Kinship across border: How Nagas helped their Myanmar brethren

Noklak: February marked the second anniversary of the Myanmar coup but on February 2, 2023, residents of Chiu Village, also known as Solo, a Myanmar Naga settlement adjacent to the Indian border in Noklak district of Nagaland were not thinking about any protests. Instead, they watched as a fire caused by a solar panel malfunction gutted over 70 houses and a Morung.

The village, under the Lahe Township in the Naga Self-Administered Zone (NSAZ) of Myanmar, has about 200 homes and is inhabited by Khiamniungan Nagas, a trans-border Naga community settled on the contiguous hills of India and Myanmar.

The Chui Village is home to Khiamniungan Nagas, a transborder Naga community settled on the contiguous hills of India and Myanmar.

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W. Lachu Lam, the honorary secretary of the Indian Red Cross Society, Noklak district branch, who was one of the first responders, said, “Indian Red Cross Society, Nagaland with its Noklak district branch, had visited the village devastated by the unfortunate incident on February 5 to assess the situation and provide humanitarian aid to the people of Chiu village.”

This was not his first time responding to fire incidents in the village. In another instance of fire in the same village in 2017, he along with other volunteers of the Indian Red Cross Society went to distribute relief materials to the villagers. “Even though we are volunteering for the Indian Red Cross society, we do help out our brothers on the other side of the border in times of crisis,” he added, alluding to the kinship ties among the Khiamniungan people divided by the border.

The difference between 2017 and 2023, of course, is the military coup of 2021.

W. Lachu Lam, the honorary secretary of the Indian Red Cross Society, Noklak district said that they do help their brothers on other side of the border in times of crisis

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Nagas without borders

Ever since the coup, we have reported several stories of transnational community solidarity, but almost all of it has focused on the Mizoram side. However, the Nagaland side of the border has not been far behind in helping their brethren on the Myanmar side. As soon as the news about the fire started doing the rounds, Naga tribal bodies, churches and civil society organisations rushed to the village to assist the devastated villagers rendered homeless to brave the winter chill.

A statement released by the Global Naga Forum, a forum for Nagas across borders, urged the Naga people to donate in cash and kind to their kin affected by the fire at Chiu village in Myanmar.

“They are our kin. We are the same people speaking the same language and we come to each other’s aid in times of hardship in whatever ways we can,” said Khungo, the president of the Khiamniungan Tribal Council in Noklak.

Khiamniungan apex bodies viz. Khiamniungan Tribal Council, Khiamniungan Menyiu Hoikam and Khiamniungan Students’ Union visited the village in the aftermath of the tragic incident. “We had donated sacks of rice, blankets, Rs 15,000 and other essential goods to the village council chairman to be distributed among the villagers,” he added.

The Global Naga Forum urged the Naga people to donate in cash and kind to their kin affected by the fire at Chiu village in Myanmar.

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At the state’s margins

It takes several hours to drive up the winding roads to the villages located on the Indian border from Lahe township, the headquarters of the Naga Self-Administered Zone in the Sagaing Division of Myanmar. These villages on the western frontier of Myanmar are not connected via proper road networks and power grids and lack even the most basic healthcare facilities. People from these villages tend to cross over to the nearest Indian towns to access healthcare and education and to procure essential commodities.

“Migration for education to the Indian Nagaland is commonplace among the Nagas on the Burmese side. The medium of instruction in the schools here is Burmese and only caters to students below class 6,” stated a pastor from a nearby village who chose to remain anonymous.

“The border is a demarcation between the two countries and not between the Naga people. We continue to remain connected,” he added.

The Nagaland side of the border has not been far behind in helping their brethren on the Myanmar side

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The region, like most of Myanmar, has been impacted by the coup. While the NSAZ has remained relatively peaceful, the military Junta, overstretched fighting its own countrymen across Myanmar, has little room for administrative attention to the remote countryside.

N. Ngansa, the president of the Naga Students’ Organisation, Myanmar (NSO) told EastMojo that the incident has its root in the perennial neglect of the Burmese government. Most houses in the village are thatch houses which can easily catch fire in the event of a solar plate malfunction.

“People are opting for solar plates in the absence of electricity without proper knowledge of the dangers associated with it,” he said. The NSO conducts outreach programs on natural hazards and fire safety, but incidents like this wait to happen, especially in these areas where the state’s administrative and material support never manages to reach, he added.