Stop border fencing through 'Independent Hill County': KOHR
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, October 11, 2013: Submitting a memorandum to President of India Pranab Mukherjee as well as to the President of Myanmar Thien Sien today, Kuki Organisation for Human Rights has demanded to stop 'boundary fencing in the midle of an 'independent hill country' lying in between India in the west and Myanmar in the East.

The memorandum, the copy of which were also forwarded to Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of UN, Geneva and High Commissioner of UN Human Rights Commission; Henriksen Roy, Chief of UNPFII; Chairman of National Commission for Human Rights; Chief Ministers of 7 Northeast Sister State, etc recalled that Kuki Inpi, in a Memorandum submitted on 23 September 2013, had categorically stated that the proposed boundary fencing - if construction continues without prior permission of the landlords in the middle of the "Independent Hill Country" - will certainly provoke anger to over 40 millions of indigenous land owners, which eventually will lead to unstoppable chaotic situation in the region and the same will end up in slaughtering armless millions of indigenous people by the two colonized governments (i..eIndia and Myanmar).

In continuation, Kuki Organization for Human Rights requests both governments of India in the West and Myanmar in the East to sympathetically reconsider the proposed construction of Border Fencing on account of the inevitable danger foreseen and the endangering of the millions of innocent lives.

The fact that the so-named "Independent Hill Country" lies from the Bengal Valley in the West and the Chindwin River plus Pakokku in the East is known to all generations of people.

Though the King of Manipur Valley and the Regent Queen of Tripura Valley were forced to sign Merger Agreement on 9/21 September 1949, Manipur and Tripura were subsequently declared as one of the Indian states on 15 October 1949.However, their signatures did not cover the whole "Independent Hill Country." The then Government of India failed to understand that the 90% land of the buffer zone is jointly owned by indigenous people through hundreds/ thousands of Tribal villages under their Haosa (chiefs), Lals, Kalims, Kholakpas, etc.

All this frontier areas of over 40 millions population is still owned by the indigenous people.

The proposed boundary fencing being constructed in the middle of their land is an open declaration to grab (neo-colonialism) the ancestral lands of the indigenous peoples of the so-called "Independent Hill Country," the memorandum said.

The memorandum asserted that the naked revelation of the truth of neo-colonialism is due to the confusion created during the last 60 years by India and Myanmar (Burma).

This has brought about over 50 groups of militants to defend their ancestral lands against the policies for unjust grabbing of land.

The militants are misunderstood and they have been allegedly labeled as underground outfits, rebels, insurrectionists, extremists, etc.

etc., which they are not.

In fact alleged young people firmly stood for defending their ancestral lands for survival.

Such is the case that existing problems in this region must first be seriously considered on humanitarian ground.

And whatsoever proposals made, the matter should be made known to all concern.

When the matter is well understood by all Indigenous people concerned, then, a peaceful settlement may be brought about without violation of all rights and shedding of innocent blood.

This fervent prayer is made from insiders' positioning after observing all damages already been done and the lost of thousands of human lives ever since the British left, by practicing wicked policies and cheating laws made, and many a time "Might is rights" is used against the innocent indigenous people and against their ancestral land.

Intrigued by the generation past coupled with a critical re-evaluation of the historical awakening under colonized misrule, the indigenous people vehemently stand against the construction of the proposed dividing wall.

If India in the West and Myanmar in the East, insist on intruding and taking the "Independent Hill Country," the ancestral land inhabited by over 40 millions, they will be held accountable for any untoward consequences as a result of such illegal and unjustifiable construction of border fencing.

The moment this secret game plan of land grabbing by a piecemeal stops, lasting peace will automatically prevail in this land and region, the memorandum maintained.

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