BurmaNet News: August 24

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BurmaNet News: Wednesday, August 24, 1994

Contents:

1: CPPSM: MORE BURMESE WORK-SEEKERS IN THAILAND DEPORTED TO THAI-BURMA BORDER
2: OMYMU: REPORT TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH-ASIA ON
   RAPES IN THE SANGKLABURI JAIL
3: BKK POST: SOLUTIONS TO BORDER PROBLEMS DISCUSSED
4: NATION: RANONG LIKELY TEMINAL FOR SECOND BURMESE GAS PIPELINE

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CPPSM: MORE BURMESE WORK-SEEKERS IN THAILAND DEPORTED TO THAI-BURMA BORDER

[CPPSM=Committee for the Publicity of the People's Struggle in Monland.
This report is from the forthcoming issue of the CPPSM Newsletter.-editor]

During recent months, an increasing number of Burmese people illegally
working in Thailand have been deported to Thai-Burma border after being
detained in Thai jails.  This is the result of tougher measures taken by Thai
authorities in dealing with hundreds of thousands of illegal Burmese
immigrants in the country. More than 5000 Burmese people have been deported
to the Thai-Burma border in Kanchanaburi Province alone since June of this
year. These deportees have suffered helplessness and hopelessness both
Thailand and in Burma after their deportaion.

Thai authorities have taken a tougher measure in dealing with illegal Burmese
work-seekers in the country. According to deportees, Thai police have become
more serious in chasing Burmese work-seekers and more frequently raided the
worksites where they were illegally employed.  The Thai police have even used
trained dogs in chasing them, according to those who have recently been
deported. Now illegal Burmese work-seekers have found it increasingly
difficult and even impossible to continue to stay and work in Thailand under
these circumstances, according to deportees.

Formerly, majority of those deported Burmese managed to re-enter Thailand by
means of giving bribes to local Thai police and having their co-operation in
return. A minority, however, could not afford the bribes and returned to
their homes in Burma. Now the Thai Interior Ministry has reportedly directly
deployed a large number of new police with a special assignment to control 
the illegal Burmese immigrants in the country, adding up to the existing
police force. And these new Thai police have tried hard to control illegal
Burmese immigrants by increasing arrests in the country on the one hand and
making it tougher for them to reenter the country on the other. This has made
it harder for local Thai police to help stansport any illegal Burmese into
the country.  As a result, tens of thousands of deported Burmese have been
left completely hopeless after deportation --- still no economic and social
guarantee in Burma to return, no way to re-enter Thailand under its present
tough policy, and no safety and security in the deportation places on the
Thai-Burma border to set feet on, too.

Normally, a majority of people deported at the Halockhani refugee camp were
ethnic Mon and the rest included ethnic Karen, Shan, Tavoyan, Burman and
Burmese Indian combined. The local Mon National Relief Committee (MNRC) and 
the foreign humanitarian aid NGO, the Burma Border Consortium (BBC) have
recived the deportees and provided them with food and shelter on equal status
with the refugees in the camp.  The French medical mission Medicines Sans
Frontiers (MSF) has likewise provided medical care for them. The Halockhani
Mon refugee camp has therefore been a secure place for deportees.  This
Halockhani Mon refugee camp was attacked and burnt down by local troops of
the ruling Burmese military regime State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) on 21st July this year, making all the 6000 refugees of the camp flee
into the Thai side of the nearby border for refuge. When this Mon refugee
camp was attacked by the SLORC troops on the 21st July, some 200 deportees
were remaining in the camp and risking the same harships along side those Mon
refugees in the camp.

Following the SLORC troops' attack on the Halockhani Mon refugee camp on 21st
July, the Thai immigration authorities immediately changed the place of
deportation to an isolated Karen area. Some 1000 captured illegal Burmese
immigrants were reported to this new deportation and left stranded without
any humanitarian help until 9th of August. On the 9th August, about 500
illegal Burmese immigrants were again deported to the new makeshift shelter
of the 6000 Mon refugees from Halockhani. And this makeshift settlement of
the Mon refugees has now become the deportation place. MNRC, BBC and MSF have
continued their humanitarian support for the deportees as before.

The majority of those deported at the Halockhani Mon refugee camp normally
left the camp not long after their deportations and returned to their
families in Mon State, Karen State or Tenasserim Division in Burma as it was
too difficult for them to re-enter Thailand. Still, many of the deportees
were determined to re-enter Thailand despite all the prevailing difficulties.
And only those from distant parts of Burma, especially the Shan, remained 
in the refugee camp in a longer period as they could not afford
transportation costs to return home. 

