Over 500 attended Chin National Conference
12 November 2013: The first day of the four-day Chin National Conference (CNC) came to an end today with 575 participants in Hakha, Chin State.
It was attended by ministers and officials of the Chin State government, MPs, and representatives from Chin political parties, civil society organizations, NGOs, CNF, tribal groups, and nine townships as well as Rangoon, Mandalay, Kalay, Tamu, and Rakhine.
Media reports said that foreign diplomats, scholars, individuals from Chin diaspora and religious leaders including Buddhist monks and Christian pastors also participated in the historic event.
Chief Minister of the Chin State government Hung Ngai gave the opening remark, followed by a speech from Salai Ko Ko Naing, Chin Affairs Minister of Rakhine State.
One of the representatives from Thantlang told Chinland Guardian: “We are very much impressed by the first day’s activities and it is great to see our brothers and sisters from various Chin tribes.”
Another Chin participant said: “We live in a small land of Chin State but we have never had a chance to meet each other like this before.”
A representative of the Dai Chin group expressed his excitement about the second day while a Khumi Chin participant indicated that he felt at home, saying: “I was born in Paletwa but you can call me Chin Paletwa pa.”
The Chin Progressive Party (CPP), the Zomi Congress for Democracy, and the K’Cho Development Association didn’t send members on behalf of their organizations to attend the conference.
Day two programme in brief
One of the organizing committee members said that the second day would start with an evaluation on the previous activities, which involved paper presentations by various organizations.
Experts and resource persons would make a 15-minute presentation on each of ten key issues including political, constitutional and judiciary reforms, land and natural resources, and refugees.
And group discussions on the topics led by different panel members would follow, according to the CNC Joint Organizing Committee.#
[Note: The Chinland Guardian has corrected to read ‘didn’t send’ in place of ‘were not able to send’ in the eight paragraph.]
