Hope springs eternal for Chin refugees in Mizoram (India)

Nava Thakuria, a freelance journalist based in Guwahati, Assam India reported on the plight of Chin refugees in India, based on the story of one girl.

Amid worldwide condemnation of Myanmar’s military junta, a 30-year-old Chin refugee in Mizoram, Aye Aye Win (name changed) hopes to return to her homeland one day. Myanmar’s present rulers, a group of generals collectively known as the State Peace and Development Council, are being identified as the worst human rights violators and have come under increased flak from international communities for further extending the detention of pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi last May.

The UN, European Union, the USA and many other democratic countries have been demanding Suu Kyi’s release. Under house arrest since May 2003, the Nobel laureate has, in fact, been under detention for a decade now.

Aye Aye Win narrated the pathetic story of how she lived in Myanmar. One winter evening she crossed the Indo-Myanmarese border and entered Mizoram to escape harassment by Myanmarese military informers. Carrying a small bag, she left Thantlang town in Chin province, northwest Myanmar, and crossed over to Champhai in Mizoram. Myanmarese junta personnel were after her because she was actively involved in the pro-democracy movement led by Suu Kyi.

A student leader, Aye Aye Win can now relax in Mizoram since the junta cannot reach her. Moreover, the Chins and Mizos share a common physical appearance and have the same food habits and linguistic accent. So she lived in peace with some security, though she missed her parents and brothers. She began as an unskilled daily wage earner in the Champhai area and later moved to Aizawl in search of a better living.

All was going smoothly until, on 17 July 2003, a Myanmarese refugee allegedly molested a minor Mizo girl. So Mizo youths campaigned against refugees living in Mizoram and, in the next few weeks, about 1,000 Chin refugees were deported from Aizawl. Aye Aye Win took shelter in the jungles along the border. There was no drinking water, sanitation and health care facilities and she lived in fear of deportation. But despite these trials and tribulations, she was determined to stay on in India because going back home would mean certain punishment.

Aye Aye Win is one of 40,000 Chin refugees in Mizoram, who are struggling for survival. They arrived in groups during the 1988 uprising against Myanmar’s dictators.

The pro-democratic movement resulted in a landslide victory for the San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy in the 1990 general elections, but the military junta refused to hand over power to the elected representatives. Rather, it launched an oppressive onslaught. Constant fear of torture, rape, imprisonment and forced labour prompted a large number of people to leave Myanmar over the years. Most of the activists from Chin state crossed over for safety. For the Christian Chin people, Mizoram was the ideal choice, since both communities share distinctive similarities.

(Picture : Map showing Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram and Northeast states)

Once the situation returned to normal, Aye Aye Win and many others who had fled after the rape incident returned to Aizawl. Today she works as a maid for a Mizo family. Though she survives on her earnings, life continues to be a daily struggle. “I cannot think of getting married at this moment. It is so uncertain here,” she said.

Curiously, the Centre has no refugee policy and they come under the Foreigners Act that hardly differentiates between illegal immigrants and refugees. Hence all the Chin refugees in Mizoram, including Aye Aye Win, are deprived of any kind of legal patronage. At the same time, they are being denied international legal protections under the Convention Concerning the Status of Refugees, as the Central government is still reluctant to allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to visit Mizoram and other North-east states.

The UNHCR Delhi office otherwise takes care of nearly 22,000 refugees in India and they include Afghans, Iranians, Somalis, Sudanese and Myanmarese.

“At present, around 1,800 Myanmarese refugees and asylum-seekers live in New Delhi. Most of them are recognised by the UNHCR as refugees. But the rehabilitation of Myanmarse refugees in India has been a major UNHCR failure,” alleged Soe Myint, a Myanmarese journalist in exile.

He also argued that the Indian attitude towards Myanmar was characterised by paradox. “Indian civil society and media sympathise with Aung San Suu Kyi, who lived and studied there when her mother was the first Burmese ambassador to New Delhi in the 1960s. But in the past decade or so, the position of the Indian government has not reflected this support. Successive governments after 1994 have engaged with the generals, who continue to ruthlessly suppress Myanmarese democratic aspirations,” Soe Myint asserted.
With an eye on the growing international pressure to restore democracy in Myanmar, Aye Aye Win expects the SPDC regime to collapse one day and soon. She can then go back, join her family and start a new life there. “I will prefer to settle down in Yangon,” she said with a smile in her eyes.

(The author is a Guwahati-based freelance journalist.)

Source: The Statesman

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