annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

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