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KAO WAO NEWS No. 26
An electronic newsletter for social justice and
freedom in Burma
No. 26 August 26-
READERS’ FRONT
MORE LAND CONFISCATED BY BURMESE ARMY
BREAKAWAY GROUP BLAME MEDIATORS
FLASH FLOOD CLAIMS REFUGEES¡¯ LIVES
WOMEN CALL ON UN TO INVESTIGATE SEXUAL VIOLENCE
JUNTA PRESSURED TO RESOLVE CRISIS
MON JOINS MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL IN
PALAUNG LEADER DIES IN PRISON
THE ROAR OF THE ELEPHANT
READERS’ FRONT
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Regards,
Editor
Dear Editor,
It appears to me that the Mon breakaway group Hongsawatoi Restoration Party
(HRP) is not attacking the military regime but is only fighting against the
Mon. (Your article on Suspicions Impede
Peace for
How sad it is when the armed struggle is not motivated by politics but is
advanced through personal purpose to maintain power. Is the HRP going to
attack the military regime or the
Wyman (
Life in
MORE LAND CONFISCATED
BY BURMESE ARMY
(Kao-Wao,
The Burmese Army continues to confiscate land in
for the building of heavy artillery battalions and military bases.
The Independent Mon News Agency reported the government seized an additional
2000 acres of land in Northern Ye after General Maung Bo visited the area.
The land was confiscated from local villagers and includes 600 acres
belonging to Mokanin, Lamine Hnitkayin and DeinPeen villages, 500 acres
between Jao-Khalae and Taungbon village, and 500 acres between Aung-Thayar
and Leinmaw-Chan
of Northern Ye Township,
According to local villagers from Mokanin, Ye Township, the Burmese general
met with the village headmen and
farmers on
site in
artillery battalion. He asked the landowners whether they disagreed with
the proposed plan but no villagers dared to speak out fearing that to do so
would risk arrest or worse. A villager said that many have left the village
either moving to
Nai Hongsar, the Joint-Secretary General of the New Mon State Party, in the
BBC radio interview on
confiscated by the Burmese regime after the cease-fire agreement, which
leaves civilians destitute without just compensation from the army.
The source from the New Mon State Party said the Burmese Army has planned to
build four heavy artillery battalions equipped with missile in southern Mon
State. The paranoid army
claims that it needs to monitor
possible foreign invasion but in reality the junta aims to expand control
into the ethnic areas. The projected army bases will be built near Kamarwet
village in southern
Township.
The Democratic Voice of Burma radio reported that No. 606 Heavy Artillery
Headquarters under the Southeast Military Command based in
to open a new Heavy Artillery
Battalion in
Heavy Artillery Battalion, township-level officials from Land Records
Office, Forestry Department and General Administration Department arrived in
civilians for constructing the battalion and other livestock breeding and
agriculture activities.
The junta has already conscripted more than 1,000 acres of farmland in
southern Ye and 2,050 acres in northern Ye in 2000 and 2001 for military
reasons. The villagers have used the land for decades to sustain a
livelihood based on farming vegetables, fruits, rubber and rice and will
face increased hardship as a result of the confiscation. As usual farmers
receive no compensation.
Mon national affairs
BREAKAWAY GROUP BLAME
MEDIATORS
(Kao-Wao,
Driven in their fight against the Burmese dictatorship, supporters of the
breakaway group accused the Negotiating Mission as betraying the Mon people.
An invented Mon political organization distributed an unsigned political
statement among the Mon communities
in
complaining of the Mon Unity League¡¯s Negotiating Mission efforts at
reconciliation and the Mon media groups for not supporting the breakaway
group and attacking news critical of them to the Mon and international
communities as misinformation.
The three-page statement attacked individual members of the MUL negotiation
team referring to them as national traitors or ¡°Mon Tow Meui¡± translated
to English ¡°Mon axe handle¡± (the use of wood representing the Mon people,
the wood handle of the axe to attack other wood). The statement accused
them as being opportunistic by supporting the Burmese Army, while claiming
the majority of the Mom population supports them. The parties named in the
statement include the former secretary of Hongsawatoi Restoration Party
(HRP) who joined the New Mon State Party, the MUL leaders, editors of
Kao-Wao Newsgroup and the Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA) and the
chairman of Mon National Relief Committee.
