RESPONSE BY THE SHAN HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION TO THE COMMUNICATION DATED 24
JANUARY 2002 FROM LIEUTENANT-GENERAL KHIN NYUNT TO SIR NINIAN STEPHEN

Date: 18 March 2002

To: 
Sr. Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO
Sir Ninian Stephen, Chairman of the High-Level Team (Sr. Somavia or M.
Maupain, please forward to Sir Ninian, since we do not have his e-mail
address)
M.Francis Maupain, leader of the Technical Cooperation Mission
Lord Brett, Chair of the Workers Group

We wish to provide a response to the above letter concerning the SHRF
report published in September 2001 about the killing of 7 Shan villagers
after they had complained to the SPDC about forced labour. 

We maintain that our original report was in essence correct. Some further
facts about the incident have come to light since our report was published,
which indicate that only six, rather than seven of the villagers originally
listed, were actually killed. We also admit some possible errors relating
to the visit of Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt to the area, and to the date of Maj.
Gen. Maung Bo's visit in our original report. However, we have confirmed
from numerous sources that the killings did indeed take place. 

Below please find our detailed responses to the claims made by Lt. Gen Khin
Nyunt regarding the incident.


1. The site where the bodies were found

According to Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt: "It also alleges that the villagers from
Ho Kun Village, Kun Long tract found the bodies at "Taad Pha Pha"
waterfall, about two miles east of Ho Kun village. In fact there is no such
waterfall in the Ho Kun village area. The nearest waterfall is in the Nam
Taeng Creek, 17 miles south of Ton Hoong Village. The drop is so immense
and the swirling currents among the huge boulders and rocks at the foot of
the fall so fierce that it would be impossible for dead bodies to be found
there as alleged. The villagers had not found any dead body at the
waterfall, it was learnt." 

In fact, the "Taad Pha Pha" waterfall does exist, and is well-known to all
the local Shan inhabitants. It is on a branch of the main Nam Taeng river
which branches out to the east, north of Ho Kun village and rejoins the
main river below the better-known "Taad Long" waterfall, the famous large
waterfall on the main Nam Taeng river, which Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt himself
mentions.


2. The identities of the victims

According to Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt: "Of the seven persons named in the alleged
account, the following four are non-existent: 1. Sai Khan-Ti, aged 36, Kun
Hoong village. (There is no village named Kun Hoong in Nan Sang Township.)
2. Sai Saw-Ya, aged 31, Kun Keng village. (There is no village named Kun
Keng in Nan Sang Township.) 3. Sal In-Ta, aged 24, Nawng Ook village. (Villagers abandoned Nawng Ook village 15 years ago and nobody lives there today. There is no one named Sai In-Ta in the region.) 4. Sai Ta Lam, aged 21, Nawng Ook village. (Villagers abandoned Nawng Ook village 15 years ago and nobody lives there today. There is no one named Sai Ta Lam in the region.)"

In fact, the above four victims did indeed exist, and disappeared following
their arrest as stated in our original report. The 4 victims were: 
1. Zaai Khan-Ti (aka) Zaai Tern Harn, from Kun Hoong village in
Nam-Zarng township. The village has been deserted since the 1996-1997 mass
forced relocation (carried out by the military regime in Central Shan
State). The site of the old village is there. 
2. Zaai Saw-Ya, from Kun Keng village in Nam-Zarng township. The
village was also forcibly relocated during the mass relocation. The site of
the old village is still there. 
3. Zaai In-Ta, from Nawng Ook village, which was relocated by the
regime in 1996. The original Nawng Ook village was moved to a new site,
just across a rice field, near the present SPDC military camp in Ton Hoong
tract. Zaai Ta Lam was a native of the old Nawng Ook and had moved to the
new Nawng Ook with other villagers. He was earning a living as a butcher
when he was arrested, and he was locally known as "Ai Ta of Nawng Ook" 
4. Zaai Ta Lam (aka) Zan-Ta, from Nawng Ook village. Zaai Ta Lam was
originally from Pa Saa village which had been burnt and forcibly relocated
by the Burmese army troops in early 1996. Since then he had moved to new
Nawng Ook and was living near Zaai In-Ta when he was arrested. He was a
farmer.

