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We arrived within 25 minutes at the airport in Mizoram. I was warned that on arrival in Mizoram, Indians have to sign a permit and pay Rs. 10. Since I could not notice any such counter, we collected our luggage and went to the parking lot. A certain person was supposed to pick us up and should be waiting for us by holding up a sign with our names, but he was not anywhere around. Later after a bit of looking around we spotted him.
Tuidim from CHRO -Chin Human Rights Organization was the person designated to pick us up. Chin people are also an ethnic group from Burma and after independence they were divided between the 3 countries: Burma – Chin State, Bangladesh – Chittagong and India- Mizoram. It was an hour and a half drive from the airport to the capital- Aizawl. A beautiful city built in the purest fresh green hills you can imagine. But there are a lot of constructions taking place, without being concerned about the repercussions. Aizawl also suffers from landslides. The road to the city is lovely, but after having nothing in your stomach, and going along the zigzag mountainous highway, it somehow makes it a less pleasant drive, although the roads are nice and smooth for a change, without any bumps.
Mizoram is a peaceful state. It agreed to a cease-fire with the Central government in 1986. One can see a big difference between Manipur and Mizoram. Manipur is much less developed than Mizoram. Jang and I thought that this probably has to do with the internal problems. As soon as there is peace, development comes; businesses and investments rise in those areas. Youngsters in Mizoram are modern, most people wear western clothes, while in Manipur most people wear still traditional lungi.
Tuidim dropped us at the guesthouse and he would be taking us around for the next 4 days. I must say, here we felt very relaxed. Our trip was almost finished and we felt that we had learnt a lot. Here we were not so interested to know about the drug problem, but more about the migrant workers and refugees. Because from pre-research, we knew that Mizoram has many migrant workers from Chin State- Burma. It is difficult to say the amount of Chin refugees in Mizoram. They do not want to be recognized as refugees as they are afraid of being sent back to Burma. They try to mix into the local communities and this doesn’t seem to be very difficult for them, because before independence they used to share the same land and live together as brothers. They have the same religion, most are Christians, they share the same culture, traditions and their language is also quite similar.
Among the Chins, there are 60 dialects with 7 main languages. It is still very difficult for many, to understand the local language, but somehow they have to manage as they have no choice. The people try very hard to manage by themselves with even some Chin women organizations having set up a health clinic. They have been collecting money from their churches and donations from within their own communities. They still lack skills and instruments nevertheless.
The main jobs that they are engaged in are: construction work/ hard labors, timber collection, illegal whiskey production – Mizoram and Manipur are dry states (meaning that alcohol is prohibited). If the local Mizos (Chins on India side) know that they are Chins from Burma, they will look down on them.
Women sell mostly vegetables on the roadside, sell door-to-door, work as housemaids or construct roads. They earn average Rs. 40 per day, (Euro. 1 = Rs. 48). It is quite worrying, when we interviewed 2 migrant women as we learnt that they have many children. They are already so poor, but continue to have babies as they want to, but also because their religion (most are Christians) doesn’t allow birth control.
In these states there are always 3 governments ruling:
- The central Indian government
- The state government
- The student organizations/ government
The student organizations in these states are very powerful. Recently the Mizo student organizations have been trying to drive out the Chin people from Mizoram. They feel that the Chins from Burma have occupied their land; also there is lack of job opportunities in those areas. The Chin organizations try to explain that, they have only come here, because they had to flee from the human right abuses in Burma.
The
Chin people in Chin State still suffer from many human right abuses. Sometimes the Burmese army contaminates roads, riversides with landmines around the villages. People are trapped; they don’t dare to come in or out. In this way they have no means to survive. 90% of the Chins are Christians; they suffer from religious persecution, they have no ways to practice their religion. They want the whole country to be Buddhist. Chin State is still a complete black area; meaning that they are still fighting and killing people. Tourists are not allowed to go these black war-zones.
Next we visited BLC – Burma Lawyers’ Council, this organization makes laws and collects information and trains people for future Burma. At this moment what the Burmese army says, is LAW!! BLC collects newspaper clippings on different topics, to see how (in this case India) handles certain issues, and good ideas they can use for future. For example every 50 years Mizoram is attacked by rats, the next rat invasion will be in 2007. The newspapers are already warning people and probably they are preparing for precautions. So this is a good example as to how they try to think ahead for such problems.
Another organization of Burma is the FTUB- Federations of the Union of Burma which secretly gives fair trade trainings and form workers unions. Burma does not have labor unions.
(The
writer attends the
University
of
Amsterdam
in
Holland
majoring in International Communications)
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