Interview: ‘In Manipur, rational voices on both sides are being silenced’

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The deadly conflict in Manipur has dragged on for 18 months without any glimmer of resolution. At least 255 persons have died and over 59,000 displaced since the clashes broke out in May 2023.

A recent escalation of tensions in Jiribam district has seen women and children being targeted. At least 22 persons have been killed in the fresh wave of violence that began on November 7.

The two communities that have suffered losses in the civil-war-like situation – the dominant Meiteis and the minority Kuki-Zomi-Hmar tribes – remain deeply suspicious and unsympathetic to the other’s sufferings.

Scroll spoke to Angela Rangad, a Shillong-based women’s and democratic rights activist, on what this new escalation in violence means for the state and the wider North East region, and the impact of the conflict on women and children.

Rangad, who has been an advocate for workers’ rights and gender justice for about two decades, visited Manipur in August 2023 as part of a women-only fact-finding team. Excerpts...

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