TOLERANCE BEGINNING TO RUN THIN IN

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: TOLERANCE BEGINNING TO RUN THIN IN CENTRAL SHAN STATE

 
BURMA COURIER No. 210           Dec 5 - 11, 1999
 
TOLERANCE BEGINNING TO RUN THIN IN CENTRAL SHAN STATE
Based on the November reports of the SHRF and the Shan State army news 
 
CHIANG MAI -- Mong Kung township, a pivotal area for the operations of
Shan
resistance forces in the central part of the state, was recently the
scene
of a grisly rape and slaying by a column of solders from the SPDC's
514th
battalion.
 
On October 30, Pa Poi, 38, Naang Awng, 31, Naang Mawn, 30, and Pa Loi
Pe,
42, were returning to their homes in Mong Kung, after spending the day
reaping rice, when they ran into a patrol of SPDC troops. They were
accused
of having provided some of the rice they had harvested to Shan insurgent
troops and taken to a deserted village west of the town.  There they
were
held and repeatedly raped during the night that followed.
 
The next day when the patrol returned to the base of the 514th battalion
in
Mong Kung they reported that they had shot at women who had trailed
behind
when a Shan State army unit fled from them.  Fearing the worst because
their wives had failed from their outlying farm the previous day, the
husbands of the four women went to look for them and were horrified to
discover their bodies lying together in a heap. 
 
The families of the four women were among more than 8,000 households
from
186 villages in the township that were relocated at gun-point by the
Myanmar army in 1996 and 1997.  Mong Kung lies on a fertile plain in the
Nam Teng river basin and has a reputation of being the source of
pineapples, watermelon and especially oranges that are in high demand in
lowland Burma.
 
Units of the 514th were engaged on at least two separate occasions in
November in the Nong Long village tract in Mong Kung by troops of the
241st
Brigade of the Shan State Army and suffered casualties.  Other clashes
were
also reported in the township.
To the northeast of Mong Kung in Tang Yan township, where there are
large
concentrations of SPDC troops, several engagements involving the loss
and
capture of enemy officers and important documents were reported in
November
by the SSA's 157th battalion.  Troops from the SSA-S's 157th and 150th
battalions also did battle with an 80 man strong contingent of SPDC
troops
and local militia near Pan Hai in Hsipaw township on November 11 with
casualties on both sides.
 
In what is becoming an increasingly common occurrence, the SSA-S News
reports clashes between troops of the cease-fire Northern Shan State
Army
in both Hsipaw and Mong Yai townships.  On of these occasions, SPDC
troops
from the 507th battalion were said to have brazenly seized and murdered
two
men from SSA-N's 1st brigade during a funeral ceremony at the village of
Wan Nong in Hsipaw.  The victims, Lt Pem Muong, a company commander, and
his aide Ai Wun, were led out and shot at point blank range just outside
the village, the SSA News reports.
 
"According to an eyewitness, the Burmese knew for sure that they were
from
the cease fire group. They were well prepared to kill, with no
interrogation, no torture; they just simply murdered them. With such
suppression how can the cease fire groups still be patient and tolerant? 
Is there any other people, who are as patient and as tolerant as the
Shans?" the News asks rhetorically.