KAO WAO NEWS No. 25

An electronic newsletter for social justice and freedom in Burma

No. 25, August 13-26, 2002

READER’S FRONT

POLICE FORCE FUND RAISING

SUSPICIONS IMPEDE PEACE FOR MON

OVER FIFTY YEARS OF MON ARMED RESISTENCE

AILING ETHNIC LEADER FREED AT LAST

ARAKAN RICE RIOT MASSACRE REMEMBERED

LAND CONFISCATION CAUSING HARDSHIP

KANBAWZA WIN: WHY DISTRACT THE KARENNI REFUGEES?

MON MAGIC IN THE NORTH POLE

READER’S FRONT

Dear Readers,

We invite comments and suggestions on improvements to Kao-Wao newsletter. With your help, we hope that Kao-Wao News will continue to grow to serve better the needs of those seeking social justice in Burma and Thailand. And we hope that it will become an important forum for discussion and debate and help readers to keep abreast of issues and news. Above all, we hope the newsletter will be used as a vehicle for those who want to share their views and experiences.

We reserve the right to edit and reject articles without prior notification. You can use a pseudonym but we encourage you to include your full name and address.

Regards,

Editor [email protected]

Dear Kaowao crew,

I am not very happy about the border raid. I knew that one day it would come to this. The Thai and Burmese governments have become partners. Thai now is looking after their interests, especially Thai capitalism, looking for profit for the market and the Thai businessman.

My concern is about civil war, created by the Burmese government to avoid handing the power over to a democratic government. The ongoing civil war in Burma is created by the military government in order to keep the leaders busy and to keep the army employed. On the other hand, the majority of Burmans (Burmese) are not happy with the federal state and law.

In order to bring democracy to Burma we need international help such investment, media, and a strong people dialogue. But first we need to open the country to tourism to gain international media attention.

Ray (Kwae Mon)

Canberra, Australia.

POLICE FORCE FUND RAISING

(Kao-Wao, Moulmein, August 17, 2002)

The Police Force of Mon State were forcing civilians to buy tickets of the Burmese Traditional Boxing Fights in Moulmein, the capital city of Mon State.

Tickets for entrance fee of 1000 Burmese Kyats were sold by the local police force to civilians. The police targeted motorists and truck owners, according to a truck driver from Mudon town, to buy tickets.

“The trucks are being stopped and checked at the police gates. But, if you have already bought a ticket for the show and left it at home, then they force you to buy another ticket,” said Nai Chan from Pa-Auk village near Moulmein.

The fight took place on August 17, Saturday at Ramanya Stadium of Mon State. Force fund raising is a normal part of everyday living that goes to support the military and authorities in Burma. “The local people are not happy because of deteriorating economy but the junta always tries to make a profit by forcing civilians to partake in the poor entertainment,” complained Nai Shein a businessman from the capital.

Mon State had enjoyed a better economy during General New Win’s BSPP (Burma Socialist Programme Party) government because of its location on the black market route through Thailand and the gateway to Andaman Sea for contraband trading with Singapore and Malaysia. But under SPDC rule the business routes have moved to the China border, now business is in bad shape according to a local business community.

SUSPICIONS IMPEDE PEACE FOR MON

(Kao-Wao, August 17, 2002)

The Mon dispute between the New Mon State Party and the Hongsawatoi Restoration Party has escalated from a war of words to open armed conflict after failure of peace negotiations.

Nai Ong Hmoin, the General Secretary of HRP and ten of his followers joined the NMSP on August 10, 2002 near Thai-Burma border. The HRP issued a statement on the same day to clarify the reason for the surrender. Signed by Colonel Pan Nyunt, the leader of the breakaway group, it informed all Mons that Nai Ong Hmoin and Nai MangeChai, former leader of the refugee camp had committed corruption while on duties and had them thrown out from the party at an emergency meeting on July 30, 2002. But the former General Secretary, in his writing statement, said he resigned from the HRP because of lessen unity within the group.

Following the war of words between the HRP and NMSP supporters, the two groups engaged in armed fighting on August 11 at Tar Dein and on August 12 at Tai Joein area but no casualties were reported from both sides.

