Aizawl: Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma on Saturday said that Mizoram has no authority to stop the Centre from fencing the Indo-Myanmar border and scrapping the Free Movement Regime (FMR) in the international border.
Lalduhoma’s statement came hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted that the Centre would fence the Indo-Myanmar border and also end the FMR on Indo-Myanmar border.
“If the Centre goes ahead with its plan to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR, we have no authority and we can’t to stop it from its plan, ” Lalduhoma told a news conference in Aizawl on Saturday.
He reiterated that the state government and NGOs opposed to the move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and crap the FMR keeping 8n mind the ethnic ties Mizo people share with the Chin community of Myanmar.
Lalduhoma said that the present Mizoram border with Myanmar was imposed by the British and the Mizo people from both the countries did not accept it.
He said that the Mizo people living in different parts of the world dream of reunification one day and fencing the present Indo-Myanmar will amount approval of the boundary imposed by the British government.
The chief minister said that he had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah during his visit to Delhi recently and both did not opposed to his appeal not to fence the international border and end the FMR.
He said that the idea about scraping the FMR mainly stemmed out of cross-border trafficking and he too also believe that smuggling of drugs and other contrabands has increased due the presence of the FMR.
During his meeting with Modi, Shah and Union External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Delhi in early January, Lalduhoma had told them that the Indo-Myanmar border was imposed by the British and any move to fence the border was ‘unacceptable’ for the Mizos.
Mizo share ethnic ties with the Chins of Myanmar and more than 31,000 people from the Chin state have been taking shelter in the state since February 2021 following a military coup.
Meanwhile, Shah on Saturday said that the Centre would fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the existing FMR.
While addressing the passing out parade of the first batch of the five newly constituted Assam Police Commando battalions in Guwahati, Shah said that the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to fence the entire India-Myanmar border like it has been done along the border with Bangladesh.
He also said “The government is reexamining the FMR provision that exists with Myanmar and now this facility, which allows free movement will be stopped.”
The FMR, which was introduced in late 1960s, allows people living on both sides of the international border to travel within 16 km into each other’s territory without a visa.
Mizoram’s largest civil society organisation Central Young Mizo Association (CYMA) and state’s apex student body Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) have opposed the move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR.
India shares a 1,643 km-long border with Myanmar, which passes through the states of Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Nagaland (215 km), Manipur (398 km), and Mizoram (510 km).