A Myanmarese woman weaves traditional cloth on a machine in a factory located on the outskirts of Aizawl, capital of India’s northeastern state of Mizoram on July 31. Tens of thousands of illegal exiles who fled Myanmar’s military regime due to human rights abuses and poverty in the 1980s and settled in India are increasingly dogged by fears of deportation as New Delhi warms to the new government in Myanmar. Nita Bhalla/ALERTNET
By Nita Bhalla
Aizawl, Oct 19 : Ral Hnin does not want to draw attention to himself, mindful that his status as a political dissident from Myanmar is an uneasy subject for his reluctant hosts in this remote hilly fringe of northeast India.
The caginess of the 47-year-old mirrors that of tens of thousands of migrants who, with no legal status, but have been tolerated in the Indian state of Mizoram since they began fleeing military rule across the border in the late 1980s.
But these days, fears of after-dark police raids and deportation increasingly dog the father of two. His community’s growing sense of insecurity was reinforced by Myanmar’s President Thein Sein visiting India last week.
“There have been times when I’ve had to move my wife and children out of our flat and go into hiding for days. There seem to be more crackdowns on people like us,” says Hnin, in a hotel in Mizoram, which shares a 400-km porous border with Myanmar – also known as Burma.
“They (the Indian police) take us in trucks to the border nine hours drive away and leave us there. But we can’t go back to Burma. The government there will kill us or we will die of hunger… so we come back,” adds Hnin, a member of the Chin National Front, a political and armed group fighting for the rights of the Chin, one of Myanmar’s many oppressed ethnic minority groups.
For more than two decades, the Chins have lived an impoverished yet peaceful life in India. They have been largely undisturbed by the Indian government, one of the first to condemn Myanmar for its repression of pro-democracy activists and their icon, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
But Sein’s recent visit has raised concerns New Delhi has put aside worries about human rights in Myanmar, focusing rather on competing with China’s economic influence in the nation which straddles the Bay of Bengal shipping lanes and has large energy reserves.
Many of Mizoram’s Chins now fear being “pushed back” into Myanmar to an uncertain fate.
BLOOD LINKS
Myanmar's links with India stretch back centuries, and both countries became independent from the British Empire within a year of each other after World War Two.
The Chins in India – a mostly Christian population of economic migrants and political refugees – fled their homes due poverty or political and religious persecution at the hands of the Buddhist military regime.
Tens of thousands found refuge in the lush hills of Mizoram and in Aizawl, the state capital where stores lining undulating roads perch on a ridge at nearly 4,000 feet (more than 1,000 metres).
Many of the 100,000 or so Chins who make up about 10 percent of Mizoram’s population live as domestic workers, weavers, carpenters and manual labourers.
The Chins and Mizos hail from the same territory which now makes up parts of Myanmar, Bangladesh and India. But British occupation in the 18th century divided the region, separating affiliated tribes.
"The Chin and the Mizos are the same people … with the same lineage. We speak the same language, have the same culture and customs and we are all Christians,” says Sawmi Sawmte from the Chin Human Rights Organisation.
“Because of this, there is assimilation and also a certain level of tolerance by authorities and people living here. But there are many Chins that really don’t have any official recognition here and face many problems.”
Local charities say migrants are vulnerable to discrimination in salaries and housing and that few have access to free government healthcare and education.
They face sporadic arrests, evictions and expulsions to the border, while also risking purges such as harassment and evictions fuelled by influential right-wing Christian groups who blame drug trafficking on the influx of the Chins.
But, by and large, Mizoram has accepted the Chins.
“We cannot force them across the border. There is no extradition treaty between India and Myanmar. They may re-enter India at another point,” said Lalbiakhanga Khiangte, senior superintendent of police for Aizawl district.
“I’m not sure if it would be good or bad as the authorities there are very strict and these people could face lifetime imprisonment or worse.”
DIPLOMATIC FLIP
But as New Delhi evolves diplomatic relations with its neighbour, the lives of Chins in India could change.
New Delhi, like Western donors such as the United States and the European Union, has viewed recent reforms in Myanmar as encouraging; Myanmar’s military government held elections last year and the new civilian government seems to have closer engagement with opposition leader Suu Kyi. Then there was the recent release of more than 300 political prisoners and the loosening of media controls.
India is building roads and railways there, has supplied arms and is looking to Myanmar to help curb separatist insurgencies in the region. Both sides are also working together to control a cross-border narcotics trade that helps finance militant activities in the region.
But Mizoram’s Chin say police raids in weaving factories, budget hostels and housing colonies have increased in recent years and “push-backs” – transportations to the border – are on the rise.
In a sweat shop on the outskirts of Aizwal, scores of young women from Myanmar work 12 hours-a-day in large corrugated iron sheds, earning the equivalent of $100 per month weaving on rickety machines.
“There seem to be more police raids this year than before. They come and arrest the workers who have nothing in Burma and desperately need the money,” says the manager of the weaving factory, who wished not to be named.
In June, New Delhi instructed Mizoram to take steps to stop the influx of people from Myanmar, reducing the distance Chins were allowed inside India to 16 km from the border, from 40 km previously.
“Of course we are worried about their closeness,” says Hnin, who was unwilling to meet strangers at his home for fear of being watched by Indian intelligence officials.
“Insecurity is a problem for us here. In our daily lives we are always thinking ‘when are they going to come and get us?’”
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
Source: www.trust.org
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