Ye-Tavoy Railway; Part 2

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                    YE-TAVOY RAILWAY REPORT   
                         APRIL, 1994

                          Part 2 of 2

Consequences of the Long-Term Massive Forced Labour

Since the military regime, State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
took over power in September 1988, Burma has been facing an
ever-deteriorating economic crisis. The entire population of Burma have
consequently been suffering cumulative poverty and economic hardship  under
the ever-escalating cost of existence and acute unemployment. Normally, it
requires an ordinary Burmese family to strive hard to earn a meagre
hand-to-mouth living. Under these circumstances, ethnic non-Burman
population, especially those who reside in the rural regions of the country
where armed clashes between the Burmese Army and the armed ethnic opposition
forces have continuously been taking place since the outbreak of Burmese
civil war in 1948, are necessarily to suffer far more serious hardship of
life economically, socially, racially and so forth.

- Black Areas

The rural areas of the country, where combat activities of the armed ethnic
opposition forces are in operation, have officially been declared by the
Burman-controlled central government as "Black Areas"(which means "free-fire
zones") and been targeted for constant military offensives by the Burmese
Army: The inhabitants of these so-called "Black Area", most of whom are
ethnic non-Burmans, are generally regarded by the Burmese Army as
sympathisers and supporters of the armed ethnic opposition parties of their
own races and as such have normally been abused and ill-treated by means of
several types of gross human rights violations by the local Burmese troops
during the processes of their military offensive operations against the armed
ethnic opposition forces: Human rights abuses of the local Burmese military
towards the local ethnic non-Burman population such as arbitrary arrests,
killings, tortures, rapes, forced relocation, forced labour, looting,
extortion and so forth are the order of the day in these so-called "Black
Areas".

And, such rural areas, which are normally under the control of the Burmese
central government but are sometimes subject to the attacks of the armed
ethnic opposition forces, have generally considered as "Brown Areas" by the
Burmese Army. The inhabitants of these so-called "Brown Areas" have normally
been subject to forced portering labour, regular security charges (which is
called "portering charges in civilian term) and etc. of local Burmese
military: thus, the human rights abuses are relatively far less severe in the
"Brown Areas" than in the "Black Areas". 

Again, the areas which are strongly controlled by the government and safe
from any attack of the armed ethnic opposition forces, especially the urban
and semi-urban areas, are known as "White Areas" in military parlance in
Burma: So the population in these "White Areas" are normally free from such
human rights abuses of the Burmese military as in the so-called "Black Areas"
and "Brown Areas".

The population, which are now subjected to slave-labour for the construction
of the Ye-Tavoy railway, are mostly the inhabitants of the "Black Areas" and
the "Brown Areas". Hence, the use of massive slave-labour for the Ye-Tavoy
railway construction is only additional appalling hardship and trouble the
ruling SLORC regime has imposed on the already overcharged and overburdened
civilian population. The inhabitants of both the "Black Areas" and the "Brown
Areas" are normally subject to forced portering labour and the so-called
portering charges of the local SLORC military. The tradition of charging and
forcing civilians for military purposes has been widespread and commonplace
in the country during the course of the age-old on-going civil war.

According to a male villager of Hsinku village, Yebyu Township who has
recently fled from the village to escape the unpaid hard labour in the
railway construction, in Hsinku the monthly portering charge for a household
is ranging from 200 Kyats to 500 Kyats --- this means that a poorest family
is required to pay 200 Kyats per month to the local SLORC military. According
to some people from Lort Thine village of Yebyu Township who fled to the Thai
border during the start of the railway construction in November of 1993,
apart from being required to pay for the so-called monthly portering/security
charges, their village (Lort Thine) with some 80 households has to contribute
15 people a day to work in the Ye-Tavoy railway construction, 3 t0 5 men a
day to serve as portering labour along with the local SLORC troops, and 2 men
a day to supply water and launder for the local SLORC encampment.

