Why and How Chin refugees fled to Malaysia from Myanmar?

Chin State is located in Southeast Asia and lies between the longitude 92.15E, and in between the latitude 18N and 27.30N. Bangladesh is to its southwest, Manipur State in India is to its northwest, China to its north, Sagaing Division of Myanmar to its east and Arakan State is to its south. The size of Chin State is slightly smaller than Switzerland. Chin State is rich in natural flora and fauna. Chin state has a mild hot wet climate. Almost 90% of Chin people are Christians. The population is estimated at half a million. Chin people are aboriginal inhabitants of Chinland for hundreds of years. Chin people are distinctive nationality with their own culture, religious, politics and literacy. After the British occupation of Burma under its empire in 1885, Chinland was also annexed under British Empire in 1895. As the leaders of Chin people agreed to take independence together with Burmese leaders, Chin people joined Burmese leaders in January 1948 and accepted independence from the British Empire. Unfortunately the Union of Burma has been misruled by successive Burmese Buddhist rulers and Chin State was most suppressed under Burmese dictatorial rule since Independent until today. That’s why we the Chin people know that we do not get Independent until today since the Chin people are discriminated and systematically enslave under Burmese rulers, worse than the British occupiers.

The name of Burma was changed into Myanmar by the current military government in 1993 in order to eclipse all ethnic groups into Myanmarization. Burma has 52 million populations in which 4 millions only are Christians, 4 millions Muslims, Hindu and others different religions from Buddhism. The majority are Buddhists. From 1962 until today, Burma has been ruled by military dictators and run the country without constitution and laws. Martial law is the only vehicle the military regime has to drive 52 millions for more than four decades. Even Buddhist monks tucked pistols under their armpits and lure Christian children in Chin State publicly to join Buddhism. Poverty is the tool for the military regime to recruit poor civilians and Christians to expand military power in the disguise.

Human Rights Violation in Chin State

There were only two military battalions in Chin State till 2000. However in 2005, there are already ten military battalions stationed in Chin State. The worst is the military headquarters do not provide supplies to military soldiers in Chin State for their subsistence but allow the soldiers to loot among the Chin people. Everything is done systematically. For example, three soldiers secretly robbed chicken from somebody house at midnight and when the house owners alerted neighbors and caught the robbers red hand, the military commanders who order the robbery verbally punished his soldiers in front of them or slightly slapped his soldiers. However days later, the same military band made a surprise midnight check at the same house where they robbed the previous night and ransacked through the house. If they can not find anything suspicious, the military accused the house owners of secretly allowing insurgents and maintained that they got information and beat them as serious as they can punish. Therefore even hearing robbery noise under the house at another midnight the next time is knowingly let go ahead. As a once scorched bear dread every fire, no civilian dare to confront lawless thugs at large in the village. Sometime they publicly ordered domestic livestock to be sent over to the military outposts or camps by respective villages or charging village council members to fulfill their order. That’s why to work as village council members is a very difficult and dangerous job under military regime. There are nine towns in Chin State until 2003 but the military expanded three more towns to allow themselves to get a bigger space for systematic placements to conduct robbery among Chin people. As 90 % are Christians in Chin State, every village has it own church but the church also become hall for band of military soldiers whenever they come into the village. Military know that Christians will not shun Sunday and it is their best chance for military soldiers to bide their time to capture villagers for force porter services among church-goers . The tactics the military use over innocent villagers is very cunning and tricky which ostensibly seem not a bad thing from view but insidiously harming the life of every individual.

The military soldiers secretly connive with few locals and get information from local unscrupulous informers about people in towns and villages such as who is rich enough, who have relatives abroad and who have sons and daughters in underground movement. Later the military quietly approached someone whom they believe have some money and accused them as having connection with underground movement. Actually the military know that they guy they held is purely innocent but want money from family. At first, they threatened and even not allow family to meet person they held for a few days but later the military released after they are paid huge money by victim family. Most of the human rights violation in Chin State is not publicly done by military but all is secretive and insidious. The military regime establish Union Solidarity Development Association ( USDA ) everywhere in Burma in which students from High School level to Primary schools level are automatically considered USDA supporters. Whenever a high military official visit towns or villages, his subordinate soldiers came first and order that young-girl students must entertain their boss at guest house or town hall. Failure to comply the order is punishable crime. Therefore most young girls were fallen victims to the military systematic trap and ended up physically spoilt. Anyone can lodge a police report but no one dare to come forward regarding what the military did on her/him.

