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Fwd: KHRG Delta, #96-26



		 INTERVIEWS FROM THE IRRAWADDY DELTA

	An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
		 July 26, 1996     /     KHRG #96-26


The following accounts were given in interviews with people from the 
Irrawaddy Delta region southwest of Rangoon.  The area is fertile 
farmland with a population which is half Karen and half Burman.  Out of 
sight of the rest of the world and with no easy escape for the people who 
live there, it has seen some of the SLORC's worst human rights abuses, 
particularly after a failed attempt by the Karen National Union to start an 
armed Karen uprising there in 1991.  The events of late 1991, now known 
in the area as the 'Bogalay Crisis', led to a retaliation by SLORC in which 
thousands of Karen villagers, elders and clerics were imprisoned, tried en 
masse and sentenced to several years in prison, disenfranchised or 
executed.  SLORC declared the entire region a 'black area', meaning 
combat units and tactics and summary military executions, torture and 
detention are practiced there with complete impunity.  (SLORC divides the 
map into 'white', meaning fully SLORC-controlled; 'brown', meaning 
resistance forces operate in the area; and 'black', meaning the area is 
viewed as being resistance-controlled.)  Even now, though there has been 
no armed resistance whatsoever since 1991, parts of the area are still 
treated as 'black'.  Now the region suffers from extensive forced labour on 
SLORC road-building projects and tourism-related projects such as 
Bassein Airport and the Nga Saw beach project, as well as draconian crop 
confiscation and land confiscation schemes.  As one of the farmers in this 
report testifies, hundreds of farmers in Nyaung Done Township were 
arrested, detained, and lost their land in May 1996 simply because they 
couldn't hand over a rice quota under a new SLORC dry-season paddy 
scheme.

The interviews in this report were conducted by the Hsaw Wah Deh 
independent human rights monitoring group in May and June 1996, and 
mainly concern  quotas and punishments imposed on farmers, road 
construction, persecutions of Karen and Christians, and recruitment to the 
Army.  The names of those interviewed have been changed to protect them.  
For accounts of the Nga Saw beach project, see "Forced Labour in the 
Irrawaddy Delta" (KHRG #96-18, 16/5/96).  For further background, see 
"Conditions in the Irrawaddy Delta" (KHRG #95-29, 4/8/95), "SLORC 
Officers Talk About Forced Labour and Refugees" (KHRG #94-27, 
25/9/94), "Letters from the Irrawaddy Delta" (KHRG 6/12/93), and other 
related reports.

Abbreviations used:  SLORC = State Law & Order Restoration Council, 
Burma's ruling military junta; LORC = Law & Order Restoration 
Council, such as Township LORC ('Ma Wa Ta') and Village LORC ('Ya 
Wa Ta'), which are local-level SLORC administration; USDA = Union 
Solidarity & Development Association, a SLORC-created artificial 'mass 
support' organisation which people are forced to join and support; KNU 
= Karen National Union, the main Karen opposition force; KNLA = 
Karen National Liberation Army, army of the KNU.

TOPIC SUMMARY:  Mass imprisonment of farmers (p.4-5), rice quotas 
(p.2-5), shrimp quota (p.2), dry season paddy (p.4-5), land confiscation 
(p.4,5), money/labour demands to build a school (p.2), forced labour 
preparing for a SLORC visit (p.2), road labour (p.3,5), Army camp labour 
(p.2), labour building a police station (p.2), extortion of money (p.2-5), 
extortion of food (p.2), Army recruitment and conscription (p.4,6), 
persecution of Christians (p.3), persecution of Karen (p.3), arrest of aged 
Karen veterans (p.3), USDA (p.2).
_____________________________________________________________________________
				    #1.
1) NAME:   "Saw Kaw Heh"   SEX: M    AGE: 19      Karen Christian student
   FAMILY: Single
2) NAME:   "Saw Lah Ghay"  SEX: M    AGE: 22      Karen Christian farmer
   FAMILY: Single

ADDRESS:   Hsar Chet village tract, Lat Putta Township   INTERVIEWED: 19/5/96

Our village population is about 80% Karen, 70% Christian and 30% 
Buddhist.  Hsar Chet Village Tract has 13 small villages within it, totalling

about 2,000 families [approximately 160 families/village] and every village 
has at least 10 SLORC soldiers stationed within it.  After the Bogalay 
Crisis, our village tract was classified as a "black" area, and still is now 
[see notes at start of the report].

