Mon Information April 6 1995

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		THE NATIONAl COUNCIL OF MON   
                  M0N INFORMATION SERVICE
		      APRIL 6 1995


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1. WHO ARE THE MONS?

2. MON ORGANIZATIONS

3. "THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT"  BANGKOK POST MARCH 11 1995

4. THE MON NEGOTIATION TEAM WILL SOON LEAVE FOR TALKS WITH SLORC.


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1. WHO ARE THE MONS?

Concentrated between Burma and Thailand, there are an estimated 8 million 
Mons in the world today. Yet, their rights often go unrecognized. Like 
many indigenous peoples of this region, for the past forty years the 
central government in both Rangoon and Bangkok have ignored and attempted 
ethnocide of the Mon people -- who were the orignial inhabitants in the 
Burmese-Thai region. The Mon language is a distant relative of the Khamer 
(Cambodia) langauge group, having no similarities with Burmese and the 
Burmese alphabet is based on the Mon alphabet. 

After successive waves of Burman and Thai immigrations from the north in 
the last milenia, and after repeated attacks the kingdom of the peaceful 
Mons was defeated in 1757 and the higher culture taken as war booty to 
upper Burma by the Burmese king and many hundred thaunsand of Mon jhad 
been facing genocide. Meanwhile, in Thailand Mons were given speical 
areas to live and found sympathetic favor under the Thai king, himself a 
descendent of the Mons, mostly in areas around Bangkok's main river.

Present Situation

Today, however, the situation is radicaly different with assimilation 
rampant on both sides of the border. Centralization and capitalism are 
working hand in hand to annihilate all indigenous peoples. A planned gas 
pipeline from Burma's Gulf of Martaban will dissect Monland on its way 
into energy-strapped Thailand, and so foriegn policy in the era of 
"constructive engagement" does not favor the Mon people (as was seen by 
the recent Halockhani attack by SLORC troops and the Thai starving out of 
the refugees to return across the border). 

The refugee situation is increasing due to forced labor on 
"infrastructure" projects in the area, such as the gas pipeline and the 
110 miles long dead Ye-Tavoy railway construction. Villages regularly 
undergo forced relocation while harrassment, violence and pillaging 
continue under SLORC's reign of terror. Also, many Mons have been 
targetted for arrest in the Sangkhlaburi area and Kanchanaburi District, 
which is viewed as an attempt by the Thais to put pressure on the  New 
Mon State Party to sign a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military 
junta. 

One of the biggest problems for the Mon people is recieving outside 
information and spreading out inside information to international 
communities. 

Approximately 50-60% of the Mon people cannot read or write in Burmese, 
and less are able to use English. Thus access to much information is 
prohibitive, especially about health care, politics and international 
news. This is in addition to strict censorship controls and added ethnic 
suppression by the Burmese junta.  

For  more information on the Mon, Please contact    

MIS   (NCM)
GPO Box. 375
Bangkok 10501
Thailand.


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2. MON ORGANIZATIONS.


The New Mon State Party  (NMSP):  Fighting against Burmese military junta  
                                  by both arm struggle and political activi-
				  ties;

Mon National Relief Committee MNRC : Working for Mon refugees in the 	
				     Thai-Burma border;

Committee for Publicity of People Struggle in Monland (CPPSM) : Mon Human 
								Rights Group;



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3. "THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT" March 11, 1995 THE SUNDAY MAGAZINE, BANGKOK POST



The Mons are a beleaguered minority in Burma, but once they ruled the 
country and more. They're down now, but ask any of them and they'll tell 
you, they will be back.	STORY AND PICTURES BY VINAI DITHAJOHN
 
PICTURES ; 1. THE MONS CELEBRATING THEIR NATIONAL DAY WITH AN HOURNOUR 
GUARD MADE UP OF YOUNG MON MEN AND WOMEN,	2, A YOUNG MON WOMEN 
SOLIDER, READY FOR SURVING FOR MON FREEDOM,		3, MON TEENAGERS 
DANCING TO THE STEPS OF ROCK MUSIC RAISE A CLOUD OF DUST THAT ALMOST 
HIDES THEM FROM SIGHT,  	 

The Burmese are very frightened of the Mons," insists Nai Shwe Kyin, 
president of the Mew Mon State Party in Burma. "Don't forget, at an 
earlier time in history, the Mon kingdom was larger than Burma is now."