 Most of the deportees have been detained in the Immigration Detention Center
(IDC) in Bangkok, the jails in Samut Sakhon, Pathomthani, Kanchanaburi, or
Thongphaphom. Arrests of illegal Burmese work-seekers have been increased by
Thai authorities and the immigration detention centers in Thailand have been 
overcrowded with illegal Burmese citizens now. And the conditions in the
detention centers are appalling, according to deportees: Detainees have been
suffering no insufficient food, water, space and etc. plus the law of the
jungle inside the jails because of the Thai jail authorities' total
negligence.

In addition, the illegal Burmese people have suffered both verbal and
physical abuses of the Thai jail authorities during their detention.
According to a Mon woman who was detained in the Pathomthani jail and
recently deported to Halockhani, those illegal Burmese, both men and women,
have been forced by the Thai jail authorities to work without payment during
their detention: Men were given to make furniture and women were given to
make plastic flowers. And those of the Burmese detainees who could not work
to the satisfaction of the Thai jail authorities were beaten and kicked.

The majority of those Burmese deported to the Mon area on the Thai-Burma
border are from Mon State, Karen State, or Tenasserim Division who entered
Thailand by way of Kanchanaburi. And the rest are from other parts of Burma
who entered Thailand by way of Mae Sot, Mae Sai, Mae Hong Son, Ranong, or
other areas. According to those Burmese who have been detained in the
Immigration Detention Center (IDC) of Bangkok, those Burmese detainees who
entered by way of Kanchanaburi Province are normally transfered to the
Kanchanaburi jail right on the expiry of their due detention terms and soon
released on the Thai-Burma border and accordingly need not normally suffer
over-term detention. However, those Burmese who entered Thailand by way of
Mae Sot, Mae Sai, Mae Hong Son, Ranong, etc. are normally subject to
over-term detention, because Thai jail authorities have normally
intentionally delayed their release as these provinces are further from
Bangkok and the cost of transportation is more expensive. 

Under these circumstances, those Burmese people who came into Thailand by way
of these provinces are necessarily kept on in detention for 3 to 9 months
after the expiry of their due detention terms, according to deportees.
Because of this, many of those Burmese detained in IDC in Bangkok normally
intentionally say that they came by way of Kanchanaburi Province when asked
by Thai jail authorities though they in actual fact came by other ways, in
order to avoid over-detention in the Bangkok IDC. This is why relatively a
larger number of captured illegal Burmese have been deported to the
Thai-Burma border in Kanchanaburi Province.

Since the present Burmese military regime State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC), seized power in a bloody coup d'etat in September 1988, the
people of Burma have been suffering a complete lack of freedom, grave human
rights violations of the Burmese Army and a deteriorating economic crisis.
Many millions of Burmese people throughout the country have been subjected to
unpaid forced labour by the ruling SLORC regime in several infrastructural
projects. Moreover, civilian ethnic populations in far rural areas of the
country have continuously suffered several types of gross human rights
violations of the SLORC Army such as arbitary arrests, extrajudicial
killings, torture, rapes, forced labour, forced relocation, looting,
extortion and so forth in the processes of its military offensive operations
against the armed ethnic opposition groups. At the same time, unemployment is
widespread and the cost of living is ever escalating in the country. An
ordinary Burmese family needs to strive hard to earn a meagre hand-to-mouth
under the prevailing circumstances.  

As a result, hundreds of thousands of multi-racial Burmese people have fled
the country to escape the human rights abuses of the Burmese Army as well as
the chronic economic crisis. Hundreds of thousands of Burmese peoples are
estimated to have sought new shelters on the borders of neighbouring
Thailand, Bangladesh, India and China. Presently some 72,000 Burmese ethnic
peoples are seeking refuge on the Thai border, whereas hundreds of thousands
have illegally entered Thailand to seek for jobs. 

Thailand, however, has persistently refused to accept these Burmese refugees
to take refuge in Thailand. Instead Thailand regards these Burmese refugees
as illegal immigrants and take a tough measure in dealing with them. The
72,000 Burmese ethnic refugees on the Thai border, included 12,000 Mon
refugees, have repeatedly been subjected to forced relocation or repatriation
by Thai authorities, while those seeking jobs in the country are subject to
arrest, detention and deportation by Thai authorities. The Thai government
has lacked humanitarian sympathy for the plight of the Burmese peoples under
the ruthless SLORC military dictatorship and as such been turning a blind eye
on the man-made pains and sufferings of the Burmese refugees seeking shelter
on its soil. Over 30,000 Burmese women have reportedly been subjected to
sexual slavery in Thailand since Thailand does not provide any humanitarian
protection for these Burmese refugee women. Thailand is not only not a party
to the 1951 Convention in Relation to the Status of Refugees but has actively
pursued the so-called "Constructive Engagement" policy in dealing with the
ruling Burmese military regime State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC).