Villagers have to build fences, clear areas of land and make bamboo spikes 
protruding from the ground at fence perimeters, repair roads to the army 
posts and keep watch as sentries for the soldiers.  There are no porter fees,

but we have to pay "collection" and "management" fees to USDA [i.e. 
organising and administration fees], road construction volunteers' fees, 
also school and police station construction fees, and lastly, army
recruitment 
fees.  Altogether these cost one family about 2,500 Kyats each month 
[more than the whole monthly salary of a day labourer].  Moreover, each 
village has to give the soldiers stationed in their village foodstuffs, 
chickens, pork, ducks, dried shrimp, totalling 5-7 viss [8-11.2 kg.] per
week, 
and when shrimp fishermen come back from their day's work, they must give 
one viss [1.6 kg.] of fresh shrimp and one tin of condensed milk.

At the end of 1995 in Pyi Sa Lu village a new police station was 
constructed, for which every family in the village tract was required to give

500 Kyats, and had to assist in the construction.  Likewise, at the beginning

of 1996, a new high school building was constructed at Theik Pan Gaun 
Kyi village, for Standards 9 and 10, and for the construction of this
building 
people who are day labourers had to give 500 Kyats each, and the farmers 
1,500 Kyats each.  That building was finished in March, made of brick and 
galvanised metal sheets, and the Commander of the Southwest Command, 
Brigadier General Nyunt Tin, opened the building himself.  So the villagers 
had to work at cleaning the compound starting 10 days prior to the arrival 
of the Commander.

Actually, that school was previously a complete high school, prior to 1991 
and the Bogalay Crisis.  Subsequent to those events, Lat Putta Township 
was punished, and the school lowered to a middle school standard.  Many 
government servants [including teachers] were forced to resign or were 
transferred for failing to report KNU movements.  All government servants 
who were Karen were forced to resign without any questions asked, and 
because of that the headmistress and the Karen teachers were all sacked.

Even though now there is a high school again, most of the children cannot 
attend because after completion of 3rd and 4th grades [primary school] the 
parents withdraw them in order to help their families.

Rice price is currently 65-70 Kyats per pyi [8 condensed milk tins, about 2 
kg.] and even the farmers themselves are concerned about the rice price 
because they themselves are suffering rice shortages due to the many kinds 
of quotas imposed upon the rice they produce.  The average production per 
acre is about 50 baskets of unhusked paddy rice.  SLORC imposes a quota 
of 12 baskets of unhusked rice per acre, which they purchase at 70 Kyats 
per basket, while the prevailing market price is about 450 Kyats per basket. 

There are other quotas: "Tatmadaw" [SLORC Army] rice at 1 basket per 
acre, which they sometimes pay for at 50 Kyats per basket, and sometimes 
pay nothing; "Saytanar" rice [in Pali, meaning 'goodwill'] at 1 basket per 
acre, for which nothing is paid, and we do not know to whom or where it 
goes; and "Ma Wa Ta" [Township LORC] rice, also 1 basket per acre 
without recompense.

There are many kinds of funds collected by Ya Wa Ta [Village LORC], 
and if you fail to pay you are required to sign some kind of documents.  
Although people do not know what will happen if you sign, everybody is 
too afraid of this so they always pay.  Nowadays, if a family has 5 members 
they all have to work at rice cultivation or fishing to survive, and also at 
road construction and other such loke-ar-pay ['volunteer', actually forced] 
work.

