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LETTER TO U.N.SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR(7/



Subject: LETTER TO U.N.SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR(7/9/94) REPOSTED.

/* Written 17 July 6:00am 1995 by DRUNOO@xxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:reg.burma */
/* ----------'' Letter to Special Rapporteur in September 1994 ``-----*/

Dr U Ne Oo
48/2 Ayliffes Road
St Marys SA 5042
Adelaide, Australia

September 7, 1994.

Professor Yozo Yokota
The Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Geneva 2 Depot
Switzerland

Dear Professor Yokota,

RE: Human Rights situation in south-eastern part of Burma

I wish to call the UN Special Rapporteur's attention to the human rights 
abuses in south-eastern part of Myanmar. I enclosed the field reports 
by the human rights workers with this letter. These reports mostly concern 
with the Military Government of Myanmar's abuses upon the populations of 
Karen and Mon States; and Tenasserim Division. Reports also indicate that 
these human rights abuses are the main cause of the refugees' flight into 
Thailand.

With this letter, I also enclosed the paper ``Operational Guideline 
Proposal for United Nations Agencies in Myanmar''.

It observed thaat the first form of human rights abuses are the military 
authorities' forced relocation and illegal confinement of th evillagers. 
There have been incidences that the Burmese military forced villagers to 
move into the concentration camps without compensation. Because of the 
restriction on the movement of the villagers whose farms are located at 
distance from relocated camps, the villagers cannot do their normal 
farming activities. This caused the displaced villagers to face extreme 
hardship and poverty. As a result, the villagers are suffering 
malnutritions; and childerns reportedly died.

Another form of abuses are slave labour for the rural populations. The 
military government used such forced-unpaid labour in building a large 
infrastructure development projects, such as Ye-Tavoy railway project; 
building of military encampments and guarding of the roads. This have 
caused much disruption to the villagers' livelihoods. there are also 
reports of forced portering of the villagers. The consequence of such 
disruptions to the villagers' livelihoods have brought much further 
gloom to the rural populace, who could merely support theirself of 
subsistent livings.

There are also reports of local military authorities collecting of 
taxes in excessive amounts: and Burmese army has been extorting monies 
from the villagers. The local Law and Order Restoration Council 
frequently demand villagers to give fees such as 'development fees', 
'porter fees' and various other feew, that are clearly excessive in 
amount for these village communities. On occasions, Burmese Army 
demanded compensation from villagers for the losses of army properties 
in their operation. These practices by military authorities has brought 
further poverty and insecurity to the life of villagers. Consequently, 
some have fled to the refugee camps.

Reported also are the civilians, instead of rebels, have been targeted 
in the military operations. The Burmese army took revenge on the 
neighbouring civilians in the events of skirmishes. the army demand 
'compensation' fro the villagers as a punishment in events of the 
army's truck and equipments damaged. The execution without trial to 
the villagers who were suspected of as rebels have also been reported.

These human rights abuses described are responsible for the flight of 
refugees into Thailand. Concerned with the growing crisis of Burmese 
refugees in Thailand, the UNHCR expressd its willingness, on June 21 1994, 
to monitor and assist on the return of refugees to burma. I wish to urge 
the Special Rapporteur to make initiatives in improving human rights 
situation in those above areas. This will help in creating conducive 
environment for refugees to return voluntarily from Thailand. Sonce 
these abuses stemmed, partly, from the weaknesses in Burma's legislative 
and institutional sectors, the efforts to improve human rights should 
be directed at the long-term institution building in Burma.

I wish the Special Rapporteur recommand the following measures within 
the context of improving human rights siutation in Myanmar.

1. All parties in conflict must urgently seek the cessation of civil 
war, which is the root cause for various human rights abuses in Myanmar. 
The abolishment of the 'free-fire zones' and concentration camps must 
be made subsequently.

2. A tribunal must be set-up and operating under the supervision of 
the United Nations. Various compensation claims: the losses of properties 
in having to move to concentration camps, the monies demanded by military 
for the losses of army's properties, etc, should be assessed by this 
tribunal and the Military Government of Myanmar give compensation to 
these villagers. Efforts should be made to initiate th judicial reform 
in Myanmar and the UNCHR should offer its helps in this.

3. A special committee, consisting of respective government ministry, 
the UN agencies, local leaders and regional army commander, should be 
formed to determine the maximum amount of taxes that should be raised 
from the people. A guideline must be drawn and urged the Myanmar Military 
Government to follow it in taxations. The UN agency should ensure that 
the taxation is not excessive. The respective UN agencies, such as UNDP, 
should also offer their helps in reforming the taxation department and 
training of the staffs.

4. Myanmar military government must reimbust the monies owed to the 
villagers along the Ye-Tavoy railway routes as well as other development 
projects for their contributed labour.

5. Investigations must be made into the incidences of extra-judicial 
killings that occurred within the context of military operations. The 
compensations must be given by Myanmar government to those killed in 
these incidences.

In order to create a smoothe operation in implementing above measures, 
formation of a working committee, which is similar to the Reception 
committee, in Arakan State, should also be recommended. I also wish 
the Special Rapporteur recommends various UN Agencies, regardless of 
their formal mandate, to promote human rights in Myanmar as described 
in the enclosed paper. The non-governmental organisations, which are 
willing to work in collaboration with the UN Agencies in Myanmar, 
should also be recommended to follow the guideline.

Finally, I should like to thank the Special Rapporteur for your 
kindness towards Burmese people and helps in their struggle for 
democracy and freedom.

Yours faithfully and sincerely
Sd. U Ne Oo

copy to:
1. Ms Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Case Postale 2500,
CH-1211 Geneve 2 Depot Switzerland.

2. Mr Jan Eliasson, The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitiarian Affairs,
UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations New York 10017, USA.

3. Senator Gareth Evans, The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Parliament 
House, Canberra ACT 2600, for information.

/* Endreport */