According to Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt: "One of the seven mentioned, Sai Aw Lam,
aged 18 of Pa Saa Village is actually alive. He is safe and sound together
with his family in his village. Pa Saa village is a small village of 32
households and there are no other individuals by the name of Sai Aw Lam. He
himself has no knowledge of the alleged account and has confirmed that he
has never been harassed and detained by military units at any time." 

We concede that Zaai Aw Lam is indeed still alive. Regarding Pa Sa village,
where Zaai Aw Lam is from, we would like to point out it was the first
village to be burnt and forcibly relocated by the Burmese army troops at
the beginning of the 1996-1997 mass forced relocation program in Central
Shan State. Before the forced relocation, Pa Saa had been a thriving Shan
village with about 200 houses and a population of more than 1,000. It had
been deserted up to about a year ago until the Burmese military authorities
in the area allowed some villagers to return. Even then only about 30
houses have been reoccupied and not more than 4 persons in one house,
mostly 2-3 persons in each house, and some houses have only 1 person.

Zaai Aw Lam was arrested during the same period with the others. Although
he was finally released, he had been detained for some time until everyone
thought he was dead. He had been actually harassed and detained by SPDC
troops, but for some reason he was released some time later. It is evident
that he would not dare reveal any mistreatment when being interrogated
subsequently by SPDC officials. The people who saw the dead bodies at "Taad
Pha Pha" were originally from Ho Kun village which had been relocated to
Ton Hoong village in 1996, and later about a year ago allowed back to Wan
Kaad village in the same area but much closer to "Taad Long" waterfall
where a hydroelectricity plant was intended to be built. They had come to
their old village to gather wild vegetables and catch fish when they saw
the bodies. The bodies were all badly decomposed, but they knew that
several people from the area had recently disappeared, including Lung Haeng
Wi and Zaai Ti-Ya. They therefore went back to inform the wives and
relatives of Lung Haeng Wi (in Nawng Tao village) and Zaai Ti-Ya (in Nam
Tum Tai village) about their find. The relatives of these two villagers
then came to the site where the bodies were found, and used sticks to pull
the bodies close to the edge of the river. Although the bodies were
decomposed, they recognised the clothes which Lung Haeng Wi and Zaai Ti-Y
had been wearing on the day they disappeared. Also, the two villagers Zaai
Khan-Ti and Zaai Saw-Ya had been staying with Zaai Ti-Ya at the time of
their arrest, so the family of Zaai Ti-Ya could also recognise the clothes
they had been wearing. They did not recognise the other bodies, and due to
the fact that some of the bodies had even broken up into parts, it was also
unclear exactly how many bodies there were altogether. However, since
local people knew that seven villagers had disappeared, it was assumed that
the seven bodies had all been dumped in the river together. At that time
Zaai Aw Lam was still missing and people thought he was among the dead.
Only some time later when he was released and came back to his village, did
people know he was still alive. The villagers did not dare salvage the
bodies as they were afraid that the SPDC troops would take action against
them; they thus simply pushed the bodies back into the river and then
returned and performed quiet funeral ceremonies at their respective houses. 

Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt states: "It has been ascertained that one of the alleged
victims, Lun Haeng Wi, aged 40, of Nawng Tao village crossed the border
into Thailand to work there since a year ago."

Lung Haeng Wi was the headman of Kun Long village tract and he was arrested
at the same time was the rest of the victims and has never been seen since
then. He has never come to Thailand.

Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt states: "The remaining person Sai Ti-Ya, aged 30 of Nam
Tum Tai Village appears to be at the centre of the allegations from the
SURA insurgent group. The name of the village is Taung Nam Tung not Nam Tum
Tai. All the villagers of the area know him well to be a former insurgent
and an agent of the SURA who extorts money from the villagers." 

