Imphal, Feb 8: Rebel groups United National Liberation Front (UNLF) is observing the 31st Anniversary of its army wing Manipur People’s Army (MPA) tomorrow.
On the occasion, Military Affairs Committee (MAC) of the UNLF while paying revolutionary salute conveys goodwill messages of New Year and the liberation movement.
A statement signed by its Chairman, Kh. Pambei said that the MPA, in the struggle for the restoration of the sovereignty of Manipur, has been in a position to stand with the people and wage war against the enemy IOF as a result of the sincere support rendered to by the people.
The statement said, “In the contemporary world as nations are moving ahead in the fields of development; expressive aura of respective national identity is axiomatic and those sovereign nations excel jubilantly in a state of pleasant cultural existence along with the glory of freedom.
It said that the root cause of such Manipur- India Political Conflict is the forced annexation of Manipur by India.
“We are restraint by a colonial situation of invasion and forced takeover of an independent country by another country, which is not acceptable to the international law. The fact that, in the historical course of Manipur, the UNLF emerged in 1964 and spearheaded people’s liberation movement to restore the sovereignty of Manipur, is a consequential condition created by the forced annexation of Manipur by India,” the statement said.
While stating that the war of liberation to restore the sovereignty is a means to resolve the national contradiction that exists between India and Manipur, the UNLF chairman statement said that the root of this national contradiction is a political question The statement also blamed India’s deployment of heavy military force to continuously keep Manipur as their colony and the consequential liberation war against the former waged by the people of Manipur combined to constitute the characteristic features of this contradiction. “This process, therefore, is a political conflict that embodies the conflict of interest between Manipur and India to defeat the other. This is a conflict that cannot be resolved until the sovereignty of Manipur is being restored”, the statement said.
It further added that the deployment of heavy military force forces UNLF to take up arms to fight against India for our self defence.
“From this condition, our liberation movement have reached at a stage of armed conflict between Indian Occupation Forces and MPA of UNLF. Therefore, the conflict between Manipur and India is no longer restricted to political conflict alone but have broadened to include military conflict as well. The conflict today, therefore, is a politico-military conflict that occurs between two countries”, the statement said.
The statement also said that the incumbent Hindutva nationalist regime of India is making all efforts to strengthen the grips of Hindutva nationalism.
“ It is making all efforts to ensure maximum exploit of its soft power, particularly information and communication technology, to indulge in propaganda and
psychological warfare to cast a mesmerising illusion on people about the Government of India (GOI) as the saviour of Manipur people”, it said.
“Recently when the people of Manipur were drawn into the gaiety of the orchestrated Sangai Festival, 41 MoUs were signed to permit Indian Corporates and Multi-National Company (MNC) to extract away the natural resources of Manipur. Those were signed at a time when there were demands for the decommissioning of the destructive Loktak Project. These 41 MoUs, signed by the State government without the consent of the people, have given away the rights to extract minerals, petroleum, hydro-carbon, cement, hydal power, medicinal plants and biodiversity resources. These MoUs are classified and retained in the secret custody of the Manipur Government. The MoUs need to be de-classified to allow the people to study its pros and cons, in order to obtain consent of the people and to revoke those MoUs that would be destructive to the people. The two days North-East Development Summit (NEDS), held at City Convention, to facilitate the conclusion of the MoUs was organised by India Foundation. Not a single person from WESEA (NE) was represented amongst the organisers. Several Ministers from WESEA (NE) were represented as mere show pieces. Not a single person from WESEA (NE) was assigned to anchor any of the programmes. It was done by an Indian woman. It was a programme designed to facilitate maximum exploitation of natural resources in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. In all these instances the system of the Indian colonial ruler subverts the interest of the people of Manipur. To fulfil their interests, they extract and divert, against our wishes, our resources to mainland India. It enriches them and impoverishes us. And we are forced to exist in servitude, thereby, remaining dependent on annual begging of fund from India. Until and unless the colonial ruler India is completely rooted out, UNLF-MPA will continue to wage the war to restore the sovereignty of Manipur”, the statement said.
UNLF sets to celebrate 31st Anniversary of its army wing MPA tomorrow
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