Inside Mon State, about twenty HRP troops led by Taung Datt Mon attacked NMSP members of Tactical Commander Col. Saik Htow (Nai Plone) at HanGan, in southern Ye Township on August 12, 2002. Lt. Nai JaoDein and Kyaw Kyaw of NMSP lost their lives, with the NMSP losing two AK 47 arms and equipments while a 14-year-old schoolgirl was killed as a result of the conflict, being caught in the middle of the fighting.

Mon Unity League reported that the Negotiation Mission met with two parties and reached a good understanding with each group in May 2002. But tension grew when HRP entered the Halockhanee Mon refugee camp and attacked the NMSP military base near by. Mon Negotiating Mission failed to bring the two parties together for face-to-face negotiations, according to Nai Sunthorn, MUL General Secretary. “Colonel Nai Pan Nyunt does not want talks, his response has been more attacks, added another MUL representative, commenting that each is suspicious of the other. The mission has to extend it members with strong support from the community at large, like leaders, monks, and enforced with the expectations and pressure from the Mon people, he added.

“The MUL’s initiative is good but both sides have not made any moves toward reconciliation and the Mission is not strong enough,” said Khaing Soe Naing Aung, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Front (NDF). The NDF team led by Saw Shwe Saing and Khaing Soe Naing Aung also met both parties for negotiations but no further progress beyond that was addressed, according to NDF source.

OVER FIFTY YEARS OF MON ARMED RESISTENCE

(Kao-Wao, August 23, 2002)

The Mon celebrated 55th anniversary of Resistance Day at different locations in Monland and overseas.

The President of the NMSP, Nai Shwe Kyin, said in his resistance day message, that there has been no political development after seven years of the cease-fire agreement with the ruling military junta. The BBC radio conducted an interview with Nai Hongsar, the Joint-Secretary General of the Party from the liberated area, who claimed that many lands have been confiscated by the military leaving civilians destitute and without just compensation from the army.

The Mon armed struggle has continuously fought against the Burman central governments for over five decades but the New Mon State Party reached a cease-fire agreement in 1995 hoping to resolve political problems with the junta. No positive development has resulted from it, as there has been no political solution initiated after the cease-fire agreement, as stressed in the ceremonial statement of NMSP.

The leaders addressed to the many gatherings sponsored by the New Mon State Party and the Hongsawatoi Restoration Party. A ceremony was held at the General Headquarters opened by the Vice-chairman Nai Htin and another ceremony was held near the Thailand border led by General Aung Naing.

In the USA, the Mon community of Akron celebrated the event with speeches indicated the morality to maintain the culture and encourage young generation to shoulder Mon revolution in the future.

The Mon Resistance Day was celebrated to emphasize the beginning of the armed struggle against the Burmese government in 1948. When independence for Burma from the British was in the offing, the Mon asserted their identity and right of self-determination. Some Mon cultural and political organizations were formed by their leaders and asked the Burman leaders to recognize their identity. But their demand was flatly rejected and resulted in an escalation demanding to reclaim their old homestead, which covers lower Burma. Some Mon leaders were assassinated and many were imprisoned. More than 100 Mon villages were also burnt down and destroyed by the Burmese Army. These repressive measures pushed the Mon to take up arms and continue their struggled in 1948 when Nai Pan Thar and Mon patriots seized arms from the police station at Htow Plang (Zar Tha Pyin) village in Karen state.

AILING ETHNIC LEADER FREED AT LAST

(Kao-Wao, August 16, 2002)

U Aye Thar Aung, whose health is deteriorating from liver cancer, was freed on August 16, 2002.

The leader of the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) served a 21-year long-term sentence at In Sein Prison due to his political position and beliefs in democracy. When the Committee for Representing the Peoples Parliament (CRPP) was founded in 1998 by NLD and its alliance with UNLD, U Aye Tha Aung was selected as the Secretary of CRPP. The 57 year-old Arakan leader was released with other NLD political prisoners ahead of the visit of Malaysian Prime Minister to Burma.

