Manipur blockade cuts trade at Sagaing border market

Friday, 17 September 2010 01:07 Khaing Kyaw Mya

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The 72-hour blockade by students’ organisations of a national highway in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur since Tuesday evening has all but crippled Namphalong market, across the border in Burma.

The All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU) Chandel District Committee, the Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO) and Moreh Government Higher Secondary School students, demanding a principal for the school, are blockading National Highway 39 between state capital Imphal and the Indo-Burmese border town of Moreh. The post has been vacant for the year since the last head was transferred.

The market is in Tamu Township, Sagaing Division, in northwestern Burma.

The blockade, called a bandh in India, came after state Education Minister L. Jayanta Kumar Singh reneged on a promise made last month to students at AMSU headquarters that a new principal would be appointed.

“The protesters are demanding that a new principal be sent by the Manipur government,” Moreh resident Ngai Nagi said.

The blockade would be a precursor to intense agitation unless the government was ready to resolve the dispute, another resident said.

The strife has had a major financial impact on trade at the now almost deserted Namphalong International Market near border gate No. 2, a market official said on condition of anonymity.

“Because of the blockade, sales have plummeted … Only local people from Tamu are visiting,” the official said.

A bedding goods vendor told Mizzima her sales had dropped more than two thirds compared to the past few weeks and that there were no buyers from Manipur. She added that there were no vehicles arriving from Imphal.

“Before the blockade we could sell at least 10,000 rupees (US$214) worth of goods [a day] but now I’m hardly making 2,000 to 3000 rupees a day. We’ll find it difficult to pay shop rents and taxes,” she said.

The Indo-Burmese border trade agreement between the military regime and India was signed on January 21, 1994 to boost bilateral commerce.

Its more than 120 shops have mostly Burmese and Chinese goods for sale and vegetables, seasonal fruits and Burmese handicrafts are also available.

“[But] no vehicles mean no customers from Imphal. This has hit sales,” another merchant said. “Most customers are from Imphal and they buy Chinese goods.”

India is one of Burma’s major trading partners and one of the largest markets for its goods, according to the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.

“Bilateral trade between … [the neighbours] has grown more than 80 times in the last 28 years,” an institute report said in January.

From US$12.4 million in 1980-81, Indo-Burmese trade grew steadily, to reach a level of US$995 million in 2007-08, the report said.

After a significant increase in border trade, India on May 12 added 18 categories to the list of permitted commodities for import and export, including bicycle parts, life-saving drugs, fertilizers, spices, incense sticks, salt and stainless-steel utensils.

India shares a 1,020-mile (1,543-kilometre) border with Burma, separating Burma’s Arakan, Chin, and Kachin states and Sagaing Division from India’s northeastern Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram states.