NE indigenous peoples’ forums say no repealing FMR, border fencing

•    Border was drawn without consent
•    Says it violates indigenous rights
•     Decries security-centric approach  to border management
•    Writes to Prime Minister

Morung Express News
Dimapur | February 17

A shared resentment among indigenous communities divided by the Indo-Myanmar has grown louder. 

A conglomeration of organisations representing indigenous communities in India’s northeastern region have now decided to knock on the Prime Minister’s door for reconsidering the purported move to repeal the Free Movement Regime on the Indo-Myanmar border and fencing a 1,643 km long border.   

The decision to write to the PM was taken at a meeting of organisations from Manipur, Assam, Mizoram and Nagaland hosted by the Nagaland Indigenous People’s Forum (NIPF) in Dimapur on February 16. The organisations included the Kuki Inpi Manipur, Zo Reunification Organisation (Mizoram), Kuki Inpi Nagaland, Indigenous peoples of Mung-Dun-Chun-Kham, Assam, North East India (IPMDCKANEI), Manipur Naga Youth Organisation, Nagaland GB Federation, Nagaland Tribes Council, Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation, Senior Citizens Association Nagaland, United Naga Tribes Association on Border Areas, Project Constitutional justice, The Naga Rising, Chakhroma Youth Organisation besides others. Today’s gathering also included political parties like the NPF, NDPP and RPP and former bureaucrat KK Sema, former Member of Parliament C Apok Jamir and NPF MLA Kuzholuzo Nienu. 

A former diplomat Gautam Mukhophadhyaya also took part in the discussion.  

The letter to the PM held that the move to repeal the FMR and fencing the border was not only impractical but also dehumanising. While, initially, the formalization of the FMR in 2018, as part of the Act East Policy, was welcomed with high expectation and regarded as the PM’s “conscious decision,” it said, “Unfortunately, the decision to do away with the FMR and erect border fencing is not only impractical and dehumanizing to the communities living on both sides of the border but, such an approach may only diminish the prospects for peace and wellbeing in the restive region.” 

Outlining the historical context of how the Indo-Myanmar border was drawn without the consent of indigenous people, it said that it has adversely impacted the communities, who have lived in “this geographical space… since time immemorial.” 

While the PM’s mantra has been “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (one world, one family), it said that the government is “dividing families” at the borders using security as the argument to justify the removal of the FMR. “The security argument that your government has used to justify the removal of FMR stands in contradiction to the diplomatic and strategic outreach with the neighbouring countries and, more importantly, it violates the indigenous rights of the border communities. We strongly oppose the security-centric approach to border management,” it said. 

Quoting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), it said that India’s, as a signatory, approach to the indigenous peoples on the Indo-Myanmar must be guided by the principles of the Declaration. 

While maintaining that the collective aspiration of the indigenous communities of the NE should not be ignored, it urged the PM to explore other measures to urgently address the present concerns of the indigenous people to consolidate the efforts towards building peace and amity that is so vital for all-round human and economic development in this strategically sensitive border region.”

Anti-tribal, anti-democratic ploy: Ex diplomat Mukhophadhyaya

According to former diplomat Gautam Mukhophadhyaya, who spoke at the symposium on invitation, the existing Indo-Myanmar border has been largely accepted by the cross-border populations so long as the FMR remained in effect. However, once removed, further risk lurks in the form of counter territorial claims from both sides of the imaginary border.

While stating there never was any border, he said that the problem lies in claiming an imaginary border as an inviolable “axiomatic reality.” 

Linking the purported move to repeal the FMR and fencing the border to the Manipur crisis, Mukhophadhyaya, who served as the Indian Ambassador to Myanmar (2013-16), held that the interest of one state government, representing one ethnicity has been prioritized over all the other communities of the region. “It is purely anti-tribal and anti-democratic and should be opposed from that very simple ground,” he said.

Border security and regulation has been cited as a reason but he pointed out that it can be regulated by having customs office in addition to the existing immigration office in Moreh. 

According to him, other communities in the region are treating the Manipur crisis as a problem between the Meiteis and Kukis but he said that hands-off approach would only bring the fire home. What the announcement to repeal the FMR and fencing the border “has done is to show that the fire in Manipur is now reaching all the state of the NE,” he said.