The junta issued a statement saying that the authorities concerned have released him from custody on humanitarian grounds and will continue to assist him and his family with necessary care and assistance. But in an interview with the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) radio station, U Aye Tha Aung talked about the medical care system and the recent strike in a prison ward of the Rangoon General Hospital, and of the constant surveillance imposed by the military intelligence on imprisoned patients.

Prior to the release of the Arakan leader, the UNLD-LA (United Nationalities League for Democracy -Liberated Area) issued a statement on August 6, 2002 urging the military junta to release all ethnic national political prisoners.

While more political prisoners have been released, Mon political prisoners still remain in prison. Mon National Democratic Front leaders Nai Tun Thein, Nai Ngwe Thein, Dr. Min Kyi Win, and Dr. Min Soe Lin were arrested in 1998 for supporting the CRPP. Nai Tun Thein, the Chairman of MNDF was put under house arrest due to his age and poor health. The remaining three leaders were sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour, serving their term at the Moulmein Prison, Mon State. The Mon political prisoners are the General Secretary of MNDF and elected MP of Northern Ye Township Constituency 1, the Presidium member of UNLD and the elected MP of Mudon Township (South).

ARAKAN STATE RICE RIOT MASSACRE REMEMBERED

(Kao-Wao, August 13, 2002)

The remembrance ceremony of the massacre in Sittwe, Arakan State in 1967 was held recently in a liberated area of Thai-Burma border and in Bangladesh.

The All Arakan Students and Youth Congress (AASYC) and Rakhaing Patriotic Literature Club issued statements commemorating the 35th anniversary of Arakan State rice riot massacre where innocent civilians were brutally shot dead when they protested against the ruling junta for demanding daily rice quota.

Kyaw Htin, a youth leader of Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) said about 300 demonstrators were shot dead and several injured as the army led by Thura Saw Phru shot at them on August 13, 1967. The massacre is significant as it highlighted the suppression of the junta and following this many Arakanese joined armed struggle he added.

The statements recalled the Burma Socialist Programme Party government led by General Ne Win strictly controlled the rice for foreign export and bought rice at a much lower rate than the current price of that time. Farmers and civilians were not allowed to keep their own rice in the stocks under the socialist regime. The authoritarian regime failed to provide daily consumption and rice was in shortage for civilians including farmers. The people demanded for more rice provisions in the rice rich Arakan State, the authorities later offered poor quality rice salvaged from a ruined ship, which sank in the previous year at Sittwe harbor. The people who saw the full rice stocks for export were outraged and protested in front of warehouses on August 12, 1967 before the massacre.

The Rakhaing Patriotic Literature Club statement made an appeal to the ruling junta to recognize political and equality rights of non-Burman nationalities, to respect the 1990 general election, to stop human rights violations in Arakan State and other ethnic areas and to hold tripartite dialogue for national reconciliation in Burma.

LAND CONFISCATION CAUSING HARDSHIP

(Based on PSLF News, August 14, 2002)

The SPDC is planning to build a modern town at Ming Tong, Special Region No (7) in Palaung area, Shan State by the order of the NorthEastern Commander.

Fourteen houses of Talat village, near Kalar Kon, Maing Tong road were abandoned and relocated by the army on May 25, 2002 and slated for construction of a police station. Civilians received no compensation for the loss of their land, homes, and personal possessions and were forced to move from the village on short notice. The villagers have been waiting ever since for new sites set by the authorities. Since no compensation was given, victims sent petition letters to the authorities but were later warned that those who do not obey the rule of law by the State will face legal action.

In the Palaung area, the local SPDC confiscated 10 acres of private land belonging to four local farmers to construct a new village in Ming Tong. Local sources reported that after confiscation, Land Department of Ming Tong sold 200 square feet with 150,000 Kyat for a household to civilians for a new town project. Farmers whose lands are occupied by the military also have to pay for the piece of land while the money is shared among the local Commanders of 130 IB, Land Department and government organized USDA (Union Solidarity and Development Association) members. Since their land is taken by force and already suffering from inadequate subsistence, farmers who depend on farming for their livelihood face increased hardship, reported a Palaung villager who fled to the border.

