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appeal from Chin National Council



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