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Ye-Tavoy Railway, Mon State, Burma




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                    YE-TAVOY RAILWAY REPORT   
                         APRIL, 1994

                          Part 1 of 2

PREFACE BY BURMANET:

This report on forced labor used to construct the Ye-Tavoy Railway was not
generated by BurmaNet, but rather was chiefly written by Mon person who
wishes to remain anonymous.  

The report, which is the most detailed yet seen by BurmaNet, concentrates on
the railway itself.  The use of forced labor on the railway seems to be the
most significant source of human rights abuses occurring in Burma at present,
chiefly because the fighting which spawns even worse abuses has slowed.  The
situation on the railway however can not be separated from what is happening
in the rest of Burma and Thailand and this preface will briefly attempt to
sum up the current situation and put the railroad in its wider context.

As those who are following the situation in the Mon areas of Burma and
Thailand already know, the main armed Mon group, the New Mon State Party has
been negotiating a cease-fire with the Burmese government.  Although the
N.M.S.P. would prefer not to negotiate, realistically they have little
choice.  Pressure brought to bear by Thai authorities has been felt far more
strongly by the Mons than by the Karens or any other group along the border. 

The pressure has taken several forms.  Most importantly, Mon refugees in
camps in Thailand are being pushed over the border into Burma.  The 6000-8000
refugees at Loh Loe camp have been "relocated" to Hlackani, which is on the
Burmese side.  The N.M.S.P. cannot protect these people, especially now that
their access to resupply has been sharply restricted.  In practice, the Mon
refugees in Hlackani have been pushed back to serve as hostages to ensure the
good conduct of the N.M.S.P.  Should they refuse to sign the cease-fire, the
Burmese army is a short walk from the refugees at Hlackani and these is very
little to stop them.

The other form of pressure has been a series of raids the Immigration police,
mostly in Bangkok.  The raids, centering on Wat Proke, which is the main Mon
temple in Bangkok, has decimated the leadership of the Mons inside Thailand. 
Most of the leaders have left to Canada or elsewhere as refugees.  Others
remain in detention and the rest are too scared to be effective.

The reason for the repression of politically active Mons in Thailand and
pressure on the Mons along the border is linked to the construction of the
railroad.  In short, the situation is this:  the Burmese and the Thai
governments want to build a natural gas pipeline between their countries. 
The path goes right through the Mon controlled territories and if the Burmese
can not gain control of those territories, there will be no pipeline.  
To gain control of this area, they will need to establish and maintain a very
sizable military presence, which cannot be done at present due to the lack of
infrastructure and access.  The Ye-Tavoy railway crosses the area of the
proposed pipeline and is being built to allow the access that will be needed
to keep the pipeline secure.  

  R. Strider
  May 14, 1994

Note, the report has been made available in hard copy to the news media and
documentation centers covering Burma.  The report runs to 12 pages and is
published with seven color photos showing forced laborers.  The quality of
the photos is only fair, but that still makes them among the best
photographic evidence existing.

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          YE-TAVOY RAILWAY REPORT   APRIL, 1994.

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Acknowledgements

Research for this report was undertaken by a staff member who must remain
anonymous. This report is mainly based on regular news reports from many
members of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and civilian locals who have been
closely monitoring the situation in the Ye-Tavoy rail-route construction all
through the period since the rail-route construction began, as well as on the
expressions of hundreds of local people who have suffered and/or witnessed
the slave-labour in the construction of the rail route, who were interviewed
by staff members on many occasions during the railway construction period. In
writing this report, we also consulted most recent statements of Total
Company (France), most recent reports of Green November 32 (Burma), and the
news report of Burma Alert dated November 1993.

- The Rail Route Construction in Progress

- Burmese Military Regime Continues and Increases the Use of Massive Forced
  Labour

- Half a Million Local Civilians Suffer Appalling Consequences.


Introduction

Since October and November last year, Burmese military regime, State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC) has continuously been forcing local
inhabitants into slave-labour for the construction of 110-miles long Ye-Tavoy
railway. During this process, the SLORC has dramatically increased the use of
forced labour ---  daily using from about 2,000 people as labour during the
beginning of the railway construction in October and November of 1993 and up
to some 60,000 people in March and April this year. This urgent construction
of the railway is most likely to be part of SLORC's attempts to secure the
proposed gas pipeline to be laid from the gasfield in the Gulf of Martaban
through to the power plants in Kanchanaburi Province of Thailand. Since this
railway construction was started in October and November last year, estimated
120,000 to 150,000 local civilian families  from the towns and villages many
miles around the rail route, have already been subjected to this forced
labour. As a result, estimated a total of at least half a million people who
are members of the victimized families have necessarily been suffering all
the appalling consequences..