WHY DISTRACT THE KARENNI REFUGEES?

(By Kanbawza Win)

The Thai government has been gracious enough to allow Burmese ethnic nationalities and some of the pro democracy students of Burma to seek save refuge in Thailand. Even though they are not recognized by the UNHCR as refugees due to reasons best known to the Thai government, at least they are not persecuted if they reside within specified boundaries. Due to the relentless persecution of the various Burmese administration since 1940 several waves of them are forced to reside in the refugee camps all along the border, while in some of the camps two generations have already passed and do not know any home except their refugee camp.

These Burmese refugees know their plight, once they venture back to their homeland. Naturally they obey the local laws as they reside peacefully in their respective camps contented with what the (BBC) Burma Border Consortium (an NGO of the amalgamation of the Churches and perspective donors) has provided them. However, the BBC can provide them only with the bare necessities and the refugees are sometimes forced to find fresh vegetables and fruit in the jungles to supplement their cooking pot.

Because of the latest border flare up between the Thai and Burmese security forces, Thailand was forced to station some of the Royal Thai army in the border areas and one of it is near Karenni Camp III. It so happens that some of the Thai soldiers saw these beautiful Karenni girls and assuming that as in earlier days where they can rape at will and sometimes killed them, with nobody reporting about it, they raped two girls named Kim Mae and Moe Mae. But things have changed since then and now there are a lot more NGOs and human rights groups armed with email. One of them sends an email about the real episodes and soon it’s on the Internet. The news spreads like a wild prairie fire. The Royal Thai Army did their best to placate the matter by offering some money but the human rights and the NGOs were adamant. This tarnishes the image of the Royal Thai Army.

They planned their revenge slyly and soon pressured the Mae Hon Son governor to move this particular refugee camp which has a house hold of 1,000 plus with 4,347 population including women and children. According to the Thai authorities they put up the matter to Bangkok and the latter thinking that it is high time to Kow Tow to the Burmese army verbally agreed. At this Pisanu Swasdee, the Deputy Naing Umpher (Deputy Governor) made it public that a particular Karenni Camp 3 should move since they are a nuisance to Mae Hong Son and cited 16 faults, which was published in the Bangkok post of the 7th ultimo. Poor Karenni refugees were at a loss of what to do and prepared for the worst to bite the bullet.

Arriving at Mae Hong Son, I soon learnt that almost all the accusations were false. They accused the refugees of cutting down bamboo but on scrutiny found that it was ordered by the head village of Nan Soi village to Mae Sa Bae village so that he could sell it to the refugees once they move. However, the forest authority caught up with him. He tried to escape blame by declaring that the Karenni refugees cut the bamboo.

Then local villagers accused the refugees of stealing their vegetables and one night they lay wait for them. Sure enough a shadowy figure was seen digging up their fruits. Thinking that it was a red handed case they shot straight and the figure dropped. But on closer examination they found out that it was one of the bad elements of their own villager. He had to be hospitalized and the case was to shut up.

Not to be daunted this time they put pesticide on cucumbers knowing full well that the Karenni people love to eat cucumbers with their Nga Pi (fermented fish paste) and would surely steal them. A week later some of the villagers got sick with stomach pain, so much so that one of them had to be sent to Chiangmai hospital (the second capital of Thailand), to be put in an intensive ward. The medical staff had a hard time to revive him and when later he came to senses, he admitted that he stole the cucumbers. All these episodes make the Mae Hong Son officials very upset. There is a Burmese saying, ‘that they have tried to trap the wild rabbit but instead caught its own cat.’

Seeing that it did not work they accused the refugees of being involved in illicit drug trafficking. The Karenni Refugee Committee invited them to come and see if there was any narcotic lab for after all this is Thai territory and any Thai can come and check. But nobody has turned up. But this is the first time that the Thai authorities has laid the blame on the Karenni refugee rather than the Wa tribe, an ally of the junta and openly involved in narco-business with the blessing of the junta. It seems to fit in the Burmese fable of “Ka Lar Ma Naing Rakhine Mae, literally translated means that not daring to take on the Indian, blame it on the Arakanese.

