"If
I beat you it might hurt my hands. If I kill you, it will only cost me 35 baht
to have you buried."
—Thai
pimp threatening a Burmese woman who was forced into prostitution.
The woman’s role in Burma hasn’t always been one of
equality. Society and culture tend to look down on the role of women, as
throughout much of the world. Therefore, women have become one of the biggest
targets for abuse by SLORC. Women face continual harassment because of their
husbands, must work the same forced labour as men who often run away from the SLORC, leaving
behind only women (even women who are pregnant or have children to care for are
taken by the military), all this in addition to sexual violence. Villagers
reported that when women come back from SLORC huts the married women openly
tell if they've been raped, but the unmarried women don't say anything. They
don't dare, because they're too shy; we know they've been raped, but they won't
admit it. In traditional Burmese society, a women who
has been raped is not desired by men for marriage. Many times, women are being
forced to marry soldiers by commanding officers, or to hide their pregnancies.
SLORC has no respect for women. At Da Gela Village there's a widow named Ma Win
Sein, she has 2 sons. Her husband was a Burmese soldier. She was raped, and
when the villagers found her in the forest 4 days later she couldn't even walk.
They did that to her even though she was the widow of one of them. Young girls
are routinely raped as well as elderly, and, in order to silence the victim
about what soldiers have done to her, women are in many instances murdered
afterwards.
The Bullet Trick
Around Kyauk Kyi area, young women often go into town by bicycle to
buy things, then bring them back in the bicycle's
carrier. SLORC soldiers in the area now use what they call the "bullet
trick". At the first SLORC checkpoint coming out of town, a SLORC soldier
searches the bicycle carriers of young women, and in
the process slips a few bullets inside. Then at the second checkpoint, a
soldier "finds" the bullets, interrogates
the girl on where she got them, and when she can't answer she is detained for 3
days, during which she is repeatedly raped by soldiers. She is then released
with no questions asked. This has been done repeatedly by soldiers from IB 73
and 351, particularly at Ye O Zin Village in Kyauk Kyi Township. At Kyaun Zut Village in
February 1994, troops from IB 351 used a similar trick. They keep a pot of
drinking water for travellers in front of their checkpoint, and they hid some
bullets at the base of it. Then when a pretty girl came past and stopped, the
soldiers went out, "found" the bullets, and detained and raped her
for 3 days. [source: KNU/MOA]
WHAT HAPPENS TO WOMEN IN BURMA
When SLORC troops enter a
village, especially in liberated or disputed areas, they often find that all of
the men have fled, either through fear or conscription, leaving the women with
their children. The SLORC soldiers then rape the women and/or conscript them to
carry weapons and supplies to the front lines, serving as human mine detectors
and shields for the troops. Many of women and girls have fled the repressive
rule with the widespread knowledge that there are good employment opportunities
in Thailand. Sadly, the rapid spread
of AIDS in Thailand and Burma has succeeded in making
the sale of younger and younger women a booming business.
Surprisingly, many of the
women who are forced into prostitution are from small villages, tricked by the
promise of employment from local agents who represent procurers. Some of these
agents who recruit young women for the brothel gangs in urban centres such as
Kawthaung and Ranong are ordinary people, often known by the women. In other
instances, trusted villagers and townspeople or even friends and relatives have
been known to lure unsuspecting women into leaving their homes with offers of
employment.
The gangs, however, often
work in a more systematic and brutal manner than do the local agents. Sometimes
they pose as friends who do a lot of trading in Thailand and invite their
girlfriends or acquaintances to go sightseeing with them. At other times they
pose as representatives of employment recruiting agencies in order to lure
women with the promise of work. They often hang around dock areas and bus and
train stations in both Thailand and Burma looking for women who
appear lost or for women who have arrived to the town in search of work.
