Criminal Amnesia | Sexual Violence in Manipur
The recent rape-murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata which led to widespread protests and outrage was a reminder of the endemic nature of sexual violence in the country, despite stricter punishments for offenders. Perhaps because, barring a few, sexual assault survivors or victims rarely find justice in India.
We visited Manipur, where just over a year ago, multiple women were sexually assaulted amid the ongoing ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo communities. We met those who survived sexual violence like Angel* and kin of those who did not the parents of the Flora* who was allegedly raped by mobs.
We also revisited an old case from 20 years ago, a heinous instance of alleged extrajudicial rape-murder.
In all these cases, women's bodies were used as 'weapons of war' and in all these cases, no one has yet been arrested.
Public memory about these cases may be short-lived but for many, the wait for justice is eternal.
Reporter: Rakhi Bose
Camera: Sandipan Chatterjee
Producer: Divya Tiwari
Editor: Sudhanshu Pandey
*Names have been changed
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#Kolkata #KolkataRapeCase #KolkataDoctor #KolkataDoctorCase #GangRape #KolkataProtest #Manipur #Kuki #Meitei #ManipurViolence #WomenSafety
We visited Manipur, where just over a year ago, multiple women were sexually assaulted amid the ongoing ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo communities. We met those who survived sexual violence like Angel* and kin of those who did not the parents of the Flora* who was allegedly raped by mobs.
We also revisited an old case from 20 years ago, a heinous instance of alleged extrajudicial rape-murder.
In all these cases, women's bodies were used as 'weapons of war' and in all these cases, no one has yet been arrested.
Public memory about these cases may be short-lived but for many, the wait for justice is eternal.
Reporter: Rakhi Bose
Camera: Sandipan Chatterjee
Producer: Divya Tiwari
Editor: Sudhanshu Pandey
*Names have been changed
Follow us:
Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/
X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia
Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia
#Kolkata #KolkataRapeCase #KolkataDoctor #KolkataDoctorCase #GangRape #KolkataProtest #Manipur #Kuki #Meitei #ManipurViolence #WomenSafety
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NewsTranscript
00:00They came in white and purple boleros. They asked me if I was Kuki and asked for my Aadhaar card.
00:07Upon realizing I was Kuki, they took me in the car and handed me over to women who beat me up till dawn.
00:15Then more men wearing black T-shirts and carrying weapons came in the car, tied and blindfolded me and took me to a hill at gunpoint.
00:23They molested me and beat me up in the car. They said they would rape me before killing me.
00:28I passed out as they kept beating me on the head with the butt of their gun.
00:36Protests erupted across the nation in June last year when a video of two tribal women being paraded naked amid ethnic clashes in Manipur went viral.
00:46A year later, the rape murder of a trainee doctor in Calcutta has once again sparked nationwide anger and protests.
00:53But in Manipur, those who faced sexual violence, as in the case of Angel, are still waiting for justice.
01:00We visited Manipur to understand how the lives of the survivors and the kin of the victims has been.
01:08On May 15, 2023, nearly a fortnight after ethnic clashes erupted between the Kuki Zoo communities and the Meiteis across Manipur,
01:1719-year-old Angel was abducted from outside an ATM at around 5 p.m. in the Meitei-dominated East Imphal area where she had been living with a friend.
01:27When I regained consciousness, I begged them to allow me to urinate.
01:32When I regained consciousness, I begged them to allow me to urinate.
01:36My feet were tight and one of them untied only my hands.
01:40I took a few steps ahead and rolled down the hill in Bishnupur and managed to reach the main road where a Pangal Muslim vegetable seller found me.
01:50He hid me among his vegetables and we managed to escape.
01:54I get flashbacks every time I see a white or purple bolero.
01:58I cannot eat solid foods. I cannot sleep without nightmares.
02:02Angel has spent most of the past year in relief camps.
02:06She now lives in a remote rented flat in Kangpokpi where her family cannot afford private care or mental health counselling for the survivor.
02:15Just a few kilometres away from Angel's house live the displaced parents and sisters of Flora.
02:20As mobs ravaged through Imphal on May 4, Flora and her friend Annie, both Kukki women from Kangpokpi, took refuge in the car wash in Imphal where they were employed.
02:30The Meitei landlord of the Kukki women's home in Kangpokpi, Angel, has been living in a remote rented flat in Kangpokpi since May 4.
02:41The Meitei landlord of the car wash where my daughter worked assured her that they would protect her, but they didn't.
02:49When the mob came, they handed my daughter and her friend to the mob who beat them up, raped them and left them outside to die.
03:00The parents claim that the police and even the CBI, which took over the investigation last year, are trying to dismiss the rape charges.
03:10We have voice recordings of how the incident unfolded, but when we told CBI about them, they refused to admit the recordings as evidence.
03:20We don't have any further updates on how the investigations have progressed.
