MONTHLY
HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION REPORT
TENASSERIM
DIVISION
Mergui-Tavoy District Information Department, Karen
National Union
December 2003
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES:
EXTORTION
TRAIN
DERAILED
DEFECTORS
A group of Burmese who traveled to Thailand looking for work were stopped by a troop of Burmese army, who took their money and forced them to go back.
A villager from Taung Min Pyaung in Tavoy district told that he and other 14 villagers had traveled to the border to look for work in Thailand. They arrived in Myin Kan Baw village in the east of Tavoy, on 30 November 2003. In that village, the militia demanded 1,500 Kyat each as pass fee and 100 Kyat each to get permission for a night.
The next day, they went up Kamoethway River by boat, which they hired for 5,000 Kyat per person. On the way, they were captured by the SPDC troops from Infantry Battalion 280, at Nyaung Chaung Wa village. A platoon commander forced them to go back and extorted 100,000 kyat from them.
On half way on their return, they asked a villager in this area to take them to the border by foot. They paid 20,000 kyat to the guide.
A villager from Taung Min Pyaung said, if we intended to come and work in Thailand, one person should have at least 30,000 Kyat to pay for the journey. Some people used to borrow money from other to go searching work in Thailand. Sometimes they faced a lot of troubles if they could not find the job or captured by Thai authorities.
He did not want to be named for fear of his safety.
He
said in Burma, one-day wages, for man was 500 to 800 kyat and 400 to
700 Kyat for woman which equal to 35 Baht in Thai currency. This
income was not enough for my family.
---
In the early of December 2003, the SPDC’s authorities in Kamoethway area, in the east of Tavoy have reconstructed a car road between Taung Thone Lone and Myin Kan Baw village. The authorities demanded 5,000 Kyat from each household from the Karen villages in the area. According to a local villager, the SPDC’s authorities have already forcibly collected 5,000,000 Kyat from the villagers to build that road.
Village
authorities also had collected money from the people and they told
them that, 300 Kyat to host the arriving SPDC’s troops, 500
kyat for people militia and 200 kyat for development fund from each
household monthly.
---
Border development
On December 27, 2003 at about 1:00 am, a train on its way from Ye to Tavoy was slipped off from its rail. Four people reportedly died and 15 wounded.
The
source from the area said the accident of train derail happened
frequently. This railroad was constructed in 1997 under the SPDC's
border developing program. Local people said that the train could run
only 5 miles per hour because of poor construction and maintenance.
---
Defectors from SPDC troops
In December 2003, 12 soldiers from SPDC’s IB 285 defected their unit, because they could not bear the torment by serving military. Among these defectors four were recaptured and killed by their own commander Maj. Myat Kyaw Kyaw . Other defectors were still escaping.
IB 285 based in Kamoethway area in the east of Tavoy.
The
Burmese troops used their militants and forced the villagers to
search the defectors. Military officers warned the villagers not to
help defectors. The army officers threaten the villagers that if some
one was learnt of helping the defector will be treated badly.
---
The
suffering of Hnan Kye village
Source:
Hnan Kye Villager
Date: 1.12.2003
Hnan Kye villagers are mainly make their living by agricultural. It has about 100 households, located in the south of Kalein Aung township, in Tavoy district, Tenasserim division.
In recent year, as the rainy season began (in the months of May) Hnan Kye villagers had to provided and send 500 betel nut saplings, 100 pepper saplings, 10 coconut palm saplings, 200 cashew nut saplings without absent to SPDC's LIB 408 headquarters as annual plantation tax.
Once in every month the SPDC’s village headman Oo Ko Lwin demanded one person per household to clear the sides of Ye-Tavoy car-road as ordered by the army officers. People who absent on that day must pay 800 kyat for substitution. The villagers have to pay 500 kyat per month to the village headman. The village headman said the money was for village authorities traveling allowance and general fund. From July 2003 up to now the village headman demanded 10 people every month to attend "people militia training.” The villagers have to serve in tern. The training was conducted in Kalein Aung and every time they sent those trainees, each household has to pay 1000 kyat for what they say "people militia's fund".
Some
villagers earned their extra income to cover their household
expenditure as part time cattle traders to Thai-Burma border. Those
people have to pay extortion money to army officers for pass to bring
their animals to the border. They paid 5,000 kyat per head to LIB 408
commander. If the traders fail to pay for it, LIB 408 soldiers took
the cattle and fined the owner up to 10,000 kyat. Moreover, the
cattle traders have to pay 1,700 kyat per head to Karen Peace Force
(KPF), an armed group which made ceased fire with the SPDC. The
villagers also have to pay 200 baht per head to anti insurgency-armed
group. The traders’ benefit from their works was not worth as
it should, said one of the cattle traders from Hnan Kye village.
---