India closed the gates of key border crossings with Myanmar’s Chin state after three Indian nationals were killed in the state last month, according to area sources.
The closure comes amid an intensified military offensive against rebel forces in Chin state, where on April 10, a junta jet dropped bombs near a secondary school in Falam township, killing nine civilians and wounding four others.
Thousands of Myanmar citizens have fled the fighting and have taken refuge across the border in the Indian state of Mizoram.
The sources told RFA Burmese that on March 22, the charred remains of three Myanmar-born Chin women who held Indian citizenship were discovered in Matupi. An investigation identified the victims as C. Biaksuii, 48, Bablu Talukdar, 37, and B. Lathafamkima, 44, but who is responsible for their deaths has yet to be determined.
In the wake of the discovery, civil society organizations in Mizoram issued a statement warning Indian citizens against traveling to Myanmar and on April 6, Indian authorities closed the two main border gates in Matupi’s Hlungmang and Gawnglaung villages, residents told RFA. In addition, the crossings accessed from the Chin cities of Rihkhawdar and Thantalan were also closed by the Indian side, they said.
A Matupi resident, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA that the closure of the border gates had cut off access to food, medical treatment and shelter for residents of the municipality.
“The border closure is mainly related to the killing of Indian citizens,” the resident said. “It has caused a lot of problems for the Myanmar refugees in Matupi. They cannot enter the Indian side for now.”
RFA’s attempts to contact Thant Zin, the junta’s social affairs minister and spokesman for Chin state, for comment on measures taken to restrict border crossings went unanswered on Tuesday.
Salai Dokhar, founder of India-based aid group India For Myanmar, urged Myanmar citizens in India to refrain from illegal activities, saying doing so could affect refugees who have already fled across the border.
“What I mean by ‘illegal’ includes doing business illegally, committing crimes and that kind of activity,” Dokhar told RFA. “I urge all Myanmar refugees not to engage in such activities because one person’s crime can affect tens of thousands of refugees taking refuge in India.”
Arrests in Manipur
Following the deaths of the three Indian nationals, residents of the Indian state of Manipur, which also borders Chin state to the north, said they had seen authorities make a series of arrests of Myanmar nationals for illegal immigration.
In an incident on April 6, Manipur authorities arrested a group of six Myanmar men, 11 women and six children who had crossed the border into Langkaur township and were working in the local textile industry, Myanmar refugees said. to FRG.
“The reason for their arrest is that they did not have permission to stay in the city,” a Myanmar citizen in Langkaur told RFA. “They were supposed to stay in temporary refugee shelters being built by the Manipur government. They are being kept in a temporary detention center for now and will be transferred to refugee shelters once they are complete.”
Manipur police began persecuting Myanmar citizens living in the state earlier this year and had arrested around 170 people by early March, according to aid workers assisting refugees.
On March 26, Manipur government officials visited villages in Moreh township where Myanmar refugees are sheltering to announce the construction of camps that they said will be able to house half of the more than 10,000 who have fled through the border into the state.
“They came and took pictures of the refugees and gave them refugee identity cards… saying it would be safer to live there,” said a refugee in Moreh, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity. “They have also made a list of refugees. We are currently staying close to the towns along the border.”
RFA sent an email to the Indian Embassy in Yangon asking about the border closure and refugee arrests in Manipur, but had not yet received a reply as of Tuesday night.
According to Chin civil society organizations, around 60,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Chin state, while another 50,000 have fled across the border into India’s Mizoram and Manipur states.
Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
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