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Burma Issues Newsletter Jan 94 (r)



/* Written 10:09 pm  Feb 17, 1994 by tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:soc.cult.burma */
/* ---------- "Burma Issues Newsletter Jan 94" ---------- */

++++++++++++++++++++Burma Issues Newsletter++++++++++++++++++++
                         January 1994
BIN1.94

Burma Issues (formerly Burma Rights Movement for Action,
B.U.R.M.A.) is a Bangkok-based non-governmental organization that
monitors events in Burma with a focus on human rights, ethnic
minorities and the ongoing civil war.

Burma Issues
PO Box 1076, Silom Post Office
Bangkok 10504 Thailand

phone: 662 234 6674


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PROSTITUTION AS A MODERN FORM OF SLAVERY
HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT, JANUARY 1994
POLITICAL PRISONERS
NEWS BRIEFS


PROSTITUTION AS A MODERN FORM OF SLAVERY
Slavery is flourishing in Southeast Asia.  Burmese women and girls
have become a valuable, yet disposable, commodity in Thailand's
ruthless sex industry.  This is the reality revealed by A Modern
Form of Slavery: Trafficking of Burmese Women and Girls into
Brothels in Thailand, a scathing new study published by Asia Watch
and the Women's Rights Project.

The chilling conclusions illustrate the entire cycle of
exploitation, from the initial deception to the disorienting --and
by no means guaranteed-- release from bondage.  Using data gathered
during three discreet fact finding trips, the authors clearly
document the abuse perpetrated by two corrupt systems.  One,
controlled by a network of brothel owners and procuring "agents",
robs the women's liberty, dignity and health.  The other, ruled by
pervasive apathy and complicity within Thai law enforcement, denies
the victims any decent form of refuge, treatment or protection, let
alone legal recourse.

The typical odyssey of oppression begins with the victim's delivery
from an ironically safer existence within Burma's war-torn hills. 
Provoking this descent is an "agent," who essentially sells the
women's freedom with promises of opportunity, as in the case of
this teenaged Akha girl:

One day two women came to the village while "Par" was on her way to
the fields.  They talked to her about how much better it would be
to live in the city and work...Her father wanted to go along as
well, as he was afraid of her being sold, but the two women said it
was not necessary and would be a waste of his time.  The agent told
her that the daughter would be...taking care of children and would
get to go to school.  She gave [Par's] father 800 baht (US$32).

The agents prey on the poverty and naivete of Burma's rural
families.  In almost all cases, agents transfer money to the girls'
friends, families or companions, in the dubious form of a loan or
wage advance.  Whatever the pretext, the women soon lose touch with
their homes, and are told that the initial payment is the basis of
a debt to which they are bonded, and which they must now begin to
repay by working in a brothel.  Though a few are introduced to
servitude by short stints as dishwashers or maids, inevitably the
pressure to clear the debt-- which they have no way to verify or
challenge-- forces them into brothels.

Who can claim to truly understand the degradation that awaits these
victims of the Thailand's predatory sex trade?  All euphemism
aside, once they enter Thai brothels Burmese women are jailed then
raped, several times a day for months or years on end, stripped of
the right to refusal or self-defense.  The debt-bondage is also an
act of rape:

"Tin Tin" was held responsible for paying back the 5,000 baht that
the owner of the Sanae brothel in Klong Yai had given an agent... 
She had no idea when she left for Thailand that she had effectively
been sold into prostitution until she arrived at the brothel...When
she tried to refuse, the owner...told her that with interest, she
now owed 10,000 baht and said, "If you want to go home, then you've
got to work, or you'll never pay back your debt."

Life inside the brothels is brutal.  Beatings, death threats and
other forms of torture are common.  Sanitation is poor and health
care all but unavailable.  Escape is almost always an
impossibility: lone women, illegal aliens, unable to speak Thai,
often unable to point the direction home, have little realistic
chance of survival.  "The owner doesn't have to lock us up," 
explains one woman whose attempted escape was abandoned.
Indeed, one of the most discouraging findings is that many women,
resigned to their temporary slavery but determined to get home, opt
for the quickest way out, embracing the only hope they have within
the brothel system: clearing their debt through having sex with as
many customers as possible.  For most, one day they will be
informed that their debt has been cleared, and they are free to
leave, no richer and undeniably poorer than when they began.  Many
women die or disappear before their debt is ever "repaid." 
What about the law?  After all, prostitution is illegal in
Thailand, as are abduction, rape and unlawful confinement.  The
authors conclude that "Despite clear national and international
prohibitions on procurement and trafficking, such practices are not
only widespread in Thailand, but in many instances occur with the
direct involvement of Thai police or border guards":