- The Rail Route Area

The 110-miles long Ye-Tavoy railway crosses three townships --- namely 13
miles in Ye Township of Mon State, over 70 miles in Yebyu Township and over
20 miles in Tavoy Township of the Tenasserim Division respectively. 

Technical Management of the Railway Construction

An engineering team from Myanmar Railway Corporation is responsible for
technical management of the railway construction. This MRC Engineering Team
is co-headed by Manager U Kyaw Myint and Chief Engineer U Tin Ohn.

The Role of Local SLORC Military in the Railway Construction

The SLORC's local battalions, especially LIB No. (343), LIB No. (407), LIB
No. (408), LIB No. (409), LIB No. (410), regular IB (104) and regular IB No.
(61) are responsible to supply man-power needed for the construction of the
railway by means of conscripting civilians from the local towns and villages.
These 7 local SLORC battalions are at the same time also responsible to
control the conscripts at the worksites along the railway. .

Conscription of Local Inhabitants

In order to complete the making of the enbankment before the start of the
forthcoming rainy season, the local SLORC military have rapidly increased the
number of conscripts daily used in the railway construction. Now almost all
the civilian families in Ye Township, Thanbyuzayat Township, Mudon Township
of Mon State, as well as Yebyu Township, Tavoy Township, Launglon Township
and Thayet Chaung Township of Tenasserim Division are being forced to
contribute labour for the railway construction.

Since the railway is located
in the Mon-dominated area, the Mon form a large majority among the conscripts
working in the railway construction and the rest are Karen, Tavoyan and
Burman people. And most of the conscripts are village people.

Collection of Labour

The local SLORC commanders instruct the headmen of respective villages in all
the targeted townships to provide them with the number of households and
population in each of the villages; having the lists of households and
population in each of the villages, respective local SLORC commanders define
the number of labourers for each of the villages to provide daily. And the
headmen of each village inform their villagers of the instructions of the
authorities and at the same time take responsibility to arrange and
distribute duty among their villagers; and the villagers fulfil the defined
duty for them. 

In fear of any punishments by the local SLORC commanders,
normally it is impossible for both the villagers and the village-headmen to
refuse the duty or disobey the instructions. Every village just has to
provide the number of labourers demanded by these local SLORC commanders. In
this way, the local SLORC military manage to get the number of labourers they
want for the railway construction. 

Moreover, bullock-carts and trucks from the local villages and towns have
forcibly taken by the local SLORC authorities for the use in transporting
wood, bamboo, and other materials needed for construction of bridges for the
railway and local encampments along the railway, the owners of the
bullock-carts and trucks without given payment. According to some escapees
from Yebyu township, on 1st January this year 14 trucks from Yebyu Town were
used by the local military to transport hard-wood for the construction of
bridges for the railway and the owners of the trucks were not given payment.
According to some escapees from Ale Sakhan village of Yebyu Township, on 3rd
December last year 10 bullock-carts from Ale Sakhan were similarly used by
the local SLORC military to transport some hard-wood from Koe Mine village to
some railway worksites miles distant, for the construction of bridges for the
railway and the owners of the bullock-carts were not given payment.

Conscripts Control Centres

According to very well-informed local sources, there are a total of 7 main
control centres from Ye to Zimba, through which the local SLORC military
authorities control conscripts. These control centres are namely

(1) Paukpingwin Control Centre
(2) Kinbun Control Centre
(3) Natkyizin Control Centre
(4) Paya Thone Su Control Centre
(5) Yapu Control Centre
(6) Kyanor Control Centre and
(7) Zimba Control Centre

Each of these Control Centres controls 7,000 to 8,000 conscripts as daily
labour for the railway construction, according to well-informed local
sources. The total number of conscripts daily working under these 7 Control
Centres in March and April this year is estimated to be at least 50,000. And
now, the part from Zimba to Tavoy is also under construction; and probably
more than 10,000 people inhabiting the Zimba-Tavoy-Launglon-Thayetchaung area
have also been forced to contribute labour for the railway construction. We,
however, has not yet obtained a confirmed number of conscripts nor the names
and locations of the conscripts control centres at the part of Zimba to
Tavoy.


