Imphal: The apex Naga body in the region, the United Naga Council (UNC) has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to re-instate the Free Movement Regime (FMR) at the Tusom-Somrah Sector along the Indo-Myanmar border in the Ukhrul district of Manipur and to stop the construction of Indo-Myanmar border fencing/wall along the borders in Naga areas.
The demands of the UNC came after the central government’s announcement that the Indo-Myanmar border is to be fenced like the Indo-Bangladesh border.
The fencing will start soon and the free movement of people in the Indo- Myanmar border will be restricted.
India and Myanmar Governments established the Free Movement Regime in the 1970s to safeguard the traditional rights of the largely tribal communities residing along the borders keeping in mind the traditional social relations besides facilitating trade relations between the kindred tribes on both sides.
The FMR permits the tribes residing along the border to travel 16 km on either side of the unfenced boundary without visa restrictions for 72 hours.
Besides, the construction of border fencing works in the Manipur-Myanmar sector — 398 km is undergoing at present of which around 20 km has already been completed.
The UNC in a memorandum submitted to the Union Home Minister today through the Deputy Commissioner of Senapati district of Manipur, said the Indo-Myanmar borders were delimited and demarcated by two bilateral Agreement between India and Myanmar on March 10, 1967, by dividing many ethnic tribal communities along the artificial/imaginary line drawn without the informed consent of the villagers and thus relegated to the status of ethnic minorities on both sides of the borders.
Notably, the Manipur government has recently urged the center for border fencing with Myanmar and the cancellation of FMR against the backdrop of the prevailing crisis in the state.