Imphal: As the violent ethnic clashes continued in Manipur, albeit with a bit of a lull for the past few days, the crisis has also attracted attention from all across the globe.
From Delhi to Bengaluru, and from London to Washington in the United States, a large number of groups and individuals have held peace rallies since the mayhem began in the Churachandpur district on May 3.
The latest one is from an unlikely corner of the world – Indonesia.
The individual participants in the rally were only a few dozen, however, the rally assumed significance because of the fact that the eastern economic powerhouse is identifiably a Muslim country with over 86.7% of people following Islam as their main religion.
Several Muslims and human rights groups, who participated in the rally that took place on August 11, 2023, urged the United States to express its concern on the issues of human rights, especially for local minorities.
“Please America Speak Up For Human Rights In India”, “Stop Ethnic Purge in Manipur”, were some of the play cards, and banners they highlighted on the occasion. Later, a few representatives of the rally submitted a petition to the US through its Embassy in Jakarta.
Although it didn’t mention the particular ‘minority’ community in which the rally had demanded protection, the ethnic violence in Manipur had been portrayed as a fight between majority and minority communities by some Kuki tribes in the beginning. But it wasn’t successful as people across the globe realised that the violence was actually instigated by some vested interests and narcoterrorism, with the support of illegal immigrants from Myanmar.
On the other hand, if the so-called peace rally was all about Muslim people in Manipur, the violence wouldn’t affect the minority community so far.
Moreover, India on July 12 rejected the European Parliament’s plan to hold an ‘urgent debate’ on the violence in Manipur, calling it an issue ‘totally internal’ to India.
