A 52-year-old woman named Mya Kyay Mon was arrested with an expired Norwegian passport by Manipur police on 23 October 2023 from Khwairamband Keithel market in Imphal city of India and later was identified as a Myanmar-based armed militant against the Myanmar government in Chin state region.
According to Imphal Times, Mya Kyay Mon was found hanging around the market in a suspicious manner. Other than her Norwegian passport which expired on 16 February 2022, she could not provide any valid documents for staying in Manipur nor communicate the language. She has currently been detained at Foreigners Detention Centre, Sajiwa since 25 October 2023.
The newspaper further reported that the woman was earlier detained by a team of 20th Assam Rifles at Khudengthabi Check Post along the Imphal-Moreh Road.
Her arrest was made while Manipur was reeling under violent ethnic clashes between the Meiteis and Kukis in May of 2023. The violence in Manipur was caused by illegal migrants, claimed Union Home Minister Amit Shah, previously. While Chief Minister N. Biren Singh of the Central Security agencies had also stated that Myanmar and Bangladesh-based militants are involved in the violence burning Manipur.
Imphal Times added, it learned that Mya Kyay Mon had been staying in Imphal and other areas including a Shelter Home run by an NGO, about three months back before the violence started in May.
This information makes some connection to explanations from S. Radhapiyari, Secretary of Environment and Economic Management Association (EEMA) who runs the NGO shelter home, saying that Mya Kyay Mon was brought to the home in February 2023.
In response to the case, the Human Rights Alert (HRA) issued a document on Monday, 30 October 2023, explaining that it took up Mya Kyay Mon’s case as “woman in distress case” and had no knowledge of her “antecedents or background” or “prior contact” with her.
The case of the Norwegian citizen of Myanmar origin was brought to HRA attention by the Myanmar language instructor of the Center for Myanmar Studies of Manipur University back in 2022.
At the time, she was already detained in the Imphal Central Jail and “we do not know her before, nor do we have any prior contact with her,” said HRA in the released document.
HRA informed the relevant section of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi. Thereafter, she was issued a fresh Norwegian Passport as her old passport had expired, citing The Frontier Manipur.
HRA said:
“Upon her release on bail and not having a place to stay, she contacted us for help. We assisted her to stay in a women’s home run by an NGO, pending her trial in the court. In the wake of the ethnic unrest in Manipur and when the NGO expressed their discomfort in keeping her, we organized an air ticket for her to go out of the state. We have been informed that she was summoned by the court to appear in her pending trial in Manipur,…”
“HRA only provided legal aid and humanitarian services when requested by a woman in distress as per our mandate as an organization defending human rights for all,” it added.
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