KOHR urges stop to border fencing
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 11, 2013: Close on the heels of the Kuki Inpi submitting a memorandum to the Prime Minister of India and President of Myanmar demanding to put a stop to the ongoing fencing construction along the Indo-Myanmar border, the Kuki Organisation for Human Rights has today submitted a similar representation to the President of India and President of Myanmar.

The KOHR submitted the memorandum in the wake of the recent news report that the Centre is intending to continue border fencing despite strong opposition from the people.

The KOHR memo urged both the Governments to sympathetically reconsider the proposed border fencing construction on account of the inevitable danger foreseen and the endangering millions of lives.

It also enclosed the reports and photos of the fencing that totally divided villages into two.

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 generation of people.

After the King of Manipur Valley and the Regent Queen of Tripura Valley signed the Merger Agreement in September 1949, Manipur and Tripura were subsequently declared as lndian States on October 15, 1949, it said.

However, their signatures did not cover the whole "lndependent Hill Country." The then Government of lndia 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 etc.

All these frontier areas of over 40 millions population is still owned by the indigenous people, the KOHR memo stated.

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

The naked revelation of the truth of neo-colonialism is due to the confusion created during the last 60 years by lndia 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 labelled as underground outfits, rebels, insurrectionists, extremists, etc, which they are not.

In fact the young people firmly stood for defending their ancestral lands for survival, it said while adding that 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 concerned.

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 at damages already been done and the lost of thousands of human lives ever since the British left, by practising 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, the KOHR maintained.

If lndia in the West and Myanmar in the East, would insist on intruding and taking the "lndependent 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, it added.

The KOHR also sought the intervention of UN General Secretary in such critical situation for the sake of justice and for safeguarding people's right to their ancestral land in this "lndependent Hill Country." Finally, as one kilometre radius of the proposed boundary fencing has already affected 38 indigenous Kuki villages, if 1400 kilometres long fending is ever constructed, over half a million indigenous people would be badly affected which will trigger otherwise border war.

To avoid this anticipation, the two colonising Governments (lndia and Myanmar) must retrieve back and stop the construction of the proposed border fencing, it stated.

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