The agent usually
approaches the woman to find out if she is looking for work. If so, he will
offer the woman a job as a waitress or factory worker and if she agrees, takes
her to a local "employment agency" where arrangements are made
without the woman's knowledge, to sell her to a procurer usually in Thailand, but occasionally in Burma. Increasingly, agents
forego the usual attempt to deceive the women and simply kidnap them. Burmese
women who come across the border to visit relatives in Thailand, especially in Ranong,
routinely run the risk of being kidnapped and forced into prostitution. These
pimps are the middlemen, buying the women from the village before they in turn
sell them to the brothel owners.
Regardless of the final
destination, trafficking is a highly profitable business for everyone involved.
Ordinary illegal immigrants to Thailand will pay up to 100,000
baht to travel from China to Thailand through Burma with different people
taking cuts along the way. Burmese guides who take women through Burmese
territory are paid 30,000 Ks (7,500 baht or US $300) while transport in a van
from Mae Sai to Bangkok costs 20,000 baht, which includes the bribes at up to 5
check points. Drivers will still receive a profit of 5,000 baht. Installation
of names into the Thai Immigration Department's computer can cost up to another
150,000 baht. In the case of illegal migration to the U.S, the fee paid is up
to 750,000 baht (US$ 30,000). On average, trafficking syndicates can clear
500,000 baht (US$ 20,000) in profit for each person sold.
If sent to Thailand, a large percentage of
women will end up in brothels in Ranong province which are usually owned by
Thai businessmen and "employ" both Thai and Burmese women. In many
cases, the women, especially those from Burma are forced to work in
conditions which amount to slavery. In some brothels, women are confined to
their rooms and only occasionally allowed out under the guard of the pimps. One
brothel from which prostitutes were recently freed was surrounded by barbed
wire and an electrified fence.
On the 10th of June this
year, Thai police raided a brothel in Ranong and found 33 Burmese women, who
had been virtual prisoners comparable to slaves for periods of up to three
years. Three of the women were suffering from a brutal beating they had received
for a recent attempt to escape. They had been whipped with a coat hanger wire
until they fainted. The police also reported that one of the Burmese women had
been forced back into prostitution only three days after giving birth.
The main
centre for trafficking in Northern Burma's
Kengtung, in Shan State,
northern Burma. Here thousands of Burmese
women of Akha, Lisu, Wa, Shan and Burman ethnic origin are brought and
recruited before being sent on to northern Thailand.
However, the trafficking of
women has now spread to every corner of Burma and some agents travel
widely in search of women to lure into prostitution. Many brothel gangs also operate
in Thai border towns, especially in Ranong, Mae Sai, Mae Hong Son, Phrae, Naan
and Mae Sod and directly across the border from these towns. From these towns
women are sent on to Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Bangkok and to smaller cities and
towns all over Thailand, especially in the South.
From Bangkok many women are sent
overseas through an international network.
The Crime Suppression
Division Police in Thailand have conducted many raids
on brothels throughout Thailand in which many Burmese
women have been "freed" from the brothel only to be charged with
illegal entry and prostitution by the authorities. The prostitution charges are
dropped once it has been established that the women were forced to comply
against their will but widespread corruption makes it is easy for those
responsible to avoid imprisonment or gain early release. Until April this year,
most women found guilty entering Thailand illegally were deported
back to Burma and their fate left to the
hands of the Burmese authorities. The women have often been deported via
Ranong, which has at times meant that they have been sent straight back to the
pimps. On one occasion, brothel owners paid the boatman to turn the boat around
after it had got half way back to Burma from Ranong.
When women return to Burma, they face arrest for
"unlawfully leaving Myanmar". One woman who
returned to Burma in mid-1992, after being
taken to Ranong and forced to work as a prostitute was arrested and tortured at
the notorious Insein Prison because she was suspected of having contact with
the armed opposition forces on the border. For the past two years, there has
also been a widespread rumour that the military authorities in Burma have been injecting these
women with cyanide if they are found to be HIV-positive. While present
conditions inside Burma make it impossible to
verify this, Burmese women are routinely repatriated, despite opposition from
NGO groups and some government officials over the danger they face there.
