Aizawl, Jan 10 (PTI) The largest civil society organisation in Mizoram, the Young Mizo Association (YMA) Wednesday said that it stands in solidarity with the state government in opposing the Centre’s move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR).
The YMA urged the Centre to reconsider its decision on the border fencing and FMR.
“Since Free Movement Regime is instrumental in recognising and strengthening the brotherhood and integrity of the Mizo people, the proposed abolition of the FMR and the implementation of border fencing will have a detrimental effect on the vital ethnic and cultural connections,” the YMA statement said.
“We firmly believe that the scrapping of the FMR and the erection of border fence will disrupt the harmonious coexistence and cultural exchange that is integral to the lives of the Mizo people,” it added.
The FMR, which was introduced in 1968, allows people living on both sides of the international border to travel within 16 km of each other’s territory without visa. It was last revised in 2016.
It plays a crucial role in maintaining the ethnic and cultural ties of the ethnic Mizo tribes living on either side of the border, the statement said.
The organisation urged the Centre to revise its decision on the FMR and border fencing. It said that it “stands in solidarity with the Mizoram government in opposing the move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR”.
India shares a 1,643 km-long border with Myanmar, which stretches through Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Nagaland (215 km), Manipur (398 km), and Mizoram (510 km). People on either side of the border have familial and ethnic ties.
Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma told reporters last week that any move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border is “unacceptable” for the Mizos and that he has informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during his recent meetings with them in Delhi that the present Mizoram-Myanmar border was created by the colonial British government without consulting the Mizo people on both sides. The fencing of the Indo-Myanmar border will amount to acceptance of the demarcation made by the British.
On January 2 an official of the ministry of home affairs had said that the Centre was planning to fence a 300 km border with Myanmar and scrap the FMR.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh in September last year attributed the ongoing ethnic violence in the state to the FMR and said that fencing of the border is required as miscreants based in Myanmar were involved in it and cross-border crimes. PTI COR KK KK
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