By LAWI WENG
An ongoing food shortage in Chin State in western Burma has forced 2,000 ethnic Chin to cross the Indian border to Mizoran to find work, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization in Thailand.
Victor Biak Lian, a board member of the Chin Human Rights Organization, said that Chin refugees continue to cross the border every day. The exodus started about two weeks.
About 50 village elders from different areas of Chin State traveled to Mizoran to appeal for international aid to address the food famine, he said. The Chin Human Rights group previously reported that 31 children have died from a lack of food.
The food shortage was caused by a plague of rats, which ate rice stocks in many of the villages.
Chin leaders say they have not received food relief aid from the Burmese military government. Burmese authorities also have reportedly banned ethnic Chin people from receiving food supplies donated by Burmese in foreign countries.
According to a Mizoram-based Chin relief group, the Chin Famine Emergency Relief Committee, about 100,000 of the 500,000 people in Chin State face food shortages. The food shortage began in December 2007. Many people are surviving on boiled rice, fruit and vegetables.
A famine occurs about every 50 years when the flowering of a native species of bamboo gives rise to an explosion in the rat population, say experts. The International Rice Research Institute has warned of “widespread food shortages” in the region.
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