"Pyone Pyone" spent three days in Mae Sai...before a uniformed
policeman...drove her and twelve other Burmese girls...to a brothel
in Bangkok.  Their van was not stopped at any of the police
checkpoints along the way.  When she got to the brothel, Pyone
Pyone was told she could not leave.  She said she knew there was no
way to escape anyway, because all the police in the area knew the
policeman who had brought her there.

Some Thai police are also reported to frequent the brothels,
apparently using their influence to help themselves.  In some
cases, police whom the prostitutes have serviced return to the
brothel for a "raid," usually during which only the women, not the
brothel owners are arrested.

Sometimes the raid is a brief hiatus in the daily routine of the
women; they will return to work shortly.  In others, it marks the
women's transfer from one sphere of victimization to another. 
Local jails and the Immigration Detention Center are rife with
abuse and neglect.  Even deportation, perhaps the best hope for
Burmese women determined to see their homes again, is fraught with
danger and uncertainty.  There is no guarantee that the cycle of
abuse will be broken.  Merely being dropped off at a desolate
border offers no security and, predictably, often waiting are more
"agents" with their promises of transportation home or better jobs
in Thailand.

Does Burma seek to rescue its stolen children from bondage in
Thailand?  Apparently not, its response to officially repatriated
victims of prostitution is generally punitive.  In truth, there is
no simple homecoming for most of these women, who bear the physical
and psychological scars of their oppression, and who quite likely
carry the HIV virus.  For those who do carry HIV, the debt that was
arranged to hold them in servitude also incurs a death sentence.

160 pp. Available for $15 ($2.50 domestic or $5 overseas shipping)
from Publications Department, Human Rights Watch, 485 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10017-6104, USA.


HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT, JANUARY 1994

Members of the various ethnic minorities still remain as
unidentified political prisoners in the jails of Burma's
countryside although the release of political prisoners from the
notorious jails of Rangoon have been much publicized.  The release
of any political prisoner is, in fact, simply a cosmetic change to
impress the international community that positive changes are
taking place in Burma.

A total of about 400 innocent civilians are reportedly in the Tavoy
prison in Tannasserin Division, accused by Burmese Regiment No.
(19) Military Intelligence Unit (MI) of being Karen Rebel
sympathizers.  Approximately three hundred are actually ethnic
Karen.  A prisoner recently released from the prison said that an
unknown number of prisoners died during the investigation period.
Some local people testified that this is the result of the MI's
clandestine operation to discover rebel cadres in the region. The
accused prisoners are, in fact, innocent farmers or gardeners who
went to Tavoy garrison town to sell their farm and garden products.
The MI agents also threatened released prisoners to prevent them
from making any public statements.

A Karen official, Mahn Nyein Maung, said that the MI agents'
massive arbitrary arrests are tactically aimed at scaring the rural
people from mingling with any rebel infiltrators coming into the
town.  The MI's isolation of the rural population from the urban
population in the region seems to also be a measure to give the
town an image of having political stability.  The notorious MI
operation is carried out behind this cosmetic image.

The MI has been carrying out the clandestine operation since the
1988 nationwide unarmed uprising.  The most notorious MI agents are
Capt. Moe Thu, Capt. Soe Moe Naung, and Capt. Aye Naing who have
carried out inhuman tortures of prisoners during interrogation. A
number of released detainees became disabled following the torture.
Even in the prison, the MI agents created hated among the prisoners
by forcing senior political prisoners to torture junior prisoners.
The MI thus can easily manipulate the prisoners.  Even after some
of the prisoners are released, they are suspicious of each other.
Consequently, serious distrust spreads out among the community that
any body can be an informer for the MI.  Moreover, the MI often
calls on ex-prisoners to inform them of any suspicious activities
in the community.  Out of fear, the ex-prisoners of comply, and
thus most ex-prisoners are highly suspected by the community as MI
informers.  As a result, some ex-political prisoner abandon their
homes and farms and take refuge in the Karen Rebel-controlled area
to seek some freedom from their fears.  However, even here their
lives may be extremely difficult as they have little opportunity to
gain an adequate income.