Types of Work

In the beginning of the railway construction, conscripts were given just to
clear the foliage to make the track for the rail route and the work at that
time was possibly relatively less hard. Since December of 1993 or January of
this year when the making of the track was mostly completed, the conscripts
have been given more and more laborious and backbreaking work for building
the earthen embankment for the railway as well as for the construction of a
number of local SLORC encampments along the railway line.

For the railway construction, normally conscripts are given to cut down the
trees and clear the bushes, to remove the tree-stumps and break the steep
earthen and rocky barriers, to dig pitches, take out the earth and build
earthen embankment all the way to the width of 12 feet and to a height of up
to 8 feet in flood-risk areas, to fill in the low-lying places, to fall
hard-wood trees in the forest, process them into needed sizes and lengths,
transport these materials to the designated locations by men, bullock-carts
and trucks from the local villages and towns, and construct the bridges for
the railways and etc.

In some areas conscripts are given to clear the foliage for some 100 to 150
feet from either side of the railway track; this is most likely to be part of
the SLORC's strategic planning to prevent the railway against possible ambush
attacks from the armed opposition forces. We have not yet obtained any
confirmed report about procession of sleepers for the railway.

For construction of the SLORC's local encampments along the railway,
conscripts are given to fall trees and bamboos in the forest, cut them into
needed sizes and lengths, make bamboo-netting walls, and transport all these
materials both by men, bullock-carts and trucks from the local villages and
towns to the designated locations, and construct the buildings of barracks,
outposts for the encampments, building helicopter-ports (especially around
Zimba Camp), and etc. 

In the beginning of the railway construction from October to December of 1993
when the  work was only the clearing of the foliage for the making of a track
for the rail route, at that time conscripts were generally given to work by
the day rather than by the piece. According to some people from Hsinku
village of Yebyu Township, at that time they were given to work from 7 a.m.
through to 3 p.m. except half-an-hour brake for lunch. 

Since January onwards this year, the work has generally been to build the
earthen embankment for the railway and construct the buildings for the
military encampments along the rail route; and through this period,
conscripts have been given to work by the piece rather than by the day; and
a defined piece of work must be completed in a defined period of time.
According to some people from Yebyu Township recently interviewed by us,
people from some villages in Yebyu Township have been working both day and
night for the railway construction in order to complete the work more quickly
so that they will have time to do their own jobs.

According to very well-informed local sources, on 1st February this year from
6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. the SLORC's local LIB No. (407), with the 3,500
conscripts from the local villages, managed to complete the clearing of the
foliage for (1,500 x 300) square feet for the railway, the construction of
some 30 barrack-buildings for the local encampment and one helicopter-port
respectively at Zimba Chaung area; on this same day, many more local
conscripts under the control of Zimba Control Centre were given to work at
several other worksites in Zimba Chaung area.

According to well-informed local information sources of the New Mon State
Party (NMSP), on 13th January this year the SLORC's local LIB No. (410)
managed to complete the digging out of the earth for some 2 million cubic
feet, the breaking of the hills for some 410,000 cubic feet and the putting
up of the earth for some 230,000 cubic feet respectively by manual labour of
the local conscripts and for some 650,000 cubic feet by bulldozer-machines in
building the embankment for approximate 1-mile's length at
Natkyizin-Paukpingwin-Payathonezu part of the railway construction; and the
local people had to pay for the work done by the bulldozer-machines by hiring
the machines and buying the fuel to operate the machines from the SLORC
railway construction authorities.

Sharing of Work and Duty Among Conscripts

As the geographical positions of the rail route may be different from one
area to another as well as from one particular place to another, the work is
generally shared by lot both between villages and between quarters of each
village so that a common agreement can be attained among the conscripts.
Thus, villages and households decided to fill in the low-lying parts in
building the embankment or to break the steep earthen/rocky barriers are
naturally necessary to work relatively harder.

In such a large village where the number of daily conscripts demanded by the
authorities is normally less than the number of households in the village, in
sharing duty the turns go in rotation within quarters of the village. For
example, in some large villages in Ye Township like Lamine, Morkanin, and
Kort Doot which have 1,500 households or so each, the number of conscripts
daily demanded by the authorities is normally some 500; and accordingly the
duty turns are rotated within the three 500-household quarters of the
village.

