UNC makes stand against border fencing, revised FMR clear
Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network

Imphal, September 07 2025: A day before its "trade embargo" in Naga areas takes effect, the United Naga Council (UNC) has appealed for public support and participation in its "non-co-operation movement" .

Following the failure of the talk on the issues of Free Movement Regime (FMR) and border fencing between the UNC-led Naga organisations and the Government of India on August 26 in Delhi, the UNC had said it will impose "trade embargo in Naga areas" under its jurisdiction from the midnight of September 8, until further notification.

The UNC today said the "trade embargo" is the beginning of the Naga peoples' non-cooperation movement that will be relentlessly followed by many such actions until "our grievances are addressed satisfactorily" .

The UNC said it condemns the February 6, 2024 decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to fence the 1643 Km long "imaginary boundary" between India and Myanmar.

The project to fence and construct a patrol tract for surveillance along the border was approved with an estimated cost of Rs 31,000 crore in March 2024."If and when this project is materialised, more than 1000 Km of "Naga homeland" along the border in three North East States, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh will be physically bifurcated, cutting all ties with "our own people of the east, Nagas of Burma/Myanmar", said the UNC in a statement issued to Newmai News Network this evening.

The FMR was conceptualized and implemented in 1950 and further restructured in 1968 allowing movement for inhabitants across both sides of the border without Visa, the UNC said.

People across the border were allowed to enter upto 40 Km on each side then.

This limit was then reduced to 16 Km in 2004 .

In February 2024, the FMR was entirely suspended, and later in December, movement across the border was limited to 10 Km, the UNC said.

Citing security concerns and the necessity to check illegal immigrants, smuggling of drugs and proliferation of firearms from across the border, the Government of India has started implementing the border fencing project as planned without considering the traditional land rights of the Nagas.

Fencing work has begun in the Naga areas of Chandel district, Tengnoupal areas, the UNC said.

The UNC asserted that the "imaginary international boundary" between India and Myanmar in "Nagas' homeland" was arbitrarily demarcated.

"The Naga people across the border do not recognize its legitimacy.

There is no land boundary line between India and Myanmar within the Naga homeland," the UNC said.

In the west, the traditional land boundary between the "Naga Nation" and others lies in the Brahmaputra basin and beyond the Chindwin river valley in the east, it said.

"Any negotiation for demarcation or regularization of international boundaries with the Naga people can be initiated based on the above historically verifiable stated position of the Nagas.

Nagas will not accept any land alienation policy whatsoever," the UNC asserted.

Like any other "oppressive legislation" of the Government of India, the FMR and the fencing of the border are a deliberate ploy to "harass and alienate" the Nagas living across the "imaginary border", it said.

"Why should one seek permission to move freely in their own backyard or be under constant surveillance?" UNC asked, adding that the FMR is a reflection of insensitivity and hatred towards not only Naga people but humanity as a whole.

The UNC then asserted, "Not content with continued implementation of the invasive FMR, the Government of India has decided to erect concrete barriers to permanently curb physical connections and mobility between kindred Nagas impacting their culture and ancestry in their own land.

This is an inhuman act.

"Our demand is that a free, prior and informed consent of the Naga people must be obtained for any project affecting the Nagas and their land.

There must be no restrictions of movement along the so-called international Indo-Myanmar border," the UNC said.

The Government of India should scrap the project to fence the border in Naga areas.

Instead, it should "earnestly pursue the Indo-Naga peace process and focus on bringing an early settlement", it added.

With the implementation of the border fencing and restrictions brought about by the FMR, the survival of the "Naga people as a Nation" is at stake.

"This is a declaration of war on the Naga people and hence we have rightly resolved to rise to the occasion", the UNC said.

The trade embargo will impact everyone and may create inconveniences wherever it is implemented.

However, this "democratic and non violent" form of agitation is the expressed desire of the aggrieved Naga people, it said, calling on all Nagas to remain vigilant and stand firm together as "we resist this gross injustice" .

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