As he spoke of the glorious past, Nai Shwe Kyin was sitting in the yard 
surrounding the small hut that serves as his residence in a military area 
deep in the jungle near the Tenessarim Mountain range on the Thai-Burmese 
border. The greatness of the Sawadee Period is long gone, but the Mon 
people are still a strong presence in Burma.

They occupy a small state near the Thai border, and are active opponents 
to Burma's military government. At present, the hostility that exists 
between Rangoon and the Mons is threatening to erupt once again into 
fighting_the latest episode in a continuing war that shows no signs of 
ever reaching a conclusion.

"We believe a time will come when the Mon people will regain the 
greatness of the past," says Nai Shwe Kyin." It's predicted in the  
'Mengjen'. We look at that chronicle the way westerners look at the works 
of Nostradamus.

"It says, 'When the Golden Hong (a legendary bird ridden by Brahma) is 
powerful, it will be pursued and killed by the Forest Hunter. Then the 
Hunter will be burned to death by the Sun. The heat will be extinguished 
by the Lion. The Lion will raise a Pea-cock, and the Peacock will give 
birth to another Hong'."

The meaning of this prophesy can be learned by decoding its symbolism. 
The time "when the Golden Hong is powerful" alludes to the period when 
the Mon people ruled Hongsawadee and all of present-day Burma(the Hong is 
the symbol of the Mon nation). The Forest Hunter who kills the Hong is 
the Burmese from Mukchobo who defeated the Mons (the actual Forest Hunter 
is Along Phya, the Burmese dynasty that burned both Hongsawadee and 
Ayutthaya).

The Hunter being burned by the Sun refers to the occupation of Burma 
during the Second World War by the Japanese, whose flag depicts the sun. 
The Lion that comes in and dispels the heat is England, which got the 
Japanese out of Burma. The Lion raising the Peacock is England ruling 
Burma until the country achieved self-rule in 1948 (the peacock is the 
symbol of Burma).

The final part of the prophesy, in which the Peacock lays an egg which 
hatches to give birth to a Hong, means that in governing its populace, 
Burma will oppress the Mons and try to force them to yield up their 
nation and become absorbed by Burma. But the Mon people will band 
together and fight this oppression until finally the Mon nation belongs 
to them again.

Burmese chronicles state that the Mons were the first people to inhabit 
the area of present-day Burma, and were already flourishing there many 
centuries BC. It is thought they descend originally from the Mongol 
Austroasiatic peoples. Mon annals state that 241 years before the 
Buddhist Era, the plain around the lower Irrawadee River was the home of 
the most prosperous and highly-developed of the realms that existed in 
the region during pre-Buddhist times. It was called the Sathoem Kingdom, 
or  "Suthamwadee".

At some point over 1,000 years into the Buddhist Era, on the first day of 
the full moon in February, two princes from Sathoem named Saamala and 
Wimala founded a city on the Irrawadee Plain called Hongsawadee. This 
location was chosen because of the Buddhist tradition that, about eight 
years after he attained enlightenment, the Lord Buddha had travelled 
there to teach, and saw two hong alight on top of a small hill that 
projected into the sea.

Observing this, he stated that the till, which was only slightly above 
sea level, would become a powerful nation that would be a stronghold of 
his religious teachings. Thus, the Mons believe that the Hongsawadee 
Kingdom was the second Mon realm to flourish in the region, and celebrate 
the first day of the full moon in February as their National Day. 

This year, that day fell on February 15. At 7 a.m., when the day was 
still new, the Mon flag fluttered in the breeze as it was carried by a 
procession of Mon soldiers at their base in Burma's Tavoy Province, which 
adjoins Sangkhlaburi District in Thailand's Kanchanaburi Province. A 
cloud of dust arose around the marching feet of an honour guard made up 
of young Mon men and women soldiers whose uniforms were brightened by 
multi-coloured scarves and shoulder bands identifying their units.

