Miscellaneous
AIDS OUT OF CONTROL IN
According to experts, the AIDS situation in
FORCED MILITARY RECRUITMENT INTENTIONALLY DIVIDES COMMUNITIES
SLORC has given orders to all villages in Tavoy District that each village must send 2 recruits to become SLORC soldiers. Villages which cannot provide the required recruits are forced to hire itinerant workers or others to go in their place for 15,000 K each. Any family which sends their son to be a SLORC soldier must thenceforth be given 30 tins of rice and 300 K every year by the other villagers. These families will also henceforth be free from all slave labour and forced porter assignments by SLORC troops which apply to the other villagers.
Note: There are hundreds of
villages in Tavoy District. This is an increasingly widespread practice
throughout
On 23 June, troops from SLORC
LIB 73 went through villages in
DACOITS IN AND OUT OF UNIFORM
In November 1993, Captain Soe Naing and some of his troops from IB
73 came to a small shop in
SLORC AND GERM WARFARE IN MONLAND
On 28 January, SLORC planes passed over the headquarters area of the NMSP and sprayed a yellow powder which spread over the entire area. The NMSP said this has happened before but the effects are not clear as no proper analysis has ever been carried out, and no one knows exactly what SLORC is spraying. In the last 8 months of 1993, a few days after SLORC planes flew over Karen territory and dropped mysterious "radiosonde", a disease like cholera suddenly broke out in 2 different areas causing the deaths of hundreds of people. One of the affected areas is Thaton District where SLORC's notorious LID 99 unsuccessfully used terror 2 years ago to herd the entire population into camps or drive them out of the area. The disease is now helping that to happen.
KARENLAND CONTAMINATED
Baroness Caroline Cox, Deputy
Speaker of
“Villagers gave consistent, detailed accounts of direct association between the dropping of these devices and the onset of the epidemics.” Baroness Cox also noted that immediately after the boxes were dropped, SLORC troops stopped going into the areas and barred traders from entering the areas, an indication that they knew what had been dropped.
Dr Panter, a member of
Christian Solidarity
PARACHUTES, BOXES, DISEASE
On
Between 3 days and 2 weeks later, villagers in the drop area and some areas downriver started getting sick with a disease resembling cholera or shigella. The symptoms were very serious diarrhoea with faeces "like rice water", in some cases combined with watery vomiting, bringing death by severe dehydration within one to two days; as a Karen medic described it, "You go to the toilet 3 times, then you're dead." Other symptoms reported include nausea, dizziness, in some cases head and body aches, and some found that if they pinched their skin and released it, the flesh stayed pinched out.
The disease was very communicable and spread very rapidly until it
covered most of
By December it appeared that the disease had abated in most areas,
although a few cases are still being reported. Deaths have now been reported
far from the original disease area in the major
Since the start of 1994, an epidemic of a very similar or identical
disease has broken out about 100 km further south in Dta Greh (Burmese: Pain
Kyone) Township, between
Statistics on this outbreak are not available yet. A trader from the
area recently reported that "SLORC planes came 2 or 3 times, flying not
too high at night. They dropped things by parachute – one was near
The disease is curable with basic medicines, but the villagers in
the target area have no access to such medicines; since 1992, the SLORC has
sent LID 99 into the Donthami-Yunzalin
area with specific orders to drive all villagers in this area into camps or out
of the area. Villagers now affected further south in Pa'an District have
suffered similar tactics. In the process they have been terrorised, stripped of
all money and belongings, and thousands have been displaced or have fled to
refugee camps in
Villagers in the Donthami-Yunzalin area say they have never heard of such an epidemic, not even in their grandparents' time. They also say that as soon as the first people began getting sick, SLORC troops stopped entering all villages in the area and in most cases didn't even leave their camps, which is also unprecedented. This is a Brown Area, where both SLORC and Karen troops operate, and the SLORC has always entered these villages regularly to capture porters and loot food and belongings.
