Chin majority doubt over govt-led peace process
13 January 2015 – The vast majority of people in Chin State raise doubts about the current peace process led by Burma’s government, according to a report by the Shalom Foundation.
It said that about 90 percent of the people surveyed in the towns of Tedim, Matupi, Mindat and Hakha didn’t have confidence in the peace process.
They said that the peace negotiation would not be successful as long as the government didn’t give a chance and create a platform in which the public could get involved by making their voices.
96 percent indicated the importance of public involvement in the ongoing peace process, the organization’s survey revealed.
The survey was carried out between August and November 2014.
One of the interviewees said in the report: “We still have fighting inside the country. The government have not completed the ceasefire agreement. Therefore, I don’t have trust in it.”
Until recently, intermittent clashes still broke out between the Burma armed forces and ethnic armed groups in Kachin and Shan States.
Two soldiers of the Chin National Front, John Biak Tin Lian and Bawi Ram Hngak, were shot dead during their training in Kachin State in November last year by Burma army soldiers.#