¡°The referee is being punched between two boxers and I¡¯m giving up serving
as a referee (mediator),¡± said Nai Wongsa, a Negotiating Mission member.
MUL leader Nai Sunthorn in responding to the statement said, ¡°We accept
criticism from both parties but it needs to be justified and related to
facts and details because our position is neutral. They presume those
accusing HRP are direct statements from MUL or mediating members, but it¡¯s
the public¡¯s response. I think it is necessary now for us to publicize
their intentions and activities concerning the conflict between the two
groups¡±.
The MUL reported that the Negotiating Mission met with the two parties
reaching a good understanding in May 2002, but shortly afterwards tension
grew when HRP entering the Halockhanee Mon refugee camp attacking the NMSP
military base near by.
The open letter in Mon language also accused some leaders of the New Mon
State Party (NMSP) in their individual names including Maj. Htarwara, Maj.
Nai Krake Col. Nai Plone and Col. Joel Yeah of colluding with the Burmese
army in corrupt endeavors. It urged the Mon people to fight alongside them
through different means including the use of violence.
The breakaway group charges that NMSP is cooperating with SLORC in having a
ceasefire agreement. About twenty HRP troops attacked NMSP members at
Han-Gan in Ye Township in
soldiers while a 14-year-old schoolgirl was killed as a result of the
conflict.
The
sent open letters to NMSP and HRP in an attempt to ease tension between two
parties.
Kao-Wao contacted the HRP office at the border regarding the statement but
no formal comments were forthcoming about the accusation. According to a
retired Mon guerrilla, the supporters loyal to the splinter group are
frustrated due to the criticism directed at them for entering refugee camps,
attacking the New Mon State Party and kidnapping a senior Mon leader Nai
RotSa.
FLASH FLOOD CLAIMS
REFUGEES’ LIVES
(Cited from AFP,
At least 14 people were killed and 20 were missing after a mudslide and
floodwater hit a refugee camp on the Thailand-Burma border.
Witnesses at the Sala camp in Mae Hong Son province, which is home to more
than 15,000 mostly Karen and Karenni refugees, told AFP that some 300 wooden
and bamboo buildings were swept away in the disaster. Three primary
schools, a church, and a hospital for the disabled was destroyed leaving
more than 1,000 people homeless with communications and access to the camp
being cut off.
Mae Hong Son provincial officials said that rescue workers managed to reach
the camp and radioed in the latest casualty reports. Some 200-300 Thai
soldiers, border patrol police and staff with non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) were involved in the rescue operation, searching for bodies and
assisting the homeless, a provincial spokesman said.
Wai Lin Zin from the All Burma Student Democratic Force (ABSDF) camp said
villagers left the area aboard the few pick-up trucks that braved the
floodwaters and reported that flashfloods hit the camp only hours after the
rains began on
stream was soon inundated as the waterway broke its banks with rain adding
to the torrents of water streaming down the mountainsides that contributed
to the mudslide, he said.
Thai Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun said earlier that Thai and
foreign aid workers are believed to be among the missing, but local
officials said all the victims appeared to be refugees. "The mudslide was
caused by both erosion and the steep terrain on the hillside," said
Purachai. The minister said he had sent the director general of the Local
Administration Department to inspect the disaster site before his arrival on
the scene later in the day.
Heavy rain continued to fall, posing a risk of more flash floods or
landslides, and poor visibility made it extremely dangerous even for
helicopters to land.
past month, causing hundreds of people to be evacuated and putting several
major towns underwater.
The refugees living in Ban Sala, in Mae Sariang district, had fled over to
the Thai border to escape fighting
between
armies. The camp is also home to hundreds of former students and dissident
politicians who fled anti-democracy
purges in military-run
Army uses rape as
weapon of war
WOMEN CALL ON UN TO INVESTIGATE
SEXUAL VIOLENCE
(Kao-Wao,
An umbrella women organization of
fact-finding mission to investigate sexual violence committed by the Burmese
Army.
