IMPHAL, Dec 29: The U.S.-based Kuki International Forum (the global Kuki Forum) will complete eights years of existence on 29 December 2010. The organization was formed at a meeting held on December 29-30, 2002 in the United States of America. Since its inception, the Forum has made great accomplishments, an email release said.
It said in the first few years of its formation, the Forum submitted memorandums and letters to different heads of governments and organizations, including the then U.S. President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, highlighting the issues of the Kuki people.
According to the release, during the past eight years, the Forum representatives have had discussions and interviews with a number of socio-political leaders from Burma and India. The interviewees included people from the same group who are internationally known with different nomenclatures such as Chin, Kuki, and Mizo.
It said the Forum representatives in Japan also interviewed Japanese World War II veterans in search for the missing World War II fighters from the Kuki community.
It said the Forum leadership has been invited to speak at different academic institutions in the USA, including School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, and George Mason University. It has also been interviewed by different radio and television programs. In recent years, the organization’s focus shifted to research, publication and networking. With the new emphasis, the Forum has published hundreds of articles electronically at its website, www.kukiforum.com, it added.
It added the materials have been widely cited in numerous journals. The works of the Forum leadership have been widely published around the world in about 30 countries, spanning five continents – Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America. With the increase in membership, the Forum listserv, that is, Kukiforum has presently been subscribed by over three thousand one hundred and fifty (3,150) members belonging to the different Kuki tribes/ clans and other concerned friends from around the world, the release said.
On its birth anniversary, the Forum leadership thanks thousands of its supporters, well-wishers, and representatives across the globe, and urges for their continued support and cooperation in its future endeavors it said.