Myanmar: The new killing field of innocent Manipuri youths
- peacetalks24
- 52 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The ethnic violence in Manipur which started from May 03, 2023 saw numerous stories of death and destruction which impacted the Meitei and the Kuki Zo Community. Some drew attention of even the global media whereas some were swept under the carpet. One such hidden story pertains to the VULTURES from both the Meitei and the Kuki community, who gleefully FEASTED in the midst of this untold suffering. Vultures—The Valley Based Insurgent Groups and the Kuki-Zo armed groups—saw an opportunity in the ethnic violence, helped fan the hatred between the two communities and recruited/armed innocent emotionally charged youths under the guise of protecting their respective community. The vultures feasted projecting to the community that they were fighting the battle for them but the reality unfolded when stories filtered onto the social media about deaths of some youths of Manipur in Myanmar in fighting between the Military Junta and the Pro-Democracy forces. The death of two youths, viz. one from the Meitei community and one from the Kuki Zo community unravels the devious design of deception used by the VBIGs and the Kuki-Zo militants to move them to Myanmar to fight a battle which had nothing to do with them.
On January 31, 2025, information started trickling in about the death of one Seikhotinsat Khongsai of Thingangphai village of Churachandpur in clashes between the PDF and the Myanmar army at Min Thar. Seikhotinsat was known to be recruited as a Village volunteer to protect the Kuki Zo villages from Meitei aggression and nobody knew how he landed up in Myanmar fighting against the Myanmar Army.
Similarly, one Natngakpa, an original resident of Serou and an inmate of Sugnu relief camp which houses Internally Displaced persons, was recruited by the PREPAK/Pro on the pretext of fighting for the Meitei community. He was then deviously taken to Myanmar along with several other new recruits and thrown in the cauldron of battle between the Myanmar Army and the PDF in which he has no stakes. As was expected, he was killed on March 25, 2025 and had to be cremated there locally in Myanmar with his family not even getting a glimpse of the body.
The unifying factor between the two deaths was the Machiavellian militant commanders who exploited the emotions of these innocent youths to protect their personal interests. As far as the VBIGs are concerned, it was about protecting their fiefdom in Tamu/Hezin (Myanmar) and so they needed young innocent youths to be sent to the frontlines at Min Thar and Panda/Panthar as sacrificial lambs. To keep the flock intact, these militant commanders discreetly got these youths addicted to a cocktail of drugs and alcohol and kept them posted in the frontlines.
The Kuki Zo militant commanders, on the other hand, are using the gullible Kuki youths to amass fortunes for themselves. Many of these commanders have relocated their families to cities like Guwahati, Shillong, Delhi, Kolkata, and Bengaluru who are leading a comfortable life owning cushy flats and high-end SUVs. Some of these Kuki-Zo leaders have political aspirations and want to keep the pot boiling by romanticizing violence and handing over sophisticated weapons and drugs to these teenagers and then pushing them to distant battlefields, from where there is no return.
The two deaths are just a tip of the iceberg as a number of Kuki and Meitei youths have been killed in Myanmar and buried/cremated in unmarked graves in remote pockets of Myanmar. Is this what the youth of Manipur deserve?
It’s time for the community leaders of the Kuki and the Meitei community to take note and act or else these vultures would devour the youth of the Kuki and the Meitei community as VULTURES.