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The Chin Forum Managing Board Members |
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Salai Kipp Kho
Lian
Co-ordinator
Chin Forum Managing Board |
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Salai
Kipp Kho Lian, one of the founding members of the
Chin Forum was born
in
Meiktila,
Burma.
While
studying Architecture at the Rangoon Institute of
Technology he was detained by the Burmese military
junta in 1972 for 13 months for taking part as a
signatory of the Proposal of Chin Youth demanding
Federal Democracy System for the country. In 1974 he
took part during the U Thant funeral Strike and was
arrested again along with 10,000 other demonstrators
inside the
Rangoon
University
campus. He took part actively in organizing the
Thakhin Ko Daw Hmaing Centennial Strike in 1976. He
eventually fled to
Germany
in 1986 and was granted political asylum by the
German authority in 1989. Since arriving
Germany
he played vital roles in the formations of Burma
Büro (Köln), European Burmese Association (Hamburg),
Chin Community (Germany),
Chin Forum (Ottawa)
etc. During the Chin Forum Managing Board meetings
at Frankfurt am Main in
Germany
on 17-19 July he was unanimously elected by the
Board as the Coordinator. He
is residing at
Hamburg,
Germany
since 1986. |
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Prof. David C. Williams
Consultant of Chin Forum
Prof. David C. Williams, constitutional
adviser and consultant of the Chin Forum
received his B.A., in 1982 from Haverford
College; and his J.D., 1985, Harvard
University, Board of Editors, Harvard Law
Review. Law Clerk, Hon. Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, 1985-86.
Cornell Law School, 1989-93. A noted
constitutional law scholar, Professor
Williams has written numerous articles in
major journals throughout the country. He is
a popular lecturer on Native American people
and on the Second Amendment. Winner of the
Wallace Teaching Award, Professor Williams
teaches Constitutional Law and Native
American Law. In recent years, his research
has focused on two aspects of constitutional
law: the right of Native American tribes to
self-government within the American
constitutional system, and the alleged
constitutional right of the people to keep
and bear arms in order to make revolution
against government. These two seemingly
unrelated topics raise the common theme of
examining the possibility of popular
government outside the normal channels of
state and federal elections, and more
specifically the claimed right of an
"organic" people to resist the encroachment
of an "alien" government. Since 2003, he has
been directing the Center for Constitutional
Democracy in Plural Societies at Indiana
University School of Law. Professor
Williams's book
The Mythic Meanings of the Second
Amendment: Taming Political Violence in a
Constitutional Republic, has
recently been published by Yale University
Press. |
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Pu Lian Uk
Member of Parliament (Elected 1990)
Member
Chin Forum Managing Board |
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Pu Lian Uk is an elected Member
of Parliament of the 1990 General election in Burma
as an independent. He was also a former Secretary of
Chin Literature and Culture Sub-committee, of the
Rangoon University during his student life. He is a
former political prisoner in Burma for leading the
Chin federal movement of the 1970s and for
submitting the „Proposals from Chin Youth" to the
military regime demanding federalism for the Union
of Burma. He is one of the founding members of the
CHIN FORUM and is presently residing in the USA.
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Dr. Za Hlei Thang
Member of Parliament (Elected 1990)
Founding Member
Chin Forum Managing Board |
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Dr. Za Hlei Thang,
a physician, is an elected Member of Parliament of
the 1990 General election in Burma under the ticket
of Chin National League for Democracy. He is a
former political prisoner in Burma for his
involvement in the Chin Federal movement during the
1970s and for being a signatory of the „Proposal of
the Chin Youth". He persuaded the legendary student
leader and martyr Salai Tin Maung Oo (hanged by the
military regime in 1976) to take charge of the Chin
students movement. He is one of the founding members
of the CHIN FORUM and is presently residing in the
USA.
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Bianca Son Suantak (Mai Mang
Khan Cing)
Member
Chin Forum Managing Board |
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Bianca Son Suantak (Mai Mang Khan Cing),
one of the Chin Forum Managing Board members, was
born in the former East Germany to her Sizang(Zo)
father and German mother. The family later returned
to Burma and eventually ended up in the United
States. She received a BA from the University of
Maryland in Psychology and attended graduate school
in Mass Communication at the University of Arizona
where she focused on HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns.
She spent five years in Korea working for an
education-oriented NGO. She also spent two years
working for P&G, Korea as a
foreign consultant. While in Korea, she hosted a
television quiz show and a weekly radio show. She
also performed the Vagina Monologues for the foreign
community in East Asia to raise money and awareness
to stop violence against women and girls. She
attended the first Chin National Assembly, held in
Mt. Sinai, Manipur in 2006. Bianca has just
completed her Master's in Contemporary Asian Studies
at the University of Amsterdam. She now lives in
London where she studying for her PhD in the
department of History at the School for Oriental and
African Studies at the University of London; her
focus is Zo History.
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Dr. Lian H.
Sakhong Ph.D.
Member
Chin Forum Managing Board
Dr. Lian H. Sakhong is General Secretary of “United
Nationalities League for Democracy – Liberated
Areas” (UNLD-LA) and of “Ethnic Nationalities
Council – Union of Burma” (ENC). He was
post-graduate student at History Department in
Rangoon University when student-led democracy
movement erupted in 1988. He quickly joined the
movement and was arrested, interrogated and even
tortured by military junta for three separate
occasions between 1988 and 1990. He fled from his
country in 1990 and resettled in Sweden since 1991.
