The Zomi Congress for Democracy (ZCD) has requested that State Counsellor Daw Aung Suu Kyi establish a fifth district in Chin State: Tedim. On Monday, ZCD wrote an open letter asking for the State Counsellor’s assistance in designating Tedim and Tonzang townships as their own district, called Tedim. The two townships are home to one-fourth of Chin State’s population. Burma’s Union government has attached Tedim and Tonzang to Falam District for nearly 60 years, meaning that government departments for the district are based in Falam Town, some 150 miles through mountainous terrain from Tedim and Tonzang. “It should be promoted…
Author: Editor
Despite days of protests outside the New Delhi office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Chin leaders say that they yet to receive a response from the agency regarding concerns about the community’s refugee status. Chin refugees demonstrated in front of the UNHCR office from January 16-18 last week, with more than 400 people participating on the final day of demonstrations. They are now debating whether to continue the protest this week. “We demonstrated for three consecutive days. We don’t know whether it was successful, because we haven’t gotten updated information,” Chin Refugee Committee chairperson Remmawi told Khonumthung…
By Ling Hung Leng – The district police commander of Mindat, Chin State, called on locals to participate in enforcing the rule of law. Police Lt-Col Ye Lwin Oo made the statement at the opening ceremony of a police station in Sontaung village on January 14. He pointed to the use of customary laws to resolve conflict, and the inability of police to speak the local dialect as challenges to implementing existing state laws. “If a case occurs, instead of reporting it to the police station, local people use ‘aung tamang’ [traditional] methods to solve the case first,” the commander…
By Larnun – Burma’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set fire to expired foodstuffs, drugs and cosmetics in Kalay, Sagaing Region, on Friday morning. The products were set to be destroyed by the end of 2018. FDA officer Daw Nyein Nyein Ei said that the items were incinerated so that people could consume safe products. “These products included outdated drugs, low quality cosmetics and unsafe foodstuffs,” she told Khonumthung News. “The total price of these products was over 1.2 million kyats (US$780). We worked together with other government departments to destroy these products.” If the FDA identifies outdated or…
By Moe Kyaw – More than 300 Chin refugees held a demonstration in front the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi, India on Wednesday. The protesters—who were present from 11:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.—were demanding a change to the UNHCR’s decision on Chin refugee affairs. The UN ruled last June that it would no longer grant refugee status or resettlement rights to those from Chin State, after the area was declared to no longer be an active conflict zone. Chin organizations based in New Delhi released a statement asking the UN to extend the…
By Larnun – An evangelical pastor was sentenced to 43 years in prison by a Kalay Township court on Tuesday after being charged with two counts of the rape of a child. Lal Biak Lar—also known as Lai Boih—was found guilty of rape, torture, and threatening his victims, who were aged 15 and 14 at the time of the assaults. The parents of the two girls opened the cases in the Tar Han police station on April 13, 2018. Lai Boih was accused of raping the 15-year-old girl in June 2015 and the 14-year-old girl in April of last year.…
A lawmaker and agriculture department official in Tonzang have been trying to bring back the once-famous business of silkworm breeding in the northern Chin State township. Upper House parliamentarian for Tonzang Cing Ngai Mang told Khonumthung News that the initiative—which saw its heyday in the 1960s—could work well as a family business today. “Silkworm breeding was a successful business in Tonzang town in the past. Silks were exported to Pyin Oo Lwin,” she said, referring to the Mandalay region hill town. She explained that the industry was taken advantage of by unscrupulous buyers who gave Tonzang’s high quality silk lower…
By Larnun – Two Burmese soldiers attempted to extort—at gunpoint—7 million kyats (more than US$4,600) from two men driving tractors in Chin State’s Falam Township last week, locals told Khonumthung News. The men, who are residents of Vaphai village in Mizoram, India, had come to work in road construction in Falam when the incident occurred on the evening of January 11. They were arrested by the Burmese police, according to Zautea, another villager from Vaphai. The police allegedly released the drivers on the same day after taking 500,000 kyats ($330) from them. Continuing toward Falam on their tractors, the men…
Ethnic Chin pageant winner Regina Noi will represent Burma later this month at a beauty contest in the Philippines’ capital of Manila. The 19-year-old winner of the Miss Myanmar Beauty Paradise Chin State award will be representing her home township of Kalay at the first Little and Teen Glam International Pageant from January 20-26. Regina Noi participated in the Miss Myanmar Beauty Paradise Competition Talent Show in Yangon in 2018. She also won the 2019 title of Miss Teen Glam World International Myanmar, allowing her to move forward to the contest in the Philippines.
By Larnun – The Chin State government has imposed a local order restricting people from carrying knives, spears, shotguns, and bows and arrows in Mindat town. The ordinance, which has been implemented by the General Administration Department since January 3, was reportedly introduced to protect rule of law and regional stability. People will be required to obtain a special permit to carry these weapons—the violation of which could lead to charges under the 1948 Chin Regional Act, 34/6. Yet the law has been met with criticism by locals like Shur Lein Naing, who lives in Mindat town, and says that…