New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Mizo community in India’s North Eastern state of Mizoram should look at the recent Human Rights Watch report on Chin people’s suffering in military-ruled Burma from a human rights perspective, the HRW said on Friday.
Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia researcher of the US-based Human Rights Watch said the report focuses on the persecutions suffered by the Chin people in Burma and the subsequent difficulties faced in fleeing their homeland and does not aim at creating a misunderstanding between the two communities – Chins and Mizos.
In an interview with Mizzima, Ganguly said Mizo as a community has been known to have provided support to the Chin people, who fled their homeland, but the Indian government - both the Mizoram state and central – fails to protect the rights of the Chin people.
"What we are saying is Chin people are suffering a lot in Burma, that's why they come to Mizoram," said Ganguly adding that the report was detailing how India, as a government, fails to look into the plight of Chin people and does not refer to any group community.
“We do not want any misunderstanding between the Chin and the Mizo as communities,” she added.
Ganguly’s comment came after the Young Mizo Association, an influential social organisation in Mizoram, on Tuesday held a meeting with at least 23 Chin organizations and accused Chin leaders of misinforming the HRW and asked them to refute the report.
HRW in January published a report titled “We are like forgotten people”, detailing the sufferings of the Chin living in western Burma. The report said, the Chins 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 North-eastern State of Mizoram.
The report 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 subjected 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.
But the YMA said, the report is not true and taints the image of the Mizo’s, who have provided support to the Chin people in their state and allowed them to stay.
“YMA felt that Chins who talked to us have disgraced them, though they had helped them. But YMA should take a look from the human rights point of view,” Ganguly said.
She said it is a fact that Chin people receive help from the Mizo people as they flee their home country, but HRW, as a human rights group, had documented the lack of protection by state agencies for any form of violation against the Chin people.
Ganguly said, “No Chin had ever complained to us about the Mizos.”
"Mizo people certainly help Chin people. That's why so many Chin people are living in Mizoram. Chin people also praised the Mizos for having helped them" Ganguly said.
She urged both Mizoram and the Indian government to shelter and provide assistance to Chin refugees, who have no official status and documentations in India.
"It is the responsibility of the Mizoram government and Indian government to provide the refugees with proper facility under international law," she said.
Meanwhile, the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) in Aizawl, capital of Mizoram said, it is preparing to release a statement. However, they refused to give the details of the statement.
While other Chin organisations have so far not reacted to the pressure given by the YMA, Coordinator of the Women’s League of Chinland (WLC) Cheery Zahau, was quoted by Zeenews that she intended to send an open letter to the administrators of HRW website and clarify that the contents of the controversial article in their website was untrue.
The Chin and Mizo people, who are considered ancestral cousins, long have a tradition of interacting and visiting each other’s lands despite of the international boundary separating them.
