Mizos blame Chins for HRW report

New Delhi (Mizzima) – A social organization in India’s northeastern state of Mizoram has demanded an apology from the Chin community living in the state over a report published by Human Rights Watch.

The Young Mizo Association (YMA), a social organization in Mizoram state, on Tuesday, at a meeting with at least 23 Chin organizations demanded they refute a human rights report on Mizo’s treatment of Chin published by HRW.

A Chin representative, who attended the meeting, told Mizzima that the Central YMA was enraged over the HRW’s accusation that Mizo’s have ill-treated the Chin, who fled their homes in Burma.

J H Zoremthanga, President of CYMA, in the meeting, accused the Chin leaders of misinforming the HRW on YMA’s treatment of the Chin community, living in the state.

“He [Zoremthanga] said that HRW's report on YMA and Mizo authorities is not true and is exaggerated,” said the representative adding, “He asked us to apologize for the report.”

Human Rights Watch, in its report “We are like forgotten people”, released in January said Chin people living in western Burma have been silently suffering under the military junta’s rule and systematic persecutions have led several thousands to flee to neighbouring countries, particularly to India’s northeastern State of Mizoram.

The report also said Chin people are further faced with hostile treatment by host communities in India including Mizoram state. Particularly mentioning the YMA, the report said, Chin people are subject to torture and at times forcibly evicted by the YMA.

“Chin in Mizoram face security abuses, severe discrimination, religious repression, and lack of jobs, housing, and affordable education,” the report said.

HRW further said local Mizo landlords are reluctant to rent out houses to or overcharge Chins in Mizoram as they do not have official status and documents.

Moreover, the report said local authorities had come in the way of the Chin community having their own place of worship.

"The YMA announced that the Chin should not worship in separate churches. They said if we want to stay in Mizoram, we should attend Mizo churches," HRW quoted a Chin as saying.

But the CYMA denied HRW’s report saying they were allegations to damage the Mizo’s benevolent attitude towards their Chin cousins.

Zoremthanga, during the meeting, held in Aizawl, capital of Mizoram, urged leaders of the 23 Chin political, social, religious, human rights and women’s organizations to condemn the report and to write letters of complaint to HRW that their report was based on unfounded and biased information.

"He urged the Chin community leaders to complain to HRW for the report," a Chin representative said. He added that the tone indicated that there could be repercussions if the Chin leaders fail to condemn the report.

Chin state in western Burma and India’s Mizoram state share a porous border of about 400 kilometers. Traditionally, the Chin and Mizos regard each other as ancestral cousins and there has been constant interaction between the two communities despite international boundaries separating them.

However, since 1988, the number of Chin people arriving in Mizoram state has swelled greatly and according to a few NGOs there are at least 60,000 Chin people living in various parts of Mizoram.

Occasional disputes among the Chin and Mizo have erupted in the past and in 2003, following an alleged rape of a Mizo teenaged girl by a Chin man, the YMA ordered evictions of the Chin from the state.

Despite the disputes, the Mizo people continued allowing the Burmese community, particularly the Chin, to remain in the state.

And the Mizos were the first community in India to have staged a mass rally in support of the monk-led protest in Burma in September 2007 and condemned the Burmese junta for its brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators.