuki state in present-day Saigang division in Myanmar.

"This will be followed by consolidation of our territories in other parts of India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.

Once we achieve this objective, together with Mizoram, Chin, and Kachin states, we can aspire to be one great nation," Haokip said.

He added, "Today, the Zo people dispersed in three different countries-Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram in India, the Sagaing Division, Kachin state and Chin state in Burma, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh are coming together as the one people under ZoRO" .

Haokip added ZoRO started with becoming a member of the UN Permanent Settlement and attending the UN meetings in New York.

He maintained that in order to achieve the objective of uniting 'Zo country' it is essential that "Our people cooperate as Mizo in the state of Mizoram, Chin in Chin state, Kachin in Kachin state, and in the rest such as Sagaing Division, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, and Chittagong Hill Tracts as Kuki.

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Ethnic tension in Mizoram subsides but underlying restiveness surfaces as Mizo bodies meet

The Mizo Students’ Union, another group, has also pledged to boycott the upcoming polls if the Election Commission of India does not do so.

Although ethnic tension between the Mizo and Bru communities in Mizoram over the November 23  kidnapping of three men has subsided substantially with last week’s release of two men (both Mizos), underlying restiveness continues to surface as the state’s powerful community-based Mizo groups, students’ unions and political parties held three separate meetings Tuesday.

The meetings focussed on the issue of Deep Mandal’s (the third kidnapped man) continued captivity by National Liberation Front of Tripura cadres and Bru militants, with four opposition parties including the BJP pledging to participate in a mass voluntary search operation for Mandal planned for February 5 and 6.

Community-based organisations including the Young Mizo Association, women’s group MHIP, Mizo elders’ grouping MUP and the powerful Mizo Zirlai Pawl, a students’ organisation have also called on the state government to ensure the quick release of Mandal, a 25-year-old telecommunications professional believed to be held in the jungles of eastern Bangladesh and for whose release the abductors have demanded a ransom of Rs 5 crores.

These groups also called for the removal of around 11,000 Brus living in six Tripura relief camps from Mizoram’s electoral rolls ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The Mizo Students’ Union, another group, has also pledged to boycott the upcoming polls if the Election Commission of India does not do so.

An estimated 5000-odd internally displaced Bru families that fled Mizoram in 1997 following ethnic conflict have voting rights in Mizoram, and the ECI had in the last assembly elections organised special postal ballots for them, a move community-based Mizo groups resent arguing these families have refused to return in spite of an ongoing repatriation process that has so far seen just 1000-odd families returning home more than three years after it began.

A senior Bru leader based in Mizoram said community leaders are meeting Wednesday to discuss the repatriation process, including when it can be resumed. The Bru leaders are instrumental in the process (exxecuted by the Tiura and Mizoram governments along with the Union Home Ministry) as they are the ones who coordinate with families in the six relief camps who want to return to Mizoram.

Meanwhile, police in Mizoram’s western Mamit district said they were contacted by Bru leader A Sawibunga, who lives in Tripura’s Naisingpara Bru relief camp and who was quoted by a national newspaper as saying Mizos had burned down more than a dozen houses and physically assaulted Bru youths in mid-January, leading to an exodus of scores of Bru families to Tripura as ethnic tension soared over the kidnappings.

A police officer said Sawibunga telephoned an investigator Tuesday, where he reiterated he had not made any such comments and that he would ask the newspaper to carry a corrigendum even as the newspaper, the officer said, stood by the news report. Sawibunga’s cellphone remained switched off as The Indian Express attempted to contact him for comment Tuesday.

A Mizo group had filed an FIR against Sawibunga for making the allegations. The police investigation is based on that complaint.    At the same time, Mamit district police are also investigating the burning down of a kacha house occupied by a Bru family at the outskirts of Mamit town late on Monday night. The family of three was not at home at the time and there were no casualties. Police said they have found no clues yet as to the cause of the fire.

