A woman is pictured in a file photo praying at St. Anthony Church in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: OSV New Delhi (KNA) Indigenous ethnic groups and human rights activists in northern India are condemning the sealing off of the border with Myanmar and the end of freedom of movement without visas and passports to the neighbouring country. According to media reports, the sealing off of the border with a fence primarily affects the predominantly Christian ethnic groups of the Naga and Mizos, who have close ethnic, family and cultural ties to Myanmar. India justifies the measures, among other things, with an influx of Christian refugees from Myanmar and a growing risk of conflict as a result.
“The decision to abolish the freedom of movement regime and erect border fences is not only impractical and inhumane for the communities living on both sides of the border,” the Asian press service Ucanews quoted from a letter from the indigenous people to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. “Rather, such an approach can only worsen the prospects for peace and prosperity in the region.”
According to Ucanews, the Indian government had justified the abolition of the freedom of movement regime by “ensuring the internal security of the country and the demographic structure” in the north-eastern states. Since the coup in Myanmar in February 2021, tens of thousands of people, mainly from the state of Chin, have fled to India to escape the civil war in Myanmar. Chin is the only union state in Myanmar with a Christian majority.
The four Indian states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur share a border of more than 1,600 kilometres with Myanmar. The Christian heads of government of Nagaland and Mizoram have reportedly spoken out against the border fence, while their Hindu counterparts from Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh are firmly in favour. More than 87 per cent of the inhabitants of Nagaland and Mizoram are Christians, while in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh they make up only 41 and around 30 per cent of the population respectively.
Manipur has been the scene of a violent conflict between Hindu Meitei and the predominantly Christian Kuki tribal population since May 2023. India’s Home Minister Amit Shah from the Hindu nationalist Indian People’s Party blamed Kuki refugees from Myanmar for the violence. The influx of refugees had caused insecurity among the Meiteis, Shah said in parliament in August.