Bangkok - Human Rights Watch called Wednesday on the Indian government to allow international access to 75,000 to 100,000 Chin refugees who have fled famine, forced labour, and political and religious persecution in western Myanmar. In what it described as a "template for how repression works" in rural Myanmar, the New York-based rights group for the first time documented the overlooked plight of the majority-Christian Chin minority group in the country also known as Burma in a 93-page report, entitled We are Like Forgotten People: Unsafe in Burma, Unprotected in India.
"Just because these abuses happen far from Delhi and Rangoon does not mean the Chin should remain forgotten people," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"ASEAN, the EU and the US should tell Burma and India that it is long past the time for these abuses to end," she said, referring to the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member.
Harassment and torture by the Myanmar army, which now has 15 battalions in Chin state; a recent famine caused by rats; government labour conscriptions; and demand for food by both government and rebel troops have caused untold miseries in the remote, mountainous state, which has long been ignored by the international community, the report charged.
The report took three years to compile and was based on the testimony of 140 Chin refugees interviewed in India, Thailand and Malaysia.
Harsh conditions in Chin state have caused an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 Chin to flee to Mizoram state in eastern India, another 30,000 to Malaysia and 500 to Thailand.
The Chin have faced persecution not only in Myanmar but also in India, where local politicians have shown little sympathy for the refugees.
"Life is hell for us," a Chin woman living in Mizoram told Human Rights Watch. "We have to make ourselves seem small and avoid dangers. To be Burmese is to face discrimination."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been denied access to the border region in Mizoram, said Sara Colm, one of the chief compilers of the report.
"We are calling today for pressure to be brought to bear on the Indian government to allow UN officials access to border regions on a permanent basis," Colm said a press conference in Bangkok.
Currently, Chins seeking refugee status on the basis of political or religious persecution must travel more than 1,400 kilometres from the border to New Delhi to apply with the UN office there.
"The Chin deserve a shot at meeting the UN officials to assess their asylum chances," Colm said.
While faulting the Indian government for not providing access to the refugees, Human Rights Watch blamed Myanmar's military regime for failing to address the Chins' problems, and in fact aggravating them.
"The government has done nothing to respond to the poverty and food shortages in the Chin state," said Amy Alexander, another of the report's compliers. "In fact, the army makes it worse by demanding food and money from the people in the Chin state.
After a recent visit to the state, the UN's World Food Programme concluded that residents suffered one of the worst food situations in the region. Famine has been declared in the state, caused by an infestation of rats.
The researchers acknowledged that a similar lack of concern for people's welfare was demonstrated by the Myanmar junta in other states and against other minority groups.
The plight of the Rohingya, a minority group in Myanmar's Arakan state, which borders Chin state, has come to international attention this month after Thai authorities were accused of towing 1,000 Rohingya boat people out to sea and setting them adrift in boats without engines or adequate food.
The hardships faced by both the Chin and the Rohingya have been less well-publicized than the plight of the Karen, another Myanmar minority group based in eastern Myanmar near the border with Thailand.
