New Delhi, Oct 07: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to home ministry, external affairs ministry and Mizoram government seeking reports on the alleged forcible eviction of China refugees from their homes in the state following the rape of a local girl allegedly by a person of China ethnicity. The commission, acting on petitions from two NGOs, asked the Union ministries and Mizoram chief secretary to file the reports within four weeks, sources said here today.

Though Mizoram government has sought three months extension in wake of the coming state assembly elections, the responses from the Union ministries were awaited, they said.

Two petitions have been filed before NHRC seeking its intervention to direct the state government to restrain local groups from violating the basic human rights of the Chins by seeking their forcible eviction from their homes.
The incident was triggered off following the rape of a local girl allegedly by a person of Chin ethnicity in July last.

Though the offender had been apprehended by the police, "the local groups with vested political interests have used this incident to incite people against chins and have taken it upon themselves to physically evict them," one of the petitions said.

The second petition on the same issue pending before the NHRC was filed by the NGO 'friends of Burma'.
Of a total of 72 village councils in the state, 29 have already taken action and all the chins living there have been forced to move back to Myanmar, the petition claimed.

Bureau Report