R.Thangmawia, head of the Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO) which led a popular movement for political unity among the ethnically Chin-Lushai-Kuki of Indian, Bangladesh and Myanmar in the late 80s and early 90s, was found dead in a Geneva hotel on 20 July according to the organization he headed for almost three decades.
He had flown to Geneva last Wednesday with a colleague to take part in the UN’s 8th session on Expert Mechanisms on The Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but he was found dead in his hotel room a little past 8 am local time. He was 79 years old, and was suffering from diabetes.
The Indian Express said that the ZORO movement eventually fizzled out and today its message of political unity among the ethnic Zo in Mizoram, Manipur and Myanmar mainly finds resonance in Mizoram’s student union gatherings and rhetoric although some groups in Manipur still fervently hold on to those ideals.
Nevertheless, the ZORO organisation remained a small but vocal group that continued to press for indigenous rights at global bodies such as the United Nations. With R. Thangmawia leading the group’s effort for decades political parties in Mizoram never failed to pay lip service to the organisation’s ideals.
