The 27-year-old man attempted to extort money from the owners of five furniture shops in Kalay Township. A 27-year-old man was arrested last week in Kalay Township, Sagaing Region, after extorting money from furniture shops and claiming to be a policeman. Ye Tun, of Yan Myo Aung village, introduced himself to owners of five small businesses in three Kalay villages as a “special police inspector” on August 22 and asked for money. He was arrested after one shop owner, Rodin Liang, questioned his line and then reported the suspicious behavior to a village headman. “[Ye Tun] arrived at my home…
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The government funding will take over from the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust in June 2019. An ongoing assistance program for pregnant women and infants under age two will continue with government funding after the current term runs out next year, officials said. According to the Chin State social welfare minister Pau Lu Hmin Than, the program began in June 2017 and is set to continue until June 2019 under the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT). It is after this point that the government will take over the project, which provides 15,000 kyats (US$9.80) per month to pregnant…
The Union Parliament opted not to make Chin National Day a national holiday, but one MP says it is up to state lawmakers to recognize it locally. Lawmakers may have an opportunity to decide whether Chin National Day should be recognized as a holiday in Chin State, according to a member of state parliament. The Union Parliament in Burma opted not to formalize Chin National Day—February 20—as a national holiday in the country when the issue was raised in the legislature in March. Tedim Constituency (1) MP Than Dai Uk—who is a member of the Union Solidarity and Development…
The transportation minister says he aims for the airport to be ready by 2020. Fifty percent of the construction of Chin State’s first airport has been finished, the state’s transportation minister has announced. The airport will be located on Surbung Mountain in Falam Township. “When our government officials discussed with the in-charge of the construction, they said 50 percent of the construction was already complete,” Minister Sui Thiau told Khonumthung News. He said that a concrete road and a 1,000-foot blacktop road must still be built, as well as a runway 6,000 feet long and 100 feet wide. It is…
Govt troops took the land in Chin State more than 20 years ago and have since abandoned it. Forty acres of land seized by the Burma Army more than 20 years ago in Chin State’s Tedim Township will be returned to its original owners, a local government committee has announced. The Township Agriculture and Other Abandoned Lands Inspection Committee reported that the Tatmadaw’s Infantry Battalion 269 had taken the land, located in Sakaw Lam ward, in 1996 but has since abandoned it. On Saturday, the committee said that if the original owners can show documentation proving their ownership of the…
‘If we don’t get what we want, we will continue our movement,’ says the Chin Refugee Committee chairperson. The Chin Refugee Committee (CRC) has postponed a scheduled demonstration against the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi, India, because the committee’s members have been invited to attend a meeting with the UN refugee agency. The protest was supposed to take place on Monday, according to Ms. Remmawi, chairperson for the CRC. It was organized in order for the Chin community to take a stand against a UN decision in Junethat people from Chin State, Burma, would no longer…
The two men have now been in prison for more than two months after being granted fake passports. Two Chin men who returned to Burma from Malaysia following a UN decision to no longer grant refugee status to the community have now been in prison for more than two months—and legal experts say more such cases are likely to follow. Salai Van Ceu Thawng, 28, from Chin State’s Haka, and Mai Om Hlu from Mindat, were arrested upon arrival at Yangon International Airport on June 10 for lacking proper documentation. They are still in detention in Insein Prison, Salai Van…
The incident reportedly followed the destruction of another pastor’s house in a village in Ann Township. A Christian pastor was reportedly beaten unconscious in Rakhine State’s Ann Township on Sunday and is now in hospital, according to his colleague. Pastor U Tin Swe works with the Thadin Kaung Church in Hin Ywet village—the same community in which he was allegedly attacked—more than 20 miles from Ann town. He is a field leader within the Thukha Myanmar Mission, a church group which describes itself as providing outreach to orphans, and those suffering from drug addiction, poverty, and illness. Mar Mar Win,…
Chin State Chief Minister Salai Lian Luai participated in the opening of an India-Burma border crossing on 9 August, allowing visitors to officially use the India-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2 between Chin and Mizoram states. The ceremony was held on the Indian side of the border, in Zokhawthar village, Champhai District, Mizoram State. It was part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries known as the Agreement on Land Border Crossing With Myanmar. In Zokhawthar, the Chin State Minister was met by Mizoram State’s commerce and industries minister H. Rohluna, who opened the crossing jointly and walked the…
The sea, river, and land initiative is supposed to link Chin State with Mizoram, but land and labor issues continue to surface. By KHONUMTHUNG NEWS Friday, August 3, 2018 Construction of a road linking Loung Talai Township in India’s Mizoram State and Paletwa Township in Chin State, Burma, has been postponed due to a lack of laborers. The road involves one of eight bridges that have been proposed as part of the initiative, which is being carried out within Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project. The project is supposed to connect India with Rakhine State by sea, and then the Rakhine…