They marched in file, carrying their M-16 automatic weapons, their faces 
intense with expressions of determination. The parade included women 
soldiers and students, and was cheered by the crowd of Mons who had been 
gathering at the site since dawn to watch the ceremony and hear the 
speeches of the military leaders who were present.

The scale of this year, Mon National Day celebrations were not as grand 
as in the past when Mon territory extended along the Burmese-Thai border 
as far as Three Pagodas Pass. At that time _ between 1983 and 1989 _ the 
Mon National Day celebrations held at the Pass were festive occasions 
attended by over 10,000 Mons from every part of Burma and from Thai Mon 
communities all over central Thailand.

The Three Pagodas Pass was an ideal location, both because of its safety 
and its geographical position at the symbolic point of union between the 
Mon people of Burma and Thailand.

But in 1990, not long before the Mon National Day celebrations were 
scheduled to take place, three battalions of Burmese soldiers from the 
southeastern region of the country attacked. During the ten days of 
fighting that followed, the Mon military was forced to yield to the 
superior numbers of the Burmese forces and retreat almost to the Tanaosri 
Mountains. Mon villages in the Three Pagodas Pass area found themselves 
directly in the battle zone, and their inhabitants were forced to flee.

In the years since, National Day celebrations have been more modest. They 
are held in Mon refugee encampments scattered along the Burmese border 
with Kanchanaburi Province. The road that joins these communities is an 
unpaved thoroughfare that winds its way through the mountains. It was 
built by wealthy Thai contractors who entered Burma to engage in logging.

>From first daylight on February 14 of this year, Mons all along the red 
dirt road sit or stand on the porches of their houses, craning their way 
to the event. There are very few. At most, there is likely to be a 
pick-up truck rented on the Thai side of the border to bring in goods for 
sale, or to carry rice or other merchandise that villagers want to sell.

If such a vehicle shows up, they are in luck, because they may be spared 
the long trek to the site of the National Day celebrations. If they are 
unable to get a ride, they must make a long and exhausting journey on 
foot, negotiating steep mountain paths and fording streams in the intense 
midday heat of summer and the surprisingly cold nights.

Many of them have already started off on foot, though, because hard 
experience has taught them that it's not a good policy to wait for 
something that may never come: if they waste too much time they may miss 
an event that is the high point of every year.

For those who do manage to get onto a vehicle, the trip is an ordeal: 
travellers are packed into every available bit of space, and others hang 
on so tenuously that it appears that every bump in the road will knock a 
few of them off.

If a centimetre of toehold space remains, if there's anything that can be 
grabbed and held on to, it will be taken immediately. But nobody seems to 
be bothered. Whenever the truck passes a group of people on their way to 
the event on foot, or moves past a cluster of travellers relaxing next to 
a stream, there is an atmosphere of laughter and shared fun.

On the evening of February 14, there are various performances on stage at 
the site of the celebrations. Musicians play, and there is likay and a 
variety of different kinds of plays to watch. This is also an opportunity 
for Mons from different villages to meet and exchange stories and gossip, 
and for young men and women to get to know each other.

The bright colours and brilliant lights are especially exciting for 
people who have to endure the dangers of wartime conditions in a hostile 
natural environment as part of their daily routine.

For the entire night of February 14, the single stage set up for the 
celebrations is constantly in use, with music and entertainment changing 
regularly to satisfy every taste. There are brightly-costumed likay 
performers, traditional plays, songs by sweet-faced young women, and even 
rock music.

The rock music brings the young men to their feet to dance with such 
abandon that they raise a cloud of dust that almost hides them from sight 
and sends adults scrambling with their young children to spots far from 
the stage where the air is easier to breathe. They can return to enjoy 
something a little quieter when the music changes and the dust settles,.

Small stands are set up along the road selling sweets and drinks that 
range from tea and coffee to sugar cane juice and canned soft drinks. All 
that's missing are alcoholic beverages and ice. There is no ice machine, 
so everything is drunk lukewarm.