- Half a Million Sufferers

Estimated a total of 120,000 to 150,000 local civilian families in the
victimised Ye, Thanbyuzayat, and Mudon, Yebyu, Tavoy, Launglon, and
Thayetchaung townships have been deprived of access to their own jobs to earn
their living as they have for 6 months now been forced into continuous unpaid
labour for the railway construction. Many of these local people have
additionally been forced to contribute their bullock-carts and trucks, which
are the backbones of their livelihood, for the use of the local SLORC
military in construction of a number of local encampments along the railway
line without given any payment. Furthermore, a large area of local farmlands
along the railway has been nationalised by the SLORC military regime for the
construction of the railway and the railway security encampments without
giving compensations to the owners of the farmlands; as a result, thousands
of local people have lost parts or all of their farmlands, on which they rely
to make a living. Estimated at least half a million of local population, who
are members of these victimized families, have necessarily been suffering all
the appalling consequences and aftermaths of the long-going slave-labour for
the Ye-Tavoy railway construction.

Under the ever-rising prices of basic commodities and acute unemployment in
Burma, the regular extortion of portering charges, the imposition of heavy
crop taxes and so forth by the SLORC regime, this entire local population has
already suffered too much. With the addition of grave hardship and suffering
caused by the SLORC regime for the construction of the Ye-Tavoy railway, this
population has increasingly been facing economic insecurity. During the
period the bread winners have been deprived of access to their own routine
jobs, the dependants in their families --- women, children, the old and the
unhealthy--- at least can have risked shortages of food to survive and at
worst can have lost the access to necessary medicine and medical treatment in
case of serious sickness due to no earning for their families --- and may
subsequently have suffered starvation and malnutrition during the course of
the railway construction period.

- Sicknesses, Injuries and Deaths 

Under the appalling working conditions, many of the conscripts daily working
at several worksites along the rail route can have been suffering serious
sicknesses and even subsequent deaths. There have also been some accident
injuries and deaths at the railway construction sites due to the earth
collapse, tool crashes, etc.. Our Staff, however, has not yet obtained a
confirmed number of sicknesses and deaths, following the long-term hard
labour in the railway construction.

According to well-informed local sources, during the first week of January
(in one week's time), some 100 conscripts were officially released from their
construction duty by the local SLORC authorities, following their serious
sickness; and on 10th January alone some 700 conscripts, having been
unendurable to the hard labour, fled away from several worksites. And
according to a villager from Ye Township, in the second week of February this
year 2 conscripts from Ye were killed at one place by the collapse of the
earth during breaking a hill for the railway construction; and the families
of these two conscripts were not given compensations.

Furthermore, the long-going hard time following the railway construction has
from time to time aroused antagonistic feelings between villagers and
village-headmen in some areas, and has in one incident even resulted in the
murder: in Par Chaung village, Yebyu Township, in the third week of February
this year one of the village-headmen was knifed to death by some of the
villagers after having widely been considered as too much sycophantic to the
local SLORC commanders in contributing conscripts for the railway
construction.

- Increasing Economic Insecurity of the Victimized Population

Among the population subjected to the long-term unpaid labour in the Ye-Tavoy
railway construction, the vast majority are simple farmers and fishermen, and
only a small minority are well-to-do merchants. All the families or
households of the population, regardless of race, religion and living
conditions, are subject to the regular portering charges and the additional
forced labour in the Ye-Tavoy railway construction.

Rice-cultivating farmers who form the majority of the local population are
also required to pay heavy taxes to the SLORC government. According to the
existing rice-tax collection law of the ruling SLORC regime, every
rice-cultivating farmers is required to pay the government 10 Burmese-unit
baskets of unpolished rice for every acre of his ricefield a year. A
rice-cultivating farmer must pay the government the required rice tax
unconditionally; this means that even when his ricefield does not produce any
rice due to natural disasters, he must still pay the government the required
rice tax in full; if he cannot afford to pay the required rice tax, then he
is subject to indefinite detention and/or beating by the local SLORC military
authorities during in custody.