Villagers who were used to having to rotate weekly shifts of slave labour maintaining SLORC army camps were suddenly forbidden from entering those camps. One group of SLORC troops came near a village, but stayed in the monastery outside the village. While all the villagers were getting the disease, only the SLORC troops and the monks remained healthy. In Laykay, a large village with a large SLORC army camp, villagers were forbidden from entering the camp and soldiers were forbidden to leave. However, the villagers learned that the soldiers in the camp had been "vaccinated" (to use their word) against the disease. In Yo Klah, where there is also a SLORC camp right in the village, villagers were forbidden to enter the camp but soldiers came into the village to order villagers to keep their food clean and boil all drinking water, and they forced the villagers to dig latrines for themselves at gunpoint. However, they did not go to any other villages to do this.
A DESCRIPTION OF DEATH
Villagers have found many of
the air-dropped devices in the Donthami-Yunzalin area. The KNU has obtained a
number of them, the Karen Human Rights Group has obtained three, and others
have obtained several more. They consist of a clear plastic parachute 2 metres
in diameter with 4 nylon suspension lines holding a "white box" and 1
or 2 balloons. Unfortunately, none of the balloons have been recovered –
villagers report that in every case, the balloons have been broken when found.
The "white box" consists of a thick white styrofoam box 31.5 cm x 17
cm x 10 cm deep complete with formed styrofoam lid. Inside, in specially
moulded slots, are a 6.2-cm-diameter pressure-sensing anode connected to a
swinging arm on a gauge, a 13 x 6 cm circuit board, and a small microwave
transmitter. The unit is powered by small battery which fits in a slot in the
bottom, and there are also one or two slots which are empty on the units we
have recovered. The entire units, as indicated by printing on the swinging-arm
gauge, a logo on the outside of the styrofoam box, and the battery unit, were
made by "Viz Manufacturing Co.,
The devices appear to be
typical commercially available "radiosonde" devices, manufactured to
be sent up under weather balloons. This is supported by the plastic wrapping
for the battery, which is labelled "Activation Instructions for Radiosonde
Battery". The battery itself is a disposable chemical unit 6cm x 6cm x 4cm
thick, made up of clear plastic tightly wrapped around layers of wax, chemical,
and something like cardboard, all packaged in a white plastic bag with printed
instructions. It is activated by removing the plastic bag, immersing it in
water, shaking off the excess, then connecting the power connector, putting it
back in the plastic bag and inserting it in the slot in the radiosonde box. The
battery we have recovered is printed with the date
Radiosondes are meant to be sent up under weather balloons, not dropped out of planes with parachutes. Unlike all the radiosonde equipment, which is clearly marked with the VIZ name and logo, the parachutes have no markings and appear to have been rigged up by SLORC for this special purpose. They consist of a circular sheet of clear "crinkly" plastic, similar to that used to make ordinary plastic bags. The sheet has been cut to a diameter of 2 metres, and at least part of the cutting appears to have been done roughly with hand scissors. The lines were held on with ordinary office-type staples. There are also some other features which may have been added by SLORC. One unit was recovered with a 27-cm-long metal device with four radial folding fins attached to it, which fold out to a diameter of 28 cm – this appears to be the tail assembly from an RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade shell, and was probably attached to make the unit descend vertically and at a proper rate; it would not work as an antenna for microwave transmission. Each pressure-sensing device has a spot of paint on it which appears to have been hastily hand-applied; some units are marked with blue paint, some with red. Each unit also has a three-wired cable attached to the circuit board which goes to a slot in the bottom of the box, where there is a plastic connector. Here the cable is soldered to a piece of apparently standard two-wired household power cord about 20-cm-long. In every case, at the other end of this cord about half a centimetre of the wires have been stripped and soldered, but they are just hanging free outside the box, not connected to anything. This may have something to do with the balloons, none of which were recovered because the villagers said in every case that the balloons were broken and destroyed when found. Villagers who found one unit hanging from a tree said that the broken balloon was hanging down and a foul-smelling "black-yellow-green" liquid was dripping from it. Other villagers who took devices home said they later destroyed them because they were giving off a "foul smell". A Karen military column which went to villages to retrieve the devices reported that in several cases, they were told that the villager who had retrieved the device had later died of the disease, so the villagers had destroyed it.
