The Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) is the armed wing of the Zomi Revolutionary Organization, a nationalist-separatist group dedicated to the protection of the ethnic Paites and the re-unification of all ethnic Zomi peoples in northeast India, Bangladesh, and Burma. <P><br /><br />The Paites are one of several small hill tribes living in India's troubled northeast corner.  According to the ZRA, the Paites and other tribes in the area including the Mizo, Chin, and most notably the Kukis, are all members of the ethnic Zomi group.  According to the Kukis, Paites are simply sub-division of their tribe, a claim which Paites vigorously dispute.  In reality, the Kukis and the Paites (as well as the Mizo, Chin, and a host of other various tribes) are all from the same ethnic background, and it is through these various claims of ethnic dominance that conflict has arisen. <P><br /><br />The ZRA was founded in June 1997 after clashes broke out between Kukis and Paites in India's Manipur state.  Ethnic Kukis had been fighting with Naga militants (another ethnic separatist group) over disputed territory.  The Kukis, believing that the Paites would support their cause, reacted violently when the Paites announced they were not in fact Kukis, and would in turn fight for their own separate homeland.<P><br /><br />This dispute began a months-long conflict in Manipur, where Paites, under the ZRA, and Kukis, represented by the Kuki National Front, killed hundreds and torched villages in a series of retaliatory raids.  In October 1998, the Paites and Kukis signed a peace accord, effectively ending a conflict that had caused nearly 1,000 deaths and left thousands more homeless.  <P><br /><br />Although the 1998 agreement ended the Kuki-Paite conflict, the ZRA continues to operate as a protection outfit for Paite peoples and frequently engages in small battles with other militant groups in the region.  The ZRA is financially supported by extortion and "protection fees" taken from Manipur residents.  In addition, the ZRA has been aided in the past by the Mizo National Front and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, two other aligned separatist groups in northeastern India.<br />