According to some people from Paung Taw village of Yebyu Township, Paung Taw
village (120 households) and its 4 neighbouring villages Hnit Hameng, Mu Chi,
Maong Taik, and Kao Kao (which have around 100 households each) are combined
and made one village-group locally known as Paung Taw Village-Group; and in
sharing duty the turns are rotated among the 5 villages of the village-group.

It is, however, no different in all parts of the railway construction that a
household/family is required normally to contribute one labourer in one round
of duty and each round of duty normally lasts two weeks. Also, there is no
difference in any parts of the railway construction that the work is shared
by the piece and a defined piece of work is required to be completed in a
defined period of time. All the escapees interviewed by our staff have
expressed that conscripts are normally pressed by the authorities to complete
their work within the defined period of time; and it normally requires the
conscripts to work backbreakingly to complete the work in the defined time.

According to a female villager of Hamgam village, Ye Township who fled from
the village in March this year to escape the forced labour, in Hamgam village
all the villagers aged between 15 and 60, regardless of male or female and
how many members of a family/household belonging to the defined age-group,
are required by the local SLORC commanders to go and work in the railway
construction; and since the start of the railway construction, members of her
family including herself had already worked there for a total of more than 80
days (for 6 times, each time lasted two weeks) before she fled from the
village.

Fines and Punishments by the SLORC Military 

Both the village-headmen and the villagers must obey the orders and
instructions of the local SLORC military authorities absolutely. It is the
responsibility of the village-headmen to send the daily required number of
villagers to the designated worksites, while it is the responsibility of the
villagers to complete the defined pieces of work for them in a defined period
of time. Under no circumstances are the villagers or the village-headmen able
to refuse the orders and instructions of the authorities, because both the
village-headmen and the villagers who cannot fulfil their duty to the
satisfaction of the local military commanders are subject to any types of
punishment. The punishment can be fines, beatings or both; it completely
depends on the whims of the commanders. 

According to some people from Yebyu Township who have recently fled to the
Thai border, they have witnessed many incidents that the conscripts, who
could not work to the satisfaction of the soldiers guarding at the worksites
were beaten and kicked; and after having been beaten, those conscripts were
given to work on and on for many more days as a punishment. According to some
other escapees from the same Township, during February of this year 25
conscripts from Talaing Hmyaw village of Yebyu Township fled away from the
worksites and the headmen of that village were severely beaten by the local
military commanders and were also given to find substitutes for those
escapees. All the victims and witnesses of the forced labour our staff has
interviewed consistently described that households which failed to contribute
labour in the railway construction were fined 2,000 Kyats to 3,000 Kyats by
the local military authorities; and those conscripts who were not successful
in attempting to escape were subject to severe beating and detention in the
local encampments and/or to indefinite portering labour until they could pay
the amount of money demanded by the local military authorities as a
punishment to them.

In fear of any such punishments by the military authorities, both the
village-headmen and the villagers are necessary to fulfil the demands and
whims of the military authorities. Households or families which cannot
contribute their own family-members are necessary to hire substitutes in
order to avoid the fines and punishments. The price for the hire of a
substitute is normally 100/120 Kyats a day.

And normally a conscript cannot afford to attempt to flee away from the
worksite even when he/she has the chance to, for fear of his/her family in
the village being fined or punished by the local military authorities. The
escapees our staff has interviewed all expressed similar concerns for their
families remaining in Burma.


Working Conditions

The tens of thousands of local inhabitants, including women, children and the
old, daily required by the SLORC to contribute manual labour for the
construction of the Ye-Tavoy rail route have been working under appalling
circumstances at several worksites along the rail route. As a matter of fact,
they have been subjected to total slave-labour: they are not paid for their
labour; they are forced to work; they are given inhumane hard work; they are
required to work rain or sun; they are not provided with food, they have to
take their own food to eat during working; they have to bring their own tools
to work; they are not provided with medicine when they get sick during
working; when they are not able to go and work, they are fined by the
military authorities; they are subject to both physical and verbal abuses of
the soldiers during working; if and when they run away from the work, their
families are fined and/or detained by the military authorities; they are
deprived of access to work for their own survival; they do not know when they
will be free from the unpaid forced labour.