Regarding the original village of Zaai Ti-Ya, it was indeed Nam Tum Tai
village. "Nam Tum Tai" is the name it is called by the native Shans. "Nam
Tum" is the Shan name of the village and "Tai" means 'south' or 'lower', so
that "Nam Tum Tai" means "Southern Nam Tum". Likewise, the Burmans call it
"Taung Nan Tung" which means "Southern Nan Tung" because "Taung" in Burmese
means 'south', and "Nam Tum" becomes "Nan Tung" because they have no "m"
final sound in the Burmese language. Zaai Ti-Ya was a sort of leader in
the group of villagers killed and was arrested at the same time with the
rest, and has been missing up to the present. According to several sources,
including many natives of the place of the incident, Zaai Ti-Ya had never
served in any armed groups, whether Burman or Shan. But in April 2000, for
some reason, the SPDC military authorities in the area accepted him and a
few followers as an unarmed "ceasefire" group and authorized him as their
tax collector. He wielded some power in the area and gained some favour
from the Burmese military authorities by sharing half-by-half the taxes he
collected from all sorts of traders, including drug dealers. He was one of
those few who dared to talk to the military authorities to try and solve
some of the problems faced by the people in the area. He had been to the
SPDC township offices in Kun-Hing and Nam-Zarng towns to talk on behalf of
the people and had been somewhat successful. He was therefore a kind of a
leader among those who dared to complain about forced labour.

We wish also to point out that there has been no armed group operating
under the name SURA in Shan State for many years now. 


3. The SPDC unit which carried out the killings

According to Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt: "The 246 Battalion was based in Kunn Hing
and the only time the battalion had entered the Keng Tawng area was in
September 1998 when it stayed for about two weeks. Even then it entered
Keng Tawng Village only once and only for a few hours."

The Infantry Battalion No. 246 has been based in Kun-Hing for several years
and it is one of the most notorious battalions in committing human rights
violations against the people during and after the mass forced relocation
in 1996. This battalion has been dispatching small units several times a
year to the Kaeng Tawng area in Murng-Nai township to collect rice from the
people and force them to transport it to Kun-Hing. Over the last couple of
years, it has set up an outpost camp in Kaeng Tawng and has been forcing
the local people to transport teak lumber from Kaeng Tawng to Kun-Hing with
the villagers' ox-carts. It has been like a host battalion to the several
new SPDC battalions that are being set up in Kaeng Tawng area.

Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt states: "The investigation team also conducted an
inquiry at the Infantry Battalion No. 246 but found that there was never an
officer by the name of Captain Mya Aung posted at the battalion." 

Locals from the area confirm that there was indeed an SPDC Commander named
Mya Aung or "Bo Mya Aung" (as he was widely known), among the troops from
the Kun-Hing-based IB246 that were stationed in Kaeng Tawng at the time of
the incident. 


4. The dates of the incident

Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt states: "I was supposed to have told the villagers that
starting from that day onwards(May 29, 2001) there would not be any use of
forced labour. The fact of the matter is that I have never visited the
area." (..) "The investigators found that while Maj. Gen. Maung Bo visited
the area five times in the year 2001, on 18 February, 19 April, 13 May, 17
July and 23 October, he was not in the area on 11 July 2001 as alleged.
Village elders and villagers testified that although the Commander met the
villagers on two occasions, no complaint whatsoever was raised by the
villagers regarding forced labour or mistreatment by the military."

With regard to whether Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt himself visited the area, and the
exact dates of the visits to the area by the high-ranking SPDC military
commanders, we concede that we may have made some errors in our original
report. However, it is certain that the villagers were told by a
high-ranking SPDC official in May about the ban of forced labour, and the
villagers made their complaint in July. Given that Maj. Gen. Maung Bo made
visits to the area in May and in July, we assume the villagers mistakenly
believed that Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt himself had made the earlier visit, since
there were often rumours that Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt would visit the area, and
his name is very well-known in Burma. The reason why dates are sometimes
mistaken is because Shans use their own Lunar calendar to tell the time. 


5. The use of forced labour in the area

Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt states: "There were only a few villages in the area and
there had never been a need to requisition forced labour."

We wish to point out that the reason that there only "a few villages" in
the area, is that these villages are in fact relocation sites, to which
50-60 formerly thriving villages were forced to move in 1996 (part of the
total population of 300,000 people in Central Shan State forced to move at
that time). Currently Kaeng Tawng is undergoing increased militarization by
the SPDC, involving continuing use of the local villagers (relocated close
to the military bases) as forced labour, including for extraction of the
rich timber resources in the area. 

We hope that the above clarifications will be useful for further
consideration regarding this matter. 


Yours sincerely,

The Secretary
Shan Human Rights Foundation