Farkawn, Mizoram: Chin National Front (CNF) vice-chairman Dr Sui Khar has appreciated the Indian government’s gesture of extending help to the displaced people of Myanmar in Mizoram and Manipur.
The CNF leader made a special mention of the support received from Mizoram despite its “very limited resources”. For the residents of villages on the Myanmar side of the border, India is not a foreign country. Ties of ethnicity and kinship bind communities on both sides of the Tiau river.
Fighting continues near the border with India and adjoining regions as Chin fighters take on the Myanmar military. On 12 November, joint Chin Defence Forces, which are made up of nearly 30 ethnic Chin armed outfits, and allies overran the company headquarters of Rihkhawdar town in Falam district, Chin State, Myanmar. A temporary camp near Khawmawi village in Chin State was captured the same day.
The aerial bombings and intense shelling near the border settlements forced hundreds to flee across the Tiau and seek refuge in the nearest Indian town of Zokhawthar in Mizoram’s Champhai district.
Following the recent airstrikes, more people have streamed into Zokhawthar, barely a few kilometres from Rih Dil lake in Chin State. According to the Champhai district administration, a total of 1,012 people fled to Zokhawthar on 20 November.
Since the coup in February 2021, almost 6,200 displaced people, including women, children and the elderly, have been living in temporary shelters, rented houses, or with their relatives on the Indian side of the border in the trading town of Zokhawthar. Many have returned to their country, but many others are uncertain when to go back.
The CNF leader also acknowledged that the ongoing armed resistance has to pave way for a “political solution” .
In an interview on 29 November at Camp Victoria, Khar told ThePrint that the State Administration Council (SAC) — the government under Myanmar’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing — that came to power after a coup in February 2021 has already been “morally defeated” by the resistance forces that are controlling swathes of junta territory.
Located on the banks of the Tiau, Camp Victoria is the headquarters of the long-standing ethnic armed organisation, the Chin National Front (CNF), in western Myanmar, a few miles from the Indian border at Farkawn village in Mizoram’s Champhai district. It has been the base of CNF’s armed wing, the Chin National Army (CNA).
As ethnic resistance groups overrun junta bases in Chin State, Northern Shan State, Sagaing Region in the west and north of Myanmar, there are speculations on whether the resistance groups’ goal of a federal democracy would see the fall of the SAC and the government it appointed.
“If you look at Northern Shan, it has already been won, and we cannot see a counter-attack by the Myanmar army because they are not in the position to do so. Even businessmen can send watermelons to China now, but the SAC cannot. Even if they would be in the quest for revenge, I don’t see SAC will be able to succeed. Instead, maybe the people will win against this SAC,” Khar said.
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‘A good neighbour’
While advocating the need for India to shape the future of Myanmar, Khar thanked the Union government for sheltering the displaced people in Mizoram and Manipur.
“I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Indian government that has looked after the people who took refuge in India, particularly in Mizoram and Manipur. I hope India also would like to see the stability of Burma. And this kind of stability can be built only when the SAC is ended,” he said.
“We would like to have a good neighbour, and you can choose everything, but you cannot choose your neighbour countries. But, you can shape them. And this is the chance, this is the opportunity that India can take.”
Regarding the support from Mizoram, Khar said it has been “huge and satisfactory”. “The Mizoram government agreed to give shelter to the refugees based on ethnic ties. Not only providing shelter, but also some kind of social services including access to education and health. That is a huge support,” he said.
“Mizoram also is surviving with very limited resources. And when I look at them, they are sharing whatever they can. A refugee life is not a luxurious life, but can be a tolerable one. And Mizoram so far, whatever they have provided to us has been at a satisfactory level.”
‘Political solution will signal end of war’
In the course of the conversation, Khar agreed that air strikes could be carried out any time, but found reassurance in the “air defence system” the Chin fighters have devised “to monitor the jets”.
“Military is a means, not the end. Political issue is the end. When it comes to a final solution, we have to settle it on the table. But at that time, who will be on the table is the question. When you look at the SAC position, they want to settle the issue within the framework of the 2008 constitution, which is totally unacceptable,” he said.
“When you look for a solution, you have to incorporate transitional justice, but in what way? That can be discussed. It depends on the SAC itself and how they respond to it.”
Among other things emphasised, the CNF made it clear that their objective and final goal is to establish “civilian supremacy” — through a federal democratic union, in which “self-determination has to be guaranteed in full extent”.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Chin guerrillas fight Myanmar’s junta for control over border town near India