It has never been easy to do business in Manipur, either for private enterprises or forstate agencies. The government of India-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) shut down its main office located at the Khoyathong locality in capital Imphal between May 21 and June 3 after an extortion demand ofRs twenty lakhs by an unidentified outfit. The closure of the Imphal office affected about 250,000 policyholders and nearly 1,000 agents of the LIC. In the following week, offices of four other insurance companies--New India Insurance, United Insurance, Oriental Insurance and National Insurance--closed down as well, following similar demands from'unidentified' groups. While the LIC reopened on June 4 after the police urged it to resume business, the remaining agencies remain were gradually nudged open one after another, by thepolice between June 10 and 12.
The state's collapse is total, and there is no protection even for business establishments operating in the heart of the fortified capital, Imphal, despite the continuous'successes' of continuing military operations. A significant proportion of all governmentfunds also finds its way into militant coffers, and the insurgents have carried out attacks on the residences of prominent politicians,police and administrative personnel and professionals, as well as on common civilians, in case of any failure to comply.
Despite the very large number of glaring cases of extortion highlighted in regional and, on occasion, national media, the fact is that the bulk of such exactions are concluded in tacit deals, away from the glare or even knowledge of the media. The nature of these secret deals was revealed after the arrest of the UNLF'general secretary' and 'finance-in-charge' Narengbam Marjit alias Thabal Singh at Guwahati in neighbouring Assam, on May 1, 2007.Rs 47 lakhs in cash along with two laptops and a car were recovered from the UNLF leader. The Manipurpolice subsequently established that top government officials from Manipur were being summoned to cities outside thestate to settle extortion demands made by the UNLF, as well as by other groups.
The border town of Moreh in Chandel District accounts for vast amounts in informaland formal trade between India and Myanmar. The 109 kilometre stretch of National Highway (NH) 39 between Imphal and Moreh, which has been the mainstay of the dwindling trade between the two countries is a major source of insurgent revenues, as well as the location of several incidents of militant violence resulting from a failure to pay or resistance against insurgent'taxes'. On May 19, for instance, cadres of an unidentified militant group forced back all passenger service vehicles, including taxi services, proceeding towards Moreh from Pallel in Chandel. Previously, on May 17, suspectedPeople's United Liberation Front (PULF) militants attacked a passenger bus at Lilong along the Indo-Myanmar road for its failure to pay. The incident led to aday's suspension of passenger services by the Indo-Myanmar Bus Drivers and Owners Association.
New Delhi's 'conflict resolution strategy' in neighbouring Nagaland has only added toManipur's pervasive woes. As the Centre's 'ceasefire' with the NSCN-IM approaches a decade without any final settlement, the NSCN-IM appears to have secured a licence to kill and extort on both sides ofNagaland's border with Manipur, and there has been a continuous expansion and consolidation of the Naga insurgentgroup's in the Hill tracts of Manipur.