Unsettled Neighbours: Civil war wracks Myanmar, pre-poll violence grips B’desh

Aizawl/Agartala/Imphal, Dec 17 (SocialNews.XYZ) Amidst the civil war in army ruled Myanmar, violent agitations have gripped another neighbouring country, Bangladesh, where a countrywide stir is continuing since the Election Commission announced the parliamentary poll schedule on November 15.

The election to the 350-seat (50 seats reserved exclusively for women) Bangladesh parliament known as ‘Jatiya Sangsad’ would be held on January 7.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and other like-minded parties are spearheading the nationwide stir including building a human chain along with rail, road, and waterway blockades to press their demand for the resignation of the Awami League government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and holding the 12th general election under a non-partisan administration.

A few people have been killed and hundreds injured while a large number of government and private properties have been destroyed and burnt.

As the civil war intensified in Myanmar, Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing called on the armed ethnic groups involved in an offensive against the ruling military to solve their problems “politically”.

According to a state media report, Junta leaders have warned that if the armed groups keep on being foolish, residents of their regions will be badly impacted.

“Hence, it is crucial to consider the lives of the people, and those organisations need to resolve their problems politically, discarding their disobedient moves,” says the junta's official website.

The junta is facing coordinated offensives near the borders with China, India and Thailand and according to analysts, who are closely monitoring the Myanmar situation, it is the biggest threat to the army rule since it seized power in February 2021.

The new offensive, codenamed “Operation-1027”, began in Shan state near the border with China on October 27 under the Three Brotherhood Alliance, a grouping of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA).

More than 200,000 people have been displaced due to the fighting and at least 250 civilians, including children and women, have been killed, according to the United Nations.

The Myanmar army had earlier attacked and burnt down around 76,000 properties in different regions of the country.

At least 150 journalists were detained by the junta, and around 25 media personnel are in various prisons of the country.

At least three journalists reportedly died in separate attacks by the military.

Clashes have raged across Myanmar’s northern Shan state and spread to other regions after the alliance of the three ethnic groups launched surprise attacks against the military (popularly known as Tatmadaw).

Electrified by the coordinated offensive by the ethnic armed groups, ‘People’s Defence Forces’ formed after the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government have launched renewed attacks on the military both in the north and east.

The army had withdrawn from some positions and many soldiers had fled from their camps and posts in the face of the attacks by the civilian ethnic alliance.

Myanmar, which shares a 1,643-km unfenced border with four northeastern states of India – Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur (398 km), Nagaland (215 km) and Mizoram (510 km) -- was plunged into crisis when the generals seized power from the elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February 2021.

The NLD registered a very big victory in the last national general elections in November 2020 in which over 27 million Myanmarese (out of a total population of 55 million) exercised their franchise, and the NLD candidates won over 920 seats out of 1,117.

Along with Nobel peace prize (in 1991) winner Suu Kyi, who served as State Counsellor in the previous government, President U Win Myint, over 140 elected NLD lawmakers, many chief ministers and ministers besides over 2,000 NLD activists were booked under “electoral fraud”.

Many elected leaders fled the trouble torn nation, and around 20 of them died of illness because of poor medical care during their hiding period.

Protesting the government’s actions millions took to the streets demanding restoration of democracy.

But when the military retaliated with force, civilians took up arms, joining forces with ethnic armed groups who have long been fighting for self-determination.

At least 4,185 civilians and anti-coup activists have been killed in the violence since February 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Myanmar non-profit tracking the crackdown.

The first influx from Myanmar into three northeastern states of India – Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland -- happened in February 2021 after the junta seized power in that country.

Since then, over 33,000 people from Myanmar, including women and children, have taken shelter in Mizoram and several hundred in Manipur and Nagaland.

Since November 13, one hundred and four Myanmar soldiers, including officers, have fled to Mizoram in different phases after their camps in Chin state were captured by the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF), the armed wing of the Chin National Organisation (CNO).

The soldiers were apprehended by the Mizoram police in Champhai district and handed over to the Assam Rifles.

All the 104 soldiers have been repatriated to Myanmar through the Moreh (Manipur)-Tamu (Myanmar) border.

Mizoram's six districts -- Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Serchhip, Hnahthial and Saitual -- share a 510 km unfenced border with Myanmar's Chin state.

The head of the Indian army's Eastern Command, Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita, said when the fighting intensifies in Myanmar, people from the neighbouring country cross over to the Indian side and then gradually return to their homeland.

“The Centre asked the state government to identify all these people (migrants from across the border), record biometric information, establish camps, and keep them localised. Records are being maintained ensuring that these immigrants are not part of any militant outfit,” he had said in Guwahati.

Saying that clear directions were given that no armed cadres should be allowed to enter, Lt Gen Kalita informed that there is a process being followed in consultation with the state government.

“There has been recovery of a lot of contraband drugs and narcotics from people who are coming, so we are keeping a very close eye on drug peddlers.”

“Any instability in India’s neighbourhood is not in our interest, it impacts us as we share a common border. The problem of India-Myanmar gets accentuated by difficult geography and terrain,” he told the media, adding that when fighting between the Myanmar army and the pro-democracy forces intensified, people living along the border crossed over, and later some went back and some stayed back.

"People of either side of the porous border share common ethnicity. Free Movement Regime (FMR) also exists though it was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic. However people have become so used to it. Sometimes it becomes difficult to identify who are people from our country and who are from neighbouring countries," the officer said.

FMR allows people residing on both sides of the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km deep into each other's territory without any papers.

The Mizo, Kuki, Zomi, Zo, Hmar, Chin of Myanmar, Bangladesh and Manipur and the Mizos in Mizoram belong to the Zo community and share the same culture, ethnicity and ancestry.

After the military takeover in Myanmar in February 2021, thousands of Myanmarese fled to Mizoram with around 35,000 men, women and children now staying in the mountainous state.

Over 1,000 tribals have also taken shelter in Mizoram after they fled from their native villages in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts after an armed conflict started in mid-November last year between the Bangladesh Army and the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA), also known as the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF).

The KNA is an underground militant outfit demanding sovereignty for the Chin-Kukis residing in Rangamati and Bandarban districts of CHT to protect the tribal people's traditions, culture and livelihood.

Citing international protocols and conventions, the Ministry of Home Affairs earlier earlier told the northeastern states that nationals from neighbouring countries cannot be given “refugee” status as India is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Refugees and the protocol.

Despite repeated directives from the MHA, the previous Mizo National Front government decided against collecting biometric and biographic data of the Myanmar refugees even though the BJP led Manipur government was undertaking this process.

“The exercise of collecting biometric and biographic data of the Myanmarese (sheltered in Mizoram) would discriminate against those who are of our blood…”, MNF government’s former Information and Public Relations Minister and MNF leader Lalruatkima had said.

However, the BJP government in Manipur has been conducting the process of collecting biometric and biographic data of the Myanmar immigrants, sheltered in that state.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)

Source: IANS