CHIN STATE: WHERE THERE IS WILL, THERE IS A WAY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 RANGOON 000033

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP AND IO; PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/27/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL CVIS PREF PHUM BM
SUBJECT: CHIN STATE: WHERE THERE IS WILL, THERE IS A WAY


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Classified By: CDA Shari Villarosa for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Charge visited the northern half of Chin
State December 6-10 on a UNICEF-organized trip with other
diplomats. This is another very pro-American area of Burma
due to the past influence of American missionaries. Almost
everyone we met spoke of the desire of Chin people to work in
the U.S., and they made it clear it was for economic reasons
rather than due to discrimination. The government presence
was surprisingly small, probably due to the lack of
exploitable resources. UNICEF projects have been
well-received with UNICEF commonly working with religious
organizations to expand the reach of their health and
education programs beyond government schools and hospitals.
We also saw many local NGOs, primarily church-based, working
to improve the situation of ordinary people. This visit
reinforced the perception that Burmese people are able to
organize themselves to advance the common good,
notwithstanding a repressive government. End Summary.

Meet the Chins aka Zomis
--------------


2. (SBU) Chin State is Burma's most sparsely populated state
with 500,000 people living across 14,000 square miles. The
three towns we visited, including the capital Hakka, only
have a population of roughly 20,000 each. The state has few
paved roads, no airport, minimal electricity, no resources,
steep terrain (every town we stayed was over 5000 feet in
elevation, with the highest peaks over 10,000 feet-we saw no
flat land),and deforested and depleted soil. With cherry
trees in full bloom, it appeared similar to Colorado in the
spring. It is one of the coldest places in Burma with
temperatures this time of year below freezing at night and
rarely reaching 70 degrees in the full sun. UNICEF advised
us to bring sleeping bags and heavy coats due to the lack of
heat.


3. (SBU) The population is predominantly Christian, with
many Baptist Churches, as well as churches representing the
Assemblies of God, Methodists, Foursquare Gospel, Anglicans,
Salvation Army, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses,
Presbyterians, Seventh Day Adventists, and others of
indeterminate denominations. The strong Baptist affiliation
was credited to American Baptist missionaries who went to
Chin State 107 years ago, and not only converted many former
animists, but also provided Chin dialects (reportedly over
100; the Bible has been translated into 30 dialects to date)
a written language using Romanized script. Religious
affiliation appeared a key identifier with most homes posting
their church affiliation as well as their names.


4. (C) Most Chin are subsistence farmers growing millet and
corn on the steeply pitched hillsides. Slash and burn
agriculture, combined with a growing population that requires
wood for heating and cooking, has pretty much deforested the
Chin hills and left the soil a light beige depleted of most
nutrients. The diminishing productivity of the land has
forced many younger Chin to leave in search of other work,
with Malaysia and India the most common interim destinations
on the way to the America of their dreams. The populations
of the various villages we visited appeared skewed towards
the elderly and the children. As elsewhere in Burma, most
government jobs in the state are reserved for ethnic Burmans,
further diminishing the opportunities available to those Chin
with higher educations. One of the fortunate few, UNICEF's
local employee who monitors projects in Chin State is Chin.
He said his job enabled him to travel all around the state so
that he could witness what the Burmese authorities were doing
in the state, and offer protection to the people by
publicizing abuses.


5. (C) The Chin leaders with whom we spoke said that their
economic situation had deteriorated since 1988; they

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professed to have done well under Ne Win's rule. While
obviously poor, the Chin do not appear as destitute as the
landless, stateless Rohingyas or Wa villagers, who have not
shared in their leaders' narcotics-related wealth. The Chin
lived in houses of milled wood with glass windows and zinc
roofs, a step above the thatched, windowless homes seen in
most rural parts of Burma. Those who have also traveled to
the southern part of Chin State, described the north as the
most prosperous part of the state.


6. (C) We saw little evidence of a military presence despite
the proximity to the Indian border. The Chins, who call
themselves Zomi, pointed out that the Mizos on the other side
of the border are their ethnic cousins, with the result that
they claimed to be able to travel freely back and forth to
India without passports. The Indian Ambassador confirmed
that passportless travel along this border is common and not
a problem for India. He described this as a peaceful border
in comparison to the Burmese-Indian border just north of Chin
State. HIV infection reportedly has been less of a problem
in Chin State than other parts of Burma (less than 1 %
infection rate),but now is on the rise, according to medical
personnel based in Chin State, as a result of truckers going
back and forth to India. Separate reporting from India
blames drugs coming from Burma for increasing HIV infections
on the Indian side of the border.


7. (C) In one village of 300, we got confirmation that regime
efforts to revamp local administration have gotten underway.
We learned of a more democratic process than we have heard
described elsewhere in Burma. The recently elected headman
had been asked to leave his headman training to receive us.
When asked about the election through interpreters, several
villagers explained that they chose from three candidates;
the winning candidate received 63 votes from heads of
households versus 32 and 20 for the other two candidates.
The winning candidate was not even present; he was in Rangoon
following up on his son's request for political asylum in the
U.S. from Malaysia (obviously not a disqualifying factor).
When asked why the winning candidate received so much
support, another volunteered that he was seen as more honest
and cared about the village.

U.S. the land of opportunity for Chin People
--------------


8. (C) Every where we stopped, we received requests for visas
to the United States to work because of the poor conditions
in Chin State and lack of opportunities. In one small
village mentioned above, we met three families with children
in Norway and Denmark, in addition to the U.S. asylum seeker.
Other diplomats on the trip reported that whenever they
asked people about their hopes for the future, they were told
that the people wanted to go the U.S. Most people simply
requested visas for friends and family to work in the U.S. so
they could support their families and the church in Chin
State. They often cited their close connections with
American Baptists.


