Country: Myanmar

Group: Chin

Finalized Date:11/13/2020

Team: Johanna McCombs (Lead), Ann Thomas, Ethan Pelland

Content Warning: forced labor, discrimination, forced displacement, ethnocide, torture

Approximate Time Period: 1962-present

Overall, the sources are credible with clear examples of forced labor against the Chin in Myanmar.

The Chin people are a collection of multiple ethnic groups including Asho, Cho Khumi, Kuki, Laimi, Lushai, and Zomi, totaling 1.5 million individuals. Most of the population live in a mountain chain in the Chin state (Minority Rights Group, n.d.).

When heads of households were interviewed in the Chin state by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 91.9% reported forced labor in the last 12 months, along with this reporting they also reported extreme hunger, ethnic persecution, theft, and forced displacement (Davis et al., 2015). Approximately two-thirds of this forced labor was typically carried out by the military junta which seized power in 1962. In addition to the Burmese military, the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) were responsible for an additional thirty percent of the forced labor (Davis et al., 2015).

The military leadership has long held and advanced an exclusionary nationalist ideology of establishing Myanmar as a Buddhist State. The Chin as a predominantly Christian minority, have faced a campaign of forced labor, military occupation and forced displacement, in an effort to either forcibly convert them or erase their population (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). The Myanmar military took one laborer from every family in various villages where they were forced to transport food rations for troops (Staff, 2019). They would also be randomly arrested and tortured (Chin, 2017). The military denies these allegations, saying that the residents were not taken mandatorily and they were also paid (Chin, 2017).The main portion of this forced labor was for constructing roads, buildings, and bridges. Forced labor was also used for carrying supplies for armed forces, carrying weapons, or to grow jatropha (Sollom et al.,2011). As a result of this forced labor, it took away farmers from their field leaving their families unable to pay for food or other necessities (Chin -Minority Rights Group, n.d.). The most recent reporting in Myanmar against the Chin was in 2012, and most likely continues today, despite the peace accords of 2015 (Davis et al., 2015).

The data quality for the Chin is 3 because all sources are very reliable and align with each other. As well as there being large amounts of information available.

Sources

  1. Minority Rights Group. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/chin/
  2. Davis, W. W., Mullany, L. C., Oo, E. K. S., Richards, A. K., Iacopino, V., &; Beyrer, C. (2015). Health and Human Rights in Karen State, Eastern Myanmar. PLOS ONE, 10(8), e0133822. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133822
  3. Sollom, R., Richards, A. K., Parmar, P., Mullany, L. C., Lian, S. B., Iacopino, V., & Beyrer, C. (2011). Health and Human Rights in Chin State, Western Burma: A Population-Based Assessment Using Multistaged Household Cluster Sampling. PLOS Medicine, 8(2), e1001007. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001007
  4. Staff, R. (2019, May 31). Chin Rights Group Says Myanmar Military is Forcing Villagers to Serve as Laborers And Porters. Retrieved from https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/chin-rights-group-says-myanmar-military-05242019154416.html