[This report has been edited by BurmaNet to correct certain grammatical
mistakes.]


**************************************************************
OMYMU: REPORT TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH-ASIA ON RAPES
IN THE SANGKLABURI JAIL

[OMYMU=Overseas Mon Young Monks Union]
Report of two incidents of alleged abuse of Mon-Burmese refugees by Thai
border police.

a. The alleged rape of two Mon women by a number of police officials on
successive nights between June 5 and June 22, 1994.

b. The alleged forced disrobing of 3 fully ordained Buddhist monks by Thai
Border police on June 1.

The alleged rape of the two Mon women took was recounted to us by Mon
Buddhist monks in the presence of the two women who claimed to have been so
abused.  The report took place at Three Pagoda Pass, the point where the two
women were released.  They reported the following:

On the morning of June 5, 1994, at about 6:00am, Miss Mi Kyee, aged 17 years
and Miss Me San Tint, age 18 years, Mon-Burmese nationals, were arrested by
Thai border control police at the T junction (road) near Sangklaburi and were
taken to the detention cell at that place for having illegally entered
Thailand.  The two women claimed they had entered Thai territory out of fear
of possible conscript labour since they had heard that women as well as men
were being used for that work.

The women state that they were held from June 5th until June 22nd.  During
this time they were forced to have sex with five different policemen.  On the
pretext that they were to be questioned further as to the reasons they had
come to Thailand, the two girls would be taken out of the detention cell and
brought to the police sleeping quarters where they were forced to watch sex
videos in the company of the police during which time they were repeatedly
raped.

On the morning of June 21 the two women were informed that they were going to
be released at Three Pagoda Pass.  Instead, they were taken by five policemen
and forced repeatedly to have sex with four of the five police,  this lasting
on through the night.  They were then released on June 22nd at Three Pagoda
Pass.  I witness that this account of alleged rape was given to me in the
presence of the victims by fellow Mon-Burmese monks at Three Pagoda Pass.

_______________________

On June 1st, 1994, three fully ordained Mon-Burmese monks and a novice monk
were travelling on a bus from Sangkhlaburi to Thong Pha Phum.  Arriving there
at about 5:00pm, the three monks and the novice were taken off the bus. 
Because they had no passports or travel documents and were not in possession
of "Thai Monk" identification cards, the police insisted they were not really
monks, even though they had been fully and legally ordained in Buddhist
monasteries inside Burma.  The police then forcibly disrobed the monks and
made them put on lay garb.  The names of the monks are, Phra U Thi Pa, Phra
U Awa bar That, Phra U Eain Daw, and the novice's name is Shin Ok Ta Ma.  On
June 29th, upon learning of their fate, some fellow Buddhist monks came and
paid for the release of their fellow monks who were then sent to the
Holockhani refugee camp.  We ourselves have met the three monks and novice
involved in the sacrilegious act on the part of the Thai border police and
witness that the account is true.

Signed, [The report to AI and HRW-Asia is signed by two monks but their names
are being withheld to protect them from retribution.]


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BKK POST: SOLUTIONS TO BORDER PROBLEMS DISCUSSED
August 23, 1994

Ranong, Thailand
A group of 30 senior military officers, civilian administrators and public
figures of this southern province held a meeting yesterday to find solutions
to the problems at the Thai-Burmese border in Ranong Province.

The meeting which lasted more than three hours was presided over by Lt. Gen
Sanan Kachornkhlam, chief advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Supreme
Command.

The meeting also covered subjects ranging from border passes to fishing
rights and Thai fishermen jailed in Burma.

Lt. Gen Sanan said his trip to Ranong province was to discuss the policy on
the Thai-Burmese border with the Thai-Burmese regional border committee.

A policy was given to the authorities about the opening of a permanent border
pass between Ranong and Kawtaung of Burma, he said.

Ranong governor Chamnong Chaloemchat proposed during the meeting that there
be an increase in the number of border committee members.

He also had suggested that Ranong provincial fishing chief, Phanumas
Sayangkul, be appointed to this border committee as fishing issues are very
important in Ranong province.

Provincial fishing authorities can help solve the problems hampering this
industry, he said.

