Caught in the crossfire of Burma’s civil war, hundreds of thousands of Karen, Karenni, Mon and Shan are trapped in No Man’s Land

At night, my mother and I boiled rice while my sister dried our wet clothes by the fire,” said Moo Kay Paw. “We were too scared to light a fire during the day in case the government troops saw it and came for us.

“We survived for weeks only on boiled rice. At night, we slept rough on the ground with pieces of bamboo for pillows. I shared a single blanket with my four sisters to stay warm,” she said.

In many ways, her story is typical of someone from a farming village in eastern Burma. Constantly on the move to avoid the war between the Tatmadaw—the Burmese military government’s forces—and the ethnic insurgents of the region, Moo Kay Paw’s family has lived in a state of fear since the 1980s.

The first of five daughters, she was born in 1991 to a rice-farming Karen family in the village of Chaw Wah Den in Pegu Division. As a young girl she witnessed junta troops looting her village many times.

Sometimes, she said, they burned down houses, barns or rice stocks, and often conscripted men and boys to serve as porters, carrying military supplies for days on end.

On one occasion, her brother was gravely injured deactivating landmines in the jungle, she said. He was blinded and lost both hands in the blast.

Moo Kay Paw’s family finally left their village on Dec. 26, 2004, the same day her father was killed.

“We knew that the government troops were close by and my father told my mother to get all the girls and my brother together and wait outside the village in the jungle until the soldiers had gone,” she recalled.

They packed some blankets and clothes and headed for a hilltop. From there they saw the government troops enter the village and confront Moo Kay Paw’s father and the other men who had remained to safeguard their homes.

“The soldiers dragged him outside and began hitting him with their rifle butts,” she recalled tearfully. “They smashed all his teeth out before they shot him. Then they burned the village down.”

Her family—a widowed mother, five young girls and a disabled son—walked through the jungle for weeks, carrying clothes, blankets, a machete, lighters and some food.

They carried as much dry rice as they could and later scavenged for roots, berries, leaves and other food in the jungle.

Sometimes they joined other families, settled for a few months and tried to grow crops. But, sooner or later, the conflict caught up with them.

After years of living rough or in temporary shelters, Moo Kay Paw’s family reached Ei Tu Hta village in eastern Karen State in August 2007. They have sheltered there since.

In the terminology of relief agencies, Moo Kay Paw’s family are classified as “internally displaced persons,” or IDPs, meaning that they have been displaced from their ancestral homes, usually by government troops, and are now living rough in the jungle or are sheltering in “safe” havens under the control of ethnic armies.

The IDPs are refugees in every sense, but lack official recognition.

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Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 7 July 2009 16.14 BST

One of Burma’s main rebel groups has pledged to stop using child soldiers in return for outside aid in an effort to enhance its international credibility.

Leaders of the Shan State army (SSA), one of several ethnic insurgent groups battling the country’s military junta, have signed a memorandum of understanding with Abolish Slavery and International Operations Centre for Children (IOCC), two western non-governmental organisations, to prevent minors serving in its forces.

Burma has the highest number of child soldiers in the world – about 70,000. A Human Rights Watch report in 2002 found widespread forced recruitment of boys as young as 11. Subsequent reports say the number of child soldiers in Burma is largely unchanged despite international condemnation.

International law prohibits the recruitment of children under 15 and the use of child soldiers has been recognised as a war crime under the statute for the international criminal court.

In Burma, the national army is the biggest culprit. Flouting the country’s own laws that prohibit any recruitment of under 18s, the army apprehends boys at public places such as markets and bus stations, using threats and violence to force them to join. Once trained, children as young as 12 have been sent to fight against ethnic insurgent groups.

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The three days of heavy clashes, 27-29 August, between the Burma Army and Kokang may link to Chinese plans to build the Upper Salween Dam also known as Kunlong Dam in northern Shan State, near Kokang territory, according to Sai Khur Hseng, Spokesperson of Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization.

Today, the Shan Sapawa together with the Salween Watch coalition of environmental groups released a statement to call on China to immediately halt all their investments in the dam.

The recent clashes which killed about 200 people and caused over 30,000 refugees to flee to China took place just east of the town of Kunlong, about 15 km from the planned dam site, said the statement.

“The renewed fighting and refugee influx into Yunnan should be a wake-up call to China about the risks of investing in Burma,” said Sai Khur Hseng.

According to the statement, a team of Chinese and Burmese technicians have been conducting feasibility studies for the proposed dam, 25 km from the Chinese border, which is estimated to produce 2,400 MW, after the plans to construct the dam were announced in April 2007 by two Chinese companies, Hanergy Holding Group (formerly Farsighted Investment Group) and Gold Water Resources Company.