Normally, the local SLORC military authorities do not allow a conscript who
gets minor sickness to rest from work; only after he/she is replaced by a
substitute he/she is allowed to rest from work. Only in such cases when the
sickness of the conscript is serious, then at the request of his/her
village-headmen the local SLORC military authorities officially release the
sick conscript from his/her constructing duty. It is only the responsibility
of the village-headmen and the villagers to send the sick villager to the
nearest hospital or clinic; and the patient is to receive medical treatment
at his/her own expense. According to a well-informed local source, during the
first week of January this year the local SLORC authorities in Yebyu had to
officially release some 100 conscripts due to their serious sickness during
working in the railway construction; and on 10th January alone, some 700
conscripts fled away from several worksites to escape the hard labour.

SLORC's Statements on the Unpaid Labour

In responding to the condemnation from international community for its
continued use of massive forced labour in the construction of the Ye-Tavoy
railway, SLORC has recently stated that the people who work in the rail route
construction are paid for their labour and that the condemnation is simply
based on make-up stories of the rebel groups which have been attempting to
spread propaganda against it. But this statement of the SLORC contradicts
what its regional commander has said to the local people in the rail route
area. General Ket Sein, Commander of South-eastern Military Command of SLORC,
in his address to local Mon people at Hamgam village, Ye Township, Mon State
during his visit to the area on 21st, 22nd and 23rd of March this year, said
that the central government (SLORC) had supported some money ( the amount of
the money is said to be 30 million Kyats) for the construction of the
railway, but the money was not sufficient and therefore he (Gen. Ket Sein)
had decided not to use the money in the rail route construction, and instead
he would use the money for future development of the area such as in building
schools, hospitals etc.; and the construction of the rail route was
completely to rely on the manual labour of the local people. And the
SLORC-controlled radio and TV in Rangoon have broadcast to the people of
Burma that the Tatmadaw government (SLORC) is "in good motive" constructing
the Ye-Tavoy railway for "easy and convenient travelling of the local
population and development of the local area".

Corruption Among the Railway Construction Authorities

There are reportedly 5 medium-sized bulldozers available in the hands of the
railway construction authorities for hire; any villagers who want or need the
help of these machines must hire them from the authorities with the
additional charges of fuel necessary to operate them. The fuel for sale is
also available in the hands of the railway construction authorities.
According to well-informed local sources, the price to hire a bulldozer is
10,000 to 15,000 Kyats per hour and the price of fuel is 7,000 Kyats per
48-gallon drum.

People from many villages in the victimized townships have hired these
bulldozer-machines to prop up their manual labour; accordingly the railway
construction authorities have made millions of Kyats by hiring these
bulldozer-machines and selling the fuel to the people. According to many
local Mon people interviewed by our staff, many disputes and disagreements
have also caused between the local SLORC military authorities and the SLORC's
technical management of the railway construction over the share-out of the
money obtained by hiring the bulldozer-machines and selling the fuel.

Moreover, the local people also have to buy nails from the military
authorities to use for the construction of the SLORC's local encampments
along the railway line. According to a well-informed source in Yebyu
township, there are boxes of nails available in the hands of the local SLORC
military authorities to use in construction of the local encampments along
the railway line; but these materials are put by the local SLORC authorities
on sale at the worksites. If the people do not want to buy the materials from
the authorities, they must buy from anywhere else and make the buildings. The
local SLORC military authorities have also made money by selling the nails.

These 5 bulldozer-machines, the fuel and the nails are likely to be the only
materials supported by the central SLORC government through its local
military authorities for the construction of the railway and the local
encampments along the railway line. Whatever it has been, it is clear that
even this inconsiderable quantity of material support of the central SLORC
has already been misappropriated by its widely corrupt and unscrupulous local
military authorities and technical management of the railway construction for
their personal benefit.

At the same time, the rank-and-file soldiers of the local SLORC battalions
are also widely involved in taking bribes from the people. According to a
male villager from Yebyu Township, in his area households which do not want
to work in the railway construction can be free from their construction duty
by means of giving bribes to the soldiers guarding at the worksites. In
return for the bribes, the soldiers, changing to civilian clothes, jump the
queue for the bribe-givers at the time while their captains are counting
heads and calling names of the conscripts.

Continued in part two.