Border villagers as fair game By Thangkhanlal Ngaihte Recurring incidents of poor villagers on the India-Burmese (Myanmar) border being captured by Myanmar border guards are a cause for concern. Villagers from the other side stray into India and vice versa in the course of their daily search for food ~ these are frequent occurrences, given the porous border and ethnic affinity of tribes living on either side of the divide. But while there are rarely reports about Indian border guards capturing Myanmarese citizens moving into the country, authorities on the Myanmar side frequently catch and hold Indians near the border. They are often detained at undisclosed locations, at times indefinitely. And most cases do not get reported in the metro media. The latest incident occurred on 6 May 2006. On that day, 21 villagers living in border villages in Singngat sub-division of Manipur's Churachandpur district were caught by the Myanmar army while they were collecting forest produce in the jungles straddling the border. The villagers were from 11 villages ~ Muallum, Kailam, Belpuan, Haijang, Sumchinvum, Singngat, Tangpijawl, Lunjang, Tomei, Bualkot and Suangphu ~ all of which fall under the jurisdiction of Singngat sub-division. They included a six-year-old child, who had accompanied his father to the forest, and a 16-year old high school student on his summer vacation. None of them have been released till the time of writing. Their whereabouts and the charges placed against them, if any, are unknown. The three trucks in which they were travelling were also seized. What has made the incident all the more painful has been the lack of response from authorities from both sides. Barring stray comments on the Internet by those who happen to learn about the incident, nothing was reported of it in the media till 11 June when a columnist in a Manipur newspaper wrote about it. Another newspaper followed it up with a detailed report two weeks later. Only then did concerned officials start making some noise and show some concern. Indian authorities, including the Army and Assam Rifles, which are manning the Indian border, now claim that there was no intimation of the arrests from Myanmar officials. The deputy commissioner of Churachandpur district, the district's top bureaucrat, AK Sinha, said that he had received information about the incident and had passed it on to the home department. It now transpires that a suo moto case on the incident had indeed been filed in the Singngat Police Station on 24 May, not less than 18 days after the incident! Unconfirmed reports have said that the 21 persons were held at a military detention centre at Tonjang township in Myanmar. The reports also said that no food was provided to them by the Myanmar authorities and that local traders who used them for wood cutting and transport were asked to bring food to the captured people regularly, events which foreign diplomats say is commonplace in the country where forced porterage, involving the use and exploitation of villagers for army projects such as road construction with little or no pay or compensation of any kind, has been extensively documented by human rights groups including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Meanwhile, the Zomi Human Rights Foundation (ZHRF), an independent rights group, has said that it had submitted a memorandum to one of the state's two members of Parliament, Mani Charenemai. Apart from him, no one appeared to be bothered. The callous attitude of the government towards its citizens held captive by a foreign government can only aggravate the strong feelings of alienation in the isolated and poor border villages. This is not the first time that such an incident has taken place. Only last year, five men from the same area were arrested on the same charge by the Myanmarese army. They were subsequently released, but only after the Indian government took up the matter with its counterpart. But the truck on which they were riding was never returned. It is pertinent to note that the people living on both sides of the border speak the same language, and share the same culture and religion. They belonged to the Kuki-Chin and Mizo group of tribes scattered across North-east India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, also known in some areas as the Zomi. Indeed there is even a militant group, the Zomi Revolutionary Organisation (ZRO), which operates on either side of the border. There are representatives of other active opposition and insurgent fronts from Myanmar who are located in Manipur and Mizoram. The fact that the international border is not clearly marked does not help although there is a provision in the treaty which governs the border area: this enables traders and members of local communities to travel 25 km into the other's territory for purposes of trade. In addition, another crucial source of sustenance for the impoverished people here is the collection and sale of forest produce. Thus, despite existing laws, it is only natural that people will continue to cross the border, whatever risk it may entail because it is a question of survival, of filling their stomachs and providing for their families. The latest incident only underlines that in a situation of non- governance, poverty and institutionalised neglect, such rules can be bent at will by authorities who are not accountable.
(The author is a freelance journalist from Manipur based in New Delhi