The grave abuses of the local SLORC military authorities towards a number of
rice-cultivating farmers in Yebyu Township at the end of last year clearly
explains the meaning of this existing rice-tax collection law of the ruling
SLORC regime practised in so-called "Black Areas". In December 1993, the
SLORC's local light infantry battalions LIB No. (408) and LIB No. (409)
arrested and detained many local Mon farmers who could not afford to pay the
SLORC government the required rice tax due to the destruction of their
ricefields by the floods during earlier rainy season. During that rainy
season, a large area of the ricefields in Yebyu Township were risking the
floods and consequently many of the local Mon farmers could not even yield
the quantity of rice necessary for decent survival of their own families.
Without taking any of these difficulties facing the farmers into
consideration, the SLORC's local military authorities continued to detain the
farmers and accused them of having deserved any encouragement from the
opposition Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA) to defy the government by
refusing to pay the required rice tax; the local SLORC military authorities
also severely beat the farmers during their custody in the local encampments
as a means of extorting the rice tax from them. Having been unendurable to
the continued abuses of the local SLORC military authorities, eventually the
farmers paid off the rice tax in full by selling up their cattle, which is
the backbones of their livelihood, for their release. Moreover, in such cases
the farmers were not available at their homes to be arrested, the local SLORC
military authorities forcibly took away the wives of the farmers as hostages;
and many local Mon farmers who did not afford to pay the rice tax had to flee
from their homes all their families with them and hid in the forest in fear
of the local SLORC military authorities. The 110-miles long Ye-Tavoy railway
goes over 70 miles through Yebyu Town, and the people of this township have
been continuously subjected to the unpaid forced labour in the railway
construction all through the period since it was started in October last
year.

The Ye-Tavoy Railway's Connection to the Gas Pipeline 

Politically, the military regime State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) is wise enough to realise that it will be facing further condemnation
from international community if it stubbornly continues flagrant human rights
violations against its citizens, since the international community has been
keeping a watchful eye on its notorious human rights records since its
seizure of power. Only on realising this, the military regime SLORC has over
the recent period has tried to ease the amounting international pressures by
taking some face-saving steps --- such as releasing some 2,000 political
prisoners, acceding to few international rights accords, calling the National
Convention, granting access to Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to be met by
her family and a US congressman, and etc. --- these steps, which are though
still widely considered as superficial and cosmetic, have been welcomed and
applauded by the international community since they are positive.

Under such these circumstances, logically the SLORC would force such a great
number of its citizens into long-term slave-labour as in the construction of
the Ye-Tavoy railway.  They now face further condemnation from the
international community and this railway construction will not make for any
any considerable encouragement on the other side of the equation. The SLORC's
use of long-term massive unpaid forced labour  for the construction of this
railway has already caused too much of hardship and trouble to the entire
local population, and thus has already contradicted what the SLORC has
claimed itself as "acting in good motive for development of the local area".
This railway, which the SLORC is so hurriedly constructing by using massive
forced labour in the face of further condemnation from the international
community, is illogical to believe that it means the railway itself proper;
it must be connected to other issues from which the SLORC is sure to gain any
crucial advantages economically and/or militarily, which will strengthen its
control of power.

The military regime SLORC, financially bankrupt and desperate for current
reserves since it took power in 1988,  have been selling out natural
resources of the country at a pittance to gain foreign income. And the SLORC
has been using more than half of its income for its military expenditure in
the civil war. The SLORC's foreign debt is estimated at over US$7 billion in
the end of 1993; and the SLORC delegation to the World Bank- International
Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meeting in October of the year is said to have
broached the possibility of an emergency rescue package but was turned down.

