CPPSM Newsletter excerpts

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Burmese Relief Center--Japan
DATE:March 17, 1995
TIME: 9:46PMJST
SUBJ: CPPSM Newsletter excerpts

SLORC CONSCRIPTS THOUSANDS FOR FRONT-LINE PORTERING LABOUR
Committee for Publicity of People's Struggle in Monland

The ruling Burmese military regime, State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC) has been capturing civilians
living in Mon State and Karen State for the recent months in
order to use them as front-line portering labour and as
human shield in its ongoing major military offensive against
the ethnic Karen armed opposition, Karen National Union
(KNU).  SLORC is still continuing its massive-scale
conscription of civilians in the regions.  Probably SLORC
may also launch a major military offensive against the ethnic
Mon armed opposition, New Mon State Party (NMSP)
during this dry season.

More than five thousand civilian men are estimated to have
been forced into front-line portering labour by SLORC since
its restart of its major military offensive against the KNU
Headquarters at Manerplaw.  SLORC succeeded in
capturing the Karen Headquarters Manerplaw on 26th
January this year by capitalizing an earlier internal conflict
within the KNU, breaking by itself its previously declared
unilateral halt of military offensive against the KNU.  Now
SLORC has even extended its intensive offensive operations
to several other bases of the KNU including Kawmoora
camp, using massive-scale forced portering labour. 
SLORC's several infantry battalions in Mon State and Karen
State have been capturing civilian men living in both cities
and villages across the regions to use them as front-line
porters.  The local SLORC battalions in these two regions
have reportedly been instructed by the Southeastern Military
Command of SLORC to recruit another 3,000 to 5,000
porters.  By its current massive scale conscription of porters,
it is clear that SLORC is preparing to continue its military
offensive against the KNU and probably to launch a new
offensive against the NMSP as well if NMSP does not
resume its previous cease-fire negotiations with SLORC.

On 14th January of this year, some three hundred SLORC
troops from the local 207th and 208th battalions entered
Kyaw Inn Hseikyi town in Karen State and at random seized
and took away more than nine hundred civilian men from
several public places such as streets, markets, cinemas,
railway and bus stations, etc.  At the same time, the 62nd
battalion similarly seized and took away more than one
hundred men from Mon State's Thanbyuzayat town and the
surrounding villages.  The 62nd battalion, in combination
with the local 209th battalion, again seized and took away
hundreds of men from Mon States Mudon town and
surrounding villages on 23rd January.  The 62nd battalion
again seized and took away more than one hundred men on
Kyauktalone Hill in Mudon township during the spirit-worshiping yearly Kyaukta
lone Hill festival on 25th
January.  SLORC's infantry battalions in other parts of Mon
State and Karen State have also been recruiting massive
portering labour at the same time.

Over the reason years, the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council has successfully persuaded many of the
ethnic armed opposition groups in the country into signing
its divisive cease-fire terms.  But the KNU and NMSP the
two main ethnic armed opposition groups which are active in
the Burma=Thailand gas pipeline project areas, have not
entered into cease-fire deals with SLORC so far.  On the
other hand, both the KNU and the NMSP have respectively
threatened to sabotage the gas pipeline. More recently, the
Burmese SLORC regime has signed a 30 year term gas trade
agreement with the Thai government, ensuring to export the
massive natural gas available in Burma's Martaban Gulf to
Thailand's Kanchanaburi province via the planned pipeline. 
In the name of the gas pipeline's security, for the recent years
the SLORC regime has seriously tried to persuade the KNU
and NMSP into its divisive cease-fire terms.  But, now the
SLORC regime is likely to have stopped its cease-fire offers
to the KNU by capturing the KNU Headquarters Manerplaw
and continuing its military offensives against the remaining
other KNU bases.  SLORC's infantry battalions in many
parts of Mon State and Tenasserim Division have also
intensified their offensive attacks against the local Mon
guerilla forces.


SLORC CONTINUES MASSIVE-SCALE USE OF
UNPAID FORCED LABOUR ON YE-TAVOY
RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION

Mon State and Tenasserim Division

The construction of the 110 mile long railway route, which
connects Mon State's southernmost town Ye and Tenasserim
Division's capital Tavoy, has been restarted by the ruling
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) since
the beginning of this dry season in November, 194.  SLORC
has forced tens of thousands of local inhabitants against their
will into unpaid labour since the restart of the railway
construction, though it consistently claims that the labour is
voluntary and the labourers are paid.  As a result, thousands
of local inhabitants -- especially of ethnic Mon, Karen and
Tavoyan -- have again abandoned their homes and fled away
in order to escape the arduous labour.

For the seven months during the 1993-1994 dry season,
estimated total 150,000 men and women from 150,000
households were subjected to the unpaid forced labour on the
construction of the Ye-Tavoy railway.  A total or not less
than 150,000 local people are estimated to be involuntarily
contributing their manual labour for the construction of the
railway for the seven months of this dry season, counting
from November 1994 to June 1995.  There are a total of
seven townships which have been required to contribute
labour for the railway construction -- namely Ye,
Thanbyuzayat and Mudon townships in Mon State as well as
Yebyu, Thayet Chaung, Launglon and Tavoy townships in
Tenasserim Division respectively.

Ye township alone has been required to provide more than
10,000 labourers per day since the restart of the railway
construction in the beginning of November 1994.  According
to a very well-informed and reliable local source, the over
10,000 labourers from Ye township are divided into three
main groups to work at three designated locations of the
railway construction, namely Chaung Taung Worksite,
Kalort Worksite and Koe Mine Worksite respectively The
number of labourers at each of the three main worksites in
Ye township are mentioned in detail in the following lists.

