Price of Conflict
Manipur 2nd most conflict ridden state in NE:
Imphal, Dec 11: With 361 deaths till November 30, Manipur remains the second most conflict ridden state in the northeast, behind Assam with 388 fatalities, says a report of the South Asia intelligence review (SAIR).
With a month to go before the end of 2007 the figure of fatalities has already surpassed the 311 militancy-related fatalities that occurred in Manipur in 2006. While fatalities among the militants in 2007 have remained more or less comparable to the previous year, it has certainly worsened among the civilians and the security forces.
According to the currently available data, civilian deaths have already increased by over 42 per cent and those of security forces by 39 percent.
According to a report of the Institute of Conflict Management, ministry of home affairs, during the year 2007 upto November 30, out of the 361 deaths, 137 were civilians, 39 were security men while 185 were militants of different outfits.
During 2006, the report added, out of 311 people killed, 96 were civilians, 28 were security men while the remaining 187 were militants.
Fatalities alone, however, do not reflect Manipur`s dire predicament, the reviewed note stated saying that activities of about 10,000 cadres of 15 militant groups of varying sizes and character, compound an endemic collapse of the administrative machinery, taking Manipur to the threshold of a failed ‘state’ within the Indian Union.
The entire nine districts (four in the valley and five in the hills) have been affected by the unending militant violence, severely impacting the very limited local capacities for governance, justice administration, and the provision of minimal security to citizens.
The report based on state police sources indicated that while almost all the 59 police stations have been reporting militant violence, as many as 32 of them have been slotted in the ‘high’ violence category.
The impunity with which militant outfits have carried on their activities in Manipur has been a matter of deep concern among policy makers over a number of years, and the year 2007 was no different.
Regarding the ongoing army operation at the international border with Myanmar in Chandel district, the SAIR report said that since its induction into Manipur in the late 1970s, the Army has led countless synchronized operations against the militants and their areas of domination, loosely described as `liberated zones`.
However, the impact of these operations on the capabilities of the militant groups has, at best, been transient. With little help coming from the state police force, the militants have regained their `lost` areas once the Army withdrew to its base areas. The most recent instance of this phenomenon was the campaign to gain control over the New Somtal area in the Chandel district.
Spread over 1,000 square kilometres and located in the south-eastern corner of Chandel district along the Indo-Myanmar border, New Somtal has been a bastion of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) for the past several years.
The inaccessibility of the area and its proximity to the Myanmar border has been cited as the difficulties which have prevented the Army from securing a conclusive victory in New Somtal.
At least two major operations in 2006 (in January and December) had failed to clear the area of UNLF presence. On November 18, 2007 the Army launched a two-pronged operation in New Somtal, targeting the ‘293rd battalion’ of the UNLF. Troops moved in simultaneously from the Khengjoi and Sehlon ridges.
Posted On: www.kanglaonline.com
Imphal, Dec 11: With 361 deaths till November 30, Manipur remains the second most conflict ridden state in the northeast, behind Assam with 388 fatalities, says a report of the South Asia intelligence review (SAIR).
With a month to go before the end of 2007 the figure of fatalities has already surpassed the 311 militancy-related fatalities that occurred in Manipur in 2006. While fatalities among the militants in 2007 have remained more or less comparable to the previous year, it has certainly worsened among the civilians and the security forces.
According to the currently available data, civilian deaths have already increased by over 42 per cent and those of security forces by 39 percent.
According to a report of the Institute of Conflict Management, ministry of home affairs, during the year 2007 upto November 30, out of the 361 deaths, 137 were civilians, 39 were security men while 185 were militants of different outfits.
During 2006, the report added, out of 311 people killed, 96 were civilians, 28 were security men while the remaining 187 were militants.
Fatalities alone, however, do not reflect Manipur`s dire predicament, the reviewed note stated saying that activities of about 10,000 cadres of 15 militant groups of varying sizes and character, compound an endemic collapse of the administrative machinery, taking Manipur to the threshold of a failed ‘state’ within the Indian Union.
The entire nine districts (four in the valley and five in the hills) have been affected by the unending militant violence, severely impacting the very limited local capacities for governance, justice administration, and the provision of minimal security to citizens.
The report based on state police sources indicated that while almost all the 59 police stations have been reporting militant violence, as many as 32 of them have been slotted in the ‘high’ violence category.
The impunity with which militant outfits have carried on their activities in Manipur has been a matter of deep concern among policy makers over a number of years, and the year 2007 was no different.
Regarding the ongoing army operation at the international border with Myanmar in Chandel district, the SAIR report said that since its induction into Manipur in the late 1970s, the Army has led countless synchronized operations against the militants and their areas of domination, loosely described as `liberated zones`.
However, the impact of these operations on the capabilities of the militant groups has, at best, been transient. With little help coming from the state police force, the militants have regained their `lost` areas once the Army withdrew to its base areas. The most recent instance of this phenomenon was the campaign to gain control over the New Somtal area in the Chandel district.
Spread over 1,000 square kilometres and located in the south-eastern corner of Chandel district along the Indo-Myanmar border, New Somtal has been a bastion of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) for the past several years.
The inaccessibility of the area and its proximity to the Myanmar border has been cited as the difficulties which have prevented the Army from securing a conclusive victory in New Somtal.
At least two major operations in 2006 (in January and December) had failed to clear the area of UNLF presence. On November 18, 2007 the Army launched a two-pronged operation in New Somtal, targeting the ‘293rd battalion’ of the UNLF. Troops moved in simultaneously from the Khengjoi and Sehlon ridges.
Posted On: www.kanglaonline.com