CHRO

NEW EVIDENCE OF ABUSES IN BURMA’S CHIN STATE STRENGTHENS CALL FOR UN COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

CHRO_-_new_evidence_of_abuses_in_Burmas_Chin_State_strengthens_call_for_COI.pdf

MEDIA STATEMENT:

19 January 2011

CHRO: NEW EVIDENCE OF ABUSES IN BURMA’S CHIN STATE STRENGTHENS CALL FOR UN COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

[Geneva,  Switzerland]  The  Chin  Human  Rights  Organization  (CHRO)  today  welcomed  a  new  report published by Nobel Peace Prize winning organization Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), “Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State.”

Using innovative population-based methods to document human rights violations in all nine townships of Chin State, researchers found that almost 92 percent of households surveyed had experienced forced labour at least once in the year prior to interviews.   

Other key issues highlighted in the report include religious and ethnic persecution, rape, torture, arbitrary detention, disappearances, and recruitment of child soldiers by the military regime.  In addition, the report illustrates how pillaging, forced cultivation of inedible crops such as jatropha (physic nut), forced labour and portering for the Burma army all directly contribute to chronic food insecurity.

CHRO is in Geneva to call on the international community to ask tough questions of Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council on its human rights record during the first Universal Periodic Review of Burma under  the United Nations Human Rights Council.      

In  its  submission  to  the  review process,  the organization  reported  over  seventy  separate  incidents  of  forced  labour  over  the  four-year  review period, some involving orders to forty villages at a time.

“These new  findings  corroborate CHRO’s  own documentation  of human  rights violations  over  the past fifteen years in Chin State. They shed further light on the widespread and systematic nature of the abuses inflicted on the Chin people by the authorities in Burma, with complete impunity,” said Salai Ling, CHRO’s Program Director.  

CHRO reiterated its support for a UN Commission of Inquiry into grave human rights violations in Chin State and the rest of Burma.

“A  UN-led  impartial,  independent  and  thorough  investigation  into  these  crimes  is  essential  to  end  the culture  of  impunity  in  Burma.    It will  also  deter  further  human  rights  violations.    Ultimately,  such  an investigation  is  not  just  about  accountability,  it’s  about  improving  the  lives  of  people  across  Burma,”
continued Salai Ling.

-ENDS-

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