Aizawl: Vipin Haokip, self-styled chief of the Kuki National Army (KNA), the armed wing of Kuki National Organisation (KNO), on May 13 said that his outfit was willing to negotiate with the Centre on its demand for a separate state for Kukis.

The negotiations should lead to an amicable settlement by establishment of tripartite arrangement to accommodate Meitei, Naga and Kuki, Haokip said.

He added that the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isaac/Muivah (NSCN-IM) must also stop claiming land occupied by Kukis in Manipur, as their own.

KNO spokesman Dr Seilen Haokip said, "The Kukis, who were a sovereign nation before the Britishers colonised their land should be recognised," he said alleging that they were first suppressed by the British and later by Indian and Myanmarese governments.

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 that is being threatened by the NSCN demand for 'Greater Nagalim'.

PTI