KAO WAO NEWS No. 35
An electronic newsletter for social justice and
freedom in Burma
No. 35,
JUNTA’ RICE STOCK
BURNT BY MON ARMED GROUP
MON GROUPS URGED TO
REFORM
FORCED LABOUR FOR NEW
HELICOPTER FIELD
MIGRANT WORKERS
ARRESTED ON
THAI ARMY FIRED
WARNIGN SHOTS AS BORDER WAR HEATED UP
WOMEN FURSTRATED OVER
DISTURBING SUU KYI
PALAUNG CELEBRATES
FORTY YEARS OF ARMED RESISTANCE
VILLAGERS THREATENED
BEFORE ICRC VISIT IN
MU DANE TATMADAW: BY
KANBAWZA WIN
READER’S FRONT
*****************************************************
JUNTA’S RICE STOCK
BURNT BY MON ARMED GROUP
(HRP,
Ye, January 4, 2003 - The Mon guerrillas set a blaze a rice
stock belonging to the State Peace and Development Council at Han-Gan village,
Ye township, in Mon state
At about 2:00 P.M. on Burma’s Independence Day, about thirty
armed Mon guerrillas led by Nai Bin and Hong Kon from
the Monland Restoration Army (MRA) ambushed and fired upon a Burma Army camp
IB. No. 61, IB No.31 burning their rice stock to the ground. The MRA
source said that when the Mon guerrillas approached the rice stock, they
engaged in heavy fighting with the Burmese troops from IB. No. 61, No. 31. Five
soldiers were killed and 5 were wounded. Two soldiers from MRA were wounded and
a small child was killed after being caught in the middle. The Mon armed group
burnt 2000 sacks (gonny) of rice paddy, a truck, and
the whole campsite.
The State Peace and Development Council authorities buy
paddy from farmers at a low price for export and which is also distributed to
the army and the civil servants. Local farmers in this area are forced to
sell their rice to the authorities and are arrested by the army if they fail to
show up and sell it to the rice purchasing camp. As in other parts of
Burma, in southern Mon State, the authorities comprised of the Burma Army,
State Peace and Development Council, and the local Police Force and Militia (PyiThuSit) are teaming up to hound farmers to collect paddy
targeted for the government's distribution quota.
According to a village headman from Han-Gan, the Burmese
Army can easily gain access into their area and then force farmers to sell
their rice to the regime. This type of activities started after the New Mon
State Party reached a cease-fire agreement in 1995.
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Mon national affairs
MON GROUPS URGED TO
REFORM
(Kao-Wao,
The
Open letters from the MNC with the support of Mon workers in
Colonel Pan Nyunt, a former member of the NMSP, formed the Hongsawatoi Restoration Party in November 2001 after
accusing the NMSP leadership of colluding with the Burmese military regime in
signing the cease-fire agreement in 1995. The breakaway group was well
supported by the Mon majority at the beginning but the support has fallen after
fighting occurred between the two groups. Since splitting from the NMSP
over one year ago, more than one hundred followers of the HRP, including some
family members, have rejoined the NMSP in the past three months according to
the source from the Thai-Burma border.
The overseas group also urged
Last year in May, the overseas Mon communities had urged the
umbrella organization, Mon Unity League, to lobby between the New Mon State
Party and the Hongsawatoi Restoration Party after the
armed conflict in
****************************************************************
Forced labour
continues
FORCED LABOUR FOR NEW
HELICOPTER FIELD
(Based on IMNA and Kao-Wao,
The Burmese Army forced local villagers to build a
helicopter field at
The local villagers reported that the Burmese Army local
battalions of IB No. 62 and 31 forced one person from each household on a daily
basis to prepare a landing ground for army helicopters on the island, which is
comprised of 3 Mon fishing villages.
The two battalions have forced villagers to work in the
construction since the beginning of January 2002. More than 60 people
have been forced to work without payment and food. They are ordered to start
from
The helicopter pad is for the artillery regiment, which is
equipped with five 81mm mortars that were built on the island two months
ago. Villagers are forced to dig and build a hill creating an air ground
for the helicopter landing and installation of the air force, reported a
villager from Kalakoke. The field is being
built on the hill near Sanik Ladoor
(middle pier village) of the island.
