Junta employing a different forced relocation program

Junta employing a different forced relocation program

Lahu leader: 
A leader of a Lahu opposition group told S.H.A.N. recently that Rangoon had changed its tactics of getting rid of the Shan population by forced relocations that was in force in 1996-98. 

"This time it is to make life so miserable for the Shans that they have no choice but to flee", said Japhet a.k.a. Jakui, 54, newly elected General Secretary of the Lahu Democratic Front, an opposition group from the Shan State. 

"For instance, Mongpak and Mongkhawn near Kengtung used to be populous and thriving villages in the past. But now hundreds of families have gone, many of them into Thailand. Yet still many chose to flee to the distant mountains and forests in order to be free to exorbitant extortions and demands from the local Burmese forces", he said. 

According to Japhet, although violations are also committed in non-Shan sectors, they are "most severe" against the Shans. "The Burmese rarely levy porters from the Lahu villages, but Shan villagers are constantly on the demand not only for free portering but also for free labor in building roads, barracks and all they can think of", he said. 

Moreover, they are still expected to sell rice to the authorities in accordance with the quota fixed earlier, which was clearly impossible for most of them to meet. Others agreed with Japhet. "They faced imprisonment on the one side and unpayable debts on the other, so most of them chose to flee", said one of his colleague. 

"Another reason is the confiscation of ricefields from the people thereby depriving them of the means to make a living". 

"It is happening in many parts of eastern Shan State", said another, an ex-university student from Mongkhark, north of Kengtung. "It has forced hundreds of thousands of Shans to leave their native places". 

He thought that many people must have fled to Thailand though he heard reports about some small Shan settlements popping up in remote mountains and valleys. 

According to Dispossessed, a report published by the Shan Human Rights Foundation in 1998, some 15,000 villages comprising 300,000 villagers in central Shan State during the Burmese Army's campaign against the Shan State Army of Yawdserk.