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UNLF warns of flareup in Manipur
Published on Wed, Oct 04, 2006 at 21:12, Updated on Thu, Nov 23, 2006 at 14:54 in 
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New Delhi: Manipur-based militant outfit United National Liberation Front or UNLF has warned that the state is soon going to witness a flare-up as the outfit plans to take its war for ‘liberation’ of Manipur into the streets, by sparking a civil unrest.
"You will see some sort of a intifada," says UNLF Chairman Sanayaima. "Part of the strategy is to tell the world that something is happening here and you are morally obliged to come to our help. India should not be allowed to simply massacre our people," he said in his first-ever interview to a TV news channel.
A Special Investigation Team of CNN-IBN interviewed the reclusive Chairman of Manipur's largest rebel group somewhere close to Myanmar border. Revealing his plans for a mass upsrising in Manipur, Sanayaima also reiterated his demand for a plebiscite in the state.
The UNLF's rebellion against the Indian state began in 1964 with the avowed objective of ‘liberating’ Manipur from India through an armed struggle and achieving a socialist society. UNLF is the oldest Meitei insurgent group in the state.
"One of the biggest factors in our strategy is, we're fighting with the people, not just the armed cadres. And India's deployment is about 50-55,000. Just take about 2 million people, 55,000 is nothing," Sanayaima says. With this in mind, Sanayaima -- a descendent of the Manipur royal family -- plans to mobilise the Manipuris by proposing a solution that he knows Delhi will not accept.
"We've made a four-point proposal. No. 1 is to hold plebiscite under the UN. No.2 is that UN peacekeeping forces should be deployed in Manipur. No. 3, UNLF will deposit all its arms to the UN. And India should also be reciprocate by withdrawing all its forces from Manipur. No. 4, the UN authority will hand over power according to the result of the plebiscite," he reveals.
Sanayaima feels the Meitei civil groups of the Imphal Valley will back his plebiscite proposal. "Our strategy is to get entire people involved in the struggle," he adds.
The UNLF flexes its muscles in other ways as well. It often cajoles the state administration into funding development projects run by the outfit. "We tell MLAs, ministers and bureaucrats, 'one day they have to join the people when the people rise up. Otherwise they don't have any future'," Sanayaima said.
For 26 years, Manipur has been run by the Indian Army under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Human rights violations fuel the secessionist fire, the latest being the rape and murder of activist Manorama Devi, allegedly by soldiers of the Assam Rifles.
Sanayaima says Manorama wasn't an accident but a product of the conflict. "It was bound to happen and it is this conflict situation that will push the people forward to rise against the system that represses them," he says.
(With Rajesh Bharadwaj and Rohit Khanna)
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