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“We Are Like Forgotten People” RIGHTS the Chin People of Burma: Unsafe in Burma, Unprotected in India WATCH

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“We Are Like Forgotten People” RIGHTS the Chin People of Burma: Unsafe in Burma, Unprotected in India WATCH Burma HUMAN “We Are Like Forgotten People” RIGHTS The Chin People of Burma: Unsafe in Burma, Unprotected in India WATCH “We Are Like Forgotten People” The Chin People of Burma: Unsafe in Burma, Unprotected in India Copyright © 2009 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 2-56432-426-5 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: +1 212 290 4700, Fax: +1 212 736 1300 [email protected] Poststraße 4-5 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 2593 06-10, Fax: +49 30 2593 0629 [email protected] Avenue des Gaulois, 7 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: + 32 (2) 732 2009, Fax: + 32 (2) 732 0471 [email protected] 64-66 Rue de Lausanne 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791 [email protected] 2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd Floor London N1 9HF, UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800 [email protected] 27 Rue de Lisbonne 75008 Paris, France Tel: +33 (1)43 59 55 35, Fax: +33 (1) 43 59 55 22 [email protected] 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333 [email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org January 2009 2-56432-426-5 “We Are Like Forgotten People” The Chin People of Burma: Unsafe in Burma, Unprotected in India Map of Chin State, Burma, and Mizoram State, India .......................................................... 1 Map of the Original Territory of Ethnic Chin Tribes .............................................................. 2 I. Summary ......................................................................................................................... 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 7 II. Background .................................................................................................................... 9 Brief Political History of the Chin .................................................................................... 9 Political Reform Since 1988 ........................................................................................... 11 Chin Resistance and the Chin National Front (CNF) ........................................................ 13 Chin Migration to Mizoram ............................................................................................ 16 Economic Conditions in Chin State ................................................................................ 19 Militarization of Chin State ........................................................................................... 22 III. Abuses Committed by the Tatmadaw (Burmese Army) .................................................. 25 Extrajudicial Killings ..................................................................................................... 26 Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, and Torture.......................................................................... 27 Forced Labor ................................................................................................................. 38 Freedom of Association and Assembly .......................................................................... 45 Religious Repression .................................................................................................... 48 Restrictions on Movement ............................................................................................. 52 Forced Military Trainings and Conscription .................................................................... 54 Extortion and Confiscation of Personal Property ............................................................ 57 Sexual Harassment and Violence ................................................................................. 59 IV. Abuses Committed by Ethnic Opposition Groups ......................................................... 61 V. Life for Chin in Mizoram ................................................................................................ 64 Arbitrary Arrests and Forced Returns ............................................................................. 65 Discrimination .............................................................................................................. 69 Religious Repression ..................................................................................................... 73 Livelihood ..................................................................................................................... 75 VI. India’s Legal Obligations: A Need for Protection .......................................................... 77 VII. Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 82 To Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council ............................................. 82 To the Chin National Front (CNF) and the Chin National Army (CNA): ............................. 83 To the Government of India: ......................................................................................... 83 To the State Government of Mizoram: ........................................................................... 84 To the UNHCR: .............................................................................................................. 84 To ASEAN, the US, EU member states, the EU, Australia, Canada, Japan, and Other Concerned States: ........................................................................................................ 84 VIII. Appendix ................................................................................................................... 86 Glossary ........................................................................................................................... 91 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 93 Map of Chin State, Burma, and Mizoram State, India © Human Rights Watch 2009 1 Human Rights Watch January 2009 Map of the Original Territory of Ethnic Chin Tribes © 2003 Lian H. Sakhong, In Search of Chin Identity: A Study in Religion, Politics and Ethnic Identity in Burma (Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies). “We Are Like Forgotten People” 2 I. Summary [The military intelligence officers] tied my hands together and hung me from the ceiling. They used sticks to beat me. They had a tub of water and they covered my face with a cloth and would dunk my head under the water until I fell unconscious. When I regained consciousness, they would do it again. For the entire week, they didn’t give me any water for drinking. I was so thirsty so I told them I wanted to use the toilet. When I got to the toilet I drank the toilet water. —Former Chin political prisoner from Hakha township, Chin State, Burma The army has called me many times to porter, more than 10 times. When I cannot carry their bags, they beat me. [The soldiers] get angry and slap us and kick us. They tell us to go faster. When I tried to refuse, they beat me. They said, ‘You are living under our authority. You have no choice. You must do what we say.’ —Chin woman from Thantlang township, Chin State, Burma We need protection. We can be deported back at any time by the Mizoram government or the YMA [Young Mizo Association]. Most of us will be killed or permanently jailed if we are deported to Burma. We are refugees, but we are not recognized as such. —Chin refugee leader living in Lunglei, Mizoram, India On the morning of October 20, 2007, L.H.L., a 28-year-old Chin university student, was leaving his village in Thantlang township to pay his exam fees at Kalaymyo University when Tatmadaw (Burmese Army) soldiers stopped him and ordered him to carry their rice rations to the next village, a three-hour journey by foot. When L.H.L. refused, the soldiers beat him and forced him to porter their bags of rice. Upon arriving at the village, the soldiers ordered L.H.L. to continue to carry their supplies to an army camp several days away by foot. When L.H.L. refused, the soldiers ordered the local police to arrest him. He spent one week in a police lock-up confined to a small cell and provided with little food. To gain his release, the police forced L.H.L. to pay 300,000 Burmese Kyat (US$255) and sign a statement agreeing to comply with military orders and to refuse any contact with the ethnic opposition under penalty of re-arrest. Before being 3 Human Rights Watch January 2009 released, the police confiscated his national identity card. Without an identity card, L.H.L. could not travel outside his village. No longer able to attend university and living as a de facto prisoner in his village in fear of re-arrest, L.H.L. fled Chin State. Prior to this incident L.H.L. had served as a porter and forced laborer for the military more than 30 times. L.H.L.’s account is one of many accounts from Chin State, Burma, where abuses have led tens of thousands to flee, mostly to India, but also to Malaysia and Thailand. The perpetrators are largely members of the Burmese Army, or Tatmadaw, and other agents of the military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Ethnic communities in Burma have long borne the brunt of abusive military rule, which has prevailed in the country since General Ne Win staged a coup against the democratically elected government in 1962. This report documents ongoing human rights abuses and repression in Burma’s western Chin State, which borders India. The conditions
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