It is reported that the purpose of deploying more troops
including the building of a helicopter pad and artillery regiment is to protect
the joint fishing business ventures between a Thai company and the SPDC.
According to the IMNA report, the plan was unveiled at the
recent opening ceremony of Thai-Myanmar (
**********************************************************
Migrant Watch
MIGRANT WORKERS
ARRESTED ON
(Kao-Wao,
Over two hundreds Mon migrant workers were arrested on their
holiday trip to Cha Am beach on December 29 said a local source from Maharchai.
Valid work permit cards holders were arrested under the
charge of entering into restricted territory, according to Thai police.
“We have gone there every year on our New Year’s holiday… we have never been
arrested in the past,” said Mi Yin, a migrant woman. Her daughter was also
arrested within the group.
The police were watching Mon migrant workers including a few
other ethnic Burmese while they were swimming close to the beach; they were
rounded up by the police force before returning to Samutsakhon
(Maharchai). The police checked their ID cards and
found that almost all of them had a valid work permit card from Samutsakhon District.
Under the conditions of the document, card holders are not
allowed to travel to other districts without notification by the Office of
Labor Ministry by the Royal Thai government.
Nai LaHoen, a leader of the Mon
community in Maharchai area organized the trip for
the
According to remaining family members in Maharchai,
the arrestees were not provided with food and drink on the first day of
detention. The holding cell was cramped with not enough space for the more than
200 detainees at Cha Am police station.
“I believe they hired three vans belonging to the local
police officer, workers were quite concerned for their safety,” a man whose
sister-in-law is also in the group said.
The detainees were transferred to a
According to a man in Maharchai,
some of the deported migrants, who had the money, returned to their factory in
a few days with the help of a people smuggling group. For re-entry into
“My daughter only enjoys one day of fun and that’s during
the New Year, but the Thai see it as chance to arrest us or extort us,” an
upset woman said who lives with 3 other families in a room sized apartment in
the large migrant working community in Maharchai.
Most Mon migrant workers earn less than Baht 200 a day while
the penalty is Baht 500 per day if they take leave. Most factory shifts start
at
******************************************
At the border
THAI ARMY FIRED
WARNING SHOTS AS BORDER WAR HEATS UP
(Cited from KNU,
At least 10 people were killed as Burmese soldiers launched
an annual dry-season offensive against the ethnic rebel Karen National Union
(KNU) based on the Thai border yesterday, according to Thai military sources.
The offensive began Tuesday night when Burmese soldiers
attacked a KNU army camp opposite the Phop Phra district in Thailand's Tak Province, about 500
kilometers northwest of Bangkok.
Democratic Voice of Burma reported that clashes between the
Burmese army and the KNU have been going on for a while and within the last two
days five offensives have taken place.
Bado Mahn
Shar, Secretary General, in a telephone interview
said that there were a number of SPDC deaths, including a low level officer,
and some wounded soldiers, but details were not yet available. He also added
there were no causalities on the KNLA side, so far.
According to an inside source from the KNU, a column from
LIB 881 Tactical command attached to Kanalay was
intercepted by the KNLA 201 Headquarters battalion near U Potha
village which is now firmly under KNU control. In this encounter, the
Burmese army suffered 8 wounded of which 2 are in critical condition.
The battle lasted for about one hour and in the course of
the retreat, the Burmese soldiers wildly fired a few 81-mortar rounds of which
two landed on Thai side, prompting the Royal Thai Army to fire warning shots.
The KNU source added, "We know that the enemy is not
happy that we have retaken control of Lay Gaw with
over 800 villagers and displaced persons. The fact that a Karen flag is flying
over the village and that there is a KNU check point at the entrance is a face
loosing situation for the Burmese, but all their probes to approach the
parameters have been costly and if they want to retake control of Lay Ghaw let them do so because we will be ready for them
".
