Aizawl: A day after Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma urged civil societies and the general public to stay calm on the problem of Free Motion Regime (FMR) being scrapped and fencing alongside Indo-Myanmar border, the state’s NGO Coordination Committee (NGOCC) introduced its choice Wednesday to take additional motion.
The NGOCC is a conglomerate of central committee of the Younger Mizo Affiliation (YMA), Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or girls’s organisation, Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP) or elders’ affiliation, Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or college students’ federation, and Mizo College students Union (MSU).
The NGOCC is organising a public gathering in Aizawl on 21 February in protest towards the scrapping of FMR and the fencing alongside the 404-km-long Mizoram-Myanmar worldwide border.
The NGOCC had Tuesday despatched a memorandum to Union House Minister Amit Shah by way of the state governor, urging him to rethink each strikes.
The memorandum requested India — a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) 2007 — to claim the rights of indigenous people who find themselves divided by worldwide borders.
“The Free Movement Regime is a vital mechanism in maintaining the ethnic and cultural linkages between the Mizo people living on both sides of the border,” the memorandum, which ThePrint has seen, mentioned.
The NGOCC added that ending the FMR and fencing the border would have detrimental results on “these vital ethnic and cultural connections, disrupting the harmonious coexistence and cultural exchange that has been integral to the lives of the Mizo people living in both sides of the two neighbouring countries.”
Talking at a press convention upon his return from a three-day official go to to the nationwide capital, CM Lalduhoma had Tuesday acknowledged that he had mentioned the problem of the proposed elimination of FMR and border fencing with Shah extensively.
“While the Union home minister did not explicitly confirm the abandonment of the border fencing or the retention of FMR, based on our discussions, I am optimistic that the Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram will not be fenced. I urge all stakeholders not to panic. There is no cause for alarm,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, the Mizo Nationwide Entrance (MNF), the biggest opposition social gathering within the state, mentioned Wednesday that the social gathering vehemently opposed the termination of FMR and fencing of Mizoram-Myanmar border and expressed full assist to the steps being taken by the NGOCC. The MNF accused the Zoram Individuals’s Motion (ZPM) authorities of not being agency sufficient in opposing the Centre’s strikes.
“The MNF had all along opposed these moves, and the cabinet meeting chaired by then Chief Minister Zoramthanga, in later part of 2023, had declined to undertake collection of biometric and biographic data of Myanmar refugees taking shelter in the state, as ordered by the Centre,” mentioned a press release launched by the social gathering.
Scrapping of FMR and fencing of Mizoram-Myanmar border, the assertion added, will quantity to acceptance of the border demarcated by the colonial British authorities because the border is thought to be imposed on the Mizo folks with out being consulted or heard.
It additionally mentioned that the MNF has been trying ahead to the unification of all ethnic Mizos dwelling in India, Myanmar and Bangladesh underneath a single administration.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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