In conclusion, the release of political prisoners is simply a
cosmetic change in the country.  Behind the scene, various
humiliations continue to happen and the issue is kept under wraps. 
Although the military has attempted to show an improved image to
the international community and to the special United Nations Human
Rights Rapporteur, undercover human rights violations are happening
constantly throughout the country.  In reality, no political or
social improvements have happened yet in Burma.

POLITICAL PRISONERS
In mid-1993 a group of Americans including, Donald A. MacDonald,
Seymour Halpern, M.C. (ret) NY, and Robert L. Leggett, M.C. (ret)
Ca were hosted by SLORC of a visit to Burma.  One of their stops
was to the infamous Insein Prison in Rangoon which led them to
report that Insein is cleaner than many prisons in the US.  A
visitor's impression, and an inmate's impression of Insein Prison
are vastly different as illustrated by the following story told by
Saw Winston Htoo (name changed), a Karen Christian, who spent three
years as a political prisoner in Insein.  

"My village is in an area that is completely under SLORC control. 
We are west of the Sittang River, so Karen troops have almost never
been there.  I was arrested on October 1, 1989 with some friends. 
We were coming back after driving some bullocks to a place near the
Thailand border so they could be sold.  They weren't our bullocks,
we were just working for the owner.  When the SLORC captured us, I
was just 7 miles from my home village.  There were 7 of us, but
they only caught 5 because the other two ran away.  They accused us
of having no travel documents, and also because we had one or two
magazines which they say are "illegal".

The police transferred our case to the military tribunal at Pegu. 
We were transferred to Pegu Jail and kept there until one day about
3 months later they took us to appear in the military court.  The
judges were 3 army colonels in uniform.  The judge asked us to
admit our mistakes, and we did because there was no alternative. 
He said, "Have you made mistakes?", and we said, "Yes, we have made
the mistake of taking bullocks to sell in the KNU area."  The judge
said, "Yes, this was a mistake.  The penalties are 3, 5, or 7
years."  We had no chance to explain anything, because the judge
said if we prolonged the hearing, our sentences would be increased. 
Three of my friends were sentenced to 3 years each, and they
sentenced me and the old man to 5 years each.  The old man died in
Insein Prison in 1992.

All five of us were put under the Political Prisoners Act.  There
are three sections:  17/1, 8/3, and 5J.  We were sentenced under
sections 7/1 and 8/3.  They sent us to Insein Prison on March 29,
990.  At Insein, we were put in War 5.  I was put in a room 100
feet by 50 feet.  There were 140 prisoners in my room.  There was
hardly room for us too all sleep at the same time.
Many times I saw prisoners being beaten and tortured, usually for
stealing, gambling or quarrelling.  First the guards beat them with
a rubber pipe, and then they took them to the gravel path.  They've
made a gravel path, and they order the victim to crawl along it on
his elbows and knees.  They follow him with 2 or 3 dogs biting his
legs.  To escape their biting, the victim tries to crawl back to
the cell as fast as he can on the gravel, so he scrapes all the
skin off his elbows and legs.  I saw them do this at least once or
twice a month, especially in hot season, because in hot season it
gets very hot and we are all in a very confined area, so there are
more quarrels.

When we had fever they never gave us any medicine.  If it gets very
bad then they send you to the prison hospital, where many people
die.  I got fever but I did not want to go to their hospital,
because I was afraid of their dirty needles and contagious
diseases.

While I was there, about 5 people in my room died.  People who
finished their sentences were released, but more prisoners always
came.  Twice in 1992 and 1993 they announced that they were going
to release political prisoners, but then they only released those
who had no more than 1 or 2 months left of their sentences anyway. 
Since the, there are still just as many new political prisoners
arriving as ever before.  Whenever any room is available, more
prisoners come in, both political and others.  Nothing as all has
changed since I first arrived there.