While these devices appear to have been originally manufactured for use under weather balloons, knowledgeable sources indicate that throwing them out of low-flying aeroplanes would be virtually useless for weather applications. Also, the short length of the microwave transmitter antenna indicates a very high frequency transmission, possibly in the gigahertz range, which would only be receivable along a straight "line of sight". This would make sense for a weather balloon, which sends signals down to earth from heights up to 100,000 feet, but would be useless for transmitting from the ground where there are some hills and ground cover as in the drop area. The transmission also appears to be quite low powered because the transistor on the circuit board does not even have a heat sink. These limitations would imply that the signals may only be receivable from the planes which dropped the devices, or that the SLORC was not particularly interested in the signal anyway.
Several possibilities are under consideration. Firstly, there may be no relationship between the SLORC air-drops and the epidemic. However, if this is the case, why did SLORC troops stop entering the area so quickly, which they have never done before, and what was the purpose of the air drops? Dropping such devices from low-flying planes by night would have very limited usefulness for meteorology, and the SLORC has no reason to be studying the weather in the drop area anyway. The weather there is very stable and predictable, generally not varying for months at a time. Perhaps the devices are sensitive enough to pick up and transmit vibrations which would indicate Karen troop movements, similar to devices used by American forces in Vietnam; however, on first inspection the devices do not appear to have this capability, they could probably not transmit for very long on their batteries, and many more of them would have to be dropped to be very effective for this purpose. The devices could act as beacons which are dropped on targets, then transmit a signal which guides in a guided weapon, but no weapons were fired on the area. Another possibility is that the barometric pressure readings could be used to help calibrate the SLORC's Carl Gustav Swedish rockets and other air-exploding shells to function properly in local areas. However, much of the drop area is only seldom penetrated by Karen troops, and in the areas where Karen troops do operate, they use guerrilla tactics, based on ambush and quick retreat. There are very few head-on battles which would involve the heavy use of such shells. Another possibility is that the barometric readings could help the SLORC predict the effectiveness of future strikes with chemical or bacteriological agents, chemical defoliants, or napalm. Advice from military experts is needed to properly assess these possibilities. In any case, an unexplained SLORC air-drop just days before the outbreak of a once-in-a-century epidemic in the same area would seem to be quite an incredible coincidence.
The other possibility is that there is a connection between the SLORC air-drop and the epidemic. If so, how did the mysterious devices cause the disease? The balloons (which have not been recovered and tested) could have contained the bacteriological agent, or some other device could have been attached, which would ideally have dispersed the agent while the device was still in the air. The microwave transmission could be used as a "homing signal" so that Strategic Headquarters could map the dispersal of the agent. The barometric pressure readings might be useful as well in estimating its dispersal, or the SLORC may not have been interested in the barometric information, only using meteorological devices because they can be bought without suspicion and if found people will assume they have been used for meteorological applications. Unfortunately, toxicologists say that it is very unlikely that they could recover any trace of the disease off the devices themselves this long after the fact. Another possibility is that the devices did not deliver the agent, but were only used to map its dispersal while the agent itself was sprayed from the planes by some other means. There has been no such epidemic in generations, and the drop area corresponds to the disease area.
OTHER MYSTERIOUS EPIDEMICS FOLLOWING BALLOON DROPS
In 1985 in the Baw Kloh area of southern Burma's Tenasserim Division, at least one balloon attached to a packet of "powder" was dropped by a Burmese military plane. Just afterward, a cholera epidemic began in the area which lasted through the entire rainy season. Almost all villagers got sick, though only 10 to 20 reportedly died. Only one balloon was retrieved, and no proper analysis was done.
In mid-1993 an identical device was recovered in forest less than 10 kilometres west of Manerplaw, across the Salween river from the Meh Bpa area, where the heaviest fighting occurred in the SLORC's 1992 offensive against Manerplaw. During that offensive SLORC bomber aircraft were over the area every day, but they have not been back since. It is not known when this device was dropped. The serial number on the gauge is 607-1019, and on the circuit board 0762537. A UPC code sticker on the bottom reads "Prod-Seq # 012907C". The device is code-marked with blue paint.
OTHER CASES OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS USED BY SLORC
In the 1992 offensive against Manerplaw, several Karen soldiers were wounded on different occasions by air attacks at frontline positions with suspected chemical weapons. They suffered burns and rashes which were still spreading over their bodies months later, and partial or complete loss of mobility in various parts of the body with no apparent cause.
