Figures released by a local volunteer group show that recent clashes between the Burmese army and the Arakan Army (AA) have displaced more than 2,600 people in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township. According to a survey taken by the Paletwa Township Social Volunteer Organization, 2,640 people from 544 families in 18 villages in Paletwa are now living as internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to the fighting between the two sides. The findings of the survey, which was taken in order to assess the needs of affected villagers, were released last Thursday. Wai Tang, the chairman of the Paletwa Township Social…
Author: Editor
An elderly Chin woman was killed in her garden last week when she was hit by shrapnel from an artillery shell fired by the Burmese army in Rakhine State’s Ann Township, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO). Daw Padon, 78, died immediately after a piece of shrapnel hit her in the ribs while she was at her home in Wahgyi Tawng village on Friday, the group said in a statement. Her daughter, 40-year-old Daw Pamae, was also hit as they were preparing to flee, but survived with injuries to her arm. According to the CHRO statement, an army…
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has issued more than a thousand new cards to Chin refugees residing in India after determining that they still need the protection of the international community. “The UNHCR will continue issuing new cards until the end of April. So far, more than a thousand refugees have received the new cards,” said Salai Cung Dawt, who heads the New Delhi office of the Chin Human Rights Organization. Salai Cung Dawt told Khonumthung News that an average of about a dozen people have been going to the UNHCR office in New Delhi each day to get…
A spokesperson for the Chin State branch of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) met with members of the local media in the state capital Hakha on Wednesday to urge them to be better watchdogs. Speaking for the army-backed opposition party, Salai Kwi Yang said that the Chin-language media needed to do more to expose the weaknesses, as well as the strengths, of the sitting state government and parliament. “We need the participation of Chin media organizations to highlight and suggest where the Chin State government and Chin State parliament are doing a good job, and where they could…
A blockade on the border between Chin State and India’s Mizoram State is making life difficult for traders on the Burmese side, who say they are running out of places to store goods intended for export. The Champai Vehicles Association, one of a number of groups involved in transporting goods through Mizoram, started blocking traffic through Burma’s No. 2 Border Trading Camp near Rihkhawdar, Chin State, into Zokhawthar, in Mizoram’s Champai District, on March 26. This has forced local traders to keep their products in warehouses until trade begins to flow again. But they say that as the dispute drags…
The Chin State government has ordered the removal of “low quality stones” from the road being constructed between Matupi and Paletwa townships, according to state MP Awng Liang. The Special Road Construction Unit 12 under the Ministry of Construction has taken responsibility for the building of the road; the area in question is between mile markers six and seven between the townships. MP Awng Liang described the stones as being yellow in color. “If they use these low quality stones, we will have to build this road again next year,” Awng Liang said, adding that the stones had since been…
An ethnic Chin man is among eight construction workers of the Su Htoo San Company detained by the Arakan Army (AA) in Paletwa Township, the man’s family has said. Thirty-four-year-old Tun Lin Aung, a backhoe driver, is from Lake-kon Ward (1), six miles from Paletwa town. Su Htoo San is constructing a road between Paletwa and Zorinpwi, in India’s Mizoram State. The road is part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project. AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha previously told Khonumthung that, for security reasons, they were detaining people from the construction site who they suspected of having ties to the military,…
Around 1,000 people in Kalay, Sagaing Region, gathered on Sunday morning demanding to keep an article in the 2008 Constitution regarding presidential requirements. The protest was led by the Kalay Township National Forces (KTNF). The KTNF was jointly organized by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the National Unity Party, ultranationalist Buddhist organization Ma Ba Tha, and the Kalay Farmers Association. The KTNF protesters were calling to preserve Article 59(f) of the 2008 Constitution, which states the requirements for individuals to become the President or Vice President of Burma. It says that people who serve in these roles…
Three civilians are still missing following clashes between the Burma Army and the Arakan Army (AA) in the Peechaung area of Chin State’s Paletwa Township in October of last year. Sixty-year-old Kho Lo, 14-year-old Benjamin, and 15-year-old Maung Kyaw Naing disappeared six months ago when fighting broke out. A local pastor told Khonumthung that they had gone into the jungle to search for edible plants, and were never seen again. “They disappeared on the day that the Tatmadaw and AA forces clashed in the jungle… There is no witness [who knows] what’s happened to them,” the pastor, who is close…