Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 15
A ‘survey team’ from the Government of India has visited the Naga areas today through which an international India-Myanmar border fence is taking shape.
Advisor to the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO), Toshi Wungtung informed that a ‘survey team’ has been sent by the Government of India (GoI) to the border areas in Eastern Nagaland’s Tuensang district after the ENPO had detailed discussions on the matter with GoI’s Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs as well as the Ministry of Defense.
Wungtung is coordinating efforts on the border fencing issue with New Delhi on behalf of the ENPO. Meanwhile, P Shingya, Chairperson of the New Pangsha Village Council, confirmed that four officials from the Central Government visited ITC Dan today, and managed to temporarily halt the ongoing fencing being done by the Government of Myanmar (GoM) as part of sealing the international boundary.
It was also reported that the four officials, who are visiting from Shillong, will return to the spot from their base in Noklak on January 16; while two of them will return after the survey, two will stay back to monitor the situation at the border.
Trilateral decision making
“The fencing is being done on the Myanmar side but Pangsha’s traditional lands extend up to, and beyond, the areas through which the fence is slated to pass,” said Toshi Wungtung while speaking to The Morung Express today. According to him, the Ministry of External Affairs of the GoI was unaware of the attempts to fence the border by the GoM as the former had asked it to “go slow” on the issue as it may disturb peace in the region.
Myanmar’s foreign ministry said in a statement on January 10 that it planned to build the fence in the Naga Self-Administered Zone, 10 metres from the demarcated border with India, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency had reported.
While appreciating the response and efforts being taken by the GoI, the ENPO leader asserted that “Any decision to build a fence through the Naga areas should be the product of trilateral decision making.
“Any issue related to land and territory falls under the gamut of the political issue; border fencing itself is a political act. It is politically wrong to erect any fences without the involvement of the landowners. The countries (India and Myanmar) need to understand that these decisions need to be made with them, not for them.”
The proposed fence, for which clearing and construction has already begun, is set to usurp 3500 acres of Khaimniungan Naga lands. Traditional life and livelihood of the people living in the areas will hit a major setback due to the fencing.
“It will be like ripping a stomach open!” Wungtung remarked, noting that this is a social, economic and political issue. He reiterated that “People to whom the land belongs need to be a major part of this decision. They will understand issues the two nation states may have but erecting a border fence without their knowledge amounts to land grab.” It is still not known why the specific section of the international border is being fenced.
Historical precedent
The Advisor to the ENPO further informed that the delimitation of the border was done sometime in the 1960s by the Ministry of External Affairs of the GoI without any consultation or knowledge of the people who inhabit the area. At the 10 March 1967 Rangoon Convention, explained Wungtung, the governments of India and Myanmar had even met at the behest of the US to discuss the international border.
However, no sooner had border pillars been instated, there was an uproar from the local people who had smashed some of the pillars at the time, said the leader. Further, the Regional Council that looked after Tuensang Affairs at the time had also registered its protest alongside the people.
Again, in 1972, when Naga affairs were shifted from the purview of the Ministry of External Affairs to the Ministry of Home Affairs by the Government of India, a similar effort was made to demarcate the border without any success. This time, “we are sure that the GoI will get the GoM to understand that land and ownership lies with the people,” hoped Wungtung.
Mysteriously, the Government of Nagaland has maintained a stoic silence on the raging issue at its border. In September 2016, Chief Minister of Nagaland State, TR Zeliang, had said in an interview to IANS that the Indian Government should “abandon” its plan to erect a fence at the India-Myanmar border and, instead, undertake developmental projects, particularly roads.
It may also be noted that the heads of the Survey Department of India and Myanmar met in Dehradun, India, in September 2016, to “discuss issues of boundary between both the countries,” stated the Survey of India on its website. For the past three years, the Survey of India, the principal mapping agency of the country, has been giving out tender notices from Shillong (regional Geo-Spatial Data Centre) to hire vehicles for ‘field duty’ along the Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram circuit of the international border with Myanmar.
Border fencing ‘totally illegal’
DIMAPUR, JANUARY 15 (MExN): The Konyak Union of Eastern (Myanmar) and Wolam Nyukyan (New Pangsha) Students’ Union have voiced their opposition to the border fencing works at the Indo Myanmar border.
The former in a press note expressed support to the Khiamniungan Tribal Council’s memorandum to the Indian and Myanmar governments. It asserted that the Naga people would not accept the plan for the border fencing. It stated that the governments of India and Myanmar had neglected all sphere of human necessities in the border area, “as if we are from other world.” The border fencing work, it stated is “totally illegal” and added that the Naga people would not be fooled by the Myanmar Government’s claim that the fencing is being done in order to protect the border area people as well as bring development.
The Wolam Nyukyan (New Pangsha) Students’ Union lamented meanwhile demanded developmental progress in International Trade Centers rather that creating division of people through fences.