The Thai army could have easily gone after the narco-war lords just across the border but dared to do so for obvious reasons. They have became more determined to take revenge on these ‘good for nothing refugees’ making death threats over the phone to the Chairperson of Karenni National Women Organization and blaming her for highlighting the rape case. According to the Bangkok Post these refugees must shift from July 15th and must be completed by September 15th. But the new site near the border is just two miles from the Burmese army and besides it is too small to hold all 4,000 households and the most paradoxical aspect is that there is no water. In addition, the ground is so wet during the monsoon season that there are bound to be have several fatalities among the infants and children.

Also, no trucks can access the site because vehicles will get bogged down. The refugees are forbidden to cut down bamboo because of ecological reasons. It seems that the refugees will have to stay in the jungles somewhat similar to what the junta is doing to the forcibly relocated people. However, the local authorities of Mae Hong Son said, “This is Thailand, law is law and order is order, no matter what happens. The first batch of fifty families must go, we want the list to be put up. Poor Karenni Refugees they have no choice but to obey. But, Karenni people have several tribes among them Padaung, Kayaw, Kayan etc and the long neck Padaung of Kwe Poh Kae village and Camp 3 are the first to volunteer. The authorities are in for a shock, which explicitly means that it will wipe out the tourist industry of Mae Hong Son once and for all.

Wittingly or unwittingly the TAT (Tourist Authority of Thailand) have built a huge tourist attraction around labelling the Padaung of Karenni as Thailand’s own hill tribe people. Everyday planeloads of tourists flock to the conspicuous Padaung long neck tribe of Karenni. This wonderful, rare specimen of people who are put into a “Human Zoo earning thousands of dollars. All the postcards in Mae Hong Son, Chiangmai, and all of northern Thailand are full of the pictures of these Padaung people. The Karenni people have been exploited to the full extent because of the junta’s ethnic policy. And yet the Mae Hong Son authorities have not even given them a fair share of the deal.

When it was made known that the Padaung people are also shifting, the hotel owners went over en masse to the Naing Umpher Office and frankly asked him to give back the cost of constructing the hotels now that tourist will no longer be coming to Mae Hong Son. Of course the farmers of the surrounding villages will simply ask, “Who will work in our fields? Most of these refugees are working in the nearby paddy fields and orchards and paid half the wage of what an average Thai would get and once they are gone it will mean the end of prosperity. The villagers know their economy is cropped up because of the refugee’s hard work. At least the people of Mae Hong Son are more pragmatic than the officials who are now forced to postpone their verbal order indefinitely. Naturally, the local Thai authorities have everything on their side, law, order, enforcement, power, strength, etc. and what they need is truth, logic and a little foresight. If truth and logic were on their side Mae Hong Song would be a much better place for the tourist to visit.

MON MAGIC IN THE NORTH POLE

(By Gong Ong in Helsinki)

A small Mon community is trying hard to integrate into Finn society while maintaining its own identity in their new home in the North Pole.

In midwinter 2000, the Finnish government accepted a hundred refugees from Burma in the refugee quota with twenty Mons being resettled in Jyvaskyla, a city of 80,000 inhabitants in central Finland. The acceptance of refugees from Burma showed the support of the Finnish government on the democratic and ethnic front. The Jyvaskyla City, including its Mayor, warmly welcomed the Mon new comers upon their arrival in the middle of winter. They were given housing, social assistance and education to help them adjust in the new society.

It was ten years ago in 1992, for the first time from Burma, a Mon student leader Cham Toik was invited to a "Meeting in Finland" by a Finnish Adult Education Association to introduce the Finn on the plight of the Mon people in Burma. Over time, caring relations between Finn and Mon grew bigger when Finnish Professor Dr. Tapani Ojasti, a peace and human rights activist visited the Thai-Burma border. His organization supported the Mon student and monk refugees in Thailand by providing photocopier, computer training, assisting lobbying with international institutes and the UN. In late 1998, two Mon students were invited for a solidarity visit in Finland and were unable to return due to security reasons in Thailand.