03:25Just 40 kilometres away from the car wash, on the same day as the mob attack, another horror was unfolding.
03:31Two Kukki Zo women, including one in her teens, were sexually assaulted by a mob, stripped and paraded naked.
03:38It was only after the 26-second clip went viral on social media in July last year that the world woke up to the horrors of what was happening in Manipur,
03:47bringing to light the multiple atrocities against women.
03:51Even after a year, memory of the video as well as the incident hangs heavy in Churachandpur district of Manipur.
03:59The horrific video led to interventions from the Supreme Court of India, which set up SITs and brought in the CBI to investigate the cases.
04:08While a charge sheet has been lodged in the video case, the trial is yet to take place.
04:13It also remains the only charge sheet yet filed in any of the 17 cases.
04:18The women who continue to remain in Manipur and are presently here in Churachandpur remain reclusive and out of public view.
04:25They refuse to speak to the media and they refuse to talk about their pain, even though their families are trying hard to bring them to justice.
04:33But justice in Manipur has many shades and connotations.
04:44This is the house of Thangam Manorama in Imphal east of Manipur.
04:49It is from this very house that Manorama, who was at the time 32 years old,
04:53was kidnapped and taken by members of the Assam Rifles,
04:57allegedly on suspicions of being a member of an insurgent group 20 years ago on July 10th.
05:02The very women who had been at the forefront of protests against Manorama's rape at the time
05:07have now been accused of violence against Kuki's only women.
05:11The Meera Paibi, a civil society organisation of Meitei women,
05:15hitherto known as Peacekeepers of Manipur,
05:18have been named in multiple FIRs of rape and assault by Kuki's own women, including Angel.
05:24Former nursing student Ching Siang, who received treatment in AIMS Delhi after being assaulted by a mob in Imphal last year,
05:31narrates being beaten by women of Meera Paibi on account of being a Kuki.
05:42The mob came to our college and then they are searching for the Kukis.
05:47They beat us like an animal, they beat us.
05:53I was hiding behind one woman and I was scared to go out again.
06:00I was going out and parading in the road and the woman shouted like,
06:07why do you still keep them alive, rape them, chop them and burn their bodies?
06:14And after hearing that, I feel very, very hard hearing about that.
06:22She also may have daughter, she's also a woman, she's also a girl.
06:27If her daughter gets something like that, she will also feel the pain.
06:34Meera Paibi member Ima Angambi, one of the 12 mothers of Manipur who protested naked in 2004
06:41after the rape and murder of Manorama, said that the violence against Kuki women should not have happened.
06:47We do not want to violate the women in the world times.
06:56Here is a weapon, the women are used by the armies as a weapon.
07:03But we do not want this also.
07:05Our people, our young men are very in a violence mode.
07:12They are very angry and they could not control themselves.
07:19So they met two Kukis and some mothers and they naked them.
07:31But the women of Manipur protested against that incident.
07:41We never support our people.
07:43We support the naked women.
07:46We support for them.
07:48And we agitated, agitated so many agitations in hill area, in the whole of Manipur like this by the women.
07:57Such assurances by the Meera Paibi have nevertheless failed to convince Kukis or women,
08:03especially those living in buffer zones separating Imphal from the hills,
08:07where violence has once again escalated amid drone attacks and lynchings of former army men near Gangbhokpi region.
08:14The women's concerns have been allayed by the center's decision to remove Assam Rifles,
08:19the same group that had once been accused of sexual violence in Manipur from the buffer zones.
08:24In Churachanpur, tribals have been protesting for over a month against the center's decision to move AR forces
08:31out of Churachanpur and Gangbhokpi and replacing them with the CRPF.
08:36We don't have confidence with the CRPF.
08:39We have trusted FIDJIT.
08:41The Assam Rifles have been with us from the beginning of this ethnic violence and they have been helping us a lot.
08:49In Imphal valley, we all know that the Meera Paibis and the Korkomi,
08:53they actually don't want Assam Rifles to be there.
08:56So if they don't know, why don't they send those Assam Rifles from there?
09:00Why did they attack our buffer zone?
09:02When there is a war broke out, men don't suffer much.
09:07We all know that women who are vulnerable, who are weak in our society,
09:11they are the ones who suffer, especially for the Kukijo women,
09:15who are totally innocent when this ethnic class started from last year.
09:20But we now hear protests because it's our need for us that we actually don't want these Assam Rifles to be shifted to other places.
09:30I don't know if the central government is hand in hand with the BJP government.
09:35But till today, we don't get justice.
09:38So we are waiting for that justice.
09:40Till then, we are going to fight for our rights.
09:43Their fight for justice has been hard and they have been fighting alone.
09:48We understood that in Manipur, while public memory might be short,
09:52forgetting for the victims and the survivors has been hard and long.
10:00For more UN videos visit www.un.org