Mizoram: ZORO to protest against scrapping of Free Movement Regime

Guwahati: The Zo Re-Unification Organization (ZORO) in Mizoram has announced a protest on January 29 against the central and state governments' orders to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and fence the Indo-Myanmar Border (IMB).

The organisation said that it aims to unify Zo ethnic communities across India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.

ZORO stated that it would symbolically burn the government orders as an act of defiance.

ZORO President Michael Lalramsanga stated that the FMR has allowed people living within 16 km of the border to travel without a passport, facilitating connections between Mizos living in India and Myanmar.

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He criticized the government's decision to require a border pass, calling it an "oppression of the Mizos living on both sides of the border."

Lalramsanga emphasized that ZORO will continue to oppose the abolition of the FMR and border fencing, citing Article 36(1) of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007.

He also criticized the Indian government for opposing this article, despite previously supporting it at the UN.