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Viewing cable 06RANGOON370, CHIN STATE'S UNEASY COHABITATION WITH THE REGIME

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06RANGOON370 2006-03-20 08:54 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Rangoon
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RANGOON 000370 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, PRM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS PREL ECON ETRD CVIS KFRD BM IN
SUBJECT: CHIN STATE'S UNEASY COHABITATION WITH THE REGIME 
 
REF: RANGOON 0082 
 
1. (U) Summary.  Burma's ethnic minority Chin population, 
long victims of the Burmese regime's "Myanmarization" 
program, has reached a stage of uneasy but peaceful 
cohabitation with ruling authorities in its home state.  In 
underdeveloped Chin State along Burma's western border with 
India, ethnic Chins have garnered some measures of greater 
religious tolerance at the expense of inclusion in local 
governance.  After years of pressure to convert the Christian 
Chin community to Buddhism through threats and missionary 
efforts, GOB authorities seem to have given up.  The Chin 
remain resilient in practicing their faith loudly and 
publicly.  Trade with a rapidly growing India remains a dream 
just beyond their borders, and the UNDP serves as the only 
available catalyst for rural advancement.  End Summary. 
 
A Land That Time Forgot 
---- 
 
2.  (U) On a recent trip to conduct visa fraud 
investigations, Conoff traveled by car from southern Sagaing 
Division deep into the hinterlands of Chin State.  Lying on 
Burma's western border with India, Chin State may be the 
least developed of all of Burma's ethnic states.  It is the 
only state without any paved roads.  Of the half-million 
inhabitants in Chin State, an estimated 85% live in isolated 
villages perched upon steep hillsides.  Many of these 500 
villages are accessible only by foot or horseback; about one 
quarter still have yet to establish a source of running 
water; and only a handful have any access to electricity. 
The economy depends on slash and burn subsistence agriculture 
of millet and beans. 
 
3.  (U) Chin State's economic stagnation and lack of 
development is in large part due to its isolation, both 
culturally and physically, from the rest of the country. 
Only three dirt roads connect Chin State with the rest of 
Burma.  They are regularly under patchwork construction, and 
summer monsoons routinely disable them for days.  No 
commercial airport exists in the state, and Conoff saw only 
one gas station during a seven day trip through two of the 
three largest population centers.  Upon leaving the Chin 
State, it is another 10 to 15 hours by car (or boat during 
monsoons) to reach the nearest substantial market,  Mandalay. 
 
 
4.  (U) With so few economic opportunities, the favorite 
pastime of young Chin men and, increasingly, Chin women, 
seems to be migrating in search of employment elsewhere. 
After the mechanization of jade mining in northern Burma, 
only three prime job markets remain attractive: the Indian 
border province of Mizoram, northern Malaysia, and the United 
States.  Seasonal migrant laborers in Mizoram earn about $100 
to $200 for three to four months toil, while Malaysian 
factory laborers earn $200 a month. 
 
5.  (SBU) Meanwhile, the Chin connection to the United States 
grows ever stronger and more politically active.  Many Chin 
were converted to Christianity by American Baptist 
missionaries so they feel a special bond with the United 
States.  Strong Chin exile and expatriate communities in 
Michigan and the Washington DC area support the homeland 
through donations to churches and through encouragement to 
seek travel to the U.S.  Locals enthusiastically point out 
villages that have strong ties to America.  As Conoff passed 
through one such village, he encountered a Chin-American 
couple, naturalized decades ago, who return annually to 
support a local orphanage.  They proudly displayed a letter 
from their Congressman requesting consular support as they 
visited refugee communities in Malaysia and various contacts 
in Burma.  The push to emigrate to the U.S. is supported 
strongly by a pull from Burmese already there, and the 
combined effort results some in far-fetched schemes: Chin 
asylee follow-to-join visa applications in Burma have an 
egregiously high fraud rate. 
 
Visa Savvy 
---- 
 
6.  (SBU) Conoff investigated five asylee follow-to-join 
cases by conducting document and neighborhood checks.  The 
applicant for one "marriage" case was actually the 
petitioner's brother.  The applicant in another marriage 
claim turned out to be the niece of the petitioner who had 
already married another man living nearby.  Another 
application, by an unmarried child of an asylee, revealed 
that the applicant is not the biological child of the 
petitioner, and is likely the nephew.  Only one of four 
marriage claims proved legitimate. 
 
