Located just three hours away from the town of Imphal, the twin towns of Moreh and Tamu are one of the peculiar assets that the northeast possesses as a sign of its trans-boundary relationships with the population in Myanmar. Moreh, located on the Indian side, and Tamu, located on the Myanmar side of the India-Myanmar boundary, is emblematic of North East India's regional and cultural connection with Southeast Asia. The significance of the Moreh market region had increased over the years, especially after India’s ‘Look East’ policy in the 90s for its trade and commercial exchanges with the Tamu market making the trade point inclusive in ASEAN-India Free Trade Area.
As part of the Indo-Myanmar trade agreement signed in April 1995, the governments of India and Myanmar allow the people of both countries to cross the border, up to 16 km inside each other’s territory. This limited provision for free transboundary travel is enabled only for a stipulated period for trade and commercial purposes, making the Moreh-Tamu stretch one of India's most relaxed border regions. This arrangement is credited to being part of the Free Movement Regime to help the tribal population of the region to maintain their cross-border ethnic ties. Although initiated for a positive cause, this arrangement created a risk for India’s national security as the border region is regularly misused by insurgents and their sympathizers for their anti-national activities as well as personal interests. This arrangement has adversely affected the nation as it creates a risk for India’s national security as the border region is regularly misused by insurgents and their sympathizers for their anti-national activities and personal interests.
On a daily basis, India imports almost three crores worth of foreign goods from the Tamu market through Moreh. Apart from the legal trade, there is also an enormous presence of illegal imports to India from the Tamu market, including drugs, weapons and ammunition, and other contraband goods apart from non-licensed versions of regular goods. It also remains a fact that the population in the Moreh side prefers goods and commodities from the Tamu market (Myanmar) rather than those from India, due to the high disparity in the pricing of the goods. Goods and products sold in India cost nearly more than double the price compared to goods from Tamu. This difference in pricing may be accounted to the taxes and high production costs on the Indian side, but the relatively cheaper rate of Myanmarese goods can be attributed to the dominant influence of Chinese-made goods in the Tamu market. Tamu market has substantial Chinese dominance, with most of its goods emanating from China and Thailand.
With the amount of transportation and mobility charges high to transport goods from major towns like Imphal to interior districts of Tengnoupal and Chandel, the natives of both the districts are highly dependent on the Moreh-Tamu markets more than Imphal and other places. The insurgency also has played a vital role in aggravating the local dependence on Myamanrese markets over the years. Any kind of developmental activity in the region could proceed only by paying nearly 5-6% of the total project cost to insurgent groups dominant in the respective districts of Manipur. Due to such uphill challenges, authorities tend to be demotivated in carrying out development projects, forcing the natives to find alternate ways.
The India-Myanmar border can be considered comparatively less complex than India’s borders with some of its other neighbors like China or Pakistan. However, the amount of security threat is high, especially in the Tengnoupal district which includes Moreh, and adjacently lying Chandel district. Insurgent and terrorist organizations misuse the porosity and relaxation of the Moreh-Tamu border for smuggling purposes and their reliance on this passage regional security risks in the region. It can be noticed that under cover of trade, this border region becomes the entry point of opium from the “Golden Triangle” region of Southeast Asia to India. With Myanmar being the second-largest opium producer globally, Moreh has become the most crucial route for entry of narcotics into Manipur. From Moreh, drugs are smuggled to Imphal and from there to Kohima via National Highway-2. The Myanmarese smugglers also use the trade route for the trafficking of precursor chemicals such as ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine as well as codeine-based medicinal preparations from India to Myanmar.
There was an incredible amount of usage of modern weapons by insurgents in the Chandel attack of 2015. They used Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG launchers) and other firearms along with improvised explosive devices (IED), during the attack. It is evident that these smuggled narcotics have been the source of income for insurgents and terrorists operating around the region. Extremist Insurgent Organizations like the United Liberation Front of Western Southeast Asia (UNFLW) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur feeds on this narcotic trade to grow and nurture its activities. The Valley Based Insurgent Groups (VBIGs), including the People’s Liberation Army, has their activities mainly in the eastern border districts and predominantly use Tengnoupal and Kamjong for their supplies.
In this context, the attack on the Assam Rifles convoy on 13 November 2021, in the Churachandpur district of Manipur can also be connected to Moreh – Tamu region. Although the Myanmar army has also been cooperative with India towards anti-insurgency operations and security in the border regions, the inability of government agencies to regulate the border passage and lack of strong surveillance remains a concern. Any fencing or travel restriction in the region has only created protests and altercations between the natives and authorities.
The Moreh-Tamu corridor is indeed important for India and Myanmar in terms of both commercial trade and ethnic linkage. Nevertheless, the need to regulate the border activities and introduce strict surveillance on the border has reached criticality, especially after the political instability within Myanmar and the supposed role of VBIGs in it. The attack on Assam Rifles only reinforces this rather unpleasant necessity.
This article appeared in The North East Chronicle (Volume 1, Issue 1, October-December 2021), a quarterly newsletter on India’s North East, published by the North East Studies Centre of the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are personal.
Anirudh Prem is a Postgraduate student at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
