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appeal from Chin National Council
- Subject: appeal from Chin National Council
- From: ncgub@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 11:23:00
ZO CENTER
------------------------------------------------------
5809 Burgundy Street Capitol
Heights, MD 20743
Tel: 301 499 0499
fax: 301 808 0872
HUNGER STRIKE BY CHIN REFUGEE SEEKERS IN FRONT OF
U.N.H.C.R. OFFICE IN NEW DELHI, INDIA
Eighteen people from the Chin State in Burma, who are
seeking REFUGEE STATUS from the UNHCR in New Delhi are on
hunger strike starting yesterday the 14th of November 1995.
Their complaint: processing of their application for refugee
status took too long, and they have waited in New Delhi for
too long, where they have no friends or relatives. Their
money and food have run out. They have been surviving on
rice soup as long as six months. They have no place to
stay.
Among the hunger strikers is over sixty years old Pu (MR.)
Tial Khar, the founder of the Chin National Front.
Many people from the Chin state in Burma fled their homeland
to neighboring Mizoram State in India to escape political
opression, repression, and hardship. Most of them had been
active politically against the military regime in Burma,
some were members of the Chin National Front, the armed
resistance group.
Since last year there is a crack down on illegal foreign
residents in North East India, especially in the Mizoram
State where most of these refugee seekers found shelter.
Many of them had been arrested last year and deported to the
border to Burma.
The Burmese authorities refused to accept them back in Burma
even in their jails and they were forced to return to India.
The UNHCR has no facility in Mizoram and these refugee
status seekers had to travel 4 days by bus and rail to New
Dehli.
This year the Mizoram State government ordered all illegal
foreigners to leave Mizoram by the end of December 1995. At
the end of December all illegal foreign residents of MIzoram
will be rounded up and send to their respective countries.
That is why it is so important for these refugee seekers to
get their applications processed.
Please help.
Sincerely,
Dr. Vum Son
CHIN NATIONAL COUNCIL