Senior Citizens Association of Nagaland (SCAN) has announced its opposition to the Centre’s move to abolish the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and erect a fence on the Indo-Myanmar border. In a statement, SCAN president Dr Khanlo Magh and general secretary Dr R Rose claimed that the FMR had played a crucial role in facilitating interactions between people residing close to the Indo-Myanmar border.
If the Central government went ahead with its plans to erect a fence along the international border without taking into consideration the ethnic, socio-economic, cultural and community ties, SCAN it would be a crime against humanity.
SCAN pointed out it would adversely affect a large number of people living along the border, dividing villages, brothers and sisters, parents and children.
SCAN claimed that the Nagas had been living since time immemorial in their God-given land in their own way of life with their traditions and customs long before the birth of India on August 15, 1947 and Burma (Myanmar) on January 4, 1948 as independent and sovereign nations.
The association recalled that both India and Myanmar had been operating a FMR for tribal communities living along the border region, recognising their age-old economic, social and cultural ties.
SCAN said the Burma Passport Rules of 1948 allowed indigenous people of all the countries bordering Myanmar to travel to the country without passports or permits, provided they lived within 40 km from the border. It mentioned that India also amended its passport rules in 1950 to allow tribes residing within 40 km around the border to travel to India and stay up to 72 hours. Thereafter, India and Myanmar signed a boundary treaty on March 10, 1967 that delineated the common frontier in detail.
In 1968, SCAN said India unilaterally introduced a permit system for travelling across the border. In 2004, India reduced the travel limit to 16 km, before proposing a formal agreement with Myanmar and the Agreement on Land Border Crossing was signed by the two countries on May 11, 2018 after negotiations.
As per the agreement, residents of the two countries living within 16 km of the border are issued border passes, which they must carry at all times after crossing the border. The passes are usually valid for a year and they can stay on the other side for up to 14 days per visit. There are over 250 villages with over 3,00,000 people living within 10 km of the border who frequently cross the border through small and large formal and informal border crossings.
However, in January this year, the Centre hinted at terminating the FMR and proposed erecting a fence on the boundary between the two countries. SCAN said when India and Myanmar jointly demarcated the boundary line in 1970-71, it became obvious that prior proper survey, consultation and physical verification was not carried out when the boundary pillars were erected. They cited the example of Longwa, a Konyak Naga village, where out of the 990 households at present, exactly 170 households, including the chief angh’s residence, were exactly on the boundary line.
SCAN reiterated that the Nagas had always resented the short-sighted and despotic bilateral demarcation of the international boundary that was done without the consent and knowledge of the indigenous inhabitants.