So desperate for gaining foreign income, over the recent years SLORC has been
trying hard to sell the natural gas explored in the Gulf of Matarban to
multinational oil companies TOTAL CFP of France and UNOCAL Corp. of the USA;
Thailand, in urgent need of energy for its power plants, has also been
striving hard to import hopefully 300 million cubic feet of gas per day from
Burma through the proposed gas pipeline due to be laid from the Matarban
Gasfield through to its power plants in Kanchanaburi Province. If this
project is materialised, the SLORC will gain billions of dollars a year to
strengthen its military power. The laying of the gas pipeline to Thailand,
however, has not been possible since the pipeline route is necessary to cross
the areas which are strongly controlled by the ethnic Mon and Karen
revolutionary forces. Thus, it is comprehensible to all that the SLORC's
recent offers of separate cease-fire talks to the New Mon State Party (NMSP)
and the Karen National Union (KNU) which control the gas pipeline areas, and
ThailandÕs simultaneous increasing pressures on the NMSP and KNU to push them
into a cease-fire deal with the SLORC are no  coincidence. These three issues
--- the railway construction, the cease-fire offers, and the gas pipeline --- 
are closely connected and harmoniously combined with each other for mutual
benefit --- that is for the safety and security of the gas pipeline.

For the SLORC's part, it is necessary not simply to guarantee the security of
the gas pipeline for urgent economic gains but also to gain control of the
areas for long-term military and economic advantages. The build-up of the
Ye-Tavoy railway will be greatly supportive to all these aims of the SLORC.
The current cease-fire talks between the SLORC and the NMSP-KNU which are
active in the gas pipeline areas, at best, will only bring about a temporary
cease-fire agreement since the SLORC does not accept the political and ethnic
problems, which are the root causes of the age-old civil war, to be discussed
in the cease-fire talks; what the SLORC wants from the current cease-fire
talks with the Mon and the Karen is, like what it has had with other armed
ethnic revolutionary parties, just a truce, not a genuine end of the civil
war or a lasting political solution for the country. So whatever the results
of these cease-fire talks will be, for the SLORC it is always necessary to
strengthen its military, which is its only power base to rule the country, in
this situation of the on-going civil war. To strengthen and consolidate its
military power, the SLORC needs a great deal of capital. Currently the SLORC
is financially bankrupt; so it needs to urgently strive to gain foreign
income in any way or by any means. The proposed gas pipeline project, if
materialised, will be a huge bonanza both for the SLORC and others involved
in it. So, it is urgently important for the SLORC to secure this gas pipeline
to gain billions of dollars of income a year, for itÕs economic strategy to
gain foreign income is, as always has been, only to sell out the natural
resources of the country, no otherwise ways.

According to a most recent statement of Total Company, the proposed gas
pipeline will come ashore between Ye and Tavoy and follow the Tavoy and Zimba
river valleys up toward the border of Thailand and enter Thailand at Ban I
Tong (which is called Nat Ein Taung in Burmese) in Kanchanaburi Province. By
the build-up of the Ye-Tavoy railway and deployment of more troops along the
railway line, the SLORC will gain more control of the areas and in turn can
better secure both the gas pipeline and further foreign businesses in the
areas, such as logging and mining. This Ye-Tavoy railway line will greatly
support the SLORC in deploying troops and providing food, ammunition and
whatever supplies to its troops, and will in turn make the revolutionary
forces difficult to move and operate in the areas. 

Interviewing Victims

Since the start of the Ye-Tavoy railway construction in October and November
of 1993, our group have conducted more than a hundred interviews with locals
from the railway construction areas who have fled to escape the forced
labour. Since they have come not only from different parts of the locality
but also on different occasions, they, understandably, may have experienced
and witnessed differently in detailed terms. However, what they have all
expressed are basically in agreement with each other: Both villagers and
village-headmen are to obey all the orders and instructions of the local
SLORC military authorities in fear of the fines and punishments imposed by
them; the labourers are not paid; the labourers are not provided with any
medicine when they get sick; the labourers have to bring their own food to
eat during working; the labourers have to bring their own tools to work; the
labourers are pressed by the local SLORC military authorities to complete the
defined work for them in the defined period of time; the villagers and the
village-headmen who cannot perform their duties to the satisfaction of the
local SLORC military authorities are subject to any punishment by the
military authorities. 

Two victims telling their story

Most recently, our staff has interviewed two victims of the forced labour
from Paung Taw village of Yebyu Township. The processes of the interviews are
as follows. Interview  1The interviewee --- a 52-year-old male villager of
Paung Taw, Yebyu Township, who fled from the village on 26 February 1994 to
escape the forced labour in the Ye-Tavoy railway construction.