We sometimes heard that foreigners were coming to see the fail and
the prisoners' conditions.  When this happened, the officials did
not show them our wards; they showed them the wing which is used
for training jail administration workers.  The trainees put on
convicts' dress and were presented to them as prisoners.  The beds,
mosquito nets and blankets that were shown to the foreigners are
not for prisoners, they are for jail system trainees.  On the beds
in the prison hospital, they were only shown those men who had paid
500 kyats or more to bribe the doctor to let them take a rest in
the hospital.  These men were not really sick.  All the real
patients had been moved back into the cells with us two or three
days ahead.  Then after the guests left, they were called back to
the hospital.  I don't know if any of them got worse or died
because of this.

In my room there were 7 monks.  All of them were political
prisoners, and all had been forced to disrobe.  When they were
first captured, the soldiers just took their robes and forced them
to put on civilian prison clothes.  In the prison all of them kept
on practicing as monks, and only eating one meal a day, but the
guards treated them the same as everyone else.  There is a group in
the prison which is responsible for keeping all the prisoners; hair
cut, but the guards would not allow the monks to shave their heads.
All of the monks had been in Insein since 1991, sentenced under
section 5J for signing the monks' boycott petition.  There were
also 3 senior reverend monks who had refused to disrobe.  They were
kept all in one cell in a part of the prison separate from us.  I
heard that a warder said to them, "You can not go on like monks -
we treat everyone equally here."  So one of the reverend monks
said, ":If that's so, then let us see you treat your mother and
sisters the same way as you treat us."

I was released on October 19, 1993 because I finished my term.  If
a man is sentenced by a civil court to 5 years, then he can leave
after three and a half.  But I was sentenced by a military
tribunal, so the 6 months I spent in custody before my trial were
not counted towards my sentence, and they held me for 4 years
altogether.  I was not released as part of any amnesty, but because
I had served my whole timer.  It is the same with all the political
prisoners they release."
Source:
Karen Human Rights Group, 931205


ECONOMICS AND REFUGEES

Gas Pipeline

Ye Phyu Township is a small strip of land bounded by the Mataban
Gulf on the west and Thaitan territory on the east.
According to an agreement made by Burma/Thai energy officials in
1992, a pipeline to carry gas from the Gulf of Mataban to Thailand
will pass through Ye Phyu.  Work on the project has already
started.  Pipes and machinery have been brought in and road
construction using human forced labor is in progress.  Villagers
are also being displaced by this project.

A local source said that the pipeline will start on the shores of
the Mataban Gulf, passing through Paungdaw, Kanbauk, Kaung Hmu, In-
ta-ya-go and Michaung Hlaung villages, and then enter Thailand at
Nat-en-taung village.

In a recent interview, Sgt Soe Mo of Burmese Regiment 409 said, "I
spent a week in Nat-en-taung around March 3, 1993 to assist a
mission of the Myanmar Oil and Mineral company.  Then in April, I
served as one of the military guard for two Frenchmen who were
visiting Phaungdaw.  They also visited Kanbauk and Wa Myauk. 
During the journey I saw them reading a map of the area.  They
stayed only two days in the battalion and then left.  My battalion
commander told us that they had come to study the route of the gas
pipeline.  One of the Frenchmen spoke English and he said that he
had previously been a Lt. Col in the French army.  We do not know
to which oil enterprise he belonged."

Burmese military activity throughout the area has increased during
the past year.  Infantry Regiments 406, 407, 408, 409, and 410 have
been brought in to reinforce the units already in place.  Regiment
408 is located at Na-en-taung and will be replaced in February. 
These regiments are changed ever three to four months.  This is
probably to prevent the soldiers from getting to familiar with the
situation, or with the villagers living in the area.
The pipeline itself is said to be a project of the Total Company
which is a conglomerate of French, American and Japanese companies,
although there is no real evidence proving who has signed
construction contracts.  One source in the area claims that
construction of the pipeline is being assisted by an Australian
engineering company called CMPS&F PTY Limited.  A spokesperson for
the company denied the claim, saying "We are not involved on a gas
pipeline in Southern Burma."
Access into the area is extremely difficult, making data gathering
nearly impossible.  However, the increased military activity in the
area, and the increased flow of refugees out of the area, suggests
that something requiring good security is definitely taking place. 

