CHRO News (r)

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100 Civilian men detained in the Church

On 26 June 1999 a Burmese soldier was disappeared from a patrolling army
unit while enroute to Tlangpi village from Lung Ding village of Thantlang
Township, Chin State. The disappeared soldier was among the 34 soldiers from
Light Infantry Battalion 266 led by 2nd Lieutenant Kyaw Soe, based at
Lungler army camp located north of Than Tlang town near the Indian border.
The soldier who was extremely exhausted due to hunger was left behind on a
half way during the patrolling. Upon noticing the disappearance on arrival
of the destination village, the commander 2nd Lt. Kyaw Soe ordered a section
of army to search for the lost soldier overnight.

However, instead of searching for the soldier, the assigned soldiers met on 
the way with
smugglers who herded cattle to be sold in Mizoram State of India and
extorted Kyats 50000 from them. On the next day the commander vainly headed
for Farrawn village to find the soldier. They returned to Tlangpi and
ordered the villagers to find the soldier. However, the attempt too proved
to be futile. They returned to Lungler camp to report the matter to Captain
Phyu Win, 266 Second Battalion Commander & temporary Camp Commander who just
arrived to the camp ahead of him. Under the Command of Captain Phyu Win the
soldiers again immediately went back to Tlangpi village.

On 1 July 1999 the Captain forcibly ordered a total of more than 100
villagers, 40 villagers each from Lung Ding and Tlangpi villages, members of
Village PDC of Tah Tlang village and another 15 villagers from the same
village to search for the lost soldier. Some villagers who were afraid of
being forced to find the soldier had to go on hiding in the farm. Worried
that those already taken to search the soldier will escape, the soldier kept
them in a Church in Tlangpi and strictly guarded them outside. The arrested
villagers had to sleep without blankets and had to be fed by Tlangpi
villagers. Despair of the search the Captain finally ordered his inferiors
to arrest every male in the village indiscriminately at midnight to clear
trees and bushes around the cart way linking Lung Ding-Tlangpi-Farrawn. The
villagers however dared not defy the order. The lost soldier is still yet to
be found and the villagers are facing immense difficulty as the incident
coincided with the time of working in their own farms by which the make
their living.

As this forced labor badly affected the farm work of the
villagers they are likely to face a new wave of crop shortage within the

next years. The 100 arrested villagers are still in the army detention.


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