Corpse in Controversy

By: Seram Neken
Death is the end of everything. Whatever be the cause of death or whichever be the community the expired belong, this writer has utmost respect for the departed souls and through this article, pays homage to all those killed during the ongoing conflict. It is war, and naturally both sides have to lose lives. But we shall never play politics on the dead bodies, nor shall we use the corpses as weapons to forward unwarranted demands. There shall be complete transparency over the identity of the deaths and their lawful cremation.
On a number of occasions, heavy influx of immigrants has been reported and involvement of refugees in the ongoing war has been voiced. Right from the Governor and the Chief Minister of Manipur to the intellectuals and civil society bodies, involvement of foreign hands in the ongoing conflict has been articulated. Eyewitnesses have already reported presence of ‘lungi’ wearing armed militants in the hills during the three-month conflict. Even the Solicitor General admitted before the Supreme Court that unclaimed dead bodies may include those of armed foreigners. Hence, presumably many of the dead bodies lined up for burial may be of illegal intruders who attacked the innocent indigenous people of the state. In case of the deaths of alien intruders, if any, the issue concerning their cremation would become complex. Besides the Home Ministry, the intervention of Ministry of External Affairs will be required whenever the death happens to be a foreigner. Thus, the emergent controversy is not only of the burial site, but also of the identity of the corpses.
How many people have been killed during the 90 days of the conflict? How many of the dead bodies have been recovered? How many of them have been identified? How many have been lying unidentified? How many of them have been claimed and cremated? How many are lying in the morgues? How long the dead bodies can lie unclaimed in morgues? Unclaimed bodies are to be disposed off according to the prevailing laws of the land. Official figures have to be placed in public domain by the concerned government agencies to thwart off controversies regarding their burials.
For the Meiteis, the recovered dead bodies during the ongoing war have been cremated at their respective places as per their traditions. Regarding a number of missing individuals, families of some of them have performed death ceremonies in accordance to their respective customs and beliefs. Most unfortunate thing now is that certain Kuki CSOs have manufactured a new controversy when they proposed a mass burial site at Torbung Bangla in Bishnupur district, where the first ever expulsion of Meitei villagers took place on May 3 last. Unprepared Torbung Bangla villagers fled to nearby safe places following armed attacks and burning of houses by Kuki militants. In one of its modus operandi for expansionism, the belligerent Kuki bodies started clearing the state land in Torbung Bangla for a mass burial site. Torbung which is both historically and mythologically important to the Meiteis, is associated with Moirang Kangleirol. Moreover, it is clearly within the Bishnupur district.
Now the timely intervention of the High Court of Manipur could defer the August 3 burial plan of Kuki CSOs. State and central governments were directed to maintain status quo at the area. Thanks to International Meeteis Forum (IMF) for the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) it filed ahead of the August 3 plan of Kuki CSOs. During the protest opposing the mass burial, a number of women were wounded in the excessive actions of central security forces.
On the other side, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) announced postponement of the burial plan for seven days following request from Union Home Ministry, as reported in the media. ITLF said that it conditionally ceded to the request of Union Home Ministry to defer the burial. The CSO set five conditions namely legalisation of the proposed burial site, withdrawal of state security forces from hill districts, transfer of dead bodies from Imphal to Churachandpur, transfer of Kuki jail inmates to other states, and speeding up of separate administration demand. ITLF has also claimed that the Union Home Ministry assured it to finalise the burial controversy within a week’s time. The week ahead is crucial.
As for the burial site, legal proceedings will come as the next hearing of the PIL is on August 9 and the Union Home Ministry will have to abide by the court’s directives. What about identification of the dead bodies? It is high time for the authority to place an official statistics of the deaths and missing individuals during the conflict. Identification of the dead bodies which are queued up for burial, and those which are piled up in morgues may be done at the earliest so that due process for their cremation at their respective lands and with their religious beliefs be done promptly. Would the souls in heaven be happy to see their dead bodies being used to pursue political demands on earth? Are not the coffin rallies quite condemnable? Isn’t burial for area domination deplorable indeed? Do not create controversies out of the breathless corpses.
(The writer is Imphal based columnist. He is available at [email protected])