Independent People's Tribunal on the Ongoing Ethnic Conflict in Manipur
PRESS RELEASE
A Report to the Nation of the
‘Independent People’s Tribunal on the Ongoing Ethnic Conflict in Manipur’
at the Press Club of India, New Delhi,
20th August 2025 at 4 p.m.
The `Independent People’s Tribunal on the Ongoing Ethnic Conflict in Manipur’ is releasing its report on 20th August, 2025 at the Press Club of India, New Delhi, in the presence of several jury and expert members. Simultaneously the Report is being released nationally and will be now available on the PUCL website – www.pucl.org.
Constitution and objectives of the Tribunal
The Independent People’s Tribunal on Manipur was constituted by PUCL in 2024, in the context of prolonged state-wide violence and serious issues of failure of constitutional governance in the state of Manipur. The Independent People’s Tribunal comprised of the following jury members:
(1) Mr. Kurian Joseph, former Judge, Supreme Court of India (Chairperson)
(2) Mr. K. Kannan, former Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court
(3) Dr. Anjana Prakash, former Judge, Patna High Court
(4) Mr. MG Devasahayam, IAS (retd), former Addl. Chief Secy, Haryana
(5) Dr. Swaraj Bir Singh, IPS (retd), former DGP, Meghalaya
(6) Prof. Uma Chakravarti, Feminist Historian
(7) Prof. Virginius Xaxa, Social Scientist and Author
(8) Prof. Rosemary Dzuvichu, formerly from Nagaland University
(9) Prof. Tanweer Fazal, Academic and Historian
(10) Dr. Sandeep Pandey, Peace Activist
(11) Ms. Manjula Pradeep, Senior human rights activist
(12) Dr. Navsharan Singh, Writer, Researcher and Activist
(13) Mr. Henri Tiphagne, Advocate, Madras High Court
(14) Mr. Aakar Patel, Journalist and Author
Additionally, the team included three subject-experts:
(1) Prof. Brinelle Dsouza, Public Health Activist and Academic,
(2) Ms. Sandhya Gokhale, Feminist Activist and
(3) Prof. Apoorvanand, Author and Activist.
The Tribunal was constituted following discussions with the various communities affected by the violence in Manipur, when it was decided that the jury members of the Tribunal should be from across India. Considering the ethno-social nature of the conflict, it was ensured that the jury and expert team members for the Tribunal were not from Manipur.
The Report of the Tribunal has been delayed due to the extensive consultations that were required and the detailed cross-verification of the data gathered. But the findings of the Tribunal still remains relevant and useful considering that the situation in Manipur continues to remain grim even after 27 months from 3rd May, 2023 when the incidents of mass violence erupted. It requires to be stressed that more than 60,000 IDPs still remain in camps with no end in sight.
The Report is important for the fact that it attempts to give voice to the experiences of victims and survivors of the violence. More than 150 victims and survivors individually deposed before the Tribunal. Additionally many more joined group discussions both physically and virtually. Others contributed by sharing documents and insights before the Tribunal.
The Tribunal’s task could be accomplished only due to the trust and confidence that the people reposed in the Tribunal. This report therefore showcases the yearning for peace, quest for justice and accountability and return to normalcy of all sections of Manipur.
The stated objectives of the Tribunal were as follows:
1) Document the violations suffered by the people of Manipur with a specific attention to loss of life, sexual violence and violence suffered by children, women including pregnant women and the elderly.
2) Examine and analyse the performance and responsibilities of the constitutional authorities by documenting the action taken to prevent the violence, provide access to remedy and justice, investigate and prosecute crimes, and in all other ways to provide redressal of violations and make efforts to establish the rule of law.
3) Examine the role of all security agencies as well as government functionaries at all levels of the state and central governments in ensuring law and order and also examine the role of independent national and state based institutions in protecting human rights.
4) Examine existing documentation on the Manipur situation and analyse the reasons for the continuing violence
5) Propose recommendations to repair the torn social, cultural and political fabric of the State.
Submissions before the Tribunal
In light of the serious concerns raised on the response of the government functionaries to the conflict and the role played by the various stakeholders, the Independent People’s Tribunal endeavoured to understand and document the conflict and the precarious situation prevailing in Manipur, with a view to ensure accountability, justice and redressal for the people of Manipur.