Liquor is absent because even though the Mon s have their own traditional 
alcoholic drunks, they are subject to arrest if they sell them. Anyone 
who wants to get drunk has to sneak off into the forest to drink on the sly.

If anyone is seen drinking at the celebrations,  or if anyone gets drum 
and starts causing trouble, he risks being locked up in big wooden stocks 
that will hold him fast, to the great amusement of onlookers. 

At dawn on February 15, National Day itself, every Mon dresses up in his 
or her finest clothes.  The women and girls are especially striking. Mon 
women with their magnificent complexions and bearing , are certainly 
among the most beautiful in the world, and on this day they take special 
pains to look their best.

An atmosphere of celebration, with everybody in high spirits, chatting 
excitedly in Mon, fills the air everywhere for the entire day.

But after it's all over, the smiles may not come so easily. Farther 
north, the guns are blazing as the Burmese military continues its 
offensive against the Karens, and the defeat of these allies of the Mons 
in the National Democracy Front (NDF) has alerted them to prepare for the 
worst as the storm clouds of war gather.

Today, however, the Mon flag is waving proudly on the territory that is 
their home.  The image of a hong soaring toward a star embodies the firm 
belief of the Mons that, as predicted, their day will come again. It is 
an ideal that inspires them to continue in a struggle that shows no signs 
of ending happily for them. The splendid mythical bird, which today is 
represented by a greatly diminished Mon nation, asks only to be free.


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4. THE MON NEGOTIATION TEAM WILL SOON LEAVE FOR TALKS WITH SLORC.



A new negotiations will take place between NMSP, New Mon State Party and 
Slorc, State Law and Order Restoration Council, Burmese military junta in 
cmoing this week. The previous talk were suspended by NMSP since November 
last year. This round is the forth time of official negotiations between 
Mon and SLORC.  There are also some secret meeting took place between 
NMSP and SLORC delegates.

	The previous rounds of talking team, however, were led by Nai Tin 
Aung, the NMSP official in charge of foreign affairs, the new team led by 
the General Secretary of NMSP, Nai Rott Sa. He is the third authorized 
person in NMSP and was chosen to lead the negotiation team by the Central 
Committee member of NMSP durinr their emergency meeting which just ended 
two weeks ago. The talk wil ltake place at the same town as previous 
rounds, Moulmein, the coastal city because the SLORC have never agreed to 
talk with the arm-ethnic group in the capatal of Burma, Rangoon. 
	
	Although some NMSP leaders hopefully expected that the SLORC will 
offer more than  the previous rounds, most of the leaders do not trust 
the SLORC. However, all the Central Committee member of NMSP are 
instrusted to stand by at the Head Quarters while the negotiation team is 
away for peace-talk with the SLORC in order to made necessary decission 
urgently regarding the out come of negotiation. 
	
	Both Thai and Rangoon put pressure on the  New Mon State Party to 
sign a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military junta.   Even the 
refrgee camp, which located only 2 kilos far from Thai border was set on 
fired by the SLORC troops in August last year.
	
	One NMSP official who does not notify his name said SLORC would 
ask NMSP delegate to give up the arms this time.  I worried that if NMSP 
reach agreement for cease-fire with SLORC without political settlement, 
there will a new Mon arm-struggle  to be set up and the conflict can be 
occur between two Mon groups, he added. 
	
	In ths new team, there are 5 members including Nai Rott Sa. Nai 
Tin aung Nai Kyaw Soe, Nai Tin Aung, the NMSP official in charge of 
foreign affairs, Nai Kao Rott, military committee member of Mon National 
Liberation Army (MNLA) and official incharge of Military Intelligance,  
Nai Myint Swe, Chief of supply deport (MNLA) and Nai Kyaw Soe, deputy 
commander of Margue district regiment will accompany with secretary gene-
ral of NMSP.
	
	The new team had met with the delegades of SLORC already in 
Bangkok in last week of March. But they have not mentioned the fixed date 
of leaving.

MIS. 3/4/95


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