Canada: Victor Biak Lian
Victor Biak Lian was in his final year at the University of Rangoon when the uprising began. In the spring of 1988, thousands of students took to the streets throughout Burma to demand an end to the dictatorship. Victor, along with other student leaders, was expelled and the university was subsequently closed.
Victor returned to his home in Chin State in Western Burma and continued to be involved in organizing demonstrations during the summer of 1988. In August, the military was sent into the streets to violently crush the democracy movement. In his home town of Harka, Victor and ten student leaders were arrested and imprisoned. Within hours of the arrests, however, a crowd of 15,000 people gathered outside the jail and Victor and the others were hurriedly released.
Victor joined the underground resistance and for the first time traveled throughout much of rural Burma. What he saw on these journeys stunned him. "People were starving. Entire villages were hiding from the military and constantly on the move. There were no schools, no health services. The suffering was terrible."
Convinced that he needed to tell the world what was happening in his country, Victor applied for refugee status in India. He learned English and along with several friends began to document the situation in Burma, producing reports and media releases. This work led to the formation of the Chin Human Rights Organization, a group that continues today to document human rights abuses in Burma's Chin State.
In 1997, with the help of a Canadian church group, Victor and his wife were re-settled in Ottawa and eventually became Canadian citizens. While working several jobs to survive, Victor continued his involvement in Burma's pro-democracy movement. In 1998 he organized in Ottawa the first international meeting of political leaders from Chin State that led to the formation of the Chin Forum. This Forum has embarked on a long process of developing a new constitution for Chin State in anticipation of the day that democracy will be restored. Victor has traveled to a dozen countries around the world to consult with expatriate Chin communities about the new constitution and develop a collective vision of a democratic future. He has also continued to be involved in helping establish refugee support programs in Malaysia and India.
"I told my mother when I left Burma that I would be back in three months," says Victor ruefully. "But now it has been so many years. Still, I am convinced that someday I will be able to return home and help re-build my country. That is my dream, and my commitment."
The website of the Chin Human Rights Organization can be found at 
www.chro.org/index.php/About_us/9.
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