Kuki Apex Body Opposes Indo-Myanmar Border Fencing

Days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced a Rs 31,000 crore plan to seal the Indo-Myanmar border, attributing the violence in Manipur to illegal immigration from Myanmar, the Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) criticised this claim. They argue that labelling illegal immigration as the root cause is a deliberate distraction from the real issue: the state-sponsored ethnic cleansing of the Kuki community.

Guwahati: Days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Central government will spend Rs 31,000 crore to seal the Indo-Myanmar border and blamed the influx from Myanmar as the root cause of Manipur violence, the apex body of the Kuki community, Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) has said that terming illegal immigration as the root cause of violence is a deliberate attempt to deflect attention from the real issue that is the state-sponsored ethnic cleansing of Kuki people.

The Kuki apex body also blamed the United Committee Manipur (UCM), an umbrella organisation of Meitei groups and organisations, for propagating this narrative that illegal influx from the other side of the border is the root cause of the violence.

The northeastern state of Manipur has been on the boil since May last year over the clash between the Kuki and Meitei communities, which has led to the killing of 220 civilians and the displacement of thousands of people belonging to both communities.

Although the BJP-led government at the Centre has decided to seal the over 1600 km long Indo-Myanmar border with barbed fencing, there has been stiff opposition to the proposal to fence the border by the Kuki, Nagas and Mizo communities citing that the move to fence the border will sever their ethnic ties.

Information and Publicity Secretary of the KIM Janghaolun Haokip said that the fencing of the border with Myanmar is a violation of human rights as it will disunite or separate the Kuki people, who live on both sides of the border.

“The fencing of the border will not solve the crisis at hand. The ongoing violence in Manipur has been acknowledged by the Union Home Minister as an ethnic conflict, not an issue of terrorism or illegal immigration,” he said adding that the proposed fencing would impact the ethnic communities in Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and in Arunachal Pradesh, whose cross border ties predate the existence of modern borders.

It may be mentioned here that the Nagaland assembly had already adopted a resolution in this regard and appealed to the Central government to reconsider its decision on fencing the Indo-Myanmar border.

Earlier this year the Mizoram assembly had also unanimously adopted a resolution to oppose the Central government’s plan to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between the two countries.