The Zo Reunification Organization (ZORO) led a Peaceful Rally on the India-Myanmar border today, May 16, to protest against the cancellation of the Free Movement Regime – FMR system for free movement between India and Myanmar and the Indian central government’s plan to fence the border.
Today’s rally was held at the India-Myanmar No. 2 border trade post, Zokhawthar village, and hundreds of people from Mizoram and Chin State held a rally holding placards saying, “Brotherhood cannot be divided,” and against the plan to build a border fence.
Zo Reunification Organization (ZORO) President Pu R. Sangkawia said in today’s rally that the Zo (Chin) tribes living in the India-Myanmar-Bangladesh region are brothers and sisters and nothing can separate their tribes. The Indian central government’s plan to cancel the Free Movement Regime – FMR and build a border fence is a violation of the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.
In addition, the ZORO chairman said that today’s rally is to preserve and protect their rights. The Central Government of India enacted the Free Movement Regime program between India and Myanmar in the 1970s, under which local residents along the India-Myanmar border are allowed to travel unhindered up to 16 kilometers into each country without the need for an entry visa.
The central government of India is planning to build a fence along the border, abolishing the tradition of free movement of residents of 4 northeastern states of India, including Mizoram, which borders Myanmar, for more than 40 years under the so-called Free Movement Regime.
In today’s rally, Mizoram Adviser to the Chief Minister, Pu Lalmuanpuia Punte, other members of Parliament from Faye district and civil society officials also spoke against the Indian central government’s plans to abolish the Free Movement Regime – FMR system and fence the border.
The Zo Reunification Organization (ZORO) is an organization that is working for the reunification of the Zomi (Chin) tribes who have been scattered in 3 countries such as India-Myanmar-Bangladesh due to the British government’s delimitation.
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