Myanmar Naga students condemn border fencing

DIMAPUR — The Naga Students’ Organisation from Myanmar (NSO-M) has rejected the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and the ongoing construction of fencing along the India-Myanmar border, calling them attempts to divide Naga people and undermine their unity and political aspirations.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the student body asserted that movement across ancestral lands is a “birthright, not a matter of state permission,” rooted in Naga history, culture and kinship predating international borders. It described the fencing of Naga villages and sacred sites as a “cultural and political assault that no Naga, anywhere, should tolerate.”

The NSO-M condemned the government of India for imposing restrictions and criticised what it termed the “silence and complicity” of the government of Myanmar. It demanded an immediate halt to the fencing and reversal of policies restricting the free movement of Naga people across the border.

Also read: United Naga Council delegation to meet MHA over FMR, border fencing on August 26

In this context, the NSO-M extended support to the United Naga Council (UNC), which recently met officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi to press for reinstatement of the old FMR and to stop border fencing along the 398-km India-Myanmar boundary in Manipur.

The NSO-M said the UNC’s stance represented the shared struggle of Nagas across borders for political future, territorial integrity and unity. It called upon Naga organisations, tribal councils, student bodies and youth movements to rise together in opposition to “divisive border policies” and urged the international community to recognise what it described as violations of indigenous rights.

It further stated that Nagas “were never divided by consent” and reaffirmed that “no policy, border, or government can ever rewrite our identity or destiny.”