MANIPUR TURMOIL: INDIA-MYANMAR BORDER NEEDS A VIABLE SOLUTION

With Manipur on the boil and ethnic tensions riding sky high, the issue of completing the fencing along the 400 km long Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur have come up once again.

- SHRIDHAR NAIK

Defence analysts as well as the powers that be have opined that this could well be one of measures needed both in the interests of national security, as also to defuse the hostile situation in the border state. The protagonists justify fencing as being a key solution to pertinent issues plaguing the region, namely criminal activities like the smuggling of narcotics and illegal arms, a safe inward passage for insurgents who have sought refuge across the border, as well as the increasing entry of illegal migrants especially post the recent military coup in Myanmar. Apart from creating a demographic imbalance, the migrants are viewed as a key cause of disturbances in the law and order situation.

An important question being asked however, is whether fencing the entire border would provide a long lasting or permanent solution to the problem. Doubtful because the border in Manipur is highly vulnerable owing to historical reasons. The border was first demarcated in 1934 when Burma was only partially conquered by the British. The line of demarcation was known as the Pemberton Line, named after its creator an English government officer. Subsequently as more and more chunks of Burmese territories came under British control, modifications were continually made to the Pemberton Line, especially when the conquest of Burma was completed in 1885, and the border between the Chin Hills of Burma and Manipur was delimited. Further alterations however continued to be made up to the first quarter of the 20th century, when in 1922 the border was modified for the last time. The line then came to be called the PembertonJohnstone-Maxwell line, a tribute to its moderators.