Question: What did you do to earn a living when you were in Paung Taw
village?

Answer: I lived by fishing.

Q:  Why did you have go and work in the railway construction?

A: The local Burmese military authorities required each household of the
village to contribute one labourer for the railway construction: We dare not
refuse the orders of the military authorities and I had to go and work there
on my family.

Q:  Who came to tell you to go and work there?

A: Our village-headmen. They were ordered by the local commanders to urge the
villagers to go and work there.

Q:  Are the villagers paid for their labour?

A: They are not paid. They have to work for free.

Q:  Where did you get food to eat during working there?

A: We had to take our own food and work there. The labourers are not provided
with any food by the authorities.

Q:  How many people from your village have to go to work there a day?

A: All the households of the village have to contribute one labourer a day.
Our village (Paung Taw) has 120 households, therefore a total of 120 people
from our village have to work there.

Q:  How did you go to reach your worksite in the railway construction?

A: From our village (Paung Taw) we walked to Kanbauk village (about 5 miles);
from Kanbauk we went by car to Kalainaung ( about 8 miles); and from
Kaleinaung we went by car again to reach our worksite near Natkyizin village
( some 30 miles).

Q:  Who paid for your transportation to go to the worksite?

A: We had to go to the worksite at our own expense. 

Q:  What were you given to do there?

A: The 120 people from our village, including myself, were given to clear
away all the trees and bushes for (100 x 100) square feet, to remove all the
tree-stumps and smooth the ground, to break some hills, and etc. We, the 120
people from Paung Taw, were required by the authorities to complete the work
in 15 days.

Q:  How did you share duty between yourselves? were all of you required to
work at the worksite? then who did the cooking for you all? was there any
instruction from the authorities for this?

A: When we reached the worksite, we were instructed by the soldiers there to
make 5 persons a group --- one person was to do the cooking for the group,
while the 4 other persons were to work for the railway.

Q:  How many hours a day did you have to work?

A: We had to start working at 7 a.m. and work until 11 a.m., from 11 a.m. to
1 p.m. was time for lunch and a rest, and we had to work again from 1 p.m. to
5 p.m. Therefore, we hat to work altogether 8 hours a day.

Q:  When you got tired during the working hours, could you take a rest for a
while? When the soldiers saw that you were resting, what did they say to you?
did they press you to work on?

A: When we wanted to rest during the working hours, we could. The soldiers
didn't say anything to us. The only instruction of the authorities was that
we must complete the given work in the given 15-days' time, not later than
that time. Since the work required much hard labour to be completed by the
deadline, we did not have much time to take rests during working.

Q:  Were there any villagers who fled from the worksites to escape the hard
labour? When a villager has fled from the worksite, what the military
authorities then do to his/her family in the village? Now you yourself have
fled from your village, do you think that your family in the village is fined
or punished by the military authorities because of your fleeing?

A: Many villagers have fled from the worksites to escape the hard labour.
According to the orders of the military authorities, if a villager flees away
during working at the worksite, his/her family in the village must pay a fine
of 3,000 Kyats. Now I am still worried for my family in the village. I know
that my family have no money. So I am not sure if any member of my family is
arrested and detained by the military authorities, for  they can not afford
to pay the fine.    (The interview 1 finished.)Interview  2The interview ---
a 19-year-old female villager of Paung Taw, Yebyu Township, who was 5 months
pregnant when she fled the village on 26 February 1993 alongside her husband
together with the above interviewee to escape the hard labour in the
construction of Ye-Tavoy railway.

Q:  What did you do to earn your living when you were at Paung Taw village?

A: Like most people in the village, my family lived by fishing.

Q:  You are 5 months pregnant; why did you have to go to work in the railway
construction?I  worked on my family because at the same time my husband had
to go and work on his elder sister's family, for her husband was then ill and
not able to go and work on his own family.

Q:  What did you have to do at the railway worksite? did you have to do the
same work with the men?