The team of jury and experts visited the conflict-affected areas in Manipur and held sittings in different districts of Manipur including Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Imphal East, Imphal West, Kakching, Kangpokpi, Senapati followed by sittings in Delhi, to record testimonies and receive submissions from various stakeholders. Additionally testimonies and submissions were also received by jury members virtually. The team members also visited a number of relief camps in Manipur to talk to survivors, including children, women and elderly displaced on account of the conflict. Survivors/victims from different communities, service organizations organising and providing relief to affected people, organisations representing community interests, deposed before the Tribunal. The team members also met with various government functionaries and officials of security forces. They heard testimonies of internally displaced persons and representatives of the different ethnic communities – Kukis, Meiteis, Nagas, Pangals and others. The team members also met advocates, journalists, health professionals, scholars, academics, activists, retired bureaucrats, public intellectuals, academics and political leaders from the different communities in Manipur. The Tribunal also received written testimonies and supporting documents from the deponents including videos, photographs and digital documents.
Observations and findings in the Report
In the Tribunal Report arrived at after this intensive exercise, the jury has sought to identify and document the causes, character and impacts of the devastating violence that shook Manipur following May 3, 2023, between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities. The Report documents the build-up, eruption and escalation of the ethnic conflict through testimonies of survivors and first-person accounts. The testimonies of the survivors present a stark picture of the failure of the state authorities and institutions to protect them, leaving them to fend for themselves. The jury also notes the failure of the Central government to fulfil its constitutional responsibility to ensure that Manipur remained under the regime of both rule of law and the Constitution. The overwhelming evidence placed before the Tribunal lays bare the gruesome and systemic nature of the violence, the role of the radical groups, the failure of state institutions and the immense humanitarian fallout that followed.
Based on the material placed before the Tribunal, the jury has identified multiple causes underlying the conflict. Amongst the pre-existing factors were historical ethnic divisions, socio-political marginalisation and land disputes. What led to escalation of feelings of mistrust and enmity between the communities were the systematic hate campaign played out through digital media and statements made by the political leadership in the prelude to the conflict. Meanwhile, the Manipur High Court’s directive dated 27th March, 2023, recommending Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for Meiteis served as a vital trigger, as it was perceived by the tribal groups, including the Kuki-Zo groups and the Nagas, as a threat to their constitutional protections. This is in turn sparked protests across all tribal districts leading to a major protest programme on 3rd May, 2023 in all the Hill districts. While by and large the protests ended peacefully, violence erupted in a few places which soon engulfed the whole state.
The jury was presented with a stream of narratives that dominated the discourse around the conflict. The narrative of continuous immigration of Kuki-Zo communities from Myanmar, was heard commonly across testimonies by Meitei deponents. However it was found by the jury from a study of data, that the allegation of population influx raised by Meiteis and also propagated by the political leadership, holds little ground.
Another contending narrative was the involvement of Kukis in poppy cultivation, in line with the then Chief Minister Biren Singh’s ‘war on drugs’ which translated into popular propaganda against Kukis. This was strongly countered by Kuki deponents as a conspiracy to criminalise and demonise Kukis, when in fact the key players came from different communities, especially those who occupied key government and bureaucratic positions.
The deponents also expressed a strong suspicion that a larger agenda was at play, pointing toward geo-political considerations influencing the prolonged violence. The marked reluctance of the government to take concrete measures to strictly enforce the rule of law in an objective, unbiased manner and put an end to the violence, also sowed seeds of suspicion in the deponents. The jury found across testimonies, strong evidence of the impact of these narratives and hate propaganda that incited feelings of enmity and mistrust between the Meiteis and Kukis. The jury has also attributed a significant role to the media in the conflict, who actively shaped public perception and escalated tensions. While the print media was partisan and lacked investigative rigour, digital channels and social media were used to spread unverified and inflammatory content.
The Report highlights that the violence was not spontaneous, but planned, ethnically targeted and facilitated by state failures. The Report documents through the testimonies, a deep-rooted belief among survivors and victims, that the state either allowed the violence to happen or actively participated in it. Many deponents have attributed the flare-up of violence to the political and administrative decisions of former Chief Minister Biren Singh. The state government downplayed the violence, made no significant arrests of radical groups like that of the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun. In spite of public demand for his removal, Biren Singh did not step down for a long time until February, 2025.
The jury was extremely disturbed by the brutality of violence in which people were killed, butchered, tortured, dismembered, disrobed and sexually assaulted in public, and then through social media displayed before the whole world. The Report documents widespread sexual violence during the conflict which occurred both in the Valley areas as also in the Hills. Many incidents of sexual violence were unreported due to fear, trauma and lack of institutional support. The jury noted that even when women sought protection from the police and security forces, they were not only refused help them, but there were instances when the police handed them to violent mobs. Due to the complete loss of trust in the state machinery, the women survivors instead of reaching out to police stations, sought protection from their own communities. This displays the extent of state failure.
