Imphal, Manipur, April 5 (HBTV): The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has declined to participate in the recent peace talks facilitated by officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi. A statement from the COCOMI has called the Home Ministry’s brokered Meetei-Kuki meeting a “Sham” to legitimize a ‘misleading narrative of Union Home minister.’ 

‘COCOMI consciously declined to participate in the recent orchestrated meeting between the so-called representatives of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi-Hmar groups and the Meetei, facilitated by officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi,’ the group stated.  

‘COCOMI consider this stage managed spectacle is nothing but a strategic ploy to validate the misleading narrative advanced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament, that the Manipur crisis is merely an "ethnic conflict" between Meetei and Kuki communities, allegedly triggered by the High Court's direction on Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for Meeteis.’

Calling the ‘narrative’ a gross distortion of facts, the COCOMI stated that ‘it conveniently ignores the far more dangerous and deep-rooted realities that COCOMI has consistently highlighted since the beginning of this crisis, the ongoing proxy war, enabled and perpetuated by the Government of India through the patronage of Chin-Kuki narco-terrorist mercenary forces or groups which the government has been nurturing since 2005 under the guise of the Suspension of Operations Agreement.’ 

In its previous engagements with Ministry officials, including the meeting in Imphal, the COCOMI stated, the group had made it explicitly clear that the people of Manipur regard the Government of India not as a neutral mediator but as an active party to this conflict.   

‘Without acknowledging this fundamental truth, any so-called "peace initiative" is a hollow exercise designed solely for political optics.’

‘The latest meeting, hastily convened with a handful of individuals from both sides, is yet another tactical manoeuvre to fabricate an illusion of progress, conveniently timed to furnish talking points for the Home Minister’s parliamentary address.’