Mizoram NGO urges govt to reconsider decision to fence India-Myanmar border

The Mizoram NGO Coordination Committee (NGOCC) has urged the Centre to reconsider its decision to fence the India-Myanmar border and suspend the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with the neighbouring country.

In a memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, NGOCC, a conglomerate of major civil society organisations and student bodies, including the Central Young Mizo Association (CYMA) and the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), expressed concerns over the Centre's decisions in this regard.

"Being one of the signatories of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), 2007, we believe that our country would have taken measures to assert the rights of indigenous peoples who are divided by international border, as stated in Article 36 of UNDRIP.

"But we are astonished by the Centre's decision to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) as well as its attempt to fence the border instead of maintaining and developing relations between the peoples living on both sides of the border," the memorandum stated.

The memorandum claimed that the FMR has been a crucial mechanism in maintaining ethnic and cultural linkages between the Mizo people residing on both sides of the border and the proposed abolition of the FMR and border fencing will have a detrimental effect on the vital ethnic and cultural connections between the Mizo communities.

The NGOCC expressed concerns that such measures could disrupt the harmonious coexistence and cultural exchanges that have been integral to the lives of the Mizo people.

Mizos share ethnic ties with the Chin people in Myanmar.

Shah had recently said that the Centre has decided to erect a fence along the India-Myanmar border and review the FMR.

In his meeting with Shah in Delhi last week, Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma had urged the Union Home Minister not to construct the India-Myanmar border fence in Mizoram even if it is erected in neighbouring Manipur.

Four states -- Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh -- share a 1,643-km-long international border with Myanmar.

The FMR allows people living on both sides of the border to travel within 16 km of each other's territory without a visa.