9. (C) Charge tried to explain that we did not offer that
sort of visa and probed for any experiences with
discrimination by Burmese authorities. However they
downplayed discrimination, and repeated that there was no
work and not enough land to farm for young people in Chin
state. Religious figures did say that they could not freely
build churches unless they bribed the authorities. However,
based on the number of churches we saw under construction,
the bribes did not appear too onerous, and bribes have become
the norm around the country. In the past Chin attempts to
erect crosses on mountain peaks have been blocked by the
authorities; we only saw one area with crosses, near the most
remote village we visited. Villagers are also subject to
forced labor, like elsewhere throughout the country,
primarily to build roads and farm tea plantations the

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authorities have promoted, but not singled out because of
their religion, according to Chin leaders.

UNICEF working with Faith-based Organizations
--------------


10. (C) UNICEF focused on their health programs rather than
education, but we did visit one UNICEF project promoting
child-friendly schools, which emphasized more participatory
activity by the children as opposed to the rote memorization
in the regular Burmese classrooms. The school also had a
Chin teacher paid for by the community to assist those
students not fluent in Burmese. Although UNICEF has been
restricted by the government from significant involvement in
the primary and secondary schools, it has managed to get its
foot in the door using health education (especially hand
washing) and water projects to improve the health of the
children attending school. The health education programs
have been so successful, that the Ministry of Education will
expand them to all primary schools in the country by 2009.


11. (C) UNICEF also gets health information out through the
churches, which host regular training programs for village
representatives using UNICEF materials. The group we saw had
been elected by their fellow villagers and appeared equally
divided between men and women. The churches and local NGOs
also run UNICEF-sponsored early childhood development
centers, one of the few educational activities international
and local organizations can implement in Burma, for children
of poor families and orphans. When asked if the government
interfered with the church-based programs, a religious leader
in Falam said no because of the UNICEF involvement.


12. (SBU) Most of the UNICEF sites we visited were sub-rural
health clinics to which UNICEF supplies almost everything,
including vaccines, birthing kits, anti-malarials and
bednets, in addition to training the health workers. Not
every village has a clinic with only 18 in one district of 68
villages. We saw two villages where the villagers built a
clinic and house for the health workers, both Chins who had
returned to their home villages after receiving training, as
well as another community which built a school for their
children. In some cases, communities hire Chin health
assistants to assist Burmese staff. We also saw portions of
UNICEF's cold chain for vaccines (UNICEF provides 90% of the
vaccines in Burma) from the state hospital in Hakka, down to
a village health clinic, with vaccines getting to the more
remote destinations by horseback or foot. With minimal
electricity even in the towns, the Japanese have funded solar
refrigerators to preserve the vaccines.


13. (C) However, despite UNICEF assertions that their
donated items should be distributed to those in need without
charge, we learned that patients commonly were charged for
medicines that should be free. A Chin doctor in Tedim
confirmed that people must pay for everything, including
bandaids, with the result that few people go to doctors or
hospitals. This appeared to be more of a problem in the
towns, rather than in the villages served only by a clinic.
The state hospital in Hakka had only the most basic medicines
and lab equipment; with roughly half the medicines provided
by UNICEF. We recommended posting lists of what should be
free and the prices of the other items so everyone knows.


14. (C) In addition to UNICEF, INGOs operating in Chin State
include Care Australia, World Vision, and GRET. We receive
regular reports from other channels that U.S. religious
organizations also manage to provide assistance to the Chin
people, despite their expulsion 40 years ago. The Chairman
of the State Peace and Development Council, in response to a
question by Charge, made it clear that U.S. churches could
not officially assist the Chin people unless they had the
approval of authorities in Nay Pyi Taw.


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15. (C) Chin State also has numerous indigenous NGOs,
primarily church based. The Zomi Baptist Convention, through
its Christian Social Service and Development Department, has
attracted funding to sponsor programs providing agricultural
development, water supply, small hydroelectric projects,
skills training, and micro-finance. We visited an orphanage
built by a local business family. A group of community
leaders in Hakka had organized themselves to preserve Chin
culture. At every stop, we met groups organized to build new
churches and assembly halls. Many of the latter solicited
funding from the diplomats. Projects to give women
marketable skills and support the orphanages attracted
greater donor interest.


16. (C) Comment: Given the scarcity of good news in Burma,
this was a relatively good news story: the Chin people have
managed to organize themselves to improve the situation of
less advantaged Chin. Based on what we saw, the churches
deserve most of the credit. The inability of Burmese in
general to come together to achieve common interests is
frustrating. Yet we saw the Chin could advance their
interests in Burma today, despite discrimination, because
they organized themselves. The Chin are no different from
other Burmese in their aptitude for bickering; in Chin State
the churches bicker with each other. Yet they manage to rise
above the petty disputes to advance the community's
interests, even if to assert the goodness of one church over
another. Maybe this is not all bad, viewed instead as
competition in the marketplace of religion. This visit also
showed the ability of community-based programs like UNICEF's
to get assistance and information to the lowest levels of
society and make a positive difference. In order to do this,
UNICEF needs allies inside the government, not the generals,
but the sincere mid-level bureaucrats who know that they
cannot address the nation's problems by themselves. If it
were not for UNICEF, most Chin people would receive no health
services.
VILLAROSA