annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
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INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Mizoram<br />
pertaining to the Myanmarese refugees who<br />
were being refouled by the YMA and MZP<br />
and that NHRC should process their claims<br />
be<strong>for</strong>e any refoulement.<br />
In September 2004, the Ministry of<br />
External Affairs (MEA) conveyed to the<br />
National <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> Commission that<br />
it has no objection to the Burmese refugees<br />
staying in India till their status is<br />
confirmed by the United Nations High<br />
Commissioner <strong>for</strong> Refugees (UNHCR).<br />
The MEA issued this clarification in<br />
response to the comments sought by the<br />
NHRC with regard to the complaint filed<br />
by the <strong>Asian</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong><br />
(ACHR). 19 However, UNHCR is denied<br />
access to Mizoram and there<strong>for</strong>e, those<br />
remaining in Mizoram are effectively in<br />
danger of refoulement. ACHR is in<br />
possession of numerous applications of<br />
Burmese asylum seekers who were denied<br />
refugee status by the UNHCR though they<br />
clearly stated that YMA and MZP have<br />
been deporting them to Burma, where they<br />
face severe violations of their rights at the<br />
hands of the military junta.<br />
VI. Outsiders<br />
The YMA, MZP and Mizo Students<br />
Union have been responsible <strong>for</strong> acting as<br />
extra-legal authorities on identification of<br />
“outsiders” - those who entered Mizoram<br />
without valid Inner Line Permit or<br />
continued to live after expiry of the ILP.<br />
The unwillingness of Mizoram<br />
government to check the ILPs implies that<br />
it often abdicates its responsibility to non-<br />
State actors whose actions usually turn<br />
communal.<br />
On 6 March 2004, YMA served an<br />
ultimatum on the non-Mizos staying in<br />
Mizoram without proper authorisation to<br />
leave the state by 7 April 2004. The<br />
association alleged that many non-Mizos<br />
continued to stay back in the state illegally<br />
after the expiry of their inner line permits<br />
to do business. Following the YMA threat,<br />
a Kolkata-based Bengali organisation<br />
threatened to expel all Mizos from Kolkata<br />
if the April 7 deadline was executed. 20<br />
The YMA subsequently declared that<br />
it would launch a drive from 10 April 2004<br />
to push out all the alleged illegal non-<br />
Mizos. 21<br />
The Mizo Students Union (MSU)<br />
served an indefinite closure notice to all<br />
non-tribal traders in Mizoram from 21<br />
April 2004 following the arrest of its<br />
president Laldinthara and other central<br />
executive members of the MSU on 19<br />
April 2004. Mizoram Police had picked up<br />
about 16 MSU activists after they<br />
vandalized a non-tribal shop at Zemabawk<br />
in Aizawl when its owner, Puroshottam<br />
Khandelwal, refused to pay donation to the<br />
organisation. The MSU alleged that<br />
Khandelwal, who owns Pushpak Canteen,<br />
was involved in surreptitious liquor<br />
business. 22<br />
On 15 May 2004, a non-Mizo labourer<br />
was killed23 and about 20 non-Mizos were<br />
<strong>report</strong>edly injured in an ethnic flare-up in<br />
Aizawl triggered by the murder of a 20year-old<br />
Mizo girl Lalremsiami by two<br />
suspected non-Mizo coolies working in a<br />
wholesale second-hand garment shop at<br />
179