7.  (SBU) Frustratingly, all of the bad cases were supported 
by fraudulent information on legitimately issued forms, which 
highlights the ease with which both information and 
identities can be bought.  The fraudulent document issue is 
not limited to government-issued documents.  The pastor of 
the Haka Baptist Church uneasily admitted that many churches 
issue marriage certificates to support visa applications 
without even conducting a religious ceremony.  Interestingly, 
Conoff found that many people in Chin State, even those 
living in the most remote villages, could carry on extended 
and engaged conversations about U.S. visa and asylee 
processes. 
 
Trade and Glimmers of Development 
---- 
 
8.  (U) Many people in the Chin region recognize the growing 
opportunities from trade with India, particularly since the 
Burmese prefer Indian products to cheap in imports from 
China.  Chin engage in border trade with India; however, the 
primary trade route, a paved road from Tamu, India, to Kalay, 
Sagaing Division, does not enter the Chin State.  Goods 
traveling this route flow from Kalay directly to Mandalay, 
leaving most of Chin State entirely out of the equation. 
Border trade directly between Chin State and India does 
exist, but it is limited to goods carried over the border by 
hand or packed on horse carts. 
 
9.  (U) Virtually the only stories of successful rural 
development in Chin State come from the UNDP's decade-long 
grassroots intervention with local villages.  The UNDP has 
introduced running water to roughly 75% of local villages 
through village tap stands.  School houses in many villages 
were built through villager and UNDP collaboration, proudly 
displayed on signboards.  Its most significant project, 
however, is the ongoing Self Reliance Group (SRG), a 
microcredit program managed by a village-appointed committee. 
 This "teach a man to fish" approach has succeeded in 
educating locals on the value of saving and investment. 
Villagers optimistically talk about making the leap from 
slash and burn agriculture to pig or chicken farming, and 
more ambitiously, to building modest hydroelectric 
generators. 
 
Uneasy Cohabitation 
---- 
 
10.  (SBU) For the time being, Chin State is one of the few 
states where relations between the ethnic population and GOB 
authorities are not raw.  Conoff's questions about resistance 
groups, such as the Chin National Front (CNF), produced only 
decade-old war stories.  After years of a heavily criticized 
campaign to convert the Christian Chin to Buddhism, the 
authorities seem to have backed off.  Despite accounts of 
continued severe harassment of Christians in Chin State and 
other parts of Burma, local authorities appear to have 
granted tacit approval for Chin expression and practice of 
Christianity, as long as it remains modest and within the 
state's borders.  Christian imagery and quotation decorate 
homes, cars, and horse carts, and choruses of "alleluia" can 
be heard nightly coming from choir practice in every town. 
 
11.  (SBU) While restrictions on religious expression and 
practice have eased, the zealous Chin are keenly aware of the 
risks of pushing the envelope too far.  Conversations about 
religion with Conoff were characterized by many 
over-the-shoulder glances and hushed voices.  Authorities 
quickly return local Christian missionaries sent beyond Chin 
State to proselytize elsewhere in Burma.  And the memory of 
authorities tearing down a giant cross from a local hillside 
in 2004, shortly after it was erected, is still fresh enough 
to discourage the Chin from attempting anything on that grand 
scale soon. 
 
12.  (SBU) The cost for modest progress in religious 
tolerance is apparently a loss in political access: fewer and 
fewer Chin find opportunities at any level of government 
service, even within their own state.  Five years ago, Chin 
ethnics were present in District and, sometimes, State-level 
civil service jobs.  Now, few Chin hold government jobs, even 
at the Township level.  The only government positions still 
open to Chin are schoolteachers and nurses, likely because 
they must live in rural villages.  The result is a segregated 
society with divisions between disadvantaged Christian Chins 
and the ruling Buddhist Burmans easy to see. 
13.  (SBU) Comment: Chin State's ongoing marginalization in 
part results from its economic and cultural isolation, but 
that isolation also results from years of neglect by the GOB. 
 The marginalization of the Chin parallels the situation we 
observed in Kachin State (reftel) with power increasingly 
concentrated in ethnic Burman hands.  Maintaining three dirt 
roads is the extent of the GOB's commitment to support Chin 
State.  Chin people today do not aggressively seek more 
autonomy or appear willing to risk conflict.  Rather, they 
seek to maintain peaceful cohabitation and the limited space 
for religious practice it offers.  Even a state of peaceful 
cohabitation, however, will not attract development support 
from the GOB.  So the Chin are now learning to help 
themselves with UNDP support.  End Comment. 
VILLAROSA