At present, trafficking of
Burmese women (ethnic Burman, Chinese, Shan and Akha) is rampant. Unless there
is coordinated and firm action taken in the near future, the scourge of
trafficking will continue to grow, as will the terrible spread of AIDS. For
their future, there is a desperate need for more than just talk. [source: Seeds of Peace]
HIV IN MAGWE AND MOULMEIN
Hotels, motels and inns have become popular in Burma
since SLORC's “open-market” economy was introduced. Recently, in Magwe City at least
6 inns/hotels were raided by the local police. One of Burma's
magazines had revealed that prostitutes worked in these inns. After the arrest
women were taken to jail and were tested for the HIV virus. According to a
source, three women were found to be HIV-positive. In Moulmein, Mon State, many
prostitutes work in the expanding hotel industry. Although some inns and hotels
are situated near local SLORC offices and police stations there have been no
arrests. A resident in Moulmein said, "The local authorities are bribed by owners of the inns
so they are not to going to bother raiding these places." [source: Burmese magazines]
SLAVERY
Slavery is flourishing in Southeast Asia. Burmese women and girls
have become a valuable, yet disposable, commodity in Thailand's ruthless sex industry.
This is the reality revealed by A Modern
Form of Slavery: Trafficking of Burmese Women and Girls into Brothels in
Thailand, a scathing new study published by Asia Watch and the Women's
Rights Project.
The chilling report
illustrates the entire cycle of exploitation, from the initial deception to the
disorienting – and by no means guaranteed – release from bondage. Using data
gathered during three discreet fact finding trips, the authors clearly document
the abuse perpetrated by two corrupt systems. One, controlled by a network of
brothel owners and procuring "agents", robs the women's liberty,
dignity and health. The other, ruled by pervasive apathy and complicity within
Thai law enforcement, denies the victims any decent form of refuge, treatment
or protection, let alone legal recourse.
The typical odyssey of
oppression begins with the victim's delivery from an ironically safer existence
within Burma's war-torn hills.
Provoking this descent is an "agent", who essentially sells the
women's freedom with promises of opportunity, as in the case of this teenaged
Akha girl:
One day two women came to
the village while "Par" was on her way to the fields. They talked to
her about how much better it would be to live in the city and work... Her
father wanted to go along as well as he was afraid of her being sold, but the
two women said it was not necessary and would be a waste of his time. The agent
told her that the daughter would be...taking care of children and would get to
go to school. She gave [Per's] father 800 baht (US$ 32).
The agents prey on the
poverty and naivete of Burma's rural families. In
almost all cases, agents transfer money to the girls' friends, families or
companions, in the dubious form of a loan or wage advance. Whatever the
pretext, the women soon lose touch with their homes, and are told that the
initial payment is the basis of a debt to which they are bonded, and which they
must now begin to repay by working in a brothel. Though a few are introduced to
servitude by short stints as dishwashers or maids, inevitably the pressure to
clear the debt--which they have no way to verify or challenge--forces them into
brothels.
Who can claim to truly
understand the degradation that awaits these victims of the Thailand's predatory sex trade? All euphemism aside, once they enter Thai brothels Burmese women
are jailed and then raped several times a day for months or years on end,
stripped of the right to refusal or self-defence. The debt bondage is
also an act of rape:
"Tin Tin" was
held responsible for paying back the 5,000 baht that the owner of the Sanae
brothel in Klong Yai had given an agent... She had no idea when she left for Thailand that she had effectively
been sold into prostitution until she arrived at the brothel... When she tried
to refuse, the owner... told her that with interest, she now owed 10,000 baht
and said, "If you want to go home, then you've got to work, or you'll
never pay back your debt."
Life inside the brothels is
brutal. Beatings, death threats and other forms of torture are common.
Sanitation is poor and health care all but unavailable. Escape is almost always
an impossibility: lone women, illegal aliens, unable
to speak Thai, often unable to point the direction home, have little realistic
chance of survival. "The owner doesn't have to lock us up," explains
one woman whose attempted escape was abandoned.
