Members of various Naga tribes and civil society groups from across Nagaland took to the streets here Wednesday to protest the Centre\u2019s decision to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR), reimpose Restricted and Protected Area Permits (RAP\/PAP), and construct fencing along the India-Myanmar border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The peaceful protest, organised by the Angami Public Organisation (APO) at Old MLA Junction, drew participants from all walks of life. Addressing the gathering, APO president Thejao Vihienuo said Nagas had been living and thriving in the India-Myanmar borderlands long before the formation of India. Therefore, he said the imposition of such measures by the Government of India was unjustified and an infringement on indigenous rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vihienuo also asserted that arbitrary border demarcation carried out during the British colonial period had divided Naga people without consultation or consideration for their cultural and traditional unity\u2014a division, which, he said, persists to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further, Vihienuo pointed out that FMR, which had once allowed cross-border movement up to 40 km, was reduced to 16 km in 2004 and then to 10 km in 2016, before being completely abolished in February 2024. He said border fencing would further fragment Naga communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
APO president said that a 215-kilometre stretch along the Nagaland-Myanmar border would be fenced with nine gates manned by armed personnel. \u201cPeople will have to obtain passes daily just to access their own fields,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, criticising the recent reinstatement of the Protected Area Permit (PAP) for foreigners, Vihienuo said that such policies would only worsen the hardships of the border-dwelling Nagas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis rally is only the beginning. Our democratic rights should not be mistaken for weakness,\u201d he warned. APO president announced that a memorandum would be submitted to the union home minister through the governor of Nagaland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representing the people of Longwa village in Mon district, Khampei Konyak highlighted the lived realities of communities straddling the international border. He said Longwa village had existed long before India\u2019s birth and continued to exist as one entity, even though it was now split between India and Myanmar by border pillars. \u201cPillar Nos. 154 and 155 run through the middle of the village. Half of our Angh\u2019s house is in India and the other half in Myanmar,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Konyak said that despite accusations of cross-border arms smuggling, villagers struggled even for basic necessities. \u201cThey say we smuggle arms, but where will we get the money to buy guns when there\u2019s not enough food to eat?\u201d he questioned. He also raised concerns over plans to build a fence near the Arunachal border, which he claimed was discovered only days earlier. He urged political parties to join the movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, sharing his concerns, P. Shingya from Dan village in Noklak district called the restrictions a form of \u201cinhuman treatment\u201d against the Naga people. \u201cBefore India or Burma were named, our forefathers were already living on these hills,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He recalled how, in 1971, border pillars were secretly erected at Pangsha without any communication with local villagers. \u201cWe removed the pillars twice, and when they returned the third time, they warned us not to remove them again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shingya alleged during a 2016 survey, that villagers were misled and told it was for road construction, only to later discover that the infrastructure was meant for fencing. \u201cWe protested and were even ready for physical confrontation,\u201d he said. He claimed that 6,500 hectares of land were being taken away, affecting the region\u2019s agriculture and livestock practices, which were critical to the villagers\u2019 livelihoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Timikha Koza, addressing the legal aspects of the issue, said that Nagas were the original inhabitants of these lands and have governed them based on tradition and customary law long before modern nation-states came into existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFMR is not just a policy; it is closely tied with colonial and post-colonial injustices,\u201d he noted. Koza warned that fencing would criminalise the act of Nagas living freely in their own ancestral lands. \u201cHalf of our land lies in Myanmar. How can we be expected to seek permission to enter our own land?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stating that political decisions cannot override the rights of indigenous peoples, he urged the Government of India to engage with local communities before implementing such policies. \u201cPeople have not committed any crime. They have the right to live, work and move freely in their own land,\u201d Koza asserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delivering a solidarity message on behalf of all tribal unions in Kohima, Shiwoto Wotsa, president of Sumi Hoho Kohima, reaffirmed the collective support for the Naga communities affected by the scrapping of FMR and the ongoing border fencing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that Nagas on both sides of the India-Myanmar border had coexisted peacefully for generations, sharing familial, cultural, and economic ties. \u201cThe introduction of these new restrictions has disrupted centuries of coexistence and created emotional, mental and physical suffering,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wotsa appealed to the Government of India to reconsider its decision and called for the restoration of FMR, the halting of border fencing, and the revocation of PAP\/RAP regimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanking all the participating civil society groups, tribal hohos, and individuals for their support, SHK president said \u201cLet this rally serve as a powerful reminder to the Government of India that the voices of the indigenous people cannot be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rally concluded with the submission of a memorandum to be forwarded to the union home minister, voicing the collective demands and grievances of the Naga people.
