MONTHLY HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION REPORT
TENASSERIM DIVISION
Mergui-Tavoy District Information Department, Karen
National
January 2004
Contact [email protected]
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES:
FORCED LABOR
TORTURE AND KILLING
EXTORTION
ECONOMY
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FORCED LABOR
On
On January 14, 2004, the
same military commander demanded five boats from The Baw Leik village, 50 miles
in the southeast of Mergui to transport military supplies to Thein Daw, about
30 miles in the north of that village.
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On
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On
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EXTORTION
5.1.2004
According to the instruction
from Coastal Region Military Command in December the SPDC's IB 285 2nd
column which stationed at Kaw Paw (Myay Kan Baw) village must take responsible
to reconstruct the Taung Thon Lon-Kaw Paw car-road, that troop have ordered Kaw
Paw village tract village authorities to collect 5,000 kyat per household.
Kaw Paw village tract is
a village 40 mile in the northeast of Tavoy town and it has 8 villages
including Taung Thon Lon village. Kaw Paw village has about 200 households and
the track's villagers built the mentioned road since 1997 under the order of
SPDC by filling the road embankment collect stone, sand and sent to the road
site with their own expense, paid money for bulldozer hire charges, fuel
expenses which cost millions kyat per year. The money gone by and the road is not finished till now.
Though paying money as
compulsory the villagers still worry that they would be forced to work on that
road as the past years.
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ECONOMY
6.1.2004
On 1st January
a "Wa" group which established a large oil palm plantation in
Pagawzon village area in the north of Tavoy town since 1996 sent their
representatives to search for new plantation sites in the vicinity of Yadana
and Yetagon natural gas pipeline area. They got permission from Burma Army
Headquarters in December 2003 to extend their plantation site in the mentioned
areas.
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10.1.2004
According to an interview
with a civilian form Tavoy town Shanmalezwe quarter on
In Tavoy's
Shanmalezwe quarter there are about 300 household and
the dwellers had to take responsible as fire sentry 5 person
per night and if the person fail to stand sentry at his turn, he/she had to pay
300 kyat for substitution. The local dwellers also have to pay 300 to 500 kyat
per month to the quarter administration group as general fund. Every rainy season the administrators collected 500 kyat per family
for what they said physical and fitness activity fund.
In December, 2003
and the first week of January, 2004 the information of
currency instability arose. So that the business institutions and the banks
from
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