VII) RIGHTS OF MINORITIES
7.1. Ethnic People on Display for Tourists in SLORC Zoos
On 22 May 1995, SLORC Lt-Gen Maung Thint, Minister for Border Areas Development, told the formal municipal meeting that SLORC would set up an ethnic village for tourist attraction near Syriam Bridge which links Rangoon and Syriam. The village would be decorated in accordance with the traditional lifestyle of different ethnic groups in Burma. After that, some ethnic people from different parts of Burma would be brought into that zoo-like compound to be placed on exhibit. Thousands of local inhabitants throughout Burma have been forced to contribute corvee labour and their lands been confiscated for the infrastructure development projects and for 1996 Visit Myanmar Year across the country. [Source: ABSDF]
7.2. Discrimination against Minorities
On 10 August 1995, Myint Thida, a Burmese woman who worked as a teacher in Ho-nam village-tract, Mawkmai Township, southern Shan State, was raped by three men from the same village-tract. On 12 August, she brought the case to Capt Sai Saii Pha, commander for Coy 2 of SNPLA 2nd Battalion. The three men were arrested and sent to Loi Sarm Sip to be put on trial. They were then fined for the crime.
Myint Thida, however, was not content with the sentence. She brought the case to Mawkmai-based SLORC LIB 332 on 14 August. They immediately sent about 80 troops with 40 porters to Ho-nam village-tract and asked SNPLA to hand over the three men. SNPLA refused by saying “We don’t need to catch a dog with a tiger. We have already sentenced the men to death and executed them.”
SLORC troops then headed for Loi Sarm-sip and asked the people to search for the dead bodies, but they could not find them. They then asked SNPLA Capt Sai Saii Pha to come and meet them, but he refused. The case was therefore left unresolved.
Local people felt very bitter at the knowledge that the SLORC troops, who were themselves notorious for having raped local women, were taking so much action to protect a single woman plainly because she was Burmese. [Source: S.H.A.N]
[See also under “Personal Accounts”, interview 72, 74, 88, 154, 239-240, 266-267, 272, 282-283, 289, 291, 304]
I. Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
II. Arbitrary Detention and Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances III. Rights of Child
IV. Forced Labour and Slavery V. Forced Relocation and Internally Displaced Persons
VI. Deprivation of Livelihood VII. Minority Protection
VIII. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment or Punishment
IX. Freedom of Belief: Discrimination Against the Right to Practice Religion and Intolerance
X.
Freedom of Opinion and Expression XI.
Freedom of Assembly and Association XII.
Freedom of Movement
XIII.
Abuse of Women XIV.
The Refugees Situation and Forced Repatriation