Aizawl, May 13: The top leader of Kuki National Army (KNA), the armed wing of Kuki National Organisation (KNO), today said his outfit was willing to negotiate with the Centre on its demand for a separate state. The negotiations should lead to an amicable settlement by establishment of tripartite arrangement to accommodate Meitei, Naga and Kuki, Vipin Haokip, chief of KNA, told a news agency. He said the NSCN(IM) must stop claiming land occupied by Kukis in Manipur. KNO spokesman Dr Seilen Haokip said "that Kukis were a sovereign nation before the Britishers colonised their land should be recognised". The Kukis did not ask for anyone's land but wanted to protect their ancestral land, the KNO spokesman said. Terming its earlier demand for separate Kuki states in India and Myanmar as unrealistic and unreasonable, Dr Haokip said "what we demand is recognition of the Kukis by legitimisation of Kuki land by grant of statehood." The KNO/KNA was formed in 1990 and is now the torchbearer of the issue of Kuki territorial integrity which is being threatened by the NSCN demand for 'Greater Nagalim'.

Bureau Report