In Kachin State the same year, the Kachin Independence Organisation claimed that chemical shells were being used against them, and that they had intercepted messages telling SLORC frontline commanders to withdraw several hundred metres because SLORC planes were about to drop "chemical weapon shells".
Well-placed and reliable sources indicate that the SLORC has its own facilities for manufacturing mustard gas and possibly other chemical warfare agents, built with the assistance of a west German firm. In the Bundestag (German parliament) on 24 September 1991, the German government admitted that between 1978 and 1989, a total of 15 Burma Army officers received "ABC Protection" training (ABC = Atomic/Bacteriological/Chemical) from the Bundeswehr (German Army) at Sonthofen Military Academy in west Germany. When asked if similar training also occurred in East Germany, the government answered, "The Federal Government does not have any knowledge about Burmese citizens also being trained in handling ABC warfare agents by the former NVA [Nationale Volksarmee, the East German armed forces]." It is interesting that the Burma Army, with no external enemies, would be interested in "protecting" themselves against these types of warfare. The German government claimed that this was part of a program offered to many Third World countries; the list of countries which benefited includes several which have close ties with German arms manufacturer Fritz Werner, such as Sudan, where Fritz Werner built a military plant. In Burma, Fritz Werner established the entire arms and munitions manufacturing industry under the Ne Win regime, which has since been nationalised by SLORC. Fritz Werner has also built "fertiliser" and "bottling" factories in Burma for the SLORC, all of which are highly secure locations. In the year 1984 West Germany exported DM 16.1 million worth of chemical pre-products to Burma, and DM 7.5 million worth of chemical end products. We are now seeking further information on all of these points.
IN CONCLUSION...
Right now, while the SLORC is trying to convince the world that it wants to negotiate "peace", and while it sends delegations worldwide and hires public relations firms in a desperate attempt to improve its international image, why would it engage in an act of bacteriological warfare which would bring it unprecedented international condemnation and probably even force the UN Security Council into action? This is a difficult question to answer, but not so difficult if one understands the SLORC mentality. If the SLORC really wants to improve its international image, why doesn't it simply decrease the grotesque level of human rights abuses it perpetrates in ethnic areas? This would also have the effect of making villagers less supportive of opposition groups. However, the SLORC is now actually stepping up its human rights abuses, possibly as a form of threat to opposition groups that they had better agree to negotiate. The SLORC is now so confident of its power and of the support of its neighbouring allies that it feels it can do anything it likes within the country, as long as it makes the right statements overseas. With the news blackout it maintains over most of the country, it is confident that none of its activities in remote areas, like the area in question, can be proven. Even when they are proven, the SLORC simply claims that the information is "propaganda by terrorist groups" and flatly denies any human rights abuses exist at all, confident that no foreign governments will take action against them. They probably would not even realise that to use bacteriological warfare is to step across the line, putting themselves in the spotlight and forcing foreign countries to respond.
The epidemic area is the same area where the SLORC has sent fresh combat troops since 1992, particularly the notorious LID 99, to attempt to drive all villagers into controlled camps or out of the area so that Karen troops cannot operate. Much of the region has already been declared a free-fire zone where any villagers seen are shot on sight. Many have fled the area, but many more remain, hidden in the forests or in villages, and the Karen Army continues to operate. The SLORC may therefore be using disease as a last resort to clear out the area's population by killing some and forcing the rest to flee the spreading disease. This could also be an experimental operation in preparation for more widespread use of bacteriological agents, possibly against other remote areas or the Manerplaw area.
Although other diseases such as anthrax tend to be generally preferred for bacteriological warfare, there are also reasons for the SLORC to choose a disease approximating cholera or severe dysentery instead. An outbreak of a non-native disease like anthrax would immediately be extremely suspicious, and much easier to trace back to the SLORC, whereas diseases like cholera and dysentery already exist in the region. By using a disease which is fairly easy to treat, they can protect their own soldiers against it quite easily, at the same time knowing that the villagers will suffer severely because they have no access to the required medicines. The disease does not have to kill them all, only force them out of the area from fear of it.
However, by forcing villagers
to move the SLORC is causing itself problems now, as evidenced by the fact that
the disease has now spread to other areas well under their control like Ka Ma
Maung, and could spread further into