This year our villagers have to work on the Pantanaw-Rangoon road 
construction, about 14-15 days per time, or alternately pay 1,500 Kyats to 
Ya Wa Ta.  The road is to accommodate two cars side by side, is about 10 
feet high, and there are thousands of people on the construction.  Each 
village is allocated a specific portion of the road for completion.  The work

requires digging of the ground and piling it for the road. There is no clinic

or medical services, no wages are received, and we must take all of our own 
supplies and stay alongside the road in miserable conditions.  Some people 
are injured while working, but we don't know exactly about that.

After the Bogalay Crisis, many old former Karen revolutionaries were 
arrested, including Pu Thar Mya, who was about 70 years old, and U Tun 
Shei, who was partly paralyzed.  They were arrested and taken away on 
stretchers, and they both died in prison.  Also, U Chit San Aung's brother, 
U Tun Nay Thar, who never joined the Karen revolution, was jailed for 3 
years.  During the Bogalay Crisis, villagers were forced to walk ahead of the

[SLORC] soldiers, shouting "Do not shoot!" while the SLORC soldiers 
fired at KNLA.

In our village, there are no problems between Karen and Burmese 
[civilians].  All are afraid of the SLORC.  The Burmese villagers who also 
gave meals to the Karen soldiers during the Bogalay Crisis were punished 
too.  But the SLORC is trying to divide Karen and Burmese, Christian and 
Buddhist.  On road construction works, the Karen villages are required to 
work at more distant sites than the Burmese.  The Burmese villagers said, 
"You Karen always go to work at places further away.  That's strange."  A 
SLORC Major went to every village [in the area] and ordered the villagers 
to donate money to build a pagoda in each village, and he said "Christians 
must disappear".  Also, there is a village called Padauk Gone which is 
completely Christian, and there a pagoda was built just in front of the 
church, only about 10 yards from the church building.  At the ceremony to 
mount the pagoda with the hti [ceremonial golden umbrella-shaped 
ornament which crowns each pagoda], the Christians had to dance doan 
[a popular Karen traditional dance].  There is not a single Buddhist in that 
village.  If a Christian church seeks to make repairs it must ask permission 
from Ma Wa Ta [Township LORC], and construction of new church 
buildings is not permitted.  As for the [regional] Christian convention, 
previously anybody could go but now only 5 people per village are 
permitted.

In Rangoon, people dare to quietly abuse even an officer of the Army 
walking alone on the street, but in rural areas even Privates lord over the 
civilians.  Sometimes a person doing absolutely nothing is slapped.  The 
soldiers order the villagers to buy them boats and televisions and there are 
always at least 3 or 4 prostitutes staying with the soldiers stationed at the

village.  There are two kinds of SLORC soldiers.  One is rude, and always 
wanting to dominate the villagers.  The other is polite, using family words 
[i.e. addressing people as 'brother', 'mother', etc.] and soft words with the

villagers, but he will 'purchase' rice for an unfair price, and when he 
returns to his unit [headquarters- on rotation] he will sell it for profit.  
So both types are bad.  Soldiers are usually rotated every two months.  
When they are rotated, the village tract must collect 100,000 Kyats for each 
officer [perhaps two or three officers rotate each time per tract].

Regarding recruitment [as SLORC soldiers], our villagers have headaches 
about this.  The soldiers come at least one time per year and demand 10 
people for this purpose.  Alternately, the villagers can give 200 Kyats per 
house in order to opt out of the recruitment process.  Now, however, the 
SLORC soldiers have come to realise that they can get money this way, and 
so whenever they want money they come and demand new recruits.

