CHRO

On March 8, 2010 Burma’s military regime State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) announced that elections would be held on November 7. But it was immediately obvious that the ruling military junta would not allow independent observers to monitor the country’s first polls in 20 years. In response, the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) developed a project in order to provide an alternative electoral monitoring mechanism, as well as to document the election situation in Chin State, one of the most isolated and difficult-to-access regions of Burma.

Click here for the full document.

By Jaiden Coonan
On Thursday, 6 August 2015

The United Nations World Food Program is preparing to bring in much needed aid to the isolated Chin State, yet transportation is making it difficult, as Kalay myo has become an island.

A Member of the WFP’s Emergency Response Team, Johnny told Mizzima that the impoverished state is set to receive 87,904 metric tons of food aid including 2,724 metric tons of High Energy Biscuits.

Chin State Chief Minister, Hong Ngai, was meant to arrive in Kalay myo on August 5 to hold a meeting with the WFP’s emergency response team and Sagaing Region Chief Minister, Tha Aye, but was unable to attend as he was held up in Hakha.

Kalay myo residents predict that roads into Chin State will not open for over a week. Some people are also discussing new roads being built as most routes have been destroyed by landslides.

An ERT member met with Tha Aye, in Kalay myo on August 5 to discuss plans to move the goods into the isolated town which has been surrounded by the worst floods in what locals claim to be over 100 years.

The goods are to be delivered from Monywa to the small township of Kalaywa then speedboats will deliver goods to Kalay myo.

The WFP’s emergency response to Kalay myo started on 2 August with the delivery of 4 metric tons of high-energy biscuits, teamed with an assessment of urgent food needs of at least another 11 tons of food product, ranging from rice to oils, which is on the way.

Aid concerns for Kalaywa’s refugee population isn’t truly known as the government is still updating it’s needs, the population is out of telephone reach.

“Kalaywa is GSM only so it is very hard to contact the people there so the only means of contact at the moment is military radio contact. Information is very difficult at the moment, people have run out of battery on their GSM phones,” said Johnny.

Tha Aye is set to ask the Sagaing Regional Commander of the Tatmadaw for airlifts to move the 15-tone aid package into the flood stricken area, but this is uncertain as military aircraft are in high demand.

“For the recovery effort we have to make an assessment of the people’s needs, there will be an intervention to assist this, once we know, then we can work on a program more responsive to recovery needs,” said Johnny.

Pierre Peron of OCHA in Yangon said that OCHA will coordinate the modelling assessments of recovery needs as per the government’s request. This being the second phase to help assess the damage to farms, tainted wells, and loss of livestock, in order to help the affected population rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

The recovery needs assessment in Kalay myo will begin next week if not sooner, no date has been set.

Kalay myo’s urban refugees total 12,419 as of 3 August  but this number is beginning to drop as people return to homes and begin to remove the thick mud that has washed into their homes.

20,187 refugees call the surrounding villages of Kalay myo home; unfortunately, the wait will be longer for them with dire consequences on their lives. Farming of pulse, peanuts and sunflowers will be delayed this year as some who have ventured out on the plains have discovered that at least 3 feet of mud is below the water, making farming anytime soon impossible.

Kalay myo consists of 19 wards, nine of which are flooded, with 156 villages around Kalay myo’s east side leaving 32,606 people in need of assistance.

– See more at: http://mizzima.com/news-domestic/food-aid-chin-state-still-question#sthash.0jU2iXo3.dpuf

http://mizzima.com/news-domestic/food-aid-chin-state-still-question

By SALAI THANT ZIN / THE IRRAWADDY| Thursday, August 6, 2015 |

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Division — Food is in short supply in much of northwestern Burma’s Chin State, where two main cities have been cut off by landslides caused by heavy monsoon rain in recent weeks.

Some supplies have reached the capital, Hakha, and Falam in the northernmost reaches of the state, aid workers said, but the deliveries dropped in by military helicopters are not sufficient for the sheer number of people displaced or trapped by storms.

“Around six choppers have come here,” said Pa Kap, who leads the Rone Taug rescue team in Hakha. “the government is providing rice and other supplies for relief camps, but it isn’t enough. The entire town is trapped and short of food—we need much more.”

The township of roughly 469,000 had been cut off by a July 29 landslide on the Union Highway, which links the remote state with central Burma. The government and independent donors have been sending intermittent relief shipments, but the deliveries are few and far between.

Adding to a general food shortage caused by transport disruptions, some 6,600 people have been moved to emergency shelters because of flooding and related dangers, local aid workers said. Pa Kap estimated that each of the township’s 13 emergency relief camps needed 70 to 100 sacks of rice per day.

“It is impossible to feed the entire town with a single helicopter [full of food],” he said.

Those further north in Falam are experiencing similar shortages as the Kale-Falam road is currently impassable due to landslides and other storm debris. Resident Tin Nan told The Irrawaddy that only small cars are able to make the journey. As trucks are unable to make deliveries, he said, “shops have nothing to sell.”

