The ongoing horrors of Manipur should concern us all

By Claudia Webbe MP 

The shocking videos of women being abused as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing must provoke us to finally take action on this brutal injustice, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE MP

IN Manipur, it seems the state has ceased to exist; recent months have seen horrific events with widespread violence against Dalit communities and other minorities reaching horrific levels, with hundreds killed and injured.

The violence has also been gendered: as is so often the case, women are facing the worst. In Manipur, minority women have been raped and publicly humiliated as a weapon of war.

The latest outrage was documented in a viral video widely circulated on social media and reported upon by the international media of two Kuki-Zo women being sexually assaulted, paraded naked and raped, with disturbing footage showing the women weeping, crying in pain and begging their attackers to show mercy.

As more stories emerge, 80-year-old widow Sorokhaibam Ibetombi was burned alive, locked in her home by an armed mob who set it alight, and Thiendam Vaiphei was murdered at the hands of another mob who burned her and cut her throat.

This violence, particularly against women, is sadly not a new phenomenon. A 2014 report by the International Dalit Solidarity Network noted that “violence against Dalit women is systematically utilised to deny them opportunities, choices and freedoms at multiple levels, undermining not only Dalit women’s dignity and self-respect but also their right to development.” The report goes on to argue that:

“[We] need to make Dalit women visible to the public eye through exposing their reality of violence and disempowerment intrinsically related to their social position, in recognition of their selfhood and human dignity.”

Human Rights Watch agreed, adding that prosecution for such violence against minority women is extremely rare, even for rapes and gang rapes: a “pattern of impunity.”

As so often happens, this latest eruption of violence was linked to corporate greed for access to and control of coveted mineral resources.

The Geological Survey of India has “discovered” the presence of nickel, copper and platinum group elements as well as magnetite, widely used in catalysis, and other valuable minerals. This discovery appears to have triggered demands from the majority Meitei people for Scheduled Tribe Status (STS); protection to promote social justice by providing positive discrimination and affirmative action for members of the most deprived and disadvantaged Indian tribes and “castes,” that was put in place shortly after Indian independence.

The criterion for scheduled status requires a people group to be marginalised and essentially defined as “untouchable” and to live excluded from nearby cultures.

They must “live apart in the hills, and even where they live in plains, they lead a separate excluded existence and are not fully assimilated in the main body of the people. Scheduled tribes may belong to any religion. They are listed as scheduled tribes because of the kind of life led by them.”

Despite the issues with this, in May the Manipur High Court ordered the state government to recommend the extension of STS to the majority Meitei people, which would give widespread access to the hills where the mineral resources have been “discovered,” potentially relegating the indigenous Kuki-Zomi and Naga hill people to bystanders as their environment is degraded by corporate mineral extraction.

The concerns for the environment are well-founded. Only this week, the national government has been accused of “destroying” the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu by allowing mineral extraction by a company directly controlled by the government, despite widespread and ongoing protests by local farmers and communities.

The Supreme Court of India condemned the Manipur High Court ruling as “completely factually wrong.” However, the Manipur state government — which, like the national government, is led by the BJP — had asked only for an extension to the High Court order and not to have it stayed or overturned, so only an extension was granted. A number of corporations with reportedly close ties to the ruling BJP are eager to exploit those resources.

Naturally, the Kuki-Zomi and Naga people were deeply worried about this development and began to protest against it – and the backlash against the protests saw massive violence.

So far, the BJP-led state government has been accused of standing by as a mute spectator to the violence and failing to protect the predominantly Christian hill tribes.

This failure to protect violates both India’s constitution and its statute, as well as the country’s obligations under international law. Article 14 of the constitution mandates: “The state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India,” while Article 15(1) provides that the “state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.”

The Indian penal code also provides special protections for the dignity and modesty of women and requires strict and “rigorous” punishment for rape. Instead, in Manipur and elsewhere, it is ignored and unpunished.

Indian author and peace award-winning activist Arundhati Roy has dismissed attempts to describe events in Manipur as a civil war, instead describing the violence as ethnic cleansing, and has said that the language of “eradication” of supposed inferior groups in Manipur has become commonplace.

The parallels with other nations and regions torn apart because of mineral wealth are obvious. The UN names “extractive industry” as a key factor in violence in nations such as Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cambodia and Afghanistan among others, whether for energy resources or rare minerals needed for the manufacture of electronics.

In all those places, violence against women as a tool of control and intimidation is a prominent feature of mining-related oppression. A report by the IndustriAll union found that gender-based violence, harassment and exploitation are “pervasive” in the global mining industry, even in the absence of conflict.

The horrific events in these nations have shown all too clearly just how dangerous it is when the human vices of greed and envy meet the corporate appetite for material resources, leading to incitement, and dehumanising propaganda directed against minorities. The genocide in Rwanda differed only slightly, driven by greed for the land itself.

And when these toxic factors combine in violence and oppression, women suffer worst, as the full weight of structural, cultural, institutional and systemic contempt and discrimination come down on them in the form of horrific and sexualised inhumanity.

Women in Manipur and elsewhere are regarded as instruments and human chattels, without power, voice or agency, treated as objects for the expression of rage and hate and as tools to be abused to intimidate and control their communities.

All these terrible, terrifying examples tell us that silence is not an option when we see the same dynamics playing out in Manipur.

The suffering of victims and the cries of women in Manipur demand justice and demand that we stand up and speak out in solidarity and outrage. History will not look kindly on those who turn away and let inhumanity run unchecked.

The international community must insist on action — at both state and national levels — to protect the vulnerable and defuse the situation and must not take no for an answer.

Claudia Webbe MP is the member of Parliament for Leicester East. You can follow her at www.facebook.com/claudiaforLE and twitter.com/ClaudiaWebbe