There are 45 different Chin dialects in Chin State and the lack of common language in Chin State badly affected intercommunication among each other. The military understand that the weak point of Chin people is that we have no common language and use Burmese as common language. Even if Hakha dialect which is widely understood in Chin state was learned in every primary school in Chin State as a compulsory subject, the military not only abolish Hakha dialect literacy in schools but also ban any written Chin literacy even in signboards. A private soldier who can marry Chin woman is directly promoted in Chin State. Even if the Chin National Army ( CNA) do not fight arms to arms with military soldiers since the CNA is a small arm wing created under Chin National Front (CNF), the military use the presence of CNF as an excuse to allege every Chin national as rebellious against military government. Locking the Chin people inside their home state by ten military battalions with fully armed soldiers for 24 hours not to protect but to attack systematically forced sixty thousands Chin flee to neighboring India and twenty thousand Chin refugees in Malaysia with thousands of internally displaced Chin people.

Chin State is totally engulfed into the military systematic human violation which is not seen by outside world from the far view and can not also open and see what is actually happening inside everyday in Chin State ( Burma ). Every single person in Chin State is just biding his/her time to set free themselves from the military hostage drama which has been going on for already 45 years. People are filled with fear and bullet is the ballot under military regime in Myanmar. The world longest National Convention to draft constitution in Myanmar since 1992 is still under construction with no fix date to wrap up. Myanmar ultimate ruler General Than Shwe is deeply sunken inside his own paranoia and move the capital to inland Burma and design himself as the Fourth Burma Builder while 52 millions are trampled under his feet.

Why Chin refugees fled to Malaysia

As no human being can survive without food and drinks, even if we the Chin have to run away from military atrocities from Myanmar, we still have to survive at least with mere food from hand to mouth just to hang on for breathing our life. In order to flee into Malaysia from Chin State - Myanmar, the Chin refugees have to inter-cross many towns and villages within Myanmar as Malaysia and Thailand situated east from Chin State. Due to the long journey from Chin state to Malaysia, fleeing Chin refugees have to pay large amount of money to human smugglers who will take them into Malaysia as most of the Chin refugees even did not know where Malaysia is. Since the early 1990s, a handful of Chin refugees were able to land in Malaysia without the knowledge of UNHCR presence in Kuala Lumpur. Most of the first-comers to Malaysia just concentrated only on how they can survive themselves in Malaysia.

The tight intercommunication of Chin community gradually spread news of handful Chin refugee successful landing in Malaysia among few Chin nationals in the mid 1990s which draw attention to most of the Chin people who are stuck under military regime. While the Chin people were helplessly biding best time to escape from Myanmar military regime persecution and ongoing religious discrimination, even getting information about a new country in South-East Asia where a finger-count portion of Chin were successfully landing in Malaysia was a big news. In Chin State, houses, domestic-livestock, properties were sold in order to be able to pay the human smugglers to flee into Malaysia. As fleeing into a new country pose a very risky journey, most of the people coming into Malaysia in 1990s were all males.

How human smugglers brought Chin refugees into Malaysia

It is a gruesome but real story daily happening until now in Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia borders and how Thai and Malay drug addicted syndicate took risk to bring illegal immigrants into Malaysia in which most Chin refugees also are exploited. Agents in Myanmar also are keeping in contact with their accomplices at the borders and exported Chin refugees to the borders like bundle of goods. Up to the Myanmar border, the Myanmar national agents arranged for the journeys of all Myanmar nationals who want to go to Malaysia. As it is impossible to avoid Thailand to come to Malaysia, the Thai agents played most of the human smuggling network to bring in people into Malaysia. As soon as the Chin people stepped on the border shore to Thailand from Myanmar, the Thai agents first assembled people into groups and herded them at night in the deep jungles in order to avoid Thai authorities’ detection.