The shortages are far reaching, as landslides have also blocked all roads linking the town to five nearby villages, leaving thousands of people struggling for basic goods. Communication is scarce in the mountainous zone, though reports have surfaced of entire villages being washed away by flash flooding. According to the local chapter of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), as many as 50 homes were destroyed in Tonzang Township’s Narl Zan village, sending families fleeing for refuge. Similar stories have emerged from Tedim Township, where local media has reported that scores of homes were swept away in Kaking and Laibone villages.

Transport in and out of the state—Burma’s poorest—is now all but impossible by land, while roads linking districts within the state have also become mostly useless after severe damage to several key bridges.

Bam Min Htan, chairman of the Tonzang chapter of the USDP, told The Irrawaddy that car travel was no longer possible because of erosion on the bridge linking his township to Tedim. Relief is coming elsewhere, however, as the state government has already begun clearing off the Hakha-Falam-Kale road with bulldozers to reopen access to the state’s central trading hub.

Ko Paung, joint secretary of the USDP in Chin State, said repairing the road “might need a lot of efforts as the dangers are serious,” but the job should be done within a week. Until then, he said, “we have to eat sparingly.”

Last Friday, Chin State, Arakan State, Magwe Division and Sagaing Division were declared disaster zones by the government after Cyclone Komen made landfall in neighboring Bangladesh, dropping torrential rain on some of Burma’s poorest and already inundated regions.

Figures from the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday said the nationwide flooding had damaged more than 426,000 acres of farmland and destroyed some 56,000 more. A total of 1,387 schools have been temporarily shuttered.

Some 217,000 people were directly affected by the crisis, which is said to be the worst flooding the country has seen in decades. At least 46 flood-related deaths have been reported by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement as of late Tuesday, though the toll is expected to rise.

Area-specific death tolls are not yet available, but aid workers in Chin State said they were aware of one death in Hakha and another in Falam Township’s Tamon village. More than 600 homes have been damaged, mostly by landslides, which remain an enormous risk in the days and weeks to come.

Vice President Nyan Tun reportedly visited the capital on Aug. 2, promising that food and other supplies would be delivered in a timely manner. The following day, several Burmese businessmen and celebrities brought food aid to the town. Among the high-profile donors were Ayayarwady Bank chairman Zaw Zaw; Shwe Thanlwin Media chairman Kyaw Win; Ayeyar Hintha chairman Zaw Win Shein; Aung Myin Thu chairman Hla Myo; Lu Min of the Myanmar Motion Picture Association; actor Wai Lu Kyaw and singer Sai Si Twan Khen.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/ravaged-roads-cut-off-supplies-in-remote-chin-state.html

BY KO AYE CHAN MAUNG, GUEST CONTRIBUTOR – 7 AUGUST 2015
POSTED IN: MYANMAR

Floods raise questions about the nation’s ability to meet the threats of climate change and natural disaster.

Large areas of Myanmar have been devastated in recent weeks, with heavy monsoon rains triggering flash floods and landslides that have destroyed thousands of homes, roads, bridges and farmlands.

Twelve states and regions of the country’s 14 are severely affected, leaving at least 69 causalities and thousands of people stranded in the flooded areas.

Four states and regions have been declared disaster zones and the Myanmar government estimates that more than 200,000 people are in need of lifesaving assistance, making it the largest natural disaster since Cyclone Nargis in 2008, which killed more than 100,000 people and affected as many as 2.4 million.

The Myanmar government is responding to the event with some outside assistance, but it lacks the capacity to deal with a catastrophe of this scale, as many of the worst affected communities are still cut off by the flooding and landslides.

Once the immediate impacts are accounted for, the people of Myanmar will once again face the daunting task of rebuilding, with the livelihoods of thousands of families from some of the poorest regions in the country likely to be affected by the large-scale destruction.

Deforestation, unstainable land-use practices, damming projects and lack of policy initiatives for disaster risk management have compounded the effects of these latest torrential rains.

With an annual deforestation rate of 1.4 per cent, Myanmar has lost an average of 466,000 hectares of forest annually between 1990 and 2005, meaning 18 per cent of total forest cover has disappeared during that period.

Land-use changes have led to dramatic deforestation in much of Myanmar, causing large-scale soil erosion that has cut ground water carrying capacity and left millions further exposed to landslides and floods. Barren lands are prone to land slides, and flash floods are highly likely with no tree cover to hold water and prevent surface runoffs.

Damming rivers and streams and blocking natural water ways contributed to unlikely floods in some parts of the country. This has worsened because of a lack of well-planned risk management strategies.

These practices, added to the effects of climate change, will continue to leave millions of our countrymen and women vulnerable to the impacts of future natural disasters.

Since Nargis, cyclones are more frequent in Myanmar, with the country experiencing Cyclone Giri in 2010, Cyclone Mahasan last year and Cyclone Komen now passing through and causing torrential rains. It is also evident that monsoon patterns are also changing, with the effect that monsoonal rain now occurs later and ends earlier.

