Life Under the Junta

In 2010, Physicians for Human Rights investigated alleged human rights violations in Burma’s Chin State. Our report, Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State, reveals extraordinary levels of state and military violence against civilian populations.

Learn MoreRead the Report

Reported abuses perpetrated by Burmese soldiers include religious persecution, rape, and torture.

“This report embodies the voices of Chin survivors of these atrocities and lets us hear an enslaved and brutalized population asking for assistance in the struggle for justice, for freedom, and for life itself.”

Nearly 92 percent of the households interviewed reported at least one episode of forced labor, such as portering of military supplies or building roads.

“This report puts in stark light the horrors that the Chin people are enduring. No nation has the right to oppress its people, but to the extent that we abandon those people, we allow the crimes to continue.”

Government authorities, primarily soldiers, committed more than 98 percent of the abuses.

“Many of the violations that we surveyed may constitute crimes against humanity. These findings demand not only attention, but action by all who are concerned with Burma’s peoples, their well-being, and Burma’s future.”

Overall, 1,768 of the most severe abuses were reported across all nine townships of Chin State.

“It is unconscionable that suffering as dire as that of the Chin people under Burma’s dictatorship should be allowed to persist in silence. We urge the United Nations to immediately establish a Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in Chin State, and in all of Burma.”

Despite the November 2010 electoral exercise, the military still controls all branches of government in Burma. PHR calls for an official Commission of Inquiry on Burma, whose mandate should be to investigate violations of human rights and humanitarian law and to identify perpetrators of such abuses.

Learn MoreRead the Report