Responding to the death of a 20-year-old Kuki-Zo woman, a victim of sexual violence during Manipur’s May 2023 ethnic violence, Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board at Amnesty International India, said:
“This woman’s death is a devastating indictment of the Indian state’s continuing failure to deliver timely justice to survivors of sexual violence during the ethnic conflict in Manipur. Abducted and gang-raped at the age of 18, she lived her final years carrying physical injuries and psychological trauma that the system neither acknowledged nor addressed.
“Despite a First Information Report (FIR) being filed more than two-and-a-half years ago, not a single perpetrator has been identified, let alone arrested or prosecuted. This is unacceptable. We demand immediate, thorough, independent, and impartial investigations into all allegations of sexual violence during the Manipur conflict. Those responsible, including any officials found complicit through negligence or collusion, must be held accountable. Survivors and their families must receive reparations, medical care, and psychosocial support.
This young woman should have lived to see justice
Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board at Amnesty International India
“This young woman should have lived to see justice. Instead, she has become another silent casualty of state inaction. Her death must not be allowed to become a mere statistic. Justice for her is a step towards justice for all victims of the violence in Manipur, and that justice is long overdue.”
Background
Although the 20-year-old survivor died on 10 January, her death was made public only on 17 January by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF).
While the immediate cause of death remains unknown, the woman’s mother told local media that her daughter’s health had deteriorated since the attack in May 2023.
According to the FIR, the woman was abducted in broad daylight from near an ATM booth in New Checkon, Imphal, and allegedly handed over to armed men. She was taken to a hilltop, sexually brutalized, and dumped in a creek.
Despite months of medical treatment, she continued to suffer from severe uterine complications and psychological trauma.
Since May 2023, at least 260 people have been killed and thousands displaced in the ethnic conflict between the dominant Meitei community and the minority Kuki-Zo communities. Sexual violence has been systematically used as a weapon to degrade, dehumanize, and terrorize indigenous women and girls.
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