“KNLA 201 battalion have not only interdicted SPDC control
over most of the Lay Gaw - U Potha
- Walay - Kanalay area, but
also has placed its units, near the Thai border and deep inside Karen
territory, which have been an effective blocking force of the flow of
amphetamine and other kind of drugs, which the SPDC and its proxies, the DKBA,
have been smuggling into Thailand.”
*****************************************************
WOMEN FRUSTRATED OVER
RESTRICTIONS TO SUU KYI
(Kao-Wao,
A women’s group from the Thailand-Burma border issued a
formal statement on the obstruction and limits to freedom to democratic leader
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi during her organizing trip in
The All Women's Movement Committee of Burma protested to the
ruling State Peace and Development Council on the disdainful treatment given
and women rights violations to
The group said in addition to the obstruction of vehicle
access around the country, limitation to vehicles and physical blocking of
visiting pagodas and monasteries, the SPDC junta has distributed pamphlets,
caricatures and the playing of loud music scorning Suu Kyi with the aim of
personally or politically harassing the noble peace laureate. The women
group urged the regime to allow freedom of movement and association for
promoting democracy for Suu Kyi’s democratic party,
which won a landslide victory in 1990 election.
The border-based women’s group was organized to work
together to prevent violations to the politics, education, economic and culture
freedom and values of women, emphasizing co-operation without discrimination
against religion, ethnicity, language and class and to encourage Burmese women
to participate in
*****************************************************************
PALAUNG CELEBRATES
FORTY YEARS OF ARMED RESISTANCE
(PSLF,
From a liberated area near the
To gain their rights for self-determination, the Palaung, an
ethnic group in
According to Mai Aik Phone, the
General Secretary of the PSLF, the cease-fired Palaung group has also been
active in the tripartite dialogue and has continued to oppose the junta by
cooperating with other allied forces even though agreeing to a cease-fire with
the regime inside
The PSLF was active along the Thailand Burma border and
became a member of the ethnic armed umbrella organization; the National
Democratic Front (NDF) after the PSLP reached a cease-fire agreement in 1991.
In recognition of their four decade long armed struggle, the
PSLF urged the regime to enter into a tripartite dialogue, composed of the
ethnic nationalities, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democratic forces, and the
junta, and to release all political prisoners in conjunction to a nation-wide
cease-fire peace process in Burma.
****************************************
VILLAGERS THREATENED
BEFORE ICRC VISIT IN
(Cited from Shan Women's Action Network,
Before the visit of an International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) team in
The ten-member ICRC team conducted a ten-day assessment
visit to
Two days prior to the visit to Laikha,
police and military authorities ordered some of the local teachers, headmen and
ex-government officials to come to the Laikha police
station, and commanded them to form a civilian "committee" which
would liaise with the ICRC. They were ordered to accompany the ICRC team and
note down all questions asked, and were warned to be "careful" when
answering any questions.
The ICRC has only recently been allowed by the regime into
this area of
The military regime has repeatedly rejected the findings of
the License to Rape Report, citing the presence of international agencies,
including the ICRC, in
"It is very clear that the military regime wants to use
the presence of ICRC in
**************************************************
Army use rape as a
weapon of war
MU DANE TATMADAW: BY
KANBAWZA WIN
(
“Mu Dane Tatmadaw” is a Burmese
word, when literally translated means the Rapist Burmese Army. Gathering
evidence by the Thai NGOs and also by the international community, a consensus
was reached that the Burmese army is using rape as a weapon of war. Obviously,
the Burmese Generals, who are so tricky at the very concept of truth, will
continue to deny this worldwide accusation. A US State Department investigation
corroborated reports that the Burmese military officials have systematically
raped ethnic women and girls, according to a recently declassified copy of the
investigation report, that were vividly printed in the Washington Post (26th
Dec.02).
