Proliferation of small arms from China and other neighbouring countries, a porous international border, and presence of camps of different rebel groups inside Myanmar have been a major headache for the Army in the Northeast for the past few years.

The Army does not have direct evidence about the involvement of any Chinese agency in the trans-border arms transactions, but the recovery of a number of Chinese weapons from different rebel groups in the region in the past few years has indicated that China has an indirect role in the small arms bazaar in the region. “Though we do not have any evidence of the involvement of official agencies of China in the arms deals, there definitely exists a clandestine Chinese arms market which sells arms to different rebel groups of the Northeast,” said Lt Gen N K Singh, GOC of the Army’s 3 Corps, headquartered at Rangapahar near here.

Lt Gen Singh said the clandestine arms market was very active near the notorious Golden Triangle, with Northern Myanmar remaining the hotspot for both buyers and sellers. “Till sometime back, hundreds of such arms were recovered in the region. But with increased checks, we have considerably reduced the pool of arms available to different militant groups,” he added.

In 2006 and 2007, security agencies had seized nearly 4,000 small arms and light weapons in the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir, nearly half of which were made in China. A March 2008 report of the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons (UNPoA) had said that about 46,000 illegal weapons were seized in the Northeast and J&K in between 1990 and 2008.

... contd.