Chaung Taung Worksite
Name of village    Number of labourers required daily
(1) Hnit Kayin village  500
(2) Kort Doot village   500
(3) Lamine village     500
(4) Chaung Taung village 500
Total per day   2,000

Kalort Worksite
(1) Hangam village   500
(2) Kalort village   500
(3) Mort Kanin village 500
(4) Taungbon village 500
(5) Aru Taung village   300
(6) Thaung Byin village 500
(7) Thingan Gyun village 300
(8) Andin village   300
(9) Abau village   300
Total per day   3,700
Koe Mine Worksite
(1) Zibyu Taung village   500
(2) Asin village    500
(3) Koe Mine village   150
(4) Kalagoak village   300
(5) Tu Myaung village 200
(6) Duyar village   500
(7) Kort Hlaing village 500
(8) Thiri Manlar section, Ye town   300
(9) Thiri Nandar section, Ye town 500
(10) Thiri Khemar section, Ye town   300
(11) Thiri Zeyar section, Ye town   300
(12) Yangyi Aung section, Ye town 500
(13) Yanmyo Aung section Ye town 500
(14) Aung Mingalar section, Ye town 500
(15) Aung Thukha section, Ye town 300
(16) Aung Myittar section, Ye town 300
Total labourers per day   6,150

There are a total of 13,150 labourers per day working in the
three main worksites in Ye township for the railway
construction.  In other words, the 13,150 labourers per day
come from 13,150 households is required to provide one
labourer for two weeks' work duty .  The work duty is
rotated within the households of the entire township in every
two weeks' time:   that is, the first 13,150 labourers from the
first 13,150 households on completion of their two weeks'
work duty are replaced by another 13,150 labourers from
another 13,150 households in the township.  In this way the
first group is replaced by the second group, and the second
by the third, and so on.  As far as CPPSM's information. 
The third group is only replaced by the first group again --
never by the fourth group as the total number of households
in Ye township is not likely to exceed 40,000.  In some
parts/villages of Ye township, however, each household may
have been required to serve a time of the two-week duty in
every one month's time.  According to an interview with a
Mon woman from Khorzar village of Ye township in March
1994, her household had already served six times of the two-week duty in the f
ive months' time from mid October 1993
to March 1994.  (Khorzar village -- as being excluded from
any of the worksites in Ye township according to the afore-given lists may hav
e been included in an adjacent worksite in
the neighbouring Yebyu township).  However it may be
slightly different from one part/village of the township to
another.  It is obvious that not less than 30,000 people, in Ye
township exclusively, have been subjected to the forced
labour on the railway construction.

There are altogether seven townships in Mon State and
Tenasserim Division which have been subject to the unpaid
forced labour on the construction of the 110 mile long Ye
Tavoy railway -- namely Ye township, Thanbyuzyat
township, Mudon township, Yebyu township, Thayet
Chaung township, Launglon township and Tavoy township. 
At a rough estimate a total of at least 150,000 people from
150,000 families/households throughout the seven
victimized townships have been subjected to the forced
labour since the start of the railway construction.  Most of
the people subjected to the forced labour are ethnic Mon,
Karen and Tavoyan.  Not less than half of the forced
labourers are estimated to be women, since the men in
numerous households in the region are said to have been
away in search of jobs in Thailand.

The households in Tavoy city excepted, every household in
the entire seven victimized townships, of both towns and
villages, are required to have been contributing labour on the
railway construction on the basis of one labourer per
household.  The people living in Tavoy city have not yet
been required to contribute labour since the restart of the
railway construction in November 1994, but instead are
required to have paid to the authorities 500 kyats per
household per month.  According to local Tavoyan people,
the SLORC authorities in Tavoy city have consistently
claimed that they "will use the money (the collection of the
500 kyats per month from each household of the city) to hire
substitutes for the Tavoy city residents to go and work on the
railway construction".  In fact the SLORC authorities in
Tavoy have not so far hired any labourers to work on the
railway construction as the Tavoy city residents' substitutes,
according to local sources.  Those authorities may probably
have been misappropriated the money for their own personal
benefit.  However it may have been, the people living in
Tavoy city are said to be happy for they themselves have not
been required to contribute labour on the railway
construction in return for their money (500 kyats per
household per month) paid to the authorities.  The other side
of the equation, however, is that those of the local population
who are not residents of Tavoy city have been required to
work proportionately harder and longer to complete the
railway construction in the absence of the labour due to be
contributed by the Tavoy city residents.

The current working conditions are the railway construction
have been as inhuman and appalling as in the 1993-1994 dry
season, according to local people who have most recently
fled to escape the forced labour.  The labourers are not paid;
they have to bring their own food and equipment to work on
the railway construction; they are not provided with
medicines when they are sick  on the construction sites; they
are required to work for ten hours per day regardless of
weather; they are beaten by SLORC's soldiers guarding at
the construction sites if they cannot work to the SLORC
soldiers' satisfaction; they have to hire substitutes for
themselves if they cannot go and work on the railway
construction; they are required to have worked on the
railway construction all through the dry season and do not
have enough time to work for their own living.  As a result,
thousands of local Mon, Karen and Tavoyan people -- men,
women and children -- have fled to escape the arduous forced
labour since the restart of the railway construction in
November 1994.  More than 400 of the escapees have
arrived at the New Mon State Party's Tavoy district and the
Mon refugee camps.  Pa Yaw and Halockhani.  Many
hundred escapees have also arrived at the Karen refugee
camps on the Thai-Burma border.  The majority of the
escapees have reportedly been wandering about as internal
displaced people.