When the stories of rapes became known publicly, the State
Department together with the world community were appalled and called for an
independent investigation but the Burmese Junta would not listen, justifying
itself that it was a groundless fabrication intended to sow discord between the
patriotic Tatmadaw and the ethnic nationalities. This left no choice, and the
State Department was forced to send its own investigation team and the end
result was that the above news was highlighted in media. This probe has helped
spur the
Last December, Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly
blasted the regime's handling of the rape allegations, including an effort to
claim that a field trip into the region by the International Committee of the
Red Cross as somewhat similar to an independent investigation. This shameless
trick was caught red handed when for the first time the Junta was forced to
confess publicly, that it was a mistake to mention the International Red Cross
field trip which has nothing to do with the rape case.
In November last year, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, reported to the UN General Assembly
that even though the regime has given him "detailed briefings" on its
investigations into the rape charges, he said he sought to explain that probes
undertaken by the military lacked independence and are not convincing and
credible. And that an international probe, either under UN control or with UN
technical assistance, was required to address the charges. Hence the investigation
conducted by the Junta’s Deputy Home Minister Thura
Myint Maung was something like a joke to the international community.
Dictators everywhere are afraid of the free press and an
independent inquiry and the Burmese Junta is no exception. The Burmese soldiers
are behaving like robbers and dacoits for decades and people are too afraid to
report. In their vain attempt and desperation to save their crumbling image the
generals have seemingly lost their senses. So it resorted to forcing the Shan
villages to sign a petition that the rapes have not occurred. In other words it
was struggling not only for its survival and the image of the Tatmadaw but
against the international community and most of all against Truth itself.
The cream of the Tatmadaw such as the majors and captains
are initiating rape with an unwritten order from above. These "rape
commanders" are merely the most prominent figures as a systematic
programme of assault designed to terrorize and subdue ethnic nationalities into
submission. The Tatmadaw soldiers are barely educated, young, harshly
disciplined, isolated, sometimes half-starved and
taught to despise the ethnic nationalities as inferiors. The army could not pay
them enough and so naturally they live off the land and obviously rape is
considered as the spoils of war. So these rapes cannot be blamed solely on
lowly soldiers enjoying the "fruits of war", but rather it is a crime
against humanity, a war crime with a strong case of a clear policy of command
responsibility.
Dictatorships habitually find telling the truth difficult,
which is one reason why they always suspect others of lying. Colonel Hla Min
denied that rape "is not, nor has it ever been an instrument of government
policy and that prompt legal actions have been taken against servicemen as well
as civilians in isolated cases which occurred not only in the Shan State but
elsewhere in the country. We are committed to finding and severely punishing
the individuals guilty of committing these heinous crimes, if the allegations are
true”. The regime confronts the world in a brittle, unbending posture that does
not allow it to make even the more sophisticated excuse that there are a ‘few
bad apples' in every organisation. In a closed military society denial is the
first reaction when it faces criticism. As thousands of rapes cases are known
we are wondering of what the Australian government is thinking about as human
rights courses now being taught to the Burmese military officers who themselves
are involved in the very crime they are supposed to protect.
Obviously, the Junta was so afraid that the truth might be
known that it hopefully prayed that the matter would die its own death and
instead of ordering their soldiers to stop raping ethnic girls hired a
The rape report should have reminded the world community of
the real nature of these marauding Generals who have ruled the country with an
iron fist. It is ironic that some democracies are still providing financial
assistance under various guises to help the Junta justifying that the aid is
for the Burmese people. Some American lobbyists for the Junta are also working
very hard to ease sanctions by the
The world now realizes that the Junta as it can be seen that
even after the publishing of “Licence to Rape” there
were 173 reported rape cases committed by the Tatmadaw soldiers in
The Washington Posts printed, "We were able to locate
many victims and record chilling new stories of rape and other atrocities, all
of the victims had been gang-raped by Burmese soldiers within the past five
years, including a 13-year-old girl who had been raped two months
earlier," Again a statement from Burma’s Foreign Affairs Ministry charged
that the rape allegations are being repeated with ulterior motives and are
aimed at tarnishing the image of the country and its armed forces. For a regime
spokesman to deny categorically all charges of rape without any investigation
does more than strain credulity. “The approach by the military regime devalues
the representations of the regime to the point that does even tentative
concrete steps to acknowledge that rapes had indeed been committed by Tatmadaw
soldiers -- are submerged in the outrage over the indefensible." commented
by Assistant Secretary of State, James A Kelly.
