By: T. Siamchinthang
Mizoram crisis pertaining to driving away Zofate out of west Zoram is not a surprising incident to the people who have a close observation based on the social stratification that only a few at the top of Mizo society sympathize about the political instabilities with their brothers in Burma.
The understanding about the brotherhood of Zofate who settled down in Zoram, divided by the British later into three fractions of their society is that the general population of Mizo people have no clue whatsoever about their fraternity with their siblings in Burma and Bangladesh. The Mizos consider them as total aliens that brought into open hostility towards their own Zo brethren especially when drugs trafficking and other related crimes increased in Aizawl city along with other districts of west Zoram.
The presupposition and the current incidents led the Mizos to assume that most crimes are caused and committed by the immigrants from Burma which may not be necessarily true if it is verified with the statistic of the central crime investigation of west Zoram.
Drugs trafficking and other related crimes Many drugs in the forms of medicine which are produced in India also heavily smuggled into Burma through Mizoram and Manipur State of India, and many Burmese drug addicts depend upon those Indian pharmaceutical products such as phensidyl which has 10% of Codeine, amphetamines and many others. It is evident that drugs trafficking, crimes are inevitable in both sides since the local authorities are either easily avoided or bribed by the filthy rich-smugglers who are controlling the black market around the Boarder regions. Many drugs are originated in India while other drugs are also come from Burma into India.
Social evils had long been existed in Mizoram of India that the notion that says only immigrants from Burma are the cause of crimes is totally a misperception.
The matters got worse when the bad elements of Burmese immigrants and the bad elements of Mizo native people combined forces to take over those illegal activities in the urban as well as rural areas of Mizoram.
See also below link about Indian drugs smuggled into Burma.
(http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/reg.burma/archives/200107/msg00010.html)This misperception of the general population of Mizo society in Mizoram, in the pre-text of crime prevention, cleansing social evil that are supposed to have come from Zo-Burmese citizens, intriguers driving Zofate out of West Zoram. But, let us not forget the fact that jails and prison cells in mizoram have long been filled with the Mizo native people of India to indicate crimes are not instigated only by the Chin-Burmese immigrants.
Invisible hands
The Indian government had been dealing with Mizoram State for many decades that the central government has no interest in creating another Jamu-Khasmir crisis in north-east India. In the light of this it is much easier for the Indian politicians to stir up the floor of the society of Mizoram for social unrest which will torch and soon after rapidly catching fire to the greater population into self-agitation, infliction and open rebellion by finding scapegoats for all the social evil that are committed within Mizo society in west Zoram. In this way, the Mizo people themselves unconsciously became the invisible hands of the Indian government, to prevent harmony among Zo people that might lead to Zo-reunification in the future. But as long as there are conflicts among the Zo societies within themselves, it is already well taken care of, without any needs of further prevention by the Indian or Burmese government from the possibilities of becoming an independent national but to prevent it on time, similar to that of Jammu and Kashmir, The Tamil of Shrilanka.
At the same time, Burma does not want to have another similar Rohinya case within Chin State, therefore the best way of preventing is driving out 50,000 Chin-immigrants from west Zoram, that are either considered a threat to support underground movement in Chin State or a potentially dangerous elements to both sides of the governments politically in the future, if Zo-reunification movement is actually to be successful.
It is politically motivated as Indian government and Burmese government are behind this crisis, as much as it is socially motivated. India invested several billion dollars for road construction, building bridges in Burma for future economy prosperity particularly in north east India. Both the governments also said to have agreed upon helping one another in solving rebel movements of north east India boarder territories to Burma.
Misconception on crimes Norway a developed country, with its information highway in the society, despite easy excessive information, the general population of high percentage have tendency to believe that crimes are committed mostly by the immigrants, since specific information on such issues on crime rate is not shared to the general population on the popular media network like TV, newspaper, magazines on daily base. But the studies of crime survey showed differently that this notion is totally wrong. Most crimes are committed by the Norwegians while only small and insignificant numbers of crime are committed by the immigrants in Norway.
The notion of all the crimes are committed by the foreigners is a very common but a totally wrong concept not only in Mizoram but also in every parts of the world especially if there is no law and order where neither statistics nor social researches are available to prove it otherwise to the general population. The alleged criminal is innocent until he is proved guilty by the court of law. There are justice department, legal departments, police, and courts to handle crimes and determine the guilty party correctly after a proper investigation of the crimes provided legal representation should be given to all cases. The mob should never be allowed to handle the matter into its own hand with the intention of taking vengeance without any chances of conducting investigation legally.
Jungle law
Modern Mizo society unfortunately turned back into its primitive form of society following the jungle law where the strong oppressed the downtrodden and the weak by force, no matters if it is right or wrong. There are signs today that humanity is suffering setbacks because the law of the jungle is being practised where the strong feel that they have a right to impose their will against the weak.
Is it a Christian way of life?
Mizoram, while the Mizo took pride of their Christianity claiming to be 100% Christian in Mizoram their action such as this, which is a racially motivated movement that could neither be justifiable biblically nor morally.
What happened to the golden rule of the Bible, "treat others as you want them to treat you. Be good to strangers, love your neighbor as yourselves, be merciful, etc, etc."
It is a heathen nature like action, which is more comparable to the Nazis actions against the Israelites during the Second World War or the ethnic cleansing movement of the former Yugoslavia where tens of thousands of people got massacred because of racialism. Worse to that Mizo and Zomi are the same ethnic people who are the direct descendents of the same ancestor. Only Zoram happened to be divided by three international boundaries that made the ignorant classes of the Mizo society blind. The occupation of Zo territories by Zo people can be easily traced back into many centuries before the British divided us into three sections that made us aliens to our own people who live under another country.
Public awareness should be a priority if there should be a social reformation to prevent mob agitation in the future that stirs up the general population into hostility. The innocent people should not suffer on the ground that they are immigrants, or on the ground that some immigrants committed crimes.
Violation of penal code:
Detaining along with deportation and forceful eviction of Chin-Burmese immigrants which are currently held at various places in Mizoram is otally illegal. Those immigrants have so far not been produced before any judge or a magistrate which is a requirement under the Foreigner's Act, which these persons are supposed to have violated. They are not given any legal representation which by itself is a direct violation of the law of the Indian Supreme Court.
Deportation by force without a judicial process is a violation of Indianconstitution as well as case law established by Indian Supreme court. Under the Constitution of India, Indian state is bound to protect the "rightto life" of all persons within its territory. The Indian Supreme Court in the past has prevented such forcible eviction on the grounds that the repatriation to hostile situation might jeopardise the right to life ofthe persons being expelled.
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