Mizoram: Mizo group to protest Centre’s decision to fence Indo-Myanmar border

Aizawl: A Mizo group representing the Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi tribes of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar on Tuesday said that it will stage peaceful rallies along the Mizoram-Myanmar border on May 16 to protest against the Centre’s decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR).

The Aizawl based- Zo Re-unification Organisation (ZORO), which seeks the re-unification of all Zo people and bring them under one administrative unit, on Tuesday held a meeting and expressed strong exception to the Centre's decision to fence the 1,643-km-long Indo-Myanmar border particularly Mizoram side (510 km) of the international border, the organisation secretary Ramdinliana Renthlei said.

The meeting observed the Centre's decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and abolish the FMR as an attempt to divide and oppress the Zo ethnic tribes living in both India and Myanmar, he said.

Renthlei said that the meeting decided to organise peaceful rallies at two locations in Zokhawthar and Vaphai villages in east Mizoram's Champhai district on the Indo-Myanmar border on May 16.

The organisation also appealed to the Mizo or Zo communities living in both Mizoram and Myanmar to take part in the proposed rallies to protest the Centre's decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR, he said.

It also requested the border villages on both sides to hold rallies on the same day.

The ZORO in January had held a demonstration in Aizawl and burned the effigy of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in protest against the Centre's decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR.

Mizoram shares a 510-km long border with Myanmar's Chin state and the Mizos share ethnic ties with the Chins.

More than 30,000 people from Chin state have been taking shelter in Mizoram following the military coup in the neighbouring country in February 2021.

Mizoram government, civil society organisations and student bodies have strongly opposed the Centre's decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and lift the FMR because they believe that it will disturb close contact between ethnic communities of the two countries.

The Mizoram assembly on February 28 passed a resolution opposing the Centre's decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and abolish the FMR.

Earlier, chief minister Lalduhoma had said that his government has strongly opposed the idea of fencing the international border and scrapping the FMR but the Mizoram government has no authority to oppose the Centre if it goes ahead with its plan.

He also said that the Mizo people both in Mizoram and Myanmar do not accept the present Indo-Myanmar border especially the Mizoram section of the international border as it was demarcated and imposed by the British on the Mizo people without consulting them.

He had also said that fencing the present Indo-Myanmar border would only testify to the acceptance of the boundary demarcated by the British.