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How Myanmar refugees in India risk their lives to save crops back home

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Thingsai, Oct 15 (EFE/EPA).- Tian Chin is a Myanmar refugee in India who, like many others, is forced to secretly cross the border to save rice crops in his homeland, risking being caught by the army that has unleashed a reign of terror after ousting a civilian government.“If we do not harvest our rice, we have nothing for the future. We will have to scavenge for wild vegetables or beg," Chin's wife Dawt Hnem, 40, told EFE.Her husband and many of the menfolk, who have taken refuge in Thingsai village of the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram, had gone to Fungkah village in Myanmar. (Camera: SANGZUALA HMAR). SHOT LIST: AN EFE INTERVIEW WITH DAWT HNEM, A 40-YEAR OLD WOMAN FROM CHIN STATE, MYANMAR, IN THINGSAI, INDIA.SOUND BITES: DAWT HNEM, A 40-YEAR OLD WOMAN FROM CHIN STATE, MYANMAR.- After the army dropped bombs on Sep. 9, we were very scared. We left our village in a hurry, we did not have time to grab our valuables, we hid in the forest and arrived at Thingsai village on Sep. 13.If we don't harvest our rice, we have nothing for the future. We will have to look for wild vegetables or beg elsewhere.Before my husband left, he told me that he would collect the rice and hide it in makeshift warehouses in the forest since there is no one in our village to stand guard. If you store our grains in our house, the army could come back. They will burn them or destroy them.

Added on the 15/10/2021 14:00:00 - Copyright : EFE Inglés

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