It seems that the unwritten understanding in the Burmese
Tatmadaw is that rape has been characterized as somewhat an honour and dignity
to the armed forces as the most extensive development in the increased
recognition of sexual violence. But it must be remembered that the
International Statutes of the Tribunals created to address crimes explicitly
incorporate rape as a crime against humanity. It expressly includes rape,
enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault as a violation of
article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II. Both
Tribunals have issued indictments relating to sexual violence and defendants
found guilty of such violence have been convicted of crimes against humanity,
including as a result of rape, enslavement and torture; violation of the laws
or customs of war, including the result of rape, torture and outrages upon
personal dignity; and genocide, through rape and sexual violence committed with
the specific intent of destroying in whole or in part a particular group.
The Statutes of the Tribunals have been built on by the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court whose jurisdiction will include genocide,
crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. The Rome Statute
makes explicit that rape and other gender violence are among the most serious
crimes of concern to the international community by specifically defining them
as constituent acts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Court, to be
based in
Examining the jurisprudence to date gives a clear indication
of what international crimes are currently being committed throughout the
country especially in the ethnic nationalities area of Shan and Karen State and
in the event an ad hoc tribunal were established to investigate and prosecute
serious crimes committed within a certain time period such as genocide, war
crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, sexual offences and torture, the
jurisprudence of the two ad hoc international tribunals and the Court will have
to be drawn upon.
Of course not all of the Geneva Conventions apply to
internal armed conflicts. In the case of rape, however, international
humanitarian law does forbid acts of sexual violence in internal armed
conflicts. Article 4(2)(e) of Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, governing
the protection of civilians in internal armed conflicts, explicitly outlaws
'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading
treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault. The
aim of the Geneva Convention is to prevent and punish those persons who act
upon their hatred of a particular group by physically harming the group
members, with a view to ultimately eradicating them. And this is exactly what
the Mu Dane Tatmadaw is doing to the ethnic
nationalities of
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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
Regards,
Editor
***************************************************
Dear Editor,
A New Year, it is said, is a time for new hope and life, and
more so if the country is celebrating its independence on no less than the New
Year’s first week, but even the most cursory look at the news coming from Burma
as 2002 draws to a close would not fail to douse whatever hope the new year is
supposed to usher in.
We are, for one, deeply concerned about the reports of
harassment and intimidation of people before and during Aung San Suu Kyi's
recent trips within
The SPDC during the past year has released political prisoners,
and yet more than a thousand remain locked up for crimes as petty and innocuous
as handing out pamphlets calling for elections. The SPDC releases prisoners
whenever UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail visits the country. The political
prisoners, tagged by the SPDC as security prisoners, are being foisted as
sweets to be conveniently doled out to a visiting dignitaries.
Razali is supposed to broker talks between the opposition and the SPDC, but so
far all he has accomplished was the release of a number of prisoners whenever
news of his coming was abroad.
We hope that the New Year will yield more, if not all,
political prisoners freed from
Because only then can a people truly celebrate its
independence: free from the fetters of a colonial power audacious enough to
project its power offshore and free from the dictatorship of the generals
presumptuous enough to suppose that their benevolent wisdom could sufficiently
take the place of the desire of a country’s people.
Sincerely,
Merci Ferrer
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID)
Dear Kao Wao,
I wish to express my appreciation to you for the splitting of
good shares that you have always shown towards us, audiences and for the
up-to-date news of your expressing from which we have benefited so much.
You make reading news a real pleasure and I have always been
proud of you, and the high regard I have for you will never diminish.
May God give you a very long life so that more and more
audiences may benefit from your excellent work.
Oo Thein Maung
Arakan League for Democracy
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