Why is Bangladesh driving Kuki refugees into Mizoram?
Mizoram government officials on Monday said the state is preparing for influx of more refugees from Bangladesh in the coming weeks, after the state Cabinet on November 20 gave the nod to providing food and shelter to Kuki-Chin-Mizo refugees who had crossed the international border the night before, to enter the state.
Calling them “asylum seekers”, senior Mizoram government officials said 272 members of the Bawm tribe, including women and children, had crossed the border at Lawngtlai—at the tri-junction of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar—on the night of November 18.
Explained |Chin-Kuki-Mizo refugees pour into Mizoram: What’s the new armed conflict in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts?
The refugee influx began after clashes broke out between the Kuki-Chin National Army, the armed wing of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), and Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion, in the Bandarban region of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), an area populated by the Bawm tribe. The refugees had fled to escape being caught in the crossfire, the officials said.
“They have now been shifted to Parva III village and put up in government schools and community halls there. Residents of neighbouring villages, civil society and the district administration have all stepped up to extend welfare to the refugees,” said a senior Mizoram official, adding, “They need food, proper shelter, healthcare and all essential amenities. We are figuring out how to ensure that they receive everything they need. We have written to the disaster management authority for assistance to manage the situation. Based on information we have, we expect there will be more asylum seekers arriving in Mizoram from Bangladesh during the coming week.
This is the second influx of refugees into Mizoram from a neighbouring country, after an earlier exodus of refugees, also of Kuki-Chin ethnicity, from Myanmar last year, in the wake of the coup by the military junta in Myanmar, and the resulting conflict between the junta and various resistance groups.
“There were at one point 30,000 Myanmarese refugees in Mizoram—but this number keeps fluctuating. When the conflict eases in Myanmar, they go back, but when it resumes, they return. These refugees have now spread out to all districts of the state, so the majority don’t live in shelters any more, but with relatives, or even by renting homes themselves. Most of them are now working in Mizoram, several of them in construction,” said an official.
But the fresh arrival of Kuki-Chin refugees—this time from Bangladesh—will pose a problem of assimilation and amenities for the state government. Politically, the ruling party of Mizoram, the Mizo National Front, supports providing shelter to refugees from both Myanmar and Bangladesh, as they belong to the same Kuki-Chin-Mizo ethnicity. Arising out of the Mizo National Famine Front (MNFF), an armed group that conducted an uprising against the Indian government between the 1960s and 1980s, including underground activities, MNFF leaders and cadres would often seek sanctuary in the Kuki-Chin dominated areas of both neighbouring countries.
“The KNF is also called the Bawm party, and they are our Bawm brothers. When many of the MNF leaders were underground for 20 years, they sought shelter in the regions and with these people. So, we will help them in whatever way we can,” said former Lok Sabha MP and MNF vice-president, Vanlalzawma.
Last year, Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga wrote to Prime Minister Modi, saying India “cannot turn a blind eye” to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Myanmar. Opposing the Centre’s order to security forces, to stop the influx of refugees from Myanmar and to deport those who had arrived, Zoramthanga had urged the Centre to give them asylum. In September this year, the CM met Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the refugee crisis, among other things.
In the CHT, one of the remotest and poorest regions of Bangladesh, the Kuki-Chin tribes form only 60-70,000 of the 1.8 million population. An erstwhile tribal-dominated area, the demographic of the hills has changed over the years. Whereas in 1947, Bengali speakers made up barely 2 per cent of the population, they now comprise 50 per cent of the population of CHT now, say Bangladeshi analysts, adding that the change has pushed the tribal populations to the margins.
But while the CHT conflict between the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (JSS) or the United People’s Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts—which was dominated by Chakmas, and the Bangladeshi security forces, raged through the 1970s up to 1997—when a peace agreement was signed, the emergence of the KNF is a recent phenomenon. Bangladeshi analysts say the organisation, which is fighting for autonomy, was only set up earlier this year, and has largely been dismissed by the Bangladesh government and its security forces.
Ostensibly a reaction to the dominant Chakmas of the region, who number half-a-million in the CHT, the KNF came under the spotlight last month, when the Bangladeshi Army alleged that it had provided support and training to 50 members an extremist Islamist group—the Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya. Last month, Bangladesh’s RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) announced that it had arrested 10 militants—seven belonging to the Islamist organisation, and three of the KNF.
The KNF itself has claimed that 200-300 of its cadres have been trained by the Kachin Independence Army—an armed group operating in northern Myanmar, particularly the Kachin state, and another Myanmar based armed group—the Chin National Army. Trained and armed, the KNF is also believed to have defeated the JSS in a recent conflict, in which the JSS suffered severe losses.
The Bangladesh forces launched a month-long operation to root out the KNF from the region. In a press meet last week, the Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO), a Mizoram-based association fighting for the re-unification of Kuki-Chin-Mizo tribes across India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, had alleged that the operations were being carried out by the Bangladesh Army with the help of the Myanmar-based Arakan Army—an armed paramilitary that controls Rakhine state in Myanmar. What makes the claim interesting is that it was Rakhine, the home of the Rohingyas, where the genocide of Myanmar’s Muslim community took place. The Rohingya refugees have since been living in refugee camps across Bangladesh. If Bangladesh wants to return these refugees to Myanmar, it would need the cooperation of the Arakan Army, which now exercises near complete control over the Rakhine state.
