Permission denied to hold Chin conference one day before event

08 July 2016 — The authorities issued an official letter yesterday, banning the organizing committee of a gathering entitled ‘Southern Chin State Conference’ scheduled to start today in Mindat town, Chin State, to hold the event.

Salai Shae Aung, chairman of the Mindat Township event organizing committee, said that the General Administration Department had summoned him to their office the day before and handed the letter to him.

He said: “The letter says it is not an appropriate time to organize a conference and permission is not granted in accordance with the instructions from the Chin State government.”

He also aid that the event organizing committee had submitted a permission application to relevant government departments at the Township, District and State levels in advance.

However, it was only yesterday, just one day before the planned event, that Deputy Head U Thet Moe informed the organizers of the situation.

“Some people have already arrived in Mindat from different places while others get stranded in Arakan State owing to the floods. We could have been informed earlier. Now, I am busy sorting out a return journey for the guests,” he added.

The meeting was planned to take place on Friday and Saturday in preparation for the nationwide 21st Century Panglong Conference.

They were to discuss issues facing people residing in southern parts of Chin State and ways in which these can be presented in the upcoming Union Peace Conference scheduled for late August this year.

According to the event organizers, more than 170 people from the four townships of Kanpetlet, Paletwa, Mindat and Matupi were expected to participate in the conference with representatives from the Chin State government, District and Township government departments, university students and Asho, a Chin tribal group.

The programme had received mixed responses from Chin community across the world as it was announced only weeks after the Chin National Conference Resolution Implementation Committee meeting last month.

Some saw it as a divisive move while others described the need for people to voice their concerns and promote better understanding through discussion like this.#