We heard that there are many problems and difficulties in coming to 
Thailand, but we hoped that it would be better than life in our village, and 
so we came.
_____________________________________________________________________________
				    #2.
NAME:    "Saw Kler Eh"     SEX: M      AGE: 30       Karen Christian farmer
FAMILY:  Single
ADDRESS: Nyaung Done Township, Irrawaddy Division    INTERVIEWED: 3/6/96

In May 1996, many farmers from the whole of Irrawaddy Division were 
arrested because they could not provide 'Saytanar' rice to the SLORC [this 
is different from the 'Saytanar' ('goodwill') rice mentioned above; see 
below for explanation].  This year, the whole of Irrawaddy Division was 
ordered to grow dry season rice.  If a farmer is unable to grow it, the rice 
fields must be confiscated. [Note: According to laws established under Ne 
Win's BSPP and still being selectively employed by SLORC, the State owns 
the land, water and air, therefore the State is legally entitled to 
confiscate the rice fields of those farmers not meeting their rice production

quotas, and 'sell' it to others].  So previously farmers could possess about 
30 acres of rice fields, but nowadays the average is 12-15 acres.

The name of the dry season production is 'Theetatye'.  The method was 
developed in China, and it has a production target of 100 baskets [of 
unhusked rice] per acre.  Farmers who had already planted and begun 
raising soya bean crops [this is often done in fallow ricefields during dry 
season] were forced to destroy these without compensation and grow the 
dry season rice crop.  The time frame for this crop production is about three

and a half months and the water must be pumped from the rivers by 
machine.  However the average production of Theetatye rice for this year 
was 45 baskets per acre.  The reasons for the poor production figures are 
that insects destroyed the paddy [these types of insects are more prevalent 
during dry season], as well as lack of fertilizers, lack of fuel for pumps
and 
farm machinery, and  lack of water pumps.

Ma Wa Ta [Township LORC] had agreed to distribute diesel fuel, fertilizer, 
water pumps and hoses, but only a few were received.  According to the 
arrangement, each 5 acres of fields were to be allocated 8 gallons of diesel 
per month, to be purchased at 28 Kyats per gallon [official price, much 
lower than market price], and 75 kilograms of fertilizer per month.  But in 
actual fact the farmers received it once only, at the beginning of the 
cultivation period, 7 gallons of diesel at 80 Kyats per gallon.  As for urea 
and/or phosphate fertilizers, the farmers received nothing.  On the black 
market, the price of urea is about 1,750 Kyats per 50-kilo bag, and 
phosphate costs 1,200 Kyats per 40-kilo bag.  Across the period of 
production of dry season rice, for a five acre area approximately 5 bags of 
fertilizer [using 50% urea and 50% phosphate] is required. Water pumps 
are available only on the black market, and are expensive.  The SLORC 
placed a quota of 5 baskets of paddy per acre on this 'Saytanar' rice.  For 
other costs, to hire a plowing machine costs the user ten baskets per acre;
to 
hire a pair of oxen and a cart costs 200 - 300 Kyats per day; also the farmer

must put aside one basket of paddy per acre in order to grow the next 
season's crop; finally, there are water pump fees, insecticide costs, casual 
labour costs [during intensive work periods of planting, weeding and 
harvest] so there is not much left for the farmers themselves.  Moreover, 
each farmer in Irrawaddy Division must give fees totalling about 3,000 
Kyats per family per month.  So, some unfortunate farmers whose crops 
are very poor are unable to meet the 'Saytanar' rice quota, let alone have 
enough rice left for their own needs.

'Saytanar' rice is collected by the Agricultural Produce Trading Department 
[exact term in English unknown].  The farmers must transport their rice to 
the storage depots, which are guarded by soldiers in order to protect them 
from being burnt down by angry farmers.  According to the soldiers, this 
'Saytanar' rice is to be exported to China in exchange for weapons.