A gas pipeline will mean increased human rights abuses for the
people living there, as well as increased environmental damage.  A
villager from Kanbauk Village said, "I have seen many pieces of
pipes and devices of machines and appliances openly put in
Phaungdaw village.  The road from Kanbauk to Paungdaw has also been
made into an all-weather highway.  Villagers are forced to work on
this road."

Since 1992, villagers in Michaung Hlaung, Shwetapi, Yabu, Lauk
Thaing and Hnau Gye have continually faced relocation and forced
labor.  At least 1,159 villagers finally fled to Thailand to seek
refuge.  As the pipeline progresses, more refugees will probably
head for Thailand to escape a life of total uncertainty.
"Some soldiers from Regiment 409 and 410 told us that this pipeline
will pass through our village and so we have to dismantle our
temple, but we haven't done it yet.  It is more possible that all
of our fruit gardens will be destroyed without compensation.  Only
now we come to know that this pipeline is the main reason."  (a
villager from Michaung village)

"Close to Na-en-taung, three refugee camps have been shifted and
burned down frequently.  I had just been here a little over one
year and know that these camps had to be relocated three times
already.  In doing so, clinics and schools were closed down.  We
had to confront health problems many times.  The SLORC soldiers
sometimes demanded us to do portering.  Sometimes they may demand
porter fees.  Yet, to stay in the camps is far better than staying
under the direct control of the SLORC regime.  We have learned that
these camps have been shifted because the SLORC army would like the
public to stay farther from the pipeline."  (villager from Ah Le
Sto camp).

"I arrived in this refugee camp in early 1993.  We could no longer
stay in our village as it was displaced.  The old village will now
look like just a semi-forest.  Eleven houses were burned down. 
Before coming here I stayed in the relocation camp.  We could go
out only in the day time.  In forced labor we were asked to do
manual labor such as digging ditches for bunkers.  The work started
from 6 am to 11 am, and again from 1 pm to 4 pm.  Among 400
laborers, there were 11 women."

The gas pipeline will perhaps benefit SLORC economically, and
Thailand will get much needed gas to keep their industrial
development running, but the villagers living along the route of
the pipeline can expect only added misery as they are moved from
place to place, and forced to labor long and hard hours on a
project which they neither want nor will benefit from. 
Source:
KNU, Mergui/Tavoy District

NEWS BRIEFS

Prayer Breakfast

David Abel, a member of the Burmese military regime, is due in
Washington DC on February 4.  He currently holds the post of
minister for planning and finance in the SLORC.

Abel plans to attend a national prayer and breakfast meeting at the
Washington Hilton and is expected to make political gains out of
the event.  It is ironic that Abel, who is a Christian, never
attempted to stop his own regime from destroying Christian churches
and villages, and from confiscating Christian land in Demoso, Moe
Bye, Loikaw and Phruso Townships in 1992-93, but now feels pious
enough to come and attend a prayer meeting in the United States.
It is reported that his visit is sponsored by Senator Howell Haflin
(D) of Alabama. (NCGUB-USA Office)
Respect for Elections

Sqn Ldr Prasong (Thai Foreign Minister) said Thailand had a policy
of non-interference in the internal affairs of Cambodia.
"We have our firm policy and we have stated all along that we
recognize the elected government in Cambodia as the legitimate
government," he said. (TN /12/93)

However, Thailand, along with most other countries around the
world, has refused to recognize the results of Burma's 1990
elections in which the National League for Democracy won a
landslide victory.  Following the elections, the military regime
refused to turn over power, yet enjoys being related to by most
countries as though they are the legitimate rulers of the country.
Burma/Bosnia

"There are today two diametrically opposite ways of looking at the
situation in Burma, and to predict what will happen in this
troubled country over the next few years.  The Slorc maintains that
it has to remain in power to prevent Burma from becoming "another
Bosnia."  Significantly, Burmese television shows more footage from
the conflict in what was Yugoslavia than most other TV networks in
the region, and the message is clear:  is this what you want?
Another point of view is held by dissidents such as Harn Yawnghwe,
the son of Burma's first president, Sao Shwe Thaike.  Arguing that
the legacy of decades of repression and misrule - not democracy or
a more open society - is the reason for the present chaos in
Bosnia, he says:  "Burma will definitely become an Asian Bosnia if
Slorc is allowed to continue terrorizing the Burmese people." 
(Bertil Lintner, TT 940115)