A: Yes, normally the women had to do the same work with the men. Since 5
persons had to form a group and work together in one place, if the group had
only one woman, the woman did the cooking for the group and the 4 men went to
work for the railway. But if the group had more than one women, one of the
women did the cooking and all the rest 4 persons had to go and work for the
railway. But this is only our own way of distributing duty between men and
women; there was no instruction from the authorities to distribute duty this
way, what they told us was that we must complete the work in 15 days.

Q:  How many people from Paung Taw village had to go and work at the railway
worksites, how many of them were women, including yourself?

A: Paung Taw had 120 households and 120 people had to go and work in the
railway construction, each household had to contribute one labourer.Among the
120 people working in the railway construction, there were about 40 women,
including some young girls aged between 14 and 15.

Q:  How many days had you worked there before you fled the village?

A: I had worked for 11 days before I fled from the village.

Q:  What did you have to do during the 11 days you were working there? did
you do the cooking or work with the men?

A: I did the cooking for some days and had to work in the railway
construction for the other days. During the days I worked for the railway, I
had to clear the bushes, to remove the tree-stumps, to clean the ground by
sweeping and burning off the leaves, to carry the earth and fill in the low
places, and so on.

Q:  Why did you decide to flee away?

A: We were continuously required to work in the railway construction and we
didn't even have time to do our own jobs to survive. Again, we had to work
very tiredly for the railway. We couldn't afford to work on for the unpaid
hard job and so decided to flee away. 

CONCLUSION

The ruling Burmese military regime, State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) has been constructing the 110-miles long Ye-Tavoy rail route by sole
means of the use of massive forced labour since October in 1993. As it is
already evident, the SLORC has attempted to make both urgent and long-term
economic and military advantages by the construction of this railway. This
railway will certainly support the security and safety for both the proposed
gas pipeline project and further economic ventures in the area, in which
multinational business companies have been and will be involved to make their
own economic benefit. As experience in the past has proved, the processes of
making these economic interests by multinational business companies by means
of closely collaborating with the SLORC have, in one way and/or the other,
always caused both human and ecological disasters in Burma and in turn
contributed to perpetuation of the military dictatorship and the already
age-old civil war in the country ,and to deeper hardship and suffering of the
peoples of the country.

A total of some 60,000 people are now daily being forced into slave-labour
for this railway construction. And since October of last year, estimated
120,000 to 150,000 people, men, women, and children, from 120,000 to 150,000
local civilian families have already been subjected to this slave-labour; and
at least half a million people, who are members of these victimized families,
have necessarily been suffering appalling consequences of this railway
construction. Now the military regime SLORC is still continuing and even
increasing the use of massive forced labour for this railway construction. As
a result, thousands of local civilians have fled to the areas well controlled
by the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and Karen National Union (KNU) and to the
refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border in order to escape the slave-labour
for the railway construction. And the long-term unpaid forced labour in this
railway construction, at the same time, has driven more and more of the local
population to enter Thailand, which though regards them as illegal
immigrants, in an attempt to escape the unpaid hard labour for the railway
construction in Burma and seek for jobs there.

Therefore, now the time has come for international community to make a
concerted effort and pressure the SLORC against its use of forced labour in
the construction of the Ye-Tavoy railway. The United Nations also should pass
a resolution that the SLORC immediately and unconditionally stop its use of
massive forced labour for the construction of the Ye-Tavoy railway: If the
SLORC fails to comply with the resolution and persists in the use of massive
forced labour, then it is in the capacity of the UN Security Council to take
strong actions against the SLORC and rescue these hundreds of thousands of
captives from the continued slave-labour and relieve their families of the
appalling hardship and suffering caused by the SLORC regime.

International governments, human rights agencies and non-governmental
organisations also should put intensive pressure on the multinational
business companies investing in Burma, especially those involved in the
proposed gas pipeline project, to immediately stop their business activities
in the country and to consider for ultimate withdrawal of their economic
deals with the SLORC, for their economic investments in Burma have directly
contributed to the perpetuation of a military dictatorship in Burma, and to
deeper and longer suffering of the Burmese peoples.