Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has said that India should negotiate with military authorities in trouble-torn Myanmar and various ethnic groups there to restore peace in the neighbouring country. India shares over 1,600-km-long international border with Myanmar.
"We have received requests from some quarters of Myanmar that India should broker peace in the country where the military has seized power. This is a golden opportunity for our country to resume talks we have done in the past to restore peace there," Zoramthanga told reporters here soon after he arrived from Delhi on Saturday.
The chief minister said he was sent to Myanmar on a peace mission along with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval a few years ago.Â
Over 30,000 Myanmar nationals have taken shelter in different parts of Mizoram since the military junta seized power in that country in February last year. The refugees, mostly from Chin state, are lodging at relief camps, while some others rented houses and also live with their local relatives.
They are being provided with food and other reliefs by the government, NGOs, churches and village authorities. Many of those who have taken refuge in the state belong to the Chin, also known as the Zo, community. They share the same ancestry and culture as the Mizos of Mizoram.
On Amit Shah's visit to the state, the CM said: "I asked the Union Home Minister to visit Mizoram to inaugurate Assam Rifles headquarters at Zokhawsang. Although he agreed to my request, he is yet to fix the date." The Mizo National Front (MNF) government led by Zoramthanga has been demanding relocation of the Assam Rifles base from the heart of Aizawl to Zokhawsang.