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Mizoram police investigate report of ethnic violence

Police in Mizoram have begun investigations against a Bru leader and a national newspaper that quoted him as saying Mizos had burned down more than a dozen Bru houses and assaulted members of the minority community two weeks ago.
A senior police official from Mamit district in western Mizoram said investigators have found no evidence of Mizos burning Bru houses or assaulting members of the Bru tribe and is seeking replies from both the newspaper and the Bru leader.
A report in a national newspaper had quoted Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum president A Sawibunga as having attributed such incidents as the reason for scores of Bru families fleeing to Tripura in mid-January.
Mizoram had been on edge with ethnic tension at the time over the November 23 kidnapping for ransom of three men — two Mizo drivers and a telecommunications professional from West Bengal — by National Liberation Front of Tripura cadres aided by Bru militants (While the two Mizos have been released after spending two months in captivity in the jungles of eastern Bangladesh, the telecom professional remains in the militants’ hands).
With Mizo groups planning massive voluntary search operations to look for the missing mean shortly before the duo’s release, scores of Bru families from at least three villages in Mizoram had fled to neighboring Tripura or taken shelter in their farms fearing potential ethnic conflict. Some also reportedly sought refuge in Mizo-dominated villages.
Police said they have not found any cases of houses being burned or people being physically assaulted after an NGO filed an FIR against Sawibunga, who resides in the Bru Naisingpara relief camp in Tripura’s Kanchanpur sub-division within North Tripura district.
The Mizoram government has also taken the allegations seriously, with Home Minister R Lalzirliana saying Chief Secretary L Tochhong has been asked to look into the matter.
Investigators said Sawibunga had denied having said any such thing to the national newspaper and were understood to have tried contacting the daily’s editorial staff Monday. Sawibunga’s cellphone remained switched-off when The Indian Express tried to contact him.
He had last week also been quoted by The Aizawl Post, a Mizo daily, as saying he did not make any allegations of house-burning or physical assault by Mizos to the national newspaper.
A police official said an FIR is likely to be filed after initial inquiries with the Tripura police since Sawibunga is based there and also because the news report originated from Agartala, Tripura’s capital.

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MZP urges Mizoram govt to secure release of abducted person

Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or the Mizo students federation today urged the Mizoram government to make concerted efforts to secure the release of private telecom company employee, now still in captivity of Bru and NLFT militants inside Bangladesh.

The MZP, in a press statement, while expressing happiness over the release of two Mizo hostages by the abductors yesterday, regretted that Deep Mondal, a resident of West Bengal and an employee of the Airtel company was still kept as a hostage.

"We want those people coming from outside the state to work for the development of Mizoram to feel safe, and also be completely safe," the statement said, adding that if people from other states found that Mizoram was no longer peaceful, developmental works in the state would be adversely affected.

The MZP warned the Bru goons that Mizo students would resort to any means to secure the release of Mondal and also urged them to stop earning money from the blood of the Mizos and people working in the state.

Two Mizos - Sanglianthanga and Lalzamliana, along with Mondal were abducted by an armed Bru group called Bru National Development Front of Mizoram from the old Anti Poaching Camp at Chikha inside the Dampa Tiger Reserve in the Mizoram-Bangladesh-Tripura border Mamit district on November 23 last.

The abducted persons were kept in captivity since then inside Bangladesh by the NLFT militants and the two Mizos were released yesterday while Mondal remained in captivity and the abductors demanded Rs five crore ransom from the Airtel company.

Meanwhile, 212 Bru families from four villages in Mamit fled to Tripura since January 13 for fear of communal backlash from the Mizos as the persons abducted by Bru goons remained in captivity raising the anger of the Mizos.

Mamit district SP Rodingliana Chawngthu told PTI today that majority of those who fled returned and others were also returning after learning the release of two Mizo hostages.

No violent incident has occurred anywhere in the district, Chawngthu added.

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Militants free two Mizo hostages

AIZAWL: Two Mizos, Sanglianthanga and Lalzawmliana, who were abducted along with a non-tribal, Deep Mondal, by the Bru National Development Front of Mizoram (BNDFM) and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) on November 23 last year from the abandoned Chikha anti-poaching camp inside Mamit district's Dampa Tiger Reserve on the Mizoram-Bangladesh-Tripura border, were released on Wednesday.

Police said the three persons were held captive inside Bangladesh for 55 days. Deep Mondal, who worked with a private telecom company, has not been released yet, a senior state police official said.

"The released hostages and their guides are likely to reach the Mizoram-Bangladesh border by Friday. They were kept in a forest in Bangladesh as the abductors feared the state police might make a rescue attempt," the official said. A ransom of Rs 5 crore has been demanded from the telecom company in which Mondal worked.

SP of Mamit district, Rodingliana Chawngthu said around 500 young people who volunteered as members of a 'search party' to locate the abducted trio discontinued their march towards Bangladesh after learning of the release.

Lalhmachhuana, president of the apex Mizo students' body-Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP)-which organized the 'search party', said its team would return to Aizawl once the news of the release is confirmed. He told media persons that the MZP would exert pressure for the release of Deep Mondal. "We want to make people who come to the state from outside to participate in developmental works feel safe and we will work towards this," he added.

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