Good neighbours don’t need fences, says PAPO on scrapping of FMR

DIMAPUR — The Phokhungri Area Public Organisation (PAPO) expressed its resentment at the decision taken by the Government of India to fence the Indo-Myanmar Border and abrogate the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the Indo-Myanmar Border.

In a press note, PAPO mentioned that the government should be well aware that on both sides of the ‘artificial’ border live people of the same culture and tradition, with families and relatives across the border, maintaining constant contact by visiting each other freely since time immemorial.

“Both the villagers living in India and Myanmar have their own traditional boundaries and likewise have their ancestral lands and fields across the borders. It is laudable that there is no dispute whatsoever,” it said, adding that to fence the border means to divide and cut off families living and co-existing peacefully.

Further, it maintained that there is no threat to the country’s internal security, so fencing the border is too ambitious and not pragmatic. PAPO emphasised that good neighbours do not need fences.

It questioned how fencing the border could help achieve the objective of developing political, economic, and security cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, as the government aims to do.

PAPO maintained that it vehemently opposes the central government’s decision to scrap the FMR and appealed to the centre to reconsider the decision and let the people on the borders continue to coexist peacefully with each other.

Also read: TUD, ENUD oppose FMR and border fencing