Burmese workers stranded on Indian-Burma border

DVB ( July 29,2003 )

It is reported that Burmese workers who had been forcibly expelled from Mizoram State in India are stranded on the border due to the closures of roads inside Burma.

DVB’s Thet Naing reports:

Thet Naing : On the 24th of July, the SPDC authorities have stopped all the cars from travelling from Kalemyo in Sagaing Division to Mizoram State in India via Tiddim in Chin State. Although the reasons for the closures of roads are not known, the people who have returned from Mizoram State have been stopped and searched at the border checkpoints, according to local people. Moreover, some people are saying that the roads are closed because a SPDC military officer is attending a pagoda inauguration ceremony at Ledan Village in Tiddim Township. Whatever the reason, the Burmese workers who were expelled from Mizoram are stranded on the border and facing difficulties. A Burmese who lives in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram told the DVB about it as follows:

A Burmese from Aizawl : They have closed all Tiddim roads. No cars are coming this way. They have closed them since the 24th of July. Burmans and Chins are all stranded there. Zomi people from here expelled them by force. They couldn’t stay here and went home. They said that they would walk back to Burma and cross the stream and work in Kalemyo as day labourers and go home. They are all in trouble.

When the news of some 10,000 workers are being stranded on the Burmese side of the border stream filtered through, a Zomi social support group set up a rescue camp in Aizawl and it is giving protection to penniless, ill, exhausted and pregnant workers. The Burmese border authorities still haven’t said when the roads will be reopened and the Burmese workers are still facing acute problems, according to local people.