Petitions

APPEAL TO ALL PEOPLE IN MANIPUR

To: All People of Manipur
From: Peacebuilders Forum India (Signatories below)
Date: December 14th, 2024

Dear Friends:

On this day of Mourning and Forgiveness, December 14th, 2024, we are gathering around the country to pay witness to the one-and-a-half yearlong conflict and war that has been ravaging the people of Manipur, including those from the Meitei, Kuki and other communities.

We offer prayers to bring you into the light.

While we recognize the loss of life, the injury to loved ones, the loss of property, and the deep pain and mistrust faced by residents of all communities, we wish to urgently appeal to all people of Manipur to stop this cycle of violence and make every effort to begin to talk and to reconcile differences to advance our collective life and culture.

We understand that we need trust-building with other communities. We appreciate that this takes time. One of the steps in gaining the trust of others, is not allowing us to be divided and separated into different groups and sub-groups. Without more divisions it is easier to end the violence and begin to talk. We believe that we can minimize these divisions as we take steps towards easing the conflict.

Peacebuilders Forum India has deep faith and respect in your capacity to face hardship and still continue to smile and laugh. We are certain that the people of Manipur are able to resolve this situation because they know that a people-based solution is more powerful than a government-directed formula for peace.

Peacebuilders Forum India (PBI) has been providing humanitarian assistance, and these small interventions will not give a long-lasting solution. We want to join hands to redouble our efforts to advocate for peaceful resolution of conflict with policy-makers, members of the judiciary, bureaucrats, the media and general public.

Let us immediately stop using violence and through a process of reconciliation show the world at large that the people of Manipur are capable of finding their own solution, and this can be an example to many other countries in the world which are suffering conflict.

Signed

Anuradha Shankar
Mazher Hussain
Girdharia Bapna
John Samuel
Brother Peter
Nirmala Karuna
Suman DasGupta
Rajni Bakshi
Shobhana Radhakrishna
Manoj Jena
Satya Seba Jagat
Mathew Mattam
Vijay Bharatiya
Pramod Sharma
Sudha Reddy
Father Scaria
Rajagopal, P.V.
Jill Carr-Harris