Talaporn who is the leader of the Mon community was impatient and depressed due to the long refugee claimant process. But after waiting for so long was able to complete a welding training course at a vocational college in Helsinki.

When Miss Point arrived in Finland with her family she grieved when she first saw the snow and dark winter, she was discouraged with the cloudy weather and longed to see the warmth and sunshine in Monland. Leaving behind tradition and nice weather to live within a culture and language completely different from your own is a challenge. Later, she and friends started to learn and speak a totally different language, something, of which she never dreamed of in the past. Not after too long, she has come to enjoy watching her 4-year-old daughter play happily in the snow and looks forward to watching Finnish TV programs.

"We are now well adjusted and happy to be here. The government takes good care of us and we don't have to worry for our children's future education and health. Although now we worry about our children not being able to speak their mother language. Now it’s a challenge to encourage our children to speak Mon at home," said Point from her comfortable, spacious two-bedroom apartment with a separate kitchen and living room, a world away from the refugee camp in Thailand.

She and her husband attended Finn language school and her husband is now working in a factory as a job trainee. "Since we cannot go home, we try to be happy here," she said. The Mon community in Finland celebrates the annual Mon National Day and most of them cook Mon food at home. The apartments are decorated with Mon calendars sent by relatives and friends from Thailand. They visit each other on their days off, listen to Mon music and wear traditional dress at home.

"It was over two hundred years ago, when my great-grand parents fled lower Burma in the delta region to down south. At that time, my village at Takoh Khamine (BeeLuu Kyun) island was established by eleven people, who fled from the Burmese, now it has grown to over two thousand households. My grand parents used to tell me about our traditional spirit house (Hoi Kalok) and we always keep our spirit house in order to maintain our identity," recalled Mehm, a university student from Moulmein who resettled in Finland.

When the Burmese king U Aung Zeya invaded the old Mon capital Pegu in 1757, many people fled to Thailand and southern Burma. "Even some people in lower Burma do not speak the Mon language nowadays, we can easily identify them by checking the spirit houses, there are 3 Mon groups divided by the heritage of the spirit house, those who maintain coconut, bamboo/cloth spirit houses inside homes and ones out side the homes." he added.

After ten years meeting with the Mons, Dr. Ojasti has become a well-respected leader for the Mon new comers for his sympathy and help. "The Burma issue is too big for me to work with and I choose the Mon to focus on because I know them for over ten years”, said the Finnish Professor with sense of humor who speaks Finn, Spanish, Portugal, French, English and German fluently. The Finnish Burma Committee, which is chaired by Dr. Ojasti, also supports the Mon Unity League at the Thailand-Burma border in its honey bee-farm project.

The small Mon community is now a registered Finnish Mon Association and the Mon national days are celebrated every year in Jyvaskyla. Mon foods are served and traditional Mon dances are performed. The local Finns, including the City Mayor, teachers, and officers are quite happy with their new friends who have brought such a colourful and happy culture to the Finn community.

KAO WAO NEWS GROUP

Email: [email protected], phone: + 661-561-0860

ABOUT US Kao-Wao Newsgroup is committed to social justice, peace, and democracy In Burma. We hope to be able to provide more of an in-depth analysis that will help to promote lasting peace and change within Burma. Editors, reporters, writers, and overseas volunteers are dedicated members of the Mon activist community based in Thailand. Our motto is working together for change.

SUBMIT YOUR NEWS If you are an organization or individual who is committed to the same principles as Kao-Wao please use this eNewsletter as a tool to disseminate your views, articles, and issues pertaining to social justice and political, social and cultural freedom. We are open to all but please ensure to Source your material either through email contacts or website. To ensure that it is widely read, you can use this email: [email protected] to tell others about this newsletter, and to let them know about your work, events, and public debate.

TO UNSUBSCRIBE

If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter unsubscribe by sending a message FROM THE ADDRESS YOU WANT REMOVED TO: [email protected]. Please contact editor should you need further assistance.