India’s decision to erect a fence along the border with Myanmar

The Indian government is planning to fence its eastern border with Myanmar and end the Free Movement Regime (FMR) agreement between the two countries in the wake of the civil war in the neighboring country.

India’s Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement to strengthen the nearly 1,000-mile border comes days after an ethnic insurgent group seized a town along the Indian border in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state. has come

In a statement, Amit Shah said: ‘I want to inform my friends in Assam that the Narendra Modi government has decided to fence India’s open border with Myanmar in the same way we have fenced the border with Bangladesh. A fence has been erected.’

“The government is also revising India’s FMR agreement with Myanmar and will soon end free movement (from Myanmar) to India,” he added.

In the north-east, the Indian states of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh share borders with Myanmar, which have no barriers.

An FMR agreement between New Delhi and Yangon allows people from either side to travel up to 10 miles into each other’s countries without a visa.

Since the implementation of the agreement in 2018, thousands of people fleeing (ethnic) violence in Myanmar have sought refuge in India’s northeastern states.

About 30,000 people from Myanmar’s western Chin state have taken refuge in the Indian state of Mizoram since a 2021 military coup in which the ‘junta army’ overthrew the elected government of pro-democratic Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. took over.

At least 416 Myanmar soldiers have also crossed into India amid the latest wave of violence that has emerged since a coordinated crackdown on the army by the ethnic minority force The Three Brotherhood Alliance in October.

According to Reuters news agency, Indian authorities are sending Myanmar troops back within days of crossing the border.

Amit Shah blamed the unrest in Myanmar last year on the ongoing ethnic conflict between two ethnic communities, the Koki and the Meeti, in Manipur. At least 180 people have been killed in the eastern Indian state since the conflict erupted in May 2023.

He told the Indian Parliament in August that thousands of refugees have entered Manipur through the unsecured border due to political instability in Myanmar.

Amit Shah added that the refugees from Myanmar had created a ‘sense of insecurity’ in the Meiti community. On the other hand, the rebel coalition in Myanmar has agreed to a Chinese-brokered ceasefire with the ruling army, which will be implemented in the northern part of the country.