At the Asia-Pacific NGO Consultation Meeting with the UN Special Rapporteur
on Violence Against Women, Ms Radhika Commaraswamy, in
held on August 30-31, the Women's League of Burma (WLB) requested that the
UN Special Rapporteur send a fact-finding mission to the Thai-Burma border
to investigate sexual violence.
The WLB representative submitted the report on state violence committed by
the Burmese Army against ethnic women in Arakan, Karen, Karenni, Mon and
The report gave clear evidence that these crimes are taking place throughout
the country. "The civil
war in
violence. Unless the regime admits this and genuinely addresses the
grievances of the country's ethnic peoples, the nightmare of sexual violence
will continue on indefinitely," said the WLB representative.
The WLB urged all women groups in the Asia-Pacific region and throughout the
globe to organize campaigns in their countries through their networks to
support the genuine political
change in
women organizations from different ethnic backgrounds, works for the women
of
reconciliation.
JUNTA PRESSURED TO
RESOLVE CRISIS
(Kao-Wao,
The main political body of
the ethnic and democratic forces for resolving the political and economic
crisis in
The National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), comprised of Democratic
(Liberated Area) and National Coalition Government of the
(NCGUB), said that aside from the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and some
political prisoners and the permission to reopen some NLD offices there has
been no sign of genuine political developments. The military regime
continues to pressure the ethnic nationalities by creating Thai-Burma border
problems and pressing the Thai government to take responsibility that
targets pro-democracy dissidents.
Meanwhile, the Burmese democratic leader Suu Kyi stressed that the
international community should enforce the current economic sanctions
against the military regime until the dialogue reaches a more meaningful
stage. The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) radio quoted Suu Kyi¡¯s
statements over the phone with regards to the Norwegian Prime Minister,
Kjell Magne Bondevik attending the conference "The Oil Industry and Human
Rights" which was held in
Rights and Amnesty International. She also said that the NLD¡¯s policy on
the economic sanctions against the regime has not changed.
The NCUB statement, released from the Thai-Burma border, added that even the
junta admits to turning a new page in history with the release of Suu Kyi,
but as of yet there is no
change. The NCUB urged the people of
step up political participation and to oppose the unjust laws imposed upon
them and to continue pressuring the military to engage in a genuine
political dialogue on all sides.
MON JOINS MOUNTAIN
FESTIVAL IN
(Kao-Wao,
A Mon representative joined the third conference of the Mountain Mainland
In front of Mao Tse Tung¡¯s Statute at the Lijiang International Ethnic
24-25, followed the third conference of Mountain Mainland Southeast Asia
(III MMSEA) on August 26-28 that was combined with networking meetings on
the
More than one hundred and sixty participants from 16 countries including
researchers, decision-makers and development workers attended the conference
with local actors (indigenous specialists and leaders) from the upland
mountain areas of
exchange their ideas, to obtain insights from each other and to gain field
experience to develop and design action plans.
Indigenous peoples displayed their handicrafts at the exhibition; many
participants were enthusiastic about the indigenous people¡¯s products.
Indigenous knowledge, sustainable livelihoods and creative means of
resources governance were three main topics of the Conference. Keynote
speakers from various countries gave presentations on indigenous knowledge
systems, scientific knowledge, globalization and localization, bridging
cultures and systems during the 3-day conference.
The fourth conference will be held in
conferences held in 1995 and 2000
in
academic exchanges between researchers from all over the world who focus on
natural and environmental aspects
of the mountain areas of
Lijiang, located in
is about 580 kilometers away from
(Kao-Wao,
Human rights¡¯ groups worldwide have urged the Thai government to treat
Burmese dissidents fairly after its crackdown on pro-democracy activists
working on Thai soil.
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) sent an open
letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand expressing concern on the safety of
democracy and human rights activists working in the kingdom.