The jury found the relief and rehabilitation measures for the violence-struck communities in Manipur, grossly inadequate, delayed and unevenly distributed. Many relief camps suffered from poor sanitation and hygiene, inadequate healthcare, absence of mental health support and lack of livelihood and education restoration. The jury also found that the recommendations of Joint Rapid Needs Assessment (JRNA) and Gita Mittal Committee covering shelter, nutrition, sanitation, education and psychological support were largely unimplemented.
The Report narrates how the already fragile healthcare system in Manipur crumbled completely in the face of violence. The violence was marked by attacks on hospitals and clinics, looting and destruction of medical supplies and ambulances, evacuation or flight of medical staff due to safety concerns and complete breakdown in referral networks and transport infrastructure. The `Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) were forced into relief camps where healthcare became even more limited exacerbated by inadequate nutrition. This in particular affected women, children, elderly and the differently abled. The jury noted that people suffered morbidity and mortality, which could have been prevented or treated, due to the collapse of the healthcare system. The Report records how patients were also denied healthcare on communal lines. The jury observed the deep psychological impacts of the violence on the people, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in survivors, acute anxiety and depression among displaced people and the lasting consequences of the violence on the mental health of children and women survivors of sexual violence. The jury noted the complete lack of mental health intervention in place to address this.
The jury found that the conflict-ridden state of Manipur witnessed a complete breakdown of legal, judicial and constitutional mechanisms when it most needed it. The key symptoms of the collapse identified in the report include the failure of the courts to issue urgent directives to protect life and property, delayed or absent investigation into serious crimes, FIRs being selectively filed, and active participation of law enforcement officers in the violence. The Report documents the extent of police complicity and failure of security forces to maintain neutrality. The Report indicts both the State and Central governments for their failures to implement the rule of law and adherence to the Constitution. This has led to denial of justice and continued displacement of affected people for over 27 months. The jury found that the state government failed to constitute impartial Special Investigation Teams (SITs). Compounding the failure of justice was the lack of external judicial oversight. The requests from witnesses and survivors for legal and witness protection was ignored. There was also failure to ensure accountability from the former Chief Minister Biren Singh and the police and bureaucracy at all levels. The Supreme Court appointed a Committee led by Justice Gita Mittal. It also ordered CBI investigation in specific rape cases. However these interventions were narrow in scope and lacked follow-up. The jury concluded that the absence of legal redress and the collapse of constitutional mechanisms has deepened ethnic divisions.
Jury recommendations and strategies for justice, peace and accountability
Accountability and justice is foundational to rebuilding the trust, democracy and coexistence in Manipur. The report calls on India’s Judiciary, Parliament and civil society to reclaim this duty and ensure that Manipur does not become a template for future impunity. Towards this, access to justice needs to be ensured for all and a permanent bench of the Manipur High Court needs to be established in the hill region. A Special Investigating Team (SIT) needs to be set up to conduct independent investigation of the thousands of cases arising from the conflict and to enquire into the role of the armed forces, security officers and police. The hate propaganda and inflammatory speeches that led to incitement and escalation of violence need to be prosecuted along with action against the authorities who failed to exercise their powers to prevent it. Meanwhile, a restorative justice framework is essential for addressing grievances and promoting healing, that is hinged on acknowledging harm, reparations, and reintegration over mere punishment. The Report emphasises that lasting peace in Manipur requires structural changes, community dialogue, legal accountability and sustained moral leadership.
The Report expresses disappointment that even more than 27 months after the ethnic violence first erupted, Manipur remains a disturbed state. This constitutes a collective failure, which can no longer be disregarded. Detailed recommendations have been provided in the report by the jury, towards ensuring justice and accountability, and addressing the concerns raised in the report in the various chapters.
Thanking you,
On behalf of all members of the Tribunal
Kurian Joseph, former Judge, Supreme Court of India (Chairperson, Independent People’s Tribunal on the Ongoing Ethnic Conflict in Manipur)
Mr. K. Kannan, former Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court
Dr. Anjana Prakash, former Judge, Patna High Court
Organised by :
People’s Union for Civil Liberties
Secretariat, Independent People’s Tribunal on the Ongoing Ethnic Conflict in Manipur
Kavita Srivastava
President
9351562965, (kavisriv@gmail.com)
Dr. V Suresh
General Secretary
9444231497, (pucl.natgensec@gmail.com)