Forced labour, torture and religious persecution are continuing in Chin State, according to evidence presented to a delegation from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) and Norwegian Mission to the East (NME) on a visit to the Chin peoples on the India-Burma border. Extensive eye-witness accounts of prison labour conditions show prisoners working on road construction projects, rubber plantations and tea plantations in shackles in Chin State and other parts of Burma. An eyewitness told the delegation that prisoners in one labour camp are yoked like oxen and forced to plough the fields.

In addition, extensive reports were presented of the deteriorating health care situation in Chin State. "We predict a humanitarian crisis in Chin State this year," the Chairman of the Chin National Front (CNF), Thomas Thang No, told the delegation. Salaries are repeatedly cut, and taxation is levied on water, electricity and housing. Each household has to pay between 15,000 and 20,000 kyats per year in taxes for water, electricity and other services, amounting to 15-20% of the average wage. A teacher, for example, earns between 100,000 and 150,000 kyats a year. The Chin population in Chin State has declined from 441,000 in 1997 to an estimated 435,000 in 2005, according to the CNF.

The ruling military regime, the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC), continues to suppress all opposition and to persecute the Chin peoples, who are ninety per cent Christian, on three counts: ethnicity, politics and religion. According to the CNF Chairman, all senior commanders and administrators ruling Chin State are non-Chins. "We are totally under the rule of a non-Chin army," he said. The SPDC is currently developing its own "civil society" organizations, such as the Union Solidarity & Development Association (USDA), in preparation for future elections. In his analysis, the SPDC will build up the USDA, which is considered a voice of the regime, in order to defeat the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other democratic and ethnic opposition groups. Among its restrictions on humanitarian aid work in Burma, the SPDC requires all Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating within Burma to co-operate with the USDA.

There are an estimated 50,000 Chin refugees in Mizoram State, India. The delegation met Chin groups in Aizawl, Mizoram State, including leaders of the CNF, the Women's League of Chinland, the Backpack Health Worker Teams and several pastors and church leaders. The delegation also traveled to the India-Burma border to visit two clinics and meet Chin people who traveled across the border from Burma.

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