Signed by Somchai Homlaor, the Secretary General of Forum Asia, the letter
lauded the Thai who are proud of their democratic and human rights
achievements, which lead the Thai government to allow pro-democracy
activists escaping the military
junta in
the policy of the current administration has changed so as to create closer
links and trade relations with the military regime. The government now
appears to be cracking down on NGOs
working on advancing democracy in
in order to placate the
reopening of Thai Burma border checkpoints.
The open letter stated that their staff received threatening phone calls
after giving comments to the media
on the government's
Forum-Asia believed the anonymous phone call was from the Thai security
authorities in response to strong criticism on its arrest of the
pro-democracy activists in
pro-democracy activists back to
be threatened,
lives and will risk its international reputation as a country dedicated to
democratization in the region.
The Thai authorities raided offices of
church and the English language training class and arrested thirty-one
Burmese at Sangkhalaburi,
Fearing additional raids by police, dozens of offices in Chiang Mai, Mae
Hongsorn along the Thai-Burma border have closed down operations.
The overseas
Burma Coalition from
protested to the Thai Government for the safety and freedom of pro-democracy
activists and not to deport those
arrested back to
PALAUNG LEADER DIES
IN PRISON
(Based on PSLF and
A leader of the Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF) died in late July
under mysterious circumstances
while serving a seven-year sentence in
Mai Aik Pan, the joint-secretary of the PSLF, was arrested by the Military
intelligence in October 2001 while on a trip to the Burmese border town of
Myawaddy, opposite Mae Sot,
17/1 for unlawful association.
Mai Aik Pan, 40, (aka) Ko Mya Maung, died on July 31 in Moulmein General
Hospital of
According to prison officials, he died from dropsy; an obscure but an easy
bacterial infection to treat, sometimes associated with kidney and heart
disease and can be treated with both penicillin and tetracycline.
However, a press release from the Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners -Burma (AAPPB) and a PSLF source from the Thai-Burma border said
Mai Aik Pan's family were very suspicious of his sudden death, saying that
during a June visit he appeared to be in good health. PSLF Secretary Mai
Aik Phone said that he may have died from malnutrition or hard labor imposed
by the prison authorities.
Culture
THE ROAR OF THE
ELEPHANT
(By Lita Davidson in
directions from the hub of the
connect and has a transit system that serves a moving population of over 7
million commuters. Rapid growth from the migration of millions of villagers
over the past 50 years has turned
of the old and new. Cell-phone technology and email creates a social
situation where the center is anywhere and everywhere.
Thirty years of unplanned urban development evenly distributed the value of
land, it¡¯s unlike the typical concentric structure of most cities where
higher land value is concentrated around a downtown area with the lower
priced land found in the outer suburban area. Off the main street or beyond
the
lives, is a way of life unseen by tourists.
that connected people and places for miles around, a way of life for
centuries. Transportation over waterways (klongs) is still a means of
travel and communication for many Southeast Asians, but is hidden behind the
thousands of massive billboards that dominate the city today. Beyond the
western consumerism and in the back alleys, off the main street, you¡¯ll
find the cultural energy and life of Krungthep thriving alongside the
waterways.
The transit system represents an old and new modern city. There are many
types of busses, air cons, the most comfortable, have firmly padded seats
with a high seat back for rest. Affordable busses with rotating fans on the
ceiling are the most colorful, painted a garish green and outfitted with
lights that make it glitter like a Christmas tree. All busses have the radio
or tape player on that plays traditional Thai music and some have TVs.
Busses are like moving temples or shrines which are decked out with pictures
of venerable people: the present King Bhumipul Rama IX, former kings, and
revered Buddhist monks, which are placed high up along the length of the
front windshield and embellished with flowered garlands of jasmine, roses
and marigolds that hang over the rearview mirror. Added to this are
commercial stickers like BMW and football teams beneath rows of CDs, that
makes the bus sparkle like a Buddhist temple during sunny days and twinkle
at night. Another interesting feature of the bus, especially that of the
bigger ones, is that it sounds like a roaring elephant going into battle
when the driver switches gears, not the trumpeting kind, but the mammoth
kind, ROAR, ROAR, ROAR.
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