New Delhi: When External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Jakarta and Bangkok earlier this month to attend the ASEAN format meetings and the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Mechanism and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), he highlighted the situation of Myanmar under the military junta in that country.
Being a bordering country, the situation in Myanmar is of special concern for New Delhi given the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur.
During the ASEAN meetings, Jaishankar had raised the issue of “stability and security on our border areas” with Myanmar. On the sidelines of the MGC meeting in Bangkok, Jaishankar also met his Myanmarese counterpart U Than Swe.
More than an ethnic conflict, the situation in Manipur has geopolitical ramifications. What began as an innocuous demonstration in Churachandpur on May 3 by the All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM), exploded into an ethnic conflict of immense proportions in northeastern India. The viral video of two ladies being paraded naked and sexually assaulted shook the collective conscience of the nation.
Also read-Tension in Manipur hills areas after May 4 video of two women paraded naked surfaces
Article 355- Though there has been no official announcement as yet of the promulgation of Article 355 in Manipur following the ethnic conflict that erupted between the Meiteis in Imphal Valley and the Kukis living in the hills, the provisions under the Article are being applied in the state.
Article 355 is a part of emergency provisions contained in Part XVIII of the Constitution of India, from Article 352 to 360. It empowers the central government to take all necessary steps to protect a state against “internal disturbances and external aggression”. This article empowers the Centre to take necessary steps to protect a state from any kind of threat, be it internal or external.
External aggression! So, where is the external aggression in Manipur? Obviously, it has to do with Myanmar. Manipur shares a 398-km-long border with Myanmar. It is a porous border enabling illegal drug trade. The Manipur government had declared a ‘War on Drugs’ to curtail this. This war was targeted against the Golden Triangle comprising the drug cartels of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. This cartel has forayed into Manipur making it in fact a source of drugs.
Poppy cultivation- In the last five years, poppy cultivation in Manipur had spread to 15,400 acres of land in the hills. In a letter to Manipur Home Commissioner in May this year. Superintendent of Police (NAB) K. Meghachandra Singh said that 2,518 people have been arrested during this period under the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Ethnic Armed organizations- But, more than drugs, it is the situation in Myanmar that has New Delhi concerned because of the crisis in Manipur. Following the coup in Myanmar in 2021, a group of members of parliament elected in 2020 formed the National Unity Government (NUG). The ruling military junta’s State Administration Council (SAC) declared the NUG illegal and a terrorist organization. The NUG then announced the establishment of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) in May and declared a “people’s defensive war” against the military government. The PDF became a grassroots-level insurgency, with organized local ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) operating in small pockets across Myanmar.
Chin-Kukis-The Bamars form the ethnic majority in Myanmar. But other ethnic minorities also inhabit the seven states of the country. These include Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, Mon, Rakhine and Shan ethnic groups. People known as Chins in Myanmar are known as Kukis in India. The Kukis are an ethnic group of multiple tribes inhabiting the northeastern states of Manipur, Mizoram and Assam and parts of Sylhet district and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The Chin-Kuki group consists of Gangte, Hmar, Paite, Thadou, Vaiphei, Zou, Aimol, Chiru, Koireng, among others.
The Kukis of India see the Chins of Myanmar as a brotherly tribe. Though according to Indian government regulations, cross-border infiltration is not allowed, the Chin-Kukis of Myanmar are accepted by the people on this side when they come across the porous border.
Suspension of Operations- This has also enabled the EAOs of Myanmar to infiltrate India, a source familiar with the developments told ETV Bharat. These EAOs equipped with arms have now become active in the hills of Manipur. However, since 25 Kuki insurgent groups in Manipur have signed a Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with New Delhi, the Indian security forces have to be very careful in dealing with such militants, the source said.
Also read- Withdraw SoO with UPF and KNO militant groups in Manipur: COCOMI to Home Ministry
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Today, @RepGregoryMeeks introduced the “Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021” or BURMA Act with @RepSteveChabot & @SenatorCardin to support & protect the Burmese people and send a clear signal to the Burmese military.
— House Foreign Affairs Committee Dems (@HouseForeign) October 5, 2021 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
The bill: pic.twitter.com/n4CsNU4pP4
">Today, @RepGregoryMeeks introduced the “Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021” or BURMA Act with @RepSteveChabot & @SenatorCardin to support & protect the Burmese people and send a clear signal to the Burmese military.
— House Foreign Affairs Committee Dems (@HouseForeign) October 5, 2021
The bill: pic.twitter.com/n4CsNU4pP4Today, @RepGregoryMeeks introduced the “Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021” or BURMA Act with @RepSteveChabot & @SenatorCardin to support & protect the Burmese people and send a clear signal to the Burmese military.
— House Foreign Affairs Committee Dems (@HouseForeign) October 5, 2021
The bill: pic.twitter.com/n4CsNU4pP4
Burma Act-Another reason the EAOs have become emboldened is because of a Bill that was passed in the US House of Representatives in April last year, the source said. The US House of Representatives passed the Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021 or the BURMA Act, which requires the US Department of State to report to Congress on the military coup in Myanmar. This was welcomed by an international Christian rights group.
“This Bill’s passage is critical to the many religious minorities living in Myanmar and those currently displaced by the violence,” the International Christian Concern (ICC) stated. The ICC said that while the conflict in Myanmar did not start as a direct assault on the country’s religious groups, “it has brought significant harm to the country’s Christian communities”.
“In the junta’s attempt to break the pro-democracy movement, they continue to target the nation’s ethnic minority groups that have resisted the junta’s illegitimate claim to leadership, many of which make up the country’s Christian and non-Buddhist populations,” read the ICC statement.
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The U.S. recently passed the Burma Act to supports democracy in Myanmar. Our @YeMyoHein5 suggests ways in which the Biden administration can fulfill the promise of the act in a new analysis for @Diplomat_APAC:https://t.co/n87fM4axDd
— U.S. Institute of Peace (@USIP) February 7, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">The U.S. recently passed the Burma Act to supports democracy in Myanmar. Our @YeMyoHein5 suggests ways in which the Biden administration can fulfill the promise of the act in a new analysis for @Diplomat_APAC:https://t.co/n87fM4axDd
— U.S. Institute of Peace (@USIP) February 7, 2023The U.S. recently passed the Burma Act to supports democracy in Myanmar. Our @YeMyoHein5 suggests ways in which the Biden administration can fulfill the promise of the act in a new analysis for @Diplomat_APAC:https://t.co/n87fM4axDd
— U.S. Institute of Peace (@USIP) February 7, 2023
What it provides for? The US Bill, if passed into law, will authorize over $450 million in humanitarian aid and support for the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar over five years. According to observers, this Bill is also aimed at countering China’s influence in Myanmar. Which is why, the crisis in Manipur has now become an issue with geopolitical ramifications.
