The Kashmir Dialogues and M S Nazki
By M S Nazki
-I knew she was an addict but fondly I used to call her Athena Daffodil as she had some great qualities in her! In actuality her name was Lily and little was her household name! They were four sisters in all and the background was Naga! From where do you get this addictive substance from, one evening I asked her! The reply was in broken English, ‘It is available everywhere but the supply is from Moreh, the Burmese market!
-The India–Myanmar border is the international border between India and Myanmar (formerly Burma). The border is 1,643 kilometres (1,021 mi) in length and runs from the tripoint with China in the north to the tripoint with Bangladesh in the south.
-The trijunction between India, China and Myanmar is not yet agreed among the three nations.
-The de facto tripoint is located just north of the Diphu Pass. From here the border proceeds to the south-west through the Mishmi Hills, except for an Indian protrusion at the Chaukan Pass, then continuing through the Patkai and Kassom Ranges.
-At the south-east corner of Manipur it turns sharply westwards along various rivers for a period over to the Tiau River. It then follows this river southwards for a long stretch down to the Chin Hills, before turning west and proceeding to the Bangladeshi tripoint via a series of irregular lines.
-A bit of history:
-19th century
The first formation of the Indo-Burmese border was through the First Anglo-Burmese War, which resulted in the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826. The Burmese relinquished control over Assam, Manipur, Rakhine (Arakan), and the Taninthayi coast, thereby delimiting much of the modern boundary in general terms. In 1834 the Kabaw Valley areas were returned to Burma and a modified boundary delimited in this region, dubbed the ‘Pemberton Line’ after a British boundary commissioner, which was later refined in 1881. In 1837 the Patkai Hills were unilaterally designated as the northern boundary.
-Large swathes of Burma were annexed to the British Empire following the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852–53. The remainder of Burma was conquered in 1885 and incorporated into British India as a province.
-In 1894 a boundary between Manipur and the Chin Hills (recognized as part of Burma) was delimited, and the existing ‘Pemberton line’ boundary modified again in 1896. Further boundary modifications were made in 1901, 1921 and 1922.
-20th century
In 1937 Burma was split off from India and became a separate colony. In 1947 India gained independence, however the country was partitioned into two states (India and Pakistan), with the southernmost section of the Burma-India border becoming that between Burma and East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh). Burma gained independence in 1948. On 10 March 1967 Burma and India signed a boundary treaty which delimited their common frontier in detail. Security along the border has often been poor, owing to ongoing conflicts in north-east India and western Myanmar.
- Free movement regime:
From the beginning, India and Burma operated a free movement regime (FMR) for the tribal communities living along their common border, recognizing the communities’ age-old economic and cultural ties. The Burma Passport Rules of 1948 allowed indigenous populations of all the countries bordering Burma to travel to Burma without passports or permits, provided they lived within 40 km (25 mi) from the border. In 1950, India also amended its passport rules to allow the tribes people residing within 40 km around the border to travel to India and stay up to 72 hours.
-In 1968, following a variety of insurgencies in its northeastern states, India unilaterally introduced a permit system for travelling across the border. This provision remained in place for the next 40 years.
-In 2004, following the growth of drug trafficking and arms smuggling, India reduced the travel limit to 16 km (9.9 mi) and allowed border crossing only through three designated points: Pangsau (Arunachal Pradesh), Moreh (Manipur) and Zokhawthar (Mizoram).
-Following further abuses of FMR, a formal agreement with Myanmar was proposed by India in 2014, and, after negotiations, an Agreement on Land Border Crossing was signed by the two countries on 11 May 2018.
- As per the agreement, the residents of the two countries living within 16 km of the border are issued border passes, which they must carry at all times after crossing the border. They can stay on the other side for up to 14 days.
-In January 2024, amidst ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur, the Government of India signalled that it intends to terminate the free movement regime amid allegations from the Government of Manipur that it was facing problems of illegal immigration, drug peddling and arms smuggling.
- The proposal was opposed by the Government of Mizoram, and civil society organisations in Manipur and Nagaland. Nevertheless, the Government of India suspended the FMR on February 8, 2024, pending negotiation with Myanmar on eventual termination.
- Barrier
The India–Myanmar barrier, a border barrier along 1,624-kilometre (1,009 mi)-long border under-construction by India, aims to seal the border, curtail cross-border crime, including goods, arms and counterfeit currency smuggling, drug trafficking, and insurgency. Four Northeast Indian states share the border with Myanmar, i.e. Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Manipur. Both national governments agreed to conduct a joint survey before erecting the fence. The Indian Home Ministry and its Myanmar counterpart completed the study within six months and in March 2003 began erecting a fence along the border. In 2024, India approved ₹30,000 crore (US$3.4 billion) for the construction of a border fence along the Myanmar border. Of the total 1,624-kilometre (1,009 mi) length, only 30 km was fenced by September 2024, remaining was being expedited.
-Issues have been raised that many local ethnic communities, such as the Kuki, Naga, Mizo, and Chins whose lands straddle the regions between the two countries, will be divided by this fence. However, the Indian security forces justify the need for the fence by blaming the porous border as a national security threat. For example, during the two year period between 2001-2003 alone 200 security personnel and civilians died in the militancy-related violence in the region, and in 2007 a violent boundary dispute arose among the locals regarding the ownership of nine border pillars in Manipur. India has a similar fence on borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
-Border force
The Indo-Myanmar Border Force (IMBF) is a proposed and soon-to-be-composed force of 29 battalions – 25 battalions from Assam Rifles and 4 battalions from Indo-Tibetan Border Police – to guard the 1,643-kilometre (1,021 mi) long Indo-Myanmar border. IMBF will remain under ITBP and will patrol the border to the zero line (as of January 2018).
-The Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)
-The Golden Triangle is a large, mountainous region of approximately 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) in northeastern Myanmar, northwestern Thailand and northern Laos, centered on the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. The name “Golden Triangle” was coined by Marshall Green, a U.S. State Department official, in 1971 in a press conference on the opium trade.
- Today, the Thai side of the river confluence, Sop Ruak, has become a tourist attraction, with the House of Opium Museum, a Hall of Opium, a Golden Triangle Park, and no opium cultivation.
-The Golden Triangle has been one of the largest opium-producing areas of the world since the 1950s.
-Most of the world’s heroin came from the Golden Triangle until the early 21st century when opium production in Afghanistan increased. Myanmar was the world’s second-largest source of opium after Afghanistan up to 2022, producing some 25% of the world’s opium, forming part of the Golden Triangle. While opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar had declined year-on-year since 2015, the cultivation area increased by 33% totalling 40,100 ha (99,000 acres) alongside an 88% increase in yield potential to 790 t (780 long tons; 870 short tons) in 2022 according to the latest data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Myanmar Opium Survey 2022. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has also warned that opium production in Myanmar may rise again if the economic crunch brought on by COVID-19 and the country’s 2021 Myanmar coup d’état persists, with significant public health and security consequences for much of Asia.
-In 2023, Myanmar became the world’s largest producer of opium after an estimated 1,080 t (1,060 long tons; 1,190 short tons) of the drug was produced, according to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report, while a crackdown by the Taliban reduced opium production by approximately 95% to 330 t (320 long tons; 360 short tons) in Afghanistan for the same year.
Athena Daffodil was not wrong2 when she told me that drugs are available everywhere because the geographic location is as such!
Author
M S Nazki
