FOCUS A few days ago about 250 applicants for refugee status were at the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pudu. They were all members of the Mizo Association, a group bringing together many (though by no means all) Mizo refugees in Bukit Bintang.

The Mizo are often unknown even among other people from Myanmar. They are a relatively small ethnic group within the large, varied group of Chin peoples straddling the borders of India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Both Hakha and Falam, two other Chin groups, are much more numerous in Kuala Lumpur. However, there are dozens of different Chin groups: so many that in fact the Chins are often strangers to themselves.

A friend once told me that there are probably almost as many languages and dialects as there are Chin mountain villages (some people put the number at around 50). Though no doubt a little exaggerated, his comment is apparently not too wide off the mark. In my experience, sometimes Chins have to resort to Burmese, the official language of Myanmar, to talk to one another. By comparison, the Kachin, the other mainly Christian minority from Myanmar in Bukit Bintang, speak merely half a dozen different languages...