“Trees were being cut down for the construction site,” Sai Khur Hseng said.

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By Hannah Beech / Bangkok
Friday, Jan. 30, 2009

Living under the thumb of a brutal junta, the average Burmese hardly leads an easy life. But the plight of the country’s ethnic minorities, many of whom once waged long and bloody insurgencies against the military regime, is even worse. As a new human-rights report released on Jan. 28, as well as the recent stories of destitute refugees who fled Burma attest to, members of Burma’s ethnic groups face persistent discrimination by the military regime. They are the targets of unpaid forced labor campaigns, scorched-earth policies that destroy farmland and relocation programs that require entire villages to move at a moment’s notice.

Called Myanmar by its military leaders, Burma derives its name from the Buddhist Burman (or Bamar) people. The country’s largest ethnic group, the Burman historically lived in Burma’s central and upper plains. But this patchwork country of 55 million is made up of more than 100 unique ethnicities. The isolation enforced by Burma’s numerous mountains and hills helped nurture these culturally discrete groups, making it one of the most diverse countries in Southeast Asia, despite its relatively small geographic size. Here are five ethnicities, some of who have unsuccessfully waged long insurgencies against the central government and others who have made news recently because of the abuses they have suffered at the hands of the Burman-dominated regime.

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Villagers in areas under the control of Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’, northern Shan State, have been forced to pay off local Burmese unit’s debt to shops and restaurants, according to sources from the area.

Since April, a 12 strong unit from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #131 based in Wanhsaw village, Wanhsaw village tract, Monghsu township, has been forcing village headmen from surrounding villages to collect money from people and pay for their debts at villager’s shops and restaurants where they had eaten, said a local elderly source.

Those villages were Haipa, Wanhsaw, Wanhawng, Wankung, Nawngkhek and Naphee.

“They do such things whenever and wherever they [Burmese soldiers] arrive. They order what they want and leave villagers to pay for the fees,” complained another villager.

The group was led by Captain Thein Myint and Sergeant Kyaw Myint. The incidents took place just 7 miles far from the 1st Brigade of SSA-N’s main base Wanhai, Kehsi township. The SSA however could do nothing for its people even though it received the information, said yet another villager.

“We have paid several times. Last week, we just paid about over Kyat 35,000 ($ 32) at a restaurant which stands on the way to Mongnawng-Monghsu,” she said.
The group has been patrolling in Kehsi, Mongnawng, Monghsu, Mongyai towships and committing several abuses to villagers.

Besides, they have been subjecting villagers to do forced labor including providing security, portering and doing domestic chores like collecting firewood, providing food and water for the battalion. Even worse is they forcibly take livestock, money and luxury items from the villagers, the source said.

Similarly, Nay Win Tun, Deputy Commander of Infantry Battalion IB#67 based in Hoya village, Mongyai township, has been ordering 12 villages from the Hoya village tract to provide 22 Chinese manufactured farm tractors (Tolaji) to work for the battalion everyday, a local villager said.

Those villages have to provide in rotation in accordance with a time sheet drawn by the local authorities under threat of heavy punishment for failure, according to him.
According to a border watcher, one of the reasons that is making local authorities commit abuses and cause excessive burden on the villagers is due to the junta’s policy of self-reliance imposed on its own units.

“It shows their top command itself is not able to provide them with enough supplies,” he said.

Shan Herald Agency For News

http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2641:villagers-forced-to-pay-army-debts&catid=87:human-rights&Itemid=285

The Shan State’s regional commanders were reportedly planning to hold a drug bonfire on UN World anti-drugs Day, June 26, at Kengtung, the capital of Shan State East a few days ago, according to a reliable source close to the junta authorities.

The Chairman of Shan State (North) Peace and Development Council and Commander of Northeastern Region Command Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut; Chairman of Shan State (South) Peace and Development Council and Commander of Eastern Region Command Brig-Gen Ya Pyae; and Chairman of Shan State (East) Peace and Development Council and Commander of Kengtung-based Triangle Region Command Brig-Gen Kyaw Phyoe were discussing the matter two days ago in Kengtung, he said.

A number of reporters are expected to be invited to observe the event.

There has been no further information about what was discussed. But some border watchers say the discussion would be not only about drugs, but also how to tackle the current stalemate with the ceasefire groups.

A Thai border security official said he had also received the same information. “They [junta] have not invited us yet. Maybe they are sending the invitations directly to Bangkok.”

Drugs seized in Tachilek have already be transported to Kengtung for the occasion, said a source in Maesai.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) reported that Burma’s drug output had increased by 3 percent during the 2007-08 season.

It has yet to release its report on the 2008-09 season. But sources in Shan State confirmed that the output had gone down mainly because of adverse weather and partly due to destruction campaigns launched by the Army.

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