Myanmar is also one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change with its environmental degradation and unsustainable livelihoods practices.  Policy initiatives and actions are urgently required to mitigate future impacts of climate change and to reduce the vulnerability of communities to climate change impacts.

We need to learn from the past to help reduce the risks in the future.

Ko Aye Chan Maung, is a master’s student from Myanmar studying at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy, and a member of the ANU Myanmar Students’ Association (ANUMSA).

ANUMSA is raising money for Myanmar’s rescue and rehabilitation efforts. As part of these efforts it is hosting an event at ANU on Monday, 10 August. For more details on how to donate see here. Details of the event are here.  

http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/08/07/dealing-with-disaster-in-myanmar/

August 10, 2015 Written by Khonumthung
Published in Khonumthung

Heavy rains in Hakha, the Chin State capital, have triggered landslides and caused many houses to collapse, blocking roads and leading to concerns of possible food shortages

Roads connecting Thanthlang, Falam, Matupi and Ganggaw with Hakha are blocked and food supplies cannot reach Hakha according to Jacob Thang, the Chairman of the Chin Youth Group.

He said: “Most of the Chin people are staying with their relatives due to the unwanted disaster, so many households have 15 to 20 guests and they cannot feed them as their foods stocks were gone within a week. Therefore, many in Hakha will soon face a total food shortage.”

Four out of six blocks in Hakha were damaged by landslides and 613 houses were destroyed by the recent heavy rain. Two other blocks face potentially being damaged by landslides if the rain continues. Eleven relief centres have opened in Hakha and 6,673 people have been moved to safer areas.

Jacob Thang said: “People are worried about their future. The government has only supplied the victims of the severe natural disaster with 100 bags of rice out 500 bags, though Dr. Ba Maung, Minister of Social Welfare reported that the military had provided 500 bags of rice to the people.”

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI

http://www.bnionline.net/news/chin-state/item/671-hakha-faces-possible-food-shortages.html

August 10, 2015 Written by Khonumthung
Published in Khonumthung

Various organizations and political parties in Mizoram State, India, which borders Chin State, have appealed for aid and prayers for ethnic communities in Chin State affected by floods and heavy rains in Myanmar as well as in Manipur.

Pu Paul Sita, Secretary (1) of  the Chin National Front (CNF) said: “We are talking with representatives of the Mizoram government, various organizations and political parties [about] how to get aid to Chin State and the Kalay-Kabaw areas for victims of flooding in Myanmar.”

Both the Mizo National Front and the Mizoram People’s Conference have issued appeals to residents of the state to pray for and contribute to aid meant for ethnic Mizo or Chin people in Myanmar who have been affected by the heavy rains and other disasters.

The Chief Minister of Mizoram, Lal Thanhawla, has meanwhile sent a letter expressing condolences and moral support to Hung Ngai, Chief Minister of Chin State, offering “solidarity to all affected citizens of Myanmar, who are our kith and kin”.

Lal Thanhawla had earlier appealed to PM Narendra Modi asking for aid to be sent to Myanmar and volunteered Mizoram as a base for air-dropping operations.

Various groups and political parties also met at the Zo Reunification Organisation’s offices on 3 August to discuss how best to collect and send aid to the flood-affected regions, saying ethnic Mizo or Chin communities have been severely affected by flooding in towns across Chin State and Sagaing Divisions such as Tahan, Falam, Kawlphai, Kalemiau and Halkha.

Other groups such as the central committee of the Young Mizo Association (YMA) have also called meetings to help take part in the aid effort as pictures and videos on social media and news reports from across the international border continue to inform Mizoram residents about the natural disaster.

Edited in English for BNI by Mark Inkey

http://www.bnionline.net/news/chin-state/item/670-mizoram-plans-aid-for-myanmar-flood-victims.html

Monday, 10 August 2015 10:50 Written by  Thawng Zel Thang ([email protected])
Published in Chin News

10 August 2015 — People in at least five villages in Tedim township, Chin State have deserted their places, severely affected by landslides.

All Kahngen villagers, 127 people of 40 households, arrived in Tedim on foot last Friday after having abandoned their houses.

Paupi, from Tedim, said that they were taking shelter in a Baptist church building.

“We received news that all residents in Vongmual and Tuisau villages are also arriving here soon as their places are no longer safe,” said Paupi, a Tedim community leader.

He said that Laibung villagers were moving to Akluai village and that Tuivial residents would find a new place nearby to resettle.

Five villagers from Kahngen, about 18 miles away from Tedim, are being taken to the Tedim hospital as they suffer from diarrhoea.

Paupi told the Chinland Guardian that they had not received any humanitarian assistance from outside the town, adding: “As we are running out of food supplies, we are in urgent need of support.”

In Hakha township, residents in at least two villages, Khuabe and Beutu, had abandoned their places since the beginning of this month.

http://www.chinlandguardian.com/index.php/chin-news/item/2380-residents-abandon-villages-in-tedim-tsp-after-landslides