Earlier, invocation was offered by Kohima Ao Baptist Arogo senior pastor, Rev Sentisashi Aier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Memorandum to Union Home Minister<\/strong> Only nine entry and exit points were designated along Nagaland\u2019s 215-km border with Myanmar. Just days earlier, on December 17, the MHA also withdrew the relaxation granted to Nagaland under the Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order, 1958, making it mandatory for foreigners to obtain PAP\/RAP to enter the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They stated that the imposition of colonial-era international borders had arbitrarily divided the Naga people without their consent, and they had never accepted those imposed boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They cautioned that PAP, when seen alongside the new border pass system, formed a \u201clethal combination\u201d that could be misused against innocent people and pose serious threats to their lives. They further warned that imposition of PAP would adversely impact Nagaland\u2019s growing tourism industry, particularly the inflow of foreign tourists attending cultural festivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Members of various Naga tribes and civil society groups from across Nagaland took to the streets here Wednesday to protest the Centre\u2019s decision to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR), reimpose Restricted and Protected Area Permits (RAP\/PAP), and construct fencing along the India-Myanmar border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":480553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[679],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nagaland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Following the rally, the Hohos jointly submitted a representation to the union home minister through the governor of Nagaland, strongly opposing recent policy decisions of the Government of India regarding the India-Myanmar border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tribal leaders demanded an immediate halt to the ongoing plans to erect border fencing, the restoration of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) in its original form, and the withdrawal of the Protected Area Permit (PAP) system in Nagaland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The representation, endorsed by 19 tribal leaders representing various communities residing in the State capital Kohima, expressed deep concern over what they termed as \u201cfar-reaching consequences\u201d for the indigenous Naga people inhabiting the India-Myanmar borderlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Referring to Union home minister Amit Shah\u2019s February 6, 2024 announcement to scrap FMR and implement border fencing, the tribal leaders stated that such decisions would result in the uprooting of the Naga people from their ancestral lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The representation pointed out that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued revised guidelines on December 24, 2024, introducing a \u2018border pass\u2019 system that limited cross-border movement to 10 km on each side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese back-to-back decisions expose a coordinated attempt to restrict and regulate the movement of the Naga indigenous people in their own ancestral lands,\u201d the tribal bodies asserted. They warned that any indigenous Naga who enters India beyond the 10-km limit could now be prosecuted under the Foreigners Act, calling the move a direct assault on their historical and cultural rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Highlighting their historical rights, the tribal leaders emphasized that the indigenous Nagas had established their homeland in the Naga Hills long before the formation of the modern Indian nation-state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to them, FMR was originally conceived to respect the traditional way of life of borderland communities, allowing free movement up to 40 km on either side, later reduced to 16 km in 2018, and now curtailed to just 10 km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drawing a parallel with colonial oppression, the tribal leaders remarked that the present-day policies of the Government of India reminded them of the colonial rulers whose primary interests were territorial control, not the welfare of indigenous communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The signatories strongly demanded the revocation of the new \u2018border pass\u2019 system, calling it \u201cunacceptable\u201d likening it to \u201casking permission to move within one\u2019s own house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tribal leaders also reiterated their opposition to the border fencing project, saying it would further divide their land and people, thereby violating their indigenous rights. \u201cWe are against the idea of dividing our ancestral land,\u201d they declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also urged the central government to restore the FMR in its original form.
In addition, the tribal leaders called for the immediate withdrawal of PAP\/RAP system in Nagaland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the light of the above, the hohos urged the Government of India to give due consideration to their concerns and take immediate corrective measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The signatories to the memorandum include Thejao Vihienuo (President, Angami Public Organization), Khongjah Konyak (President, Konyak Union Kohima), KN Mhonthung Lotha (Chairman, Kohima Lotha Hoho), Dozhoh\u00fc Tunyi (President, Chakhesang Hoho Kohima), Thsapongse Sangtam (President, Sangtam Union Kohima), K Gwanilo Himb (President, Rengma Public Organisation Kohima), Ts\u00fcthong (President, Tikhir Union Kohima), K Onglingaku Chang (President, Chang Union Kohima), Thanghoi Lam (President, Khiamniungan Union Kohima), Kangdi Maram (President, Maram Union Kohima), DB Kais\u00fc (President, Poumai Union Kohima), James Luiram (President, Tangkhul Union Kohima), Akum Yimkhiung (President, Yimkhiung Union Kohima), Wachusie Katiry (President, Pochury Union Kohima), Neiba Newmai (President, Nagaland Zeliang People\u2019s Organisation Kohima), T Chubayanger (President, Kohima Ao Union), Imti Phom (President, Phom Union Kohima), K Shiwoto Wotsa (President, Kohima Sumi Hoho), and Dihe Mao (President, Mao Union Kohima).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"