Karen Newsline: May 2008 Archive
Enemy figures include DKBA
Source: Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation ArmyKaren cyclone refugees sent back to villages
Nearly 500 cyclone refugees from the Irrawaddy delta taking shelter in Christian missionary compounds in Rangoon's Ahlone township have been ordered back to their villages, according to aid workers.
Most of the refugees are ethnic Karen Christians from villages around Labutta township area in the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta.
They were brought to Rangoon by the Yangon Home Mission Karen Baptist Association and were kept in the group's compound in Ahlone township.
An aid worker said the refugees were ordered by Rangoon divisional chief general Hla Htay Win yesterday to go back to their villages within 24 hours.
"The Rangoon divisional chief said the refugees were to go back to the Irrawaddy delta by tomorrow – he said there were refugee camps to give them shelter," said the aid worker, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"But in reality, there is nowhere for them to stay."
Another missionary aid worker said a group of senior government officials led by the deputy religious affairs minister went to the compound where the refugees were staying and said they had arranged transportation to send the refugees back to their homes.
"They said the 486 refugees taking shelter in the compound would be sent back to Labutta in 15 buses the next day," said the aid worker.
"Some of the refugees have been seriously traumatised by the cyclone and they are really depressed – they should not be sent back to their villages now."
Aye Nye
DVB
30-5-08
Image: Living conditions in the delta - delta tears
KNU/KNLA Peace Council top leaders on helping hand trip
Starting from the last week of May 2008, a group of leader from KNU/KNLA Peace Council, lead by Gen. Htay Maung, chairman of the KNU/KNLA Peace Council, and some top leaders have been making a helping hand trip to the delta region, recently hit by the cyclone Nargis. Despite of having some daily –need shortages in its own area in the Karen state the KNU/KNLA Peace Council has decided to share what we have in hand toward those who are desperately in need. After traveling some worse area in delta region such as BoGa Lay, Bessin(Pa Thien) and some islands, Gen. Htay Maung has decided, on the 23rd May to move two tractors from the Hto Kaw Koo Base to Myaung Mya and help people there for paddy cultivation in time. The group is also organizing some tons of paddy seed for the area to cover up possible great rice shortages next year. However, we have to admit that our helping hand is quite limited as we ourselves have been struggling in new unfamiliar condition. Despite his followers worrying for his health, the 80 year old Gen. Htay Maung show no sign of stepping back in helping people in delta region where he was born. A short presentation about the trip has been broadcasted on an Australian TV, on the 23rd of May at 20.00hr. local time.
KNLAPC Statement
30-5-08
Mourners pay respects to late KNU leader
The funeral for the late Karen National Union leader Pado Saw Ba Thin Sein was held yesterday in the headquarters of the Karen National Liberation Army, the KNU's armed wing.
Representatives of several armed ethnic groups and Burma's exile movement read out condolences at the funeral and a KNLA honour guard gave a gun salute to honour Saw Ba Thin Sein, who passed away aged 81 on 22 May.
Colonel Thu Thu Leh (Htoo Htoo Lay), general secretary of the KNU, announced to the audience during his speech at the funeral, that the former KNU deputy-chairman general Tamalar Baw has been appointed acting chairman until the next annual congress meeting.
Ba Thin Sein’s daughter Naw Kapa Say said she was proud of her father's devotion to the Karen people and his good guidance.
"I am very proud of my father – he was an honest and cooperative man who did his best in life," said Kapa Say.
"He devoted his whole life to his people and was a good father and leader."
Kapa Say said she believed Ba Thin Sein would be missed not only by Karen society, but also by the people from the whole of Burma.
Khin Maung Soe Min
DVB
27-5-08
Obituary Saw Ba Thin Sein
President Karen National Union and Chairman Ethnic Nationalities Council
Saw Ba Thin Sein, the president of the Karen National Union, was born in 1927 in Henzada and educated at the American Baptist Mission High School. After leaving school he got a job as a clerk at the war office in Rangoon which he kept until 1946 when, at the age of 19, he joined the Karen uprising at Insein as a private in the newly formed Karen army.
After the Karen withdrew from Insein he fought with 2nd Division commander General Thackerbaw in the Taungoo-Kawkareik-Hlaingbwe area. He became a senior member in the socialist leaning Karen National United Party before leaving to become one of the first KNUP members to join General Bo Mya in the Eastern hills. He became a Central Committee member and in the early seventies he was responsible for setting up a Karen National United Front (earlier incarnation of the KNU) administration at Mawta on the Tenneserim river .
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Statement on Passing Away of the KNU President
Saw Ba Thin Sein
OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
KAREN NATIONAL UNION
KAWTHOOLEI
May 22, 2008
President of the Karen National Union Saw Ba Thin Sein passed away on the morning of May 22, 2008 at 2 a.m., in the liberated area of Pa-an District. It was a natural death, caused by diseases common in old age. He was 82 and survived by his wife, one son and three daughters. No date for his funeral has been decided.
As prescribed in the Constitution of the KNU, he will be succeeded by Vice-President Pu Tamla Baw, until end of the term of the 13th KNU Congress.
Supreme Headquarters
Karen National Union
Is the SPDC diverting aid on ethnic grounds?
According to recent reports received by KHRG from residents of the Irrawaddy Delta, the SPDC has not only been restricting aid supplies and access by international humanitarian workers, but has also been doing so on the basis of ethnicity. Increasing reports on the military's restrictions and misappropriation of aid supplies necessitate immediate international investigation, as all affected residents of the delta regardless of their ethnicity remain in urgent need humanitarian assistance. The regime's obstructions of humanitarian aid increasingly appear to fall under the criteria of crimes against humanity. In such a case, the responsibility to protect this population falls on the international community.