Col Bovornrat Kachornnethiyuth, commander of the Ranong based 25th Infantry
Battalion, who is also chief coordinator of the Thai-Burmese border in Ranong
province, said that the Supreme Command Headquarters told the border
committee here to strive to maintain good relations between Thailand and
Burma.

He was also told to contact the Burmese military in Kawtaung about organising
a football game to promote good relations between the two countries.

Ranong Fishing Association's president, Charoon Silawong, said he had
appointed to the meeting to follow up several issues and to help release some
400 Thai fishing crews still being detained at prisons in Rangoon.

He also asked the military at the meeting to contact Burma about allowing
Thai fishing boats to operate in Burmese territorial waters.


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NATION: RANONG LIKELY TEMINAL FOR SECOND BURMESE GAS PIPELINE
August 23, 1994
by James Fahn

Burmese and Thai officials have yet to agree on the price of gas to be sent
by pipeline from Burma's offshore Yadana field to Thailand, but it appears
increasingly likely that a second pipeline from the more southerly Yedagun
field will go underwater to Ranong, sources from both countries said
yesterday.

In a speech yesterday morning at Techno Indochina Congress in Bangkok, Prayja
Phinyawat, the natural gas business president for the Petroleum Authority of
Thailand (PTT) said Thailand hoped to be importing 525 million cubic feet
(mcf) of gas per day  from the Yadana field by 1998.

The PTT has yet to agree with Burma on a price of the gas, but a PTT source
who asked not to be named said an agreement was "very close".  He said Prajya
was holding discussions with Burmese officials yesterday afternoon to try to
wrap u negotiations.

Prajya said in his speech that the PTT hoped to import 200-250 mcf/day from
the Yedagun filed  "in the near future." The Yedagun field, southeast of the
Yadana field, lies in the Andaman Sea due west of the Burmese town of Mergui.

A map displayed by Prajya showed three possible routes for the Yedagun
pipeline: one going underwater to the city of Tavoy, then across the border
and linking up with the Yadana pipeline, which will take gas to a power plant
in Ratchburi, another coming ashore at Mergui, crossing the border and
terminating at Prachuab Khiri Khan; and a third coming ashore at Ranong,
before heading north to Bang Saphan.

The PTT source said the Yedagun pipeline would most likely go to Ranong and
perhaps on to Khanom, the site of an existing EGAT power plant, because the
southern region may otherwise face power supply problems.

This situation has arisen because of the decision not to exploit lignite
reserves at Saba Yoi in Songkhla province due to protests by local Muslim
residents, and because negotiations over the import of natural gas from
Malaysia are proceeding very slowly, the source said.

Meanwhile, Thein Oo Po Saw, from Burma's Ministry of Industry, said the
Yedagun pipeline will to "the southern tip of Burma", that is Victoria Point,
which lies across a channel from Ranong.

The site of both pipelines has been a source of controversy, because of human
rights and ecological concerns over their construction.  Environmental and
human rights groups have claimed that building the pipelines will entail the
use of forced labour and the destruction of pristine forests.

The PTT source said the route of the Yadana pipeline had been moved from
Three Pagodas Pass to the Pilog mining area, just south of Ban I-Tong,
because of security concerns in Burma.  He said the next step for the PTT
would be to obtain approval for this route, since it would pass through a
forest reserve and follow a mining road that would have to be widened.

A consortium of Western oil firms--led by Total of France, and including the
US firm Unocal--will take responsibility for building the pipeline in Burma,
since it has the concession from the Yadana field.  The US based oil firm
Texaco has the concession for the Yedagun field.

Thein Oo Po Saw, who is director of Burma's Scientific and Technology
Research Department in the Ministry of Industry, denied that Burma would use
forced labour to build the pipeline.

"It is voluntary labour," he said.  "Myanmar has a long tradition of
voluntary labour, extending back to the old kings.  People don't have to do
it, but they do it because it is good for their villages and towns."

He said refugees from Burma who had fled to Thailand with tales of human
rights abuses while being forced to work on construction of the Ye-Tavoy
railway were either "insurgents, misfits of dacoits (robbers)".

Human rights groups contend that the railway is being built to secure the
Yadana pipeline route.

Thein Oo Po Saw also denied that cutting down of virgin Burmese forests to
make way for the pipeline would have a serious impact on the environment. 
The route through the forest would be 100 feed wide and three to four miles
long, he said, and would not require wide-scale resettlement of local
villagers.

The Burmese official is also an advocate of nuclear power, which he claimed
is "the cleanest industry in the world."


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