Indeed, one of the most
discouraging findings is that many women, resigned to their temporary slavery
but determined to get home, opt for the quickest way out, embracing the only
hope they have within the brothel system: clearing their debt through having
sex with as many customers as possible. For most, one day they will be informed
that their debt has been cleared, and they are free to leave, no richer and
undeniably poorer than when they began. Many women die or disappear before
their debt is ever "repaid".
What about the law? After
all, prostitution is illegal in Thailand, as are abduction, rape
and unlawful confinement. The authors conclude that "Despite clear
national and international prohibitions on procurement and trafficking, such
practices are not only widespread in Thailand, but in many instances
occur with the direct involvement of Thai police or border guards".
"Pyone Pyone"
spent three days in Mae Sai...before a uniformed policeman...drove her and
twelve other Burmese girls...to a brothel in Bangkok. Their van was not stopped
at any of the police checkpoints along the way. When she got to the brothel,
Pyone Pyone was told she could not leave. She said she knew there was no way to
escape anyway, because all the police in the area knew the policeman who had
brought her there.
Some Thai police are also
reported to frequent the brothels, apparently using their influence to help
themselves. In some cases, police whom the prostitutes have serviced return to
the brothel for a "raid," usually during which only the women, not
the brothel owners, are arrested.
Sometimes the raid is a
brief hiatus in the daily routine of the women; they will return to work
shortly. In others, it marks the women's transfer from one sphere of
victimisation to another. Local jails and the Immigration Detention Centre are
rife with abuse and neglect. Even deportation, perhaps the best hope for
Burmese women determined to see their homes again, is fraught with danger and uncertainty.
There is no guarantee that the cycle of abuse will be broken. Merely being
dropped off at a desolate border offers no security and, predictably, often
waiting are more "agents" with their promises of transportation home
or better jobs in Thailand.
Does Burma seek to rescue its stolen
children from bondage in Thailand? Apparently not, its
response to officially repatriated victims of prostitution is generally
punitive. In truth, there is no simple homecoming for most of these women, who
bear the physical and psychological scars of their oppression, and who quite
likely carry the HIV virus. For those who do carry HIV, the debt that was
arranged to hold them in servitude also incurs a death sentence. [source: Burma Issues]
PROFILES: DAW SAN SAN AND MA THIDA
Daw San San was born in Ahlon Village in Monywa Township on 10 January 1930. She passed the 10th standard examination from Monywa Township Mula-tan-lun School in
1948, obtaining the B.Sc (Biology) degree from Rangoon University in
1954. She served as a teacher with the Central High School in
1954 and as a demonstrator at Rangoon University in
1955. Daw San San won the State Scholarship award and attended the training
course on oceanography in Yugoslavia from 1955 to 1956. She also served as a demonstrator to the
Assistant Director of the Labor Department from 1959 to 1988.
During the pro-democracy movement in 1988, Daw San San chaired the
Labor Directorate Worker's Thamaga. As a result of her involvement in the
demonstrations, she was forced to resign from her workplace. A member of the
NLD, she successfully contested the General Election in 1990, being elected as
the Hluttaw representative for Seikkan Township Constituency.
The authorities alleged that Daw San San attended a clandestine
meeting on the formation of a temporary government in 1990. She also held
discussions at her house with other elected NLD members. She was reportedly
sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment.
A medical doctor and short story writer aged in her late twenties,
Ma Thida worked in a philanthropic Muslim Hospital
before being arrested with ten other political activists on 7 August 1993. All of them were held without either legal representation or
contact with close associates until their trial started on 27 September 1993. SLORC was forced to adjourn the hearing after a large crowd turned
up at the court.