The Thai agents most of the time separated young girls from males and even young couples were separated. No one dare to quarrel with these agents since they were in the jungles where they did not know where they are. They are in another hell outside of Myanmar as no justice rule over these smuggling syndicates. It took at least a week walking in the jungle from Thai and Myanmar border to reach Malay and Thai border. The night-guides often beat people with green wooden rod who can not keep up with the others while walking at night in the jungles. The smugglers also are armed with small pistols and put on knives at their waists. Most of them are drug-addict persons and they were so fierce and often go berserk against the people they were herding when they are ran out of enough drugs. At least four persons are crammed inside a four-wheel car booth and five at the backseat with two persons bending over front-seat. They put at least ten persons in the car. As a result of suffocation inside the back booth of the car, five Chin refugees were pulled out dead as they were crammed for at least 8 hours flapping one another over their bodies inside this small back booth.

No person can protest while in the journey from inside the booth. If anyone can not withstand the heat inside the car-booth and make noise, the driver stopped his car and waved a big sharp knife over their faces which often slashed and injured many people. Most Chin refugees were smuggled into Malaysia between the risk of life and death. Even if they believe that they already escape from military regime atrocities in Myanmar, the risk they have to face is another torture in the hands of human smugglers. Young women who also fled from Myanmar could not free themselves from this gruesome risky journey to come into Malaysia. They don’t reveal to anyone what they face except answering with tear forever. They were spoilt in the disguise but they know they can not avoid. Even if they are escaping from military regime in Myanmar, they are fallen into the capturing net of human smugglers. A victim of human smugglers, a Chin refugee woman I interviewed myself even said that human smugglers in Thai border could be Myanmar military agents as the way they mistreated Chin women is inhumane and horrible nightmare come true. No woman can escape from the threat of pistols and knife in the deep jungle where group of male-smugglers are taking authority over the people they own to smuggle them.

Through the intercommunication among the Chin people, some of them know how dangerous and risky to come across Thai & Malay borders but the agents twist their way of operating network by falsifying paper works, company names, permits, name of employers in Malaysia, fix salary, location of works etc. The ever changing trick of agents pulls their victims back into their trap and the exploitation is back on track. Many Chin refugee women are fallen victim to this illusory snare of agents and face physical abuse by the drug addict agents in Thai border. As UNHCR in Malaysia do not consider victims of trafficking in persons as vulnerable persons, hundreds of Chin refugee women are now stuck in Malaysia. Being a single woman without any form of document is already vulnerable in Malaysia since Malaysia is not only UN Refugee signatory but even whip refugee as illegal immigrant. Malaysia should at least give respect to unaccompanied single women who are vulnerably facing difficulties in Malaysia. Instead of arresting women and dumping them like men in Thai border where drug addict males infested the areas, Malaysia should meticulously consider humanely especially in case of women since dumping women at border is only feeding drug addict males there. UNHCR also is on the par with Malaysian authority concerning women refugees since they ignore the plight of Burmese-Chin refugee women and left many wandering as undocumented persons among illegal immigrants. Instead of determining refugee on view of vulnerability in Malaysia, uprooting from the real story and join the refugees in their positions and co-understand the motive behind the force of leaving their respective homeland will reflect the true image of UNHCR foundation for refugees.

The UNHCR must accelerate registering Chin refugee women and unaccompanied minors before the authority sweep them along with other illegal immigrants. While even legal migrant workers condition is under threat to confinement in their workplaces, delaying even for a day to register refugee is a big risk. Outsourcing workers recruitment system also is indirectly encouraging human smugglers to falsify or fake some sort of paper work to convince their victims to exploit into Malaysia.

( 1 ) The government should review outsourcing the workers

( 2 ) Malaysia should respect the Rights of Women & Children and stop arresting them

( 3 ) UNHCR shall register firstly women and minors as staying in Malaysia is already

vulnerable without any form of documentation for refugees

Map of Thai, Myanmar and Malay borders. 95 % of Burmese who came to Malaysia must come through Thailand while the rest are coming by boats through Andaman sea and mostly landed in Penang port. In normal time to arrive Kuala Lumpur from Thai border town take about 5-6 hours, the human smugglers take 10-12 hours to arrive KL.

According to people I interview in Malaysia, some of them told me that they saw grisly decomposed bodies on the way in the jungles believed to be foreigners died in the jungles. Some bodies were stuck inside the marshy places.