Nargis Cyclone and Delta Region Update
Cyclone Nargis, which initially struck Burma on the 3rd May, has badly affected the Delta Region especially areas in Labutta, Bogale, Pyapon, Kyauklat, Dedaye, Maubin, Ie-mae, Hainggyi Island, Maw Kyun, K'Ba, Ka-Ta Island, Kon Kyan Gone, Myaungmya,
In the Delta Region, Bogale, Lubutta, Kyeiklat, Pyapon, and Maubin townships have been totally destroyed while Dedaye township was almost destroyed. Myaungmya and Napputaw have suffered some damage as have Pegu and Mawbi.
In all these areas villages have suffered extensive damage. Houses, schools, churches and monasteries have been destroyed and paddy fields and orchards have been flooded with sea water. 90% of the people and livestock have been affected either by death or injury. The survivors are in desperate need of immediate emergency assistance and failure to receive such aid could result in further loss of life. As clean water is lacking, they have been forced to drink water from coconuts.
Other areas affected by the cyclone are Southern Pegu and Rangoon Divisions and Southern Rakhaing, Karen and Mon States. Although, the death rate and damage in these areas is less severe then in the Delta Region they are still facing the same difficulties.
By the 7th May the total estimated death rate and number of those missing was approximately 150,000 - unless emergency relief is given this total will increase dramatically.
Local staff from UNICEF, World Vision, UN, HOPE International Development and other local volunteer social & religious organisations are providing help with the authorities. However, their work is severely restricted by the military regime and is also further hampered by the destruction of communication lines and roads that have been blocked by debris and fallen trees. Electricity is also down and gas prices have risen steeply. Groups in Rangoon are attempting to provide emergency relief such as clean water, food, medicine, clothes and electricity. However, the need is far greater than the current resources.
Prices have escalated especially housing materials such as tin and nails. Villagers have to rebuild and clear the roads damaged by the cyclone and are expected to clear the roads and rebuild the electricity poles at their own expense as the Junta are not providing money to local authorities. Despite the damage wrought by the cyclone the Junta are still pushing people to vote at the referendum.
It is close to rainy season, which is usually the time to prepare the paddy fields and other farming activities, however the paddy fields are under salt water. The Junta continues to deny outside aid and the situation is getting worse. People are desperate for food and water, in some places this has now turned into a social crisis with increasing reports of looting and robbery. The interviewee estimates that food & essential items will increase drastically in price further adding to the despair of the populace.
Information updated: 9 May 2007
In rural areas the SPDC are not allowing assistance to villagers. They have started to move people from affected areas to other locations. In Pawe village 256 people are being kept temporarily at Maubin University. They have been left without food and clean water. In addition, the authorities have set up check points along the roads on the way to Labutta, Bassein, Myaungmya and Bogalay further severing contact to those areas and to block relief from reaching those in desperate need.
'Death and Destructon in the Delta' Video - Disturbing Images - Viewer Discretion advised
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Delta Tears
9-5-08
Military Offensive Affecting Karen Children: KHRG
The ongoing military offensive by the Burmese army against ethnic Karen rebels is affecting Karen children who spend much of their childhoods living in fear, hiding in the jungle, enduring disease and malnutrition, and suffering from a lack of education, said a leading Karen rights group on Thursday.
According to a 174-page report titled Growing up under Militarisation: Abuse and agency of children in Karen State, released on April 30 by Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), an estimated 15,000 Karen children are among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living makeshift in the malaria-ridden jungles of eastern Burma.
The report recorded more then 160 interviews with children and their families between 2006 and March 2008, and it draws on the personal testimonies of villagers living in Karen State.
Among KHRG’s testimonies of abuse at the hands of the Burmese army, one young girl was quoted as saying: “The SPDC shot dead my daddy when he tried to run away. … My mom carried my sister and some things and I carried my grandmother on my back. It was very heavy for me … I saw her eyes were very big and then I was afraid she had already died. …I carried her until we found a better place for her.”
At a press conference in Bangkok on April 30, KHRG also highlighted the deteriorating situation regarding children’s rights in Karen State and distributed copies of the report, DVDs with recent footage of displaced children in Karen State and digital copies of photographs.
Rebecca Dun, the program director of KHRG, told The Irrawaddy on Friday: “It is very difficult for children to study in the jungle. They practice writing on the ground or on the cliff faces. There are no educational aids.”
The displaced children don’t receive sufficient medicine or nutritious food when they feel ill, she said. Also, the Burmese army burns down Karen villagers’ houses and farms and forces villagers to work as porters—a form of slave labor.
Meanwhile, a Karen labor advocacy group, the Federation of Trade Unions Kawthoolei (FTUK) also released a statement on Thursday saying that Karen villagers are facing human rights violations such as forced labor, forced relocation and land confiscation.
FTUK said the offensive launched by the Burmese army was not only against Karen rebels, but also Karen villagers, including women and children.
Since the current Burmese military offensive in northern Karen State began in February 2006, more than 370 villagers, including children, have been killed and more than 30,000 people have been displaced. Of those, more than 5,000 villagers have fled to the Thai-Burmese border area, according to relief groups.
The latest wave of IDPs—more than 2,000 Karen villagers from Mon and Kyauk Gyi townships in eastern Burma’s Pegu Division—began fleeing to the jungle in early April 2008 following attacks by the Burmese army’s light infantry battalions 247 and 276, according to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), a Karen relief group.
The Burmese army has constructed over 60 new military camps in northern Karen State since the beginning of its dry-season offensive in 2006 and has completed a new road through Papun District, according to the another relief team, the Free Burma Rangers.
Saw Yan Naing
Irrawaddy
2-5-08
Image: Forced labor—children building a road in Nyaunglebin district in Pegu division. (Photo: KHRG)
