The Network for Chin Community Development (NCCD) adopted a draft Chin land policy during a major conference attended by 26 Chin civil society organisations campaigning against the loss of land by the Burma Army.
Ninety-three representatives attended the conference on the Burma-India border at the end of April.
The NCCD statement said that under the Bamar (Burmese) administration, stewardship of their land has been threatened, which before independence from Britain were managed according to their own unique traditional land management system.
“After the Burma Army confiscated many acres in Chin State, Chins lost their land to the government’s development projects.”
NCCD members have agreed to develop a new land policy based on humanitarian principles and in accordance with the goals of a future federal democracy.