Tungshang Ningreichon
In the east of Ukhrul there are strings of tiny villages that share border, trade, culture and life with people of Myanmar. Skipe is the last village by road in the district. From 60 households, the village now is 26 households because of an extremely difficult road with no public transportation and cut off from most public service and amenities.
Yet, this is where the Raizan Katamna Long (RKL), a collective of students' union of 16 villages, held its 18th General Conference along with sports, cultural and literary events. The freshly cleared grounds amidst teak trees, the make shift camps like in a picnic, had people of various talents and backgrounds, especially youths. There were people from Myanmar setting up food stall and also government officials gracing the gathering; a common tradition people living at the peripheries have been practicing for years.
Every year during Christmas people from Myanmar come to the border villages like Ningchou, Kangpat, Kongkan in Ukhrul district, sell food and small items, stay with families who cook and care for them and participate in community socials. Such tradition reflects the close ties people and villages share and maintain. People do not experience difficulties in crossing the border but travel and walk back and forth regularly. Yet, on an unlucky day they could be arrested and jailed for crossing the border.
In November 2013, Mr. Winson Kamodang, aged 56 was arrested by the Myanmar army and sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment when he had gone to Aung Zeya; the nearest village in Myanmar, from his village, Ramphoi. The people of these two villages engage in collective fishing and minor trade on an everyday basis.
While his family, human rights organization and students' association have written to the concerned authorities and letters sent to the ministry of home affairs he continues to linger in the jail at Kalymyo, Sagaing division. The charges against him, according to his family, is 'crossing border without legal documents' and 'espionage' which for them is vague because he is well known to the people of Aung Zeya who often borrow and hire his Shaktiman truck to carry loads and woods. They come and stay with his family whenever they come to the village.
Such stories are common but what is often missed is the human face of it; that States and Nations are dealing with people and citizens who have the right to build ties, maintain and nurture relationships. People living in porous borders need special protection and provisions that allow them to move freely. The Indo-Burmese border that stretches over 1,600 kilometres touching Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in India will continue to have people going back and forth irrespective of what their governments say.
A robust economy would require a healthy peoples-to-peoples relationship and this is nurtured by people at the borders!
Set them free.
