INDIA AND NEPAL TO TEST BORDER CONTROLS

UNCLAS NEW DELHI 005814

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PTER PGOV PBTS IN NP
SUBJECT: INDIA AND NEPAL TO TEST BORDER CONTROLS


1. (SBU) Summary: India and Nepal have agreed to a pilot
program to check documents at only one border crossing as an
experiment in increasing security along the 1,750 km open
border. MEA officials downplayed the significance of the
decision with us, pointing out that any substantial control
over movement across the border would take years to effect.
However, the open Nepal border is an increasing concern to
security forces who worry that Indian and Nepal-based Maoists
and naxalites have been assisting each other and that
Pakistan-supported terrorists have been entering India
through Nepal. Steps toward restricting movement would
increase the GOI's sense of security regarding the Maoist
insurgency next door, but the border is vast and softer than
the US-Canada border. End Summary.

One Border Control Post for Now
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2. (U) The "Indian Express" reported on July 26 that the
MEA, Home Ministry, and Indian security forces had decided to
open a pilot border control post on the main
Lucknow-Kathmandu road at Rupaidiha in Uttar Pradesh state
(corresponding to Nepalganj in Nepal) starting in November.
Although the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship
mandates unrestricted border crossing for Nepalese and Indian
citizens, the governments have the right to inspect documents
to verify that persons crossing the border are in fact of
those nationalities. Citizens of both nations will be able
to present a variety of national, state and local
government-issued identity cards to verify nationality. At
present, no border control posts exist, and persons of any
nationality are able to cross without inspection.


3. (SBU) MEA Under Secretary (Nepal) Manu Mahawar told
Poloff on July 26 that the decision to implement the pilot
program had been in the works for "years," noting that this
project is a joint effort with the Government of Nepal. He
denied that concerns about Maoists had motivated the
decision, but pointed out that the governments of India and
Nepal always had the right to verify the nationality of
travelers, and that this project would serve as a
data-gathering exercise to study the feasibility of an
extension to the whole border. In any case, he noted,
imposing border controls along the entire 1,750 km long
border would take years.

Comment: A Feel-good Measure Only
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4. (SBU) Although this pilot program will not impact any
person's ability to transit the long and open border, the GOI
has been increasingly concerned about the products of Nepal's
instability spilling over into bordering states, manifested
both as Maoist linkages with Indian naxalites and as Nepalese
refugees from the fighting. The suspicion that
Pakistan-supported terrorists also use Nepal as a transit
route to enter India also fuels GOI worries. The government
has already announced plans to double the strength of the
paramilitary force patrolling the border areas in an effort
to interdict Maoist rebels, naxalites and terrorists, and
this latest step, while small, adds to the trend of slowly
transforming the long, open boundary into a bona fide
international border.
BLAKE