MIZZIMA : Burmese hungerstrikers co

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UNHCR asked Delhi police to stop Burmese's hungerstrike

March 24th 1999, New Delhi
By: MIZZIMA News Group

Indian police arrested the Burmese refugees who have been on indefinite
hungerstrike in front of the UNHCR office in New Delhi. The refugees were
taken away at 4.30 p.m this evening from the roadside platform where they
all were lying. It is learnt that they were taken to the nearby police
station in Jor Bagh area in Delhi and finally released around 7 o'clock at
night.

The total ten refugees from Burma went on an indefinite hungerstrike on
22nd March demanding that they be recognized by the UNHCR as refugees and
provided the monthly subsistence allowance of Rs. 1,200.00 like other
UNHCR-mandated refugees in India. In their letter dated 22nd March to the
Chief of Mission of the UNHCR in India, the refugees said that they prefer
to die in front of UNHCR office in Delhi rather than go back to Burma and
get imprisoned or killed by the military regime there. However, UNHCR on
March 23rd, warned the refugees to call off their strike. In the letter
signed by J.M. Castro Magluff, Chief of Mission a.i, to the Burmese
protestors, the UNHCR responded that it will not be able to assist those
refugees whose cases were already determined and rejected by the office.
"UNHCR does not condone such action (hungerstrike) and we would ask you to
call off the hungerstrike immediately.......or we will be obliged to
contact the Indian authorities to intervene...", the letter said. 

When the refugees did not call off the strike, UNHCR asked the Delhi
police to stop the strike of the Burmese. 

After 52 hours on fast, the Burmese refugees were weak and most of them
were lying down on the platform in front of the international humanitarian
agency's office till they were surrounded by a truckload of police and
taken away.

The refugees, between 16 to 27 years old, claimed that they left Burma due
to repressive methods practiced by the ruling military junta. They said
that forced labouring, arrest and persecution by the military authorities
were the reasons for them to leave their country. They accused the UNHCR
of neglecting their genuine plights. 

UNHCR office had, after about one-year process, refused to recognize them
as refugees and to extend any assistance as "it found no ground to
recognize them as refugees". 

MIZZIMA News Group


Burmese protestors continue their strike

March 25th 1999
MIZZIMA News Group

After detaining nearly four hours in the Lodhi Colony police station, the
Burmese hungestrikers were released late night yesterday. They spent their
night yesterday at the same place in front of UNHCR office on Lodhi Road,
New Delhi. The refugees decided to continue their indefinite hungerstrike
against the UNHCR's decision to refuse refugee status for them. Meanwhile,
they had appealed again to the UNHCR to reconsider its decision of not to
grant them the refugee status. 

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