In May they started taking action against farmers who failed to meet the 
quota requirements, which were due in April.  The farmers unable to meet 
the quota requirements number around 15-50 per village [out of perhaps 
100-400 houses per village in total].  These farmers were instructed to 
bring their own food supplies along with them, and they were placed under 
detention in the police jail cells, or in school buildings once the cells
were 
all full.  Then the quota requirements were again demanded of them.  Those 
failing to give it continued to be held in detention.  [Most would have to 
sell their belongings or land for money, then buy rice on the market to pay 
the quota.]  In May at Wah Kema town, the school was filled with detained 
farmers, and I saw 33 farmers, some handcuffed, the others tied with rope, 
all guarded by police, walking on the road to be relocated.  This was a 
public demonstration that anybody who failed to give rice would be treated 
this way.  The same thing happened in Myaung Mya, Ein Meh and 
Pantanaw.  I know a Karen farmer about 50 years old from Pantanaw who 
had never been arrested or been to jail in his life, and after he was
detained 
he felt ashamed that his hands could not grow enough rice, and putting the 
blame on them, he slashed at his wrists and had to be sent to hospital.  Now 
all of the farmers are very unhappy about 'Saytanar' rice and are discussing 
that if the same thing happens again next year, then everybody will refuse to

give rice and will instead go to jail.

Rice plantation farmers who want to change to fish farming are not 
permitted to do so.  If they are to dig a pond then the authorities tell them

that they require a 'Form 39', which is seldom issued to farmers.

For new road construction projects some paddy fields were destroyed.  I 
saw a woman crying at Nyaung Done - Seh Kaw boat jetty, and then a 
monk asked her why she was crying.  She replied that her dry season rice 
was going to mature soon, but as part of the SLORC plan for Nyaung 
Done-Pantanaw road construction she had just received an order to destroy 
her paddy within a day, and she was at a loss as to what to do.

People from Irrawaddy Division must work on these road construction 
projects.  People from my village must work on the Myaung Mya-Lat Putta 
road.  Some went with their whole families, and worked for about two 
months.  Alternately, substitutes can be hired for 100 Kyats per day.  The 
road is about 20 feet wide and 15 feet high.  There is no clinic or medical 
assistance, and some accidents, but no deaths I know of.  But last year, on 
the Shwe Laung-Wah Kema road construction, some died as a result of 
cholera.  There was a SLORC army officer there who rode a horse and 
abused the villagers.  Then one day his horse slipped and the front legs went

into a hole.  The officer was thrown from the horse and died from a broken 
neck.  I don't know his name but the villagers were very glad and named 
him 'Officer Broken Neck'.

Nowadays, the SLORC army is taking in a lot of new soldiers.  People from 
towns always refuse to join and pay money instead, so the soldiers are 
demanding people from the rural areas to join the army.  For my village, 
soldiers from Infantry Battalions #92 and #93 set up recruitment signboards 
and promoted the Army.  They ordered one person from every family to 
attend a meeting.  In my case, my brother went, and then a drunken 
sergeant gave a speech and everybody had to listen.  He said, "Join the 
army to protect the nation" but nobody showed interest, so then he swore at 
them and explained further, "Anybody who joins the army will be pardoned 
of any criminal or civil offense, whether murder, rape, robbery or debt.  For

any debtor who joins, the amount of your debt must be collected and paid 
to the creditor by the other members of your village.  All the ethnic groups 
have surrendered to us, so do you know why we are recruiting soldiers to 
fight?  We are going to fight the Americans."  But the villagers were also 
creative, and they replied that growing rice is also necessary for feeding
the 
country, and recruitment must come second to the harvests.  If farmers 
grow rice twice a year, then they come to recruit soldiers twice a year.

So now some villagers eat their dinner by the light of the moon because 
they are too poor to buy fuel for lighting.  Also, some farmers have disputes

with one another when the river levels decline after the rainy season and 
more land is exposed [these areas being of quite substantial size] and each 
seeks to take control of the land, in some cases leading as far as murder. 
So 
four or five members of my village were imprisoned because of such 
disputes.

This last dry season, a fire burnt down many large shops along the market 
lane of Kyone Ma Ngay village.  That place was assigned for demolition 
and reconstruction by the Ma Wa Ta [Township LORC], but the 
shopkeepers gave money to prevent that from happening.  Then the fire 
started at around 1 a.m. close to a black market fuel shop, and so people 
were saying that it was not an accident because now, in order to 
reconstruct, the shopkeepers must again give money to the Ma Wa Ta.

			     - [END] -

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