[see also under “Eye-witness Accounts”, interview 12, 28,
32-33, 35-36, 38, 44, 49, 79, 92, 105, 109-112, 118, 120, 130, 132, 137, 141]
On 16 January at 6 p.m., 10
soldiers from Coy 5 of IB 69 commanded by Maj Myint Kyi, ransacked Mong Young
Parish, Hsenwi Township, and committed a gang-rape of which the following four
local women were victims; Aye Ong (27, daughter of Pu Loi La), Pa Nang Sar (35,
daughter of Pu Loi Tun), Ea Kham (32, daughter of Pu Loi Ywat Saam) and Ea Noan
(28, daughter of Pu Loi Sarng Lu). [source: SHRF]
On 18 January, Maj Myint
Kyi's troops of Coy 5 of IB 69, raid and ransacked Worn Parng Yarp Village,
Mong Young Parish, Hsenwi Township. Awk Loi Sar, Ea Ong and Ea Noon were
brutally raped by soldiers. [source: SHRF]
On 18 January at about 2:30
p.m.,
four SLORC soldiers from Coy 5 of IB 69 were killed and two others wounded
because of a booby-trap left by the rebels. Due to
their losses, the soldiers were furious and in vengeance captured one Akha
woman, named Ar-way Am. Her body was soaked with gasoline and she was
mercilessly burnt alive until dead. Besides committing this act, an unknown
woman of the same village was not only raped by the vengeful soldiers but her
two children were reportedly taken into the middle of the village and their
heads were lobbed off by the SLORC soldiers. [source:
SHRF]
On 27 January, IB— of LID—,
commanded by A— returned to Lay Kay Village, Thaton District, Mon State, and
seized two sisters, Naw Psaw Po and Naw Hser Chit (daughters of Ti Per Kyaw),
tied them up and blindfolded them, and then they were gang-raped by the
soldiers the whole night. [source: KNU/NMSP]
In February 1994, in Kalaywa Township, Sagaing Division, female
students from primary to high school level were trained for a SLORC-sponsored
"Miss Model" contest under the name of Saung Ekari (Winter Princess).
As the final examinations for the students in Burma were drawing very near,
parents and teachers were very much concerned about their children falling the
examinations. SLORC hopes to distract students during this stressful time,
remembering the events of 1988, regardless of educational standards, in addition
to the denigration of women. [source: ABSDF]
Na Sa Ka ordered villagers to send thirty
two teenagers to their camp
On 1
March 1994 the border administrative body
known as Na Sa Ka of Area No.4 belonging to Leik-ra Village and
its adjoining area under Maungdaw Township had ordered the Muslim villagers to send 32 young women to
undertake nurse training and learning other vocational trainings like
tailoring, etc., at the local military base for the “benefit” of Muslim girls.
The order was issued by the Na Sa Ka in-charge of Area
No.4. Accordingly, the Muslim villagers, who had earlier been threatened with
dire consequences if opposed, are now compelled to obey the government order.
On 22 March, the guardians along with their daughters went to the Na Sa Ka office where their teenagers are to stay in the
dormitory till their training period was over. It is reported that presently
four Muslim girls from Kumirkhali, one from Shilkhali, two from Kwarbil, three
from Ayubchar, four from Dombeik, fifteen from Bawlibazar and three from
Zibongkhali are now participating in the training camp and the villages fallen
under the jurisdiction of Area No.4 are now ordered to arrange maintenance cost
for this training programme. In this connection, the villagers of Zibaungkhali
had already collected a sum of Kyat. 25,000 Ks and other villages are also
doing the same. [source: MOA]
On October 31, four army
personnel including one sergeant belonging to the 525th Burma Regiment,
stationed at Aung Mingala outpost, entered the house of one Ma Nu Begum (25,
wife of Qarim) at Headmanpara Village while she was
breast-feeding milk to her baby. Finding her in a state of helplessness, the
four soldiers tried to assault her sexually but could not do so as she
violently refused and raised a cry. At this the four had struck her with a
wooden plank as a result of which her arm was broken and her child's head was
severely injured. [source: MOA]
On 25 September, that
military column robbed 17,500 Ks worth of property from the villagers. During
that evening, the commander summoned Naw Bwe, leader of ten households in Mi Ka Village, talked rudely and forced
her to strip off her sarong and reveal her private parts. As she was afraid of
death, she could not refuse anymore. [source: ABSDF]
On 1
January 1995,
SLORC troops from LID 410 entered Ta Yoke Taung Village, Ye Township,
committing robbery and raped 5 women, including a pregnant woman. [source: NMSP]