He has published numerous articles on Chin history,
traditions and politics in Burma, including his
Ph.D. dissertation: Religion and Politics among
the Chin People in Burma (Uppsala University,
2000) and his book, In Search of Chin Identity: A
Study in Religion, Politics and Ethnic Identity in
Burma (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian
Studies, 2003). He also edited a series of ten books
under the title of
Peaceful-coexistence: Towards
Federal Union of Burma
(Chiang Mai: UNLD Press, between 1999 and 2006).
He is one of the main drafters of Federal
Constitution of the Union of Burma, and Secretary of
Federal Constitution Drafting and Coordinating
Committee (FCDCC), and Coordinator of State
Constitutions Drafting Process since 2001.
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Victor Biak
Lian
Member
Chin Forum Managing Board |
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Victor Biak Lian, one of the founders of the Chin
Forum, was born in Hakha, Chin State, Burma. He
studied at Rangoon University from 1982-88 and
participated nationwide pro-democracy movement. He
joined the Chin National Front in from 1988-1992 and
lived in Delhi, India from 1992-1997. He was elected
for the Secretary of the Chin Forum from 1998 to
2006. He is one of the Board of Directors of the
Chin Human Rights Organization. Currently, he is
Project Officer of National Reconciliation Program,
Board of Directors of Chin Human Rights
Organization, and one of the members of Ethnic
Nationalities Council’s Strategic Studies Committee.
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Dr. Ro Ding
Member
Chin Forum Managing Board |
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Dr. Ro Dinga, one of
the founding members of the Chin Forum was born in
Falam, Chin State. He attended Mandalay Regional
Collage in 1980-1982. From 1982 to 1987, he attended
at Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary
Science, Rangoon/Yesin and earned B.V.S. degree in
1997. He served as Secretary of Chin Literature and
Culture Sub-committee in 1985-86 at Veterinary,
Agriculture and Forest Collages in Yesin. He
established private Veterinary Clinic in rural areas
of Kalaymyo in 1987-1996. He participated in 8888
uprising and became one of the founders of National
League for Democracy Party in Kalaymyo. He escaped
to India in 1996 after his father U Do Thawng, an
elected Member of Parliament in 1990 election and
his brother were arrested by the then Military
Intelligent Services. He joined National League for
Democracy (Liberated Area) and served as Central
Committee Member from 1996 to present. He also
served Secretary of National Council of the Union of
Burma (Western Region) from 1998 to 2004. He also
charged the Democratic Voice of Burma (Chin program)
in 1997 to 2004. He is pursuing Master of Arts in
Political Science at Ball State University.
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Dr. Sui Khar
Member
Chin Forum Managing Board
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Pu Thang Nang Lian
Thang
Member
Chin Forum Managing Board |
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Pu
Thang Nang Lian Thang, one of the Chin Forum
Managing Board Members was born in Tedim, Chin
State, Burma. He was Vice-Chairman of the Zomi
Siamsin Pawlpi; General Secretary of the Chin
Literature and Cultural Committee; Joint Secretary
of the Central Executive Committee of Nationalities
Literature and Cultural Committee (Universities –
Rangoon); one of the 11 leaders from the Philosophy
Department involved during the U Thant Strike in
1974; member of the Chin Social Association (Greater
Rangoon) which led the Chin National Day celebration
as the General Secretary of the Celebration
Committee in 1977 in the midst of the military
junta’s ultimatum in objection; received his MA in
Philosophy from Rangoon Arts and Science University
and was Revenue Officer and later promoted to
Assistant Deputy Director of the Internal Revenue
Department in Rangoon. He actively involved during
the nation wide democracy uprisings and was one of
the founders and Chairman of Chin National Union
(which was later defunct); and also one of the
founders of Chin National League for Democracy; and
Zomi National Congress. Currently, he is Chairperson
and founder of Chin National Community – Japan (CNC-Japan)
and Chairperson of the Association of United
Nationalities in Japan (AUN-Japan). Together with
his wife, Man Ngaih Hau, publishes of monthly
bulletin known as Myanmar Christian Bulletin. He is
a steering committee member of the People Forum of
Burma (PFB) in Japan. |
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Dr. Salai Ngun C.
Lian
Member
Chin Forum Managing Board |
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Salai Ngun Cung \Andrew\ Lian, one of the Chin Forum
Managing Board Member is born in East-Maraland, Chin
State. In 1996, he received a Burmese Refugee
Scholarship from the United States Information
Agency and earned his BA in International Economics
and Cultural Affairs from Valparaiso University and
his LL.M from the IU School of Law – Bloomington in
2001. He has been a James J. Robinson Fellow for
Graduate Legal Studies; an Earl Snyder Visiting
Scholar at Lauterpatch Research Center for
International Law at University of Cambridge; a
summer visiting fellow at Solomon Asch Center for
Studies of Ethnopolitical Conflict at University of
Pennsylvania; and a research Fellow at Center for
Constitutional Democracy in Plural Societies at IU
School of Law. He is one of the Technical Advisory
Member of the Federal Constitution Drafting and
Coordinating Committee, legal consultant of the Chin
Human Right Organization. He earned his Doctor of
Juridical Science (SJD) degree at the Indiana
University School of Law—Bloomington in May 2007.
His dissertation titled, “Ethnopolitical Conflict,
Constitutional Crisis, and Federalism Discords in
Contemporary Burma.” |
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