We ask for peace and justice and to be allowed to practice our religion and customs without persecution, Florence N. Lowe, Founding Member and President of the North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA) said speaking on behalf of the Kuki-Zo community.
Lowe was speaking at the United Nations Office in Geneva at a Human Rights Council 54th session side-event ‘The Crisis in Manipur and Implications for Human Rights in India’ co-organized by the World Evangelical Alliance, Open Doors International, Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, Justice for All, International Commission for Dalit Rights, and NAMTA.
Every single day I get madder at the inaction and utter inaptitude of the Indian Government, she said after reading out names of Kuki-Zo victims and the horrifying stories of violence meted out to them.
We ask for our right to self-determination and self-governance without fear of mob vigilantism or discrimination and attacks from our own government officials, Lowe said.
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The HRC side event was also addressed by Nury Turkel, Commissioner, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in a pre-recorded video where he said that the prevailing situation in Manipur “should be matter of deep concern for UN Human Rights Council”.
“We advocate for in India for freedom of religion and protection for everyone, we cannot protect one community without everyone being protected,” he stated. Turkel also said that USCIRF was closely monitoring the situation and pointed out that hate speech targeting minorities Christian population has contributed to the violence and was being used to justify widespread atrocities.
Turkel further stated that Indian government was controlling narrative of what is taking place in the Northeastern State and condemned the targeting of those reporting on the issue giving the example of the FIR on members of Editors’ Guild of India. The Indian government silencing those advocating and reporting religious freedom conditions is an unfortunate trend and country’s deteriorating religious freedom conditions is a worrying trajectory, he said.
Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) leader Khuraijam Athouba was also present in the discussion and given the platform to speak with just a few minutes at hand. Athouba protested that that the discussion was being held on wrong narratives and that the Meiteis were not the majority but the minority in Manipur. He also said that the violence was not religiously motivated because Meiteis have Christian population and that the Meitei churches had been burnt down in Kuki-Zo dominated areas.
Before he could proceed further with the “real facts and the truth”, the moderator requested him to conclude and if he did not have any questions to ask, to which Athouba said that it was a “completely one-sided description” and that the platform should be neutral.
Wissam al-Saliby, Director of the Geneva office of the World Evangelical Alliance invited the COCOMI leader for a discussion after the session.